Juan Pablo Angel will definitely be protected, but who will join him? (Getty Images)

Moving forward yet again on our quest to preview all 15 MLS clubs before the 2009 expansion draft next week. Today we turn our focus to the New York Red Bulls.

Protected Available Exempt Juan Pablo Angel Danleigh Borman Jeremy Hall Danny Cepero Andrew Boyens Kevin Goldthwaite Bouna Coundoul Macoumba Kandji Walter Garcia Ernst Oebster Carlos Johnson Mike Petke Leo Krupnik Dane Richards Carlos Mendes Luke Sassano Matthew Mbuta Seth Stammler Jorge Rojas Sinisa Ubiparipovic John Wolyniec Nick Zimmerman

Hall should graduate from the GA program, the key word is should.

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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...

Aston Villa 1 (Platt) Bradford City 0. Old Second Division. 1988. This was the first football match I ever watched and I instantly fell in love with Villa's goal scoring hero, a fish shaped man called David Platt. I later came to realise he wasn't that good but the point is that, at the time, I thought he was a footballing god.

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For as bad a stadium as The Swamp could be, Giants Stadium was the backdrop for a few of the most outlandish goals you'll ever see. Mathis' marathon goal against Dallas, Woly's infamous upper 90 banger, and Youri Djorkaeff and Juan Pablo Angel's zero-angle game-winners were all set in that soccer purgatory in East Rutherford. Click to continue reading...

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. Click to continue reading...

What, you didn't know there was a mathematics portion to all this? Click to continue reading...

While at yesterday's final grass installation, there was a rare positive vibe with the team, not just for the Arena's near completion, but for the season to come. Whether it was players, management or press, everyone seemed to look towards the future with longing eyes.

A lot of the hot button issues were discussed, and others simply insinuated.

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The NFL's Giants Stadium was once a famous venue of American soccer, a must-be-seen place with packed crowds and Pele in the 1970s.

Then the New York MetroStars, later rebranded to Red Bull New York, started playing there almost two decades later in Major League Soccer.

As the Red Bulls laid the final piece of sod today at their new, impressive Red Bull Arena in New Jersey, some current players took the chance to express their feelings about Giants Stadium and the support they (did not) receive there.

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Though the rain may have followed it's way over from Giants Stadium to Red Bull Arena, and the sky was as gray as ever, it could not dampen nor cast a shadow on today's accomplishment. Ladies and Gentlemen, say goodbye to plastic turf; the final piece of sod is in place, and the Red Bulls Kentucky Blue Grass pitch is finally complete.

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Juan Carlos Osorio didn't help matters in New York. (Getty Images)

Not much was good in 2009 for the New York Red Bulls. Fresh off a trip to the MLS Cup in 2008 many thought this could be a break out season for the club. Instead the season got started with a bang in a bad way by losing to an expansion club on opening day 3-0 in Seattle.

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Alrighty ladies and gents, while some may be writing about postseason plans with passionate pride, I will be doing my darndest to keep things interesting around here till March of 2010. And when a team isn't in the playoffs (holla TFC, and San Jose!), the front office has to do the same.

It is in that vane that the Red Bulls announced their awards for team MVP, Defender of the Year, Newcomer of the Year, Rookie of the Year and Fan of the Year.

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STARTERS
Don Garber will take calls on Fox Football Fone-In show on Mon Oct 26 from 6-8pm Central. Jesse Marsch of Chivas USA is also scheduled to appear.
dN
Minnesota Thunder GM Djorn Buchholz has left the team to become CEO of the Austin Aztex. On a personal note Buchholz has been a fantastic person to deal with at the team and will be greatly missed by me as a fan of the team. Click to continue reading...

Just in time for the election cycle, interim coach Richie Williams has received a huge endorsement for the vacant head coaching position. And this vote of confidence holds a lot of weight.

Team captain Juan Pablo Angel has clearly recognized the short term successes of the Williams era.

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On a cold and rainy night at the swamps of the Meadowlands, this was the final performance on the soccer side at Giants Stadium. Yes the season has been lost since the middle of June, but that doesn't mean the club can't try to play for pride and knock off Toronto FC from the playoffs.

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When you looked up at the sky, and the puddles all over the floor, there was a certain irony in it all; as if even the God's were crying over the 2009 season. And what weather could be more fitting for a Stadium that caused nothing but tears for the past 14 years? Surely, with a hungry and desperate TFC at the gates, tonight would end like so many others; a tearful mess of a loss.

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It is one hell of a night for a stadium finale.

The New York Red Bulls are playing host to Toronto FC tonight in the regular season finale for both and the final soccer game at Giants Stadium. New York fans might feel some sense of nostalgia as this long-time home for soccer closes, but TFC fans only care about one thing.

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NEW YORK RED BULLS VS. TORONTO FC
Giants Stadium - Saturday, 7:30PM EST
TV: GOL-TV - RADIO: The Fan 590

In the wacky world of North American soccer football there are very few historical sites. While we will stop short of comparing East Rutherford, New Jersey's Giants Stadium to the likes of the San Siro, Nou Camp or Wembley, you have to admit it has played a large concrete role in the continent's footy story. Click to continue reading...

The 2009 New York Red Bulls season, and the team's 14-year stay at Giants Stadium, will end just after 9:30pm ET tomorrow night. It's fitting that tomorrow's match, versus playoff hopeful Toronto FC, will be played on a wet, slick, artificial surface covered with football lines.
While Giants Stadium has hosted plenty of meaningful soccer matches in its day, the third-class treatment that the NJ Stadium and Entertainment Authority has shown the MetroStars/Red Bulls since 1996 will be encapsulated in Saturday's 90 minutes. Click to continue reading...

When the New York Red Bulls take on Toronto FC on Saturday night, it will mark the final soccer game at Giants Stadium. With the new Giants Stadiums set to open in 2010, and the New York Red Bulls moving into Red Bull Arena in the spring, soccer fans will finally be able to say farewell to the former home of the New York Cosmos as well as the site of so many great soccer memories.

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When the New York Red Bulls take on Toronto FC on Saturday night, it will mark the final soccer game at Giants Stadium. With the new Giants Stadiums set to open in 2010, and the New York Red Bulls moving into Red Bull Arena in the spring, soccer fans will finally be able to say farewell to the former home of the New York Cosmos as well as the site of so many great soccer memories.

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The rumor mill in Europe is working overtime on the rumor that Barcelona star Thierry Henry is coming to MLS next summer to play for the New York Red Bulls.

Today the Spanish newspaper AS reported that Henry, who is 32, would like to end his career in the U.S.

Henry is still part of the France national team that is expected to qualify for next summer's World Cup in South Africa, which would delay Henry coming to MLS until late in July.

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How many times have you heard a sports journo or commentator use the phrase "That kid's got heart!" It is one of those cliches that stands the test of time, much like the classic "he gives one hundred and ten percent every play," and the ever so popular "he never takes a play off. He is always competing!

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Voting for the 2009 MLS Year End Awards is underway. I've learned some interesting things about this season's voting process:
1) For the Best XI, Cuauhtemoc Blanco and Landon Donovan are listed as midfielders this year, while Guillermo Barros Schelotto is listed as a forward. You may remember the unfortunate situation from two years ago, where Blanco was a finalist for the MVP award yet missing from the Best XI. Click to continue reading...

So long, farewell &Â good bye. This coming Saturday, October 24th will officially be the very last time that this club (MetroStars & Red Bull NY) in the NYC metropolitan area & US Soccer will call home. This famed stadium named after the NFL team that plays their pointy ball seasons also shares it with the other football league in the American first division.

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Jason Kreis and RSL need a win tonight to stay in playoff contention. (Getty Images)

While there is an important US game tonight in Washington DC, there happens to also be a MLS game tonight. Yay for MLS scheduling a game right during World Cup qualifying season, in the middle of the week no less.

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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 the last two weeks we have seen RBNY basically pick up the pieces and strung together some decent results for themselves without the services of Juan Pablo Angel who had been nursing a sore ankle he picked up at training before this three match road trip began. While it's been a while ago that Juan Carlos Osorio has resigned from the club, it looks to be that the players are responding to the tactics of Richie Williams and has brought back that never die attitude that was so lacking from the start of the season up to the home match against FC Dallas in mid-August.

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Sometimes I wish I was Juan Pablo Angel. I would be rich. I would be handsome. I would wear fashionable quasi-Western, semi-flannel shirts. And I would score goals like a motherf*cker.
You might have been too busy laughing at RBNY's misfortune this season to notice but last week at Chivas USA, JPA broke the franchise scoring record previously held by Clint Mathis. Click to continue reading...

Just as the playoff race gets hot, the goals of the week get hotter. Something about a playoff race that makes the goals just a little bit better if you ask me.

Order of goals: Jamie Moreno, Ramon Sanchez, Ryan Johnson, Sacha Kljestan, Juan Pablo Angel, Dwayne De Rosario, Chad Barret, Brian McBride, Jeff Cunningham, Eddie Gaven, Fredy Montero, and Shalrie Joseph.

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It was a crazy night at the Home Depot Center this past Saturday. Chivas USA facing the Red Bulls didn't quite have the sizzle fans would want out of their Game of the Week coming into it, but some matches hold surprises of their own.

Though anemic in the first half, the Bulls were able to rally from a 1-0 deficit to tie the game on an amazing header from El Angel Del Gol, The Cherubic Assasin, Juan Pablo Angel.

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Chivas 1 New York Red Bulls 1

Chivas USA let three points get away in this one, two ball-watching defenders (Jonathan Bornstein and Yamith Cuesta for those of you keeping count at home) allowing Juan Pablo Angel to get his 10th goal of the campaign with a determined header off a Sinisa Ubiparipovic six minutes from the end of regulation time.

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The Galaxy's 2-0 loss in Columbus earlier today (more on that later) has given Chivas USA the opportunity to pull within one point of their intrastadium rivals with two games in hand. But they need to win today to accomplish that.

Preki makes just one enforced change to the team that drew 0-0 with Seattle last time out, Carey Talley coming in for the suspended Marcelo Saragosa, shown a red card against the Sounders.

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The man you see down on the field turf is a hard nose player that gives his all to the club and tries his best to be a strong and needed player for this squad. No he doesn't have the greatest of abilities like Juan Pablo Angel, or Landon Donovan, not even the power shot from long distance like Dwayne DeRosario, but the one thing you can always count on from this man is the size of his heart and the willingness to perform on the field and working hard in practice to make sure he can bury those chances when his number is called upon.

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Seattle needs another big game out of Fredy Montero this weekend. (Getty Images)

There's not too many more weekends left in the 2009 regular season. Week 27 is a full one as we gear towards the playoffs in a few weeks. With so many clubs still in contention the action this weekend should promise to be very good.

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There aren't many Major League Soccer teams that can be considered save in the MLS playoff race. Other than the Columbus Crew, Houston Dynamo and Chicago Fire, the rest of the teams with serious playoff dreams have serious work to do in the remaining five weeks of the season.

That's where Six-Pointers come in, matches that feature two teams in the thick of the race.

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