Christian Gomez a Rapid

The announcement is now official. From the Rapids website:

In order to sign the playmaker, Colorado had to complete a trade with DC United for his rights. In that deal the Rapids sent their first round pick in the 2009 MLS SuperDraft and future considerations to the nation’s capital.

Usually future considerations are more or higher draft picks, based on statistics the player puts up for his new teams (Games played, goals scored, etc.). If that's the case the Rapids got a steal on this one. Gomex is instantly the best player on the Rapids roster and gives the Rapids a true goal-scoring threat out of the midfield, something the team hasn't had in years, if ever. In trade we give up a few draft picks, and if you look at the Rapids draft history, and the odds of finding a quality MLS player in the draft, that's not a significant loss.


Even if the future considerations turn out to be an allocation I still think it was a good deal, though at that point its a more even trade for DC. gomez is still an allocation-level player, even at his age, and the increase in offensive firepower is something the team desperately needs.


With Gomez on the roster an no major rumored moves coming before the end of the season, I expect a lineup along the following lines.

Bouna

Ugo - Erpen - Petke - Burciaga

Pablo

Cooke - Gomez - Clark

Herc - Kirovski

My choice would be Peterson or Cummings up front in place of Kirovski, at least until Casey has recovered from his knee injury, but Clavijo seems to be obsessed with Jovan in the starting 11 so I expect him there. I could also see Nico in place of Clark and/or Hilgenbrink in place of Burciaga based on preseason training.

UPDATE: Well it looks like the trade is turning sour. Steven Goff is reporting that the "future considerations" is the right for D.C. to use our DP slot for the next 3 years. Its unclear if that means we've traded the slot or if they just have the right of first refusal to the use of our slot, but either way involving our DP slot in the Gomez trades takes this trade from a steal for the Rapids all the way to a steal for DC. Consider the following:

• Chivas traded their DP slot for 5 years for the under contract Guevara
• We've (apparently) traded our DP slot for 3 years AND a first round draft pick for the rights to Gomez. We then had to sign him to a contract or give him up.

Not only that, but we've also made DC much better in the process. They can now go out and sign Veron or Schevcheko, both of which have been rumored. Either one of those two would probably be an upgarde for Gomez for the Rapids. Now admittedly, I don't think that the Rapids FO would spend the cash to sign one of the, and I'm not sure they would come here if they did, but that doesn't make the trade to give up our DP into a good move.