Though his seven goals led the Chicago Fire,
Brian McBride was unable to will his
team to victory at key moments in the season--primarily the lost Eastern Conference final. McBride
is hardly mentioned in this retrospective. To find out who is, read on here.
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Desert Crown 22 November @ 02:29 PM EST
In a series of events almost as unlikely as Real Salt Lake's, I am on my way to Seattle for MLS Cup
2009. It still doesn't seem real.
Once I calmed down after Nick Rimando's stonewalling performance during the shootout against
Chicago, and Ned Grabavoy's decisive penalty found net I knew I had to find a way to Seattle.
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The first team to reach MLS Cup six times, the Los Angeles Galaxy will take on a team that
didn't exist until the season of their last appearance in Major League Soccer's championship game
Real Salt Lake in MLS Cup 2009. The Galaxy lost their first three appearances in the league title
game before winning their last two, both coming in extra time by 1-0 scorelines against the New
England Revolution.
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ASN had the chance to speak with Chicago Fire technical director Frank Klopas to talk about some of
the recent departures from the Fire as well as the realities of the soccer business.
Jeff Tobin reports from the Windy City.
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The Offside 20 November @ 10:59 AM EST
I asked for a Beckham vs Blanco, LA Galaxy vs Chicago Fire MLS Cup 2009. But my request was denied
when Real Salt Lake beat Fire on spot kicks in the Eastern Conference Final. Still, as MLS-based
attention grabbing events go, an LA Galaxy vs Real Salt Lake MLS Cup 2009 is up there. I'll
definitely [.
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We've focused on the demolition of Ninian Park, formerly Cardiff City's stadium, a couple of
times before. Here are the latest photos of a sad end for a historic stadium, taken by Flickr Pitch
Invasion Pool contributor joncandy today.
Photo credits: joncandy on Flickr, via the Pitch
Invasion Photo Pool.
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Final Record: 11-7-12 (45 pts)
Goals:
10) Chris Rolfe
9) Marco Pappa
8) Cuauhtemoc Blanco
7) Chris Rolfe
6) Peter Lowry
5) Patrick Nyarko
4) Brian McBride
3) Peter Lowry
2) Chris Rolfe
1) Brian McBride
Note: Only goals scored in the 2009 regular season were considered.
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The Offside 17 November @ 05:30 PM EST
Major League Soccer announced the league's Best XI yesterday, as voted for by media, players,
coaches and GMs. Here's what they came up with: GOALKEEPER (1): Zach Thornton (Chivas USA)
DEFENDERS (3): Geoff Cameron (Houston Dynamo), Wilman Conde (Chicago Fire), Chad Marshall (Columbus
Crew) MIDFIELDERS (5): Dwayne De Rosario (Toronto FC), Landon Donovan (Los Angeles Galaxy), [.
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While most of them may be a bit young to have a realistic chance of playing in the 2010 World
Cup, a team of MLS Generation adidas players are about to take a trip to South Africa for an
experience they won't soon forget.
Stefan Frei, Patrick Nyarko and Chris Pontius headline a team of 18 MLS players that will
travel to South Africa to participate in a series of friendlies and other events later this
month.
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Following the announcement that D.C. United rookies (and roommates!) Chris Pontius and Rodney
Wallace will be part of an 18-player delegation that will travel to South Africa as part of the
Generatoin adidas program, Communications intern Matt Sincaglia sat down to ask them about the
upcoming trip.
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Photo by ISIphotos.com
The MLS season is set to end on Sunday after the 2009 MLS Cup, and the MLS Expansion draft is
looming just eight days away, meaning all the teams that need head coaches are about to take part
in one of the most frantic coaching change flurries MLS has ever seen.
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Photo by ISIphotos.com
The MLS season is set to end on Sunday after the 2009 MLS Cup, and the MLS Expansion draft is
looming just eight days away, meaning all the teams that need head coaches are about to take part
in one of the most frantic coaching change flurries MLS has ever seen.
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Dirty Tackle 16 November @ 08:24 PM EST
When you think of a professional footballer's mode of transportation to a match, you probably
conjure images of pimped-out limousines with built-in hot tubs, strippers and maybe even a personal
pizza chef.
Well, for footballers in the United States (who aren't Davey Becks) it's not like that.
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WVHooligan 16 November @ 03:08 PM EST
Expect a new look Fire in 2010. (Getty Images)
The 2009 season for the Chicago Fire was expected to be a big one. Talks of MLS Cup and
Supporter's Shield were all the rage to begin the season. Early on this year it looked like the
expectations were being met as the Fire lost a single game in the first three months of the
season.
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WVHooligan 16 November @ 02:47 PM EST
Union Home Kit.
Things are coming along very nicely in Chester, PA currently for Major League Soccer's newest
expansion club. Since my last update back in September, the stadium has come on leaps and bounds
with being close to 50% complete, open tryouts in New Jersey have just taken place, the home kit
has just been shown to the public officially with the jerseys making their way to retail stores by
the end of this week and the first three opponents of the Union have been announced.
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It wasn't supposed to end that way. We were hosting the Conference Final at home for the first
time in six years, after losing on the road to Columbus last year and in New England two years ago
when also 90 minutes away from the MLS Cup Final, and everything seemed to be in the Fire's favour
against Real Salt Lake, with the 21,723 capacity crowd rocking from warm-ups on.
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Match Fit USA 16 November @ 10:09 AM EST
I can't remember a longer weekend, and I don't mean that in a good way. From Friday's late, late
night with the Galaxy-Houston power outage-filled Western Conference Final to Sunday and a
terrible...
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The news that Chris Rolfe was leaving at the end of the season for Denmark came out a couple months
ago, but Jack Bell over at the New York Times had a long article that touched on the topic
yesterday:
Rolfe said that Aalborg, known as AaB, attempted to buy him from the league last
summer, but M.
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Big Story
While FIFA's decision to seed the European group playoff match-ups—basically a mulligan for
underachieving powerhouses Portugal, France and Russia—worked according to plan, along came Egypt
to remind us all why football is a sport like no other.
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Former Galaxy player and goal hero Ned Grabavoy, left, and Real Salt Lake, which beat the
Chicago Fire on penalty kicks to become Eastern Conference champions (let's get rid of these silly
conferences based on irrelevant geography, MLS) will face the Galaxy Sunday in Seattle.
Grabavoy scored the winning goal just before the picture was taken above, although former Galaxy
striker Robbie Findley almost scored in the dying moments of regulation time only to be denied by
Palos Verdes Peninsula product John Thorrington.
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El título de la MLS se decidirá en Seattle Los Ángeles Galaxy vs. Real Salt Lake- Domingo 22 de
Noviembre, 8:30 p.m. / Galavisión; ESPN El Real Salt Lake ha alcanzado la final de la Copa MLS al
superar al Chicago Fire por medio de tiros a penal anoche en el Toyota Park de Chicago. El partido
por [.
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Photo by ISIphotos.com
Real Salt Lake is heading to its first MLS Cup Final after beating the Chicago Fire on penalty
kicks at Toyota Park on Saturday night.
Goalkeeper Nick Rimando stole the show, making three penalty saves to win the second playoff
penalty shootout of his career.
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Nick Rimando saved three Chicago Fire penalty kicks to help Real Salt Lake win
the Eastern Conference on a shootout after 120 minutes of soccer yielded no goals for either team.
The victory puts RSL in its first-ever MLS Cup game where they will face the LA Galaxy, victors of
a dramatic conference final of their own Friday, and completes a stunning late-season turnaround
for the Salt Lake City side.
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Wow, what a game last night. Yes, I said I wouldn't watch. And I won't lie, part of the reason it's
so good is that the team I wanted to win did. It's all gone bad for Chicago - their "most talented
team in MLS" has come up short yet again, with the final blow delivered by a local kid.
So now we have an all-west MLS final (LA-Salt Lake), much like last year where we had an all-east
final (New York-Columbus).
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The Major League Soccer 2009 Eastern Conference Final was on Saturday with Real Salt Lake
traveling to face the Chicago Fire at Toyota Park. The winner would move onto the MLS Cup Final
next Sunday against the Los Angeles Galaxy. Here's a recap of the match along with video
highlights.
Real Salt Lake beats Chicago Fire 0-0 (5-4 on penalty kicks) Video
Highlights
It was a close match on Saturday but Real Salt Lake found a way to advance and continue their
improbable run to the MLS Cup Final.
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MLS Cup 2009
vs
Real Salt Lake (#4 East) vs LA Galaxy (#1 West)
The semi-final tonight between Real Salt Lake and the Chicago Fire was a wild one. Some people
might say 120 minutes with no scoring is a boring game but this was far from boring.
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The Offside 14 November @ 11:47 PM EST
Final score 0-0 aet, RSL takes it on penalties, 5-4. First, just like last year, we have to go with
the "AMERICANS: A GEOGRAPHICALLY CHALLENGED PEOPLE award," (given last year under a different name
to): MLS. So...yeah. Salt Lake. In the Eastern Conference finals. Why am I getting visions of MLS
Commissioner Don [.
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The Chicago Fire will look to reach its fourth MLS Cup Final by beating Real Salt Lake in
tonight's MLS Eastern Conference Final.
The winner of tonight's match will face the Los Angeles Galaxy in the MLS Cup Final. The Galaxy
defeated the Houston Dynamo, 2-0, in overtime on Friday night.
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The Chicago Fire will look to reach its fourth MLS Cup Final by beating Real Salt Lake in
tonight's MLS Eastern Conference Final (8pm, FSC).
The winner of tonight's match will face the Los Angeles Galaxy in the MLS Cup Final. The Galaxy
defeated the Houston Dynamo, 2-0, in overtime on Friday night.
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The Western Conference Finals was a long, hard slog between the Los Angeles Galaxy and the
Houston Dynamo. With an 8:30 starting time to accommodate ESPN2's college football schedule, two
blackouts that interrupted play in each half, and a half hour of overtime, the Galaxy did not
trudge off the pitch with their Western Conference trophy until almost midnight.
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We will move several steps closer to seeing the 32-team field for the 2010 World Cup filled out
today as qualifying matches in Europe, Africa and the Americas highlight today's action.
The European qualifying playoffs top today's action, but there is also MLS playoff action
tonight, as well as several top-notch friendlies to choose from.
Click to continue reading...
We will move several steps closer to seeing the 32-team field for the 2010 World Cup filled out
today as qualifying matches in Europe, Africa and the Americas highlight today's action.
The European qualifying playoffs top today's action, but there is also MLS playoff action
tonight, as well as several top-notch friendlies to choose from.
Click to continue reading...
Photo by ISIphotos.com
Toronto FC has tried and failed for three straight years to make the playoffs, so finding a
coach capable of getting the club over that hurdle was vital this winter. TFC has found just such a
coach in one of the most sought-after coaching prospects in American soccer.
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A trip to the MLS Cup is on the line as the Chicago Fire and Real Salt Lake are almost set to
face off in tonight's Eastern Conference Final at Toyota Park. Who will advance remains to be seen,
but I'll be here to take you through the whole day with Fire Confidential's second All Day
Blog.
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