photo by Russ Isabella/USA Today Sports
By FRANCO PANIZO
When Alvaro Saborio returns to MLS from playing for Costa Rica at the CONCACAF Gold Cup, he will not be joining Real Salt Lake.
It was announced on Thursday that RSL agreed to a trade that sends Saborio to D.C. United in exchange for midfielder Luis Silva. The 33-year-old Saborio leaves RSL as the club’s all-time leading scorer with 63 goals.
“Alvaro was a legend with this club and we thank him for his time spent with RSL,” RSL’s technical director Craig Waibel said in a prepared statement. “But the time has come for us to evolve as a club and this trade is a great opportunity to add a talented player in Luis Silva who can bring a lot to this team.”
Silva, 26, joins RSL after being limited to just four starts in 14 appearances for D.C. United this year. Since being traded to D.C. back in July 2013, Silva has appeared 54 times for the club in league play, scored 15 goals and assisted on six others.
Silva’s best season came in 2014, as he netted 11 times while helping set up four other goals.
“We would like to thank Luis for his contributions to our club, and we wish him the best for future success,” said D.C. United general manager Dave Kasper in a separate statement.
Here are more news and notes around MLS:
SOUMARE TRADED TO FC DALLAS
A day after reports came out stating that Bakary Soumare wanted to leave the Montreal Impact, the club granted him his wish.
Soumare was shipped to FC Dallas on Thursday in a trade that saw the Impact get Canadian international Kyle Bekker in return. The 29-year-old centerback had started nine of the 10 league games he played this season for Montreal, but was not pleased with his recent lack of playing time and asked to be traded.
In Bekker, the Impact have a 24-year-old midfielder who has already earned 16 caps for Canada’s national team. This season, his first with FC Dallas, Bekker made just two starts in eight appearances and had one assist.
“We are happy to bring a young Canadian player to our team who has a lot of potential. We look forward to having him integrate with our group,” said Impact technical director Adam Braz in a statement. “We thank Bakary for his services and wish him all the best with his new club.”
TWO MORE PLAYERS TO RECEIVE ALL-STAR GAME BONUSES
The additions of Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard to this year’s MLS All-Star Game did not sit very well with many people across the league, but the league is looking to make amends in a way.
An MLS spokesman confirmed on Wednesday that two more MLS players will receive All-Star Game bonuses this year, bringing the total to 34 players as opposed to the 32 that is stipulated by the Collective Bargaining Agreement. The decision comes after Lampard and Gerrard were controversially chosen as MLS commissioner Don Garber’s two picks for this year’s All-Star Game despite not yet playing a single minute in the league.
The inclusion of the pair of Englishman would have meant that two more deserving MLS players lost out on receiving All-Star Game bonuses, but the league is rewarding two more players than was expected in an effort to make things more fair.
The MLS All-Star Game takes place on July 29, and the opponent for this year’s match is Tottenham Hotspur. The game will be played at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, Colorado.
KEANE WINS ESPY FOR BEST MLS PLAYER
Robbie Keane won the 2014 MLS MVP award for his record-setting season last year, and now he has even more hardware to add to his trophy cabinet as a result of that impressive campaign.
Keane was awarded the Best MLS Player award at the 2015 ESPY Awards for his sterling performances last year. The veteran forward scored 19 goals and added 14 assists — both career highs — in the 2014 regular season, and added two goals and three assists in the playoffs en route to helping the LA Galaxy lift their fifth MLS Cup trophy.
The Irish striker is the third Galaxy player after Landon Donovan and David Beckham to win an ESPY for Best MLS Player. Eight of the 10 ESPYs since that award was introduced have been claimed by Galaxy players.
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What do you think about the Saborio-Silva trade between RSL and D.C. United? Will FC Dallas give Soumare the kind of playing time he wants? Should the ESPY for Best MLS Player be renamed to “Who Was the Best LA Galaxy Player Last Season” award?
Share your thoughts below.
i am not as articulate or as knowledgeable about soccer as most, but it bites to see Sabo go. I have seen him play his heart out and he deserves better. Something deeper going on here…….just sayin’.
My opinion, you are giving us posters here way too much credit.
Thanks for the contribution.
I love the all star games. Its fun for me, as a fan, to see so many of my favorite mls players on the field at the same time.
Trading Silva for Saborio is a bad move. Saborio is way past his prime. He has regressed since his Saprissa days. He was a beast in that Club World Cup game against Liverpool; reminded me of a poor man’s Adriano.
This is a short term solution to bring him in for a franchise player like Silva. Hope I’m wrong.
Saborio still has a few good years left. As an RSL fan, I am very disappointed in this trade as it feels like giving up. Sabo is still one of the elite finishers in MLS. Last year he scored 8 goals in just 13 starts before breaking his foot in World Cup prep with Costa Rica. This season, RSL has been a mess with so many injuries and the service into the box just isn’t there. For winning now, Saborio is a much, much better player than Silva at this point.
For me this seems to be a real sign that RSL has entered rebuild mode while DC is ready to win now. But don’t be mistaken, I think this makes DC significantly better now and RSL worse. I hope Silva becomes the franchise player you think he is. But, I don’t see too many franchise players who only start 4 of the team’s 21 games. Silva has clearly regressed and this is a gamble for RSL.
I think you’re missing the deeper details. Saborio’s contract is up this year, and neither RSL or Saborio are interested in signing. It’s also been made clear by the RSL FO that Sabo has become a locker room issue. When they happens, you need to take action immediately. So, it was either trade him now, get something for him, and try to refocus the locker room, or wait until the end of the season and get nothing for him and play a guy, and play a guy that will take time away from future contributors. It may not be a move to celebrate here, but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad move. It’s part of sports.
Silva is not back at his top form due to injuries but give him time to regain it and you will see what he can do. Watch him from few years ago when he played against LA in the CCC, during his rookie season for TFC. He was a man among boys even before playing an MLS match.
Got to disagree in part. Silva hasn’t been the same lately. He gets injured way to easily/often, and when he’s been healthy, hasn’t shown the connection with Espindola that made them such an effective paring. I do agree that Sabo is a short-term solution to DC’s forward needs, but those needs are real. They need someone with Sabo’s size/strength combination to replace what EJ was suposed to bring to the table. Lots of us DCU fans are hoping that Michael Seaton grows into that role, but the coaches don’t seem to think that’s happening soon, as they keep loaning him out instead of playing him.
Everyone is missing the biggest part at least for RSL. This move just freed up around 300k in RSL’s salary cap. Before this if RSL wanted to make a big move and use the TAM it would had to have been a DP for DP. Now they have salary they can buy down either Beckerman or Plata sense Jaime drops next season from the new rules. If Silva gets healthy this is another big spot for midfield and if not his contract is up next year and we now have room to buy.
Sorry but DC got the short end of the deal on this. They should have been making a deal to Replace EJ and Sabo might be a band aid that you found in the back of a closet.
Didn’t take long for Montreal to discover what Fire fans already knew.. Soumare is not very good…
Call it a long shot, but I would love it the a star game went back to East vs West. It would be even more meaningful if MLS keeps expanding like it seems to be, then MLS could have a 40 team, 2 conference setup with the conferences not playing each other until Cup play. Kind of like old school baseball.
Sounds terrible. As a season ticket holder for an east coast team I want to see teams like LA and Seattle in my team’s building. Also, if you get to 40 why not 2 20 team divisions with pro/rel? Maintains a higher level of quality while still providing soccer to all the markets that can support it.
that would be cool but it could almost become two separate leagues by then (pro/rel?)
I’ve long thought that MLS should have 40 teams with 20-team conferences, but I don’t think fully seperate conferences or pro/rel are realistic. Instead, I’d like a system where the top 32 teams in points are playoff eligible for the following year (this does not mean they actually make the playoffs, which would involve far fewer teams), and the bottom 8 teams in points at the end of the regular season compete in their own playoff for a final playoff eligible spot at the end of the season (giving the bottom-tier teams something to play for all year). The 7 teams that don’t win that “best of the bottom” tournament are not eligible to make the playoffs the next year, but they still compete with the rest of the league and can earn their way back into elgibility (and maybe you give them a playoff spot if they finish top four the “ineligible year” regardless). So you don’t have “relegation” in the traditional sense, but you still punish teams for doing poorly while giving them something compete for all year.
do less…
Sad to see Bekker go, he’s got the potential to be a Dax-esque rock in the middle…best of luck to him in Montreal.
Good to see some cover for the CBs finally…but I’d like to see another box-to-box mid added to replace Bekker.
I was really pleased when Dallas signed Bekker because I’d been impressed with him in prior season, but I never really thought he looked comfortable for Dallas during his time there. I wish him luck in Montreal
I got a better idea MLS and Garber, how about you just not do dumb things in the first place? How about that? How about MLS All Stars be guys who have actually played at least a minute in MLS. That would have been a good start. Instead, you make up new conditions, allowances, rules to correct your stupidity after you get called out.
Who cares?
Not me. That’s why I clicked “Definitely not” on the poll question I received today on whether I would be watching the MLS All-Star Game. It’s boring and meaningless and I get plenty of other chances to watch the same players in real games.
If MLS were interested in using the AGS to reward MLS players, they would play an East-West game with two full sides of MLS players instead of playing a foreign opponent. The ASG is friendly that showcases the league. You can hardly blame Garber for wanting to show off all the high-profile talent it can. As I said beforehand, as long as it doesn’t hurt the available number of bonuses, then there is nothing to complain about.
The two biggest stars in the league.