By Dario Camacho - MIAMI, FL (Jan 20, 2011) US Soccer Players -- As with any new year, all teams in Major League Soccer are in a period of transition. Whether it is a minor tweak here or there, or a full system reboot, most teams will see a few new faces in training camp. In recent years, that's been due to the predictable disruption caused by expansion teams coming into the fold.

The Vancouver Whitecaps' first season in MLS ended as so many other "expansion" teams' season have ended in U.S. leagues throughout the years: basement and struggling to build for the future.* After the near immediate success of recent MLS additions ...
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The currently winless Norfolk SharX (0-6) recently released the following conversation with their Head Coach, Jon Hall regarding the rough start to the MISL season.
Norfolk, Virginia - Norfolk SharX head coach Jon Hall is not accustomed to losing. The 2007 Premier Development League Coach of the Year has always had success outdoors on the pitch.

The people have spoken, and they've chosen Darlington Nagbe.

The Portland Timbers rookie won MLS Goal of the Year honors on Wednesday, beating out Vancouver Whitecaps striker Eric Hassli for the award. Both players, suiting up for expansion teams, delivered goals that were among the best MLS has ever seen in their first years in the league.

Another MLS Cup, another expansion draft.

For most clubs around the league, that's what the year's final match really means. The day after Sunday's championship game, MLS teams must submit to the league office the list of eleven players they plan to protect in the Nov. 23 expansion draft.

The draft's rules are largely the same as last year, tweaked a bit to account for the Montreal Impact drafting alone, whereas last year's draft had two expansion teams.

Article by Nicholas Murray


The Major Indoor Soccer League continued to show strongly at the box office in its second weekend with more than 20,000 fans in attendance for the league's four remaining home openers in Norfolk, Rochester, Baltimore and Milwaukee. That came on the back of almost 13,000 fans attending the opening weekend's three games.

Article by Nicholas Murray
The Syracuse Silver Knights remain undefeated, the Milwaukee Wave open their title defense with a victory, and one of the best goals you'll ever see, indoors or out, in this week's MISL Review.
SILVER KNIGHTS ROLLING ALONG
There's always a tempered sense of expectation when it comes to expansion teams in any league, but the Syracuse Silver Knights made a major statement this weekend with a pair of road victories to remain undefeated at 3-0.

Article by Chris Egan
Soccer Blossoming in the USA
Now we are moving into the last game of the MLS calendar, it feels fitting that we reflect on another successful year for the Major league soccer. I will be looking into their current stature with the other big four sports in america and where i think they need to go for them to expand and grow bigger.

Mike Magee, David Beckham and Robbie Keane were the difference makers for the Los Angeles Galaxy as their quick counters and excellent set-piece work was able to pick apart the piece-meal defense of Real Salt Lake. RSL fought hard to disrupt the Galaxy, but didn't have enough in the tank late to push through.

Winning Wednesday night seems such a distant chance. In MLS current, yet short, playoff format only 8 times has a team scored three goals or more in an MLS Playoff game. Only twice have teams come from behind two goals down in a two leg aggregate goals series. The last time that happened was 2004.

I thought it might be interesting to look at the points per match of each of the expansion teams since RSL and Chivas joined the league in 2005. I could have gone back to 1999 when Chicago and Miami joined the league. But that just seems like a totally different era, and there was contraction between that time and the additions of Chivas and Salt Lake.

It's almost that time again, folks. Another team is going to enter the hallowed land of MLS and in doing so they're going to take some of our stuff. And don't kid yourselves. Unless the Seattle Sounders and the incoming Montreal Impact work out some sort of deal, we're going to lose a player. Seattle's a tremendously successful and deep franchise and the list of players that have played significant minutes in big games this season is much more than 11 deep, which is all we get to protect.

Quotes:

Portland Timbers Quotes

Head Coach John Spencer
Thoughts on the match:
"I thought first and foremost this stadium was fantastic. Congratulations to everyone that has been involved in bringing the team here. I thought it was unique, unbelievable atmosphere.

Facing a 7-game winless streak and the absence of their veteran leader and goalkeeper Faryd Mondragon, the Philadelphia Union (8-7-11) will play host tonight to one of MLS's two new expansion teams and a side trying to contend for the playoffs, Portland Timbers (9-12-5). Kickoff at PPL Park is scheduled for 7:36:30 PM ET.

It's time to accept that this is who Philadelphia Union is right now:

They're good enough to beat bad teams, draw mediocre teams, and lose to good ones.

The Union have won one game in the last two months and just two in the last three months. Their record since June 1: 2 wins, 4 losses and 8 draws.

The Missouri Comets second season kicks off on Thursday November 3rd when they travel to Wichita to take on the expansion Wings in the opener of the new season. The two teams will meet again the next night, November 4th, at the Independence Event Center in the Comets home opener. The MISL this year has expanded under their partnership with the USL, only 3 teams return from last year (the Omaha Vipers and Chicago Riot are gone), but 5 new expansion teams come in.

Tomorrow is the first of two games against Cascadian rivals the Vancouver Whitecaps. Each team has been playing each other consistently since 2001 and both were elevated to MLS together this year. Unfortunately for both sides it appears that the Cascadia Cup trophy is the last piece of silverware within grasp for each team.

The Chicago Fire have now played all four of their scheduled games against the 2011 MLS Expansion teams. Their final record against the Portland Timbers and Vancouver Whitecaps is 0 wins, 1 draw, and 3 losses while getting outscored 9-5. Each expansion team even defeated the Fire 4-2 at one point.

If the fan vote is any indication, the MLS All-Star team will be heavy on the stars when they take on English Premier League champions Manchester United in the 2011 AT&T MLS All-Star Game on July 27 at Red Bull Arena.

The First XI also includes three players who have never been named to the MLS All-Star team.

But regardless of where Seattle end up at the end of the season — if they win a third straight US Open Cup, if they qualify for the knockout rounds of the CONCACAF Champions League, even if they finally get past that first round of the MLS Cup playoffs — it's remarkable to consider how quickly the Sounders have become a force in this league.

When you have a week with ten games and six of those end in a draw (three being scoreless) you end up with little change in the rankings. At least at the top that is. I did move a couple teams around in the bottom half of the rankings.

Just look at the standings for a moment, its a log jam after the top five clubs or so.

When you have a week with ten games and six of those end in a draw (three being scoreless) you end up with little change in the rankings. At least at the top that is. I did move a couple teams around in the bottom half of the rankings.

Just look at the standings for a moment, its a log jam after the top five clubs or so.

The Vancouver Whitecaps began their inagural season in MLS with so much promise, delivering a season-opening thrashing of Toronto FC making many wonder if this expansion team might be more successful than most past expansion teams.

The Whitecaps haven't won a game since, and head coach Teitur Thordarson paid the price for that on Monday by being fired by the club on Saturday night, after the team's 1-1 draw vs.

After last week's bizarre home win over the San Jose Earthquakes, the Philadelphia Union (4-1-1) will make their second west coast trip of the season as they take on the Portland Timbers (3-3-1), one of two expansion teams to join MLS in the 2011 season.

If you have not already, be sure to check out the following previews from The Brotherly Game staff: [Ben's Match Preview] [Scott's Preview for SBN Philly] [Friday Morning Union Freekicks] [Scott Has A Conversation With The Enemy].

The best way to be wrong is to enjoy it, and since Friday night's game between the Timbers and the Union looks to be one of the most important of the early season, I am pleasantly surprised at this improbable turn of events.
LA-New York? Strictly MLS 1.0. The league isn't even hyping this match up as sadistically as it did last year, and let's face it, that match won't make or ruin either team this year.

I'm back to an old theme that has a new resonance given the recent expansion teams allowed into Major League Soccer.

Last season DC United were awful. Their -26 Goal Differential was the worst since 2005, when expansion teams Real Salt Lake and Chivas USA stunk up the place, and the worst for a non-expansion side since the 2003 Dallas Burn finished with a -29 differential. The problems were mostly on the offensive side.

Paul Kennedy of Soccer America reports on the past week's attendance in Major League Soccer.

Thanks in part to expansion teams Portland and Vancouver both drawing capacity crowds, MLS average attendance is up more than 1,300 fans a game over the final 2010 average, though several teams that date back to the launch of MLS in 1996 are struggling at the gate.

There are a surprising number of threads that connect the Seattle Sounders to the Philadelphia Union. Superficially, there's Sebastien Le Toux on the field, as he tries to build on the tremendous offensive season he had last year immediately after being left off of Seattle's protected list. And will we ever hear the end of that?

Behold! For the first time in over a month, I am posting a Musket Rounds piece on each of the days I originally set out to publish them! In the same week!

Today we have relegation as a sports savior, MLS on the international scene, a tribute to a very special Midnight Rider and more.

First, Jeff Lemieux pens a tribute to Monty Rodrigues, who recently stepped down as president of the Midnight Riders after eleven years on the job.

Tonight, the New England Revolution take on the Vancouver Whitecaps at Empire Field in Vancouver, British Columbia. It will be the Revs' first trip to the west coast of Canada and the second of three matches over a seven-day span.

I was expecting Steve Nicol to shuffle the lineup a little bit in light of the quick turnaround between last Saturday's match and this weekend's tilt against Real Salt Lake, but as you'll see in the lineups I was mistaken.

The Cascadia region is getting a lot of deserved attention for the passion of its fans and the strength of its natural (as opposed to league-manufactured) rivalries. But how are the teams stacking up against other regions in MLS? Let's find out.

Most of the regions are pretty natural. The goal is to keep them around 3 teams (going to 2 or 4 if necessary).

First of all, my deepest apologies for the headline. I don't usually do the pun thing, and now you see why.

TFC had its first home game of the season hosting Portland Timbers, the second expansion team of MLS in 2011. Toronto had a dire performance against Vancouver the week before.

The year is 1970. The Kansas City Chiefs have just defeated the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl IV, evening the score at two wins each for the NFL and the AFL. It's now time for the merger between the two leagues to take place. But instead of the Baltimore Colts, Cleveland Browns, and Pittsburgh Steelers jumping to the new American Football Conference and making one 26 team league, the owners instead decide to take a cue from European soccer and institute pro/rel in a major American sport for the first time.

In the last post, I looked at the breakdown of goals by competition and by team. I couldn't help but notice that Seattle is already over 100 goals in only two seasons, helped by their US Open Cup success. Not only that, they're 2/3rds of the way to Toronto's total despite playing two seasons vs four for TFC.

Seattle set a high bar for expansion teams in 2009. And it was clear early on that the Union would struggle to reach similar heights during their inaugural campaign.

Still, 31 points from 30 games did not do justice to a team that seemed to undo quality performances with sudden and unexpected errors.

Includes when it was called the CONCACAF Champions Cup. Qualifying games like the ones Colorado and LA played in the 90s are not included. However, the preliminary round games that are a part of the new Champions League are included (as they're considered part of the final tournament).
Alltime Records
GP W L D Pts GF GA GD DC United 40 16 14 10 58 64 58 6 Houston 22 7 8 7 28 28 31 -3 Columbus 18 8 7 3 27 25 26 -1 Chicago 11 6 3 2 20 18 14 4 Los Angeles 14 5 5 4 19 20 24 -4 San Jose 8 5 3 0 15 10 12 -2 Real Salt Lake 6 4 1 1 13 17 11 6 Toronto 10 3 3 4 13 8 10 -2 Kansas City 8 3 3 2 11 9 11 -2 Seattle 8 2 5 1 7 8 12 -4 New England 6 1 4 1 4 4 12 -8 New York 2 0 1 1 1 3 4 -1 Chivas USA 2 0 1 1 1 1 3 -2
This season, Colorado and Dallas will make their debuts in the competition.

This is the 1st guest post by TSG community member Jacob Chambliss. Well done.

As promising as the latest MLS expansion teams seem, their inception does little to dull my own apathy regarding the league's newest franchises (Disclaimer: I do love Jay DeMerit).

Ridge Mahoney of Soccer America writes of the task at hand for new MLS coaches-
Asking which of the new coaches hired by MLS teams in the past few months will get off to the quickest start or last the longest really aren't the most pertinent questions regarding the futures of Robin Fraser, Aron Winter and Ben Olsen.

A twitter discussion between the SBN MLS authors broke out last week over how many MLS dynasties have existed. Black & Red United claims that DC United are the only dynasty. While their initial stretch in MLS 1.0 was awesome (6 MLS Cups, Supporters Shields or US Open Cups from 96-99) , and clearly a dynasty, is it really the only one?