January 16, 2008 10:01 PM
Notes: Johnson, Garcia, McBride, Ruiz, Pope and more!
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Kansas City Wizards aren’t standing pat as they wait to hear whether star forward Eddie Johnson is headed for the Premier League.
The Wizards have acquired the top pick in the MLS draft, sending defender Nick Garcia to the San Jose Earthquakes to complete the deal.
The move comes after a weekend in which Johnson left the U.S. national team’s training camp amid reports he has been discussing a possible move to Fulham.
“I can’t deny that obviously he’s in talks regarding that opportunity,” Wizards technical director Peter Vermes said Tuesday. “We have to go into this planning that he is gone, knowing full well that he could be here.”
He said the situation with Johnson “is not ruling the day, but at the same time we also have to be prudent enough to think we do have to plan for possibly the inevitable — that he may go.”
Vermes said the decision to trade Garcia was tough, but that having the first pick will give the Wizards the flexibility they need to make more moves.
The MLS draft is Friday in Baltimore.
Garcia, who was selected by Kansas City with the second overall pick in 2000, is the Wizards’ career leader in games played.
THE RAPIDS AND THE DRAFT: The Rapids own the fifth selection in the first round of Friday's draft, followed with picks in the third round (36th overall) and fourth round (47th and 49th overall). The expansion San Jose Earthquakes will make the first selection in each round.
DRAFT PARTY: The Rapids are inviting fans to The British Bulldog, 2052 Stout St., at noon Friday for a special lunchtime draft party. ESPN2 will carry the first hour of the draft live at noon. MLSNet.com will feature live streaming video of the entire four-round event from Baltimore. Marcelo Balboa will be conducting a special draft-day radio show from The British Bulldog on KCKK-AM (1510).
EL PESCADITO BACK TO L.A.: FC Dallas has traded leading scorer Carlos Ruiz back to the Galaxy, bolstering an offense that already has English star David Beckham and American forward Landon Donovan. The Galaxy reacquired Ruiz for a second-round draft pick in 2009 and an undisclosed amount of money. The top scorer in MLS postseason history, Ruiz led FC Dallas with seven goals in MLS games last season and 11 goals total, including SuperLiga and U.S. Open Cup games. He began his MLS career with the Galaxy in 2002.
MCBRIDE PRACTICES: Fulham captain Brian McBride has returned to training after being sidelined five months with a knee injury. The former U.S. national team star dislocated his left kneecap while scoring in a 2-1 loss to Middlesbrough on Aug. 18. Fulham said he is nearing a comeback after completing a full first-team training session last week. Without its main striker, Fulham has scored just 23 goals in 22 matches and slipped to 19th in the 20-team Premier League, putting it on course to be relegated.
SPEAKING OF RELEGATION ... Six American players have the dubious distinction of playing for teams that are in danger of being relegated from the Premier League. They are Benny Feilhaber and Eddie Lewis at Derby; and Clint Dempsey, Carlos Bocanegra, McBride and Kasey Keller at Fulham.
SALARIES IN POPE'S SIGHTS: For 12 seasons in Major League Soccer, Eddie Pope represented himself with quiet distinction and class on the soccer field. Now Pope, a defender who retired after the 2007 season, will further the interests of his former compatriots as the director of player relations for the union that represents MLS players. “I think the biggest issue we have to deal with is the contracts of the developmental players,” he said, referring to the deals that pay young American players $12,900 a year. There are modest incentives, but the maximum they could add is $15,000. “Having been a teammate of several on those contracts, it’s hard to watch guys playing their hearts out on the field, then going home to a house with four or five other guys and sometimes not living in the best neighborhoods. That’s tough.”
CELTIC FAN IN NFL: Place-kicker Lawrence Tynes and the New York Giants are going to Green Bay, Wis., to play in the NFC championship Sunday, but Tynes’ heart is in Scotland. Tynes, 29, was born in Greenock, Scotland, and is a dedicated fan of Celtic. He plans to put on his green-and-white hooped jersey in April, when he will be the grand marshal of New York’s Tartan Day Parade. Tynes was only 10 when his father, a U.S. Navy Seal who was based in Scotland, moved the family to Florida (his mother is Scottish; he is the first Scottish-born player in NFL history). As a youngster, he went to only one game at Celtic Park while attending a Catholic primary school, St. Kieran’s in Campbeltown.
SEE, IT WORKED: In Manchester, England, the only jersey of a non-European team on sale recently at several sporting goods stores in the city center was David Beckham’s dark blue Los Angeles Galaxy shirt.
HALL OF FAME: The National Soccer Hall of Fame in Oneonta, N.Y., has 35 former players on its ballot this year. The list includes some blasts from the past (Pato Margetic, Carlos Valderrama and Marco Etcheverry), some who are still in the game in MLS coaching or management (Peter Nowak, Preki and Jeff Agoos), and five women (Shannon MacMillian, Danielle Fotopoulos, Cindy Parlow, Joy Fawcett and Tisha Venturini-Hoch). Players need to receive 75 percent of the votes to gain induction in August.
FIFA RANKINGS: Argentina remained the top-ranked team in FIFA rankings, and the rest of the top 15 stayed unchanged. Brazil remained second, followed by world champion Italy, Spain, Germany, Czech Republic, France, Portugal, Netherlands and Croatia. European champion Greece stayed 11th, and England remained 12th. Nigeria moved up one place to 19th — swapping places with the United States — after beating Sudan 2-0 in an exhibition Jan. 9. Nigeria has 879 points — three more than the 20th-ranked United States, which has not played since defeating South Africa in an exhibition Nov. 17.
SOLO RETURNS: In Guanzhou, China, goalkeeper Hope Solo made her return to the U.S. women’s soccer team in a 4-0 win over Canada in Wednesday’s opening game of the Four Nations Tournament in southern China. Amy Rodriguez — making her international debut — and Linsday Tarpley scored two goals each for the Americans. Solo was back in goal, having been off the team since last year’s World Cup, when she strongly criticizied the decision to bench her for the semifinal. She played the full game Wednesday, making two saves.
(Sources: The New York Times, The Associated Press, Colorado Rapids)
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