Latest Trades, Claims, Speculation and Movement

Here's a quick round-up of the latest happenings in MLS:

The Waiver Draft passed with only one claim, Jon Busch to Toronto FC.
TOF: Great pick up for an expansion team, even if he will count as a foreigner on the TFC Roster. It will provide excellent competition to start and give the Canadians a proven starter during the Gold Cup period.

In other TFC news, they team finally announced the signing of Connor Casey.
TOF: The #1 allocation is a hefty price to pay. 5 forwards is also overkill, especially with 4 of the foreigner spots used for the front line. Could lead to a possible trade...my money is on Esky to NYRB.

Possibly linked to the delay is the Goff announcement that Robbie Rogers has signed a deal with MLS and will be distributed via a Draft Lottery this Thursday.
TOF: With the rumour that he wanted to join fellow Terp Mo Edu in Toronto, perhaps TFC were trying to swing a deal to bring Rogers into the fray alongside/instead of Casey. They'll have to take their chances, along with DCU, to try and get him now.

Back to the Waiver Draft, and it appears that Spanaird Aitor Karanka was one of the players waived by Colorado, along with once the hyped (and quite troubled) Fabrice Noel. As usual, information was sketchy on those waived.
TOF: Surprising moves on both counts in my opinion. I thought Karanka settled relatively well and was clearly still a class act. Perhpas Claivjo prefers a donkey like Petke, or the snail-paced Greg Vanney. Perhaps Karanka was long gone, but he's definitely not on the roster for 2007. I hope Noel finds another gig, he gave up so much to have his shot at pro soccer in the USA.

I read on the excellent Du Nord (which referenced the Chicago Tribune) that Tony Sanneh is in talks with 2 MLS clubs and expects to have a team before the start of the season.
OTF: He played well last year, but he's going to have to take one helluva pay cut to make a roster in 2007. He made a mind-numbing $365k in 2006.

In more from Goff, he says the latest player to get a look for DC United is Brazillian "Fred" from Aussie A-League side, Melbourne.
TOF: Having watched him during the A-League Highlights show, he looks okay, but then again, so did Diego Walsh (who goes by the cooler "Diego" on his shirt in Australia). He was a decent player on the League Champs (Regular Season and Playoffs). He might be an option on the right, because he's certainly not replacing Christian Gomez in the AMC position.

Latest Player Transactions....

Well, it's the roster compliance day today, with the waiver draft tomorrow. We should see plenty of activity in the next 24 hours. Columbus started the ball rolling by releasing Becerra, Leitch, Busch and Reitiz.

FC Dallas also announced today the loan signing of young Colombian winger Juan Carlos Toja. The deal has been in the works for a while so no great surprises. You can read about the deal in on the FCD website : http://fc.dallas.mlsnet.com/news/team_news.jsp?ymd=20070228&content_id=84586&vkey=pr_fcd&fext=.jsp&team=t104

In other news, it appears Chicago Fire original Zack Thornton may have been traded to Colorado Rapids. After the departure of MLS' top keeper - Joe Cannon - to LA, an upgrade was anticipated. Rather than selecting Busch from Columbus, who when fit is an excellent keeper, they opted to bring in Thornton. The Rapids currently have Matt Jordan and Bouna Coundoul on their roster. I don't have an official link for this and will confirm once we know this is a done deal.

With trialist's all over MLS at the moment, this isn't exactly life changing news, but Toronto have brought in Sunderland Winger Andy Welsh on trial. He's a lefty, something in short supply in both Toronto, and MLS as a whole. I think MoJo needs to find some defensive depth plus a back-up GK.