January 15, 2009
Dema Kovalenko is set to join his 5th MLS club as he is reportedly getting traded from Real Salt Lake to the LA Galaxy where he will be re-united with Bruce Arena whom he played for in New York.
With as well as Real Salt Lake did in 2008, I was surprised that they would shake things up to the extent that they would let a key cog like Dema go.
I do think this is a move in the right direction for LA as they were soft defensively last season and Dema should help address that flaw.
News & Notes:
- The NY Red Bulls have decided to keep Macoumba Kandji. There is now no need for the USL 1st Division teams to complain about the whole Kandji to Carolina for a buck transfer.
- The 2009 MLS Super Draft is set to start in less than an hour in St Louis. MLSNet's Steve Davis has his prediction of what could happen, and both Steven Goff and Ives Galarcep have live blogs from the draft.
- Chris Armas has left the Chicago Fire after one year as an assistant coach there.
- With Landon Donovan and Frankie Hejduk out of the mix, Stuart Holden was the master of the beep test at this year's USMNT camp.
- One councilman is vowing to vote no on the Philly MLS stadium bond act. And here is a funnier look at the situation. I wonder how nervous MLS is about all this?
- On the flip side, there seems to be positive movement on making BC Place "soccer friendly" in Vancouver's bid for an MLS team.
- Carolina defender Caleb Norkus has been busy this offseason. It's nice to hear stories of players giving back like that.
- TIAS.com takes a look at whether any American soccer player could be a big time pitch man. Nike's Love/Hate campaign for CR7 is awesome.
- Gregory Sica's latest at SI.com talks about how Barca continues to dominate with Messi getting a larger role.
The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author, and not necessarily those of the Rochester Rhinos or SoccerSam.com. Feel free to send any comments or complaints to news@soccersam.com. James promises to read (but not to respond) to all of them.
