I, too, am removing my name from consideration for DC United's head coaching position.
Bill has his own take on the nominees. That reminds me, I need to fill out my MLS awards ballot.
Quote: Voting will close on Monday, October 26 at Noon ET. Oops.
Well, the good news is, you won't be able to blame me for any of this year's winners. Click to continue reading...

DC United has announced today that they will not be offering Tom Soehn a contract extension. The team was told this morning that Soehn was out and the search for a new manager would start.

"Tommy has done an outstanding job at D.C. United, first as an assistant and then as our head coach," said United President and CEO Kevin Payne.

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BMO Field finally turned into a fortress in 2009. (Getty Images)

2009 was expected to the be year that Toronto FC turned the corner and really made a splash in Major League Soccer. The moves were made to get local star Dwayne De Rosario at the start of the season and things looked promising early on but midway through the first full month of action manager John Carver stepped down and if you ask me the club never really rebounded from that change.

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--------------------That is some quality toad. Nice hole too.

Well, that's it then. 2009 is done and dusted with Toronto FC having nothing but a big wad of mediocrity to show for it. But have no fear brave TFC supporters - Mo Johnston is working feverishly to make everything better!

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The gears in many front offices haven't ground to a halt just yet. digest their future and ponder what moves to make this offseason. Coaching is one obvious place to start, and for the teams that failed to make the playoffs, now is the time to question who will be on the sidelines again in 2010.

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So Mo Johnston's big state of the no-union address was to remove the "interim" tag from head coach Chris Cummins title. He also removed the word "head" and "coach" from the affable Englishman's job description as well.
Yes, the ever-humble Johnston dispatched yet another manager from the TFC bench with Cummins being the convenient excuse for the mediocrity which Mo has taken nearly four years to build. Click to continue reading...

So Toronto FC fired their interim manager Chris Cummins today, on the heels of a 5-0 meltdown in a must-win match against woeful New York. That's a reasonable move, and one that I suspect most TFC fans welcome. But whichever English or Scottish league washout that Mo recruits (and you can bet your bottom dollar that it'll be a Brit), will face the same problem that Cummins and his predecessor John Carver faced. Click to continue reading...

Toronto FC did not renew interim head coach Chris Cummins's contract on Tuesday, announcing they will begin a search for a new head coach. Cummins replaced John Carver, who resigned on April 25th. "We have decided to move forward without Chris for next season," said manager, director of soccer Mo Johnston. Click to continue reading...

Nottingham Forest put a dent in our title ambitions as what appeared to be a very unmotivated Newcastle side struggled early on.

Forest had the best of the first half and were unfortunate to only go in to the half-time break with a one goal lead. Newcastle were guilty of:

• Giving away possession (Are you listening Marlon Harewood?

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John Carver was Bobby Robson's assistant at a time when Newcastle were in the top four in the Premier League and in the European Champions League. John Carver- worried about Newcastle longer term John, who was widely expected to be an assistant to Alan Shearer if Alan was appointed as permanent Newcastle manager in the [. Click to continue reading...

If everything goes as expected in the next two weeks, Toronto FC players will be packing their bags and heading home for 2009 while many of their rivals prepare for the playoffs. What happened this season? There was such promise back in spring but it quickly slid into mediocrity - all that was left was a look ahead to 2010. Click to continue reading...

After the all too predictable failure of Toronto FC on Saturday afternoon, the supporter's, and media's, axe was immediately and forcefully swung at interim manager Chris Cummins' head. It is hard to argue that anger, what with the technical shortcomings of TFC in the San Jose match and in many previous matches this season, but how much of the blame can lay solely at Cummins' feet? Click to continue reading...

STARTERS
Can't wait to see many of you next Wednesday in DC. Drop me an email if you are going.
TEAM USA
Michele Kaufman of the Miami Herald with an article on the teams preparations for Honduras.
dN
Kaufman also writes about coach Bob Bradley and son Michael. Click to continue reading...

For our long-term readers you may remember we used to have a few football quotes each day from football personalities quotes that just made no sense. John Carver and Bobby while at Newcastle Then to add a bit of spice we added a pin-up in there to go with the quotes. But [...] Click to continue reading...

I don't have too much going into tonight's Evening Links and Thoughts. I mainly wanted to touch base with the current coaching hot seat situation in Major League Soccer. I don't expect any coaching changes to take place until at least after the regular season finishes here. Something crazy would have to take place for any of these teams below to even think about making a switch with so few games left.

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Sir Alex Ferguson will lead the tributes to the great Sir Bobby Robson, in what is sure to be an emotional service of thanksgiving at Durham Cathedral today. John Carver with Bobby at Newcastle Sir Alex Ferguson and Gary Lineker will pay tribute at Sir Bobby Robson's memorial service. Some of the leading figures from world [. Click to continue reading...

I'm not about to try and speculate on how many games the RedBulls would have to win to have a reasonable shot at the playoffs, since that's exactly the kind of post which gets me a couple dozen comments describing how truly bad my math is or, alternatively, explores the depth of my imbecility.
Suffice it say that, divine miracles aside, they're a pretty long shot. Click to continue reading...

It is maybe not a coincidence that the death of the great Bobby Robson has come at a time the Newcastle United club seems to be being taken to the cleaners by a certain owner, Mike Ashley. John Carver with the great man One way of looking at Mike's actions this summer is that he wants to [...] Click to continue reading...

Toronto fans are going to have to kiss this fellow goodbye...for now.
Thanks to one of our readers for pointing out the Kansas City Star article by Daniel Girard (click here for the original and all the details) which reports that Julian De Guzman is officially not coming to Toronto FC, even for a $2. Click to continue reading...

There are strong rumours coming out of Denmark tonight that former Toronto FC winger Rohan Ricketts is on his way to Odense BK of the Danish Superliga. Ricketts, who was released by the Canadian MLS side in June, arrived on trial at the club today, with a club source saying he impressed the coaching side. Click to continue reading...

44 year-old John Carver had been tipped to join Alan Shearer's backroom staff if Alan does get the Newcastle manager job, although nobody else has even been mentioned as a possible management candidate. John Carver ready to help Alan at Newcastle? And John, was was born in Newcastle, did a great job as Assistant manager to [. Click to continue reading...

I'm in a great mood today. The local child molestor died, that's always a good thing.
Plus, we have - well, mostly Kenn has - the FATBack special edition: the complete Shep interview. Guy's an icon.
And...okay, I guess I should address this. My blog entry yesterday was really, really misunderstood. Click to continue reading...

There's been fun and social networking games in Toronto this week after Rohan Ricketts found his Twitter feed getting a little too close to the edge. First, let's put things in context. The former Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur and Wolverhampton Wanderers winger was a first team regular under John Carver last season, his pace giving the Canadian [. Click to continue reading...

As you probably know if you've been reading this blog over the past few months, my school went on strike during the winter, which has caused my exam stress to be in late May instead of mid April. While my thoughts have been on Toronto FC as much as ever, I have been spending much more time labouring over economics than writing about the beautiful game.

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John Carver is back at Newcastle.
He's signed on as their head coach, and not the manager, so he'll probably be do okay. He's a good coach, but we all saw that he was a bit out of his element as a manager. His passion for his hometown club will likely do the Magpies well. Good luck Mr. Carver. Click to continue reading...

Rob Lee, who is being widely reported as ready to join Alan Shearer at Newcastle, along with former Assistant Manager and local lad, John Carver, has urged the Newcastle club to get the deal done with the Newcastle and England legend. Rob Lee - while at Newcastle United Rob talked yesterday about Alan Shearer and Newcastle: "I [. Click to continue reading...

The 14th Major League Soccer season has had something of a messy start. Of 74 matches played at the time of writing, 27 have resulted in draws. Matches are frequently turning on defensive errors and the officiating is once again prone to horrific incompetence. But for the past few weeks a few sides have begun to hit some form and rise to the top.

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"I think people at the top have demeaned this competition"
It is rare that we get a snarky comment out of Colorado. But luckily we now have one courtesy of one English manager, Gary Smith. One part snark, one part disgust, one part conspiracy theory. Apparently he is none to happy his Rapids didn't get to play at Qwest Field and has wrapped himself in the flag of the US Open Cup to defend his comments. Click to continue reading...

After our relegation on Sunday the Toon have become the brunt of jokes from football supporters and pundits up and down the country. The jubilation seeping out of Hull on Survival Sunday was enough to make anyone vomit. However, it is what it is and the truth of the matter is that we didn't deserve to stay up, we weren't good enough.

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With J Hutcherson -- Shocked looks all around, but rumors in Newcastle have former Toronto FC coach John Carver taking the first team job at Newcastle United as part of manager Alan Shearer's revamped staff. For that scenario to play out, Shearer would need to sign a new contract with the club. Meanwhile, there are still those propping up a few theories about Carver's exit from Major League Soccer. Click to continue reading...

This is about a day old now. The Impact have sacked head coach John Limniatis.
It's about as shocking to me as John Carver's resignation was. I don't exactly have the same emotional attachment (tic tac...), but I wouldn't be surprised if a few Impact supporters were scratching their heads over this move. Click to continue reading...

Herewith, a lesson from The Round Mound of Coaching, Sigi Schmid, on how to publicly call a referee a POS:
YouTube - Seattle Sounders coach Sigi Schmid speaks after draw versus LA Galaxy YouTube - Seattle Sounders coach Sigi Schmid speaks after draw versus LA Galaxy
Sigi is "disappointed" with the referee. Click to continue reading...

Don Garber has dismissed suggestions made by John carver as untrue. Following the departure of John carver from Toronto FC, the former coach stated publicly that MLS head office had requested he be on the side line when coaching his team and he found that unacceptable interference from the league office.

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Soccer America Senior Editor Ridge Mahoney wrote about the recent hiring of Chris Cummings by Toronto FC, and how assistant-turned-head coach promotions in Major League Soccer have worked in the past.
At some point, the MLS coaching career of John Carver careened off-course, and whether anyone might have foreseen it happening is no longer an issue. Click to continue reading...

After John Carver's shock resignation this weekend, reported early on Saturday on ASN's twitter feed, there was a pessimistic attitude at fortress BMO Field. Toronto's bosses at Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, once seen as providing the support needed for club management to succeed, were suddenly seen as the villains in a saga that saw Carver resign citing "personal reasons" after being fined last week by the league. Click to continue reading...