Washington Post article stated Ray Hudson denied a proposed trade from Dallas that would have included Vaca for DC's first draft pick. USA Today stated DC proposed the trade. Anyone know the truth? http://www.usatoday.com/sports/soccer/mls/2003-01-17-superdraft_x.htm http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3355-2003Jan16.html Goff had always been a very reliable source for United news. Dont know too much about the other dude.
Does it matter? From what I saw at the Draft DC was shopping that pick to everyone, but was asking for too much. But I don't know who offered who what in this case. I do know the Burn had some discussion about moving up, but don't know with who or for what. Just as they had discussions about moving down.
FWIW (and obviously, this makes NO difference now b/c the trade wasn't made), I think Dallas proposed the deal (of Vaca for the pick). Why? The Connolly column with ESPN strongly suggests this, indicating that DCU never had any interest in dealing in the pick and was really trying to acquire the #2 pick as well (for Ricardo Clark). This is consistent with Hudson's comments where he repeatedly indicated that Eskandarian was clearly the best player in the draft and also a very unique player. About the only thing I've seen that would imply any doubt by Hudson of trying to keep Eskandarian was Hudson's quote at one point that "Eskandarian is clearly the best player in the draft. The question is, is he the best player for us?" And that the next day he said "we're keeping the pick, we're selecting Alecko." Also, it's my understanding that the Burn and SoS had a handshake deal to trade Vaca for the allocation for Stewart if DCU passed. I can't guarantee that is true, that's just what I heard. Which does indicate that while Dallas wasn't necessarily eager to trade Vaca, they were open to that option. Last, Goff is extremely accurate. There are a bunch of stories where the soccer press has had one angle on the story (like the initial rumor that Gough would be hired as coach of United, when Gough went on radio and reported he'd be offered the job) that Goff indicated were not true stories.
DC was trying to get the number two pick to get Clark as well. I was there on draft day and the possible DC/NY deal was all everyone kept talking about on draft morning. Burn front office take on the possibility was that the ny/dc thing would not happen becasue Braldey wanted a Chris Armas type and saw that in Clark.