Photo by Patricia Giobetti/ISIphotos.com
D.C. United's wing options got a little more intriguing on Friday.
The club acquired midfielder Danny Cruz from the Houston Dynamo in exchange for a partial allocation, adding an up-and-coming player to the team's already up-and-coming nucleus.
Cruz, who took part in the U.S. U-23 camp in December and started all of Houston's playoff games last season, no longer qualified as a Generation adidas player and did not come to terms on a new deal with the Dynamo. The club still held his rights, though, and offloaded them to D.C., which happily takes on a player entering his fourth year in MLS.
He joins Andy Najar, Chris Pontius and first-round draft pick Nick DeLeon on the wings for United.
Here are a few more items from around MLS:
FC DALLAS SIGNS RODRIGUEZ
FC Dallas continues to add new parts to its defense, acquiring 21-year-old Panamanian fullback Carlos Rodriguez.
The club is familiar with Rodriguez, who previously played for FC Tauro, from the CONCACAF Champions League, where he faced FCD in the group stage. Rodriguez can play on either side of the field, according to statements made by coach Schellas Hyndman.
According to a release by the club, he will be taking part in Panama's friendly against the United States next week along with recent FCD signee Blas Perez.
ROBINSON JOINS VANCOUVER COACHING STAFF
Former Toronto FC and New York Red Bulls midfielder Carl Robinson has joined Martin Rennie's coaching staff in Vancouver as an assistant.
Robinson, a former Welsh international, retired after this past season, his fifth in MLS. That followed a 12-year career in England.
"I am thrilled about this new opportunity to continue my career in the sport I love," Robinson said in a team statement. "I have known for a long time that once I was done playing, I would transition to a coaching role."
Robinson is joined by Jake DeClute, who will act as an assistant coach along with being the club's scouting coordinator.
RAPIDS, WHITECAPS MAKE TRADE
The Vancouver Whitecaps have made a number of international signings this offseason, and to help accommodate for that, the club acquired an international roster spot from the Colorado Rapids through Jan. 1, 2015.
In exchange for the spot and a second-round pick in the 2014 SuperDraft, the Whitecaps sent an undisclosed sum of allocation money to the Rapids. Vancouver now has 10 international roster spots.
IRO, MAROSEVIC DECLINE CONTRACT OFFERS
Neither Andy Iro nor Peri Marosevic will be returning to Toronto FC after both players declined contract offers, according to a team statement.
Both players were midseason acquisitions a year ago. The club was hoping that Iro would be more of an answer to the team's questions at centerback after picking him up in the trade that sent Tony Tchani to Columbus.
Marosevic, meanwhile, was picked up after being waived by FC Dallas and showed flashes of a player who was picked fifth overall in the 2009 MLS SuperDraft. The 22-year-old midfielder scored three goals in all competitions.
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What do you think of the D.C.-Houston deal? How do you see FC Dallas' back line shaping up? Happy to see Robinson get a coaching gig? Think the Vancouver-Colorado trade makes sense for both sides?
Share your thoughts below.
Iro blows, Toronto is a team on the rise. TFC and Vancouver will be the most improved teams in MLS…Bad news for the US
I think Najar should play the left…Cruz is good, but I see him more as a sub/spot starter energy/defensive guy.
DC has to do more than this tho
That was a bomb and a half. Problem is it was an isolated case.
Houston had already not optioned him so he wasn’t even on the roster anymore and his rights were only ours by the slimmest of technicalities.
At one point I thought he should be tried at back like you suggest. I think he’d get stuck in better than Ashe — who I think is a sloppy, light-defending joke, the weak link on the line — but I think when you reach a certain level sloppy just doesn’t work anywhere.
Great for Iro to get the hell out of Toronto. Hope he finds a new home.
The draft pick in the Rapids-Whitecaps trade is going the other way, from Colorado to Vancouver, according to the Rapids official release.
That was a nice goal he scored vs Portland:)
I think this creates a potential move for Najar to the middle:
Pontius
DeRo
DeLeon/Najar/Cruz
Kitchen
????-BMac-Jakovic-Russell
Hamid
That’s some serious firepower, by recent dcu standards.
I don’t think anyone in Houston is surprised by Cruz being dropped but what is surprising is that we got so little in return (although I don’t know the exact amount, I suspect it isn’t much). Maybe we were put over a barrel in terms of getting anything at all.
The truth is he has some talent and speed but is extremely sloppy. If he had any kind of accuracy on the wing he would be a threat with his speed but with his poor crossing and questionable decision making it is clear he isn’t going to contribute a great deal to a team like Houston that thrives on wing play.
I like him but he’s not the answer on the right for Houston. Maybe he would benefit from a Corey Ashe-esque move to RB. Hey, if it worked for one inept winger why not another?
This is like Ianni redux for Houston and kind of underlines how cheap the organization is about personnel. As with Ianni, we’re shipping Cruz out for cost reasons as soon as he graduates from GA. It’s no surprise we’re doing it because the team has been talking about needing a RM all offseason, but ideally you’d line someone up before you send away the rights to a serviceable player. This leaves us with Clark, who fell out of favor as the season progressed and has had knee issues, and Watson, who Kinnear didn’t seem to see eye to eye with.
That being said, in the big picture Houston deserves at least a faint echo of Davis on the right, and I think Cruz never quite turned the corner from US U20 into a technical senior player. People are lauding him above but IMO he’s a slightly more technical and decent finishing right side version of Corey Ashe, who is one of Houston’s most overrated players. If Cruz was anywhere near what people are saying we’d have not tanked with Davis’ quad injury. Cruz is basically a motor guy, pretty sloppy. He’ll work hard for you and might be an energy guy off the bench but it depends how much he earns as to whether it’s value for money.
What Houston is really doing here is trying to accumulate allocations, possibly to accomodate Ching’s return, maybe Boyd or someone else. Otherwise it’s a pretty bad frontline. Personally I wish we’d move on from Ching, save the $, but I anticipate after a period of Kinnearesque stubbornness we will try and line up a Ching trade in the preseason.
This is awesome. Seriously, very excited, he’s either a starter or tremendous depth. Our roster could use someone like him.
Of course, we NEED a left back and a striker.
How about DC get a defender or striker instead of another midfielder?
Cruz is a quality player that could start on the right for DC United. I’ve always thought that Najar should play striker for DC. He was a striker on their youth teams before.