Well there still in no official word from Real Salt Lake communications, or MLS but the SL Trib have gotten another scoop and I have verified it with sources at RSL. This is a good choice as Everton is playing well in the EPL in 6th place just two points out of 5th and will face Chelsea in the FA Cup final on the 30th of May.
It sounds like the official announcement will be made on ESPN2 tomorrow morning, but it will be Everton and that is an improvement over what I expected. Once I knew Real Madrid wouldn’t be coming due to the Peace Cup, my hope was Barcelona but rumors had Valencia as the front runner for a while and then it was Villareal, but for various reasons neither of those worked out. My fear was that it would be a Mexican team, which would be fine except we saw two of them last year in Salt Lake and I was hoping for a top level European team.
Everton is anchored in net by US national team player Tim Howard and brought a great side when they came to Utah two years ago for an exhibition match. I expect that the past couple years have given RSL the experience to market the match better and hopefully this time they will fully leverage the merchandising options that come with such a huge match and quality foe.
I am going back to listen to the US Open Cup match, it is half time and RSL is down 2-1. If you want to listen in you can go to http://www.kall700sports.com.
More details about the All Star Match will come out tomorrow and I will post the updates as they come. This has been a busy day so far, and I think we will get more news tomorrow.
From the Communications Department of Real Salt Lake: REAL SALT LAKE ACQUIRES 2010 MLS SUPERDRAFT SECOND ROUND PICK FROM FC DALLAS
RSL Parts Ways with DF Kyle Davies to Complete Trade with Dallas
SANDY, UTAH (Tuesday, April 28, 2009) – Real Salt Lake and FC Dallas today announced a trade between the MLS Western Conference foes that landed the Utah side a second round selection in the 2010 MLS SuperDraft and sent recently-acquired U.S. Under-20 National Team defender Kyle Davies to the “Hoops” in return. Real Salt Lake had acquired the rights to Davies via an MLS Player Lottery held on April 16.
”We needed to open a roster spot for the arrival of Fabian Espíndola ahead of our May 6 match against the Los Angeles Galaxy,” said RSL General Manager Garth Lagerwey. “This trade allows us to get something of value in return for Kyle, a player with a lot of potential. We wish him well with Dallas and in representing our country in Egypt this fall.”
The recently-turned 20-year-old Davies was not included on the 18-man roster for his only eligible contest with Real Salt Lake last Saturday in its 6-0 win over New England, that match coming just one day after he was officially added to the RSL roster on Friday.
TRANSACTION: Real Salt Lake trades defender Kyle Davies to FC Dallas in exchange for a second round pick in the 2010 MLS SuperDraft.
Did we just drop the ball?
So we have a 20 year old defender with international experience and who is part of our national U-20 team but we move him instead of David Horst? We trade him, a player that we (now have wasted our player lottery spot) for a second round draft pick next year? I have been very supportive of the many moves by Garth and Jason, but this one leaves me scratching my head.
The justification to clear a spot for Espindola simply doesn’t make sense, why not loan Davies, Horst, or Nunez to open a spot? We took a chance (we had a 5% chance) in the player lottery and scored a huge win in fact here is the quote from Garth just 11 days ago:
“We had only a 5% chance to win the lottery, so we were fortunate to be able to add a really solid, young player in Davies,” said RSL General Manager Garth Lagerwey. “Kyle is a talent that fits our paradigm of bringing in American players who have cut their teeth overseas at a high level.”
So you have to ask yourself what has changed? The knowledge that we were likely to see Espindola come back was known then, did we try our luck just to hope and trade him for a draft spot? That could be, were his salary requirements going to be too high? Like I said this one really leaves me scratching my head.
Late Update, after listening to a number of people both inside and outside of the RSL inner circle it sounds more like the price of keeping Davies was more than RSL was willing to pay for a player who has a great upside but would be playing behind Olave and Borchers.
I am not so much wondering if it will be the Real Salt Lake that put a beating on defending MLS champions Columbus 4-1, or blanked New England 6-0 this past weekend, I am not even concerned if it will be the team that got beat in New York. Rather my question is will this be a lineup featuring names like Beltran, Horst, Alexandre, Cox, and Seitz, or will RSL bring the first team? It is as big of a question when you wonder what team will Seattle put on the pitch? Often these matches were played between reserve sides with 2-3 first team players, but with the smaller 2009 rosters and the depth that RSL has no matter what 11 players they put on the pitch there will be some real talent in the lineup.
If we play the backups, we would probably have a lineup of Seitz, Beltran, Horst, Davies, Russell, Grabavoy, Alexandre, Williams, Cox, Escalada and Nunez(not sure if he is healthy enough to play) so maybe Yura. So you would be looking at 8 or 9 guys who have been on the pitch in MLS matches this season, and a number of them who earned points in the match against New England. It is an interesting situation as coaches have a chance to get players some action, a rare thing in the new reserveless league, but RSL wants to do well in the US Open Cup and I am sure that newcomers Seattle will probably want to get past the qualifying matches and into the tournament proper. Seattle has a ton of pressure from their fans who thought for the first few weeks that the league would be a walk in the park and that the MLS Cup was theirs for the taking, but have been brought back down to earth a bit.
Seattle has done well for an expansion team, but in each of their victories it has been mistakes made by the other team that have really propelled them to their current 4-2-0 record. They have a lot of talent and a core of players that are very familiar with each other from their USL days, and from the statements of their players to the media (link 1, link 2) they are taking the match seriously and are out to win. Sigi sure makes it sound like he wants to win (link) but will probably play a mix as well, but RSL has 18 players who have seen at least some action in their 5 MLS matches, while Seattle has 17 (3 are keepers) who have seen action in their 6 MLS matches. Seattle has 5 guys who have scored goals for them so far this year (9 total) and RSL now has 8 players who have scored (a league high 12 goals, tied with Chicago who have played 6 matches).
This leads me to believe this will be an exciting match and could be a time for some new RSL names to shine, Davies could see action after joining the team last week, Escalada could build on his performance against New England, Williams has been a monster for RSL in Open Cup matches, he has scored in each of RSL’s 3 wins in the tournament. Heck Andy has played in the US Open Cup final match 5 times including a 2003 win with Chicago. You could also see good things from Raphael Cox and Jean Alexandre who will probably be starters in the match. RSL has never won a road match in the US Open Cup 0-3, but are 3-1 at home. Whichever side wins on Tuesday will play host to Colorado who beat LA a couple weeks ago in their qualifying match.
There are a couple rule differences in US Open Cup play, first each side is allowed 4 subs, next there can be no ties. So if after regular play the sides are even, they will play two 15 minute overtime sessions, and if they are still tied then they would go to PK’s to determine the winner. There doesn’t appear to be any TV coverage of the match in Seattle, so your best shot at following the match will probably be listening in on KALL 700 at 8PM MST. The match isn’t being played at Qwest field, so there won’t be 28,000 Seattle fans, but the match is a sellout at the Starfire Sports Complex and there should be a crowd of 3,700 on hand. The weather forecast is for mid 50’s and a 50% chance of showers, typical Seattle weather.
This matchup is hard to predict because you simply don’t know what mix of players each coach will play, I expect that both will feature at least a half dozen of their first team players, and both will start their backup keepers. I really like some of the talent that RSL can put out there, and I believe Escalada could be the difference makers as RSL get a measure of revenge for their 2-0 loss a month ago at Qwest field. RSL gets a result on the road and win 3-2 in a wild and exciting match, darn shame that nobody is doing video of this match.
League Honors
Something that should have happened a couple weeks ago, but RSL finally get a MLS player of the week as Javier Morales picks up the honor for his stellar performance against New England. He played a great attacking match and really was a key factor in the RSL domination of possession in the match, to go along with his two assists.
Also earning honors are Clint Mathis and Andy Williams both who are nominated for goal of the week, click here to vote. Mathis leads the early voting with 55% of the vote, Andy is tied with Alejandro Moreno (Columbus) for second place with 13%.
Clint’s goal also got him listed in Ives “Best XI” and Clint, Kyle, and Javi all made his MLS team of the week. We deserve another look at Clint’s goal: