The Offside 17 November @ 05:30 PM EST
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), [.
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WVHooligan 16 November @ 06:41 AM EST
Luciano Emilio and DC United have a lot of question marks. (Getty Images)
The 2009 expansion draft is only a week and a half away here. Today we move forward in our look
at each club's potential protection lists with DC United. The Black-and-Red are still without a
head coach so don't be shocked if somethings here could change depending on who takes over this
club.
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EDIT - BREAKING NEWS! Preki re-nominated for Hall of Fame! Feel free to factor in his performance
over the weekend. (Yes, I know you're not supposed to.)
Now that I've got my head out of the oven, let's warm up with some trivia.
Depending on what happens Friday night, one bit of statistical weirdness will fall.
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SoccerLens 06 November @ 06:42 AM EST
Major League Soccer is growing and improving but outsiders often criticise the league for having
a lack of quality. It is a relatively fast football played in the US, with plenty of big, athletic
players of the kind which is becoming so important in so many footballing countries across the
world.
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DCUMD 02 November @ 11:25 PM EST
The first round of River or Life with the DC United front office has gone pretty much as expected
so far, with Tom Soehn just 0% Life, Dave Kasper over 50% but not convincingly, and Kevin Payne
somewhere between 50 and 100. Now let's see where the forwards on the roster stand.
The thing about playing River or Life is that its somewhat up to the voter's discretion how you
want to interpret the two choices, and I think that's going to come into play for a lot of us with
some of these forwards.
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Major League Soccer's playoff hopefuls went into the season finale with a whole host of
possibilities ahead of them. And without wishing to put too fine a point on it, they all crapped
the bed. Here's what happened in a spectacular, surprising and decisive Week 32, the final week of
the MLS regular season for 2009.
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DCUMD 30 October @ 06:10 PM EST
When posting the 2009 ADRs earlier this week, I asked what jumped out at you. Well here's some
questions that jumped out at me:
1.
Is Dejan Jakovic really all that good? The biggest surprise for me on the whole
was Jakovic's even 3.00 rating. After winning three Benny Awards, you would have thought his rating
would be among the best on the team.
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Let's just post the press release:
Kansas City Wizards goalkeeper Kevin Hartman received MLS Save of the Week honors for the final
week of the 2009 MLS regular season for an outstanding save to deny D.C. United's Ben Olsen.
Hartman won two MLS Save of the Week awards on the season, taking home the honor in Week 11 and
Week 32.
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Of all the decisions to be made on head coaching positions in Major League Soccer this
off-season, perhaps none is being watched more carefully than the New York Red Bulls' decision on
whether to keep Richie Williams as head coach.
Hiring Williams would seem like a no-brainer for a club that watched him take a hopeless team
and transform it into a respectable one that posted more points in eight matches (11) than it
posted in its first 22 (10).
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Of all the decisions to be made on head coaching positions in Major League Soccer this
off-season, perhaps none is being watched more carefully than the New York Red Bulls' decision on
whether to keep Richie Williams as head coach.
Hiring Williams would seem like a no-brainer for a club that watched him take a hopeless team
and transform it into a respectable one that posted more points in eight matches (11) than it
posted in its first 22 (10).
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As always, Mr. Unprecedented Access, Steve Goff, has a sit down with Kevin Payne and Tom Soehn
over on his blog. Some big quotes...
"We don't want to play like Colorado or New England, which most of the season sat with eight or
nine guys behind the ball. How many people go to watch Colorado or New England play?
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DCUMD 25 October @ 09:42 AM EST
Plenty of fans were saying last night that this match was like a microcosm of our season. I
disagree. A microcosm of our season would have included DC United grabbing an early lead and taking
it into halftime. It also would have included many chances to go even further ahead, but we would
have had multiple goals disallowed and/or our opponent would have scored after some poor
officiating.
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DCUMD 24 October @ 05:44 PM EST
By defintion, the Etchy Award goes to DC United's most valuable player. The winner of the award
should be the player who United can least afford to live without, and who gives the team the best
chance of winning. I'm going to present this award a bit differently because I want to give you
more choices and less bias.
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The playoff scenarios are mind-boggling.
It is actually possible for United to find its way into the MLS Cup playoffs regardless of win,
loss or draw tonight, but the likelihood is very slim if the Black-and-Red come away with anything
but a victory in Kansas City. The Wizards cannot make it to the post-season, but will certainly
come out hoping to put on a show for their fans in the last home game of the year.
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DCUMD 23 October @ 09:56 AM EST
Given the unfortunate results of the Chicago/Chivas and Marathon/San Juan matches last night, a
WIN for DC United on Saturday has now become all the more crucial. The number of playoff
spots at stake just dropped from 3 to 2 with the Fire's victory. What's worse though is that the
loss by Chivas USA means that Columbus has now clinched the Supporter's Shield, and therefore will
have nothing to play for in their final match against the Revolution on Sunday.
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After not winning any Champions League games last year, United has won three in a row to give
itself a chance to advance to the quarterfinal round of the tournament. It will be a difficult task
though - United must try to get a win in Mexico, a feat never accomplished by an MLS team.
And Toluca will not make it easy.
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By now, everyone knows what need to happen tonight - D.C. United needs to win to keep its
playoff hopes alive.
The team will have to do it without several key players, as Bryan Namoff (concussion), Josh
Wicks (dislocated shoulder, MCL sprain), Santino Quaranta (ruptured plantar plate), Ben Olsen (red
card suspension) and Chris Pontius (yellow card accumulation) will all be watching from the
sidelines.
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DCUMD 16 October @ 08:41 PM EST
By definition, the Harkesy Award should go to the DC United player who has been the strongest
leader for our team this season. On-field leadership is important, but for this award, it isn't
everything. And that would be evidenced by the fact that Ben Olsen won the award last year after
playing only 15 minutes.
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Comcast SportsNet spoke to Jaime Moreno, Santino Quaranta and Ben Olsen about their involvement
in ESPN The Magazine's 'The Body Issue.' Apparently, Benny owes his doc a lunch...?
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Well, here it is. The guys were pretty brave, eh?
From the left: Chris Pontius, Bryan Namoff, Clyde Simms, Jaime Moreno, Santino Quaranta and Ben
Olsen.
Dan Steinberg of D.C. Sports Bog has the full story. The issue hits newsstands tomorrow.
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DCUMD 04 October @ 10:45 AM EST
This was clearly a match between two teams going in different directions. Chivas was starting guys
like Maicon Santos, Jesus Padilla, and Yamith Cuesta - all who joined the team in August and have
already claimed starting jobs. They haven't been afraid to bench their veterans like Razov,
Galindo, and Marsch and have instead sought out better players.
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Former USF star, Jeff Cunningham, continues his good form of late with the only goal in a 1-0 win
against the New England Revolution on Wednesday night. The FC Dallas striker now has sixteen goals
on the season and is now one goal ahead of Conor Casey of the Rapids for the MLS scoring lead.
Cunningham's goal came in the seventy-first minute of play and secured a valuable three points for
his club.
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DCUMD 01 October @ 05:47 AM EST
This weekend had set itself up really nicely for DC United. After losses by Seattle and RSL, and
ties by Colorado, Chivas, and Toronto, DC United only needed a home victory against the worst road
team in the leauge in order to move into 5th place. But the underdogs continued to impress. Not
only did United lose, but they really deserved to lose.
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Two massive CONCACAF Champions League matches loom tonight for the remaining two MLS squads in
the competition. D.C., in need of a win to boost their chances of making a rather unlikely
quarterfinal bid, face lowly San Juan Jabloteh (8pm, FSC) of Trinidad & Tobago who have yet to win
in the competition.
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Two massive CONCACAF Champions League matches loom tonight for the remaining two MLS squads in
the competition. D.C., in need of a win to boost their chances of making a rather unlikely
quarterfinal bid, face lowly San Juan Jabloteh (8pm, FSC) of Trinidad & Tobago who have yet to win
in the competition.
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After dropping a 2-1 decision to the San Jose Earthquakes, United will be looking to get back to
the win column with a Champions League match against San Juan Jabloteh. The Trinidad & Tobago side
finds itself at the bottom of Group B without any points. A win over Jabloteh and a Marathon loss
to Toluca tomorrow would give United a berth in the quarterfinal stage of the tournament.
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As some have heard at this point, Josh Wicks is going to be out 4-6 weeks because of a
dislocated shoulder and torn MCL. Milos Kocic is the next in line for goalkeeper. Bill Hamid is not
available for league matches, only CONCACAF Champions League.
With Kocic in goal, how does DC work with this?
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DC United's playoff hopes took a severe blow Sunday with a 2-1 loss to San Jose at RFK Stadium.
Despite taking a lead through
Jaime Moreno and controlling possession through most
of the match, mental lapses and an overall flat second stanza doomed the home side, which has
fallen for the second consecutive time in an MLS game in their once friendly confines.
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Buen gol de tiro libre de Ramón Sánchez, capitán de la Selecta, para que su equipo, el San Jose
Earthquakes, le gane 2-1 al Washington DC United. El equipo californiano, que todavÃa tiene
posibilidades de clasificarse a los play offs, perdÃa con un gol de Jaime Moreno. Pero Sánchez
anotó un buen gol de tiro libre y luego Ryan Johnson hizo el de la victoria.
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Now I know what it's like to be a Red Bull fan. All of the teams I was watching over the weekend
all lost. I just couldn't believe it. Let me run through it real quick.
Fulham lost a heartbreaker to Arsenal 1-0 after a Robin van Persie goal. This was a tough home
loss for the Cottagers. Schwarzer came up big making 9 saves and preventing Arsenal from hitting
the net a few more times.
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Saturday night, Jeff Cunningham scored what turned out to be the game winner in the fifth minute of
play for FC Dallas. Later, in the eighty-seventh minute, Cunningham added an insurance goal as
Dallas topped Real Salt Lake at home.
The two goals, coupled with Jaime Moreno's goal for DC United on Sunday, means that Cunningham is
now ten goals behind the DC veteran for the MLS all time goal scoring record.
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Ok. So I know at first this title makes no sense at first. Think of it this way...United needed
to score 2 more goals than Marathon to jump into second place. They did this...and they scored
another to solidify it. Emilio, who has been in a real scoring drought this season, put in the
first and the last goals.
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D.C. United put together one of its most comprehensive performances Thursday night at RFK
Stadium by downing CD Marathon 3-0. Luciano Emilio broke out and scored two goals, while Jaime
Moreno added a tally midway through the second half. The defense also kept a clean sheet for the
second game in a row, as the Black-and-Red put together back-to-back wins for the first time since
late July.
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DCUMD 24 September @ 10:38 PM EST
This win was exactly what we needed. Nothing will inspire confidence in a team fighting for playoff
position like a multiple goal victory in which we were clearly the better team.
The offense is clicking, and oh yeah, that's 3 shutouts in our last 4 matches. With a makeshift
backline at that.
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