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: Continue Reading…

Just wanted to pass along a note that I’ve added an in-season player movement page here. If you see anything that needs updated on it just let me know. I will make the effort to keep it updated as much as possible throughout the season here.

Its been a few weeks since I have done a weekend post about this (though it has been updated regularly up top since it’s last blog post). Only a few moves to really highlight (they are in bold). More moves on the way with this coming week’s SuperDraft.

As always if anything is out of place or incorrect, please comment below and it will get fixed.

Chicago Fire
Incoming:

Outgoing:
Tomasz Frankowski (waived)
Diego Gutierrez (retired)
Andy Herron (waived)
Stephen King (Seattle Sounders FC – Expansion Draft) Continue Reading…

The Carlos Marinelli experiment is finally over in KC. (Getty Images)

I think most of us saw this coming, even those that weren’t close to Kansas City and the Wizards. But it appears the midfielder Carlos Marinelli has set sail to leave MLS and play for Colombian side Club Deportivo Los Millonarios. He will start practicing with the team December 15th.

Usually I hold off on these kinds of rumors but since it is already official according to the club’s website I figured it was worth bringing up. (Thanks to Joe for the email about this matter too)

Here is my (very rough) translation of the release put out on Millonarios’ website:

Carlos Marinelli, 26,…with a resume that includes having integrated major international teams, is further strengthening of Millonarios. Marinelli, from Kansas City in the MLS, he signed for one year with an option to purchase.

Most of the article talked about Marinelli’s history with Boca to Middlesborough and a brief mention of Kansas City.

It’s not a total shocker to see Marinelli leave KC. His two years with the club wasn’t exactly worth talking about as he was too hot and cold for my liking as a player. I never really felt like he adapted to MLS like some players do and to his own club in KC. Maybe that was a bit because he was in Curt Onalfo’s dog-house a few times during his stay in KC.

Losing him will free up a little space for the Wizards. I highly doubt they will bring in anyone to replace him in the middle of the park through a transfer this winter though. Their last couple transfers haven’t really worked out with the exception of maybe Claudio Lopez for the final month of the regular season this past year. Still some free space in the cap is always good, especially with the way they seem to like to wheel and deal for strikers these days.

A list I’ve been meaning to get around to is finally updated. I was mainly waiting for the expansion draft to conclude last week and for my vacation to be over as well before I got into this long list of player moves. As some of you already know I try to track these moves to the best of my abilities here during the offseason.

From week-to-week (and soon to be a day-to-day thing) I will post this list with the updated moves that each club has made.

So far a lot of the moves center around the expansion draft, retirements and players that got cut recently. If any move is missing or incorrect please just comment below and I will update it as soon as possible. Big thanks to a couple readers for emailing in a few of these lists over the last couple weeks. I really appreciate the help you guys!! Continue Reading…

Christian Gomez is on the trading block yet again. (Getty Images)

Let the debate resume for another offseason. We talked about it last year as DC United was trying to figure out what to do with former MVP Christian Gomez. Now it appears that the Colorado Rapids will be doing the same this offseason.

Steve Goff is reporting the same hunch that most of us have had over the last couple months today that the Rapids will be looking to dump Gomez’s high contract this winter.

No surprise: Colorado is trying to move Christian Gomez and dump his 2009 guaranteed contract of around $400,000. Gomez barely played the final few months of the season under then-interim coach Gary Smith, who clearly doesn’t think much of the 2006 MVP. My hunch is that, if they find a suitor, the Rapids will have to continue paying a portion of his salary next year. Colorado already re-signed Pablo Mastroeni to a new deal that approaches designated player range.

Last year Gomez was rumored to be traded to this club and that club but somehow ended up in Colorado. But who would want a guy like Gomez at this point? Obviously someone who is shopping for a deal and a playmaker.

Gomez will end up in a situation that will be far better than what it was in Colorado in 2008. Let’s remember that he had a lame-duck coach in Fernando Clavijo and a club that wasn’t really built around his talents. No one stepped out as a top scorer until late in the year when he was riding the pine under Gary Smith. The Rapids could still use him but we all know that won’t be the case unless he takes a serious pay cut. Continue Reading…

Another week of wheelin’ and dealin’ in MLS. Here is an updated list of what’s gone on during this season in terms of player movement.

Here’s some food for thought though too. Look at this list, you see something interesting? Yeah, a whole slew of Americans returned to MLS this summer. Brian McBride, Eddie Lewis, Robbie Russel, Josh Wolff, Kasey Keller (next year with Seattle but close enough), Nate Jaqua, etc. I think its an intereting trend that we will see continue to happen here.

Anyways, back to the list. As always if you see anything that needs corrected, please comment below and I will get it taken care of as soon as possible. Continue Reading…