RSL had the forth best odds to win the lottery at only 5.4%.

Arnoux will be a nice pickup for Kreis though as he gets another quality striker. The depth for this club just got deeper really. For a club determined to win the CONCACAF Champions League this year, landing a kid like Arnoux will only help them out in their pursuit of the CCL title.

Though I do wonder if RSL will try to fit him in under their salary cap. A possible trade could be in the works to get him back to Vancouver considering RSL could have possibly been in this lottery just to land some trade bait.

What do you make of Arnoux going to Salt Lake? Did the rich just get richer? Or will they trade him to the highest bidder?

The other two lotteries feature Chris Agorsor and Korey Veeder on Monday and Tuesday.

Yes, three more weighted lotteries.

For those wondering who are Agorsor and Veeder, well let me give you a little back ground on each.

Agorsor was the 2008 Gatorade National High School Player of the Year.  He battled injury while playing for the University of Virginia. Veeder, a United States U-20 right back most recently played for Crystal Palace Baltimore in the D-2 league.

San Jose is not included in any of the three lotteries after winning the lottery for University of California goalkeeper David Bingham.

Once the odds for the Arnoux lottery are announced today I’ll have them here for you, as well as the club that lands him.

Update: Only six clubs are participating in the Arnoux lottery today. Houston (best odds), Seattle, Columbus, RSL, Portland and Vancvouer. Results should be in within the next hour.

Turns out that is looking like it will be the case. Steve Goff is reporting the league and Arnoux are close to coming to an agreement on what will happen with his future. As we all know the league turned down his contract with the Vancouver Whitecaps earlier this winter.

Basically the league looked at it this way with Arnoux: He was a player they really wanted to sign two years ago out of college but he turned them down for a chance in Europe. Since he would have been placed in the SuperDraft at that time had he signed with the league, he would have been open to nearly every club. So now he is destined to a weighted lottery so everyone has a fair crack at him.

According to Goff, D.C. United will have the best chance at landing him. Of course, teams could opt out like they did for the Bingham lottery. But in this situation I don’t know why one club would opt out unless his price is too high. If that is the case you can imagine teams like Real Salt Lake, Seattle and perhaps LA or New York to say “thanks but no thanks”.

At the end of all this we are left with yet another draft/lottery for this winter. The fun just never ends now does it?

The Vancouver Sun is reporting this morning that the league however saw it differently and rejected the Whitecaps’ deal with Arnoux. According to the league he will have to enter the league through either a weighted lottery or January’s SuperDraft.

The club responded Thursday by moving him to its Premier Development League roster.

This story continues to get more interesting as we move forward. I’m more on the side of the fence now to just let the club sign the kid. It seems by the club moving him to their PDL roster for now its their way of having to re-evaluate his worth to them. I’d imagine if his fitness returns to him soon enough the Whitecaps could just suck it up and take him in the SuperDraft if the league goes that route. I believe the league and the Whitecaps will discuss which draft option will take place for Arnoux here. If Vancouver ends up taking a gamble on not wanting him we could see him go to a weighted lottery.

We’ll have more on this story as it continues to develop here.

We’ve discussed this topic before. The Vancouver Whitecaps are still hoping to have Cody Arnoux on their roster for next year for their first season in Major League Soccer. The MLS front office continues to think that Arnoux should be placed in either a weighted lottery or the MLS SuperDraft in January.

All of this continues to get more confusing really. The Vancouver Sun is reporting today that the Whitecaps have signed him for 2011, despite what MLS has said in the past about handling him. Whitecaps president Bob Lenarduzzi said Arnoux’s 2011 deal hasn’t been approved by MLS officials yet as the league and the club battle over his status.

Its all tricky due to the fact that Arnoux spent time in Europe with Everton’s reserve team. Yes reserve team, not the main squad in the EPL with Timmy Howard but the reserve team. Based on how the league handles Americans returning to MLS or coming to MLS for the first time from Europe they feel the weighted lottery (or even in this case the SuperDraft) is the way to go. I get that but all this for a guy to spent time on a EPL reserve side seems a bit much at this point.

I know the league doesn’t want any team to have an unfair advantage when coming into the league as an expansion team but Vancouver feels that since they had him on their D-2 roster then they get first crack at signing him. Which in a way is the case of how they’re going about it here.

Basically Vancouver doesn’t want to spend a draft pick on this guy. In a way I don’t blame them because at this point he’d probably be more of a late first rounder or even a early second rounder in next January’s draft. Plus Arnoux picked up an injury in the D-2 playoffs so I can’t imagine his draft stock would be overly high right now. The league just doesn’t want Vancouver to have their cake and eat it too it seems at this point.

What do you all think? Should Vancouver have to draft him in the SuperDraft? Or should he be placed in a weighted lottery that Vancouver (and Portland) would have the top chances of winning? Or should the league just allow Vancouver to sign him?

Davide Chiumiento could be headed to MLS with the Vancouver Whitecaps.

Yesterday we saw four players signed to the MLS edition of the Portland Timbers for next season. What will their expansion mates the Vancouver Whitecaps do in return remains to be seen.

The Whitecaps do have first pick in signing any other D-2 player outside of their own rosters. There was some question yesterday how Portland was able to get Eddie Johnson from Austin when they are to go second in the D-2 discovery rankings. Turns out Portland had traded for Johnson in the middle of the season and then loaned him back to Austin so technically he was on their roster all along. Vancouver could have grabbed him first had he not been picked up by Portland earlier in the year.

So who exactly will Vancouver bring up into MLS. They were one club that made plenty of moves during the year to get ready for their “promotion” to MLS. Currently they have plenty of Canadian players that you’d expect them to bring in at some point before the 2011 season.

Now the big question will come down to how the league handles Cody Arnoux. If they don’t force him into the SuperDraft or into any sort of claiming system then the Whitecaps will likely sign him.

I’ve put together a short list of guys I think they’ll sign from their D-2 roster. I’d imagine they’ll be announcing some player signing soon, seeing how they won’t want to get behind the eight ball any with Portland already announcing four signings plus another couple on the way.

1. Alain Rochat – If you watched any Whitecaps games in the last couple months of the year you will understand why Rochat will be in MLS next year. He has plenty of quality experience in Europe and will certainly be a building block for the Whitecaps next year. I’d be utterly shocked if he wasn’t one of their first players signed. Plus he’s Canadian so they have that going for him too.

2. Jay Nolly – Portland signed a keeper with MLS experience and so will Vancouver. Nolly was one of their best players this past season and having some time with the Whitecaps over the last couple of years probably did a lot to help grow the guy as a player.

3. Terry Dunfield – Another Canadian, this time a guy in the midfield. He was brought in late in season, a move that was clearly designed for their move up to MLS. He’s a guy that can change a game with his passing in the midfield and is also one of those guys that works a full 90 minutes without ever stopping.

4. Martin Nash – He may not be signed right away but I can’t see a Vancouver team right now without Nash. Plus you know his brother kind of has a stake in the team ownership. He’ll come cheap and likely be a leader off the bench.

5. Philippe Davies – 19-year old from their Residency program with loads of potential. Plus you know he’s Canadian so that helps.

6. Davide Chiumiento – Another guy brought in from Europe late in the season that is expect to go to MLS next season. He didn’t wow folks as much as we all expected but there were chances he made that showed he has plenty of talent.

I know there’s plenty more that could be moved up into the MLS Whitecaps, for more on that check out this list over at The Province by Marc Webber.

I don’t have a fancy name for any of this yet but feel free to come up with one if you’d like.

Reuter’s Soccer Blog Interview with The Don

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First of all I didn’t even realize Reuter’s had their own soccer blog. Secondly, this is a pretty decent interview with MLS commissioner Don Garber. Of course they go over the usual stuff of how the league is trying to attract those causal fans that attended all those games this summer and what not. Then the usual expansion news. Nothing really new of note there but from the quotes it sounds like Montreal is a sure bet while Miami or somewhere down in the south isn’t too far off if things present themselves correctly for the league.

Vermes Introduced as Interim Coach in KC

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It is never easy to fire a guy in the middle of the season and improve from it. Chicago nearly did it a couple years ago when they booted Dave Sarachan and replaced him with Juan Carlos Osorio. I just don’t see that sort of thing happening in KC this year. Good on KC to at least keep the interim hire in-house a bit with Vermes. Who can KC go after for the full time gig though is the main question. Honestly it may be time to go after someone like Paul Merinar from New England or John Spensor in Houston. No doubt their names will be thrown out in the next couple of months like they always are this time of year.

Cooper’s Dad Blasts MLS

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What can you say, its a dad protecting his son in some ways and calling out what he sees that is wrong. I can’t blame him in the least bit for feeling this way. Kenny Cooper senior helps represent his son and I know a year ago he wanted this move for Kenny.

“I still have difficulty understanding in this league, as I expressed to the commissioner in Toronto last July, I can’t understand when you have young American players who can play anywhere in the world and they’re somewhat punished because they’re Americans,” he says. “As someone who’s been in the league and the country as a coach, and the system for 38 years, I think that this league at times would rather reward a proven failure than unlimited potential.”

A lot of folks still worry about this that the league is letting go of quality young Americans for over priced and over the hill foreign players. The league does need to find a better way to keep young home grown talent, that’s for sure. I’m sure it will be something addressed down the road but in the meantime we will continue to lose quality players from the league like Cooper. I think the biggest hit will come when/if Landon Donovan heads back to Europe for good. Garber sees Donovan as the poster child for American players in the league (as he should) and losing him would be killer to the league’s image.

From PDL to EPL

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This is a story I should have discussed a while back but missed when family was in town I suppose. Wake Forest product Cody Arnoux signed a one year deal with EPL side Everton. The one-year deal is basically a trail with the reserve squad but still even that isn’t bad at all.

Arnoux was an NCAA All-American last season and was projected to be a top pick in the 2010 MLS SuperDraft if he had finished his final season at Wake Forest and declared for the MLS draft. Instead he went the Marcus Tracy route to Europe, bypassed MLS for a European contract.

Another guy that would have been a big deal in MLS. Hell two guys if you count Tracy. Things gotta change here.

Ideas for Portland

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The Nation writer Dave Zirin lays out financial dealings in Portland for Timbers owner Merritt Paulson to rebuild PGE Park for entrance into MLS. He offers up alternatives to the current deal. I guess this is more of things to come from the Rose City. Folks not quite for what’s going on presenting their opinions and what not.

More on Montreal Expansion

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I’m probably a day late on this article but oh well, basically it is more of the same from our friends to the north on the Montreal expansion. From what some are saying we could know something regarding a team for either the 2011 or 2012 season by the end of the summer. Honestly, I expect an announcement around MLS Cup time.