You’re thinking too much in the short term. Even Garber isn’t so inept to believe that this year’s Champions League is not a lost cause for MLS. This is about next year and the years after that.

The idea is that Houston will reload with younger talent, add a star striker and return to form, while Toronto instantly gets a leg up on Montreal and Vancouver in the next Voyageurs Cup. Plus, the teams that are in the next Champions League can focus on that rather than SuperLiga.

The desired end result? Five MLS clubs among the 16 in the CCL group stage next year, rather than 2 this year — provided that New York, D.C. & (presumably) Toronto all get through the prelim round, of course, but with none of them in SuperLiga, they can focus on those prelims and avoid a repeat of the Joe Public fiasco.

Of course, there’s never a guarantee of success, but these are clearly forward-thinking steps, regardless of how they’re happening or who’s making them happen. (And yeah, it’s probably not Garber at work here.) These are good things for MLS, and if they lead to an MLS club having a shot at a Boca or a Barca in the Club World Cup between now and 2015 or so, all the better for American soccer.

1) the DeRosario trade significantly reduces the ability of Houston, the only MLS team remaining in the Champions League, to win the competition;

2) it was well known that Toronto wanted to trade for DeRosario, a local hero, prior to the Champions League even beginning — in other words, the trade was going to happen regardless of Champions League results;

3) if Toronto qualifies as the Canadian entrant into the Champions League, it is no guarantee of success, given that MLS was a combined 2-5-9 with a -16 goal difference in the competition; and

4) you are intimating that someone who has shown himself to be fairly inept is actually a devious behind-the-scenes plotter.

Speaking of Don Garber, if he really made such a statement (that the Champions League is not important) to the N.Y. Times, he is clearly not as bright as some would might have us believe. Thus, because the change in the qualification for Superliga is such a good idea, it surely must have come from someone other than Garber — perhaps the brains within SUM.

I went to see the Railhawks play twice last year: friendly against NYRB and the USOC match against Kansas City. I enjoyed that.