WVHooligan - Soccer Blog

Happy end-of-the-work-week to you all. I must say it is definitely a TGIF kind of Friday for this guy here, its been a hectic week of work in my normal job and the MLS thankfully has kept me on my toes enough to say the least as well.

Let’s get down to it though for the morning shall we?

Okay, a decent bit of talk out there yesterday about a possible designated player signing in the league. No mention of the player and in some circles no mention of the team. Others seem to get the idea that it is Houston. I know that is the crazed rumor site that is out there for the MLS right now and while it can be good, I question the actual validity of the guessing for Houston even though Bernardo Fallas in Houston says the club is going to sign a striker soon.

Fallas makes it clear (to me at least) that Houston isn’t signing a player that would be a designated player and that it wouldn’t be Benny Feilhaber. The rumor site thinks both are going to happen, so you be the judge of which is more credible.

I’ve said for months the problem with the Dynamo isn’t just the fact that they are low in depth at the striker position it is due to the fact that they have no allocation money and salary cap space to spend big this winter on players. They lost two players to Europe and got next to nothing in return and they haven’t exactly been collecting allocation in the “you-suck” department like some teams have over the last couple of seasons. Plus, from what I’ve been told their management still won’t take money from their parent company AEG if offered for major player signings. They did that last year when AEG offered them money for a DP and the Dynamo said no then and probably would again now.

Also, the only way you will ever see Feilhaber on loan to the MLS will be if Houston trades away Dwayne de Rosario. You will not see those two in the same midfield, you just will not. Honestly, there is only one club DeRo would ever go to and that is Toronto if a trade were to be made. That is probably still a year or so in the making anyways and really that is a story for another day.

Houston did however get money in the recent rights exchange for Ramiro Corrales. Fallas says the club is getting around $100k or so in allocation money which will more than likely be used towards that striker that they are going after who apparently is pretty young and speedy.

Again, its not a DP. It’s not a DP. And its not Feilhaber, its not Feilhaber.

And if you want my opinion on which club could be getting a DP, probably Toronto…or Columbus…maybe Chivas…oh wait they traded their’s away last year didn’t they? I honestly don’t expect another DP signing until this summer folks.

Staying in Texas…it looks like Dallas is not going to be in the running for Chilean striker Reinaldo Navia, or at least his agent says the club is not. Steve Morrow apparently has the green light from management to go after Navia if he wants to.

I’m still a bit mixed about Navia anyways, so I wouldn’t be too upset if he didn’t come to the MLS right now.

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Remember that Wason Renteria talk the other day? Probably you don’t since I really didn’t go into any detail about it. From what I’ve been told and what I’ve seen from Ives, there is no chance the Red Bulls would be able to get him. Apparently the kid is too damn good for the league right now at this point. Tough break but the way Ives put it yesterday, the league would have to bend and break a bunch of rules for a deal to even happen since he would more than likely get DP status.

Makes me thing if it were LA would it be happening? Hmm…or even DC…

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American Soccer Daily says American defender Nat Borchers has returned from Odd Grenland in Norway to sign with Real Salt Lake.

I got a few quesitons over how RSL was going to get his rights. Honestly I have no clue but I do figure Colorado lost whatever rights to him when he left for Norway a couple years ago or any rights that they did have on him expired. Probably the ladder of the two is more likely seeing how its been two or three years since he was in the MLS and usually clubs have rights on players that leave for two years (in most situations). Usually a club has to win a lottery for a player that has no MLS rights on him and I think that is what appears to have happened here.

I think some final steps are being worked out for Borchers to actually sign with the club as far as moving from Norway to the MLS. I’m sure it will all be announced sometime next week even though he says he has signed with the league. Knowing the MLS they will wait until every “I” is dotted and every “T” is crossed before they announce anything.

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Martin Rogers of Yahoo Sports ranks his Top 20 MLS Players. These lists are always fun and I would do one but I am too lazy to really give it a go right now. As for Roger’s list, it sucks for the most part if you want my honest opinion, I like Shalrie Joesph as a player but as the top player in the MLS, I don’t think so. Most underrated absolutely.

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I missed this one yesterday, but New England has finalized a deal with Mauricio Castro, a 26-year-old Honduran midfielder from Olimpia who has made four international appearances.

Castro huh? I will save any pointless Castro jokes for later but adding depth in the midfield was a thing New England needed to do this off season and I guess Castro will do that. I honestly know little about him but I’m sure Steve Nicol has scouted the living crap out of this kid and will have probably landed a stud that no one knew about until now.

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Andy Herron signs with Chicago. The Fire officially signed Herron after acquiring his rights from Columbus last month. I honestly think this a trade bait kind of thing for the Fire, I fully expect them to trade either Herron, Chris Rolfe, or Chad Barrett here before the start of the season. Too many forwards, not to mention they drafted Patrick Nyarko and are still after French forward/winger Fabrice Pancrate as well as Polish striker Tomasz Frankowski. Yeah…someone is going to get traded and traded soon…you think Houston has called yet?

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I’m sure there is more but I have a busy day of work ahead of me…if anything breaks I will check back in with you all…

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