Monday, February 9, 2009

Christian Gomez, Second Coming

Steve Goff's Soccer Insider blog, is reporting that D.C. United has completed a deal for playmaker Christian Gomez. As longtime DC United loyalists know, Gomez was our former league MVP in 2006, and led the team to their fourth league championship in 2004, and two Supporter's Shields in 2006 and 2007.

DC traded Gomez at the beginning of last season after an ugly contract renegotiation, that ended with DC signing Marcello Gallardo to replace Gomez for $1.87 million dollars. Now, with Gallardo on his way back to River Plate to finish his career in his native Argentina, DC has reacquired Gomez (while sticking Colorado with a portion of the bill) with the hope that he can regain his form in the #10 playmaker role.

Here's the breakdown of the trade:
DC UNITED GETS:
-An International Roster Spot
-Rights to 23 yr old Goalie Mike Graczyk
-Christian Gomez, whose $400,000 contract will be in part covered by Colorado

COLORADO RAPIDS GET:
-Honduran LB/LM Ivan Guererro
-A Designated Player slot (originally Colorado's, part of Gomez deal last year)
-2010 second round draft pick

What do you think? This is a difficult trade to weigh. Last season we acquired Ivan Guererro from San Jose, and fit him into our system as an industrious winger, willing to grind out games from 18 to 18, a la Ben Olsen. I truly believed him to be an essential part of the new team at the end of last season, but since then the team has signed 2 additional left backs and a left midfielder. His spot was never guaranteed.

With Gomez returning, I do wonder if United is suffering from sports nostalgia, seeking some old glory. Recall that last year, Gomez ended the season without stepping on the field for the last month of games. Can he still be that MVP that Gallardo failed to be? I really need to think about this more, but my initial reaction is that the trade will work out in DC's favor because of Gomez's familiarity with United's system, and the international roster acquisition which will let us upgrade if we need to.

My biggest gripe is that all our attacking players are in the mid 30's.....

I'll have more and a team preview posted as the season gets closer, until then, enjoy this Gomez Goal compilation from 2006-2007:





UPDATE:The team website now has the report up.

3 comments:

  1. yes! i was thinking about posting about this but you beat me to it. welcome back, Christian!

    ReplyDelete
  2. as for more in-depth analysis, i agree with you that gomez's familiarity with DC's system, as well as teammates and the city, will work to his advantage. i also agree that guererro could have have played a much-needed gritty role for this year's squad. but i think what it boiled down to last year was a lack of creativity and chemistry up top, which gomez will help with.

    we'll see what else goes down before now and the start of the season (i think it's only 45 days away? insane)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Bad ass. Hopefully his age isn't a factor, that's my only fear.

    ReplyDelete