By Ridge Mahoney, Senior Editor
Soccer America
Real Salt Lake has begun the revamp of its roster by waiving several players, including Rusty Pierce, D.J. Countess and Matt Behncke, and trading Brian Dunseth to CD Chivas USA for defender Douglas Sequeira and midfielder Christian Jiminez.
One player back on the block is Real Salt Lake forward Clint Mathis, who was made available prior to the Sept. 15 trade deadline and now that the season is over, trade talks can re-commence.
Teams may have been scared off by his contract terms: two more years guaranteed at $410,000 per season (about $280,000 counts against the cap), and several curious clauses, including a payment of $140,000 if he is traded.
Several clubs will need to dump players or cut their salaries to sort out salary-cap issues. Tony Sanneh (base salary: $285,000) of Chicago, for example, will count fully against the Fire's cap next year, unless his deal is re-negotiated; Columbus picked up a portion this season.
On the other hand, other clubs are in good shape. Colorado no longer will have to carry guaranteed salaries totaling more than $400,000 that carried over from 2004 to 2005; on the minus side, that's approximately the combined salaries of Jeff Cunningham and Jovan Kirovski, and both will count fully against Colorado's cap next year if they are re-signed at the same terms.
The Galaxy has nobody who will be out of contract next year. Teams must decide whether to exercise options on players by the end of the month and it held its waiver draft — 49 players were made available but none were taken — on Wednesday.
New Columbus coach Sigi Schmid has some leverage: three goalkeepers (Jon Busch, Matt Jordan, Jonny Walker) who have been starters in MLS and several experienced young players (Danny Szetela, Knox Cameron, Chris Wingert, Edson Buddle, Chad Marshall). He also has two allocations and might have further money available if midfielder Simon Elliott makes a move to English club Fulham.