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Whitecaps acquire Rosales from Chivas USA in exchange for Reo-Coker

Rosales-ChivasUSA-USAToday

Photo by USA Today Sports Images

By RYAN TOLMICH

With aims of making a playoff push, the Vancouver Whitecaps have made a move to acquire one of the league’s top playmakers.

The Whitecaps, who currently maintain the fifth and final playoff position in the crowded Western Conference, have acquired midfielder Mauro Rosales from Chivas USA in exchange for fellow midfielder Nigel Reo-Coker.

Rosales, who has contributed eight assists in 16 games this season, was in the midst of his first campaign with Chivas USA after spending the previous three seasons with the Seattle Sounders. The 33-year-old midfielder has contributed 42 assists since joining MLS in 2011, which is good for second-best in the league in that timeframe.

“If you look at Mauro’s history, he’s constantly creating goals,”said Whitecaps head coach Carl Robinson. “He’s experienced, bright, and has a super football brain. His delivery on crosses is fantastic, and I know he’s a good guy. That’s important in this locker room.We’re very pleased to add a player of Mauro’s calibre as we make our push for the playoffs.”

In exchange for Rosales, Chivas USA add the veteran Reo-Coker, who featured for West Ham United, Bolton Wanderers and Aston Villa prior to joining the Whitecaps in 2013. Reo-Coker has contributed one goal and six assists in nearly two years with the Canadian side.

“Nigel is a fantastic box-to-box player that has proven to be a leader in this league,” said Chivas USA head coach Wilmer Cabrera. “He is an unbelievably versatile player. We feel he can help us with his defending as well as going forward in the attack. We see his experience, leadership and great technique helping us in a lot of ways.”

After the two teams played to a scoreless draw this weekend, both Chivas USA and the Vancouver Whitecaps return to action Saturday on the road against the New England Revolution and LA Galaxy, respectively.

How will Rosales and Reo-Coker perform with their new sides? Is this a good move for both teams?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. I’ve heard of trades involving a “player to be named later”. This is the first time I’ve seen one iwht a “team to be named later”.

    Reply
  2. Loans on the other hand happen all the time around the world and players have little to no leverage in that. From a players perspective a loan and a trade are similar – coach tells me I gotta go to another club in another city and all I can really do is pack my bags if I want to keep playing.

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    • If a player insisted on staying put and had that right it would be a phyrric victory. OK, Nigel, you could have gone to Chivas to play, but since you don’t want to take the hint you can go train with the U-18s and I promise we won’t even dress you. But you will get your paycheck biweekly in Vancouver. Enjoy!

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      • Ah, the Imperative Voice – great name, a manner to suit it and you use “phyrric victory” in a post. I always had a feeling you and I would have a great time watching a game in a pub, even if we wound up shouting at each other.

      • You’d be better off dragging me to a sports bar or pub because I feel sorry for the poor friends and family who watch games with me at my place, where I can run the rewind like Telestrator John Madden pointing out foolhardiness. “Wait, did you see what that idiot did?” [Rewind.] “I was watching the game…” [Hits over head with brick.]

      • My family would say that sounds awfully familiar. They’re happy when I don’t bring the grease board to the dinner table…

      • “Another such victory and I come back to Epirus alone.” You win the individual contest but at such great expense your future prospects are shredded. Two key players are carted off but you hold on for the win…..and then you have to play next week, week after that….won the battle, lost the war.

        I’d be interested what would happen if a player insisted on his contract. Dempsey training with Fulham’s youth teams comes to mind, though that was the opposite scenario of wanting a transfer whether the team wants it or not.

      • Would it be a pyrrhic victory for you two, if yours truly tagged along? Yes, you’d get to hang with someone who dresses very tastefully, who has a lot of interesting ideas, to go along with a humble heart of gold, but that might serve to highlight your own inadequacies, right? Sure, I’m like the Martin Luther King Jr. of fun, but, well, end of story.

      • Yikes I step away to grab the dictionary and the Martin Luther King Jr. of fun shows up!!! Damn why am i always a day late and several dollars short?

  3. Reo -Coker can’t be too happy about being traded. Being traded doesn’t happen anywhere else in the soccer world. Not in Europe, not in South America.

    Players to swap sides in Europe(its very rare) but they must agree to it. The player has rights.

    More Mickey Mouse from MLS!

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      • NO IT DOES NOT.

        A trade is not the same as a transfer.

        Trades do happen in Europe and South America but they are very rare. And..this is very important…all players must agree to it.

        This is not what happens in MLS. Stop lying.

      • +1 They really are very different, and the result is NOT the same. But it should be said that trades are extrememly rare in soccer, even MLS.

        I actually think it would be good for Ives (or somebody) to really run a “primer” on what a transfer actually is, because the term is being used extremely liberally in the US soccer media these days.

        The Yedlin “transfer” for example, is actually scarcely a transfer at all insofar as I have been able to see. The sloppiness of the journalists reporting on it is a bit disturbing.

      • What on earth are you talking about? Trades happen all the time in MLS and Yedlin’s ‘registration’ was transferred from MLS to Spurs. Technically it was traded in return for money. If he was not transferred what would you call it?

      • Incorrect, I’m afraid. Here is the best explanation I’ve found, in which Adrian Hanauer (Seattle’s GM) cleraly states that he was not registered with Spurs.

        Effectively, this is simply a call option that Spurs have purchased, One of the many reasons I don’t love the transaction (although I would like to see Yedlin at Spurs under better circumstances)

        http://www.sounderatheart.com/sounders-trades-transfers-rumors/2014/8/14/6000509/explaining-deandre-yedlin-transfer-tottenham

      • You send me an article titled “Explaining the ins and outs of DeAndre Yedlin’s transfer to Tottenham” to defend your position that he was not transferred, very strange. OK you win the semantic battle he has not been transferred…yet. Although Spurs have paid a fee and hold his rights. which apparently is hedge because he does not meet the BPL ‘foreign player’ requirements.

        You’re still making a silly argument.

      • If it’s silly for you, why did you respond? And I apologize but you do actually have to read the article… I’m afraid the answer is not in the headline.

        And you are still off-base with your facts. Spurs have NOT paid the fee (it is “paid in incremements” as has been stated in numerous places) and do NOT hold his rights, only an option to acquire should they complete their payments.

        If you don’t think this is important, see what happens if Yedlin gets a serious injury (or even if his work permit doesn’t go through). It is not just semantics, my friend.

        This is why I think a “primer” is a good idea. Lots of people oversimplify but there is real value at stake.

      • I did read the article, and I agree with you it is interesting, and while it does not say they have received the money the GM does talk about how he can spend it so, he is expecting to get it.

        The ‘silly’ argument is “The Yedlin “transfer” for example, is actually scarcely a transfer at all insofar as I have been able to see. The sloppiness of the journalists reporting on it is a bit disturbing.”

        At the end of the day Ali if it looks like a transfer, it sounds like a transfer, it quacks like a transfer, and everybody on the planet except you thinks its a transfer then its probably a…..

      • Well… tell it to Juan Agudelo, who was effectively “transferred to nowhere” due to amateurish work by those supposed to be representing his interests. A very different transaction, but it is a pity to see our young talents lose valuable time in their careers due to sloppy transactions and inexperience. The work permit situation could easily have been mitigated at the front end of this deal.

        Listen I don’t mean to start a big “thing” and you’re right that if all goes according to plan and no injuries or unexpected events happen, Yedlin will be fine and will become a Spurs player in due time per the terms of this deal. I just think it’s a good time for MLS and our young talents to “get smart” about this business rather than take the deals European teams are throwing out there without asking the right questions.

      • JB Disagreeing with your opinion does not make me a liar, and in so much as it’s a mechanism to move a player from one team to another it is the same. A Trade can be for money or another player but you are still making a trade. The term transfer comes from the the transference of the players registration from one club to another. It’s still trade, in the case of most markets money for a player but certainly not always, and not always with the players (active) agreement.

        Just because things are different does not make them wrong, If you think MLS is Mickey Mouse go away and watch something else.

    • So if it isn’t exactly the same as Europe than it’s Mickey Mouse?

      Weather a player agrees or not to a trade means nothing from a fan perspective. From a fan perspective trades are an exciting part of sports here in the US. It means a crafty gm can improve a team at any time.

      The players are big boys I’m sure that can handle getting traded without their consent.

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      • Not to mention I bet the whole trade part is a clause in their contract before they sign so they know the deal. It’s not like they aren’t aware of the mechanism before signing and certainly any local player is well aware of it being familiar with how American sports work.

      • Thank you!

        Trades have been a part of American sports culture forever. And a part of MLS since the beginning.

        To come troll this site in 2014 and call a trade “more Mickey Mouse from MLS” is absurd.

      • Soccer is not baseball.

        The industry standard in soccer is that players have rights. They have the right not to be traded without their consent. Most players are not on million dollar wages. You join a club, you may buy a home or lease an apartment, you send your kids to the local school etc. Then the club can just trade you without your consent and you have to uproot all that? THIS DOES NOT HAPPEN ANYWHERE IN THE SOCCER WORLD BUT MLS.

      • Why are you yelling at people about trades? The players aren’t being mistreated here. Are you Reo Cokers wife? He and his family should be the only ones in the world bummed to be traded to CUSA. But then again they’ll be able to party in LA. Not a bad deal considering he’s not worth his mls salary.

    • Yeah, I heard he went to a website and speculated about others opinions, while whining non-stop.

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    • We’re back to Jones pretending he’s signing with the Fire or the Revs. You sign with MLS. Your rights are you are a MLS employee, not a tenured professor.

      FWIW Vancouver and Chivas wanted to trade the players, meaning they saw them as surplus. So I guess you’re suggesting the players should have rights even if the teams cease to care or use them? A deal’s a deal but who really wants to enforce that?

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    • For this season, doubtful… but it further flushes the books of a DP for the rebrand/rebuild (and theoretically allows them to re-enter the Jermaine Jones sweepstakes). And Reo Coker is not entirely worthless as a guy to man the MF until season ends;

      Reply
      • Rosales ($450k) and Reo-Coker ($400k) make roughly the same amount of money.

        And in MLS I don’t believe in cap clearing unless you have a good replacement lined up. The window is closed. Who are they going to play for the next few months? It only makes sense if they think they’ll win the Jones sweepstakes. If it’s about rebuilding, Rosales is someone for kids to play around, they could find a way to drop him and sign someone else in the winter when the season’s over. But it doesn’t look to me like it clears much cap, the exchange is one-sided, etc.

      • I did not say cap-clearing (as I understand it, Reo-Coker’s cap hit is actually higher under the bizarre MLS rules). I said it clears a DP. Reo-Coker is not a DP. It’s true that there may not be a lot of guys out there like Jones (without contracts) but this flexibility matters.

    • This article should have included video, the part where Robinson and Rosales did a happy jig together. Why does this remind me of JP Angel for a late pick so that LA could sign Keane? This is highway robbery.

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      • I thought of that trade too, there certainly are similarities, an ex Aston Villa player, seemingly falling even farther from fame. Reo Coker was money a few year ago.

      • Rosales has 8 assists in a bad year, Reo-Coker had 1G 4A last season and 2 assists this year. Considering Rosales is off to a contender and may be re-energized, I think they win the trade hands down.

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