Sporting KC Acquire Allocation Money for Herculez Gomez's MLS Rights and International Spot

One of the great case studies of players' rights in MLS has finally reached a conclusion. Today, Sporting KC and Toronto FC announced that they'd reached a trade yesterday before the window closed that saw Kansas City send the rights of first refusal of Herculez Gomez to Toronto FC for allocation money.

Gomez, the 33 year old former US national team forward also signed with Toronto after the trade. Kansas City had held Gomez's MLS rights because they had made him a qualifying offer after his contract was up after the 2009 MLS season. Under the league's collective bargaining agreement at the time, because KC made a qualifying offer, they held onto Gomez's rights in MLS, meaning he could not play anywhere in MLS without Kansas City being compensated.

Instead, Gomez went to Mexico, where he had a successful career that saw him get back into the national team picture and earn a trip to the 2010 World Cup. He scored 37 goals over the course of 5 years with seven teams.

Gomez was never going to return to Kansas City after his departure in 2009 because of his feelings regarding Peter Vermes, Kansas City, their offer to him in 2009, and the team holding onto his MLS rights even though he was never going to return. The rights issue caused a lot of issues for Gomez, who spoke out about that fact on numerous occasions during his time in Mexico.  It seems in the end though that the league stepped in to help broker a deal between TFC and KC to get Gomez back to MLS.

Toronto and Gomez meet Kansas City tomorrow at BMO Field in league action, and while it'd certainly add to the story line if Gomez is able to play, and even more so if he were to score, I'm not sure he'd play just a day after the deal was done, but stranger things have happened.

UPDATE: Sporting KC picked up more allocation money today through a second trade. Kansas City sent one of their international spots that they were not currently using to the Colorado Rapids in exchange for allocation money. The international spot is only for this season and will return to Kansas City on 12/31/15.

Another good bit of business for KC as they weren't going to use all their international spots this season.

Sporting KC News to End Your Week

No major news out today, but here are some quick hits news wise for you on your Friday.

Sporting KC vs LA game time changed

Sporting KC's match up with LA on April 7th at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park has changed times and stations. Yesterday the team announced that the game would now kick off 1 hour earlier at 3pm Central time. The move in start time is to facilitate a station move for the game, as instead of being on ESPN2, the game will be on the mothership, ESPN. It's been a long time since KC has had a game, let alone hosted one. I honestly can't quite remember when there last was one.

Collin closing in on green card

Good news for KC on the front of potentially signing more internationals. Aurelien Collin posted today on Twitter after practice that he was headed to meet with his lawyer to discuss his green card. While the part about becoming an American citizen is a ways away, the good news in Sporting KC terms is that KC will free up at least one international spot. With the spots currently full Collin getting his green card would be a boost. With Jimmy Nielsen and possibly Korede Aiyegbusi also working on their cards' KC could have plenty of international space available.

Sporting KC International News

The next few bits of news are related to Sporting KC players and their potential national team aspirations. The first has to do with Roger Espinoza, while the last two, courtesy of The Daily Wiz have to do with Lawrence Olum, and supplemental draft pick, Pablo Punyed.

Not surprisingly, Espinoza left off Honduras camp roster

With Sporting KC currently in preseason camp, this news isn't surprising, but Roger Espinoza was left off the camp roster ahead of Honduras' February friendlies. Honduras' coach named a roster today for the camp that includes the man who put the dagger in KC's 2011 season Carlo Costly. Espinoza will obviously stay with KC as they continue preseason.

Olum heading to Kenya in February?

Alex over at The Daily Wiz today posted a comment and a video link about KC's Lawrence Olum heading to Kenya in February. The timing of the trip to Kenya would seem odd considering the fact that KC will be right in the middle of preseason, but Olum has wanted to represent his country for a while at this point and this may be the best chance for Olum to appear for the Kenyan national team. Kenya is scheduled to have two matches on the 23rd and the 29th against Egypt and Togo, and one would assume that Olum would hope to make his international debut and become the 32nd player to appear for their full national team while a member of Sporting KC. Still the timing of the trip is just a bit odd being in the middle of preseason.

Punyed to Represent El Salvador U23 team?

There are some rumors out of El Salvador, that supplemental draft pick, Pablo Punyed could be looking to potentially join Teal Bunbury and Daneil Cyrus in Olympic qualifying. Rumor out of El Salvador is that the St. John's product participated in some tryouts down there for the national team in preparation for Olympic qualifying. El Salvador has been grouped with the US, Canada, and Cuba in a group that will play in Nashville.

Year End Review of 2010 Wishes

The year is almost over and it's time to take one more look at my wishes for the year 2010. Here was my take on the wishes half way through the year.

1. The stadium starts to take shape. While I respect Gooch over at the Star, this was the story of the year for KC soccer. The win over United was great, but the fact that this stadium has gone from being approved in January to being the structure you see below. It's amazing that 506 days after dirt started moving at the site the team will take the field for the first time at their new stadium. It's great, a sign of the work the team has done, along with an economy that favored the team to getting work done quickly.

photo courtesy of Thad Bell

2. Qualify for the playoffs early. May be better to just skip this one, the team didn't even qualify for the playoffs this year.

3. Some silverware. Another wish unfulfilled.

4. SI's that contribute more. I think this wish was fulfilled pretty well. Jimmy Nielsen did well, although wasn't as strong the second half of the season. Stephane Auvray proved how valuable he was. Ryan Smith will continue to be a difficult player for opponents to deal with and shut down. Craig Rocastle had a very strong second half to the season being a composed, strong presence in the midfield for KC down the stretch.

5. Re-sign Kei Kamara. This got done during training camp and Kamara was named the team's MVP for the 2010 season.

6. Round of 16 appearance for the USA in the World Cup. The US loss to Ghana was disappointing but it was a great trip for the United States. Overall it was a great tournament for the US and the goal by Landon Donovan against Algeria has been one of the best sports moments of the year, and this video never gets old and still gives me goosebumps.



7. A home record of only 1 loss. Another one that didn't happen. KC finished 7-5-3 in their last season at Community America Ballpark, 24 of 45 points at home isn't good enough and is one of the areas that the team must improve in 2010.

8. At least 40 goals this season. KC only got 36 goals this season, but only 6 teams out of 16 even hit 40 goals this season so while the team not hitting 40 sucks, they were in very good company. And they at least weren't DC who hit an all time low for MLS with only 21 goals.

Update on 2010 Wishes

We're half way through the year, so it's time to give an update on my 2010 wishes that I posted back on New Year's Eve.

1. The stadium starts to take shape. Safe to say that this is a wish that is coming along nicely, roof trusses are on site, and the west side of the stadium has all the pre-made terraces in place for the seats to eventually go in. And it's always fun to go check out the webcam.

2. Qualify for the playoffs early. Yeah this isn't happening, the playoffs alone look close to impossible at this point of the season.

3. Some silverware. The only one the Wizards even had even a snowball's chance in hell of winning is MLS Cup by sneaking in as the 8 seed or something. They're already eliminated from the US Open Cup and the Supporters' Shield is well out of reach at this point.

4. SI's that contribute more. The Wizards have so far been able to get more out of their international players than they have the previous few years. Jimmy Nielsen has helped fans to forget about the fact that the team didn't re-sign Kevin Hartman. Stephane Auvray has been strong in the center of midfield, but has missed time due to injury. And Ryan Smith has been a consistent threat on the left, although less so as of late.

5. Re-sign Kei Kamara. This was taken care of shortly after training camp started. And if not for Kamara this team would be in worse shape than they already are. He's well on pace for a career year this year, hopefully he picks it up some more.

6. Round of 16 appearance in the World Cup for the US. I went conservative and the US pulled it off. Sure they struggled a bit, fell behind in all but one of their games and had problems with starting games on the back foot, but it was a good performance from the US and helped them to catch the eye (at least for a short time) of the regular sports fan. Yes the overall result did end up a little disappointing, but it was still fun to watch this team, and I don't think any US soccer fan will forget where they were or how they celebrated Landon Donovan's winner vs. Algeria.



7. A home record with at most 1 loss. Didn't happen. The team has lost 2 of their last 3 games at home, losing to the Columbus Crew and the New York Red Bulls.

8. At least 40 goals this season. This doesn't look likely to happen at all. Through 13 games, they are tied for the least goals in the league with 11. They're currently on pace to set a new team low for goals in a season, currently it's 33 set in 1999 and tied in 2001 and 2009.

So overall I thought my predictions were a little on the safe side, and at the half way point of the year, it looks like I'm right on 4 of the 8 at least at this time, we'll see how the end of the year shapes up.

Gil to Salt Lake

Luis' Gil in Kansas City was not long at all. Today the Wizards announced that they had traded Gil to Real Salt Lake in exchange for a second round draft pick, an international slot, and a portion of any future transfer fee. According to Robb Heineman via twitter today, he was unable to speak with Gil and attempt to convince him to come to KC, so the team worked out a deal with Salt Lake. And in my opinion, KC got a pretty good deal out of the trade.

KC gets an international slot that the team most definitely needs with the number of internationals the team has in camp. This gives the team 10 international slots, of which they seem likely to fill most, if not all of them. Currently the team has five internationals (Stephane Auvray, Pablo Escobar, Zoltan Hercegfalvi, Santiago Hirsig, and Jimmy Nielsen), and with Igor Kostrov being offered a contract he seems likely to be number six. Add in second round draft pick, Korede Aiyegbusi who I believe will count as an international, and Ryan Smith, and we're up to eight internationals. The second round pick is the lower of Salt Lake's two second round picks, and a nice little bit thrown into the deal.

My favorite part personally of this deal is the team getting a portion of Gil's future transfer fee. The Wizards are saying it is 25% of a future transfer fee. Based on my understanding of MLS' rules regarding transfers, it likely means that KC will get 25% of the two thirds that Real Salt Lake gets for a player transfer. Basically what that means if I have my math right is that the Wizards will get about a sixth of the total transfer fee that RSL will get for Gil. This is a smart deal in my opinion, if Gil develops like people think and hope it could be a nice portion that the Wizards could end up getting.

Overall while I got my hopes up a little bit yesterday when Heineman talked about keeping Gil in KC, I figured that we would end up trading him. I'd worried that KC would get a raw deal in a trade, but I'm happy with this move, I like what we've gotten out of this deal.

2010 Wishes

We're about to ring in 2010 and the start of a new decade. With a new year about to start it's time to look at my wishes for another year.

1. The stadium starts to take shape - Forget this whole breaking ground stuff, I want to see the stadium actually start to take shape this year. I want to see the bowl start to come around, I want to see the stadium actually start to take shape. Because if it hasn't in the upcoming year I have a feeling we're going to be seeing the move KC crowd get VERY loud.

2. Qualify for the playoffs early - I'm tired of waiting until the last week or two of the season to see if we qualify for the playoffs. Let's qualify with a few more weeks to go please.

3. Some Silverware - Yes, again, I want silverware, every year I'll be asking for this.

4. SI's that contribute more - The contribution by this past year's new SI, Santiago Hirsig left something to be desired. He did decently enough, but his contribution was less than I think many people expected. Hopefully the two new signings Robb Heineman mentioned as well as the offensive players he alludes to will conntribute more to the cause this year.

5. Re-sign Kei Kamara - This one should be known pretty quickly. Kamara brings something to the Wizards that they've probably not ever had in a forward. A combination of size, speed, and strength Kamara will be an asset to the Wizards this season.

6. Round of 16 appearance for the US in the World Cup - I'm leaning on the side of caution on this one. I want to put a wish further in the World Cup, but getting out of the group is the first and biggest goal. While most US fans (including myself) want the US to advance further, a date potentially for revenge against Germany from the 02 World Cup or against Ghana for the 06 World Cup would be big for the US.

7. A home record with at most 1 loss - Going from a very conservative wish to a much more difficult one. The Wizards had a horrible home record last season, the worst in the league. The season before CAB was more of a fortress. The road record was adequate for a playoff team in MLS, but for the Wizards to be successful in 2010 the team needs to be much better at home than their 4-6-5 last season.

8. At least 40 goals this season - That's a 12 goal increase from last season. That's definitely a big increase, but having been tied for second worst in the league last year, the team needs drastic improvement. The team can't expect Josh Wolff to score 11 goals again next season. Kamara, Claudio Lopez, Davy Arnaud, Herculez Gomez, and any offensive signings need to contribute more to the team.

Changes to MLS Foreign Player Rule

Steven Goff, over at Soccer Insider reported a few days ago that it looked like MLS was going to dumping their senior/youth international distinction for foreign players, instead going with a foreigner or not approach. According to Goff MLS teams will have 8 foreign slots with no age restrictions starting next season.

This change likely won't have much of an effect on the Wizards, though. Kansas City has rarely ever used their full allotment of SI and YI spots. Usually the Wizards have had anywhere from 3 to 5 of their international slots used at one time. This year, the Wizards only had 3 of their slots used, for Scott Sealy, Carlos Marinelli, and Eloy Colombano. So chances are extremely unlikely that the Wizards will fill those other 5 slots for next season.

I could, though, see the Wizards adding another one or possibly two foreign players to their roster next year. Especially with the news later on in that same Goff article about Coach Onalfo attending a scouting combine in Argentina.