A Couple Big DP Rumors

As we near the MLS off season, you start to hear about what different teams are looking to do to improve their squads for next season.

We already know that New England is looking at signing a Designated Player or two and that Juan Pablo Angel is going to be available.  Now there are reports that both Houston Dynamo and Los Angeles Galaxy are looking at a couple potential acquisitions. And there are still questions about the futures of Guillermo Barros Schelotto (retirement?) and Omar Cummings (Europe?) among others.

The first rumor is one that we've seen many times before involving Ronaldinho going to LA, with NBC Sports being the latest outlet to touch on it. According to Gazzetta Dello Sport the Galaxy are ready to throw nearly $10m per year at the AC Milan player.

A player like Ronaldinho, who has a history of not taking training seriously, is a HUGE risk and to actually drop this kind of money on him would be a terrible decision for the team. However, it could be great for the league. He's super well known, but not because of personality over performance like Beckham or even Henry at this point. Instead, he's actually famous strictly for his skill on the ball and beautiful play. That's the kind of thing that will get people to tune in to a game or two just to check him out, and maybe grow the fan base a little more.

Rumor numero dos comes from the Houston Chronicle via MLS Insider. The Dynamo are probably a little gun shy to go signing another Designated Player after the disaster that was Luis Angel Landin, but if these reports are correct then they're trying for another young Mexican international; Giovani Dos Santos.

Giovani would bring a creative attacking force to a Dynamo squad. Now, you may wonder why a team that scored 40 goals last season, tied for fifth in the league, would look for more offense rather than shoring up a defense that allowed a league-worst 49 goals. I would wonder that too. On the bright side though, a player of Giovani's abilities (and heritage) would certainly help bring more fans to a stadium that already packed in 17,000 per game. Plus, it would give US national team fans a #1 team to hate.

Houston Dynamo: Season Retrospective

Overall: 9-6-15 (40 GF, 49 GA)
Home: 6-3-6 (21 points, +4 GD)
Away: 3-3-9 (12 points, -13 GD)

Finish: 12th overall, 7th in the West

Scoring Leader: Brian Ching (7)
Assists Leader: Brad Davis (12)

Year in review

JPA 2 NYRB: ttyl

Caught up in the boringness of last nights US/Colombia match was Juan Pablo Angel's announcement at half time that he "probably won't" return to the New York Red Bulls next season.

This isn't entirely surprising. He and Thierry Henry play very similarly as strikers and with nearly $11m tied up in Designated Player salaries already with Rafa Marquez and Henry New York isn't likely to put $500k+ into another striker. So that leaves us with the question: where does Angel go?

He's said his family feels at home in America, so he may stay around with another MLS team. Also, he obviously still has the skill to contribute a lot to any MLS team, and will deserve DP money for at least a couple more seasons.

Some possible targets:
New England Revolution: There have been a couple articles lately that New England is finally ready to open up and pay for a DP who can help them win. Does that mean that they'll go outside the organization to get one or just that they'll give Shalrie Joseph the money he's deserved for years? Or, is this all just a big gimmick to get season ticket holders to stick around?
Houston Dynamo: Assuming, of course, they aren't still bitter from signing Luis Angel Landin for way too much money last time they tried a DP experiment. Sure they could use more help on defense than offense, but they still have the 3rd lowest number of shots on goal in the league.
DC United: Yeah, there's not much good going on in attack here outside of Najar and they've put the money up for DPs before.
Expansion clubs: This idea is a little more out there, but signing JPA would give instant credibility to either Vancouver or Portland's attack.

Also happening last night:

Chicago Fire 0 - 2 Kansas City Wizards
Kansas City had to win in Chicago to have any hope of making the playoffs and they did. Teal Bunbury scored another goal, got an assist, and had a couple other good shots. He's already turned down a callup from Canada (who he also has the option of playing for) holding out hope that he could play for the US one day. Given the terrible play of our forwards recently I say make it happen; let's call him up.

Those Other Games Last Night

As promised, let's talk about about those MLS games last night. I'm sure that the audiences watching were pretty small considering that both games were going on at the exact same time as the two CCL games involving MLS teams (really great scheduling there) but there was still plenty of drama with both games changing results on goals in extra time.

New England Revolution nearly ended FC Dallas's undefeated streak until Jeff Cunningham scored with 10 seconds of extra time left. The only problem is that Cunningham was pretty clearly offside and the official missed it. They say it's better to be lucky than good sometimes, right?

David Ferreira  put in a great effort for FC Dallas, even if he did miss his first penalty of the game, and should be given most of the praise for them coming back from 0-2 down to tie. He earned two penalties, made one of them, and set up Cunningham (who was offside) for the final goal. FC Dallas as a whole didn't play well, and can't afford a performance like this in the playoffs, but their star wasn't going to let them lose this game.

In the second game Kansas City Wizards rallied twice from two goals down to beat the Houston Dynamo 4-3. For a while it looked liked Kansas City, who has been the hottest team in the league lately, would blow their playoff chances with a loss to the not-what-they-used-to-be Houston Dynamo. Luckily Kei Kamara kept up his great season with his 10th goal of the year, Pat Onstad executed one of the worst goal kicks of all time to give Teal Bunbury a goal, and then Good Old Josh Wolff followed up and Adrian Serioux own goal with a diving header in the 96th minute for the win.

This was a huge win for Kansas City who remains right in the thick of the playoff race now. Also, Michael Harrington played really well for them at the right back position. This young kid had a great rookie season in 2007 but struggled with injuries last year. He's rebounded well this year, however, and with no great options at the right back position for the national team going forward may be a player to keep an eye on if he keeps improving.