Not a big surprise but to bad none the less he was a very good player. http://blogs.mercurynews.com/bay_area_sports/2006/01/soccer_mark_chu.html Also, Mehdi Ballouchy has signed with MLS for the draft.
Looks like his family didn't live with him in SJ either - although Houston would've been a closer flight home to Florida. Anyway, best of luck to him wherever his future adventures may take him.
That absolutely sucks!!! I was looking forward to watching him play first hand....Oh well at least we still have DeRosario and Ching!!!
Someone will talk him back into playing but I assume anyone who wants him would have to deal with Houston since we would still have rights on him. I wonder how much cap this frees up. I haven't followed the earthquakes in detail but I would assume with Danny Califf being gone we need to fill his big shoes with someone who can lock down defend.
Chung's salary last year was $124,000. Califf's was $101,822. But the Quakes were not at the cap limit anyway, they had some room, just not the support from AEG to spend it apparently. Assuming Davis comes back healthy, you've got two very strong wings in Davis and Mullan. Losing Chung hurts the depth, because after Davis and Mullan there's not much. Wondolowski was a rookie who got extremely limited time (a few minutes total) but played well in the Reserve games and would appear to have a chance to earn more playing time this year. Ian Russell is the other wing who got a fair amount of time, but he's getting older and most of us Quakes fans didn't see why Dom kept playing him. I'd agree that replacing Califf is a much bigger issue. You'll miss Chung's versatility and his professionalism, but you'll miss Califf a lot more. Cochrane can play central defense, or maybe Waibel or Gray will be moved to central defender from the outside. But Califf was the "organizer" of the defense and really made Robinson that much better. Cochrane doesn't seem to have the experience to be able to help organize the "D", so that's what I'd look for. Waibel might be the most logical guy to be able to fill that role, he was playing very well before he got hurt early last year and he has more of a "calming" influence on the rest of the defense.
Where did SJ quakes rank in defense last year? I remember reading somewhere that this defense was one of the top , last year. Maybe I'm wrong. Sorry, I've been trying to read up on this team as much as I can; I forget where I'm getting this info sometimes.
Gave up the fewest goals of any team. And that was after a pretty bad start, before Califf was playing and before Ricardo Clark was put in at defensive central midfield. Once those changes were made (early June I think) the Quakes "D" was even more dominant.
Brad Davis will be an excellent replacement for Chung. The Houston team shouldn't skip a beat...well except for Califf leaving. Robinson, Cochrane, Grey and Barrett should be good enough to keep the dream alive.
Just to be clear, Davis is not a replacement for Chung. Davis was the starter, Chung did not start until first Mullan, then Davis was hurt. Davis and Mullan were the starters at the wings when they were healthy, and Chung was the #3 guy. But with the number of games Mullan and Davis missed with injuries, Chung saw a lot of action. The real "Replacement" for Chung is either Ian Russell, or Wondolowski or someone who is not yet on the team. I do agree with SoccerPrime that this is not a very big loss for the team, at least as far as the starting lineup. It just hurts the depth at wing.
Actually, there was a time where Davis, Chung, and Mullan were all healthy and Dom chose to start Davis and Chung, even though they're both left wingers and Mullan is a right winger. So there was a time when Chung wasn't the #3 guy, he was #1 or #2. As it turned out, there were very few times when all three were available so Dom didn't have to choose 2 of 3 very often. If Davis stays healthy, he's a very good left winger and you won't miss Chung too much. Mullan is also a great player, probably my favorite Quake, er whatever. He's extremely tenacious and likes to take people on, both offensively and defensively.