UPDATED: Scooping The Galaxy’s Official Site

Is it really that hard to do?

While I was sleeping our faithful reader George linked us to some personnel changes. Brandon MacDonald and Mike Randolf have been waived. Ruud Gullit was high on MacDonald last year, and Randolf has been an on again off again starter in the back four. I guess we have to cut our roster somewhere, and these guys don’t fit into Bruce Arena’s plans.

In addition, Steve Cronin is bye-bye. I was never a big fan of Cronin’s, but in his defense it’s awfully difficult to impress when you’re in front of the worst defense in the MLS.

Laurie has also linked us to a great article on Golden Balls. It’s worth the read, even if you are sick of all the hullabaloo.

Finally, Landon Donovan’s time with Bayern Munich is coming to a close. Is there still hope for him to stay in Europe? Not likely. But with Luca Toni’s achilles tendon injury Donovan now finds himself with more playing time. I watched Saturday’s match again Cologne and it seemed to me that Donovan wasn’t getting much service. He has been playing as one of the top two forwards and therefore not having as many opportunities to run at the defense from the midfield which is one of his greatest strengths. Luis Bueno has a nice write up about Landon’s time with Bayern. Good luck Landon!

UPDATE (from Nathanhj): Official communications to season ticket holders list the full number of players officially waived this week. In addition to the three above, defender Troy Roberts and left winger Ely Allen are now in search of new options.

I always feel for players who get waived. It is rejection in its purest form. That said, I wondered when it would happen to Roberts. He’s now in his mid-20’s, at the point where he’s probably as good as he’s going to get. He played a lot during 2007 for the injury-ravaged team that sometimes could only put 14 players in jerseys and then some more in 2008 when back-line options were few. But he was never a standout or even a solid journeyman; his game seems more suited to the slower speed of the game in the USL.

Allen showed some promise in 2008 in terms of his attacking flair but he never seemed to fully adjust to the speed of the game in MLS. This hampered his ability to finish and exposed his lackluster crosses and his tendency to wait too long to make a pass. Combined this serves to have made him surplus to requirements on a team that has Eddie Lewis and Todd Dunivant on the left side, and a player like Mike Magee who is comfortable both as a left wing and as a forward.

I hope both these guys land somewhere else where they can get paid to play futbol

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Category: Player News