Erin McLeod has been traded to the Houston Dash. (Photo Copyright Harjeet Johal for The Equalizer)
Despite a publicly listed trade deadline of Jan. 6 having passed, the Houston Dash have traded Canadian allocation and forward Melissa Tancredi to the Chicago Red Stars in exchange for fellow Canadian and goalkeeper Erin McLeod.
McLeod started 16 games for the Red Stars in 2013 as their No. 1 keeper, although backup rookie Taylor Vancil filled in well, allowing eight goals in six games.
“I’m very excited about Erin joining the Dash family. She is one of the top goalkeepers in the international game, and will help us tremendously in developing our defensive unit,” Dash head coach Randy Waldrum said. “It’s disappointing that I won’t get to reunite with Melissa, but I know she will do great things in Chicago.”
Tancredi won’t be available until June as she finished chiropractor school. She took 2013 off.
“Melissa adds the strength and toughness we lacked in our frontline last year,” Red Stars coach Rory Dames said. “She and Christen [Press] will complement each other very well. When you add in the young pieces we already have we believe this group will be very dangerous going forward.”
McLeod was rumored to have wanted out of Chicago, sources said last week, and Houston now has a goalkeeper they can look to as a No. 1.
What it means for Chicago could be interesting. Dames liked what he saw out of Vancil in her limited time and she could step into a No. 1 role. But German goalkeeper and European player of the year Nadine Angerer still hasn’t announced which NWSL team she’ll be playing for – an ongoing news tease that has reached five months in length.
Reached in September, the Red Stars brushed off any questions of a link to Angerer with ‘we have Erin McLeod.’ That’s no longer an answer…and a seeming open door for Angerer.
The timing of this deal is also of interest. It was announced after protected player lists for the NWSL Expansion Draft were submitted; so was this trade known by other teams before they created their lists?
