Last post of the day: TFC going "little fishing"

Wondering what Mo Johnston planned to do with the roster and salary cap space that opened up when the team dropped Laurent Robert?

Looks like he's going to spend some of that cash on a little fish.

That's Carlos "El Pescadito" Ruiz of the L.A. Galaxy.

If you still haven't figured it out "Pescadito" is Spanish for "little fish."

As I've said before, we all need to be ready for the occasional dose of spanglish.

Ives is reporting it and my source at the league says it's happening, so expect this one to become official within the next few days.

In theory the deal gives TFC what they need -- goals from the striker spot. Though he has scored just once in 10 games this season, Ruiz has totalled 82 goals in his 150-game MLS career.

The trade also gives the Galaxy something they've wanted:

Rid of Ruiz.

With Landon Donovan (MLS' leading scorer) and TFC castoff Edson Buddle (third in scoring) scoring plenty of goals for the Galaxy, the team never really needed Ruiz. Dumping him and his $460,000 salary give the Galaxy and their new head coach, Bruce Arena, the roster and salary cap space to sign defender Eddie Lewis.

And after conceding 42 goals in just 20 games, the Galaxy might need defence even more than TFC needs offence.

No word yet on when the deal becomes official or what TFC will send the Galaxy in return.

-- Morgan Campbell

Comments

[Ermaro]

Excellent move from Toronto FC, Carlos, el pescadito, Ruiz still has a lot to offer to the game and it's being wasted at Lalaland

[Brendan]

hey im just curious if Edu comes back to MLS, will Toronto still have his rights like in other sports.

[Ossington Mental Youth]

Brendan-
Only for a year or two, after that hes in the allocation draft

[matt]

anyone else feel like were going in circles?
we dump off edson buddle and he finds his scoring touch, we trade cunningham and he scores right away, every player we bring in has a good first game then disappears. and is it just me or is ruiz' career resembling that of cunningham quite a bit.

[Paul]

Buddle did not get suddenly better after he was shipped out, nor Cunnihgam and Robert suddenly became 2nd class footballers. They apparently did not fit JC schema ( assuming he has got one ), and eventually looked out of place on the field. Players ( with a few exceptions ) are afraid to handle the ball, make a mistake. It does not help team building at all. The focus seem to be on "taking advantage of [very few] opportunities" instead of creating more, and if we can to do latter, we should not be worrying too much of converting them, cause it will come naturally.

[John Bladen]

Hey Matt;

Yes, we are going in circles... Buddle and Eskandarian out, Cunningham in. Cunningham looks woeful for much of his year plus with team (and plays very little, really), leaping offside and flipping out for no reason. So, Cunningham is traded once we get J Smith, Dichio and Barrett providing some up front push, (excepting DD, all youngish players, which we need)... so then we... want to go out and sign another veteran who hasn't produced offense commensurate with his salary in his last two stops.

Some of this frustration may just be due to players not fitting the Carver mold, so to speak. But at the end of the day, if you are a playmaker or target man, your job is the same. The coach just influences how you get there (or not, as the case may be).

I'm fine with adding depth up front if we need it, but we just lost (understandably) one of the best defensive midfielders in the league, and released another scoring winger... since TFC's 2008 improvement is arguably due mainly to the midfield upgrades (creating chances from everywhere, which Robert did, despite the public complaints about lack of effort etc), what exactly is this franchises' game plan?

For the record, I didn't know much about Cunningham before he came, but I didn't think it was a good trade (Eskandarian was young and had potential, as was Buddle). Anytime you are trading for the career scoring leader in anything, you are getting an older player... and for an expansion team, youth and steady growth really ought to be the order of the day. If TFC keeps this swapping mentality, they look set to follow the Leafs' recent performance record as well.

[brad]

i just heard that we gave up two draft picks in the supplemental draft for ruiz. how many drafts does MLS have? and what's the difference?

How many picks do we have left?

on another subject, what is MLS' position on the FIFA global schedule? Any details on the global schedule would be appreciated for us newbies!

cheers
brad

[doug]

mo edu got his work permit:

http://www.rangers.premiumtv.co.uk/page/News/NewsDetail/0,,5~1372807,00.html

[Skinn]

Brad. There's the MLS superdraft, which is 4 rounds, though once you get into the second round, the chances of a player having enough quality to stick in MLS is pretty thin.

The supplemental draft is exactly that: supplemental. It is what's leftover. Many teams don't bother taking players in this, or they draft players that have shown something in the past and they'll take a look at them. In the last draft, for example, TFC took Xavier Balc, who prior to the combines was projected to be a high first round pick, but failed to impress and slid right out of the draft.

MLS does not respect FIFA blackout dates. That's why, for example, LA and Chicago were missing some big international names at their match last night. No Beckham. No Donovan. No Blanco.

[Paul Aiello]

Carver is a disaster as a bench coach. He doesn't know when to make substitutions. He played Ricketts at forward for 85 minutes against New England and he was struggling yet he kept Smith on the bench.

Carver needs to shut his mouth and start focusing on strategy instead of constantly complaining to the officials.

Can someone tell Harmse he needs to run as a midfielder, I can't believe this guy starts

[anon]

Ruiz is "the fish" because he's always diving and flopping around.