The news broke last night during the broadcast and now it's all over the web. Chad Barrett for Brian McBride.
It's like trading two shiny new quarters for an old 10-dollar bill.
Barrett would be pretty good if it weren't for one thing: his inability to finish. Being as he's a forward and his job is to finish, that's kind of a big issue. Had McBride been in Barrett's position to finish the chances that were served up to him on silver platters, Chicago might have a win or three more in their win column.
As it stands, Chicago is in good position to make the playoffs. With McBride, though, you've got to think that the Fire is second behind New England in terms of MLS Cup favorites, with Columbus a distant third.
Of course, it will be strange to see Cuauhtemoc Blanco and Brian McBride on the same side. That might take some getting used to.
So does McBride instantly become one of the league's best three forwards? The best forward, period?
Good thing for us out here at HDC is that McBride's first game with the Fire might be against the Galaxy on Aug. 21. So we've got that to look forward to.
1)Donovan
ReplyDelete2) Angel & McBride
3) Emilio
If Angel is 100% I put him above McBride.
Two shiny quarters? LOL
I still think that Barrett is better than Ibrahim. McBride wasn't going to go to Toronto - he would have retired first. He's probably only going to play a year or two anyway. Yes, Chad misses a lot, but he's young and can get better at that.
ReplyDelete@AC: as a Fire fan, I've watched Barrett week in and week out...he's just a shitty player.
ReplyDeleteIt's not a confidence issue; those last 1 or 2 games at best, he simply has a poor footballing brain. He's already about to turn 23, that's entering middle age for a soccer player. Cristiano Ronaldo is 22, Messi is 22, Kun Aguero is 20 I mean, most guys have 'figured it out' by the time they are his age.
Sure there are some Luca Toni types who bloom very late, but I just don't see it for Chad.
It was a fair trade though considering McBride will probably play 1 more year at best.
It's not really trading an old ten-dollar bill for two shiny quarters.
ReplyDeleteIt's like some charming woman left a message for your roommate to say when and where she'd meet him for their date and your selling that information to your roommate for $5.
The charming woman wouldn't have gone on the date with you if you'd shown up in your roommate's place, and if he were to have missed this date, she might have left her next message at his workplace.
Or, it's like the allocation system is stupid.
One of those.
I'm also astounded by the contingent of TFC supporters popping up on on blogs and message boards insisting that TFC somehow got the short end of this.
ReplyDeleteSure, they were entitled to ask Chicago for something because the ridiculous allocation system gave them that right. But McBride was never going to play for TFC. The whole point of his turning down a contract extension at Fulham was to come home to the US, specifically to Chicago. The only question was how much Chicago would give up to deal with TFC now rather than wait until next season to deal with Seattle (who would get first allocation next season).
So, basically, by making this trade, the Fire gets McBride for 10 MLS games plus any playoff games and Toronto gets Barrett, a first-round draft pick, and contingent "further considerations." Getting a player who can tie his own shoes and a draft pick for a player who might be able to tie his own shoes seems like a pretty good deal for a player who would have retired before tying his shoes in your locker room.