Is it me or does Philadelphia Union's soccer jersey looks very similar to the Shrewsbury Town jersey worn by Derek Smalls in the cult classic movie, This Is Spinal Tap?

In the 1984 film, there's a hysterical scene where Harry Shearer who plays the fictional character Derek Smalls tries to get through airport security.

Click to continue reading...

The latest player to go down: midfielder Bojan Stepanovic, out four to six weeks - essentially the season then - with "a dislocated patella in his right knee" suffered Wednesday in the game against that other Chivas.

Didn't he just get here?

And I bet Preki was thrilled this happened in a friendly.

Click to continue reading...

The Houston Dynamo will play a vital CONCACAF Champions League match tonight, and is doing what it can to make sure it has a big crowd behind it.

According to the Houston Chronicle, The Houston Dynamo is charging $5 for end-line seats for tonight's CONCACAF Champions League match at Robertson Stadium vs.

Click to continue reading...

The Houston Dynamo will play a vital CONCACAF Champions League match tonight, and is doing what it can to make sure it has a big crowd behind it.

According to the Houston Chronicle, The Houston Dynamo is charging $5 for end-line seats for tonight's CONCACAF Champions League match at Robertson Stadium vs.

Click to continue reading...

Former USF man, Jeff Cunningham [left, in action for FC Dallas], tied Ante Razov for second on the MLS all-time goal scoring list. Eighteen minutes into the match on Saturday at Pizza Hut Park Cunningham chipped United goalkeeper Josh Wicks for his tenth goal of the season, his 114th of his career. Click to continue reading...

The trivia question was prompted by an item in the Chivas USA game notes for the July SuperClasico I scoured Monday as I researched today's column.

Chivas USA claims nine players on its roster who were either born or grew up in Southern California:
Jonathan Bornstein (who was born in Torrance and grew up in Los Alamitos)
Chukwudi Chijindu (Fontana)
Jorge Flores (Anaheim)
Dan Kennedy (Yorba Linda)
Sacha Kljestan (Huntington Beach)
Gerson Mayen (Los Angeles)
Ante Razov (Los Angeles)
Sasha Victorine (Corona)
Cesar Zamora (Sylmar)

Three of these players - Bornstein, Razov, Victorine - played college soccer at UCLA, while Dan Kennedy played at UC Santa Barbara.

Click to continue reading...

Aaaaaand we're back with Los Angeles Galaxy analysis.

My apologies to everyone for disappearing just as the Galaxy does three games in a week. I was at a conference in Pittsburgh then in my hometown in North Carolina for some family-time as we saw my grandmother off into the next stage of her journey through the universe.

Click to continue reading...

Former USF striker Jeff Cunningham [above] is still searching for his 114th career MLS goal, which would tie him for second on the all-time list with Ante Razov. In Sunday's 3-2 loss to the Redbulls, Cunningham assisted on FC Dallas' first goal in the nineteenth minute. The assist was his 64th of his career and fourth of the season. Click to continue reading...

CHIVAS USA VS. TORONTO FC
Home Depot Center - Saturday 10:30PM EST
TV: Rogers Sportsnet -- Radio: The Fan 590
Is there a more pseudo-ethnically diverse game on the MLS calendar than Chivas USA vs. Toronto? Unless the league expands to Mexico or to another foreign country, like Quebec, then this is as strange as it gets. Click to continue reading...

Chivas USA is working their roster right before the summer transfer window closes. They have announced the signing of defender Yamith Cuesta, a member of the Colombian under-20 national team, on loan from Colombian club Expreso Rojo.

Adding Cuesta meant placing Jim Curtain and Ante Razov on the disabled list.

Click to continue reading...

Well, at some point you have to ask that question.

The level of ineptness that will be on display later today is summed up well here.

You've gotta love Chivas USA Coach Preki's response though: on Friday the club announced the signing of 20-year-old Columbian defender Yamith Cuesta on loan from Colombian side Expreso Rojo.

Click to continue reading...

The Red Bulls are on a losing streak. Seriously. But Chivas USA, who started the season off rather dominantly, with a squad of relative unknowns, has fallen back down to Earth. The Goats have lost their last five games in a row, recording no goals in a franchise worst 320 minutes. Meanwhile, the Red Bulls scoring woes will only continue, with Juan Pablo Angel and Macoumba Kandji out for this game.

Click to continue reading...

This man is a South American destroyer coming to MLS and Chivas USA.
From the Chivas USA Front Office, the team announced Friday that it has acquired defender Yamith Cuesta, a member of the Colombian Under-20 National Team, on loan from Colombian side Expreso Rojo. Cuesta will be eligible to play for Chivas USA pending receipt of his International Transfer Certificate. Click to continue reading...

Rapids striker Conor Casey scored his ninth, 10th and 11th goals against Chivas USA on Saturday. (photo by Jonathan Ingraham/ColoradoSoccerNow.com)

When defensive midfielder Pablo Mastroeni scores, the Colorado Rapids need to make it count.

Click to continue reading...

Forward Jeff Cunningham of FC Dallas had one of the finest performances of any single player in MLS history last weekend against Kansas City at Pizza Hut Park. The journeyman striker would score four goals in the match and double his total to eight on the year putting him in contention with the league's best.

Click to continue reading...

Former USF star Jeff Cunningham [right] scored the only goal of the game in the twentieth minute to lead FC Dallas to a rare victory over cross-state rival Houston Dynamo. It was the striker's ninth goal of the MLS season.
Cunningham, who had four shots in the match, was also chopped down in the Houston penalty area by Tampa native Bobby Boswell in the twelfth minute. Click to continue reading...

All you need to know about Sunday's final against Mexico. Some things you should know:

• Defender Clarence Goodson became the tenth U.S. player to score a goal during the 2009 CONCACAF Gold Cup and the sixth U.S. player to get his first national team goal during the tournament in the 2-0 win against Honduras.

Click to continue reading...

A few items to pass along:

*The club announced today it will open the Home Depot Center's upper deck, which it customarily doesn't need to accommodate the smallish crowds that average 15,312 this season, for Saturday's SuperClasico against the Galaxy. Those seats have an excellent view, BTW, if you've never sat up there (think the luxury suite views on the opposite side of the stadium without the expensive prices).

Click to continue reading...

As reported on Goal.com, the USMNT have been granted seven extra spots on their Gold Cup roster due to their recent participation in the Confederations Cup. The US will still be limited to 18 men on game day. Based on the players already selected, here the group we believe will fill out the 30-man roster:

Robbie Findley

Jesse Marsch

Kamani Hill

Carey Talley

Sasha Victorine

Ante Razov

Ross Paule

We will post an update once these selections are confirmed.

Click to continue reading...

I found a good article the other day about a few MLS guys that could use a transfer. While I doubt the author meant for any of these five to be transferred out of MLS I do think a few of these selections were pretty good as far as getting some of these guys with a new club.

This all got me thinking of a few guys that would be worth trading to mix things up here for other MLS clubs.

Click to continue reading...

Background: Well, Ante Razov is my final member of my MLS Hall of Fame inaugural class. How could he not be? He has played for five different MLS sides, and during his long career he has notched more goals than all but one other player. All in all, he has been one of the league's most consistent strikers, so I think he belongs in the Hall.

Click to continue reading...

Do you remember the game last year where Juan Pablo Angel and Danleigh Borman scored their first goals of the season? Well, it was against Los Angeles in the city of Angels, and it resulted in a 2-1 win over the Galaxy.

That was the teams very last win on the road.

Here is a look back at the 20 games that have cemented their way into the MLS record books:

DYNAMO 1 - RED BULLS 0 - 5/31/08

This was the tame loss the Bulls endured at the hands of Houston last season, before they took it to the orange the rest of the way.

Click to continue reading...

New England Revolution forward Taylor Twellman has been named the MLS Daily Player of the Week for his two-goal effort in the Revs' 4-0 stomping of the New York Red Bulls on Sunday. The goals were #100 and #101 of Twellman's illustrious career, making him just the fifth MLS player to reach the century mark in the league's history. Click to continue reading...

This preview and statistical guide comes courtesy of MLSR partner Seattle's Prost Amerka Soccer.Â
The preview is an excerpt  -  Read the full preview at Prost Amerika Soccer.

Sounders return to the site of their worst result of the season. Their sole two goal defeat came at the Home Depot Centre on April 18th where an own goal contributed to a lacklustre Seattle defeat.

Click to continue reading...

The Scene: The 1998 MLS Cup Final should arguably be in the top three on this list. Played between the two-time defending champs, DC United, and an expansion team, the Chicago Fire, the game took place before a huge 50,000+ crowd at the Rose Bowl.

By the time 90 minutes expired, the Fire had shocked the nation by besting United 2-0.

Click to continue reading...

For the second time this season, forward Josh Wolff has been named MLS Player of the Week following an impressive two-goal performance. Wolff is the first player to capture a pair of Player of the Week honors this season and now has seven for his career. That total ties him for 6th all-time in MLS in number of POW awards. Click to continue reading...

MLS is ready to double the ante for its annual All-Star competition in 2010 by creating two separate teams for the Eastern and Western Conferences to compete against two international powers.

This July 29, EPL Everton and keeper Tim Howard compete against the MLS All-Stars at Utah's Rio Tinto Stadium, the seventh and newest soccer specific stadium in the country.

Click to continue reading...

Chivas just keeps on keepin' on. They are six points clear of Seattle, although the Sounders have a game in hand.

Last weeks injury list for Chivas USA read like this...

OUT:
DF Bobby Burling (sports hernia surgery);
FW Alecko Eskandarian (R hamstring strain);
DF Ante Jazic (concussion);
GK Dan Kennedy (R knee sprain);
FW Ante Razov (R ankle surgery);
DF Claudio Suárez (L calf strain);
DF Lawson Vaughn (L ankle surgery);
QUESTIONABLE:
MF Bojan Stepanovic (left leg contusion);
MF Sasha Victorine (L knee surgery);
PROBABLE:
FW Justin Braun (R knee sprain);
FW Maykel Galindo (sports hernia surgery)

Galindo, Victorine and Braun played, in fact, Braun scored the game's only goal.

Click to continue reading...

Tweet me: dunord
dN
Over 30,000 tickets have been sold for USA v Honduras World Cup qualifier on Sat Jun 6 at Soldier Field in Chicago. (I will be there, will you?)
You make the call: How many are for USA? How many are for Honduras?
dN
Jeffrey Marcus of the New York Times addresses the real issue with MLS. Click to continue reading...

The winner of this week's player interview poll was MLS player of the week, Josh Wolff. Thad was able to get a nice log interview with Wolff yesterday after practice that he actually had to divide into 2 parts for posting. Here's part 1 and part 2. Wolff talks about the second half against Chicago and what changed from the first half. Click to continue reading...

"As long as no-one scored, it was always going to be close" Arsene Wenger

That pretty much summed up last weekends exciting, yet scoreless Superclásico. Chivas played as a far more dominant side, even when down to ten men and should be most satisfied with their ability to neutralize any kind of threat the Galaxy had to offer.

Click to continue reading...

Both games begin at 7:30 p.m., the Chivas USA game at Home Depot Center against the Seattle Sounders on Prime, the Galaxy-San Jose Earthquakes match on FSN. I plan to blog from the Chivas USA game, so join me then.

Galaxy-San Jose Earthquakes Preview

*The Earthquakes are without dangerous striker Darren Huckerby for tonight's game.

Click to continue reading...

Last night, at RFK Stadium, Jaime Moreno set an amazing MLS milestone. The Bolivian striker became the first player in MLS history to tally 100 goals and 100 assists.

Since the league's inception, Moreno has dazzled and been an important part of the club game in the States.

At 35, Moreno is certainly not the explosive force, he once was.

Click to continue reading...

CD Chivas USA Founded: 2004 Home Stadium: The Home Depot Center, Carson, CA Record Since 2000: 41-49-34 All Time Scorer in MLS: Ante Razov (30) All Time Cups/Shields: 0 2008 Record: 12-11-7, 43 pts, 2nd in Western Conference 2008 Leading Scorer: Sacha Kljestan, Alecko Eskandarian, Ante Razov (5) 2008 Keeper: Brad Guzan (1. Click to continue reading...

Saturday's Chivas USA-Galaxy match was a unique game, as all these matchups tend to be. But for some reason it didn't have the emotion, the drama that other matches have featured.
Maybe it's because some of the polarizing figures were absent, save for Landon Donovan of course. No Ante Razov. Click to continue reading...