FC Dallas re-sign Ruiz, DC up for an award

Promising to not make the same mistakes as last year, Carlos Ruiz signed a four-year deal with FC Dallas yesterday. FCD GM Michael Hitchock said the deal will make Ruiz one of the top five paid players in the league if he reaches all his bonus marks.

Last year, Ruiz netted 11 goals in 19 matches. This year he says his goal is 20 (I assume he means goals and not matches). If Ruiz can stay free of injury, he should have a good chance of making this happen. Since the Guatemala squad failed to make it to Germany, he will not need to pull double duty.

The question for FCD now turns to Eddie Johnson. With the recent addition of Kenny Cooper, they find themselves with an overstock of forwards. Johnson is very good, but is he worth the money?

If Johnson makes Arena's team for Germany, he will miss the better part of two months of the season. In addition, he is currently in the US camp instead of with Dallas for their preseason. With Johnson poking holes in their salary cap, it's hard to justify keeping him around.

However, if they trade him away now, they will likely miss out on a large transfer fee from a European team. If Johnson does well in Germany, asking $4-7 million for him is reasonable. That's a lot of money to pass up, but they might have no other choice.

In other news, DC United is up for a PRISM AWARD. The award is given to professional sport franchises that demonstrate industry-leading excellence and innovation in sport franchise management. When picking a winner, they look at five criteria: Strategic planning, innovative marketing, community relations, customer service and employee relations.

The other teams up for the award are the St. Louis Rams (NFL) and the Philadelphia Flyers (NHL). United was a finalist for this award last year as well.