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Rapids land Buddle from Galaxy

Photo by ISIphotos.com

The Colorado Rapids wasted no time in finding Conor Casey’s replacement.

Minutes after the conclusion of the 2012 MLS Re-Entry Draft, the Rapids announced they traded for LA Galaxy forward Edson Buddle. Colorado dealt allocation money and its first round pick in the 2013 MLS Supplemental Draft in exchange for the World Cup veteran.

Buddle had become surplus to requirements with the Galaxy and failed to produce much when he did see the field in 2012. He started 10 of the 19 games he played in during the regular season, scoring three goals and assisting on one other.

What do you think of the Rapids acquiring Buddle? Do you see him succeeding in Colorado? Think LA could have gotten more for him?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. Re Buddle, he was awesome a couple of years ago and didn’t do all that badly in Bundesliga 2, but was injured most of last year and never regained his form. He may be over the hill now, we’ll see. Galaxy definitely need someone up top with Keane and/or to spell him occasionally. I think Villareal and McBean are too young to count on so I expect Arena will pluck someone good from overseas. Since Juninho is not a lock, Wilhelmsson is gone and Donovan doubtful, it will be interesting to see how Arena fills the holes. He has certainly shown the knack for finding gems.

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    • It shouldn’t be that McBean and Villareal are too young cause that doesn’t matter what matters is if their good enough to start consistently.Maybe Villareal can beat out Magee or take the other wing spot but McBean should be a backup to a target fwd they should bring in.

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  2. Unfortunate that it didn’t work out with buddle. He has great hold up play and links very well with teams. The issue with him is staying fit AND he’s a streaky player. When he’s hot he’s very hard to stop. Good luck Edson. I think you got shafted when you were the hottest goal scorer we had and Bradley played Findlay and let you cool on the bench. You will be missed.

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  3. I think LA has real hopes for Villareal, the local kid. He’s young but he’s not so young that it’s inconceivable he’ll be playing real time up top for the Galaxy next season, I think.
    –Andy

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    • This may be a signal that Landon is going to be taking a season or at least a half-season break.

      Hopefully they are still looking at Kaka. The Brazilian connection with Fabiano, Juninho, Marcelo, and Kaka would be deadly.

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  4. Lots of hate going around for buddle….the guy is a beast. Look at his scoring rate. The guys game has never been about speed…he is a hold/combination player who knows how to get on the end of a cross and finish. In addition, he was injured last season. The galaxy are just clearing cap space. Great pick up for any team.

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      • I’ll admit the guy is a beast. Watching him play, you can see that defenders climb all over him like a junglegym and the guy stays on his feet. I’ll trade some speed for this aspect of his game.

        My frustration with him has been more about his workrate…and his first touch which more closely resembles a brickwall than a soccer player and hurts his combination play.

  5. Curious which Buddle will show, Cummings/Buddle has potential but it’s been awhile since Buddle looked dangerous, and Colorado hasn’t been a great place to revive your career. If nothing else, it’s a reasonable gamble, even if I would bet it fails. The Gals will take that allocation money all day.

    And just for old time sakes , I’ll laugh one more time about choosing Pablo over Beckerman when they had both and wanted to cash in one.

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    • Seriously? You’re suggesting that Pablo over Beckerman was a bad choice? The bad choice was not keeping both of them, but its hard to go wrong either way if you can only pick one.

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      • Not hard at all. The past four years have proven Colorado made a bad mistake. You have to be the only person on planet earth that thinks Pablo and Beckerman are equals.

      • Seriously, are you guys really saying that Colorado is and has been as successful as RSL in the past four years? That is a joke. RSL is clearly the most consistent team in the league in the past four years. We are the only club to make the playoffs the past five straight years. RSL has won the Rocky Mountain cup for a fourth or fifth straight year. I can’t remember because it has gotten to be so lame it doesn’t meant anything anymore.

      • I believe you’re the only club to win the title after a sub-.500 season. Of course, squeaking through on PKs twice didn’t hurt. And how about that CCL final at home?

        Anyway, nobody has said what you now claim. The responses were to your original comparison, which was Mastroeni v Beckerman. Your sudden unexplained jump to Rapids v RSL and your commentary on that very different point does seem to indicate your real motive in the discussion, though.

      • How bout getting to the CCL final? How many teams have done that? and to prove my point again, Beckerman was out that game that we lost at home. Had he been in, we would have won. And every team that wins the MLS cup does it in part by luck. Seriously, Pablo is a huge problem on the pitch. The comments I was replying to in the second round of these posts were that the record of the last four years does not prove Beckerman was the better player. It clearly does. Beckerman leads RSL. Pablo does not lead the Rapids, unless we are counting game-ending fouls. How many games has Pablo been unable to help his team because of injuries last season? And the dude is classless. He took off his jersey and humped it for crying out loud. Beckerman is the superior player. It isn’t even a comparison.

      • Pablo a “problem” on the pitch? Please. You only need to look at the unorganized mess that was last year’s Rapids defense compared to 2011 and 2010 to see how important Pablo is to the Rapids. He’s the leader of the team, period.

        Of course your comments about Pablo “humping” his jersey (which he didn’t, but whatever) shows what your real point is. you have an issue with Pablo because of his antics, and the rest of your comments are just trying to find an on-field justification for your personal dislike of a player.

        I’ll go back to my original point. The mistake wasn’t keeping one over the other, the mistake was not keeping both of them. If you had to pick wrong there was no wrong choice.

      • Seriously, no, I’m not. What I’m saying is that Beckerman vs. Mastroeni is pretty close to equal over the last 4-5 years. You’re the one suddenly turning it into a Colorado vs. Salt Lake debate.

        (But the total major trophies is what counts at the end and each have 1, so for as much as people want to talk about the “great” Salt Lake team, they accomplished as much as Colorado did over the last 4-5 years).

      • Well if it doesn’t mean anything anymore maybe you guys could finally pitch in for paying for the cup. When the Rapids supporters bought the cup your leadership cried and didn’t put any money in. Since you are so rich and bored with it now maybe you can finally pay half. If it doesn’t mean anything why did you bring it up? Honestly both teams are going to be terrible.

  6. Deals like this show how teams like LA manage to put together nearly unbelievable rosters like they have this year. They fleece silly teams like Colorado who are willing to give LA allocation money and a relatively high draft pick (albeit in the 3rd round) for an old striker who’s goal scoring rate is worse than some of LA’s defenders.

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    • One thing LA’s been extremely good at for most of its history (excluding the Yallop and Gullit years) is scouting domestic soccer for the most talented players and the best fits. LA’s incredibly good at finding value for money — and yes, I’m actually saying this about the league’s biggest spenders. Consider the history of the MLS draft: the LA Galaxy probably has the best success rate of any club in the league at picking future MLS starters. Doing your homework matters. It’s the difference between LA (back-to-back championships) and teams like New York (still trophyless) and Toronto (no playoff appearances) that spend almost as much money.

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  7. An Omar/Buddle partnership up top for the Rapids….ugh. They made sure to get my season ticket renewal before announcing this. At least Pablo might play this coming season.

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    • who’s to say omar will still be here to start the year… or that he wont come off the bench

      Cascio-Buddle-Castrillon
      Rivero
      Larentowicz-Thomas
      Wallace-Moor-Klute-Wynne
      Pickens

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  8. Great move by both teams.
    I hate to read too much into things, but this move makes me think they are counting on LD to be back next year.

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    • As an former season ticket holder, I couldn’t agree more. It’s a shame how little love the ‘pids get from the ownership on down. Expectations should be a lot higher in an MSA that has plenty of good footie.

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    • I don’t think so. I think it is more a reflection on Bruce’s concern about experience in the midfield regardless of whether Donovan returns. With Beckham gone and Wilhelmsson’s experience (but not his talent cuz that never arrived) leaving, he would have had to play Jimenez a lot more at right mid. And I don’t think Bruce is ready for that yet.

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