Luis Angel Landin is one of the new faces in MLS. (Getty Images)

I guess you could really say its just been a rather slow week in terms of news. Sure rosters were finalized on Tuesday night for the rest of the year and the league announced their big break next summer but other than that it’s been rather calm in Major League Soccer this week. I do have a couple thoughts and links tonight around the game.

First up I did want to recap the notable moves that have taken place this summer in the league now that the rosters are frozen into place for the next couple months. This is also a good time to take part in the little poll to your right on this page about the best summer move in MLS. Go ahead and vote now if you haven’t already!

Anyways, let’s recap shall we? (note I did not include every move from this season, for that go to the In-Season Player Movement page)

The DP’s
Luis Angel Landin – Houston Dynamo’s first Designated Player
Julian de Guzman – Toronto FC’s first Designated Player

The Allocated
Heath Pearce (D – FC Dallas) U.S. national team player
Danny Szetela (M – D.C. United) Former U.S. Under-20 returned from Italy

The Traded
Colorado and FC Dallas — Drew Moor to Colorado for Ugo Ihemelu for a 2nd draft pick and allocation
Houston Dynamo and Kansas City Wizards — Kei Kamara to KC for Abe Thompson and allocation money
Chivas USA and FC Dallas — Marcelo Saragosa to Chivas USA for Atiba Harris.
Chivas USA and LA Galaxy — Alecko Eskandarian to LA for conditional pick in draft
Real Salt Lake and San Jose Earthquakes — Pablo Campos to RSL for 2nd pick in draft

Notable Signings and Loans
Ali Gerba (F – Toronto FC) Canadian national team player
Jesus Padilla (F – Chivas USA) on loan from CD Guadalajara.
Maicon Santos (F – Chivas USA) Has played professionally in Brazil and other places
Chris Birchall (M – Los Angeles Galaxy) Trinidad national team player
Leonardo Gonzalez (D – Seattle Sounders FC) previously played in Costa Rica
Ramon Sanchez (M – San Jose Earthquakes) El Salvadorian national team player
Walter Garcia (D – New York Red Bulls) Argentine defender
Julien Baudet (D – Colorado Rapids) Frenchman captained Crewe Alexandra in England
Marvin Chavez (M – FC Dallas) Honduran national team player
Daniel Hernandez (D – FC Dallas) MLS veteran returns after second stint in Mexico’s top division
David Myrie (D – Chicago Fire) Costa Rican defender

New Kids on the Block (Academy Players Signed)
Giorgi Chirgadze (NY)
Bill Hamid (D.C. United)
Bryan Leyva (FC Dallas)

Notable Departures:

Kenny Cooper leaves FC Dallas for 1890 Munich in Germany
Bakery Soumare leaves Chicago Fire for Boulogne in France

Now on to some linkage:

MLS Schedule Break’s Negatives

Link

A good counter point by Kartik over at the Kartik Report about some of the drawbacks of the league taking a two-week break during next year’s World Cup. Some points make total sense and show that the league really never needed to break during the World Cup in the past since it saw some slight attendance bumps during each World Cup.

I do disagree a little on the point about the balanced schedule. Sure we want those regional rivalries to be as good and as intense as possible but we don’t want to water them down into nothing I think too. I thought the LA-Chivas rivalry was stupid at first when they played each other four or five times in a season. Now that it is down to two games I see some real intense matches between those two from here on out. I’m sure as the league expands we’ll get slightly back to rivals playing one another more than twice in a season though.

U-20 Squad Could Be Better

Link

Sounds like this time around for the U-20 World Cup the US had a tough time picking players since there weren’t many available playing in Europe. No Jozy Altidore this time, or Freddy Adu. In a way it sounds like US manager Thomas Rongen is just bitching a little about the lack of players making it in Europe right now with this squad. With more college players in this year’s squad I would imagine that if the US does as well as they did in Canada back in 2007 that we will see plenty of these guys abroad for years to come.

Character of Clubs in MLS

Link

Last link of the night is a good one folks. Jason Davis over at Match Fit USA has an interesting look at the character of clubs in MLS right now. He brings up a great point that the league is still rather young as we all know and it just takes time to build up a club’s character in it’s city with the local fans. Head over there and check out the article because it is worth a read.

As we all know Dallas passed on Szetela instead of even working out a deal with DC United, the club who had been reportedly very interested in the 22-year old midfielder before being allocated. Dallas didn’t pick Szetela to get a trade with DC for anything and in return kept their top spot and stayed empty-handed in many folks’ eyes.

The passive nature of the non-selection questioned many but Hyndman did have his reasons.

Sure.  We had the #1 allocation spot, so when Danny [Szetela] became available, this was probably about two weeks ago, we thought it through quite well and made a decision today that he’s a very good player but it’s probably not in our most immediate needs.  We though that it may be better for us not to take him.  It may be something else may come down the road.

I don’t know… I hate to play games like that.  A lot of people may say it’s the way to do it.  But what happens if DC doesn’t come after him?  And what happens if we’re in a situation where we have another central midfielder?  We’re gonna have to let somebody go off the roster.

And not giving information away till it’s done, but we have other things that we’ve been planning.  It might upset that whole process.

I know Carrick was pretty upset at Dallas for passing on the midfielder. Couldn’t blame him in the least bit. But as we’ve seen in the past out of this club you could nearly trade anything with them for a box of Oreo’s and they’d be satisfied.

I still hold a belief that Dallas will not use their allocation spot at all this year and in return lost the positioning next year when Philadelphia enters the league.

Since DC claimed Szetela it means that FC Dallas passed on the young midfielder. DC was second in the allocation order to Dallas and now the Black-and-Red will move all the way to the bottom of the list.

I don’t expect any sort of trade to be done either here for Szetela’s rights between Dallas and DC too. We know how passive Dallas can be in trades dealing with the allocation system. Even if they had traded spots with DC they’d still be top in the rankings after it was all said and done.

So United fans, happy with the pickup?

(Note I’ll have an updated allocation order later this afternoon up for you all)

This is where it gets interesting if he is coming back to the league. Dallas holds the top spot in the allocation order right now, followed by DC and Colorado. If you are Dallas do you take the 22-year old or pass in hopes to get something a little better this summer? Honestly I don’t see a need for him for Dallas right now. They already have too many midfielders and adding another one that would probably sit on the bench more so with the way Schellas Hyndman coaches makes little sense.

No word on if DC or Colorado are even interested in him if Dallas were to pass. Honestly I wouldn’t be shocked to see all three pass on him meaning KC would be next in line. A move to KC kind of fits if you ask me, if not then Chivas would be next, another solid fit.

So does DC or Colorado trade up to get the top spot or will there be another team that steps in and makes a deal with Dallas? If you are Columbus do you trade up for your former midfielder?