Trade Surprising To More Than Just Jordan Harvey

The Brotherly Game spoke with Jordan Harvey today about his trade to the Vancouver Whitecaps. This is a portion of the 20 minutes interview – the audio includes all of the questions sent to @brotherlygame on Twitter – that Harvey gave us. For the full audio of the interview (MP3 form), click here.

One moment he was packing to go to San Jose, the next moment he was getting ready for Colorado. Jordan Harvey's week, season and career changed with a trade to the Vancouver Whitecaps, sent to Canada by the Philadelphia Union in exchange for allocation money.

Union fans spent a large portion of Thursday trying to understand the transfer, flooding Facebook and Twitter with bewilderment. They weren't the only ones confused about the swap – Harvey himself wasn't expecting it.

"I've been playing all season and the last game I played 90 minutes," Harvey told the Brotherly Game. "It came out of the blue for not only me, but for the team as well and from what I've heard it was for the coaching staff. "I think Vancouver came in with an offer and it was one of those offers that they couldn't pass up."

The trade comes at an odd time for the Union, who at the halfway point of the 2011 MLS season have given up only 16 goals. Harvey, Sheanon Williams, Danny Califf and Carlos Valdes had formed a partnership, in front of goalkeeper Faryd Mondragon, that was statistically the third best backline in the league.

Last year the Union were one of the worst defensive teams in MLS making their current defensive form all the more impressive. The back five seems to have the chemistry that the 2010 version lacked, which made the move even more puzzling for Harvey.

"I think [chemistry] makes a world of difference. Like you said, last year it was kind of in and out, different switches and some big mistakes," Harvey said. "Bringing in a guy like Mondragon and Valdes, and like what you said, just having some consistency – I have been preaching that since day one." 

"Having some consistency and eventually things will turn out in your favor. Obviously the guys that they brought in are very talented so that helped as well and the chemistry was there. Because of those reasons it shocked me a bit. They have a great team and one player doesn't make the team."

Despite being traded, Harvey conveyed that he does not have any problems with the front office or head coach Piotr Nowak, contrary to what has been floated around .

"There was no bust up or anything, nothing like that. We ended on good terms, at the end of the day it's a business and sometimes you get traded. There's no bad blood," said Harvey. "The way things have been going this season, last season and the season before that, you can't really play every single minute of almost every single game. Yeah, I have to shoot that theory down."

The 27-year-old is now on his third MLS team, since being drafted by the Colorado Rapids in 2006, and the business ‘dark’ side of the league is not lost on Harvey.

"I know things change and who knows if I was still on the team I could have been playing the rest of the minutes every."