Ruiz to Crew? Er...um...

Okay, I'm not really sure how I feel about this one. Allen Hopkins at ESPN reports:

Reunion: Vol. 2?

First it was Clint Mathis and Bruce Arena. Now could it be Carlos Ruiz and Sigi Schmid?

There are growing rumblings that the Crew could make a move to pry Carlos Ruiz away from FC Dallas. Ruiz has been substituted in two of the past three matches by first-year head coach Steve Morrow and that hasn¹t sat well with the FCD captain.

Ruiz and Schmid were a very successful pairing in 2002 leading the Galaxy to their first MLS Cup after three previous championship-game losses. And to say Schmid has a place in his heart for Ruiz is an understatement. The Crew are quietly unbeaten and seem to be only a proven goal scorer away from making noise in the East.

An MLS coach told me this week, "It doesn't make a whole lot of sense the way they're [Dallas] playing tactically right now in that formation. To be playing Ruiz up top by himself and Cooper out wide really hurts them quite a bit." Stay tuned.

The article is absolutely right. We are a goal-scorer away from being a power at this point. We have solid defense, a midfield that has been able to get the ball forward, and even lots of shots. But we only have three goals on the season. THREE! Granted, Andy Herron is still trying to work himself into play and the crap suspension against him doesn't help. But there are another ten guys out there to score and they're just not doing it. Eddie Gaven is on leaderboard for shots but not shots on goal. So we could sure use a proven forward.

On the other hand, though... Ruiz is a diving mess. I don't feel as strongly about him as I do Ante Razov, but I sure as heck don't like him. He's too much a Central American player (who's not from Costa Rica - I never see them diving as much as I do other C.A. players, it seems) in that he's constantly flopping and throwing out the histrionics. And I can't support that. Even when it's our player, and you're supposed to be able to support your players... I can't do it here. He's all that is wrong with soccer.

Damn... what's a Crew fan supposed to do?