Continuing the series where we vote "River" for players that we want to see DC United cast away and we vote "Life" for players that we hope will return, let's take a look now at DCU's defenders. I have a feeling this group will prove more interesting than the defensive midfielders, who received mostly favorable ratings. Click to continue reading...

Dear Seattle, it's been quite a year for you all up there. After all, an expansion team is not supposed to do what you all did. I have to give you "props' big-time! Seriously, out of the box the Seattle fans came out and supported a well-designed and well-staffed team, hammering all MLS attendance records.

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The thought of writing this post after the opening day game against DC United never entered my head. That was a slightly improved version of the meltdown season of 2008 defensive breakdowns, not much stability in the middle and an attack that put two in the back of the net, but looked frustrating doing it.

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A moment of silence. The Bearded Bombardier is hanging them up. It's not a huge surprise given that we could all see his body struggling to keep up with what his spirit wanted it to do, but it's still a sad day for all in United-land. Tributes by... Click to continue reading...

According to the DC United news source the Soccer Insider Ben Olsen is now considering the option of retirement. As the SI said, the idea was thrown around after last season with his 1 appearance last season.

Olsen is DC United. When you say DC United you think Ben Olsen. One would hope that when Olsen does decide retirement is necessary, he will stay with the club in some capacity.

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At long last, we come to the end of our autopsy. The corpse is laid out on the table before us, and we can step back and make an overall assessment, not just of cause of death, but of what needs to change if we don't want to sit here next fall... Click to continue reading...

After already winning the Honda MVP award for 2009's best US National Team player, Los Angeles Galaxy midfielder Landon Donovan is now Major League Soccer's Most Valuable Player. This is Donovan's first MLS MVP Award, and the second time a member of the LA Galaxy has won. MLS Most Valuable Players 2009: Landon Donovan – LA Galaxy 2008: Guillermo Barros Schelotto – Columbus Crew 2007: Luciano Emilio – D. Click to continue reading...

Rolling right along with our grisly task, it's now time to figure out who to protect from the expansion draft. "What part does this play in an autopsy?" I hear you ask. Well, the guys you protect are those valuable players at the core of the team... Click to continue reading...

In the first part of our 2009 MLS Cup Final preview, the Real Salt Lake and Los Angeles Galaxy players were assessed and compared, with a slight advantage being measured for the Galaxy. In this continuation of our analysis, attention is paid to the coaches and intangibles for both clubs.

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A few weeks back it made the news that Shawn Francis, purveyor of "The Offside Rules" would be making the jump to MLS to act in an editorial role for their new digital media initiative. Earlier this week, the first public fruits of that hire were unveiled with the new MLS Insider blog.
I have to admit that I never found The Offside Rules all that interesting. Click to continue reading...

Nine months, 456 matches, and controversy aplenty. And it all comes down to to one game, one high-octane head-to-head for the title.

The fourteenth season of Major League Soccer is nearing its end and, while Seattle Sounders have skewed an otherwise worrying attendance picture, the action on the field has impressed.

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Photo by ISIphotos.com

Toronto FC has informed its fans, and the Canadian media, that it will reveal its newest head coach at a press conference on Thursday. You already know who it is.

Former Chivas USA head coach Preki will be introduced as Chivas USA's fourth head coach, and will have the task of guiding TFC to its first playoff berth in its fourth season of existence.

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Photo by ISIphotos.com

Toronto FC has informed its fans, and the Canadian media, that it will reveal its newest head coach at a press conference on Thursday. You already know who it is.

Former Chivas USA head coach Preki will be introduced as Chivas USA's fourth head coach, and will have the task of guiding TFC to its first playoff berth in its fourth season of existence.

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We already knew this, but Avoiding the Drop crunches some numbers to show how Guillermo was the most productive and economical designated player in the league last year:

He had more goals (14), more combined goals and assists (17), and – probably the biggest factor for the Crew – was the cheapest on a per-goal basis* ($38,235).

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Since I did one for VCU, I thought it was only fitting to have one for DC United. Tom Soehn has decided to step down as Head Coach after 3 seasons, a total of 7 seasons with the club. The DC United job is a very unique situation.

The first thing that will make it hard for United to draw in a coach is the stadium situation.

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If you'll pardon the double dip, allow me to re-purpose something I knocked out for MLS Insider yesterday. I got to talking to Nick Rimando for a minute and he pointed out something that I didn't think of; he basically closed out his buddy Brandon Prideaux's career with that save in the shootout (they were teammates at D. Click to continue reading...

Last week I wrote about the bottom half of my personal top 20 stadia (out of 31 total) in MLS history. This week I share with you my top 10.  My b0ttom seven were all larger stadia with capacities of 30,000+ and the next three were each smaller stadia. Today's list reveals eight smaller soccercentric stadia and two of the jumbo variety.

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Hmmm. Following on from last week's third-party questioning of Preki comes this bit from a "very well connected fan of Chivas USA." (hat tip to duNord)... He really was a limited coach. He never bridged a link to Guadalajara. He didn't care to add... Click to continue reading...

Carrying on from our look at the goalkeepers and defenders in Part II, it's now time to address the midfield and forwards. Once again, note that I'm including the loanees and injured reserve guys in this roundup. Midfielders John DiRaimondo: With... Click to continue reading...

According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, VCU has "fired" (i.e., did not renew his contract) the men's soccer coach Tim O'Sullivan. O'Sullivan has been with VCU for 15 years. VCU won the CAA Title between 2002-04 and has not done as well since. Here are my thoughts as to who VCU could look towards.

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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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On September 22, 25 youth soccer players from United Soccer Club's THEARC site had the opportunity to participate in Dick's Sporting Goods 'Shop with a Player' event. Dick's Sporting Goods 'Shop with a Player' was held at the Bailey's Crossroads location where each USC athlete received a $100 gift card to spend at Dick's, dinner provided by Papa John's, and the opportunity to shop and spend time with D.

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Having assessed the general strengths and weaknesses of the team in Part I, it's time to move on to the player-by-player assessment portion of our program. We'll begin with the goalkeepers and defenders. Note that I'm including the loanees and... Click to continue reading...

autopsy (noun) (1) an examination of a body after death to determine the cause of death or the character and extent of changes produced by disease —called also necropsy (2) a critical examination, evaluation, or assessment of someone or something... Click to continue reading...

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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There's all kinds of MLS and soccer lovin' going around this morning in our fine land. Devin Barclay, now a rock star on Ohio State's campus, played parts of five seasons in MLS from 2001-2005. He suited up for Tampa Bay, San Jose, D.C. United and the Columbus Crew before hanging up the cleats and--eventually--picking up some other cleats. Click to continue reading...

• The Galaxy's win over the Dynamo was dramatic but in many ways tainted. A strange call when against Houston, and the rolling power outages that swept Southern California seemed to unfortunately coincide with upsurges in Houston play.
• Chicago vs Real Salt Lake was a better match than the Galaxy-Houston game.

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Luciano Emilio and DC United have a lot of question marks. (Getty Images)

The 2009 expansion draft is only a week and a half away here. Today we move forward in our look at each club's potential protection lists with DC United. The Black-and-Red are still without a head coach so don't be shocked if somethings here could change depending on who takes over this club.

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We have three new contenders on the National Soccer Hall of Fame players ballot: Chris Henderson, Eduardo Hurtado and John O'Brien.
Welcome to the ballot, gentlemen. Now take a number.
On the ballot for the last few years, we've had ...
- Thomas Dooley. U.S. captain in the 1998 World Cup and perhaps the best overall player on the U. Click to continue reading...

Took some time this weekend and added tags to the blog. So now you can look for articles by topic as opposed to just searching or looking by time frame. It should make it easier to find some topics and see what I write about the most. I hope to finally get my act together with tags moving forward. Click to continue reading...

The playoff numbers look like this...

5 year comparison Conference Semifinals 1st Leg  Avg +/- Home Teams  2005  12,147 NA  Chicago  NY  Colorado  Los Angeles  2006  9,533  -21.52%  Chicago  NY  Colorado  Chivas USA  2007  14,245  49. Click to continue reading...

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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Off a defender, off a post, in the net. Mr. Anelka took care of business away for France, making their trip to South Africa look pretty likely. As Jack posted earlier this week, Nico likes being the supporting striker, but that doesn't mean he doesn't like to let it rip on occasion.

Also in action today, Deco, Ricardo Carvalho, and Paulo Ferreira all played as Portugal won 1-0 against Bosnia, as Hilario, who won his first callup for Portugal, didn't make the bench.

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A week's worth of anonymous internet polling have left us here, with two candidates remaining in the Next Coach Cup. Both have had relatively smooth paths to the final, though you've got to wonder if the combination of ABMOD and Benny's fragile... Click to continue reading...