Arena Blows Up Bulls

This fall, the marginally talented Red Bulls went as far as creative midfielder Amado Geuvara could take them. Unfortunately for New Yorkers, that was only to the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference and a first-round playoff loss. With little reason to believe next year would be any more prosperous if he held on to this season's nucleus, coach Bruce Arena traded Guevara to Chivas USA Monday amid a number of other roster shakeups in the Meadowlands.

In exchange for its best player, New York received a third-round draft pick as well as a "designated player slot" which can be used to sign a superstar under the league's new exemption that allows each team to sign one pricey player without it counting against the 1.9 million dollar salary cap. Arena is reported as saying that Red Bulls management has talked to numerous clubs in South America and Europe about acquiring a recognized star. The short list of desired players would likely include Claudio Reyna, Ronaldo and David Beckham. Of those, you would think that Reyna would be the easiest - and cheapest - to pry away from his current club (Machester City).

In Arena's other moves, the former U.S. national team coach placed Tony Meola, Chris Henderson, Peter Canero and Steve Jolley on waivers. These transactions came on the heels of last week's trade of floundering forward Edson Buddle to Toronto for Tim Regan after Josmer Altidore's maturation (three goals in three starts) made Buddle expendable. That move also shored up Arena's back line as Regan is as composed and as solid as they come in MLS.

As for the other side of the Guevara swap, Chivas' Bob Bradley must be glowing at the prospect of lining up Guevara alongside Juan Pablo Garcia. With Ante Razov and Jonothan Bornstein up top, Chivas could have the most explosive lineup in the West come 2007.

And if Arena can find a dominant star in the twilight of his career, he too could hold the keys to one of next year's contenders. For now, though, all this deal has done is made Chivas considerably stronger while putting pressure on New York's front office to use their new "designated player" spot wisely and find some more young talent to complement their mystery superstar.