I'm guilty. So are many of you. So are the guys who work with me on ESPN 2's MLS Extra Time.

We're guilty of expecting trades at the MLS trade deadline, probably because (though some of you geeks would never admit it) we're baseball fans and we're accustomed to the Deadline Deal. But for the second year in a row, the August 15 deadline came and went without a single deal.

Or did it?

Ah, get ready to add another term to your MLS lexicon.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have an "Embargoed Trade" to announce.

Seems the New England Revolution traded midfielder Shaker Asad and forward Johnny Torres to the Miami Fusion for defender Leo Cullen and a first-round pick in 2003 SuperDraft. It was done before the 5 p.m. deadline, but "embargoed" because the teams were unable to contact all the players involved.

Oh well, so much for deadline drama ... but I guess it's understandable when you're going to uproot a bunch of guys making so little money (and in the case of Cullen, moving a guy from a championship contender to a team that's just about out of it) that you'd want them to know what's going on first.

And, maybe after another almost-silent Deadline Day, we can all just learn to accept that the real day for trading in MLS comes in February, at the SuperDraft, when teams know the exact draft order and the GMs and coaches are all together to talk things out.

There is just not a lot of urgency to make trades on August 15 in MLS -- it's not like baseball where you have guys coming out of contract and on the verge of free agency or walk years. Another thing to consider is that two teams that probably want to deal -- D.C. and New England -- are still alive in the U.S. Open Cup and don't want to deplete their rosters before that's settled.

At any rate, there was a lot of talk (you'll hear about some of it on Monday's Extra Time), but little action. My gut feeling is this will be an annual song and dance until MLS comes up with a few more mechanisms (like free agency) that allows for more player movement and other variables.

In Tight Space

· Following up on the MetroStars and the Copa MercoNorte -- I did a little note on it Monday on ET, but due to strict time constraints, was not able to tell the full story. Here's my original script:

After their 2-0 victory over Deportivo Italchacao of Venezuela, captain Tab Ramos and his teammates called for a meeting with the commissioner, to ask that their Cup bonuses -- $42 per game according to two MetroStars players -- be increased substantially or they would vote to not make the trip to Bogota, Colombia, for their next Copa match, on Aug. 29. Said one of these players, "We're the MetroStars and we've never won a thing in MLS and now we're supposed to fly back and forth to Colombia, three days before we play Chicago in a critical league game ... all for $42 a man? It doesn't make sense." Not only that, if the Metros were to advance to MLS Cup 2001, they have a MercoNorte game with Chivas scheduled for the Wednesday before the Saturday final.

Commissioner Don Garber, unhappy that any info of his supposedly confidential meeting had been leaked, would only say, "It would be disappointing and embarrassing to MLS if these players did not put forth their best effort in a tournament their coach and general manager lobbied the league to get into."

On Monday, the players voted 13-5 to continue playing in the Copa. As for the chances the players' bonuses will be increased? Not going to happen. For one thing, the players do not have a collective bargaining agreement and are still in the middle of appealing their lawsuit against the league, so they really cannot even have discussions of this nature with the league office. The lawsuit also means the MetroStars cannot supplement the player bonuses with money from their own team kitty, as that would be a team acting autonomously ... a big no-no in MLS. Another reason MLS has little sympathy for the player's paltry bonuses? An MLS source said the Metros game last Wednesday night, played before an announced crowd of 7,000 and change, was a $100,000 loss. Several league executives had pushed hard for MLS not to put teams in this tournament, warning that it would be costly, and not worth the cost.

· Start engraving the Supporters Shield for the Miami Fusion. The Chicago Fire had a chance to climb back into the race for the Shield (most overall points in the regular season) Wednesday night at Soldier Field, but the Fusion employed a fantastic road strategy, scored on two counters and held on for a 2-1 victory that puts them seven points clear of the Fire, who now must worry more about the charging Columbus Crew, San Jose Earthquakes, Los Angeles Galaxy and MetroStars in a wide-open battle for No.2 overall.

· By the way, Dave Dir's breakdown of the Fusion passing game on ExtraTime Monday night was something to save on video. Dir showed the Fusion playing a 26-pass game of keepaway against New England, illustrating how and why Miami is the class of MLS in 2001.

· Also rack Nick Rimando's point-blank save of an Ante Razov shot in Wednesday night's Fire-Fusion game. It won't win save of the year, but it was one incredible bit of reaction goalkeeping as Rimando threw his body across the net to deny Razov from four yards.

· MetroStars striker Rodrigo Faria, the pride of Concordia College, is making a late push for Rookie of the Year honors. The Brazilian striker is also making the Metro braintrust rest a little easier over the fact that their two big-money strikers, Colombians Alex Comas (released) and Adolfo Valencia have been busts.

· Seems Troy Dayak is a well-deserving lock for Comeback Player of the Year -- having returned after a spinal cord injury that kept him out for two seasons -- but Metro defender/midfielder Daniel Hernandez also deserves mention. After tearing his ACL last year, Hernandez has been the MetroStars most consistent performer in 2001, playing both as a center back and an attacking midfielder.

· I'm still going to hang in there with my Metros-over-L.A. pick in MLS Cup. The Galaxy seem to be a team on a mission this year and they have become the kings of the dramatic victory.

· My old line about the Columbus Crew being the "best college soccer team in MLS" no longer works. For me, the biggest reason the Crew have taken a step into the league's upper echelon this season is because they have learned to play at several different speeds, unlike the old break-neck Crew.

· The Mamadou Diallo to Norway loan could still happen -- once the Mutiny are mathematically eliminated from MLS. The league has a chance to recoup $100,000 of Big Mama's salary by letting him walk once the Mutiny are done. It might make sense on one other count. Diallo wants to go and shipping him out may be just the thing to bring him back to Tampa in a better frame of mind next season.

Jeff Bradley is a senior writer for ESPN The Magazine. E-mail him atjeff.bradley@espnmag.com.