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Bocanegra leaves Rangers, Chivas USA mentioned as potential destination

US Men's National Soccer Team Staring Eleven

Photo by ISIPhotos.com

By DAN KARELL

General managers in Major League Soccer, take notice. Carlos Bocanegra is available.

The former U.S. Men’s National Team captain has parted ways with his former club Rangers FC in Scotland, with the club’s own press release reporting a potential move to Chivas USA, not far from his roots in Alta Loma, California.

Many media reports have speculated a return to MLS for the 34-year-old defender who sat on the bench in the 2-1 USMNT defeat to Honduras last February and now sits on the periphery of the national team due to a lack of playing time with his club. Bocanegra spent last season on loan with Racing Santander in the Spanish second division, unable to help them avoid relegation for a second season on the trot.

The 110-time capped USMNT player made 23 starts last season for Racing, failing to score and picking up eight yellow cards.

If Bocanegra does return to MLS, he would have to enter the allocation process that current and former U.S. Men’s National Team players must go through (unless an MLS team holds their rights, as was the case with Clarence Goodson). Toronto FC currently are atop the allocation rankings, with the Portland Timbers and Seattle Sounders next in the order.

What do you make of the news? Do you see Bocanegra moving to back to MLS? Think he can help Chivas USA turn around a nightmare season?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. I can see the Galaxy making a move for him. With Omar probably leaving after the end of the year, he would be good to bring in to help with the younger guys. And Bruce likes to bring in older USMNT players…

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  2. “failing to score” is an odd statement to make in the article given he’s a centerback. Don’t think he’s expected to score and the article made it sound like him not putting the ball in the back of the net was some sort of failure on his part.

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  3. RSL needs a CB or 2. We have Borchers, Salcedo ( 19 years Old) and Maund ( drafted in 2012). We have Wingert who can slide in to play CB but other than that we don’t have much cover back there. I would want Carlos on RSL and he might be able to work his way back into the USMNT with RSL. They only thing I don’t like about Carlos is the amount of money he’ll command.

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      • But I’d love to see a CB combination of Bocanegra and Olave. Wouldn’t he be an improvement over Holgersson?

      • I would think so but hasn’t Holgersson played well for the Redbulls? And a stupid question but do the Redbulls have caps space and/or a DP slot available?

  4. Going to Chivas will not provide the stability Boca needs. He would be going from one club in a deep crises (Rangers) to one that is just a mess (Chivas). The only person who benefits from Bova moving to Chivas is Dan Kennedy.

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  5. #dreamTrade Sounders negotiate with TFC for top spot.. SSFC trades that spot and Sharlie Joseph back to Chivas.

    Case closed

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  6. Unless Chivas trades with someone there is no way he ends up there, they are way down in the allocation order. Not sure what Chivas has that anyone would want though due to trading away anyone worth a dang earlier this year

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  7. In a different year I might have wanted the Timbers to pick him up, but now I hope they trade their place in the allocation order to some other team who wants him assuming of course Toronto FC doesn’t want him.

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    • Uhm, really? Do you follow soccer? Portland has had a few CB’s go down and with Harrington’s injury secured a loan for an 18 year old, unproven Jamaican. Jean-Baptiste, as good as he plays is still a liability on the back line and Kah and Futty, while a combination might not be as good as Boca and Kah. AJB can learn under Boca and in a pinch he can play outside. Boca makes perfect sense for Portland, especially with a push for the Supporters Shield a reality. He’d solidify that back line very, very well but it sounds as if we’re not going to make any “big” signings.

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      • Why? The dude is done! Seriously he has not played or performed for years. What makes you think he all of sudden going to roll back the clock and perform? Why do so many fans live in the past?

      • I don’t want him on astroturf any more than Feilhaber when he came back. He needs to be playing on grass because the whole point is career preservation/extension.

  8. Everyone here knows that no one is a bigger Chivas USA fan than me. That said, I doubt Boca comes here. I’d love it, but that is a pipe dream.

    For Carlos, he deserves to play with a bigger club with bigger ambitions.

    Damn, it hurt to write that. It is the truth, however.

    ELAC

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  9. Question, some Fire fans were wondering how come Boca isn’t owned by the Fire? The only way we shouldn’t be owning his rights is if we didn’t offer him a contract extension when he left for free then and went to Fulham. I didn’t follow the team closely back then but I surely would think our team wasn’t that dumb and didn’t even offer him a deal.

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  10. Chivas could certainly used the help, but he’s not enough to save them at this point, so it’d just be a waste for him to go there.

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  11. Will MLS use their crazy rules of discovery or allocation or holding rights? MLS needs to have free agency and at least increase their parity attitude, if they want to be treated like a real league. Then if you add the unbalance schedule and the crazy summer schedule.

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      • MLS looks at everything, with a parity philosophy. You do know MLS believes in parity? Its like barney love or AYSO soccer. In reality MLS parity is making fans walk away from the league. For instance, im tired of their silly season schedule and unbalance schedule. All this crap of cold winters and this and that,then why not add more warm markets and go to the fifa calendar and have a winter.break. Its not like MLS gets.summer espn attention and MLS basically only gets like 2 to 3 months “without nba,nfl,ncaa,nhl competition”

      • you cant expand into cities just cause they are warm. many of the best supported teams are very far north, if the MLS followed your philosophy there would be no teams in seattle, portland or toronto. parity is fine, many people are complaining about a lot of european leagues now because in many of them it is a 3 team max.

      • parity is fine when it is natural. It’s not fine when you are making some teams worse just so they are at the same level as other teams.

      • they arent making anyone worse, everyone is on the same level. there is a reason that some european leagues have actually look at MLS structure favorably. MLS has had 5 different champions in 6 years, some leagues havent had 5 different champions in 70 years. parity =/= mediocrity. the smart teams will still be consistently good, just maybe not the best

      • Like everything this guy writes – complete nonsense. He’s clearly never been to the northern half of the US in winter. And the attendance figures clearly belie the claim that people are walking away from MLS.

      • I know what you mean and i dont write useless opinions, as you might think. Basically MLS has plenty of warm markets that have plenty of potential but deep pockets are needed. There is san diego, san francisco, sacramento, phoenix,tucson, las vegas, albuquerque, el paso tx, austin, san antonio, fort worth, tulsa, okc, maybe nebraska, alabama,nc/sc, miami, orlando, tampa bay, tennessee. I actually see NASL making smarter moves than MLS in terms of markets, then MLS will take over their markets.

      • What have any of those markets done (other than orlando) to prove they deserve a team? The answer is nothing, to get a team you need to support your lower division sides and have a willing owner, none of those cities have both of those things, most have neither. dont just rattle off a little of big cities in the south

      • Actually many markets with appropriate weather during winter have shown interest in MLS, but now MLS is asking more than before, in order to join.

        If MLS would have been smart, they should have gone for warm markets in the beginning.

      • @el paso, you mean like how they expanded to tampa and miami in the beginning? that went really well right?

      • “2 to 3 months without nba,nfl,ncaa,nhl competition” is actually a pretty sizeable chunk of the year, in case you’re not familiar with calendars

      • Right now espn2 is televising canadian football, when they can show MLS. What about boring tennis on ESPN and xgames on ABC and ESPN. Garber needs to figure out something, because ESPN and other sport networks dont like to show soccer during prime time and basically MLS doesnt make a profit, with this useless calendar. Then if you add the reruns of NFL-Live on ESPN channels and billiards,poker, bowling crap and MLB and nascar. What about the fans that are out of town or working extra hours since its “summer.” They can not watch games or attend. Then look at the summer friendlies versus south american teams, mexican and european and fifa tournaments. Its not rocket science………

      • Attendance is up, you’d be the exception.

        I don’t know if attendance stays up if the league tiers by salary and the illusion that everyone has a chance disappears. This is not England where fans will loyally fill the place on past the point of uncompetitiveness. Let’s be real, in most open market leagues a small handful of teams have a chance each season and the rest of the league is playing for Europe or survival.

        We’ve already done the free market thing, it was called NASL and it imploded.

    • +1

      MLS is way over-regulated. Let clubs be clubs. Put in financial restraints( clubs cant spend over revenues) We need free agency.

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    • Does Chicago still have rights? EJ and other USMNT players went through allocation because they either had never played here or were sold abroad. Amazing but EJ was once worth a $6 million Fulham transfer fee. Bocanegra dates back to the era when players would wait MLS out and leave on a free. So the article’s talking Chivas vs. allocation but I’d be interested if Chicago has any say in the matter. If Chicago doesn’t then maybe they run him through allocation anyway.

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    • He chose to move to Rangers in Scotland right before that club went into administration (UK version of bankruptcy). Rangers got demoted down 4 leagues and the competition wasn’t good enough for him to stay in contention for the national team.

      He got loaned out, but due to his age and the urgency of the situation, he ended up in the Spanish Second Division with Racing Santander. This team was not very good.

      He also lost his starting spot with the USMNT, and rode pine with Racing for a while. I’m not sure whether that was due to injury or form.

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  12. Can’t see Toronto wanting/needing him, but certain that they’ll make Portland and Seattle fight over it.

    Hope Boca is ok with the turf, would love to see him with either club.

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      • I’m not so sure about that – the Soumare/Berry pairing has been awfully shaky the past couple months (and Anibaba/Berry was even worse.)

      • Too late to go back on that now.

        Berry has a future and Soumare is a solid CB for the near future. To bring in a 34 year old CB (who will probably command near DP money), is a step backwards.

        Keep developing and give the pairing more time.

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