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Timbers send Zizzo to Sporting KC for allocation money

Sal Zizzo

Photo by ISIphotos.com

By DAN KARELL

The Portland Timbers found a new home for Sal Zizzo after the acquisitions of Steve Zakuani and Jorge Villafaña pushed him down in the depth chart.

The Timbers announced Friday that they sent Zizzo to MLS Cup champions Sporting Kansas City in exchange for allocation money. The move reunites Zizzo with Peter Vermes, who coached him with the U.S. Under-20 team.

“He’s a player I spent some time with around the United States Under-20’s,” Sporting KC manager Peter Vermes said in a statement. “He’s a very good wide player, someone who is going to help give us some more firepower out on the wing channels. He is someone we have been looking at for the last couple years.”

Zizzo struggled during the 2013 Major League Soccer season to find a regular place in the Timbers starting lineup, first missing time with a torn meniscus and then just having the unfortunate circumstance of playing behind an in form Will Johnson, Diego Valeri, and Rodney Wallace. The 26-year-old made 10 appearances this past season, scoring one goal.

The UCLA graduate also joins a couple of his former college teammates at Sporting KC in Benny Feilhaber and Chance Myers.

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What do you think of this move? See Zizzo earning some more regular playing time with Sporting KC? Think that the Timbers were wrong to trade him?

Share your thoughts below.

 

Comments

  1. Best of luck to Sal. He is a personal and fan favorite. I think he has talent and that he is going to a place that will give him the best opportunity to show it. We will miss him, but Porter knows what we need for the Timbers. Go Zizzo, except against the Timbers.

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  2. I agree with everyone else. This is a great signing for SKC. 😉

    Really though, I liked Zizzo when I saw him play with Portland earlier in the year. I think he will fit well into Vermes system of play, and can see him competing with Jacob Peterson, and is hopefully an upgrade.

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    • I don’t think a whole lot of Zizzo, but I agree, he fits the system well. When Zusi has to go central now, they won’t lose quite as much on the wing.

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    • I like the signing as well. SKC was too narrow much of the year. This will keep teams honest and allow more room for Benny and Zusi to operate, and fewer long balls because of congestion in the middle.

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      • Narrow? Tell me you’ve watched SKC at all. They usually get criticized for bombing it from the wings. Oh well, damned if you do damned if you don’t.

    • Oh god, we have our own way of doing things? That’s so horrible we’ll never be anything in the soccer…oh excuse me…football world until we do things exactly like everyone else.

      If only we had a system where only the teams with the most money could compete then we’d be so much better off!

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    • and why exactly am I supposed to care what the rest of the soccer world thinks?
      the rest of the soccer world thinks MLS is awful and the USMNT will fail at every world cup from now until he world ends. We don’t have to cater to those pompous pricks. I literally give no F*&^s about what euosnobs think thanks

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    • I love it. You know why? Because I know nobody’s going to go bankrupt and my club isn’t going to dissolve into the channels of time because of an over ambitious board or a f**king idiot of an owner.

      The European way sucks. What good is it to strive to be mediocre? Or to strive for 3rd place? Keep that s*it outta here.

      You euro fan boys discovered soccer a year or so ago and think you know what’s best. You don’t know s**t really because you’ll always be on the outside looking in and will never know what it’s like to live and support a team that, no matter how smart they are in their operations in the sport, they won’t ever get anywhere because the traditional big clubs have a impenetrable grip on their leagues. Teams in Europe wish they had a system in play like us.

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    • Using the old “If I don’t understand it, it must be stupid” logic. Let me know how that works out for you in other walks of life.

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      • It actually is kind of really stupid. It’s not transparent, there are archaic rules mixed with patch-work fixes cobbled together with constant additions of new drafts and “monies.” Like there are “retention” funds now.

        It’s entirely confusing for the fans because it’s just confusing period–and there’s no way for fans to get involved and get excited because none of this plethora of information is even available for us to see.

        It’s pretty laughable over all.

      • dude, you have crazy high expectations.

        consider how complex the sports industry is these days. do you expect a 16 year old league that is growing rapidly to have every kink worked out?

    • Honestly, most of the soccer world is ignoring us. They don’t care about MLS any more than you care about baseball in Mexico.

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      • Ding ding ding. What an odd post to make that comment on too – as if any non-MLS fan will ever hear anything about this transaction.

      • they do laugh and shake their head at our single entity system where the league owns all the clubs and all the contracts.

        no other American sport does it that way.

      • you have absolutely no idea of the way that the sports industry works in this country, and your perception of how people in europe are amused by our professional league is wrong too.

      • Previews for the upcoming Mexican Winter Baseball season were available on the latest Obscure Sports Quarterly issue

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