I don't see how the Williams, Myers or Dooley trades should be considered bad trades. I would have traded all three just for Williams. The worst "trades" involved losing Lagos, Rooney & Ezra and getting nothing in return.
I'm sure I'm not the only one who clicked on this thread just to see how long it would take someone to state Chung was traded for Balboa .
Wasn't it a three-way deal with Colorado, Chung to COl, Balboa to Bayern, and Lothar to Metro? No, the worst trade in Metro history was half the players on the team for the mere hope of the possibility that the great Future Allocation may one day come to Metro to lift us to true greatness... and his name was Lothar.
The Mathaus deal involved gutting the whole team in preparation for his arrival. That's what we had to do. I remember Wynalda was on our team for a night I believe. I don't remember exactly, but the team was leveled.
I've had experience outlining that series of events when I used to justify our getting Matheus to fans who claimed Lothar was a league gift. It went a little something like this: Step one: Trade Gio Savarese to NE for Raul Diaz Arce. Step two: Trade Roy Meyers to LA for Welton. Step three: Trade RDA and Marcelo Vega to SJ for future considerations that would become Eric Wynalda. Step four: Trade Welton, Wynalda and Arley Palacios to Miami for the major allocation the league game them when Valderrama was moved to TB. Step five: Use that allocation (the next year) on Lothar Matheus. As a whole, that series of trades was the worst in Metro history. Some of the other trades mentioned: Lagos and Thornton weren't traded, they were selected in the expansion draft. Ezra wasn't traded, he was arbitrarily cut by Bora. Rooney wasn't traded, he was also cut. I'd rank the Villegas/Perez for Lisi/Ziadie trade as the 4th worst trade in our history, because while Villegas had his faults, when Tab went down, we had NO right mid, and Perez is a much better player (in an area where we need players) than Lisi. Our bottom 5 trades in Metro history: 5: Vermes to KC for I think Zavagnin. Whoever it was wasn't great. 4: Villegas/Perez for Lisi/Ziadie 3: A draft pick for Steve Rammel who promptly retired. 2: Diego Sonora Traded to DC for a draft pick we never saw. 1: The series of trade that resulted in Lothar. On the flip side, some of our better trades: Diallo/Williams/Chrono for Kamler/Serna/Hernandez- Williams alone was worth it in this deal, and for those pining away for Danny, he did more arguing on the field than Diallo Mathis Petke and Jolley combined. He started the players down that path. Chung/Amman for Meola/Lalas- Amman and Chung were key players in the transition years and were true professionals the entire time they wore the colors. Carlos Parra for Ramiro Corrales- Ramiro is a starter on the best team in the league after we essentially were forced to trade him to them. Parra is an average A-Leaguer. nuff said. Dayak for Rhett Harty- Harty led our backline and was a true Metro. That's my take. JMac
You must admit though that Ziadie has become a pretty solid right back. That makes that deal somewhat more palatable. ... or maybe I'm just sticking up for one of my old favorites from back in the days when he played for DC ...
Ziadie's play has run hot and cold. He plays defense like you'd expect a converted mid to play the position. He makes some nice runs, but he also gets caught up often. While Ziadie is not the weakest starter on our team, he definitely falls into the "need to upgrade" department. Perez form last season made him twice the defender that Ziadie is now, and as for Villegas for Lisi, yeah, in the long run, Lisi may end up as the better player and Lisi is a year or two younger, but the Metros already had Paule, Moore, Mathis, Ramos and Hernandez who could play center mid, and since the Lisi pickup, they added Williams to that list. We have one right mid, Tab, who is out with injury twice as much as he is ready to play. Overall, from a talent and positional sense, it was a boneheaded move by Nick/OZ. JMac
Step two with Myers was actually step three, right before the trade took place, if you are going in chronological order. Your steps one and three occured in the winter before the 99 season. Ezra was not on this team when Bora took over, Ezra left in 97. Bora did cut Rooney though.
as much as i defended the bringing of lothar, i admit now it was a bust. also, it wasn't a trade but ramos as our first player started everything down the worng path. then, came our worst coach EVER (yes, worse than OZ) Firmani.
Wrong. It wasn't Ramos as an allocation, it was the debacle we made of the inaugural draft. It started the grand Metro tradition of ending the season with at least 6 different players in the starting 11 from opening night, always waiting for the team to "gel". That plus continued incompetence at every level of the organization, apathy if not antipathy towards the team's core fanbase, and a misguided messianic longing for an imagined "Future Allocation" who will save our Metro souls... these things are what has made Metro less than a laughingstock to so many.
Actually, Countess was traded to Dallas for Winston Griffiths and a 1st round pick. Griffiths was then traded to LA for a 2nd round pick, so essentially, we gave up Countess for a mid-level 1st rounder and a late 2nd rounder. Not a bad deal for a player we got for free and didn't need. JMac
The Lothar deal. We lost an entire team because of a guy that went to get his back cured at a beach in France. I think the Mike Amman for Richie Williams and the allocation that ended up being Pedro Alvarez should be up there. Sure Howard has filled in perfectly, but trading a fan favorite to D.C.? The guy had a threating injury, and did everything he could possibly do to play in the playoffs. Just the begining of the OZ era I guess.