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Ten Worst: Metro trades (Part 2)
December 7, 2005
4) Mark Chung to Colorado with 2nd and 3rd round picks for a 1st round allocation pick (Diego Serna), 2002
No, Chung did not set the world on fire during his tenure with the Metros, and with Serna doing so during his stint with Miami, this trade looked fine at the time... Except, of course, Serna played just eight games for Metro, while Chung had two eleven-goal Best XI seasons for Colorado. And by drafting Serna, the Metros passed on Steve Ralston... but we discussed that before.
3) Roy Myers to Los Angeles for Welton; Eric Wynalda from San Jose for future considerations; Arley Palacios, Welton, Wynalda to Miami for allocation (Lothar Matthaus), 1999
In 1999, Charlie Stillitano wanted Lothar. He had to have Lothar. Lothar was going to save the Metro season. Lothar was ready to come to New York. So Charlie needed a big... not just a big, a giant allocation. So on a crazy day, he sent Myers to LA for Welton, received Wynalda from San Jose as owned future considerations, and then packaged the two, together with Palacios, to Miami for the uber-allocation, which was used on Lothar... but not until 2000, after The Great German decided to stay in the Bundesliga for another year. This trade effectively doomed the Metros to the worst season in MLS history.
2) Matthew Olson, 1st round (1st overall) supplemental pick (Nicola Caricola), 2nd round supplemental pick (Juninho), 3rd round supplemental pick (Tulio), 2nd round college pick (Scott Lamphear) from DC United for a 1st round (2nd overall) college pick (Eddie Pope), 1st round supplemental pick (Mario Gori), 1996
A ridiculous barrage of trades on the day of the original supplemental and college drafts saw Metro stockpile six supplemental picks, with two of them being used on useless Brazilians with famous names. They never played a minute in MLS; neither did Lamphear and Olson. Caricola's story is well known, and the necessity of grabbing the first overall pick to take an over-the-hill player who would not have played for any other MLS team is questionable at best. However, the big travesty of the day was the dealing the second overall college pick, who ended up being Eddie Pope to DC.
1) Giovanni Savarese to New England for Raul Diaz Arce; Diaz Arce and Marcelo Vega to San Jose for allocation and future considerations, 1999
The worst trade in Metro history kicked off the downward spiral to the worst season in MLS history. Two trades happened within a few days, and while the merits of the Tony Meola and Alexi Lalas for Mike Ammann and Mark Chung deal could be debated, those for shipping out Savarese could not. The trade is still inexplicable (as is Wandering Genius Bora Milutnovic's hate for Gio). Savarese, then (and still) the Metro all-time leading scorer, was shipped to the Revs for the hated Diaz Arce, who was then packaged with Vega (at least something good came out of this) to San Jose for... nothing, for future considerations, which became Wynalda in mid-season, who never played for Metro (see above).
Just missing out:
Mike Ammann to DC United for Richie Williams, allocation (Pedro Alvarez), and a 3rd round pick (Kerwyn Jemmott), 2001
D.J. Countess and a 2nd round pick to Dallas for Winston Griffiths and 1st round pick, 2002
Mike Petke, a 1st round pick (David Stokes), and allocation to DC United for Eddie Pope, Richie Williams, and Jaime Moreno, 2002
Joselito Vaca from Dallas for a 1st round pick, 2004
Note: while many would consider the Brad Davis for a draft pick that became Mike Magee a trade for this list, believe it or not, Magee has scored more goals in three years than Davis in his four, is less injury prone, and is three years younger.
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