July 9, 2008
Here's the wrap up:
Hamed Diallo lands in Carolina
Chase Harrison and Jamil Walker land in Portland
And midfielder Andrew Gregor lands in Rochester
My take:
We talk "off the air" about stuff all the time at Kick This!. Two weeks ago we were talking about how Hamed Diallo was on the outs with the Rhinos and getting shopped around.
Montreal was shopping Charles Gbeke, Vancouver was shopping Tony Donatelli, and the Rhinos were apparently considering moving Diallo for one of those players.
My idea was send Diallo to Carolina for Jamil Walker. Getting the McQuaid grad in a Rhinos uniform would give the team a local player to help add to the marketing mix and his speed up top would fit in well with the way the Rhinos have played this season.
So what I don't get is why the Rhinos got Walker for Diallo and then proceeded to package him with backup goalkeeper Chase Harrison to get Andrew Gregor.
The Portland take on this deal is essentially that Gregor is on the downside of his career, he's really slow, and his set pieces aren't what they used to be.
Great.
I hope that the change of scenery does Gregor well and he takes the trade as a kick in the rear and he's back to his All-League play of a few years ago. But right now, I'm left wondering what could have been.
News & Notes:
- Ze Roberto is the USL 1st Division Player of the Week. Ross Smith and Johnny Menyongar joined him on the team of the week to boot.
- Devo has a nice piece about Ze Roberto in today's D&C. With Gregor coming to town, it will be interesting to see how he fits with Ze and Tiger in the central part of the Rhinos midfield.
-Well, the Rhinos could have company as a USL team to win the Open Cup in the MLS era. Seattle and Charleston will meet in the semis and they will face the DC United-New England winner.
Good news for the Rhinos is that Seattle's match with Kansas City was scoreless through 120 minutes and ended in PKs. So, the Sounders should be extra tired on Friday night!
- I love the post-game stuff coming out after last night's DC-Chicago tilt. Behind the Badge has a sweet picture of the game winner and The DCenters blog is loving Marc Burch going after Blanco in the OT period.
- Ridge Mahoney's latest at SI.com basically calls out NY Red Bulls boss Juan Carlos Osorio. It's nice to see the MetroBulls curse is alive and well!
- Colorado's new third unis look OK. But what's up with that bright red or orange trim color? I would expect that they would use their powder blue.
- There is an interview with Abby Wambach up at WomensProSoccer.com where she talks about the new pro league and the Olympics.
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.
