So it finally came to pass: Petke, a Second rounder and an allocation to the Dirt. Pope, Moreno and Williams to the Cabbies. Personally, I think Hudson's out of his mind. The whole thing seems to boil down to Pope for Petke, and I have always thought Petke was crap.
So apparently now United has 4 of the first 14 draft picks from what I understand. Unless Hudson trades some of those draft picks for players who can contribute right away (like a Dante Washington) this trade is just mind boggling. Lets also remeber that this was supposed to set off into motion a trade that would send Justin Mapp and a draft pick to the Fire for Kovalenko and Hristo, with Hristo taking player/coach duties much like Warzycha did here last year. I belive this was in the Washington Post a few days back. And really I am not sure that trade helps United much at all. Kovalenko could not score a goal last season even on an empty net it seemed. Now on the other side of things the Metros in my opinion just got a whole lot better. That is a team that scares me quite a bit. If Moreno is healthy him and Mathis up top could be very dangerous, and they just got rid of their worst defender and added one of MLS's best.
The first step was the Etchescary signing. He did that yesterday, which then set this in motion. The Fire deal looks to be next, and when that one goes down there are rumors of Wolff to CBus possibly for BMB - supposedly the holdup there was Brians contract, which has been settled. It could be getting interesting, folks.
Whoa! Where are you hearing that McBride for Wolff rumor? That is interesting stuff. I gotta say that would be terrible. All the savants on this board who talk about how much McBride has been hurt should be turning their attention to Wolf. That cat does about 1/4 as much work as McBride and misses more games. If they were gonna make any sort of McBride to Chicago trade it would be the news of the year in MLS. But instead of Wolf I would hope to get some package that may include Curtin so we can shore up central defense for a few years to come. Seeing BMB in a fire jersey, that would ruin my christmas.
What does Wolf bring to the table at all that McBride doesn't besides speed. Also you still have that problem with having too many forwards that either Buddle, Wolf, or Cunny wouldn't get playing time. Wolf is younger and faster, thats the only thing he brings at all to the table. A Wolf for McBride deal straight-up would be insane.
He's younger than McBride, will in all likelihood score more goals than McBride, has good potential to be a good US player, what's not to like? You are right though, trading forward for forward doesn't help this team very much given the needs we have.
The only way I'd do it is if we immediately traded Wolf for defensive help. Past three seasons: Wolf - 19 goals 12 assists 50 pts. McBride 12 goals 21 assists 45 points. 5 points isn't worth it to me. McBride just does a lot more than Wolf. And personally I'd rather our defense have to deal with facing Wolf than McBride.
A scary thought: Bradley teaming up with ABMOD. That combination could make Nowak and the rest of those Fire hack artists look tame.
I didn't say I believed it. Frankly, Wolff is hurt more than McBride, could never be the asset to CBus that Brian is, and frankly isn't half the player. The youth and speed I'll easily concede, but McBride contributes to the defense, is an excellent passer (Wolff IMO is only average) and a leader. Wolff wants to go to Europe (Jeez, though, who doesn't) anyway and the Fire is committed to Razov leading the attack and with Armas, Thornton et al just have to cut some salary someplace. Oddly, CBus has salary space seemingly.
speaking of salary space, i thought last week, i heard mention of Columbus getting the same kind of salary "help" that MLS is famous for giving other teams.
I don't know about the validity of the Wolff for McBride rumor because Chicago is in big salary cap problems and they are trying to unload high priced players. To trade Wolff for McBride would be like trading max salary for max salary and wouldn't work out for the Fire unless they also got rid of Ante Razov. There is a much more plausable trade rumor involving Wolff and KC. KC would give their first round pick to Chicago, who has no picks until the 3rd round, and maybe a their second round or a player for Wolff. Chicago is pretty much set in the back for a while and Ante is capable of handeling things up front with Faria, their need is in central Mid where Nowark is aging, they want Diego Walsh and KC's spot might give them that. A trade involving the Crew and DCU is more likely for any trades involving the Crew. Say Washington for DC's 5th overall pick would be tempting to a team with lots of Forward depth and a wish to get younger players to fill the pipe line so they won't have to face major salary cap problems like Chicago is having now with aging stars and what happened to DCU after 1999.
Exactly, Bill. McB is Multidimensional and NOT going to Europe. Plus he has (as hang pointed out) about the same points while (gasp) actually playing Defense and building the team flow. Send them JC for Wolfe, as a more even trade, if we want to swap forwards.
I agree with giving up Washington to DCU for some draft picks... What the hell else are they going to do with all of those first rounds picks? They certainly DON'T need more youth on their roster, and Ray always has a big boner for old-fart stars. I fully expect them to start trading some of those picks since they have 2 major allocations that I bet they'll be using soon enough to fill their roster.