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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Liverpool v Manchester City? Tish tosh! The biggest match of the weekend is actually taking place in Seattle and involves a certain Mr. Posh – as our MLS correspondent Andy Taylor reports:

Sunday night's MLS Cup Final is set with an unheralded Real Salt Lake squad squaring off against the LA Galaxy, David Beckham and his ever-growing collection of tattoos.

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Let's dip into the playoff poll again, this time with one of the fallen favorites. We corralled Houston radio man Brian Zygo to tackle our Dynamo answers.NSC: What went wrong?BZ: In simple terms, a lack a finishing, the Houston Dynamo were having trouble putting the ball in the net. It took over 180 minutes of playing time in the first round of the MLS playoffs before the Dynamo scored a goal. Click to continue reading...

OK, after taking this week off to mostly just troll other blogs and not comment too much on MLS or soccer in general after letting last week's loss sink in, I do have some thoughts on a rash of topics:
(But before I begin, I have to tell you my favorite lines from anyone about events so far this week. Click to continue reading...

by FRANCO PANIZO

If the Houston Dynamo is to continue its relative MLS success next season, it will likely have to do so without two of their most talented players.

Midfielders Ricardo Clark and Stuart Holden are out of contract at season's end, and both players are unlikely to return to the club, having been strongly linked with moves to Europe during the upcoming winter transfer window.

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by FRANCO PANIZO

If the Houston Dynamo is to continue its relative MLS success next season, it will likely have to do so without two of their most talented players.

Midfielders Ricardo Clark and Stuart Holden are out of contract at season's end, and both players are unlikely to return to the club, having been strongly linked with moves to Europe during the upcoming winter transfer window.

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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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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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Houston had another strong season behind Brian Ching. (Getty Images)

Dominic Kinnear teams always compete, always and the 2009 edition of the Houston Dynamo looked very similar to the ones we've seen win league titles over the last few years. Even though the Dynamo lost their big star in the midfield in a trade to Toronto before the season started everyone knew this team would still compete.

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STARTERS
On Thursday Toronto FC is expected to name Preki as their new head coach.
dN
Incredible quote from Real Salt Lake head coach Jason Kreis on his teams tough regular season: "I was very overconfident. I think I added to what was a little bit of an underlying thing on the team that we were a bit overconfident going into this season. Click to continue reading...

The off-season has only just begun for the Houston Dynamo, and already there are reports the team could look significantly different next year. Two of Houston's more prominent players and freshly...

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Houston Dynamo midfielder/forward Stuart Holden, long rumored to be heading overseas this offseason, could end up with a Scottish Premier League club, according to the Daily Record.
Read on at ASN's 'Over There' page.

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The USA TV ratings for the Western Conference Final of the Los Angeles Galaxy v Houston Dynamo is now the highest ever on ESPN2. The rating is good news for the league who is showing the benefits of having David Beckham and the Galaxy in the playoffs. With the MLS Cup Final coming up on Sunday in a primetime spot and on ESPN (instead of ESPN2), the league could hope for a 1.

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Major League Soccer announced its all-star team today and a certain England midfielder was missing from the lineup.

The MLS all-stars (Best XI) are chosen by the media, MLS players, MLS coaches and general managers.

Chivas USA goalkeeper Zach Thornton earned his second career Best XI nod.

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Montreal inches closer to a MLS expansion bid.

By now we've all seen the lovely quote from MLS commissioner Don Garber yesterday about future league expansion.

"We've had productive conversations with Montreal to be our 19th team," said Garber.

With all the issues going on with the USL/TOA crap you have to think that Montreal owner Joey Saputo is trying to figure out the best way to get his club into the top-tier league instead of a new breakaway league.

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Major League Soccer announced the league's Best XI yesterday, as voted for by media, players, coaches and GMs. Here's what they came up with: GOALKEEPER (1): Zach Thornton (Chivas USA) DEFENDERS (3): Geoff Cameron (Houston Dynamo), Wilman Conde (Chicago Fire), Chad Marshall (Columbus Crew) MIDFIELDERS (5): Dwayne De Rosario (Toronto FC), Landon Donovan (Los Angeles Galaxy), [. Click to continue reading...

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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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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From the ESPN press release:

ESPN2's live coverage of the 2009 MLS Western Conference Finals Friday, Nov. 13, a 2 - 0 extra time victory by the Los Angeles Galaxy over the Houston Dynamo, was seen in an average of 538,000 television homes (700,000 people 2+), based on a 0.5 rating, making it the most-watched MLS telecast ever on the network.

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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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Jimmy Conrad and Josh Wolff will certainly be protected in the upcoming expansion draft. (WVH Photo Correspondent Brian Stevens)

Staying with the two-a-day structure for the expansion draft lists, earlier in the day we looked at the Houston Dynamo now we turn our focus to the Kansas City Wizards.

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(Summary is not available.) Click to continue reading...

By now you've heard that the MLS has dropped their official Best XI. And while we'll get to that at the end of this bit, there's a better way to do that. Some players in the mix didn't belong there. Hence the reason to build OleOle's own version of the best XI.

Without further adieu, here we go.

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Houston has plenty of guys worth protecting here. (Getty Images)

Today we move another day closer to the 2009 expansion draft. Now we turn our focus to the Houston Dynamo.

The Dynamo are a tough team to figure out due to the number of quality players that are both young and old.

Protected Available Exempt Corey Ashe Wade Barrett Danny Cruz Bobby Boswell Mike Chabala Geoff Cameron Ryan Cochrane Brian Ching Tyler Deric Ricardo Clark Tally Hall Brad Davis John Michael Hayden Andrew Hainault Richard Mulrooney Stuart Holden Dominic Oduro Luis Angel Landin Pat Onstad Brian Mullan Abe Thompson Eddie Robinson Erik Ustruck Craig Waibel Cam Weaver

Either way they stand to lose a good player this year.

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Edgar Castillo fue convocado de nuevo por Bradley, técnico de los Estados Unidos para el partido de éste miércoles ante Dinamarca, en Aarhus.

Edgar debió de haberse presentado ayer lunes en Dinamarca junto con Stuart Holden y Ricardo Clark jugadores del Dynamo para unirse el grupo que ya está en aquel país.

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Press release from the Rapids today. Good to see further recognition of Casey's talents. Does anybody else think that having only three defenders nominated is a bit weird?
MLS Commissioner Don Garber today announced that Colorado Rapids forward Conor Casey has been named to the 2009 MLS Best XI during his annual State of the League address. Click to continue reading...

With the Houston Dynamo knocked out of the MLS playoffs, Ricardo Clark and Stuart Holden were called in for the friendly against Denmark on Wednesday. Neither are a surprise, having forced their way into the national team setup at this stage in their career. The other two call ups, Jose Francisco Torres and Edgar Castillo were a welcome sight -- though news also came out that Torres declined for personal reasons.

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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...

Briefly:

*The initial 36,000 tickets for MLS Cup Sunday in Seattle sold out, so another 6,000 tickets have been put on sale. Details here.

*As unlikely as the Galaxy's run to MLS Cup was, Real Salt Lake's performance was even less expected. Reaction here.

*U.S. Coach Bob Bradley called in the Houston Dynamo midfield duo of Ricardo Clark and Stuart Holden and Tigres defender Edgar Castillo for Wednesday's game against Demark.

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I can't remember a longer weekend, and I don't mean that in a good way. From Friday's late, late night with the Galaxy-Houston power outage-filled Western Conference Final to Sunday and a terrible...

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Bob Bradley added four players over the weekend to his roster for the upcoming friendly in Denmark. Ricardo Clark, Stuart Holden, and Edgar Castillo.

José Francisco Torres was initially called into the camp for Denmark and has since been excused for personal reasons.

Steve Cherundolo, Clint Dempsey and Chad Marshall have been released back to their clubs after the USA's 1-0 loss to Slovakia on Nov.

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Becks has the X Factor David Beckham celebrated LA Galaxy's victory over Houston Dynamo in the Western Conference Championship by unveiling a new haircut, which appears to be in his team's colours. The brand new Beckham barnet also comes with optional bald patches. And it puts Beckham in contention to become the third member of controversial X [. Click to continue reading...

And those words are: Western Conference Champions!

In another step in the worst-to-first journey that MLS Coach of the Year Bruce Arena has taken the team on, the Los Angeles Galaxy turned away a stiff challenge from the Houston Dynamo in 30 minutes of extra time with a 2-0 scoreline.

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Edgar Castillo, Stuart Holden, Jose Francisco Torres, and Ricardo Clark were called in. Clint Dempsey, Steve Cherundolo and Chad Marshall have been sent home.

The full squad:

GOALKEEPERS: Brad Guzan (Aston Villa), Marcus Hahnemann (Wolverhampton), Troy Perkins (Valerenga)

DEFENDERS: Carlos Bocanegra (Rennes), Jonathan Bornstein (Chivas USA), Edgar Castillo (Tigres), Jimmy Conrad (Kansas City Wizards), Clarence Goodson (IK Start), Frankie Hejduk (Columbus Crew), Heath Pearce (FC Dallas), Jonathan Spector (West Ham)

MIDFIELDERS: Michael Bradley (Borussia Mönchengladbach), Ricardo Clark (Houston Dynamo), Benny Feilhaber (AGF Aarhus), Stuart Holden (Houston Dynamo), Sacha Kljestan (Chivas USA), Dax McCarty (FC Dallas), Robbie Rogers (Columbus Crew), José Francisco Torres (Pachuca)

FORWARDS: Jozy Altidore (Hull City), Conor Casey (Colorado Rapids), Jeff Cunningham (FC Dallas), Eddie Johnson (Fulham)

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Edgar Castillo has been called into his first U.S. national team camp.

The New Mexico native and former Mexican national team player was one of four new players called into the U.S. men's national team camp ahead of Wednesday's friendly against Denmark.

Midfielders Stuart Holden and Jose Francisco Torres were also called in, as was Ricardo Clark.

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