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Red Bulls land Kimura, draft pick from Timbers for allocation, rights to Gallego

By IVES GALARCEP

The Caleb Porter era in Portland is in full swing as he helped his new team land the rights to one of the key members of the college team he just left.

The Timbers acquired the Homegrown Player rights to Bryan Gallego and allocation money from the New York Red Bulls for fullback Kosuke Kimura and Portland’s second-round pick in the 2012 MLS Draft.

Sources tell SBI that the trade also involved the Timbers waiving a $75,000 fee the Red Bulls would have had to pay the Timbers for re-signing forward Kenny Cooper.

Sources familiar with the deal also tell SBI that the Red Bulls are sending an allocation worth more than $100,000 to Portland in the trade.

Gallego is a sophomore centerback at the University of Akron.  A technically-gifted central defender considered one of the best centerbacks in college soccer, Gallego projects as a top long-term prospect for the Timbers, particularly in the possession-style system Porter likes to play. He is on the small side for a pro centerback (5-foot-10), but Gallego still has the skills to be a good pro.

Kimura gives the Red Bulls more depth at fullback, a position where the team recently re-signed Connor Lade and Brandon Barklage to play.

Overall, Portland looks like the winner in this deal. They secure some allocation money and a top-notch prospect in exchange for a veteran fullback who disappointed in 2012 and a second-round pick.

What do you think of the trade? Which side got the better of the deal?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. A high second rounder isn’t too shabby. Cup-winner Kimura adds experienced depth. NY is set in the middle of defense. Gallego wouldn’t have seen the pitch anyway.

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  2. Do you think that at one point the brass will say to themselves “10 years trying to win right away with no success, perhaps we should be patient and build our team with homegrown talent”?

    I understand that in NY is all about winning today, but when you go 10+ with that mentality, and all you have to show for it is a friendly tournament trophy, you have, at the very least, consider a new approach. Invest 5 years on a plan to grow the team using a core of HG players.

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  3. Turds-

    Kosuke was shopping his contract around lower level european clubs this winter.

    NYRB management has no clue what they are doing and should stop. You have one of the best setups in the country. Might want to keep that going and actually use your own players. Than you don’t have to make some of the worst signings in soccer history.

    Rafa Marquez is a bigger bum than A-rod

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  4. Ives, not sure if it was already discussed here but it seems that “Juninho Pernambucano” (current Vasco da Gama, ex-Lyon and Brazil National Team player) is flying to NYC this week to visit the Red Bulls.

    He’s 38 but still in top shape, midfielder maestro, with great free kicks.

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  5. I love how the brass at NYRB come in, putting huge emphasis on a local identity and connection, including through the academy and then go and jettison a homegrown player before he was ever signed for the first time in club history. A player who, by accounts I have seen, is promising and was even a captain at the US youth levels.

    Makes you go ‘hmmmm’, Red Bull. M

    y enthusiasm is waning after this and picking up another defender with injury history and a forward who has not impressed lately. Maybe they tried to hide the homegrown dealing by putting on the same day as the Olave trade. Everyone thinks Olave has been great. But last season really raised a robot questions and I wonder if he’ll stay fit for the season. I hope so. We’ve had enough absenteeism from injuries.

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  6. So the Timbers waived a $75K fee the Energy Drinks agreed to pay if they re-signed Kenny Cooper. Is this a sign that NY intends to keep Cooper?

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    • Sounds about right, Sean. At the very least, today’s deal makes it cheaper for NYRB to keep him.

      They may still transfer his rights, but this situation looks more like shopping to trick some desperate team into paying a high price for the 18 goals as if Cooper can do that for them without service from Henry and company.

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  7. Time will tell how Gallego works out, but this is absolutely a worthwhile risk: a player Portland fans loved for his effort but not for his performance and a 2nd round pick for “more than” $100k in allocation funds and a highly regarded prospect who has already chosen once to play for Caleb Porter.

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    • Maybe its the salary but the guy moves every year. He also seems to put up goals everywhere he goes. Not the perfect player but at least he is productive.

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    • The story goes, Rodgers works better with Henry than does Cooper, and Rodgers may have fixed his visa problem.

      To me it’s a counterproductive salary dump, but I guess Cooper will be converted into Rodgers + Espindola + something else. One gets the idea that if they can ditch Marquez they want to dedicate those funds elsewhere. To me, that would be your Cooper retention fund, but it sounds like they have other ideas and by announcing them this publicly they are now committed, in a league where IMO it’s easy to dump salary but hard to replace the dumped player….DeRo in Houston, for instance. IMO we created room to play by tossing DeRo but CAM has been less well manned since and the titles have gone wanting, because in a final against a team like LA we struggle for chances.

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    • I’m wondering whether Cooper might be uncoachable. He has certainly bounced around a lot for a guy who scores goals in bunches. I remember in ’06 watching Dallas coach Steve Morrow kick the signboards and scream in frustration at Kenny not doing what he was asked to on the field. Maybe you have to build a team around his particular skill set, but it’s hard to build around a guy that is too slow to play out wide, but can’t or won’t play as a target forward.

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      • I don’t know about uncoachable but like Jozy he’s a big dude who doesn’t play like one, is often ineffective as a target, better in open space but not necessarily the burner you’d want wide. Probably why ManU, 1860, and about everyone else signs him then punts.

        That being said, if you offered most teams in the league Wondo Cooper Henry etc., they’d take ’em. I think it’s naive about the ease of acquiring someone with 10+ MLS goals in them. They do not grow on trees.

    • It sounds like they are keeping Cooper. Part of the trade was to not have to pay 75,000 dollars to resign Cooper, that Portland would get if NYRB resigned him

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  8. I liked Kimura when he was in Colorado, but what the hell has happened to him over the course of the last year? Seems every time I watch him, he gets smoked on the flanks or is out of position.

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  9. You can trade homegrown rights to an unsigned player (ie, Gallego, who is probably still at Akron taking sophmore finals)? Doesn’t that defeat the purpose?

    I know NY will say, you’re actually gonna make me sign him before I trade him…..yes, if he’s being held out of the draft based on his being your product signing with you. You really should be forced to roster someone like this for a period of time to receive homegrown benefits. Otherqise it’s less “I made this player” — sometimes itself a dubious claim — and more “this is my valuable asset, inquire within.”

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  10. It’s kind of strange to reshuffle the team before even having a coach. Almost a set-up to fail as the next NYRB coach probably won’t have the players he wants…

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    • Before dropping their bait I would have agreed with you, and have expressed as much. However, when you shop window a player you just acquired, who has already suffered not particularly well through a similar lame duck period at Portland, can you really wipe the slate back clean? It’d be like the people the Houston Rockets tried to trade in the Paul did that got wiped out by the NBA commish. That degree of publicity of “I’d like to ship you out of town” does not comfortable bedmates make. In theory even if it’s not a trade tomorrow he may sulk until there’s a February or March trade because the relationship was dented by dangling him in the first place.

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      • Paul deal I mean…..Martin, Dragic, and Scola were all the announced trade players and even though the trade did not go through with NO and such, they were all later amnestied or traded or allowed to leave in free agency.

  11. Although I am an RSL fan, I am rooting for Porter to introduce his technical, attacking mentality in Portland, and if he does I hope Portland does well. American soccer needs it!

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  12. I wouldn’t necessarily say Lade was re-signed to play fullback. While he held his own there as needed this season, he’s better suited to a wide midfield role. And with Lindpere reportedly on his way out, he slots in nicely into LM. RBNY needs all the defensive depth it can get, and if Kimura keeps Roy Miller from seeing the pitch ever again this was a terrific deal.

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    • Totally agree. Lade was consistently awful at fullback but adds depth as a wide midfielder. Not sure I want him as a regular starter though.

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      • I love Lade’s heart, but I am not sure about him long term. I thought he (for the most part) overcame a lack of skill and size at fullback with sheer hustle, but I thought he was fading toward the end of the long season. I also loved the occasional run forward that he would make, but he always seemed on the verge of losing control of the ball in those instances. Not sure what to do with him – I just think he is too small to be a long-term solution at fullback, and not skilled enough to present an offensive threat in the mid-field. If he comes back next season with a better first touch I will happily eat my words.

    • As others havye stated, I don’t see Lade as an outside back. Losing Lindpere would be a huge mistake. The Red Bulls need more character players like Cahill, Lindpere and McCarty … not lose them.

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