Background: 1996 was MLS's inaugural year, so every record set that year became both an MLS season and all-time record. Most of those season records have fallen since, but one still exists. Leonel Alvarez received 14 yellow cards during that first MLS season, and his ugly track record has never been matched.

It looks like Leonel Alvarez is the new coach of D.I.M in Medillen, Colombia.

The final game as members of the New England Revolution for Leonel Alvarez and Mauricio Wright was the 2001 U.S. Open Cup. They were performing for the Revolution in a 2-1 overtime loss to the Los Angeles Galaxy in Fullerton, Calif.
Alvarez would return to Colombia to conclude his playing career and Wright would go on to play for Costa Rica in the 2002 World Cup finals in Japan and also to deliver some impressive performances for AEK in the UEFA Champions League.

Reports this morning out of Colombia indicate Fredy Montero will be called into the Colombian National Team. From my vantage point, this is a potential big step towards MLS regaining the ground its lost in South America since about the year 2000.

For years, I have stated that MLS' quality of play and quality of international signing hit a high water mark in the 1998 to 2000 period and then dipped thereafter and has only begun to recover in the past few years.

STARTERS
The reason given for Portland having fake turf in their new stadium is that they will be sharing the place with Portland State Universities football team. So much for soccer specific or the Timbers being the primary tenant.
MLS
Frank Dell'apa on his blog Soccer Confidential tells us about the great coaching success happening right now for 2 former New England Revolution favorites - Leonel Alvarez and Mauricio Wright.