Photo by Michael Janosz/ISIphotos.com
For the other 18 teams in MLS, knocking the Los Angeles Galaxy off their perch atop the league just became a bit more difficult.
U.S. national team forward Edson Buddle is rejoining the Galaxy after being released from his contract with FC Ingolstadt 04 on Tuesday, sources told SBI. Los Angeles maintained his MLS rights following his free transfer to Ingolstadt last January, and the club will welcome him back into the fold for what is shaping up to be the league's most potent attack. In 2010, his last season in MLS, Buddle scored 17 goals, finishing second to Chris Wondolowski for the league's golden boot.
With Buddle starting alongside Robbie Keane and Landon Donovan and David Beckham occupying spots in the midfield behind them, the Galaxy will have a wealth of All-Star-caliber attacking talent. Buddle also provides more than ample cover for when Keane has to leave the club for Republic of Ireland duty at Euro 2012.
Despite all of the star power on the roster, the Galaxy are able to afford Buddle by shedding a good chunk of salary from the books this offseason with the losses of players like Juninho, Donovan Ricketts, Jovan Kirovski and Gregg Berhalter. Los Angeles also received allocation money from Montreal in exchange for Ricketts to boost its financial flexibility, something that helped facilitate bringing Buddle back to the Home Depot Center.
Buddle played for the Galaxy from 2007-2010 before heading overseas to Ingolstadt last winter when his MLS contract expired, joining the 2. Bundesliga club midseason. He helped Ingolstadt stave off relegation and was tied for the team's lead in goals this season with six before being sent away from the club for unspecified reasons prior to the league's winter break.
While in club limbo, Buddle trained with West Ham and was on trial with Everton and Belgian side Westerlo before ultimately returning to MLS.
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What do you make of Buddle's return? Think the Galaxy are a lock to repeat as MLS Cup champions?
Share your thoughts below.
was let go for money reasons.Everton boss said they wouldnt to sign him and so did Lazio. So when you talk do research because Buddle was the leading scorer for his team.
he initialy sounded like as a sane person, but his insistence that his viewpoint was the only rational one came across like a rabbid chihuahua after his 10th post or so
What’s crazy is that only 1 of those guys started by the end of the season (Juninho). Obviously the Galaxy had some expendable pieces.
Funny. I missed that yesterday. You sent me looking for it. I was exhausted after a minute or two of just looking at it. Hard to imagine hanging in their that long to defend one’s comment. I hope I’ve never done that — if I did, I should be on some medication.
On the other hand, I absolutely agree with Soccer Guy — at least, with his first couple of comments. I have thought the exact same things watching him play this time around in England.
Happy for the Galaxy but sad for Buddle. Europe is hard and everyone just doesn’t make no matter how well they do in MLS. Europe is a completely didfferent level where foreigners (see USA) aren’t given much respect, it has to be earned on the field. Welcome back EB
If LA hadn’t made him an offer, or if they had sold him, they would not retain rights.
Yeah, I get that. MLS is just so weird with this stuff.
Isn’t this bad for the league (at least in terms of profile)? A guy who got dropped from a second division German team, and couldn’t get picked up anywhere else in Europe is accepted with open arms here and will just walk onto the starting 11 of the league’s best team. Speaks poorly of the league IMO.
I predict Donovan surprises us and stays at Everton. Despite all the talk to the contrary, Everton does have a few pounds to spend, paid £7m to buy the striker from the Rangers and if Donovan gives a green light, I bet they could come up with the money. It appears to me that Donovan is having a good time and knows that this might be his last chance to make a European move–now or never. Everton has a good coach who also is a mensch and who likes Donovan and Everton has great fans and also his buddy Timmy Howard guarding the goal. Everton is beefing up the team for bigger things and has risen to ninth place with Donovan’s help and is now just a few points away from the European League zone with what should be an easy win this weekend against last place team Wigan Athletic.
Do it, Landon. Just do it, or you will regret it the rest of your life.
I refuse to comment on this move until Soccer Guy has weighed in. His insight about Donovan’s performance at Everton yesterday was stunningly brilliant …
He’s more than that…You have to respect his attck, so things open up for others to do more damage.
maybe LA will let landon stay with everton until the season ends. his salary is cut in half (plus they would recieve some type of compenstion) then and they’d be able to shore up their D with the extra cash flow.
or maybe someone already said this.
What about Toronto and Seattle. Those teams spend money too.
major diffrerence…the defense just has to be average with this lineup that wil control the action.
Also gone are the days of Ely Allen and Buffalo Pires in midfield and Craig Vanney and Eddie Lewis in defense…
It’s a quirky MLS rule, not an imaginary “pro-LA” double standard. Since Buddle was signed on a free transfer at the end of his contract – LA received no transfer fee – they maintained the right of refusal in the case he chose to return to MLS. Remember, MLS owns players’ contracts, not teams.
Also have to add that Sarvas is cup-tied and cannot play in the Champions League, so there is still no Juninho replacement for that competition.
No, it’s a legitimate question.
If teams can just “retain the MLS rights” of players then what’s the point to the allocation order and re-entry process?
The West is stacked
Boyens was signed too, but likely at a low rate because he came through the re-entry draft.
“The big question is if he is he is cup-tied for CCL.”
is this a joke????
have you not noticed the moves by dallas this year? blas perez, one of the top scorers in concacaf is now in the mls. the are getting david fererria (2010 mvp) back from injury, brek shea out wide along with fabian castillo (missed a better part of 2011 playing for his u20 nat team in their wc). defensively they have lost george john, who’ll be replaced by the panamanian international player or the reportedly “best defender” in the draft.
head over to the mls site and look at all the movement this year, the overall level of mls has risen for sure.
read the #$%@ article!
Alan Gordon had a 50% strike rate last season playing with a torn rectus abdominis muscle and tears to both his hip abductors. The guy is a freaking marine.
Klopas is quietly building a heckuva team in Chi-town.
I’m surprised Seattle hasn’t gone for a bigger name.
Hells yeah, Cristman and Barret = unstoppable force.
You’re so bitter it’s funny.
That’s a true statement. Those claiming “championship repeat” are getting ahead of themselves, obviously. And I’m a Galaxy fan. Several MLS teams have made shrewd moves this off season, including Portland and Vancouver most recently. Boyens and Le Toux are at least as valuable as Buddle, in my opinion.
It was reported that Dos Santos turned down a move to MLS.
If you look at it like this – Buddle is a slightly expensive replacement for Barret/Cristman – then this makes perfect sense and is a good move.
AWESOME!!!
Potentially > This is the best LAG strikeforce in club history .. ..
Kind of beats the days of ALAN GORDON, et al, huh???
And Vancouver sign Camilo, a budding young star. My guess is that he will have to play the midfield.
“Maintained his MLS rights”?
Nice loophole around the re-entry process. More MLS roster ambiguity to help LA. BS.
But looked killer up until that game. Don’t forget that SKC didn’t play the whole season with Bravo due to a couple different injuries.
Dont underestimate the De Ro
+1
the rich get richer. hopefully this will vault LA into a serious run at CCL and on to the world club cup. that would be nice to see Galaxy w/their star power in Japan or Dubhai. That would attract some attention. I wish other MLS had done better in their trade this offseason. It looks like only LA and the Canadians did anything of note. So yes, except for LA, NY (and port) the rest of the league is an embarassment. MLS has too many cheap owners
I would be shocked if DC did that much scoring against LA for the season, including Cups and playoffs.
Who, me, mock? Nooooooooo….
Good for the league in general, and good for Buddle to hopefully get some regular playing time and maybe work his way into a spot in WCQ.
+1…The lack of playmaking was an issue and I dont think they have addressed that this season yet either.
This is good for the fans.
It looks like LA is is focused on playing an attractive brand of soccer. The first couple of Arena years had way to many 1-0, 0-0, 1-1 games. They had the talent to play more open games. More 3-1 games will bring more excitement and support. LA’s stellar D is still mostly intact also.
are you planning on sharing that crack or are you just going to bogart all of it? 😀
I should say looked toothless without Bravo vs. Houston…..
i think buddle can score big goals.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsu0sjTawts&feature=related
Right but they won the title in 2011, not 2010. I felt like this was a crisper passing side, as shown on the cup winner. And IMO tournaments like MLS Cup tend to expose the limits of your offense and defense, like whether a particular forward is a little sloppy on the ball and finishing. I think in the key games Buddle rather than Magee or Donovan would be a downgrade.
Kind of like I think the Sapong/ Kamara/ Bunbury attack of KC, so potent in the regular season, looked toothless versus Houston. I think you make subtle changes that drop the finesse level and teams can become more ordinary fast.
Buddle will be awesome for Keane, who excels more as a second striker behind a center forward.
The great news is that Franklin or Stephens can play in the midfield and Landon push up top when those guys need to be replaced. Hence, Barrett drops two levels, while Noonan and Cristman are emergency only players.
Concacaf is lenient about bringing players in during the competition. I think their big hangup tends to be that you have a 30 man preliminary roster and he has to fit on it. But most teams don’t name 30 players for precisely this scenario.
Even if we ruled out players whose teams were in European (or other regional) tournaments, that’s giving Ingolstadt way too much credit, the whole deal is the coach got fired and they’re near bottom of the B.2. FCI 04 is lucky to make the early rounds of German cups, much less think about Europe.
LA is going after the triple. I guess I’m OK with their getting a Supporters Shield/CCL double…while they get shocked by a brace by DeRosario and goals by Pontius andSantos in the MLS Cup final.
You mock, but they are surely interested. He was their first choice last year, before they moved on to getting Davies. I would guess that the team has been in touch with EJ.
And if he is injured on loan prior to the summer, the Galaxy would get nothing for him. They would just get an injured Donovan back just like they got Gonzalez back with his ACL injury. I believe FC Nurenberg was interested in buying Gonzalez in the summer. I think his injury has pretty much squashed that. LA has zero incentive to loan him out during their season, especially because they are the defending champs.