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Houston Dynamo trade for Colorado Rapids' Midfielder, Tony Cascio

Over the last week, a trade involving Colorado Rapids and Houston Dynamo came to fruition, sending Tony Cascio to the Dynamo.

By Alicia Tolar
USA TODAY Sports

Per Darrell Lovell, the deal to bring Tony Cascio to the Houston Dynamo on a 1-yr loan is officially complete. He also indicated there is a deal in-place to keep Cascio beyond the one year.

Tony Cascio is an attacking midfielder whom the Colorado Rapids selected in the first round of the 2012 MLS SuperDraft. He played 29 games for the Rapids in 2012, but only 13 games last season. A classic Dominic Kinnear style player, he is very versatile and has the ability to play in the middle as well as out wide, but can also be moved into the forward position when needed.

Sebastian Salazar tweeted Monday afternoon that the Dynamo would be trading for Tony Casico.

It was later tweeted by Darrell Lovell that the deal would be announced on Tuesday.

We also caught up with UZ of Burgundy Wave, and he gave us his breakdown on Tony Cascio.

Tony Cascio is an intriguing attacking player who stumbled through his sophomore year in MLS. His rookie season, he was a dark horse candidate for the Rookie of the Year award for the first half of the season, though he (like the rest of the Rapids) faltered through the summer. He showed flashes during his second year as well, but it was generally a disappointing season as he failed to do anything all that much better than he did his rookie year.

As an attacking player, he is versatile enough to play as a pure winger or as an attacking wide midfielder on either side, and he can also play as a deep-lying type of forward if you're playing a two-forward set up top. He's pretty good on the ball and has a very nice shot. At his best with the Rapids, he was set up wide where he could receive the ball and dribble down the wing before cutting into the box.

The biggest flaws of his seem to be mental. He sometimes seems to be playing a few steps behind the rest of the game in the final third, which can lead to plays breaking down right at the death even when it looks like something awesome is going to happen. (Indeed, Matt Doyle said that Cascio in 2012 led the league in 'that was nearly awesome' plays.)

If it's actually a loan, I'll be watching his development very closely in the minutes he can get with the Dynamo first team. Most of his issues should start to smooth themselves out if he can get playing time, and his natural talent should start to shine through. At worst, Cascio should provide you guys a serviceable midfielder and forward who will probably nick a few goals and assists. At best, you can probably expect a good MLS starter out of the third-year guy.

So, what do you all think? Good move for Houston Dynamo?

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