Moreno Trade: A Personal 180 + Implications

Seeing as it's kinda my job, I've been following the Alejandro Moreno to Columbus trade pretty closely - at least in the "other" space. As one can see, I started out puzzled, but have since come around by clocking the wisdom of others - not least Columbus Crew coach Sigi Schmid.

Schmid is, of course, far from neutral - after all, the man has a decision to defend - so it was kind of nice to have someone not associated with the Crew review the upside:

"The task will fall to Schmid to build his Crew team around [Guillermo] Schelotto, who likely will line up as a right forward in a 4-3-3 or right winger in a 4-4-2. Schmid showed that he is ready to tailor his roster to maximize Schelotto's strengths by dealing for former Houston forward Alejandro Moreno. An underrated forward who is more adept than Joseph Ngwenya at a pass-heavy approach to offense, Moreno is the type of forward always looking for quick combinations and smart runs to make off his teammates."

The thing is, Moreno plugs nicely into the larger equation without Schelotto being part of the picture - on paper anyway. Call this a two-piece gamble on the Crew developing an offense; if they can pull it off the East gets a good bit tougher.

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Champs' Cup: Houston Attacks!

With the kick off to the Houston Dynamo's semifinal first leg now just hours away, I thought I'd squeeze in some last minute notes on what to expect.

First of all, don't think that Mexico's Pachuca isn't up for this one. As an item on Soccer365.com points out, they seem to view winning this competition as a natural progression in their growing success.

Turning to Houston, the Houston Chronicle is churning out some good stuff, though with an assist from MLSnet.com. The latter chipped in today (or yesterday) with a preview; the key detail came with Houston coach Dominic Kinnear's blunt game-plan:

"Let's go try to attack them and see if they can handle us."

Well, we'll see how that goes.

Turning to the Chronicle, apart from passing on a classic phrase from Kinnear - he's adivising the team to "play within ourselves" - there's some good dish on tactics, notably about attacking down the flanks, something the absence of Dwayne DeRosario encourages. Another interesting wrinkle to consider: with King Foul-Lure Alejandro Moreno looking likely to take DeRosario's place, that may open up some free-kick opportunities for the Dynamo. Given Brad Davis' left foot - and hoping he's been practicing with it a lot - perhaps the Dynamo ought to play Moreno to the right to provide Davis with ideal opportunites.

Finally, another Chronicle item gives us all a heads-up that, due to Kinnear's hesitance to tinker with a line-up that worked before, Eddie Robinson won't start this one; we should expect to see Craig Waibel paired with Ryan Cochrane in the middle, with Kelly Gray on the right and Wade Barrett on the left.

All right, y'all. Happy viewing. (MUST stop stalling...must look at Chicago Fire...to...preview...the...season....)

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