Moreno to Crew - So Long, Joseph Ngwenya

In a fairly big trade, the Crew grabbed forward Alejandro Moreno from Houston and traded Joseph Ngwenya to the Dynamos in return.

I'll be very honest, I've only seen Moreno play a couple times as I generally don't have time to watch non-Crew games on TV (I don't always have time to watch Crew games on TV, for that matter). But from what I've seen, he's a much cleaner player than Carlos Ruiz (not that that's too hard), who was rumored to be coming to Columbus. And he's a big, physical presence up front, a good holder of the ball, and he's scored a lot of goals in the rather limited number of games he's been in. He seems to have always been behind a top-notch scorer on the depth chart wherever he's been, so he's probably chomping at the bit to be the number one guy.

So I like this move. I liked Ngwenya, but have to admit I agree with those who say he was offside too much. He was starting much better this season, but the fact remains that we need a scoring punch, and with only one true forward on the roster (and a crappy one at that in Jason Garey) we needed to do something. And now we have.

Also interesting - our trades recently have been much more about skill than about "hustle," "pace," or being a good practice player. That was a curse we were under in the Fitz/Andrulis years. With Sigi Schmidt as the big kahuna on the bench, we're moving in a much more offensive, skill-based direction. I like it. We'll see how things pan out if we can ever get Moreno and Herron on the field simultaneously. I'm excited!