February 10, 2009 4:20 PM

Looking inside the Marshall trade

Sounders FC's trade for Tyrone Marshall (photo from reggaeboyzsc.com) didn't cost it another player, but rather money. Allocation money.

Seattle apparently had a good deal of that cash to part with because it is an expansion team and therefore receives additional allocation money with which to acquire players, be that through signing them with the funds or trading the money to another team. Keep in mind that Sounders FC did give up allocation money to the Columbus Crew to free up Sigi Schmid to come to the team as coach.

Marshall comes into a defensive unit that is looking for depth. Seattle, at least from the looks of things in practice and in Monday's game, will be an up-tempo, attacking, ball-movement team with offensive capability as its strength. The back line, though, is missing veteran Jeff Parke, who at this point isn't likely to play for Sounders FC this season, and rookie Jared Karkas, who currently has a hamstring injury. James Riley looks like a solid find as an outside defender and Tyson Wahl a good interior guy, but outside back Nathan Sturgis was beaten on the run and pass that assisted the Galaxy's lone goal Monday, and perhaps the team wants to push Taylor Graham more, since it appears Marshall plays Graham's position.

My first thought when I heard about the trade was that it involved midfielder Khano Smith, who was not with the team Monday and is apparently being shopped around as trade material. Here's an item from soccerbyives.net that suggests Smith is set to go to the New York Red Bulls in exchange for allocation money. Makes sense because Sounders FC's allocatrion coffers are depleted.

It was suggested from as far back as when Smith was selected in the expansion draft that he wouldn't be a good fit in Schmid's style. On the surface, Smith was working with the top 11 unit early in training camp but lost that spot to Sanna Nyassi and Steve Zakuani, who started at Smith's left midfield spot Monday.

In any case, Smith hasn't yet been dealt anywhere, though that seems close to being finalized in the next day or two.

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