The Los Angeles Galaxy has found an accomplished forward to latch on to David Beckham’s dangerous crosses.
The Galaxy has acquired Carlos Ruiz from FC Dallas in exchange for an allocation and 2009 second-round draft pick, Major League Soccer announced on Tuesday.
Ruiz returns to the team he led to the 2002 MLS Cup title. Ruiz scored 24 goals that season, and also netted the game-winning goal in Los Angeles’ MLS Cup final victory against New England.
What about Kenny Cooper now. Hopefully he has less desire to be traded. He can be a featured guy at FCD now. Can they pay him more $ too?
What about Kenny Cooper now. Hopefully he has less desire to be traded. He can be a featured guy at FCD now. Can they pay him more $ too?
If you think about it, Ruiz was costing FC Dallas $435,000. The Galaxy let go of Cannon ($192,000), Cobi retired ($95,000), and from what I hear they are releasing Pavon (??$141,000??). That’s a total of $428,000 that the Galaxy just got rid of. Only a difference of $7,000.
I’m convinced that LA will do something to make it appear they are below the cap. All those friendlies they play on the “World Tour”? Yeah, I’m willing to bet, they sign players for ~30k a year and “somehow” give them incentives to play these exhibition games where they can make a huge chunk of change in the offseason to compensate for the shitty salary they make.
LA also has allocation money that they can use to offset the salary cap figures of players on their team. but nobody knows how much allocation money they actually have. remember, though, they got a “You stink” allocation this year from not making the playoffs.
SeaOtter is right. I will withhold judgment until Opening Weekend. LA could still drop several players to make more room. For evidence: they already re-negotiated deals with Albright, Gordon, and Cronin while dropping Pavon, Mathis, and Cannon.
There is lots of offseason yet to be “played”.
FCD played better last year when Ruiz was out. He continually missed open chances and I am glad he is gone. You would think if the league was trying to bend the rules for LA they would be doing so to help them out. LA needs to get rid of Lalas immediately.
finally something exciting happens. very curious to see how this plays out.
Every league needs a Yankees/Patriots/Lakers type of franchise. Parity just creates ho hum. They are modeling the galaxy after the most successful teams in the most successful leagues. Rules be damned.
Being Generous and only counting Donovan and Ruiz at $325K each to the cap which is what a 2nd DP would count as. That would still be $1.02 mil tied up in three players. If you go to the MLS players union web site and add up the next highest 13 players and accout for the last 2 at $30K each you still come up to a cap # of about $2.32 million if no one reduced their 2007 salary or got a raise.
So no Figo, no anyone else LA. If MLS allows another high profile signing in LA, then they might as well just come out with a press release that LA does not follow the cap and everyone else must. because it is becomming blatantly obvious they do not if there is another high profile signing this year.
Congratulations to the Galaxy on a good move. This will make the Quakes vs Gals rivalry that much better. (Go Quakes!)
BTW: He’s still a good player and I hear he’s one of the nicest guys off the field.
Military intelligence
Jumbo shrimp
MLS Salary Cap
MLS wants the Galaxy to be 10x better than everyone else. That’s why they dont make them play by the rules, they want them to be the dominant franchise because they think that legitimizes the league for some reason.
You guys shouldn’t get so worked up.
L.A. doesn’t have to meet any rules as far as their roster is concerned until the beginning of the season.
There’s more offseason action to come from these guys. Write it down.
Ives,
What the hell are the Revs doing? They continue to get rid of their best players without replacing them. Dempsey, Dorman, they didnt get rid of Twellman but they pissed him off, and now Noonan, and no replacements in sight.
I just threw up in my mouth a little
This should end the speculation that the Galaxy were going to acquire another DP slot, it will be too obvious that MLS is bending the rules if that occured. They had to get ride of their keeper in order to get allocation money for this manuever, and they didnt have to sign Mathis so it opened up money for them to make this manuever.
Names dont win games and Ruiz is not the player he once was.
Ives,
Can you explain what “allocation money” actually means. What exactly do FCD gain out of this deal, any idea what amount of allocation that they will get etc
Thanks
From an FCD season-ticket holder: “thanks for the memories”. Ruiz played hard in maybe a third of the games; never hustled to get back on-side; paid the price for years of diving by never getting calls even when mugged, etc. We need another striker but with our draft picks we should find one. The defense is a serious issue though…
Does this bring an end to the Figo rumors? As most others have said that’s a lot of money tied up in 3 players
The Galaxy have just found a new a way to become a complete mess. I think all non- Galaxy fans should calm down and realise that the tandem of Ruiz and Alan Gordon isn’t going to be that lethal.
I know all of the talk with this post centers around the Galaxy side of the trade, but as an FCD fan I’m glad to get rid of a first class jerk, regardless of what was received in return.
His in-game antics started to really wear on FCD fans last year, to the point where people in my section actually laughed when Rico Clark kicked him in the face.
Good riddance!
Inevitable and unbelievable at the same time.
Not a surprise.
The favoritism that LA receives is pathetic!!
When EJ moves to Europe in the coming days the Ruiz trade to LA will really make the favoritism case. MLS exempted three players salaries after LA, KC, and Dallas failed to acquire DP spots for their over-the-cap players with a year to do so. Now, one player is on his way out of the league and the other two play for LA.
Shenanigans!!!
Are MLS Rules written on a fcukin dry erase board?
How can LA get away with blatantly disregarding the salary cap? How can any team pay Xavier, Donovan, Ruiz & Beckham (he’s supposed count 400G against the cap) and stay below the cap?
I think ever other team should do the same: Put their players in four star hotels, chartered flights and simply say “LA’s doing it.”
If NY ever did this, you would hear everyone single team owner complaining.
I agree with everyone else. This is garbage.
How long til we see Blanco to LA?
This deal doesn’t upset met because I’m afraid LA is building some powerhouse of talent. It bothers me because the MLS still is the Wild West when it comes to rules. If they also get a 2nd DP, and somehow are able to have a 25 man roster (or 28, whatever it is) thats a complete joke.
I agree with everyone else. This is garbage.
How long til we see Blanco to LA?
prediction:
Lalas still finds a way to have a losing record with all these high profile players. Gullit leaves the galaxy mid-season after punching Lalas in the face.
So the Galaxy will have Carlos Ruiz, Landon Donovan, and David Beckham in the attack, which is nice. But who’ll be defending? Whose going to boss the midfield? What the in the he double hockey sticks does Lalas cares, as long as he’s making a splash.
Quote -This is a joke, I’m cursing out everyone in my office right now. They currently have three DP’s and want to sign a fourth. Unbelievable.
Jeeves, the answer to your question is that the the Galaxy are the league’s favorite team, and the league will do everything it can to make them champions.
All take this bet with anyone. Anyone. You guys need to get a clue. The previous psoter said it best. Lalas is doing more brand building than actual team building.
Also, just wait and see what Ruiz is actually making first. He is not even close to DP material anymore. Barely was in the first place.
I expect outbursts like that from the teens but come on dude. Take a step back. That team isn’t going anywhere.
This is a joke, I’m cursing out everyone in my office right now. They currently have three DP’s and want to sign a fourth. Unbelievable.
Jeeves, the answer to your question is that the the Galaxy are the league’s favorite team, and the league will do everything it can to make them champions.
how can the Galaxy field a decent team with three players taking up about 55-57% of the salary cap?
World Cup qualifying could kill this team, as they’d lose their three best players.
Not to mention injuries.
Lalas is taking ways of assembling teams in non-capped leagues and using them in a capped league, which is insane.
I guess he just wants to build the brand while losing.
Ruiz (whom i hate with a passion) better be taking a pay cut or this trade stinks ot high heaven of favoritism. Id love to hear the leagues reasoning behind this…
Quote – John, they are able to pay the 3 because they earn more than the other teams. They are more savvy marketeers, something the MLS could and should take note of…
Dubious. AEG has sunk big money into their team since Day One over their other teams. Stadium from scratch and an area of the country where soccer is huge. If they did this with all of their teams they would have made money, just like Chicago is now.
Just like NY would have. They also would have spent more on marketing to fill the stadium. IMO, AEG isn’t all that savy, they just supported their product there more than anywhere else.
Then, sign Beckham (once in alifetime coup) and bam, it looks easy, as it would be in any market after that.
Kudos to LA for supporting that market big time, but many of their moves have been very questionable tot ay the least, marketing or otherwise. That 800 pound DB gorilla could make anyone look smart.
People, don’t fret about LA. Ruiz is way past it, and they will be so thin that one injury here or there and they will be playing with a college team out there.
Only reason the league is doing this is DB. He is that important. Still won’t save LA.
Cooper is unhappy because he thought he could get a pay increase after his first season and FCD denied it because of cap reasons. He’ll get a pay increase because of that space cleared by Ruiz leaving. Dallas has the obvious advantage of their partnership with CAP that will allow them to find a possible striker to replace Ruiz.
LA on the other hand is going to be up against it in terms of cap space. I’m not sure how much allocation money they have because that will help them buy down some of their non-DP players cap space. Assuming Ruiz re-works his contract and comes in between 250k and 300k LA will still be in trouble (though Ruiz basically eats the cap space vacated by Cannon).
This makes me wonder what LA’s next move will be? I know, LA trades four superdraft picks to my Revs for the Revs DP spot AND three international spots. You know, DPs and internationals can cost a lot more than college kids.
Damn, I can’t stand Ruiz and I really like Alvarez, too bad we couldn’t get him from Dallas.
No way FCD is paying any of his salary, that would defeat the purpose of recieving an allocation.
Ives – any guess on how much the allocation $$ is?
I believe MLS still has a salary cap. Unless Dallas ate a “BIG” chunk of his salary, Donovan, Ruiz and Beckham take up $1.2 million a year on the salary cap (if you figure each is $400K against the salary cap – not their real salaries). That leaves how much for the rest of the squad ($1 Million)? No wonder they got rid of Cannon. They resigned Chris Albright (I’m assuming he makes more than $100K a year). I can’t wait to hear the spin on how this all works.
Pancho – marketing or not, no amount of cash will be able to compensate for a player when ALL teams are under a salary cap.
All it means, as I said before, is that the rest of the team will make 25K or less a year.
How much do Donovan’s and Ruiz’s contracts count toward the cap? 400,000? I feel really bad for the others on the team.
One – I would think the cap space for signing another SI is more important to FCD than players/allocations in return.
Two – I think Ruiz was just barely, like 15-30K, over max salary. I wouldn’t doubt he reworked that number down to get to LA.
Three – Ruiz hasn’t been that good for the last couple of years. Nowhere near the player he was 3 to 4 years ago. Especially for th eprice.
FCD can now keep Cooper happy, and maybe give him a bit more cash, and sign another SI. Also, they just resigned Alvarez.
Not a bad move for FCD in my opinion overall.
Ives, correct what I screwed up please, if I did.
As I watch the Revs continue to dig deeper and deeper under the cap, it’s rather pathetic to see LA going exactly the opposite direction.
Seriously, does Garber care about thoses of us that are already fans? Because the MLS “rules” make it hard to stay emotionally invested in the league.
Unreal. As a Galaxy supporter, I really was hoping these rumours were untrue. I’m not a fan of Ruiz, I do not think he and Donavon will combine well.
John, they are able to pay the 3 because they earn more than the other teams. They are more savvy marketeers, something the MLS could and should take note of. Ruiz will drive some Guatemalans to the gate, and L.A. is the 2nd largest city of Guatelmaltecos after Guatemala City.
How is that all they got from LA? Shouldn’t he be worth a lot more. How does FC Dallas replace him upfront? Cooper is unhappy and wants to leave and Ruiz is gone?
I am with John.
And then the eventual FIGO. Wow. This grandfathering rule stinks to high heaven.
Thankfully, the rest of the team will now earn about 25K a year.
How do they pay for Donovan, Beckham and Ruiz (three very high priced salaries)?