From the great MLS Beat Writer Tobias Xavier Lopez http://www.dfw.com/mld/startelegram/sports/5056706.htm No real surprises and still much to be decided.
This part about Hunt and HSG caught my eye: "Dallas billionaire Lamar Hunt toured Southlake's Dragon Stadium, the new home of the Burn, on Tuesday. The Hunt Sports Group has pledged to buy the team, and it was HSG president John Wagner who arranged the lease agreement for Dragon Stadium." Wasn't it a year or so ago that HSG pledged to buy the team? I think for Burn SSS negociations to have a chance of coming to fruition, HSG needs to take the plunge and become the team's I/O. This sort-of-kind-of ownership on the part of HSG is hardly likely to inspire much confidence in any towns the Burn is in SSS discussions with. These towns are being asked to commit millions toward building a stadium by an outfit that hasn't showed the willingness to invest in the team themselves.
Excellent point. That's why, at *this* point, I'd rather have, say... Kraft as an owner. Considering SSS negotiations with Cities, Bob could be quite.... Krafty? :O
So...what type of allocation, if any, can we use to replace Zarco. Can we go out and get a senior international? If Matt leaves, what possibilities does that offer for us? Inquiring minds want to know.
Zarco's contract was declined. Which means Burn get nothing. Only way to replace him is via Discovery Signing. Unless you count Brad Davis as his replacement. Jordan is a different situation. My Burn source says that if he goes overseas Burn get nothing. My same source says if a MLS team wants Jordan they would have to trade for him. FYI SJ and COl are both after Jordan. Colorado "talked" to him twice already. I think one can assume the difference is that the Burn still want Jordan, and may have offered him a contract. Jordan wants to go to Europe or wants more money. The Burn can only offer him so much, and IMHO should only offer so much. With DJ around and the cap being so important they can only give Jordan a certain "cap slot" as it were. The Burn needs the cap room to sign whatever Discovery Signing they find. The Jordan situation is far from being resolved.
Is DJ starting a viable alternative at this point? Seems risky. Can Dallas go after Johnny Walker or would he be subjest to some reverse-order-draft-unless-your-name-is-Jo- Max-Moore kind of thing? What kind of money are we talking about here? Does Jordan want Tim Howard money? If Matt is around 80-100 large, I think he deserves up to 140,000 or so.
It is hard to know what kind of money we are talking about... any number I name would be a guess. While one might agree Matt "deserves" more money, the simple fact is that giving it to him may not be good for the Burn. That is the reality of Cap Economics. Burn statement so far has been.... (paraphrasing) "We are prepared to go with DJ and a quality backup who can challenge him: Cassar, Vallow... someone like that. We would like to bring Matt back, but are not going to ruin our cap situation for him."
I don't understand how Jordan would rate $140K per year and Joe Cannon rates less than $100K. That's big bucks in MLS! I would want a proven, All-Star level player for that kind of $$$. Jordan is undeniably talented, but he is inconsistent. Still makes too many mistakes. He's young, for a keeper, but no rookie. The fact that he doesn't seem to be improving is what bothers me the most about him. It seems like his better years were his first couple in MLS, back when he got a couple National Team invites. Last year Jeffries was actively looking to bring another keeper on to "push" him, and I'm glad he did. Oh, and Colorado, unless Garlick is making crazy $$$, I would swap Matt Jordan and Scott Garlick in a heartbeat. SJ, you can have the rights to Jordan if you give us Arturo Alavarez.
One thing to keep in mind is that MLS and USL no longer have any type of transfer agreement in place. Unless Cassar, Vallow, or whomever are out-of-contract, the Burn would have to negociate a transfer fee with the player's club. And I'd expect that the transfer fee would not be negligible compared to the player's salary. Say a backup GK earned $30k/yr. My guess (and it's just a guess) is that his transfer fee would run between $50k to $75k.
Hey Burn fans, how good is Matt Jordan? The only real impression I have about him is remembering how he repeatedly booted balls into the stands during the 2002 season opener. Is that par for the course or was that just a rough start to the season? What are his best qualities as a keeper?
The only thing you'd have to know...I Joe Cannon is better. Jordan is young for a keeper, but he is not the keeper Cannon is. Period, end of story.
Everyone in MLS is serisouly interested in Walker. I am 90% sure Walker would have to go into a Draft, like DJ Countess did when he singed with MLS. I will try and track down info on that...
Well I can't find it. If I get more info I will post it. If SJ can sign Walker outright, great move for them.
I'm glad that you liked Cannon - he was underrated IMO - at least on BS. But that's beside the point. He's out of MLS and left us trying to fill some holes. SJ is apparently after Jordan so I'm just trying to figure out if he's good enough to earn starter-level-$$. Sounds to me like Jeffries feels he has options (DJ) and won't pay Matt top dollar. If Yallop (or Hanki) feels that Matt's worth the money you guys may get out-bid so-to-speak. The only thing that bugs me is I don't remember Jordan as being all that impressive, but I don't get to watch him each weekend, hence why I was asking about him. Just curious...
His best quality is his 1v1 ability against the breakaway. I don't know if there's a better keeper in the league in that department. He also has some remarkable mojo against the PK. At one point last year he had a save rate of 50% IIRC, and that was after 4 or 6 attempts. His downside is a disturbing tendency to let in the "soft shot." Bloopers, slow rollers, chips, almost anything off a header, went in at a maddening rate. I'll tell you one thing, though. He played like a man possessed early last season before Countess got hurt. If you put him in an environment with legitimate competition for playing time, he might turn out to be very productive.
So do we just waive him? I get the strong impression that we want to go with Countess and let Matt move on.
The Burn still retain their rights to Matt, so should he come back to MLS they presumably will trade him should Jeffries decide Countess will be our #1.
Do we really want to go at it with Countess in goal who has played all of one MLS game? Or Jordan? I don't think Countess is ready. Tim Howards is supposedly a great keeper - but his team didn't make the playoffs last year. Jordan had a fine year last season. And if Dallas is going to make a serious run at teh MLS Cup - we will need Jordan in goal. Or failing that, Johnny Walker. For all intents and purposes, a rookie goal keeper ain't gonna cut it. We're not re-building this season - we're making a run. I just hope after all of this that Jordan wants to come back to Dallas.
Apparently Bruce Arena disagrees with you re: Howard. There's more to a team making the playoffs than having a good goalkeeper. IMHO half of goalkeeping success is having a good solid backline in front of the GK. Have you ever seen Johnny Walker play? I would put him behind Cannon, Hartman, Howard, Jordan, Brown, and perhaps Rimando in terms of talent. If you're still worried, the Revs have Matt Reis as their backup, I'm sure they would trade him for the right price.
why did you say "perhaps" rimando. he has played 90 minutes all together in the past 2 USMNT games. getting shut-outs in both (and coming up with 2 big saves, on the few shots he faced). the others you listed there (with the exception of howard who has the same record as rimando) haven't played a single minute. and now rimando and howard are going up to play agaisnt Argentina.
You don't think Hartmann, Jordan, Brown, Thornton, etc. could have played 90 minutes and not let up a goal against Guatemala and Canada? C'mon. Those guys are cup-cakes, minnows, and it wasn't even their full senior national teams. The reason I said perhaps Rimando is because I think Walker and Rimando have comparable talent. I don't think Rimando's as good as people think he is.
Well the things I'm hearing make it sound likely that Jordan will re-sign with MLS and not be with the Burn. I have no idea what compensation the Burn would receive, but the two most interested parties I keep hearing are Colorado (where Matt's from) and San Jose. While I would think Johnny Walker would be Yallop's first choice to replace Cannon, I'm not sure that's the case. But I do think Hankinson wants Jordan if he is afforded the chance to get him. Hanki likes Garlick, but when Garlick was out Colorado got pummelled. I've been saying that Jordan would be in Colorado since the day the Burn traded for DJ Countess. It looks like it might happen. -Tron