Center Line Soccer

Among the nuggets to emerge from Frank Yallop’s post-game press conference is that the team is looking to move midfielder Ned Grabavoy.

After not being used during Wednesday’s scrimmage against Cal, Grabavoy was conspicuous by his absence on Friday, as he was not included in the game-day roster. When asked afterwards about Grabavoy’s status Yallop said, “We’re exploring trades with [Grabavoy] right now.”

This situation strikes me as being very similar to what happened to Joe Vide last year. In Vide’s case, the Quakes attempted to deal him last year just before contracts became guaranteed for the season. Not surprisingly, there were no takers, and San Jose was forced to waive Vide with D.C. United duly snapping him up. (To be fair, Vide has since been waived by United, so there clearly wasn’t much of a market for the player). In this case, the roster compliance date is March 2, meaning that any G.M. worth their salt will likely wait until Gravavoy is let go, and then claim him on waivers. While the Indiana product certainly had his chances to impress last season and failed to take them, in some ways his departure is a shame. I think Grabavoy made a genuine effort to come into camp fit and ready to go. The problem as I see it is that he’s a tweener: too small to play in the middle, and not quite quick enough to play outside.

In other news:

• Grabavoy’s apparent departure would appear to create an opening on the roster for midfielder Simon Elliott. Elliott delivered what I thought was a pretty clean performance against Colorado in terms of taking care of the ball, and he clogged the passing lanes well. The arrival of Aki Riihilahti would appear to make Elliott the first center mid off the bench, but given the way the team struggled last year after Ramiro Corrales got injured, he’s not a bad option to have.

• The team has not heard back from Alex Zotinca about a contract offer they made at the end of his trial. Yallop indicated that they would try to reestablish contact next week when the team is down in Los Angeles, but I get the sense that the Quakes tried to get Zotinca on the cheap and it didn’t work.

“It’s kind of gone cold,” said Yallop in reference to Zotinca. “We’ll see.”

If Zotinca is not back in training with the team next week, it’s safe to say that the Quakes are looking elsewhere for a right back.

• Yallop did confirm a report by the Washington Post’s Steve Goff that former D.C. United left back Mike Zaher will be joining the team down in Los Angeles for a trial.

“We’re just going to have a look at him,” said Yallop of Zaher. (Yallop’s complete post-game press conference can be heard here.)