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Greetings from St. Louis (MLS News & Notes)

StLouisSkyline 

Good evening folks. I am coming to you from St. Louis, which is experiencing downright Arctic conditions right now (at least it feels that way after four days in sunny Florida).

Tonight is the night when most of the big trades surrounding the MLS Draft will take place and there are few scenes more entertaining than the one at the league's hotel bar on the night before the draft. That is where team officials from throughout the league will gather to negotiate and, in some cases, finalize deals.

It sounds as though Sigi Schmid and Seattle are stealing Mo Johnston's thunder a bit heading into the draft. As you have known for a while, Toronto FC has been looking to shop the No. 2 and No. 4 picks in the draft, but now that Seattle appears to have decided to try and shop the No. 1 pick, the whole game has changed.

Why? Well, Seattle is different from Toronto because as an expansion team the Sounders can benefit from acquiring more picks in what almost every head coach and GM I spoke to last week is calling a storng draft. Toronto doesn't need picks and therefore had been limited to trying to acquire players and allocation money for its picks. Suddenly teams have become more interested in talking trade with the Sounders because now all those picks some teams have can go toward moving up.

Here are some other news tidbits from the evening:

The Red Bulls announced the completion of its trade of Mike Magee to the Los Angeles Galaxy, and yes, the deal was for a second-round pick in 2010. Other teams said to have been interested in Magee were Toronto FC (which would have re-united Magee with former Red Bull coach Mo Johnston) and Chicago, which is where Magee is from. Sources also tell me that the Red Bulls passed on a late offer from Toronto of the No. 13 pick for Magee, choosing instead to honor the deal it already had in place with the Galaxy.

FC Dallas has signed defender Steve Purdy from German club 1860 Munich. The young American defender spent time with the reserve team at 1860 Munich after passing up a chance to play for the LA Galaxy, which used a supplemental draft pick on him in 2007. With two years having passed, the Galaxy's claim on Purdy expired, allowing FC Dallas to pounce and add a big 6-foot-4 center back. It is an acquisition that would suggest that the Hoops will sit out the chase for Omar Gonzalez and focus on other areas of the field in the draft (such as fullback and central midfield).

The Galaxy traded the rights to 'retired' defender Ty Harden to the Colorado Rapids for a third-round pick. Not sure what led to that move but it seems likely that Harden is ready to return to MLS (or at least the Rapids are trying to lure him back). LA acquired the 35th overall pick in the draft for Harden's rights.

So who do I see winding up with the top draft picks when it's all said and done? D.C., Chivas USA, Kansas City and New England are the leading candidates to move up.

That is all for now. I will try to crank out some answers to the MLS Draft questions people asked tonight (I may also be posting any late-breaking developments throughout the evening). For now, feel free to share your thoughts on any of the above news items in the comments sections below.

Comments

  1. Hey Ives,

    Reports are that Kovalenko is going to LA for a draft pick and allocation money. Any more info on what draft pick and how much money?

    I think its a good move. Kovalenko’s salary ($200k)was just too much for a non-core player. Hopefully, RSL will use some of the money to give Wingert a raise from his $65K salary.

    They are now thin at the DMid position after releasing Cutler, trading Kovalenko and losing Sturgis to Seattle. They only have Beckerman (and I guess Robbie Russell could play there).

    How can LA afford Kovalenko’s salary?

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  2. i dont really mind the magee trade that much;..we saved about 80 k and also wat does magee really do for us.??he has like 1 good game a year! i’ll rather take his 80 grand and put it somewhere where it belongs..and not for nothiing we should at some coaches that can really help richards and whoever is playin LM because with kandji and hopefulyy angel up front we can win a lot of croses..only IFFFFFF someone teaches richards how to cross!! VDB wouldnt been perfect this year!

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  3. Yo, Ives I live in St. Louis, what hotel is the draft taking place? It’d be cool if I could come down there buy you a beer, and tell you how much I hate Guiseppe Rossi.

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  4. I would have been shocked to see NYRB trade Magee to TFC. why strengthen an opponent for a measly draft pick (who likely won’t contribute much in 2009)?

    There is minimal difference between the 13th pick of the 1st round and a high 2nd round pick. Remember where NYRB picked up Jozy? oh yeah…2nd round of the draft.

    NYRB fans need to chill.

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  5. “Sources also tell me that the Red Bulls passed on a late offer from Toronto of the No. 13 pick for Magee, choosing instead to honor the deal it already had in place with the Galaxy.”

    WTF? If you get a better deal for a player, go for it. This isn’t charity.

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  6. In favor of Paul Winsper, our health coach, youll see our injuries were minimal this year, really the only ones were from concussions (dichio) and im sure someone can point out whatever Tebilys illness was

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  7. “Also thats why they should have waited for draft day to complete the trade”

    Posted by: Ken U | January 14, 2009 at 10:42 PM

    Good point. Really dumb move by RBNY to not wait until the draft to do this deal and really dumb to not pull out of the LA deal for the 13th pick. That’s just madness.

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  8. Mike Magee should be thanking Agoos for not trading him to TFC for the sheer fact that his history of injuries and turf simply do not go together. I think now that Magee is not playing on turf, he could have a Buddle-like comeback next season.

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  9. i suspect they didnt trade to TFC as it as prob a done deal AND they didnt want to strengthen a conference opponent

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  10. Ives…please follow agoos around and listen in to his convos and offer your insight to him. I know its stalker-ish but i dont trust the guy making moves for my team

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  11. Agoos needs to be fired immediately for his incompetence. How he messed up trading Magee is beyond acceptable. If you want to trade the guy, at least go through the proper process and talk to everyone that is interested before settling on a deal.

    Many deals would have been better than the one Agoos accepted. I’m sorry, but he really needs to rethink his decision and break-up the LA deal. Frankly his incompetence is outrageous.

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  12. So how has Purdy actually looked lately? His draft position and size seem to point him being a solid player, but I’ve never actually seen him play.

    Why was Magee worth so little to NY?

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  13. Ives, if you hang out at the hotel bar tonight, make sure Goose doesn’t drink too much and trade away our 2nd DP for the MLS rights to Abel Xavier and a hot pretzel…

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  14. Red Bull don’t do the end around for the 13th pick? While I support them being ethical, I wish they held out for a little bit heh.

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  15. I hope that Red Bull didnt get that offer of the 13th pick for Magee and decided to honor the condition 2nd round pick because with more expansion next year that 2nd round pick loses even more value, it may not even end up being a 2nd rounder since it id conditional and with 11, 13, 18 and 29 Red Bull would have had some picks to trade if they wanted to move up.

    Also thats why they should have waited for draft day to complete the trade

    Reply

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