So, Edu from Toronto, any good? Good enough to play in Scotland?

After some time to adjust to actual tackles, with ease I'd say.

Very good first year, poor second year. If I was rangers, I'd wait 'til the winter break to sign him to see if he picks up in the latter half of the year (and I'm not just saying this from our own point of view).

Ives says Arena to coach the Galaxy, Dave Sarachan to assist.

At the beginning of the 2nd half in the Meadowlands, one of New York's new imports drives an elbow into Danny Dichio's skull, instant red 46th minute. Toronto trailed at the time 1-0.

It just ended 2-0 Red Bulls. TFC is truly utterly unbelievable.

Look, play in the MLS is generally easier to understand if you think of it as hosting a secretive order of Players Who Suck in the Final Third.

It's even easier to understand if you realise that BMO field is the Grand Masonic Lodge of this order.

Hopefully Cobi will stick around in some capacity--I think he'd be a good GM.

er, strike that--I didn't know that Arena was going to be coach and GM. Yeesh.

In roughly this order either 4 things have happened or 3 have and one soon will:

1. TFC cans/waives/your term here Laurent Robert, in order to..
2. Trade for Carlos Ruiz from the Galaxy, allowing the Galaxy to..
3. Sign Eddie Lewis, in time for Thursday they hope.
4. What AG's reaction is, at this point I dare not speculate.

I'm sad about Robert. I thought it was a lovely piece of affirmative action to keep fielding someone who so clearly belonged in a paralympic squad.

I can't tell what it is we've shipped to LA for Ruiz, although I suspect it is one of those three first round draft picks we're hoarding. I have no idea why this deal wasn't consimmated sooner; LA's been desperate to deal for weeks, and our need for a striker has been plain for much longer.

Mo also made a comment yesterday to the effect that there are two others on their way in apart from Ruiz. He also said that $500,000 of the Edu deal will go to players, the rest will allegedly go tpo geting a grass field. This is of course patent nonsense because the city instists on having it as a year-round facility. Hell, my son is playing 14 games there in a TSA league this winter.

Most likely it's a draft pick plus enough salary cap room/allocation money to sign Eddie Lewis. That was the point from LA's view. $500,000 is all he was going to get for player purposes anyway.

I stand updated. Carlos Ruiz for $120,000 of salary cap room and 2 supplemental draft picks. And RSL are bringing in Canadian forward/Fire reject Will Johnson from Heerenveen after giving Chicago something for his MLS rights.

Jesus, that's nothing. So we still have three first round picks.

Mind you, this all reeks of desperation. And repetition. All the TFC press releases are shireking about his proven goal-scoring ability, 80-odd MLS goals, etc. But Cunningham had 90-odd when he got here and he was shite.

Inca, what's your take on Ruiz? Too old/slow/what exactly? The fact that he was behind Edson Buddle in the pecking order does not bode well. As I remember Buddle, he was realy, really good at taking balls in promising positions and walking them into the largest knot of defenders possible.

Look, over there, it's a Champions League!

And New England and Chivas proceed to lose, away to Jack Warner FC 2-1 and some Panamanian team FC Tauro 2-0 respectively. Oops.

That's plastic Chivas, right?

The Revs can probably do better than that at home, unless there are "future considerations" due to Mr. Warner.

Plastic Chivas indeed.

Meanwhile, MLS HQ rolls on its' merry, illogical way. To wit: RBNY can sell their future, Jozy Altidore, out from under themselves for $10 million. RBNY however CANNOT purchase a replacement, Macoumba Kandji (6'4', fast as hell, 10 goals in 20 games) from Atlanta Silverbacks for $200k, lest USL teams get ideas above their station.

eta: USL time in the Champions League last night; and they had considerably more success than MLS. Montreal defeats Real Esteli of Nicaragua at home 1-0, and Puerto Rico gets a draw at Alajuelense 1-1, including a 90th minute PK save to save the draw.

Well, short Champions League campaign for Chivas USA and the Revolution. Embarrassment for the league in both games: Chivas' game was capped at 2,000, but apparently attendance was just in the hundreds, and the Revolution losing to a team from Trinidad & Tobago at home 4-0.

The Chivas attendance cap is strange. When the Galaxy have mid-week games when CSUDH is in session, the cap is at 10,000. I remember seeing a 2005 cup game against Minnesota there, and there were maybe 1,500 people there. I sat behind one goalline, and you could still hear the players yelling at each other when they were on the other end of the pitch.