For those who think MLS is boring and predictable, how about this one. DC United acquired Dwayne De Rosario from the New York Red Bulls in exchange for Dax McCarty on Monday afternoon in a move that nobody saw coming. It is not just a trade that includes two very good MLS players, but one between two rivals that completely changes the Eastern Conference.
DC United Trades Dax McCarty To New York For Dwayne De Rosario
De Rosario, a two-time MLS MVP, joined the Red Bulls on April 1 in a trade with Toronto FC, but will now move onto his third club of this season. He played well with New York, scoring twice and picking up four assists in 13 matches with the club despite playing a chunk of those matches with an immobile Thierry Henry and without Juan Agudelo and Luke Rodgers.
McCarty had the best season of his career in 2010 with FC Dallas, but was left unprotected in the expansion draft and eventually ended up in DC While he hasn't played as well as he did a year ago, much of that can be chalked up to having a worse team around him than he did in Dallas.
With De Rosario in the team, DC now has an abundance of attacking talent. He joins Chris Pontius, Charlie Davies, Andy Najar and then even Santino Quaranta when he gets healthy to give them plenty of attacking players. Now that McCarty is moving on, United can move Perry Kitchen to his preferred defensive midfield position, something that will not only please Kitchen, but United States fans who envision Kitchen as the national team's defensive midfielder of the future.
As for New York, the move looks strange by itself. McCarty is a fine player, but De Rosario is a MLS superstar. One thing that McCarty is though is younger and cheaper, opening the window for the Red Bulls to use the salary space opened up to make another signing, possibly even a goalkeeper to shore up what has been a troubling position for the club.
New York is second in the Eastern Conference on 24 points. DC is six points back with two matches in hand on their rivals.
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