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The PM roundup: Jaqua rejoins Houston, McBride deal looks dead and is Parkhurst headed to the Olympics?

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                                                             Photo by ISIphotos.com

Good evening folks. I spent a large part of the day dealing with the Red Bulls so I wasn’t able to get to a handful of stories that made the rounds today. Here is a recap of several stories from the weekend and Monday that you may or may not have heard about:

Jaqua returns to Dynamo

We mentioned last week that Nate Jaqua might return to the Houston Dynamo and he has done just that. Jaqua has agreed to a new deal with the Dynamo, a deal that could see him leave Houston for expansion Seattle in 2009.

I don’t know about you but I see the Dynamo suddenly being the title favorites again. No, not because Nate Jaqua is a goal-machine, but because Houston was already starting to regain its championship form (as evidenced by its 4-0 whooping of Mexican champions Atlante) and now they add a strong forward who looked pretty good tearing things up in Austria earlier this year.

No McBride for Fire?

If you ordered a Brian McBride Chicago Fire jersey you may want to hold off, or at least put it away until next year. Growing rumors that the chances of a Chicago-Toronto trade to send McBride’s rights to Chicago are dying have turned out to be true, with Toronto refusing to budge on its demand for either Chris Rolfe or Justin Mapp from Chicago. Barring an injunction from MLS, which has been known to change the rules in the past, McBride will have to wait until 2009 to suit up for the Fire, assuming the next team to have the top Allocation spot doesn’t do what Toronto FC is doing.

Is Toronto FC wrong for demanding so much and not budging? I don’t think so. While it would be a great thing for McBride to be in the league, it does Toronto FC no good to strengthen a team it is trying to beat out in the playoff race, and potentially beat out in the playoffs. Yes, getting a draft pick and/or allocation money would be better than not getting a thing for McBride’s rights, but Toronto is right to want to keep a conference rival from getting that much stronger.

Besides, at the rate Toronto FC keeps fleecing San Jose in trades, TFC isn’t likely to miss whatever picks/allocations it could have gotten from Chicago.

Also, Chicago is smart not to budge either. With Rolfe and Mapp in the process of signing long-term deals to stay in MLS, the Fire has two cornerstone type players to build around. It isn’t worth two months of McBride to give one of those players up. That said, anybody who buys the "Chicago doesn’t really want McBride" theory is kidding themselves (or bad at reading bluffs). All you need to do is watch a lowlight reel of missed chances by Chicago forwards to know that the Fire want McBride badly.

Will Parkhurst get the Olympic call?

The Washington Post’s Steven Goff asks that very question, with sources telling him that New England defender Michael Parkhurst is likely to get the call for one of the three overage spots on the U.S. Olympic team.

Parkhurst getting the nod wouldn’t be much of a surprise. As I stated recently, both he and Jimmy Conrad are the best candidates to be the defender to go, but with Conrad’s KC Wizards clawing their way back into the playoff race, and New England riding high with the best record in MLS, it makes sense for Parkhurst to go. Parkhurst is also younger and a national team prospect who should benefit from the Olympic experience.

I’m sticking with the McBride-Guzan-Parkhurst trio to be the overage players. Yes, Guzan could be kept from going by new club Aston Villa, which would create a very interesting situation in goal. Would Peter Nowak really hand the job to young and inexperienced Chris Seitz? Or might we see a team-less Kasey Keller step in and fill the void?

Beasley injured again

U.S. national team and Glasgow Rangers winger DaMarcus Beasley is set to miss three weeks, including Rangers’ Champions League qualifying matches with a hamstring injury.

The injury comes less than three months after Beasley returned from knee surgery that had sidelined him for more than six months.

San Jose acquires Sealy

The San Jose Earthquakes continued attempts to bolster their stagnant offense by acquiring Trinidad & Tobago forward Scott Sealy from the Kansas City Wizards for an allocation.

Smart deal or act of desperation? I go with the latter. Why? Well, let’s see. San Jose isn’t making the playoffs this year and needs to focus on the future. By trading an allocation away for a player who is in the final year of his MLS contract, and who has stated that he wants to go abroad, San Jose just spent an allocation for a rent-a-player for three months.

Comments

  1. brad guzan turns 24 in september so how is he overage?

    Posted by: j1

    ———————–

    Because he wasn’t under 23 yrs old on January 1st of this year.

    Reply
  2. Ives:

    You are really disappointing. I didn’t go into detail because I was pretty sure you knew what I was talking about. So you reply feigning lack of understanding and making comparisons that make no sense and have nothing to do with what I was talking about.

    I made the argument at the beginning of the season that K.C. really wasn’t that much better on paper than S.J. with the exception that K.C. had more depth and was better up front. Yes, that’s a difference but overall I thought it was pretty small and certainly didn’t account for the huge difference you were showing between the two teams.

    Now San Jose has picked up Sealy and Huckerby which should (granted one never really knows for sure) improve them dramatically up front. Yes, K.C. picked up Wolff but I still think it’s a big plus for S.J. overall. Wolff hasn’t done anything in his recent career abroad or when he was last with K.C. S.J. having Huckerby and Sealy will also help Ryan Johnson be more dangerous.

    Your first paragraph makes no sense whatsoever. You know darn well why I’m comparing K.C. and S.J. You put K.C. near the top in your early season predictions and S.J. at the bottom. I said there wasn’t that much difference unless you assumed all of K.C.’s new additions were going to be great, and there was nothing to support that, especially with the rookies.

    As for Kamara and Sealy, you have got to be kidding? Sealy is so much better than Kamara it’s a joke. I’m not saying Sealy is great but Kamara does not belong in this league and will never score as many goals as Sealy has in his career right now. Kamara is much worse than the next worse forward in the league. He makes Barrett look like a superstar. Sealy has averaged approximately one goal every two games in his career.

    Finally, I didn’t say S.J. would make the playoffs, just that it was too soon to say they have no chance. I could see them finishing in front of Dallas, NYRB, Colorado, K.C., and possibly, though not likely, in front of RSL and Toronto. Dallas has a much better team but doesn’t ever seem to want to win. Colorado, K.C., and NYRB are showing signs that they could be total train wrecks. Who knows with RSL? I think Toronto would be the toughest team for them to overcome.

    Reply
  3. Why does McBride deserve better? I love the guy but this is a business. The Fire don’t agree with the value TFC put on him. So be it – move on. Now, how can the NYRB get McBride?

    Reply
  4. I don’t blame TFC at all for not budging, but I can’t deal with these MLS rules. This is nothing like, say baseball, where if a player is under contract to one team and wants to be traded…sometimes his team doesn’t make it happen, oh well he still has somewhere to play within the league. Or if he’s a free agent and he can sign anywhere he wants. This is f’ing ridiculous. Here’s a player with no contract to any MLS team who wants to play in MLS and he can’t. He doesn’t have a contract with any team and still can’t play even though he wants to?? If TFC doesn’t sign McBride then the next team in line should get a chance and so on, if we really need to have this rule.

    And no, I’m not a Fire fan.

    Reply
  5. This just in:

    Toronto FC announced Monday that they have acquired allocation money, and an International roster slot for the remainder of the 2008 season through 2013 from the San Jose Earthquakes. In return, the expansion team receives the rights to forward Darren Huckerby.

    Toronto robs San Jose again!

    Reply
  6. @scott

    “That would get around this absurd rule that keeps a great American out of a league set up to promote American players.

    If the league can get Donovan to LA it has to do something to get McBride home too.”

    ———-

    The rule is in place, to prevent MLS from becoming the American version of exactly what is wrong with EPL football – 3-4 teams dominate the league, and the rest jockey to fill out the league table.

    Worse off teams get first dibs on international players, to help bolster it’s lineup. Whether this is fair or not, is up for debate. But it isn’t completely ridiculous. Why not get rid of the DP slots too then? They are just holding back certain teams from signing more great international players. How unfair. Might as well get rid of bogus concepts like “discovery” as well.

    The league has no right to step in and force Toronto FC to do anything – they are playing by MLS rules. This idea that Toronto FC should fold because it “helps the league” is ridiculous, because it does nothing to help their side. Go ahead and change the allocation rules for next season, but selectively breaking rules mid-season seriously harms the legitimacy of the league.

    TFC are doing what is best for their team, and Chicago is doing what is best for theirs. If the Fire sign him for next season, all the more power to ’em.

    Reply
  7. 1. San Jose deal is dumb, dumb, dumb. If they were going to deal, it should have been for someone younger or a longer contract.

    2. Here’s my take on the Chicago-TFC-McBride situation: we’re still trying to grow soccer in this continent folks. That doesn’t mean that teams bend over backwards to help each other. I can understand a team trying to win or gain a competitive advantage. But for those who’d argue that it’s only about competitiveness and it’s each team for itself….didn’t MLS just change the SI rules this winter to benefit TFC because they argued they were having such trouble signing experienced Canadians? McBride isn’t a Marmol or a Welcome. McBride is an MLS original, a US NT star and a really good guy. I personally don’t want him to go to Chicago but that said, McBride is one of those guys who if you can say the league “owes”, well, he’d be one.

    Besides, the allocation order rules are screwy anyway. Ultimately they’ll come to hurt NY and LA because those are the two cities that foreign players want to come to more than any other.

    Reply
  8. Alejandro Ruiz-

    Brian McBride is a 36 year old proven goal scorer returning from Fulham in the English premier league who would like to play in his hometown before he ends his career.

    Abdus Ibrahim is a 16 year old kid that has played half an MLS game for Toronto and was recently drafted by Dallas then traded to TOronto because he was prob lonely and homesick.

    I dont see the comparison at all.

    Reply
  9. San Jose fans:

    Please refer to a mid-April Soccer By Ives blog where the guru himself proclaimed:

    “Fulham are toast”

    Reply
  10. Anybody else see the irony of Toronto preventing a former US National team player from competing in the MLS?

    Could somebody explain the rule again? Does the rule apply to Canadian national team members as well that want to play in the MLS? I guess I just don’t understand it.

    Seems like an outdated rule. The league is becoming successful and teams are only looking out for themselves at this point. Now that there are so many different owners we should get rid of this silly rule as well as the discovery claim.

    Reply
  11. altho i dont blame Mo for holding out… but i bet you he’ll end up getting a pretty nice deal that doesnt hurt either team….

    1 player (not rolfe or mapp) + D-Pick(s) and $$ still helps more then nothing at all….

    Reply
  12. as a fire fan i would love to see McBride come to the Fire, but the fact of the matter is i do not want to give up youthful players that will continue to play in the fire for years to come…

    Mapp and Rolfe are players who will stay with the MLS for years to come…. i do not want to give up a quality youthful player for a player we will get a year or a year and a half… i know BMB is quality and will finish but we’ll be losing too much in the long run….

    personally, if TFC wants to hold out on too much then BMB will ride out the olympics and we’ll look at next season’s allocation… if we get him then we get him but we dont want to weaken our team too much… Rolfe and Mapp had hands in both goals against TFC… they add life to the team…

    Reply
  13. How did Ibrahim end up in dallas for so little? Because he has family in Toronto and Dallas felt it would be better for him to live there, so they basically gave him away for a mere formality of a draft pick.

    Sound familiar?

    Reply
  14. Aristotle, I’m really trying to grasp your argument. First off, Kansas City isn’t in a playoff spot, so how does comparing them to San Jose prove anything exactly?

    And how does Huckerby and Sealy make San Jose equal to KC exactly? What secret scroll theory gave you that one? The Wizards just added Josh Wolff, who for all his national team misery is still someone who has produced in MLS. Assuming Huckerby is slightly better than Wolff how is that slight difference closing the gap? And is Scott Seally miles better than Kei Kamara? Really? I still say San Jose doesn’t have an established striker since Huckerby has been more of a winger lately.

    Here’s the easiest question to ask yourself. What SIX teams are the Earthquakes going to pass to reach the final playoff spot? It’s easy to say “Oh, they’re only eight points out of a playoff spot” but it’s also easy to forget that they are a full seven points behind all but one of the current teams not even in the playoffs yet, let alone the teams currently in playoff spots.

    San Jose is finished for 2008.

    Reply
  15. Conrad > Parkhurst anyway. Take Conrad. KC isn’t going to do anything this year, so no big loss.

    I’ve heard that Bradley doesn’t like Conrad much, so not sure if that grudge is shared by Nowak too (let’s just say that Jimmy Conrad’s dad likes to talk…). Hopefully something like that would not keep Jimmy out of the Olympics.

    Reply
  16. jig – it all depends on whether they bring an overage keeper. with an 18-player roster there will only be 2 keepers. Seitz is clearly #1 among the U-23s. So, if they bring a senior GK, then Seitz will back up. If not, Seitz will start and then it will either be your boy Westberg or Dom Cervi in the back up role. I think those were the only 3 U23 keepers to see PT under Nowak. Tally Hall and Zac MacMath have also been in Nowak camps, but have not gotten into any games.

    Reply
  17. As a Revs fan, I have to disagree that it makes any sense to add Parkhurst to the Olympic team. Here are a few reasons why:

    The Revs have one of the most demanding schedules in the league this year (potentially, depending on US Open Cup, SuperLiga, and CONCACAF Champions League results).

    The Revs have few players with any game experience at his position in a 3-5-2.

    There is a chance he will be gone after this year ends and his contract expires. Why limit the possible number of remaining games he might have with the Revs?

    The Revs just had a defender retire today and losing Parkhurst would leave them with Albright (not his best year), Heaps (Heaps is Heaps), Igwe-Flood-Phelan-Brill (all have little first team experience, if any), and Larentowicz. Not a lot of defensive depth for a team that Matt Reis has bailed out almost every game this season.

    He barely gets a look from the senior team. Three caps and only one during the January camp (outside of the MLS season). Why not pick a player who is not in the middle of his season?

    Bradley goes out of his way to not put any MLS teams at a disadvantage for meaningless friendlies and one offs against world powers, but (via Nowak) does not mind taking a very important player from a team in the middle of their season for a prolonged period of time when there are many other options available? Does that make any sense?

    I will be happy for him if he gets to play in the Olympics, but I cannot understand the outpouring of Parkhurst love, all of a sudden, given the circumstances.

    Reply
  18. Ives:

    I think your wrong about writing off San Jose so quickly. It would be different if nearly the whole division wasn’t garbage. Also, with Huckerby and Sealy San Jose will be approximately the same as K.C. (K.C. has more depth, but if Sealy contributes and Huckerby does as well as some people expect, San Jose’s starting lineup could actually be better than that of K.C.) Didn’t you rate K.C. highly? You were wrong on K.C. because you assumed that unproven players would be good, but for some reason you make the opposite assumption about San Jose. I think with the never ending horrible coaching in Dallas, San Jose could finish in front of Dallas and K.C. at the very least. This is assuming Huckerby gives them a big boost and Sealy at least makes a worthwhile contribution.

    Reply
  19. A different take on the Fire’s position: I say let TFC have Mapp (or Rolfe) for McHead. Considet the parallel to the Celtics make-over. If the Fire have a 35 yr old Blanco who can still be pretty great, but not for much longer, why not pair him up with a 35 yr old McBride and see what you can do in terms of winning titles. They have a similar window of time in which to function. Mapp and Rolfe are both solid, but not spectacular. Neither one is going to put a team into championship contention alone. Would you rather have a 2 year window of being potentially VERY good before Blanco and McBride go away, or stay on course being a solid-to-good team for the next 5 years? It is at least worth thinking about going for it all right now. There is no clear dominant team right now (NE are good but Chi have demonstrated uncanny ability to torch them this year) so there is an opportunity to become the best team for a year or two. Make it happen, Chicago.

    Reply
  20. Perhaps McBride can sign with a USL team, say Seattle or Portland, and then be loaned to Chicago for the remainder of the season.

    That would get around this absurd rule that keeps a great American out of a league set up to promote American players.

    If the league can get Donovan to LA it has to do something to get McBride home too.

    Reply
  21. I’m a Fire fan and I can’t blame TFC for not wanting to make us a stronger team. Yes McBride deserves better, but that isn’t TFC’s problem. I also can’t blame the Fire for not wanting to gut our team for a player who will only be around for maybe a season or two. Our only hope is that MLS steps in or that another player comes along and TFC is forced to decide between the rights to BMB or said player. If we don’t get him now there is always next year, but at least I’ll have the satisfaction of knowing that we’re going to kick TFC’s ass and they didn’t get squat from us.

    Reply
  22. If Ives is right, possible Olympic squad is (assuming no Subotic):

    ——– Altidore — McBride ——-

    ————– Adu —————–

    — Rogers — Bradley — Kljestan —

    – Orozco – Parkhurst – Edu – Wynne –

    ————– Guzan ————–

    7 on bench:

    f: Davies

    mf: Holden, Feilhaber

    b: Hill, Randolph, Ianni

    gk: Seitz

    Man, our left back situation sucks. Sturgis is still injured, right?

    Reply
  23. As much as I love McBride, the Fire have no business giving up one of two cornerstone players like Rolffe and Mapp. McHead might only be there for a couple of years. Rolffe and Mapp should be there for years to come. Good for the Fire for not giving in.

    Reply
  24. Good point, Tim. NE really lack depth in back and they tend to go 3-5-2 with Parky the only established player who can handle the middle. Nicol may be forced to switch it to a 4-4-2, as he has a few times this year. But even then, the two CBs would be who?

    Heaps can play there. Phelan was back there against Santos. Igwe is an option. I think they’ve thrown Gary Flood in as a CB on occasion. Hmmmm. Tierney, Brill, Valentino are on the roster too, and no one has seen much of what they might bring. On top of that, it was just announced that Revs’ reserve back Chase Hilgenbrinck is retiring from soccer to join the priesthood (for real).

    It could come down to:

    Igwe-Heaps-Albright for a 3-man line

    or Igwe-Heaps-Phelan-Albright for 4.

    Of course, NE has an open senior roster spot and an open dev roster spot, so they could always sign another player or two.

    Reply
  25. irishapple, Conde was a fire player and Marmol had no preference -according to his own words-so your analogy is just wrong. that said, Rolfe, Mapp, or Conde for the pick would be absurd. McBride is 36 and will only play for the Fire. If the Fire had done this deal I would have given up on them. No deal is good news all around.

    Reply
  26. Thanks Snoozer, I appreciate that one.

    And Chris, I appreciate your optimism about San Jose, but Huckerby and Sealy are not enough to turn things around in San Jose. Not even close.

    Reply
  27. As a Revs fan, I’m pretty upset about Parkhurst going . . . The Revs need him more than any other team needs one particular defender and we’d really like to win a Supporters’ Shield for once . . .

    Reply
  28. I don’t think Toronto is wrong here, I can’t blame them. Having said that McBride would definitely be a plus for this league, I am tempted to say this is poor form by MLS for not stepping in,

    Reply
  29. I don’t blame TFC for negotiating tough. You don’t strengthen your opponents unless you can strengthen yourself even more.

    I DO blame the MLS for creating its moronic allocation system. Whatever its original purpose, its effect is to ensure that US internationals will be less willing and less able to play in MLS. Anybody coming from Europe is almost guaranteed to take a pay cut and will usually be dropping a level in play; the opportunity for them to their home country to a city/situation they like is the only real inducement MLS has. And the allocation system destroys that. If MLS wants to improve quality of play and win over soccer fans, keeping out the US’s most iconic player is pretty much the worst possible move it could make.

    Reply
  30. Ummm… as far as I can see San Jose are only 9 points out of a playoff spot. There’s still half a season left Ives

    Reply
  31. Kaiser,

    One was a discovery claim because Huckerby wanted to come over to play in the MLS, the other was an allocation. Two different things. Anyone could have called Huckerbys rights, which is what we did. Since San Jose used their allocation on Puguero, we had the rights to claim McBride (ridiculous as it is) and we did. Now Chicago doesnt want to sit down and trade off anything of value (supposedly) so McBride will have to either sign with us or wait another year.

    Reasonable from a TFC supporters point of view.

    Reply
  32. “Growing rumors that a Chicago-Toronto trade to send McBride’s rights to Chicago have turned out to be true”

    Ives – I don’t think you meant to write it that way…

    Reply
  33. Frankly, the allocation crap sucks! Why should Toronto get anything for McBride when he wants nothing to do with the club? Also why did Toronto have the rights to Huckerby, too? Didn’t they use thier allocation to get him and trade him to San Jose? (Does Toronto automatically get the rights to any over the hill player who comes into the league?) MLS has all these ridiculous rules!

    Good to see Jaqua back. Not a star player, but a good blue collar striker who fits well with that team.

    Reply
  34. If TFC ruins the return of the greatest American footballer ever I’ll !@#$ go nuts. I very well may quit watching MLS altogether. If MLS can grandfather Landon Donovan so LA can screw the salary cap, then MLS can put McBride in Chicago. Give TFC an extra 1st round pick and let’s move on. MLS better not let this happen or they’ll be losing fans starting with me.

    You hear me MLS? No more direct kick package. No more MLS.tv package. No more jerseys. No more tickets. Nothing. McBride is the greatest American football we’ve ever had and deserves better than this. Don’t !@#$ with the fans on this one.

    Reply
  35. Now that TFC is in the league, why aren’t Canadian national teamers subjected to the allocation process? Maybe that is something that will be addressed in the off-season.

    Reply
  36. While the last I really saw of Seitz was the U-20s, I remember being fairly impressed then. Very impressed, actually. I wonder if there aren’t better possibilities for the overage player slot than a keeper. Not that I have any great suggestions, I guess.

    As far as Beasley, I can’t believe how crappy that is. The whole point for Beasley in going to a club like Rangers is that while he doesn’t get the quality opposition year-round he might want, they are always in Champions League action. Missing those games is just awful. Poor guy.

    Reply
  37. Hmm, so Chicago wants a player who wants to play for them but Toronto refuses to let it go through because of an arcane technicality? Wow, I feel like I’ve seen a similar situation before… maybe at the beginning of the season… only it involved the Red Bulls and Chicago played the Toronto role. Hmm…? Karma is a bitch, huh?

    Reply
  38. BOoohooo hoo hooo.

    McBride doesnt go to Chicago and we get nothing.

    Fine by me. Man up and give us something of value or step away from the table.

    Im totally ok with this falling through.

    Ideally itll force the league to do away with these ridiculous rules.

    Reply
  39. The Fire will get there chance at a payback.

    Part 1 was Sat and theyll strike again….just ask Red Metros and Benedict-o Osorio

    The Fire will get Mcbride next year without Olympic distraction

    and Toronto will get NOTHING for it

    Reply
  40. Good for TFC, they have no obligation to help chicago. I hope the MLS doesn’t step in and change its rules. If McBride doesn’t go to Chicago, where will he play next year? Could he go back to Fulham?

    Reply
  41. Andrew,

    Piss off. Why should TFC be kind to Chicago one of their main rivals? Shitcago have a surplus of strkers in Rolfe, Barrett and Nyarko and could easily afford to trade one for McBride’s rights. Chicago would do the same to us? No. They want their cake and eat it too.

    Reply
  42. Michael Parkhurst seems like the logical choice for an overage defender since Gooch and Boca will be playing in the WC Qualifiers. That’s a shame about Beasley, just as he was getting back to his regular form. What the hell are San Jose thinking? Great deal for KC though.

    Reply
  43. I now have a good reason to violently hate TFC.

    And I’m not even a Fire fan.

    I hope the union can do something to break the back of this insane system soon.

    Reply

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