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Garth Lagerwey had been bracing for weeks for the unpleasant day that Real Salt Lake was weakened by losing good players in the Major League Soccer expansion draft.
So it's safe to say he was thrilled with the way things turned out.
"Honestly, I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think we're better than we were at the beginning of the day," he said.
That's because while RSL lost defender David Horst and forward Robbie Findley to the Portland Timbers in the expansion draft Wednesday, it later made a trade for versatile midfielder Arturo Alvarez that had team officials and others shaking their heads in amazement, thinking that the team might have emerged as the biggest winner on a wild day full of trades and other personnel moves.
"Hard to imagine anyone but Real Salt Lake winning 2011 Supporters Shield," soccer writer Brian Straus of AOL Fanhouse said on Twitter.
The 25-year-old Alvarez is primarily a winger whom Lagerwey envisions being able to replace Findley and allow RSL the financial flexibility to buy young forward Paulo Junior out of his contract with minor-league Miami FC.
The team still hopes to re-sign forward Alvaro Saborio.
Team officials had fretted that RSL would lose two promising players in the 10-round draft to stock the Timbers and Vancouver Whitecaps, who will join MLS next season.
But Horst played last season on loan to the minor-league Puerto Rico Islanders and Findley already had made it clear he wanted to explore opportunities overseas. The Timbers evidently are hoping they can convince Findley to stay in MLS, or sign him if he one day returns to the league.
"We lost one who wasn't coming back and we lost one who didn't play a minute for us last year," Lagerwey said. "It's the best possible outcome you could imagine."
RSL traded a second-round pick in the 2011 MLS SuperDraft to the Timbers in exchange for Alvarez, a 25-year-old American-born Salvadoran whom the Timbers picked from the San Jose Earthquakes during the expansion draft. Lagerwey said the team tried to acquire him in 2008, but the price tag then — a first-round pick and allocation money — was too high for it.
Alvarez has scored 24 goals with 18 assists in eight seasons with the Earthquakes and FC Dallas. He said he has admired RSL as the best team in the league.
"I've always like the style of football they play," he said. "It's really fun to watch. … I'm really happy to be with RSL and I'm eager to get started."
The Timbers made Dax McCarty of FC Dallas the No. 1 pick in the draft, with the Whitecaps making Seattle's Sanna Nyassi their first pick.
But both were later traded — McCarty to D.C. United and Nyassi to Colorado — amid the frenzy of deals that followed the draft. Among them, RSL waived forward Alex Nimo, who had spent the last two years out on loan and had complained publicly that RSL had not given him a chance.
"This was the craziest 48 hours since I took the job," Lagerwey said. "It's literally been like nothing I've ever seen."
MLS Expansion Draft
The Portland Timbers and Vancouver Whitecaps each selected 10 players in the MLS Expansion Draft:
1. Portland • Dax McCarty, FC Dallas
Vancouver • Sanna Nyassi, Seattle
2. Portland • Eric Brunner, Columbus
Vancouver • Atiba Harris, FC Dallas
3. Portland • Adam Moffat, Columbus
Vancouver • Nathan Sturgis, Seattle
4. Portland • Anthony Wallace, Colorado
Vancouver • Shea Salinas, Philadelphia
5. Portland • David Horst, RSL
Vancouver • Alan Gordon, Chivas USA
6. Portland •Robbie Findley, RSL
Vancouver • O'Brian White, Toronto
7. Portland • Peter Lowery, Chicago
Vancouver • Alejandro Moreno, Philadelphia
8. Portland • Jonathan Bornstein, Chivas USA
Vancouver • Joe Cannon, San Jose
9. Portland • Jordan Graye, D.C. United
Vancouver • Jonathan Leathers, Kansas City
10. Portland • Arturo Alvarez, San Jose
Vancouver • John Thorrington, Chicago