No, there isn't thing officially saying that MLS is coming to Detroit, and I'm not insinuating that it is.

Today the Pontiac Silverdome was sold for peanuts, really. $583,000 for an 80,000-seat stadium. The Silverdome certainly has aged, and it hasn't aged well, but it could always be upgraded and when it's all said and done this firm, which at the moment is still anonymous, got it for a steal.

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Freddie Ljungberg and Osvaldo Alonso were huge additions to Seattle and to MLS this year. (Getty Images)

Everyone knew going into the 2009 season that the new kids on the block would make a splash. Just the kind of splash the league needed in some folks eyes. The Seattle Sounders FC came into the year not as a typical expansion club.

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The USL is in Beverton, Oregon this week, home of Nike Soccer, the former owner and new league sponsors of the United Soccer Leagues. The teams are meeting in preparation for the Annual General Meetings that will take place in Tampa Florida in a few weeks.

According to a news article produced by the USL themselves, they are stating that Owners representing Austin, Cleveland, New York, Puerto Rico, Portland, Rochester and Tampa Bay were in attendance as well as individuals representing USL-1 Canadian expansion teams in Edmonton and Ottawa and American teams in Baltimore and Detroit were on hand.

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The USL is in Beverton, Oregon this week, home of Nike Soccer, the former owner and new league sponsors of the United Soccer Leagues. The teams are meeting in preparation for the Annual General Meetings that will take place in Tampa, Florida in a few weeks.

According to a news article produced by the USL themselves, they are stating that Owners representing Austin, Cleveland, New York, Puerto Rico, Portland, Rochester and Tampa Bay were in attendance as well as individuals representing USL-1 Canadian expansion teams in Edmonton and Ottawa and American teams in Baltimore and Detroit were on hand.

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As mentioned earlier on my Twitter feed today has been a slow day due to some bad headaches on my end. I won't go into it much but I am feeling a little better after some medicine kicked in here (thanks to the few who asked). I didn't have much planned for tonight but I did want to get into the coaching carousel that is going on in Major League Soccer.

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I've also been meaning to put in my own take on the 2009 MLS regular season attendance numbers. Tom over at PI looks at the issue in terms of expansion teams versus older clubs, but I'm not sure that's a complete analysis. This won't be either, but here's a few brief points:
1) Outside Seattle, no team saw more than a 1% increase in attendance - except San Jose because of the Barcelona double header. Click to continue reading...

by FRANCO PANIZO

Seattle Sounders FC goalkeeper Kasey Keller has enjoyed a strong first year in MLS, and the 39-year-old is planning to stick around for a few more seasons.

Keller told reporters Tuesday he would be surprised if he was not around for the start of the 2011 season, when a Pacific Northwest rivalry is expected to begin as expansion teams Portland and Vancouver join MLS.

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by FRANCO PANIZO

Seattle Sounders FC goalkeeper Kasey Keller has enjoyed a strong first year in MLS, and the 39-year-old is planning to stick around for a few more seasons.

Keller told reporters Tuesday he would be surprised if he was not around for the start of the 2011 season, when a Pacific Northwest rivalry is expected to begin as expansion teams Portland and Vancouver join MLS.

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Earlier this morning, none other than Major League Soccer Commissioner Don Garber tweeted the following:
Great games last night. Tightest MLS Playoff race ever. 7 MLS teams vying for last 3 playoff spots!
I love MLS. I've watched it since the beginning. I've gone to games since the very first year - even driving through the remnants of a hurricane to get to one in '96. Click to continue reading...

And he's all like, Sigi, are you ready for the game on the weekend?
I'm like, Robert, what the hell happened last night against Saprissa? A goal in the last minute, and now you have to hoof the team down to Puerto Rico?
Yes, Robert says, it is true that this happened, but if I were you, I would only concern yourself with Saturday's game. Click to continue reading...

With the impending addition of franchises in Philly, Vancouver and Portland, I thought it would be interesting to see how much of a "sophomore slump" expansion franchises experienced in regards to attendance.
Here are the numbers for the recent expansion teams, as well as Houston who moved from San Jose in 2006. Click to continue reading...

Regular season USL-1 play has now concluded for 2009. The playoffs start tomorrow (Thursday). Sure it would have been nice to see Austin there; but I guess it just wasn't meant to be. We might as well get a head start on looking back.
Both of the league's expansion teams, the Austin Aztex and the Cleveland City Stars, fared poorly in their inaugural seasons, winding up at the bottom of the final standings:
P
Team
Pld
W
D
L
GF
GA
GD
Pts
1 Portland Timbers 30 16 10 4 45 19 +26 58 2 Carolina RailHawks FC 30 16 7 7 43 19 +24 55 3 Puerto Rico Islanders 30 15 8 7 44 31 +13 53 4 Charleston Battery 30 14 11 5 33 21 +12 53 5 Montreal Impact 30 12 7 11 32 31 +1 43 6 Rochester Rhinos 30 11 10 9 34 32 +2 43 7 Vancouver Whitecaps FC 30 11 9 10 42 36 +6 42 8 Minnesota Thunder 30 7 10 13 39 44 -5 31 9 Miami FC 30 8 5 17 26 52 -26 29 10 Austin Aztex FC 30 5 8 17 28 51 -23 21* 11 Cleveland City Stars 30 4 19 7 22 52 -30 19
As you can see, the Aztex escaped the very last spot, if barely. Click to continue reading...

There's an assumption that expansion teams dramatically help league-wide attendance in their first year. While it's true that these team usually draw above the league average at home, their overall impact is actually a lot less than I expected. The reason is that these teams don't draw especially well on the road. Click to continue reading...

And I tell him he put up a good fight, I know he needed that game more than I did and I hope he can find a way out of the briars.
He's like, thanks Sigi, I appreciate that. Do you know how hard it is to get support out here these days? The fans are insane - pure nut cases. It's like I'm Greg Andrulis or something. Click to continue reading...

For those of you who think soccer is a dish best served on a single table, here's what MLS' standings would look like if the teams weren't split into Eastern and Western Conferences:

Rk Club GP W L T Pts GF GA GD 1 Houston Dynamo 25 11 7 7 40 31 22 9 2 Columbus Crew 23 10 4 9 39 34 25 9 3 Chicago Fire 24 10 6 8 38 33 28 5 4 Los Angeles Galaxy 24 9 4 11 38 28 23 5 5 Seattle Sounders FC 24 8 6 10 34 29 23 6 6 Colorado Rapids 22 9 7 6 33 35 27 8 7 Real Salt Lake 24 9 9 6 33 35 27 8 8 New England Revolution 21 9 6 6 33 26 26 0 9 Chivas USA 22 10 9 3 33 23 24 -1 10 DC United 23 7 5 11 32 35 34 1 11 Toronto FC 23 8 8 7 31 30 33 -3 12 FC Dallas 22 6 11 5 23 31 35 -4 13 Kansas City Wizards 21 5 10 6 21 20 29 -9 14 San Jose Earthquakes 22 5 12 5 20 27 40 -13 15 New York Red Bulls 24 4 16 4 16 20 41 -21
Notes:

• As Columbus has two games in hand on Houston, the Crew actually has the highest points-per game average (1.

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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...

Joey Saputo (left) is trying hard to get a MLS club by 2011.

Nothing like some MLS expansion news to brighten your day.

ESPNsoccernet is reporting that Montreal Impact owner Joey Saputo is aggressively trying to secure a MLS expansion bid for his club for the 2011 seasons along with Portland and Vancouver.

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It looks as though the MLS dream for St. Louis is fading somewhat after a failure on the part of Jeff Cooper's Soccer United Marketing to meet the requirements of MLS for a deep pocketed investor. MLS having seen a Miami team fold due to the lack of such an investor may be rightfully reluctant to take on the risk of what would be viewed as a massive failure if a St Louis team folded. Click to continue reading...

Women's Professional Soccer Commissioner Tonya Antonucci and Atlanta Team Owner Fitz Johnson today officially unveiled the Atlanta Beat as the ninth Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) franchise at a ceremony at downtown Atlanta's Metro Chamber of Commerce with Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin in attendance.

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Tonight sees the start of the 2009 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, the oldest annual team tournament in U.S. sports history, dating from 1914. First round games are being played all over the country today (see the full bracket). Though the Aztex U23s failed to qualify from the PDL, the USL-1 Aztex, like all U. Click to continue reading...

The Fire remained undefeated on the MLS season with two road wins. A 1-0 victory in NY on a strike by Chris Rolfe in the 45th minute. Then last Thursday Chicago came from behind to defeat the top team in MLS, Chivas USA. The Fire scored two late goals, including a 96th(yes, ninety-sixth) minute penalty for the win. Click to continue reading...

Because the Sounders were just in town and are doing so well, The Tuesday List looks at Major League Soccer expansion teams' records in the first 10 games of their first season:

Seattle Sounders (2009) 4-2-4
Chicago Fire (1998) 5-5-0
Miami Heat (1998) 5-5-0
Real Salt Lake (2005) 3-5-2
Toronto FC (2007) 3-6-1
San Jose Earthquakes (2008) 3-6-1
Chivas USA (2005) 1-8-1

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What's up Sounders Junkies,
Time for a little ranting about this weekend in Colorado where hopefully we can pull the three points.
No Ljunberg, Evans, or Scott means we are shuffling a little bit. Not that losing Scott bothers me, he is a huge liability right now. I think he can be a good player but right now Alonso totally covered him to the extreme when Sturgis was hurt. Click to continue reading...

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                                                                        Photo by ISIphotos.com

With rumors circulating that the Philadelphia Union has already selected its first head coach, you have to wonder just who are the best head coaching candidates in MLS these days.

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Many critics of the American game, most with European orientations demonstrate nothing but disdain for the playoff system in football.

For these critics the story of Indios needs to be told. Six short weeks ago the Mexican Club which is only four years old was flirting with relegation from the Mexican Primera Division.

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Charlotte Moran (center) pictured with her good friends Louise Waxler and Sue Ryan.

It is with great sadness and a heavy heart that I share the passing of our friend Charlotte Moran. Charlotte passed away peacefully early this morning at her home after a long and courageous battle with pancreatic cancer.

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The rumors can be confirmed and the press conference is now ongoing to introduce Philadelphia Union. I can't seem to get the live feed up, but it's ongoing over at www.mlsnet.com. There's a large contingent of fans on hand, which is an encouraging site to see.

The new logo is only a bit different than the one that was leaked last Friday.

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With the announcement of the new Philadelphia team in just four days, leave it to the Internet to fuel speculation. I saw this on MLS Rumors, and while they can push the envelope at times, they also happen to be one of my favorite sites. They, along with a number of other places have leaked the logo at left, as well as the name of the team as Philadelphia Union.

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Chicago hopes to remedy recent slow starts vs. Crew, Club America
For the past two games, the Chicago Fire (2-0-4) have fallen behind 2-0 in the first half. One game counted (Columbus Crew, MLS), the other didn't (Club de Futbol America, Primera Division). The first they managed a draw, and the other a one-goal defeat. Click to continue reading...

The Portland Timbers will be the 18th MLS franchise in 2011. This was announced this past March by MLS headquarters just a few days days after the announcement that Vancouver was awarded the 17th franchise, also to start in 2011.

So next year will be the last season for the Vancouver Whitecaps and the Portland Timbers, the 2008 USL Champion and the team that placed dead last in the regular season.

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The Portland Timbers will be the 18th MLS franchise in 2011. This was announced this past March by MLS headquarters just a few days days after the announcement that Vancouver was awarded the 17th franchise, also in 2011.

So next year will be the last season for the Vancouver Whitecaps and the Portland Timbers; the 2008 USL Champion and the team that placed dead last in the regular season.

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Wondering who might coach the still nameless Philadelphia MLS club? Well over on the Examiner Mark Chajkowsky has written an excellent piece where he breaks down just who might be on the Philly MLS manager short list:

Expansion teams in Major League Soccer have, historically, gone down one of two paths.

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Kansas City held onto their title on the road, they are 6-5-5 now on the road with the title, after a 1-0 win against 10 man Seattle. The Sounders lost keeper Keller to a handball infraction near the 30th minute. The Wizard's Davy Arnaud blasted home a goal in the 80th.
2006 was the last time that KC had the title for more than 1 game. Click to continue reading...

Kansas City earned its first road win of 2008 with a 1-0 shutout of Seattle Sounders FC that included a red card to former US international Kasey Keller and another stunning long-range goal from Davy Arnaud. What a way to deal Seattle its first loss since joining MLS. With the win, Kansas City moved up to 3rd place in the Eastern Conference after all other East teams lost or tied Saturday. Click to continue reading...

It seems like not too long ago we heard stories of MLS players looking forward to playing in Toronto. It now appears that Seattle has replaced Toronto and Qwest has replaced BMO Field as the destination of choice and challenge among MLS players.
Courtesy of the News Tribune:

League officials have been talking up Seattle as a model MLS franchise.

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