TRANSFER TRACKER STATUS:Trade
Two Western Conference teams took advantage of the half-day trade window on Sunday, with the Colorado Rapids sending goalkeeper Zac MacMath to the Vancouver Whitecaps in exchange for midfielder Nicolas Mezquida. The Rapids also received $100,000 in Targeted Allocation Money.
MacMath, 27, was the fifth overall pick in the 2011 SuperDraft by the Philadelphia Union and secured the No. 1 shirt for the team the following year before being displaced by Rais M'Bolhi as the starter at the end of 2014. He then joined the Rapids, but was again benched for a big-name signing in 2016 when Tim Howard joined on. In total, MacMath has made 134 regular-season appearances in his eight years in MLS, plus two playoff appearances in 2016 when Howard went down with an injury.
“We feel that Zac can be a great addition to our club,” said Whitecaps FC head coach Marc Dos Santos in a statement. “He’s courageous in his goal, he’s good with his feet, and he’s very hungry to win a position in MLS and prove that he can be a number one.”
Mezquida, 26, is a technically-skilled attacking midfielder, though a player who could never quite lock down consistent minutes in his Whitecaps career. He eclipsed 1,000 minutes only once in his five years in Vancouver, with 1,395 in 2016. In total, he scored 12 goals and four assists over 101 appearances with the 'Caps (50 starts), with three of those goals and an assist coming over 966 minutes in 2018.
“We are thrilled to welcome Nicolas Mezquida to Colorado,” said Rapids EVP & general manager, Padraig Smith in a statement. “He is a creative and dangerous playmaker who fits well into our playing philosophy of dominating ball possession and pressing high up the pitch.”
