Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Ruiz joins Beckham, Donovan on Galaxy's roster


FC Dallas has traded leading scorer Carlos Ruiz back to the Los Angeles Galaxy, bolstering an offense that already has English star David Beckham and American forward Landon Donovan, the top scorer in U.S. national team history.

4 comments:

Julzy said...

how are they able to do this?? isn't there some cap for MLS teams? maybe el pez is replacing cobi within that requirement...

Bobbie BS said...

MLS salary capping changes from minute to minute, so it's hard to see how this fits in. MLS made a rule change this year which allows teams to fit in a second highly paid player into the salary structure without designating that player as a DP, which is widely assumed to have happened so that the Galaxy would be allowed to keep Lando. Classy? Yes, I can see it now:
- Garber: "Alexi, go ahead and just do whatever you want to, we'll change the rules later."
- Lalas: "Awesome! I'm going to sign Zidane AND Matterazzi and make them do the headbutt show at halftime of every game!"

Anyway, LA has more cap room due to that and due to Cobi's retirement. There's a lot of speculation that they're going to sign Luis Figo, which will make things even more complicated- he'll want DP money and it's unclear how that will work- hopefully by Lalas trading away all of the mid level salaries so you have a team of 35 year old guys making millions and the rest 22 year olds living on $13K. I have read on one gossip board that LA will have to trade Chris Albright to clear cap space. I guess whatever happens our man at MLS HQ will make a new rule so it's all kosher, once again leaving the KC's and Columbuses even further from the pack. Not everyone can be "The Jewel of MLS".

The Editor said...

It really just seems to detract from the league even more, and goes against so much of what the league wanted to be when it was founded, i.e., not another NASL.

Julzy said...

agreed. and what's the point of the cap if the requirements continue to change in order to accommodate various aging superstars? the galaxy cannot possibly sign figo. there's no way, is there?? anyway, as evidenced this past year, even if LA is the jewel of the mls, it doesn't mean they get to carry around a trophy. but regardless of its status as a jewel, having lived in LA, I can easily attest to the fact that if one had sufficient funds, it would be a most ideal place to spend your salad days. and surely that is one of the main draws for the superstars. and hollywood beckons them all...

aside from that, there's no denying that mls is going through some sort of transition with the DP role. and how much longer do you think MLS / AEG can own all the players contracts? as some point, it'd be nice to see the league mature enough to follow the same player structure as the rest of the footie world.