no complaints on my end Cant stand when he flops but love when he scores. Too bad ill be watching on TV this year.
Re: deep ocean fish I take offense to this man. Yes I'm new to this board. And yes I'm excited that we got Ruiz. You act like this is the EPL or something...It's the MLS. You tell me what striker we could have got that's better then Ruiz for the small price that was paid? Oh and by the way I've been playing FIFA since 98 not 2005. So take that punk! -VP
Re: deep ocean fish We would rather have a bag of McGregor balls than have that crap happening in Orange. Maybe now that he is in the spotlight of Los Beckangeles his flopping can be in the spotlight and someone will do something about it. Good luck with him.
Um..... he didn't play in Houston. His decision to dive during a breakaway did help us blow by Dallas in the payoffs though.
that's how. by grandfathering ruiz, donovan and johnson instead of adding a second DP, mls created a situation that allows for a single team to effectively have 5 DP (2 real DP and the three grandfathered players). had they simply added the second DP per team it would have made this trade impossible.
Re: deep ocean fish Whatsup with all the Dynamo fans all of a sudden? Please get out if you're going to post bs like this.
You know what? When you trade for a player, and then a bunch of fans from a team that he didn't play for show up to talk about how glad they are that he didn't go to their team... That's a player that maybe you want. Ruiz is a dirty, complaining but talented mo-fo who would run over his own grandmother to score a goal. And people hate him for that. But maybe our team needs a little bit of that passion. If Ruud can direct and shape that passion from Ruiz into offensive productivity for our team, maybe this will work out well... A risk for sure, but other than Taylor Twellman, is there any other forward in the league who has been as consistently lethal in front of goal over the past 6 years? Who is still in his twenties? Who gives so freely of his time to needy Hooter's all over the world? I think not.
Not sure how you can say that; Donovan has always been a flopper. Beckham probably doesn't want to get his uniform dirty. My question is who will take the PKs??? Ruiz is mucho talented with the penal.
What are you basing your statements on? I don't consider LD a flopper one bit. I've watched him play constantly for years now. Beckham isn't as soft and delicate as everyone tries to make em out to be either. The last time I saw Becks play he was going in with hard tackles in a muddy Wembley field vs Croatia. His uniform looked pretty dirty to me.
Sorry about my comment earlier. I truly wasn't trying to be negative towards you guys (just carlita ruiz). I agree with the comment about Beckham. I was plesantly suprised by his desire to create 50/50 balls rather than sit back and watch someone else do it. People can say what they want about him, but once in 100% shape, he will be head and shoulders above everyone in the race for the best player in the MLS. You guys have a good one there.
FYI LA Fans - In case you haven't noticed, Carlos Ruiz represents a kind of Satan/Beelzebub/Dark Prince/Boogeyman/Anti-Christ figure to the fans of the team in orange. You will soon find yourself pleasantly entertained with a wealth of anti-Houston conspiracy theories regarding the unholy power of Pescadito. In their defense, Ruiz did insert insert himself in the Houston psyche in a big way when he magically made Ricardo Clark spectacularly implode late in the year on a hot day in Dallas. Was Ruiz really hurt or did he fake it? Does it matter? Ever since, Houston has had quite an obsession with the Little Fish.
So true but a a source within the Galaxy FO told me that Ruiz came at a very cheap price that he would no longer apply to all these rules (grandfathering, DP etc...). In addition, he also told me that Ruiz was desperate to leave Dallas and come to L.A. because Ruiz felt that by playing in L.A. next to Beckham and Donovan, his career would once again be on a positive spotlight. The more I look at this trade, the more I like it. The fact that we did not have to get rid of Albright or any of our promising players is what makes this deal great. I am just hoping that now we get rid of Peter Vagenas.
I was iffy on the Ruiz thing until I thought about this: Even given Ruiz's dip in form last season, who's been a better striker in MLS since 2002? Like Hog said, Twellman's the pinnacle. Younger, more consistent, and more versatile than the Fish. Could we get him for an allocation+cash? Absolutely not. Razov's been good forever, but he's a goat and a twat and he's older than Ruiz. Could we get him for an allocation+cash? Maybe. Do we want him? Absolutely not. Ching's been great when healthy, but injuries are a concern and he too is older than Ruiz. Could we get him for an allocation+cash? Absolutely not. Cunningham's numbers have been big, but inconsistent, and it looks like he's finally past it at his age. Could we get him for an allocation+cash? Easily. Do we want him? Absolutely not. Jaime Moreno: see Cunningham. The other coveted forwards from last season are: Emilio: Who is Ruiz's age and entering his second year in MLS. And is unavailable. And could end up following an Eskandarianesque trajectory. Angel: Who is close to Cunningham's age and entering his second year in MLS. And is unavailable. And too expensive anyways. Johnson: Who is gone, was inconsistent, unavailable, and too expensive anyways. Altidore: Who is entering his second full season in MLS or going to Europe, and is unavailable anyways. Cooper: Who is entering his second full MLS season, could probably be bought for an allocation+cash, but could also end up following a Kirovskian career path. Looking at all that, Ruiz really was the best (realistic) choice we could make. We needed a proven goal scorer more than anything, and we got one of the best in the league. Sure, we <i>could</i> have signed a trio of central/south american imports and strengthened our squad... but when was the last time one of those actually worked out? Oh yeah. 6 years ago. We got a striker who's not going to need time to settle. We won't have to wonder how long it will take him to adjust to this league, or wonder if he'll ever adjust at all. The Galaxy made a smart purchase of a known commodity, much like Chelsea's recent addition of Anelka. Ruiz will slip into an attack featuring Donovan and Beckham, and I have a feeling he'll hit the ground running.
So did Ruiz take a cut in pay because he was so desparate to play for the Galaxy? Could our front office have actually made a wise deal? Sweet!
I love it when one of my somewhat flippant comments provokes a well-reasoned and researched post that does a much better job than I could to make the point.
Doubtful, but I suppose Dallas could have bought down his salary. Also highly doubtful - why even pay them allocation money at all if that was what it took to make the deal? Oh, who even knows, these deals just are never transparent.
Wow. Ruiz traded to the Galaxy for 200 million Webkinz dollars and "future considerations." Sweet deal. Ruiz will defintely play better with David Beckham as a teammate.
"It's no secret we wanted him back here and he desperately wanted to come back," said president and general manager Alexi Lalas, who attended the MLS Combine with Gullit and director of soccer Paul Bravo. Link: http://www.socceramerica.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.showArticleHomePage&art_aid=25218
This is what we call "in the box thinking". I'm willing to bet there are a few young Columbians sitting on the benches of important latin teams that would fair better than Ruiz and had for cheaper.
Sure, players like that might exist. I'd go so far to say that I'm sure they exist. But the Galaxy have been looking for them and has not been able to identify any since Ruiz. These are our post-Ruiz signings from locales to the south: Pavon Naldo Nagamura Pando Chinchilla Umana Saragosa Not an inspiring list, is it? Should we have gone into the season like we did the last two--with journeymen, one-hit-wonders, and question marks? Obviously our team isn't run very well. Our scouting of local talent seems alright, but we just can't find foreign players (in this hemisphere) for shit. And, as far as I can tell, we haven't suddenly invested heavily in the infrastructure necessary to mine the talent south of here. So why would you think us capable of finding this season's Galindo, much less three of them? Does "thinking outside the box" include repeating the same mistakes and hoping for a new outcome? If we're truly thinking outside the box, I'd like to see something come of our bullshit "friendships" with Sao Paulo and Chelsea. Specifically, they could loan us a kid or two. Preferably one that isn't a defensive midfielder (I'm looking at you, SPFC).