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The worst signing of the MLS season (that you probably never heard of)

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With the 2008 MLS season at its midway point it is a good time to consider the signings MLS teams made last pre-season and how they have done so far. Before we get to that this weekend, I wanted to point to one signing that may be the bust of the year, but a bust you haven’t heard much about.

His name is Rafael Gomes and few people outside of Colorado know who he is because he didn’t exactly make an impressing during his time with the Rapids. The Brazilian midfielder, and one-time Brazilian Under-20 player, played in seven matches, and a grand total of 282 minutes, before being waived last week. Aside from looking like the lost Wayan brother (or a Soul-Glo model), Gomes was a pretty bad player.

So what makes him the worst signing of the current season?

Along with his $120,000 salary, Gomes also cost the Rapids a good-sized transfer fee. Sources put the fee at a low six figures, with one source stating Gomes cost Colorado $250,000. That’s a pretty steep price for 288 minutes of action and one assist.

That transfer fee might not seem like much, but for a franchise notorious for being cheap, it was one of the Rapids biggest moves in recent years. Even with that, Gomes’ signing received little coverage and his departure on waivers last week barely registered a blip in the media.

I will do a breakdown of the league’s off-season signings for the weekend, but for now I want to hear from you on who you think have been the worst signings of the past MLS pre-season so far. Franco Niell? Jose Carvallo? Gonzalo Peralta? Oscar Echeverry? Alviro Pires? Peguero Jean-Philippe?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. Oscar Etcheverry has been pretty terrible.

    Franco Niell has been bad, but ultimately didn’t cost DC much except time and <$100k, since it was a loan deal.

    The Castro guy for the Revs looks good at times, but has had very little impact on the statsheet.

    Kip Wells (although traded for) has been pretty miserable for DC. I think he has been (ultimately) worse than Peralta. Peralta has his moments, but the entire defense has really started shaping up for DC.

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  2. Gomes was only a bust, because our superior coach did not like that he did not speak english.

    While he was in he controlled the defense and did it well.

    However, from inside sources, he was pulled from the line up because Clavijo assumed since he did not speak english he could nt communicate well with the other players.

    So, Clavijo being far superior in very aspect of life decided it was time to cut his losses.

    Thanks Coach!

    RapidsMan

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  3. Metro, what a club pays for a player directly relates to his bust rating.

    And Miguel, I don’t have a “club”. I’m a journalist and cover every team in MLS. I cover the Red Bulls more because I covered them for a decade on a newspaper beat, but I was never a fan and am not a fan.

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  4. I don’t think Rafael Gomes is MUCH of a bust! Sorry, Ives!

    If I am getting the righ individual, this Rafael Gomes played in 2006/07 for a team from the Portuguese 2nd Division (2.ª Divisão de Honra). The team is C.D. Santa Clara, from the Portuguese islands of Azores.

    What can we expect from a 2nd division player, performance-wise, in MLS? Maybe they payed a lot for him but I don’t know that!

    Link: http://www.zerozero.eu/uk/jogador.php?edicao_id=0&epoca_id=136&id=28843

    .

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  5. A. Pires, LAG: 110,775

    When I watch him play it gives the false sense that if I just stuck it out a little longer I could of fooled someone to pay me too.

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  6. What has L.A. got out of the money tied up in Ruiz?

    Are we doing this by money wasted or just lack of talent/contribution?

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  7. I think next year MLS teams will be more conservative in their signings. They obviously need to take greater care in selecting players. The salary cap can get mighting tight if you have a couple of foreign dregs on your roster.

    On a similar subject, I have to think the players union will soon eliminate this “waiver” period of whatever you call it when teams can cut their dregs. If a team makes a dumb mistake, they should pay for it. Giving them an easy out leads to shoddy and lazy signing practices.

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  8. Wow, tough one.

    Last year was the year of the foreign signing – Fred, Emilio, Scheletto, Angel all were impact players. Even Beckham made a financial impact.

    I think everyone got the impression that every new foreign signing was going to have the same impact. Remember when DC and KC were going to rule the league at the start of the season?

    Everyone assumed that Lopez and Trujillo would score 40 goals between them. And everyone was coming in their pants at the thought of the 5, count them, 5 signings DC made. None of those seven players have made an impact.

    Plenty of disappointments – Lopez, Trujillo, Gomes, Peralta, the Gonzolo brothers, Niell, Guerremo So, Franko, Carracio.

    I have to say that Pequerro was the dumnest. Why on earth would you use an allocation on a guy that has been out for two years with an injury? And, while he was a good MLS player, he was hardly dominant to begin with.

    Might be easier to ask who has succeeded in this year’s foriegn singing crop –

    Davino? He’s been ok if not dominant. I still don’t hear any stories about the 5000 additional Mexican fans that would swamp the stadium every time he sets foot ont he field.

    Ricketts / Laurent in Toronto? Again, good (well fine at least) but not dominant.

    Alvaro? Mediocre, not bad.

    Castro? Looks good but little production.

    Who the bleep has made an impact this year from the new foreign signings?

    By all means, tell me.

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  9. Assessing a “bust” must require a look at value, i.e., some form of comparison of performance to expectation, no? So, not just “he sucks,” but “he sucks and we thought he was going to be good” or, easier to measure, “he sucks and we paid him as if he was good.”

    So, with that in mind, here are the salaries of the players mentioned in this thread as possible busts from this year’s new signings (note: * = waived):

    C. Lopez, KC: 820,000

    L. Robert, TOR: 337,300

    T. Frankowski, CHI: 214,250

    R. Wicky, CHV: 210,00

    G. Peralta, DC: 199,000

    *F. Niell, DCU: 152,500

    G. Padula, CLM: 145,000

    F. Caraccio, HOU: 130,500

    *R. Gomes, COL: 120,000

    P. Jean-Philippe, SJ: 119,125

    A. Pires, LAG: 110,775

    *M. Cordoba, RSL: 100,000

    O. Etcheverry, NYRB: 80,000

    *E. Colombano KC: 70,750

    *I. Trujillo, KC: 70,000

    *A. Fernandez, NE: 52,000

    J. Carvallo, DC: 49,250

    C. Babayaro, LAG: ????

    One thing that jumps out is that while a player like Claudio Lopez has not been as useless as a Rafael Gomes, his decent play also cost an extra $700,000 on top of the cost of Gomes.

    Of course, these figures are only the guaranteed salary number from MLS union, not taking into account factors such as transfer fees or use of allocations which should also be considered, as pointed out in some of the above posts.

    Just for comparison’s sake, here are some salaries for a handful of players signed this year who have been decent to good — not busts by any stretch — but still might not represent a lot of value:

    M. Gallardo, DC: 1,874,006

    D. Davino, DAL: 400,000

    R. Ricketts, TOR: 212,504

    R. Corrales, SJ: 202,500

    O. Tebily, TOR: 156,960

    K. Duechar, RSL: 145,000

    P. Nyarko, CHI: 135,000

    E. Ekpo, CLM: 123,750

    I. Joy, RSL: 120,000

    L. Marmol, CHI: 109,750

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  10. In regards to the mix up between Peralta and Martinez, they are brothers after all! (that’s a shot at that moron Caligiuri who actually said with all seriousness during the CONCACAF Cup matches about the two Gonzalo’s – “they’re not related”)

    For me it’s a tie between Gomes and Niell. Niell was brought on to be a third striker that could spell Emilio and Moreno and he simply couldn’t cut it. United played a different style than what he was used to in Argentina and it just didn’t mesh. Lotta blame should go to the United front office for not seeing that from the beginning.

    As for Gomes in Colorado.. Well, the fact that Clavijo is still gainfully employed should tell you all you need to know about that signing. Seriously, has anyone ever stolen more checks than Clavijo?

    As for Peralta, he certainly took a lot of time to adjust to the style of play in MLS (not unexpected). Perhaps too much time, but he is playing much better and is gaining more and more comfortable as the days go by. He’ll end up being a pretty decent defender in this league. For as many poor games he has had during the season, he has had just as many impressive games too. He played pretty damn well against Pachuca in both of those games and started off the MLS season with a few good games before tailing off a bit.

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  11. The Rapids pull off the season’s worst signing/transfer? What a shocker. First they give away their DP allocation, now the Gomes debacle. And you could also mention what they’re paying Jovan Kirovski and Nico Colaluca to do nothing. I’d say the fans and the stadium and the players deserve better than what the Rapids organization and office are providing them.

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  12. My mistake Bill W, I mean Tom the D.C. fan. A simple “Hey, where’s the analysis” would have sufficed. I meant to write that analysis was coming this weekend, not after the jump.

    Nice to have you back after two months off. Guess all those big D.C. wins woke you back up. What’s that song? “Post when you’re winning! You only post when you’re winning!”

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  13. u guys should really look at stats before injury and I change my mind about frankowski he is terrible. Claudio Lopez is doing fine as a DP he is just a CAM right now and just needs to put the ball to somebody who can fnish and he can finish himself.

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  14. I think any of the guys cut…Cordoba, Niell, Gomes have to be contenders.

    I watched Gomes a fwe times, and must admit, I thought he looked okay. I don’t think he’s a bad player…I think this is just another case of proving how bad a manager Clavijho is. Colorado were deep at DM with Mastroeni, La Brocca and DiRaimondo (all on last year’s squad). Kimura can play there too. They should never have signed him in the first place.

    My guess is they thought Mastroeni was on his way out, as he was being shopped, and after he didn’t leave it left them a glut of expensive Defensive mids…not ideal. Still, h showed some versatility playing DC for a game.

    There’s definitely been worse guys in MLS this year.

    I think Frankowski’s salary, or Tony Caig’s performances actually warrant worse signing of the season.

    SACK CLAVIJHO – now, for the love of God. (and I’m not even a Rapids fan…he’s just a stain on this league and is as inept as they come).

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  15. “…I’d consider Gino Padula from the Crew in the top 10…”

    I don’t feel sorry for Crew fans one bit on this one. Blame your coaching staff for this blunder. You were warned and hell any fool could have done basic search on the web to see that this guy was horrible.

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  16. I can’t imagine all these people defending Peralta. DC has the second worst defense in the MLS. Somebody back there must be making mistakes. Did anyone watch Buddle’s goal last week? I’m not saying he isn’t salvagable, but he hasn’t been good and is definitely overpaid. Luckily DC has Niell to take all the hate, since, well, he is way worse and not salvagable.

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