Thanks to Prost Amerika for this. Normally I wouldn’t go into a release of a player but since I know the guy and covered him during his college days at West Virginia University.

Seattle Sounders FC have released New Zealand striker Jarrod Smith.

Sounders FC have released forward Jarrod Smith. Smith, 25, was selected by Seattle in the MLS Expansion Draft but had been on the disabled list since March 5.

Smith underwent successful surgery last week to repair a torn right hamstring tendon. He will continue rehabilitation in Seattle with the team and his MLS rights remain with Sounders FC.

Smith spent most of June with the New Zealand National Team for the Confederations Cup and friendlies in Africa, including one in Gaborone, Botswana where he became the first MLS Sounder to play international soccer. He last saw action for Sounders FC in a U.S. Open Cup third round game at Portland on July 1. His only other appearance was in an Open Cup play-in match on April 28.

Smith played 20 games, starting six, during his rookie season with Toronto FC.

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…

Those golden boots are leaving town. FC Dallas forward Ricardinho has returned home to Brazil to play with his club and Dallas partner Atletico Paranaense today after clearing MLS waivers. He joined FCD in July 2007 as the first player exchanged between the two partner clubs.

Honestly, this move isn’t a total shocker to me. I thought back in the spring that Ricardinho was one of those guys that I thought wouldn’t last the whole season in Dallas. When a new coach came on board it was pretty much a matter of time for him to return back to CAP.

I liked Ricardinho but there was always that element that was missing for me out of him. I loved his craftiness but thought he disappeared too much in games or that he didn’t make the most of his chances when he was given them.

Still the partnership between CAP and Dallas works. Andre Rocha has been a big success in my mind this season for the club and I wouldn’t be shocked to see the Hoops look for another CAP player in the winter for next year. I wonder if Dallas is set to make a move to fill his roster spot or if they will just move a developmental player into the senior roster for the time being.

Sounds to me like Toronto FC is in the Carlos Ruiz sweepstakes after all here. Today they announced the release of midfielder Laurent Robert.

Robert started in 16 of 17 games scoring one goal and adding three assists.

Kinda of a surprise release to me. I’m not sure if it was a personal kind of decision on Robert’s part in that he asked for a release or if the club is just trying to change things up by getting rid of some salary to make room for someone else like Carlos Ruiz.

From all that I’ve heard from Galaxy-land is that they will be looking to swing some deals by at least Thursday of this week. They have another Primetime match this week against the Fire. The Galaxy and their new boss Bruce Arena are hoping to land Eddie Lewis before long and to do so would mean shipping Ruiz off.

What do you make of this release by Toronto? Think it is a precursor to land Ruiz?

Houston Dynamo has waived young forward Franco Caraccio today. The young striker floundered with the Dynamo, managing two goals and an assist in 10 games for Houston.

The re-signing of Nate Jaqua earlier this week and the Dynamo’s aim to shop for at least one more forward for the second half of the MLS season made Caraccio expendable. Houston head coach Dominic Kinnear made this fairly clear today according to Bernando Fallas of the Houston Chronicle.

“We probably need some help at the forward position as we’re pushing midfielders up there, and with the acquisition of Nate… it became a numbers issue as far as players on the roster and salary cap goes,” Kinnear said. “I don’t enjoy moving players, especially when they fit in pretty well in the locker room and I enjoy them, but in this case a decision had to be made.”

“He played OK,” said Kinnear, adding that Caraccio’s performance against Chivas had little to do with the decision. “I don’t think he had a bad game.”

Caraccio, who was to make $130,500 this year, according to MLS Players Union documents, was signed to a semi-guaranteed contract, the team said, meaning his release effectively opens up salary cap space for the Dynamo.

Expectations were high when Caraccio, a former Argentina under-20 and Arsenal de Sarandi player with unquestioned potential, began the season in the starting lineup as a complement to Brian Ching.

With Jaqua’s return, Caraccio would have fallen to fifth in Kinnear’s pecking order of forwards behind Ching, Jaqua, Dwayne De Rosario and Brian Mullan.

Continue Reading…

Galaxy fans, you hear that? Its the sound of goals not being scored on you because a certain defender got beat yet again.

Yup, the LA Galaxy has waived Portuguese defender and veteran traffic cone Abel Xavier, the Washington Post’s Steve Goff reported today.

I won’t go too much into details on this because its honestly the right move by the Galaxy. Sounds like they finally wised up and realized that a majority of those 30-some goals that have been scored on them were mostly caused by lack of quality play out of Xavier.

Sounds like more Galaxy moves are on the way as well…

What do you make of this news?

It seems like DC United is cutting their losses with some of their new players from this winter by giving them the boot. We all know little ol’ Franco Niell was releases a couple weeks back, now it looks like they are cutting ties with backup keeper Jose Carvallo.

“We’ll officially announce shortly that we’ve released goalkeeper Jose Carvallo. The Peruvian joined United on January 28 of this year, but never really fought his way into the first team. He made a lone first team appearance on April 12 when the team lost to Real Salt Lake 4-0. He also made six reserve team appearances (five starts), putting together a 2-2-1 record and 1.22 goals-against-average. “

Something tells me they are going to be going after another keeper to push Zack Wells here in the coming weeks. They have a little bit of wiggle room in the cap space so my guess they may try to trade within the league for a solid backup to compete with Wells but they could also look elsewhere. Maybe former Chicago keeper Matt Pickens? Eh, eh? Maybe.