Colombian forward Sergio Herrera joins Columbus Crew

The Crew on Friday announced the signing of 28-year-old forward Sergio Herrera. The Colombian international comes to Columbus after a playing career that has spanned 10 years and six clubs. While no contract details have been officially announced, his contract has been described as a guaranteed one year contract with several club option years.

Herrera joins a Crew team that is attempting to restock its offense. Alejandro Moreno, the workhorse striker who scored 20 goals over the last three seasons, was lost during the offseason to the expansion Philadelphia Union. The team did re-sign veteran forward Jason Garey during the offseason, but many observers have identified the offense as an area where the team needs additional help. The 2009 Crew scored only 41 goals, a significant decrease from the 50 scored the year before.

Crew coach Robert Warzycha described Herrera in the team's official announcement as "a proven goal scorer who has represented his country at the international level, and we are looking forward to integrating him into our team."

That integration has already started, as Herrera has been training with the team on its current stay in Florida.

Career History

Looking over his playing career, Herrera's successful integration into the Crew family may be especially important. His history reveals a player who, when things go right, scores goals at a prolific pace - but who also endures long dry spells.

According to the Wikipedia page about his career, he scored 33 goals in 93 appearances for Deportivo Cali over the last three years (although the official press release from the Crew puts the figures at 26 goals in 92 games). Earlier in his career, he scorched opposing defenses for a combined 38 goals in 62 games over two seasons with Alianza Petrolera and America de Cali.

On a more cautionary note, however, Herrera has also endured some significant rough patches - including his only contract away from South America. After his success with Alianza and America de Cali, he went abroad for a three year stint in Saudi Arabia with Al Ittihad, but he only managed 11 appearances and 4 goals between 2004 and 2006. This was followed by a year at Brazilian club Atletico Paranaense, where he scored once in 15 games. He then returned to Colombia, where he has re-gained his scoring touch at Deportivo Cali.

Signing announced on Jed Zayner's blog

In an interesting example of the changing paths of information flows, Herrera's presence on the Crew was first mentioned in a post on Jed Zayner's blog. There, Robbie Rogers casually mentioned that "Sergio, (our new signed player from Columbia, he is a forward, more about him to come days following)" was one of the players at a recent dinner outing.

From there more traditional processes took over, with American Soccer News doing some research and revealing Herrera's name early on Friday. Shawn Mitchell posted a note about Herrera to the Columbus Dispatch soccer blog just after lunch, and the Crew officially announced his signing late in the day on Friday. The Crewture blog then posted additional analysis, including several YouTube videos of Herrera in action.