Gavin, here is Soccer America's take...and remember that Dallas should
have gotten Adu, but he wanted to be with DC, so there may be some of
that involved, too.
-Ned

By Ridge Mahoney
Senior Editor


1. PECKING ORDER: Out of the blue, MLS yesterday send out a release
''MLS Unveils 2005 Player Rules,'' a lengthy explanation of its
complicated rules governing the signing of players. What the rules do
set out is just how Los Angeles -- and not San Jose -- would end up
with Landon Donovan if the U.S. star returns to MLS.

FC Dallas is next in line with a major allocation for missing the
playoffs last year. This is the allocation that could be traded to LA
in exchange for Carlos Ruiz and be used to acquire Donovan, who is
reportedly to be very unhappy at Germany's Bayer Leverkusen and set to
return to MLS.

The reverse had just taken place as Dallas picked up the No. 1-ranked
allocation from the Galaxy to sign defender Greg Vanney, who returned
to MLS from French club Bastia. That had been acquired by the Galaxy
from Chivas USA for the rights to Chivas Martinez and Jesus Ochoa. (If
Chivas USA had held on to its allocation, it would have been in the
position to acquire the Spanish-speaking Donovan -- who reportedly
wanted to play in Los Angeles.)

An addendum to the ranking of allocations answers the question why
Donovan's rights don't simply revert to San Jose if he returns to MLS:
''If a team has an unused outstanding replacement allocation for a
departed player, or has not received a replacement allocation, that
team has right of first refusal in the event of his return to MLS. If a
team has utilized its replacement allocation, by acquiring another
player, through a trade or through a split, the team loses its right of
first refusal to such returning player, who is then assigned in the
normal manner.'' (The Quakes split up their Donovan allocation and sent
part of the split to the MetroStars for Ricardo Clark, therefore losing
its right of fist refusal.)

2. TRADE RATIONALE: So why did Los Angeles coach Steve Sampson and
general manager Doug Hamilton trade Califf, a five-year veteran, for a
fourth-round pick? There was a good chance at the end of the season
they'd be left with nothing. Califf was training with Norwegian club
Valerenga in January, right around the time of the MLS SuperDraft.

''It just made too much sense,'' said Sampson. ''He clearly, clearly
wants to go overseas and made it very clear he didn't want to
re-negotiate with MLS. Aside from having an absolute blinder in MLS
this year, he felt his best shot at making the national team for 2006
was to go overseas and prove to Bruce [Arena] he was worthy of being
called up.

''That, and many teams offering cash or draft picks made it very, very
difficult for Doug to say no. Some people were scratching their heads
when we drafted [defenders] Ugo Ihemelu and Troy Roberts in the first
round. But when it's all said and done, I think they'll see why,
especially since Ihemelu is one of the best athletes ever to come out
of this country and a player I believe one day will play for our
national team.''

On Mar 25, 2005, at 1:43 PM, Gavin O'Brien wrote:

> Great! San Jose gets screwed once again...if it's true?