Clubs busy making mid-season player moves
- by Paul Kennedy @pkedit, Jul 29, 2014
He has bounced around clubs in Scotland, Japan, Greece and France, where he was born, but has held the starting job in goal for the Fennecs for the last two World Cups. M’Bolhi, 28, was outstanding in Brazil, holding off eventual champion Germany until overtime in the round of 16.
-- The Chicago Fire and Montreal Impact exchanged midfielders. The Fire acquired Gambian Sanna Nyassi for Dilly Duka. The 25-year-old Nyassi played with Seattle and Colorado before joining Montreal for its MLS launch in 2012. Duka, 24, has made 82 appearances for Columbus and Chicago but played just six games in 2014.
-- Needing help on its backline with Jeff Parke sidelined, first with a foot injury and now migraine headaches, D.C. United picked up 23-year-old defender Kofi Opare and the LA Galaxy's second-round pick in the 2015 MLS SuperDraft in an exchange of allocation swaps that moved the Galaxy up to the No. 3 spot behind Columbus and FC Dallas. United gets the Galaxy's No. 11 spot. Rookie Steve Birnbaum has started recently in Parke's absence. D.C. United also has Lee Ji Ke, a South Korean left back from Japanese club Shimizu S-Pulse, in camp for a trial. Four weeks ago, Cristian Fernandez returned to his native Spain.
-- FC Dallas sent midfielder Andrew Jacobson to New York City FC in exchange for MLS expansion club’s highest 2016 third-round SuperDraft pick. And NYCFC turned around and loaned him to Norwegian club Stabaek, coached by American Bob Bradley. Jacobson, 28, has played 140 games in six MLS seasons. He was a regular for Dallas in 2011-13 but started just six games this season.
MONTREAL. Impact president Joey Saputo was set to make an "important announcement" on Wednesday. Montreal has lost five games in a row and sits in last place in the overall standings, feeding speculation that Saputo was about to replace sporting director Nick De Santis or head coach Frank Klopas. Late reports out of Montreal suggested that De Santis was out.
