New York gets striker, Columbus gets a difficult year

What do you know, the rumors were true. The Reds of New York traded away midfielder Eddie Gaven and defender Chris Leitch to the Columbus Crew for striker Edson Buddle today. This gives New York a good striking team with Youri Djorkaeff and Buddle. No longer will they need their midfield to score if they want to win.

Leitch is good for the Crew as he will be able to step into Frankie Hejduk's place if he heads off to the World Cup, while Gaven will supply some additional midfield strength (I'm guessing this places rookie Brandon Moss off the starter list), but whom will he be feeding the ball to?

John Wolyniec has his moments, but he is not dynamic enough to carry it all by himself and David Testo does not have the playing experience to take defensive pressure off of Wolyniec.

Since New York had already waived Leitch (he failed to get drafted in the waiver draft, so he went back to New York), this was mainly a trade of Buddle for Gaven. Since Gaven had a difficult 2005 while Buddle did all right, all things point to this helping New York more then Columbus. The Reds now have the strike force they need to be competitive while the Crew now need to locate a top quality striker.