The Colorado Rapids have confirmed on their web site that they have indeed traded blue-light special and ex-USMNT Greg Vanney (FCD is picking up a BIG part of his salary) to DC United for Facundo Erpen. So far no other details beyond that have been shared such as if FCD will still be picking up a big chunk of Vanney's salary now that he's at FCD.
Are there any other MLS coaches that deserve to be fired? Sigi at the Crew? Fernando at the Rapids? Yallop at LA?
Rumor is that the Rapids are on the verge of signing the Argentina Calderon. If that's the case, what does it mean? With the MLS deadline for guaranteeing a contract approaching teams will be anxious to trade a player or simply waive them, could this mean that we'll see a few more trades including one or two involving the Rapids? Will Calderon render Roberto Brown or Jovan Kirovksi as surplus? Will Clavijo be willing to trade underutilized Jacob Peterson for a first round pick in 08? Whatever the case is if the Rapids really are bringing in Calderon at near league max-salary, they will need to get ride of one of their senior roster players to make room for him.
As noted by FC Rockey, Pablo Mastroeni (Colorado Rapids) and Frankie Hejduk (Columbus Crew) were the only 2 Americans to make the all-tournament team. Damarcus Beasley (PSV) and Landon Donovan (Los Angeles Galaxy) got honorable mentions. Jocelyn Angloma of Guadeloupe also made the 2nd team list. It's good to see the 41 year-old got some props. Too bad that there isn't some sort of "little engine that could" award but little Guadeloupe deserved it. Not only to they punch above their weight but they did it playing some attractive soccer.
If you don't get Fox Soccer Channel, or you didn't sit through a Spanish language broadcast, or you didn't search out a soccer bar in your town, or you were working on a Sunday and had to follow via lame ass match tracker, you missed an incredible goal. This is the kind of world class stuff the US is starting to produce with some of the younger, more skilled soccer players joining the senior national team.
I'll be frank with you, I thought Benny Feilhaber's match yesterday against Mexico was sub-par. In the semi-final I was calling for him to replace Michael Bradley. When I saw him start on Sunday I was excited...but then the game dragged on, the US went down 1-0 and Benny wasn't producing.
Well this goal erases all of that.
The young Brazilian born American is the future of our midfield.
Luis Bueno goes further to compare Benny's goal to the goal that knocked Mexico out of the 2006 World Cup.
Enjoy the clips.
For this one, I have some random Euro rumors :
The talk about Lampard leaving Chelsea has ended, at least for the time being.
Alan Smith has been linked with a number of moves. The rumor is that SAF has decided he's no longer Manchester United material. Boro makes sense in that they're still looking for a replacement for Mark Viduka. Boro signed Tuncay Sanli on a free but he's a winger / forward.
Liverpool is balking £27 million price Atletico Madrid have placed on Fernando Torres. Despite massive spending so far, Manchester United is supposedly still sniffing around for others including Torres.
Charlton want £15 million for Marcus Bent.
Now that Henry's been sold to Barcelona, Arsenal seems to be linked with every half-way decent striker under the age of 30. Some of those include Carlos Tevez, Nicola Anelka (yep, Le Sulker), Samuel Et'o, and Diego Milito. This one seems most interesting to me. The question is if the Argitine Militio would want to leave Zaragoza and his brother Gabi who plays there (one of the best CB's in La Liga, btw).
Barcelona are said to be in talks with the brother of Arsenal's Kolo Toure, Yaya Toure.
With last night's 1-0 loss to FC Dallas at home, will anyone out there be placing the Rapids dead last in their power rankings? The Rapids only managed 2 shots on goal the entire game. Fitting since they've only managed to win twice at their new stadium, Dicks Sporting Goods Park. Clavijo has said it takes 3 years to build a team capable of a winning a championship. It's nearly 1/2 way through year 3. The team is still struggling to score goals and giving up too many goals. Is this somehow part of the plan?
