Paolo, Paolo, wherefore art thou Paolo?

By: DAS | April 12th, 2012

PauloCardozo_LA Lopes

Yesterday the Galaxy traded Paolo Cardozo to Chivas in exchange for Brazilian defender David Junior Lopes.

Before any of you English majors attack me for misuse of the quote above, I am not asking where Paolo went. He went to Chivas. I am asking, appropriately for the quote, about his true nature. See, I think we fans, or at least some of us, had a kind of romance with Cardozo. He is young, fleet footed, attacking, and exciting. He really showed a great deal of potential last season when partnered up front with Keane. J-ro and the Guessmonkey over at the COG actually read an email from me extolling his virtues as a striker and I think J-ro even agreed with me.

But the reality is that for all that potential, he never produced. He held the ball too long. He couldn’t finish his shots. He was getting chances and looking good, but he wasn’t getting much in the way of results. Perhaps he would be better as a CAM, but that’s just not the formation Arena plays. And so, he is now a marginal Galaxy player at best. Buddle, Barrett, and even Christman are probably above him in the striker pecking order. Maybe Donovan too. In the midfield he is sitting behind Magee, Stephens, and possibly even Franklin. He’s good backup, but we just don’t have much use for him now.

Lopes is a 29-year old Brazilian center back. At 6′2″ he is imposing and has some experience as a back line muscler. That’s clearly where we have a need. Despite that, this isn’t such an exciting trade. Yes, a big rugged center back is great. But I’m not sure he’s really any better than Myer or Boyens. It looks like Leonardo may be out longer than expected, so it’s good to have some additional cover. And one more big center back creates a possibility of moving AJDLG to a right back position so Franklin could play mid. Given all that, I think it’s a good deal for the Galaxy. But trading one bench player for another isn’t exactly the stuff of transfer news headlines.

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Category: Player News

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AlecTheGreen

Good analysis. When the trade was first announced, I was disappointed. Other than size and strength, Cardozo has all the tools to develop into a solid player in this league. I had always hoped that having Cienfuegos on the staff would have helped him develop into a playmaking midfielder. To your point, that was probably never going to happen in Bruce's system. Regardless, it felt like we were pushing the panic button too early and trading one of our few high-upside assets for a fringe backup. On Chivas, no less. HE may have been shipped out for any number of reasons. But the quality of his play on the field wasn't anywhere close to the end of last season.
JGuesman

David Couldn't agree with you more on the Cardozo trade! It's a bench player for a bench player. A "like" for a "like." Lopes will get a chance to crack the starting lineup soon. But with Cardozo he had that chance. And he sits very deep behind some excellent Midfielders!
DAS

As you noted though, we are going to regret it when Cardozo scores against us in the net "Superclassico." Wow, I feel dirty having used that word.