Ruiz Gone

FC Dallas traded forward and captain Carlos Ruiz back to LA this past week for some more money to use against the cap and a pick in 2009 draft. This isn't a huge surprise as Dallas has looked to go in a different direction, and Ruiz had a disappointing year (by his lofty standards at least.) But here's this description from the Star Telegram article about the trade:

Ruiz enjoyed his best seasons with LA; he scored 24 goals in 2002 and was an All-Star all three years. The Galaxy re-acquired him to fill a need as a target forward for midfielder David Beckham's passes.

In other words, LA will play to his strengths as Dallas has been unable/unwilling to. Meaning which he'll probably come back here next season and score a hat trick against Dallas at Pizza Hut Park, proving yet again that many FC Dallas players hit their strides when their somewhere other than with FC Dallas.

Defender Clarence Goodson is already gone, having jumped ship for more money in Norway. Fortunately Dallas has replaced him with Duilio Davino, a quality Mexican center back. I don't for an instant believe that the days of six-goal meltdowns is quite gone yet, but you take what you can get. I do believe though that FC Dallas is taking significant steps to improve themselves, especially as quality players in the form of Pablo Richetti and Juan Toja are returning from last season. There's hope yet for somebody around here to make something of themselves in the playoffs.