Tom Soehn's term as Head Coach of DC United has come to a close Monday evening when he met with Kevin Payne and the rest of the head honchos in the DC United front office. Tom Soehn did not await the decision from Kevin Payne and left on his own terms.

Now the decision comes down to who is next to step up and be the new DC United Head Coach?

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One of the big questions of the offseason, is who will be the Wizards coach next season? A few weeks ago after the final home game, Peter Vermes talked about potentially becoming the permanent coach for the Wizards, and Robb Heineman said that he wants to have the head coach in place before the MLS expansion draft, the week after MLS Cup. Click to continue reading...

---- -----------------"Can I get back to you in five years?"
One thing has become crystal clear over the last few days of post-season naval gazing at BMO Field. It doesn't matter, who the head coach is, it doesn't matter how the star player feels, it doesn't matter what the supporters want - Mo Johnston (Yes, the Scottish Hall of Famer! Click to continue reading...

The expansion draft for the 2010 Philadelphia Union will almost certainly take place on the Friday following MLS Cup. There will be a window that week to make trades then a freeze one day before the expansion draft. Since the 2009 season is over for FCD it makes sense to now look at who might get protected. Click to continue reading...

The blog's been quiet the last couple of weeks because I'm moving again. No, not out of Colorado, but we bought our first place in Arvada. So don't expect that many posts for the next week or so as we get settled. After that I'll be back with my list for the Expansion draft, a look at the player moves I think we should make in the offseason, and the weekend Roundups. Click to continue reading...

With the season now over, the Wizards have some questions to ask about the team itself and the front office. One of the most important questions revolves around technical director and interim coach, Peter Vermes. Where, if anywhere in the organization will Vermes be next year? Will he be back in the dual role of technical director and coach? Click to continue reading...

The Rapids choked away a chance at their best season ever with a 7 game winless streak culminating in the embarrassing 3-0 loss to FaKe SaLt Lake Saturday night. They finish in a tie for the last playoff spot but lose the tibreakers, missing the playoffs for a 3rd straight year. 2 years in a row they've missed the playoffs by a point. Click to continue reading...

I won't write what I wanted to write after watching the Kansas City game, because the more I kicked it around, it was a trite and cliche angle. The game was exciting, and the team fought as hard as they could (in the second half). Reckless desperation is always pretty fun to watch, but as DCUMD noted, a lack of defensive concentration (which is not a skill but an effort) ended our season.

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And now it is time to check in once again on my new hometown football club, the Atlanta Beat. That's the Atlanta Beat of the recently formed league known as 'Women's Pro Soccer' (WPS). Yes, I support a women's team. Got a problem with that? I hope not.
The Beat are what is called an 'expansion' team, meaning that they are currently being created out of whole cloth to compete in the WPS's second season beginning in Spring of 2010. Click to continue reading...

1) Various records to watch for:

• Eric Avila has made 16 subs without a start. Needs four more in the final five games to break the record, or three to tie.

• The worst Supporters Shield winners in MLS history were the 2004 Columbus Crew at 1.633 PPG. Somebody will need to finish with 50 points to surpass them.

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Before I get started, yes that really is a living albino alligator. Lisa Cole of the Boston Breakers is in San Francisco this weekend watching games, so last night we took a jaunt to the California Academy of Sciences to take in a little NiteLife. This place is AWESOME. Basically, the Academy is a museum/planetarium/aquarium in Golden Gate Park.

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I think you will find that many bloggers across the US don't write a lot about women's soccer because they don't know a lot about it. That's not the case at Inside The Six, a podcast from World Soccer Reader.

Richard Farley stays on top of the women's game and on this last edition of Inside The Six, Farley welcomes Jeff Kassouf and Ryan Wood.

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I think you will find that many bloggers across the US don't write a lot about women's soccer because they don't know a lot about it. That's not the case at Inside The Six, a podcast from World Soccer Reader.

Richard Farley stays on top of the women's game and on this last edition of Inside The Six, Farley welcomes Jeff Kassouf and Ryan Wood.

Click to continue reading...

Time to revisit my projections of who will be protected and who will be left available. What's changed in the past month? For last month's review, click here.
A few days ago I posted about when players graduate from Generation Adidas status, which is highly relevant to this topic. Check out that post for further info. Click to continue reading...

In case you have missed anything, here are some recent links with Chicago pro soccer mention:
WPS expansion draft
• John Howell, Bleacher Report: Red Stars lose two subs to Philadelphia in WPS first expansion draft
• Beau Dure, USA Today: Philly looks strong in WPS expansion draft
• Jeff Kassouf, The Equalizer: Grading the WPS expansion draft
Chicago Fire player development
• L. Click to continue reading...

Running late, but wanted to weigh in on the defense of marriage.

Yup, I'm with John Marcotte if we're going to defend traditional marriage, lets defend it all the way. No more half measures ... after all, this is a sacred institution.

'Til death do us part ... hear that?

Oh, and while we're at it (totally unrelated) the Breakers lost a couple of stalwarts in the expansion draft.

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They were Canadian international defender Sharolta Nonen, who started two games after joining the team in the wake of defender Christie Shaner breaking her leg on her Sol debut, and midfielder Katie Larkin, a BYU product who made five starts for the Sol.

Full details of today's expansion draft are here.

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Last season's Red Stars selected in WPS expansion draft
Defender Nikki Krzysik (top) and forward Danesha Adams (bottom) will continue their Women's Professional Soccer tenure in Philadelphia in 2010. This past season's members of the Chicago Red Stars were selected by the Philadelphia Independence in the first-ever expansion draft Tuesday. Click to continue reading...

Although I am enjoying the breast beating and hair-shirt wearing that the Bath City community is engaged in at the moment, my status as a native Atlantan has given me some cheerier football news to report to you today.
Just over an hour ago Women's Pro Soccer (WPS) has announced the results of their first ever expansion draft, and as a result the first six members of the new Atlanta Beat roster have been revealed. Click to continue reading...

When I posted my expansion draft preview recently, the subject that stirred up the most debate was this one. Anyone who's followed MLS for a number of years knows that it's a bit of a mystery. When exactly do Generation Adidas players graduate, and what are the criteria?
Basically, players are supposed to graduate when they no longer need the roster protection that it provides. Click to continue reading...

I think the most important part of this post is this link. That's a link to Wikipedia and their page on the 2006 MLS Expansion Draft, the one where Toronto was selecting players. I noticed while writing the previews for this year's draft that there was nowhere to find all the lists of protected players for the 2006 draft, as MLS just released a list of available players. Click to continue reading...

Part two of the expansion draft preview. The Eastern conference was covered yesterday, and can be found here.
CHIVAS USA
Protected Available Exempt Jonathan Bornstein Chukwudi Chijindu
Justin Braun Yamith Cuesta
Bobby Burling Jim Curtin
Maykel Galindo Jorge Flores
Sacha Kljestan Kevin Harmse
Michael Lahoud Ante Jazic
Jesse Marsch
Dan Kennedy
Paulo Nagamura
Eduardo Lillingston
Shavar Thomas
Gerson Mayen
Zach Thornton
Jesus Padilla
Mariano Trujillo Lance Parker
Ante Razov
Maicon Santos
Marcelo Saragosa
Bojan Stepanovic
Claudio Suarez
Carey Talley
Lawson Vaughn
Sasha Victorine
Cesar Zamora
If this list of players seems larger than normal to you, then you're right. Click to continue reading...

With an upcoming game versus Seattle on the horizon, I decided to pull this 2008 article from The Onion.

SEATTLE—After witnessing its baseball team finish in last place, its NFL team break its streak of five straight playoff appearances, and its NBA team leave for Oklahoma City, Seattle received another blow with the addition of a new Major League Soccer franchise, the Sounders FC.

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I know we're still four months away from the 2010 edition. While it's too early to look into the possible order or prospects, already there have been a decent number of picks traded. I'm going to list them here. Unfortunately, many are of the conditional variety, which makes it hard to sort things out. Click to continue reading...

The San Jose Earthquakes traded defender Ryan Cochrane to Houston on Friday in exchange for an international roster slot. Cochrane has played in 21 games for the Earthquakes since they picked him up in the expansion draft from Houston. He had 84 appearances as a member of the Dynamo and the original MLS version of the Earthquakes. Click to continue reading...

This man is running back to the Houston Dynamo, tout de suite!
From the San Jose Earthquakes Front Office, the team announced today that the team has acquired an international slot from the Houston Dynamo in exchange for defender Ryan Cochrane.
Cochrane appeared in 21 games and scored two goals the past two seasons with the Earthquakes after coming to the team in the 2007 Major League Soccer Expansion Draft. Click to continue reading...

This morning Steven Goff broke the news that Houston Dynamo Defender, Julius James, was traded to DC United for a draft pick. James was initially picked up by the Dynamo in last Fall's trade that sent midfielder Dwayne DeRosario to Toronto. James has good raw talent, but seems to have had trouble adjusting into the Dynamo defense. Click to continue reading...

Midfielder Khano Smith is no longer a member of the New York Red Bulls. The club announced on Thursday that he had been waived. RBNY traded for Smith after Seattle picked him up from New England in the expansion draft. HE had eight appearances for the Red Bulls in 2009. Click to continue reading...

Thanks to Prost Amerika for this. Normally I wouldn't go into a release of a player but since I know the guy and covered him during his college days at West Virginia University.

Seattle Sounders FC have released New Zealand striker Jarrod Smith.

Sounders FC have released forward Jarrod Smith.

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It looks like the Sounders may have decided to make a little noise in the transfer market as this move makes roster space to acquire someone during the summer window.
Courtesy of SoundersFC.com
The Seattle Sounders FC has released forward Jarrod Smith, the team announced today. Smith, 25, was selected by Seattle in the MLS Expansion Draft but had been on the disabled list since March 5. Click to continue reading...

La dirección de Los Sounders FC dio a conocer esta mañana la baja del delantero Jarrod SMITH, quien ha estado en la lista de lesionados desde el 5 de Marzo. SMITH, de Nueva Zelandia y seleccionado en el Reclutamiento de Expansión de la MLS (MLS Expansion Draft) se había estado recuperando de una cirugía a [. Click to continue reading...

This is our second of four posts in review of the moves DC United has made since the end of last season. Last week we looked at their acquisitions, today we'll look at the players who departed, and then later we'll look at their trades.
1. It's hard to imagine how different DC United's season would be had they retained Marcelo Gallardo in 2009. Click to continue reading...

As interesting as the Confederations Cup was with the predominantly European-based US players, the coming Gold Cup allows the MLS fans to see how some of the American MLS standouts might perform on a bigger stage. One such player is Brad Evans of the Seattle Sounders, formerly of the Columbus Crew and the U-20 USMNT. Click to continue reading...

Like many players on the 2009 CONCACAF Gold Cup roster, Brad Evans is getting a new experience as part of the U.S. Men's National Team. Evans was a part of the U-20 Men's National Team that played at the World Cup in Holland in 2005 back when he was attending UC Irvine. On that team, Evans played right back but, as he would learn when he turned pro, sometimes it helps to be able to play many positions. Click to continue reading...

Scottish media is reporting that Canadian International defender/midfielder Chris Pozniak has agreed to a deal with his club Dundee that paves the way for a return to Toronto FC when the transfer window opens.
The useful utility man was a solid worker bee on a poor TFC in year one. He was foolishly left unprotected and snapped up in the San Jose expansion draft. Click to continue reading...