It is that time again. Time to talk all things soccer in the latest SBI Live Q&A.
Today's major announcement of the 20th MLS team being New York City FC has sent major shockwaves through the American soccer community and is raising plenty of questions about how it will affect the league and current New York-area club the New York Red Bulls.
The team with the best record in MLS takes on the team with the worst record as FC Dallas play host to D.C. United tonight in one of the day's more intriguing match-ups.
The biggest mismatch of today's seven matches will be worth watching to see if D.
As we learned when the MLS players salaries were released recently, there are some players who are paid way less than the value they bring to their teams. We also saw predictable and clear evidence that there are players who are coming nowhere close to bringing a good return of investment on their sizable salaries.
In a league where salary cap is king, finding bargains is key to survival and success.
Whether you are a team who spreads the wealth relatively evenly across your starting lineup, or a team that has some high-priced stars to go with less expensive options at other positions.
A player making contact with a player's head with his foot might have been seen as accidental if it involved a player with a sparkling disciplinary record, but when the offending party has a reptuation and track record like Steven Lenhart's, it was tough to see him getting the benefit of the doubt.
A trio of Sunday matches headline Major League Soccer action today, led by tonight's Western Conference showdown between the Portland Timbers and San Jose Earthquakes.
The Timbers are coming off their first win of the season and will take on a San Jose side that is starting to get healthier after enduring a rash of early-season injuries that kept the Earthquakes very shorthanded to start the year.
It takes a special performance to have a team place more than two or three players in the SBI MLS Best XI, but the Portland Timbers turned in one of those kind of performances in their win against the Houston Dynamo.
Jamaican forward Ryan Johnson leads a group of four Timbers on this Week's SBI MLS Best XI, with midfielder Diego Chara among those earning plaudits for his outstanding efforts against the Dynamo.
Before the 2013 season began, FC Dallas, Montreal and Chivas USA weren't consider serious threats to be among the best teams in the league, but all three enjoyed outstanding first months of the season to turn the league on its head and make us reconsider everything we thought we know about how this season would go.
When DeAndre Yedlin was signed as the Seattle Sounders first Homegrown Player, the former Akron standout came in with plenty of expectations and was regarded as a star for the future.
Few could have pictured the 19-year-old Yedlin stepping right into the Sounders starting lineup and making himself a fixture at right back, but that is exactly what he has done.
When the 2013 season began, it was believed that Robbie Keane would be the goal-scoring machine who would lead the Los Angeles Galaxy while Landon Donovan was away on his sabbatical.
On a night when returning U.S. Men's National team standouts Graham Zusi and Matt Besler turned in outstanding showings just days after playing key parts in the U.S. team's tie vs. Mexico, it might have been easy to overlook the impressive night of their World Cup veteran teammate.
When Daniel Hernandez finished up his playing career with FC Dallas last fall, he fully expected to make the transition to the team's coaching staff in a move similar to ones made by many long-time MLS players. The veteran midfielder had spent years in Major League Soccer, and years wearing the armband for FC Dallas, and he figured to have at least two years working the sidelines alongside Schellas Hyndman, his former college coach and the man who brought him to play for his hometown FC Dallas.
The topic of the day in American soccer circles is the roster selected by the U.S. Men's National Team for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers and that is what we kick our 18th episode of The SBI Podcast with tonight.
Co-host Garrett Cleverly and I discuss the 23-player roster chosen by Jurgen Klinsmann, and what the lineup might look like on Friday against Costa Rica.
In a week when there weren't exactly a ton of goals scored in MLS, there stood a very good chance that a goalkeeper would have a good chance to be the MLS Player of the Week. Given the performance Bill Hamid turned in, he would have been a serious contender no matter how many goals were scored around the league.
It was an outstanding week for midfielders in the opening stanza of the MLS season, with midfield maestros leading the way in several week one victories.
Sporting Kansas City's Graham Zusi and Houston's Ricardo Clark were among the midfielders to shine, and both were honored for their performances by making the SBI MLS Best XI for Week One.
The opening week of the 2013 MLS season delivered some quality goals, and it wasn't easy to pick the best one, but ultimately it was the debut goal from one of the weekend's most impressive newcomers that stood out the most.
Portland midfielder Diego Valeri's beautiful goal in Sunday's 3-3 draw vs.
There were several good team performances in the opening week of the MLS season, but you will be hard-pressed to match the effort turned in by Real Salt Lake, which posted a 2-0 victory against defending Supporters Shield winners San Jose at Buck Shaw Stadium.
By almost any measure, the 2012 season was one to forget for the Portland Timbers.
From the team's terrible record, to the disappointing form of Kris Boyd, down to finishing next to last in the West while expansion classmate Vancouver reached the playoffs in year two, there was plenty to get down about in the Rose City.
The 2013 MLS season kicks off in 24 hours and The SBI Podcast wraps up part two of our preview of the upcoming season by breaking down the MLS Eastern Conference.
Co-host Garrett Cleverly and I discuss all 10 teams in the East, and break down their chances of making the playoffs, or winning it all.
The 2013 MLS Draft didn't have as much star power as some past years, at least in the eyes of many scouts, but that doesn't mean this year's rookie class is necessarily weak.
A strong class of Homegrown Player signings, coupled with a solid crop of high first-round picks, has this year's class of rookies looking like a deep group that could really blossom in years to come.
There are crazy endings, and then there are endings like the one seen in England today between Watford and Leicester City.
Anthony Knockaert stood at the penalty spot, prepared to take a penalty kick that would send his Leicester City through to the English League Championship promotion final at Wembley.
A pair of MLS alumni will be facing off this weekend in a match-up with serious English Premier League relegation ramifications when Kei Kamara and Norwich City take on Brad Guzan and Aston Villa in one of the weekend's more intriguing match-ups.
There are more high-profile match-ups like Bayern Munich-Borussia Dortmund and Chelsea-Manchester United, but in terms of a match involving two teams that badly need a result, few are more meaningful this weekend than Norwich City's clash with the Villans, who are riding high after their thrashing of Sunderland earlier in the week.
The red-hot Portland Timbers will look to keep their five-match unbeaten streak going at home tonight when they take on the New England Revolution (10:30pm, Univision Deportes).
The Revs are coming in off a confidence-boosting victory, but they take the field at Jeld-Wen Field without three starting defenders as injured centerback A.
There were players who scored more goals, and some who registered more assists, but you will be hard-pressed to find a player who meant more to his team's success in April than Portland Timbers captain Will Johnson.
The Canadian midfielder led a Timbers squad that rattled off a 3-0-1 record during March, and while he managed one goal during that month (Johnson's brace vs.
Though he is half a world away in England recovering from broken bones in his back that have kept him out of the upcoming U.S. Men's National Team World Cup qualifiers, Tim Howard still felt compelled to address the state of the team after scathing allegations emerged from a Sporting News article released on Tuesday.
There have been rumblings for some time of issues within Jurgen Klinsmann's U.S. Men's National Team, but a Sporting News article released on Wednesday provided some damning detail to the rumors of strife and unhappiness with Klinsmann's squad.
The article, written by Brian Straus, contains comments from several unnamed U.
In 11 days Jurgen Klinsmann will settle on 11 players to help deliver the U.S. Men's National Team its first points of the Hexagonal round of CONCACAF World Cup qualifying. It will take much more than three points to qualify, but the three points on the line in Colorado next week are as important as any the U.
As many injuries as there were for American players this past week, and as many reasons to worry as there seem to be now for the U.S. Men's National team, it was still a pretty good week for several American players.
Herculez Gomez and Amobi Okugo are two such players who enjoyed memorable weeks.
The initial reaction among U.S. Men's National Team fans to the news of Tim Howard's current injury was understandable. Shock and fear seemed a normal way to respond to the news that Howard would likely miss this month's World Cup qualifiers considering Howard has started virtually every important U.
There are just two weeks until the U.S. Men's National Team's next qualifiers. Just two weeks for players to make their case for inclusion not only on the roster, but potentially into the starting lineup when the U.S. takes on Costa Rica in an all-important home qualifier.
According to reports from a Brazilian news outlet and Soccer By Ives, the Freddy Adu saga could be over for the Philadelphia Union in the next week, with former World Cup champion Kleberson heading to the City of Brotherly Love in a player swap.
Bahia Noticias, which in part covers the major club from the city of the same name, said today that a deal involving Adu heading to Brazil would include Kleberson moving to Philadelphia in return.
Months after head coach John Hackworth announced that Freddy Adu would no longer be a member of the Philadelphia Union, the team seems close to finally making that official.
According to Ives Galarcep, of Soccer By Ives, Adu is close to a move to South America, which would have him playing for Brazilian club Bahia.
The long and drawn-out divorce between Freddy Adu and the Philadelphia Union appears to be close to reaching its conclusion and it may just work out perfectly for both parties.
Adu is closing in on a transfer move to Brazilian first division side Bahia, and is set to travel to Brazil next week to finalize the deal, sources with knowledge of the deal confirmed to SBI on Friday.
The long and drawn-out divorce between Freddy Adu and the Philadelphia Union appears to be close to reaching its conclusion and it may just work out perfectly for both parties.
Adu is closing in on a transfer move to Brazilian first division side Bahia, and is set to travel to Brazil next week to finalize the deal, sources with knowledge of the deal confirmed to SBI on Friday.
If you were under the impression that defending Liga MX champion Club Tijuana were enjoying another good season, you couldn't really be blamed. The Xolos played extremely well in Copa Libertadores, advancing to the Round of 16 out of a group that they were expected to be overwhelmed by.
It is that time again. Time to discuss all things soccer in the latest installment of the SBI Live Q&A.
Get your soccer-related questions (and pop culture questions) ready and send them my way as I try to touch on as many subjects as possible over the next two hours.
The latest episode of The SBI Podcast features an interview with U.S. Men's National Team midfielder Joe Corona, who spent some time with us to discuss, among other things, the recent historic success of his club team, Mexican champion Club Tijuana.
For 45 minutes in the 2012 MLS Cup Final, the Houston Dynamo looked like they could win a championship. The Los Angeles Galaxy may have rallied and ultimately pulled out the trophy-winning victory, but what we saw from the Dynamo was a glimpse of just how good they could be.
