Landon Donovan was named the 2009 MLS Most Valuable Player on Thursday, and while it is tough to argue against awarding the U.S. national team star for his performance this season, the MVP results still raised a glaring question.

What about Shalrie Joseph?

It isn't a question so much about choosing between Joseph and Donovan, which is a subjective debate that has supporters on both sides.

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Landon Donovan was named the 2009 MLS Most Valuable Player on Thursday, and while it is tough to argue against awarding the U.S. national team star for his performance this season, the MVP results still raised a glaring question.

What about Shalrie Joseph?

It isn't a question so much about choosing between Joseph and Donovan, which is a subjective debate that has supporters on both sides.

Click to continue reading...

Who will Dallas protect this year? (Getty Images)

With the expansion draft being next week I have to pull in some two-a-days for my expansion draft lists. Earlier today we looked at DC United's roster and who could be protected or not not this afternoon I want to turn our attention to FC Dallas.

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Photo by ISIphotos.com

Major League Soccer will be announcing its 2009 MLS Best XI later this afternoon and while some of the picks are easy to make, some others will be very difficult.

Picking this year's forwards was especially tough, with a half dozen worth candidates for the Best XI nod.

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Photo by ISIphotos.com

Major League Soccer will be announcing its 2009 MLS Best XI later this afternoon and while some of the picks are easy to make, some others will be very difficult.

Picking this year's forwards was especially tough, with a half dozen worth candidates for the Best XI nod.

Click to continue reading...

Hot off the presses from the league front office. Major League Soccer has announced the finalists to their season ending awards today. Only a few shockers jump out at me here with these but I'll get to that in a moment.

Keeper of the Year (to be announced Nov. 4)
Kasey Keller, Seattle
Donovan Ricketts, Los Angeles
Zach Thornton, Chivas USA

Defender of the Year (Nov.

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Jeff Cunningham had reasons to smile late in 2009. (Getty Images)

This season was certainly a tale of two halves for FC Dallas. Things got off to the rockiest of starts that saw fans across North Texas grew more upset with the way things were being run in Frisco while the end of the year sure seemed to show things could actually be headed into the right direction for 2010.

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I turned in my media vote for MLS awards this morning. Some of the choices were tough – and I'm lucky to have had a head start in considering all the awards.

I was on a small panel that voted weekly for MLSnet's Awards Tracker, where myself and a few guys smarter than me gave fans a sneak-peak at who might be worth considering.

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The 2009 version of this award could be contended between just players from Seattle. The league's newest club also boasts some (if not all) of the best newcomers MLS has seen this season. From Fredy Montero, Freddie Ljungberg, Kasey Keller, to Jhon Kennedy Hurtado, there's plenty to choose from when selecting the award.

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When the Major League Soccer schedule was released many months ago, the first game that stood out was the last one: Saturday, Oct. 24, at Real Salt Lake.

RSL knocked the Rapids out of the playoffs (and put itself in) in the final minute of the final game of 2008. And the league set up a similar showdown by pairing the two in the 2009 finale.

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Next summer, Major League Soccer will break for the group stages of World Cup 2010 in South Africa. It doesn't sound much, but it's a start. In Week 30 the league was down to just four matches as the football world focused on World Cup qualifying. Well done to the US national team who clinched their World Cup spot with a hard-fought victory in Honduras, and to Chivas USA who qualified for the 2010 post-season on Saturday. Click to continue reading...

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While the day seems to be lost on everyone's Twitter feeds being down, I figured it was a good time to get back in the award discussion once again here. Instead of waiting for putting this in the evening links and thoughts I figured I would break this discussion off into it's own post for the day.

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It will likely end up being too little too late, but FC Dallas continues to show that it has plenty of fight left in it. Counted out all season with a poor start to 2009, the amazing turnaround continued last night against a San Jose team that played hard but came up short, losing Dallas by a 2-1 scoreline.

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It will likely end up being too little too late, but FC Dallas continues to show that it has plenty of fight left in it. Counted out all season with a poor start to 2009, the amazing turnaround continued last night against a San Jose team that played hard but came up short to Dallas, 2-1.

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There was one match on Wednesday night in Major League Soccer as FC Dallas traveled to face the San Jose Earthquakes. It was a must win for Dallas to keep their playoff hopes alive. Here's a recap of the match along with video highlights.

FC Dallas edges the San Jose Earthquakes 2-1 Video Highlights

Jeff Cunningham scored a late goal to keep FC Dallas' playoff hopes alive on Thursday night against the San Jose Earthquakes.

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Jeff Cunningham will have to continue his MVP form tonight in San Jose.

You want some playoff type drama? Good because tonight's midweek clash between San Jose and Dallas offers just that. Win and continue on in a the little hope of reaching the playoffs, lose or tie and you season is pretty much over.

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Jeff Cunningham's torrid goal-scoring streak continued Saturday night as his two goals all but ended road-sick Real Salt Lake's playoff chances in a 3-0 FC Dallas win. In what might have been the most complete match of the season, FC Dallas went ahead in the 5th minute against the early run of play. Click to continue reading...

Jimmy Conrad had a night to remember, and at the same time a night to forget. At the end the Wizards kept their hopes alive with a come from behind win against Dallas that puts them 7 points behind the last playoff spot with 5 games left.

The night started with the Wizards trying to win their first game at home since June 12th (yes, a 3 month drought, including Superliga).

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The Wizards still are very unlikely to qualify for the playoffs this year, but they're not going down this year without a fight. KC came back from being a goal down to take all 3 points last night out at Community America Ballpark against Dallas, winning 3-2. Jimmy Conrad picked up the winner after having a howler of a night in the defensive third of the field giving the ball away for both of Dallas' goals last night. Click to continue reading...

(Skip ahead to 4:40 into the video)

Perhaps it was just the inherent frustration of losing 6-3 at home, but as Saturday's LA Galaxy v FC Dallas match came to an end, Landon Donovan got into a scrap with Dallas' David Ferreira and when Ferreira's teammate, Daniel Hernandez, got involved, Davey Becks came to the defense of the man who once called him a bad teammate by pulling Hernandez away by his neck.

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Galaxy 3 Dallas 6

The Galaxy have never given up six goals in their history. They have now.

We've had another two Dallas goals in two minutes in what is shaping up to be the Galaxy's worst loss of the season, although the Galaxy have just pulled one back.

Atiba Harris scored in the 82nd minute, connecting with a Dax Mccarty cross and beating three galaxy defenders in the process.

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Our Galaxy (9-4-11) host FC Dallas (6-11-6) tonight at the Home Depot Center at 7:30 Pacific (FSN-PT and Direct Kick). The Galaxy is only 2 points out of first place in the Western Conference, while FC Dallas is in second to last place in the West. FC Dallas is all but certain to miss the playoffs with a minimum 10 point deficit to overcome for a wild card spot.

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Week 25 was all set to be a quiet one in Major League Soccer with only three games scheduled. But there was plenty of action, a lot of red and no fewer than eleven goals. An adequate return from three matches, and here's my weekly MLS roundup to bring y'all up to date with the ever-bubbling playoff race. 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...

Previous Updates
#1 4/12 68 players remaining #2 5/25 34 players remaining #3 6/25 23 players remaining #4 7/19 11 players remaining
OTFATT is short for "On the field, all the time." In these updates throughout the season, I'll be keeping track of which MLS players have played every minute of every game (regular season only). Click to continue reading...

A list of all penalties can be found on the league stats page (scroll to the bottom). However, on that page they don't list who earned and conceded the penalties like they used to a few years back. I've always missed that, so I keep track of it myself by looking through match reports.
This seems to be the year of the handball. Click to continue reading...

Something was clearly in the water in Dallas and San Jose over the weekend. A combined 10 goals scored and two clean sheets as The Team Formerly Known as The Hoops and the Earthquakes took out their frustrations on Kansas City and Seattle.
In Dallas, Jeff Cunningham scored four goals, passing former Dallas Burn star Jason Kries and moving in to 3rd place on the MLS All-Time Goals list. Click to continue reading...

I've personally never felt as bad about a Wizards game as I did after last night's 6-0 drubbing at the hands of FC Dallas. I mean I'm more embarrassed about this game than I was at the time of the Chicago 7-0 debacle back in 2001. That's because for this game I'd spent hours in the car, and more money traveling down to Dallas for this game than for the game at Arrowhead against the Fire. Click to continue reading...

Hello again and welcome to this edition of "Wild and Wacky", a look at yesterday's Major League Soccer results, news and - well, anything else that might come up.
Like, for example, DCUnited fan's lunch.
The Districters coughed up three goals in three first half minutes against Houston yesterday, a collapse the likes of which I can't recall. Click to continue reading...

The American football psyche may have been dominated by the Gold Cup and the All-Star game lately, but the relentless march of Major League Soccer continues. Week 19 got underway at Rio Tinto on Friday, where FC Dallas gave their hosts a fright - briefly.
Jeff Cunningham mugged Real Salt Lake's Will Johnson on 20 yards and fired past Nick Rimando to put FCD ahead in the 13th minute. Click to continue reading...

Wow, what a week for American football! The national team rose from the dead in South Africa to stun Spain and Brazil in the Confederations Cup, eventually running out of steam in the final against Dunga's men. Make no mistake, it was an historic tournament for the USA - but while Landon Donovan was impressing us all with some fine performances for Bob Bradley, the Galaxy did some impressive business without their talismanic captain. Click to continue reading...

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Toronto FC 2, New York 0 -- The Red Bulls still can't amount to anything on the road. Pablo Vitti scored his first MLS goal and Dwayne De Rosario (above) put the game away with a second to vault TFC to second in the Eastern Conference.
Colorado Rapids 1, FC Dallas 1 -- Not a bad result for Dallas, but they'll be disappointed to give up a late equalizer to Omar Cummings. Click to continue reading...

Ugo Ihemelu of the Rapids nearly scored on a corner kick in the 81st minute, when the Rapids were trailing FC Dallas 1-0. (photo by Jonathan Ingraham/ColoradoSoccerNow.com)

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There seemed to be no end to the goal-scoring chances the Colorado Rapids created on Wednesday night.

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