Orlando City defender Jonathan Spector
Defender expected to miss most of August
will miss two to three weeks of play after suffering a knee injury.
Orlando City defender Jonathan Spector will miss two to three weeks of play after suffering a knee injury during training on Tuesday.
Spector sprained his lateral collateral ligament or LCL, which runs along the outside of the knee and connects the thigh and shin bones, a spokesman for the club told the Sentinel.
The given recovery timeline means he will miss the Lions’ road match Saturday against the New York Red Bulls and home matches the next two Saturdays against the Columbus Crew and Vancouver Whitecaps. If he takes a full three weeks or more to come back, he could also miss the Sept. 2 game in New England.
Orlando City players suffered
multiple injuries through the first couple months of the season. Recently, the squad has been mostly healthy.
Right back Rafael Ramos, who has had consecutive hamstring injuries, is now clear to play. Left back Victor “PC” Giro still is day-to-day with a muscle injury, according to the club.
Spector’s injury is a significant blow to the Lions. He is the leader on the back line and the most consistent defensive piece on the roster this year. He’s also logged more minutes than any other field player.
Orlando City has various options to replace him, including José Aja and Tommy Redding, who have switched off starting alongside Spector. There’s also Léo Pereira, who performed well in his three 90-minute appearances a couple months ago.
Late trade
Hours before MLS’ summer transfer window slammed shut Wednesday night, Orlando City hustled to make a deal with the Colorado Rapids.
The Lions traded midfielder Luis Gil and $100,000 of allocation money to the Rapids and received midfielder Dillon Powers. Orlando City also saves $100,000 of allocation money it would have had to pay to Real Salt Lake next year for Gil’s rights.
Orlando City acquired Gil, 23, in April on loan from Querétaro FC in Mexico’s Liga MX. He mostly subbed on for Kaká or other attacking midfielders but started in six of his 17 matches played for a total of 597 minutes.
Powers, 26, logged 964 minutes with the Rapids and had 11 starts in 15 appearances. He also recorded an assist.
“Dillon is a creative midfielder who has proven himself in this league over the past four seasons,” Orlando City general manager Niki Budalic said. “We are pleased to add more depth to our midfield with this trade and look forward to integrating Dillon into the team.”
To get Gil on loan this year, Orlando City agreed to trade $100,000 of targeted allocation money to Real Salt Lake for the players’ Right of First Refusal. That money did not have to be paid until 2018.
Per the terms of Wednesday night’s trade, the Rapids will assume Orlando’s position in that agreement and send $100,000 in TAM to Real Salt Lake in 2018.
In addition, Orlando City retains Gil’s 2017 budget charge and the Rapids retain Powers’ 2017 budget charge.
Powers’ overall compensation for 2017 was $325,000, according to the most recent numbers released by the MLS Players’ Union. Gil comes in at $144,000.
The Rapids selected Powers 11th overall in the 2013 MLS SuperDraft out of Notre Dame. He went on to be named MLS Rookie of the Year. He scored five goals in each of his first two seasons and notched a total of 15 assists. His production since then has steadily declined. Last year, he registered one goal and four assists.
Gil is a California native who came up through the U.S. Soccer development academy in Bradenton before signing a Major League Soccer Generation Adidas contract in 2010. He played six seasons with Real Salt Lake — then managed by Orlando City coach Jason Kreis — including a standout 2013 when he helped RSL to the MLS Cup final. He never regained that form before signing a three-year contract with Querétaro in 2015.
Orlando City made three moves during the summer transfer window, which opened July 10. The others were a record-setting trade with Sporting Kansas City for Dom Dwyer and signing Peruvian midfielder Yoshimar Yotún from Swedish club Malmö FF.