Ted and Chris return with more MLS team previews as they open up with new correspondent Christopher Boulay,as they discuss the newest expansion team, the Montreal Impact. Also A.J. Jobe from the Crewsaders takes a look a much different looking Crew. And finally Jordan Wise from SB Nation drops in talk all about the Dynamo as they look to open their new stadium in May.

photo by David Bernal/ISIphotos.com

By FRANCO PANIZO

D.C. United added more depth to its midfield on Monday, signing a player who is no stranger to MLS.

United announced the acquisition of midfielder Marcelo Saragosa, the 30-year-old Brazilian who previously had stints with FC Dallas and Chivas USA.

Oh SuperDraft Eve. You have to love the excitement surrounding a draft.

So many things can happen though between now and tomorrow afternoon. Teams will be wheeling and dealing all night in hopes of either moving up in the draft, finding some decent talent outside the draft in a trade, or just hoping that the one special player you've had your eye on since December is still available.

For the last two MLS seasons 'strength of schedule' wasn't really a meaningful concept. With a perfectly balanced schedule, the only differences in schedule strength came from the fact that teams didn't have to play themselves (good for Seattle, bad for Vancouver). But now that the new era of unbalanced scheduling has arrived, it's worth looking to see who's facing tougher competition and who's getting off light.

So we've already seen the appearance of Toronto FC's schedule which has the Portland Timbers playing them, away, on May 12th. This also means that the full MLS schedule should be released very soon. All my surces and tips are telling me that it will be released tomorrow at 2:00PM EST. Regardless of time, if true, it would be a marked improvement over the schedule's release last year which was delayed well into February, if memory serves me right.

by Ed Bishop
Stifled for two and a half quarters by a stingy Wings defense and a stellar effort by Wichita's goalkeeper, Senaldo, the Missouri Comets were down 7 - 2 and perhaps one more Wings goal from being out of the game and disappointing a large holiday week crowd of 4,583 at the Independence Events Center on Wednesday night.

New England soccer fans who can't get enough of the sport will have plenty of opportunities to watch live soccer this summer, thanks in part to the arrival if three new USL Premier Development League (PDL) teams in the region. Boston Victory Soccer Club, Connecticut FC Azul and Worcester Hydra FC have all been announced over the past month as expansion clubs in the PDL.

On Wednesday the San Antonio Scorpions announced their first player signings in preparation for the 2012 season. The NASL expansion team have brought former Vancouver Whitecaps players Kevin Harmse and Greg Janicki, both 27 years old, into the fold. Scorpions' Coach Tim Hankinson also announced that Alen Marcina and Juan Lamadrid will join the club [.

Ethan Finlay (Marshfield) had an incredible college soccer career, one that rates among the best in history for a former Wisconsin prep player.

The Creighton senior forward was named to the first team of the National Soccer Coaches Association of America Division I All-America team, putting him in some pretty elite company.

The Rochester Lancers came out firing against the Milwaukee Wave Saturday night – the Major Indoor Soccer League expansion team found the back of the net just 6 seconds into the match and scored the game's first seven points.

But once the Wave got rolling, there was no stopping them.

Defender Joe Hammes (Cedarburg) sparked Milwaukee's comeback and capped an 11-point surge with a 3-pointer late in the first quarter as the Wave cruised to a 24-9 victory in front of 3,202 fans at U.

The Montreal Impact came away from last week's expansion draft without a proven goalkeeper, but that void was filled in a major way on Monday after the Impact acquired Jamaican national team goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts from the Impact for allocation money.

Ricketts had been one of the best goalkeepers in the league before a broken arm sidelined him and paved the way for Josh Saunders to take the starting job away from Ricketts.

Well, here we go.

Brian Ching has been selected in the expansion draft by the Montreal Impact. In order for Ching to finish his career in Houston, something he's stated he wants to do, the club will have to work a deal with the Impact to reacquire him. Will they do it, who knows.

There's the sentimental part of me that says give Montreal allocation money or a DP slot, hell even a player, to get Ching back for one more season.

Today the league released the list of players that have been exposed by their teams for Wednesday's expansion draft for the Montreal Impact. Plenty of arguments are made about how bad the expansion draft is. Teams do work to develop players than have to lose one of those players to an expansion team.

Frenchman Pierre Barrieu, who served as fitness coach on the last three U.S. World Cup teams, has taken a post as head fitness coach and assistant coach with the United Arab Emirates' national team.
Barrieu, who relocated with his family to Dubai in September, was out of a job when Jurgen Klinsmann took over as U.

Tonight kicks off the SB Nation Mock Expansion Draft where each current editor for each respective SBN blog will protect their chosen eleven from our soon-to-be Montreal Impact editor here with the great MLS blog family. It should be a lot of fun and I hope you join us at 4:00 PM today for the actual mock draft.

Kenny Cooper returned to MLS this past season after a frustrating stint overseas. First with 1860 Munich where injuries and circumstance kept him out of the first team, then a challenging loan to Plymouth Argyle. With each team failing to be a positive match for Cooper, he returned to MLS. He did so with great success.

From the Comets
The Comets once again faced an expansion team making their home debut. Once again, they relished playing the role of spoiler as they control play from the start and go home with a 13-4 win. Ryan Junge led the team with 5 points on two goals, Vahid Assadpour chipped in two of his own, Leo Gibson and newly signed Cristiano each had one as well.

• Dynamo's Brian Ching says he'll be back [Houston Chronicle]
• Top 50 MLS Cup Moments: #10 Mr. Clutch [MLS Soccer]
• Boswell's 2011 season a story of highs and lows [MLS Soccer]
• Galaxy, Dynamo to play for MLS Cup in sold-out HDC [MLS Soccer]
• Interview with Houston Dynamo president Chris Canetti [YourHoustonNews.

It's been quite an exciting couple of months for Jamie Lieberman (Racine Prairie School/UW-Parkside).

In late September, Lieberman was named to the U.S. Futsal national team. Now the goalkeeper is a professional soccer player.

Lieberman recently signed with the Norfolk SharX, an expansion team in the Major Indoor Soccer League.

Coach Kim Roentved talks about the victory and the Wings Coach LeBaron Hollimon discusses the game and being an expansion team. Bryan Perez played for the Comets last and is now with the Wings Ryan Junge had two goals in his second game as a Comet Junge played great defense in addition to scoring and was the man of the match.

Photo: Earl Gardner

Philadelphia Union did not play better than Houston in either of their two games.

The Union trotted out yet another poor lineup, with the team's leading scorer deployed at midfield where he never scores instead of forward where he always scores and a zone defense that confused its own players more than it contained Houston's.

Chuck Blazer could throw a massive monkey wrench into the New York expansion fun. (Getty Images)

The writing was possibly too much on the wall for this not to happen. We heard the whispers for a little while that something could be going wrong in the New York Cosmos to MLS expansion camp. With the news the other day that Cosmos chairman and CEO Paul Kemsley resigned, you just knew something else was going on.

Photo: Nicolae Stoian

Philadelphia Union v Houston

All time record: 2–0–2

At PPL Park: (2 meetings): Union 0–0–2, 2 goals. Dynamo 0–0–2, 2 goals

At Robertson Stadium (2 meetings): Union 2–0–0, 4 goals. Dynamo 0–2–0, 2 goals

In 2010

On May 29, 2010, the Union earned their first-ever win on the road as an expansion team against Houston.

In a year where Major League Soccer had some outstanding coaching jobs, five MLS coaches are listed on the ballot of finalists for MLS Coach of the Year.
Ridge Mahoney of Soccer America handicapps the field for the Major League Soccer Coach of the Year.
When MLS sends out its ballots for the end-of-the-year awards, clearly stated is that selections should be based on performances in league matches, with all external competitions -- Open Cup, Concacaf, friendlies, etc.

Today is about the Union sitting at home and waiting for three other teams to either succeed or fail. The Inquirer breaks down the Union's prospects for falling into the wild card game.

Bottom line: Union fans basically have to watch Kansas City, Houston, and Columbus this weekend and hope they don't win.

Well the Portland Timbers were officially eliminated last night by an own goal by the Philadelphia Union. Quite a disappointment if you ask me, but ultimately after giving up two very important home wins to San Jose and Houston it probably should have been expected.
So tomorrow is the final Portland Timbers game of the season.

Philadelphia Union will win the Eastern Conference today if they beat Toronto or if Sporting Kansas City loses to New York. If the Union draw, they'll clinch a playoff spot.

You've probably already read PSP's preview of the Union-Toronto game, and here's the Union site's scouting report on Toronto.

The Philly Soccer Page " A statistical analysis of the Union midfield
The Union midfield has been called one of the weaker parts of the team this season. What does the data suggest though?

Post Seattle Ponderings | Union Dues

I have a couple of thoughts after the Seattle game.

Ideas for MLS Future | Union Dues

In my opinion, Jurgen could not be more correct!

The last time the Philadelphia Union played in Seattle it was their debut game as an expansion team, a game that ended as a 2–0 loss. When asked after Saturday night's 2–0 victory over Seattle what had changed in the 18 months since then, Peter Nowak replied bluntly, "The result changed. That's more important than anything.

An odd thing happened with the Philadelphia Union at the beginning of the season, people forgot how new the team was. People stopped talking about them as an expansion team, and instead just as a team with some inconsistency, youth and capable of challenging for first in the East with no "expansion" caveat.

We've heard about the possibility of a Major League Soccer team in Detroit for some time now. We've even heard that the folks who bought the Silverdome have already applied for an expansion team. Now today we're finally seeing what their wild renovation plans may actually look like.

So, uh, yeah.

Sigi Schmid has found success at every stage of his coaching career, from the collegiate ranks through the US National Team and in Major League Soccer.
Seth Vertelney of Goal.com writes of how Schmid has built a consistent power with Seattle Sounders FC of Major League Soccer.
After his team had taken care of business by winning its third consecutive U.

Seattle Sounders have won the US Open Cup in each of the three years of their existence in MLS. Although Sounders have been a model franchise for expansion their model of success was the Chicago Fire. Chicago Fire had been the last expansion team to make the MLS playoffs, not to mention winning the MLS Cup, in their 1998 inaugural season and winning the US Open Cup.

Peter Nowak may be rooting for the Chicago Fire to get their fifth US Open Cup title (10pm, Fox Soccer), but the rest of the Union might want to pull for Seattle.

"I've been through the scenario where they tried to position it a week after MLS Cup and one year we lost in the final at Columbus, we played the MLS final on a Sunday in New England and we had to play the Open Cup final on a Thursday in Columbus.

When you worry about missing the playoffs this year, just take a look at Vancouver and remember, that could have been us.

The Timbers didn't get the benefits of being a lone expansion team in 2011, but instead had to split a lot of things with Vancouver: dividing up expansion draft picks and the top MLS draft slot, as well as all kinds of other obscure rankings and allocations.

By FRANCO PANIZO

Another opportunity for D.C. United to make up ground in the playoff race. Another loss.

Thee days after dropping a decision to the Philadelphia Union, D.C. United lost again, falling 2-1 to the Columbus Crew at Crew Stadium on Saturday.

The decisive goal came in the second half on a beautiful diving header from Eddie Gaven, who made his return for the Crew after being injured for nearly two months.

• Canetti's Corner - September 26, 2011 [Houston Dynamo]
• First-place Dynamo aware there are no guarantees [Houston Chronicle]
• Houston's late show "comes down to determination" [MLS Soccer]
• Dynamo's Cameron back in his element [Houston Chronicle]
• Distinctive steel tubing placed at Dynamo Stadium [Houston Dynamo]
• Academy College Report - Sept.

While any of the three teams could win the Cascadia Cup in the next two Saturdays in MLS play, the Seattle Sounders are in the driver's seat. With a win over the Vancouver Whitecaps they not only qualify for the MLS Cup Playoffs, they also get their first trophy. Or more appropriately, their fans get their first trophy as this is a Supporters Cup.

The online soccer community is abuzz with recent statements from Commissioner Garber (courtesy of Steve Davis), that MLS has raised its expansion fee for a 20th team to $100 million for the New York market. According to Davis' article, the league remains focused on New York for team 20, but has not set a timetable for that expansion.

Union

The Union reserves lost 2-1 to Columbus yesterday. Jack McInerney scored in the 14th minute for the U.

PennLive has videos and info on Harrisburg goalie Chase Harrison, who will be training with the Union today. Harrison also runs AskTheGoalkeeper.com.

The Shin Guardian offers up a wonderful breakdown of the current MLS playoff picture.