Why the Metros Traded Pope!
Tuesday, February 1, 2005
By IVES GALARCEP
HERALD NEWS
This sign was apparently found at MLS headquarters in recent weeks:
For sale, U.S. national team defender, best defender in MLS, 31, still runs fast, soft-spoken but steady. Has high salary but worth it. Available for in exchange for a top forward, cash or best offer. Contact Bob Bradley.
So what exactly led the MetroStars to put captain and defensive leader Eddie Pope on the block? What drove a team that struggled so badly defensively last season to unload their best defender to the highest bidder? The list of reasons seems to grow daily, but they don't seem to add up to an ironclad reason why the team had to get rid of him, which is what the Metros will do today by sending Pope to Real Salt Lake for a player allocation (valued at between $100,000-$150,000) and conditional draft picks, a deal expected to be announced today.
Here are some of the primary reasons why the Metros felt the deal was necessary:
Pope's high salary
When MLS re-signed Pope to a large contract in the summer of 2003, making him the highest paid defender in the league, his days with the MetroStars immediately became numbered. Pope is set to make at least $350,000 for the next two years, although only $280,000 to $290,000 of it will count toward the salary cap. That number was just too much for a 31-year old defender with injury concerns.
This explanation would make sense if the team hadn't acquired 36-year old defender Jeff Agoos this winter. According to a source, Agoos is set to make $200,000 in 2005, meaning the Metros saved $80,000 to $90,000 against the cap by effectively swapping Pope for someone who is older, not as good a defender, but presumably a better leader, something the young Metros sorely needed. Something else to consider is that while Pope's deal extended through 2007, Agoos' contract expires after this season, leaving the Metros with plenty of salary cap space in 2006.
He wasn't enough of a leader
Eddie Pope isn't a rah-rah guy. He isn't someone who will yell at his teammates much or serve as a coach's mouthpiece. He goes about his business and expects his teammates to be able to handle themselves like pros without having him telling them what to do. Problem was that on a team as young as the Metros, the locker room was starving for a vocal leader, someone with a presence who could motivate the younger players when they'd grown tired of Bradley's commands. Bradley wanted more out of a captain and presumably more out of a defender making the salary Pope made. These contrasting approaches made the relationship between Pope and Bradley a strained one at times. They remained professional, but calling their relationship icy at times wouldn't be a stretch.
Bradley found the locker room leader he was looking for in Agoos, who has five MLS Cup rings to show his teammates anytime one of them decides to ask why they should be listening to him. Bradley may have gained the leadership the team needed by acquiring Agoos and sending Pope away, but the price was a considerable drop in the quality of defender.
Pope isn't what he once was
There is no denying that Pope struggled at times last year. He made some mistakes that fans weren't used to seeing him make during his storied MLS career. Some skeptics read his struggles as the beginning of his demise as a player.
That theory may have held more weight if Pope hadn't been an absolute anchor in the back for the U.S. national team during last year's World Cup qualifying. His efforts in road games against Jamaica and Panama helped the U.S. team salvage two points where they almost came away empty handed.
He will miss games
This is the most valid of the reasons for wanting to deal Pope. With World Cup qualifiers taking place this year, and the World Cup looming in 2006, Pope is likely to miss a good amount of MLS matches in the next two seasons. Did the Metros really want to be paying maximum salary to a defender who would miss considerable playing time? The answer was apparently no.
Metros have chips to play with
Dealing Pope and Ricardo Clark will give the MetroStars a $350,000 war chest to go searching for strikers wingers and defenders. With the European transfer window closed, Bradley will focus on South America, where he has done plenty of scouting and can bring in between five and six players to help increase the talent level on the roster.
Three words make the team's decision to deal away Pope and Clark for cash very risky. Sergio Galvan Rey. The Metros thought they'd struck gold when they found the Argentine striker playing in Colombia. They used the $400,000 made from Tim Howard's move to Manchester United to sign the striker. The result? Two goals. That's $200,000 a goal for those counting at home. Couple Galvan Rey's first season with the erratic contributions of Caribbean strikers Fabian Taylor and Cornell Glen, and you can understand why nobody is assuming that Bradley will work magic with the cash and allocations he now has to work with.
The biggest winner in the whole deal may be Real Salt Lake, which lands a marquee defender when the expansion franchise looked in danger of heading into its first season with a patch-work back-line. Pope also wins because he wasn't happy here and will now play for a coach that will allow him to just play and be a leader in his own way. Whether the Metros won or lost won't be known until November. If Agoos succeeds in bringing the Metros their first MLS Cup title by helping the youngsters grow up and anchoring the defense, and one or two unknown Brazilians emerge to dazzle fans and spark the Metros, then Bradley will be applauded for having the guts to make the tough decisions he made. If Agoos back gives out, the youngsters don't progress enough to carry the team and Bradley's foreign acquisitions play more like flops than bargains, the MetroStars will be left wondering if all the off-season maneuvering, specifically Pope's departure, was really necessary.
Pope rumored to be coming to Salt Lake
02-01-2005, 09:06 AM
