Landon Donovan was named the 2009 MLS MVP. (LA Galaxy)

The 2009 Major League Soccer MVP was announced today and the result isn't going to shock most of you as LA Galaxy star Landon Donovan takes home the award.

For the first time in his career, Donovan took home the league's highest honors by beating out New England's Shalrie Joseph and Dallas' Jeff Cunningham.

Consider this the Evening Links and Thoughts for the night. I'm a bit busy at work at the moment so things just didn't come together like I wanted today. Plus I'm still in shock over the Henry handball from the France-Ireland game earlier.

Evening Links and Thoughts appear on WVHooligan typically each day (Monday – Friday).

Montreal inches closer to a MLS expansion bid.

By now we've all seen the lovely quote from MLS commissioner Don Garber yesterday about future league expansion.

"We've had productive conversations with Montreal to be our 19th team," said Garber.

With all the issues going on with the USL/TOA crap you have to think that Montreal owner Joey Saputo is trying to figure out the best way to get his club into the top-tier league instead of a new breakaway league.

Today Major League Soccer has announced it's Best XI for the 2009 season.

Keeper: Zach Thornton

Defenders (3): Chad Marshall, Wilman Conde, and Geoff Cameron

Midfielders (5): Dwayne De Rosario, Landon Donovan, Stuart Holden, Shalrie Joseph, and Freddie Ljungberg

Forwards (2): Conor Casey and Jeff Cunningham

Some shockers may jump out at your like Seattle's Ljungberg.

Kyle Beckerman and RSL are going to MLS Cup 2009. (Getty Images)

Looking back on this past weekend that was the conference finals I must say the result isn't as shocking as it initially was. The thought of a LA Galaxy-Real Salt Lake MLS Cup final was something no one would have called back in March, hell or even back at the beginning of this very month.

Preki is leaving Chivas USA...so where will he go next? (Getty Images)

Some news that I'd like to say we've been calling here for the last couple weeks has finally come down. Chivas USA and Preki have decided to go their own ways as they mutually agree to Preki stepping down as the club's manager, this according to a press release just sent out by the club.

Omar Gonzalez was named Rookie of the Year today. (Getty Images)

Another season award came down today, this time it is the league's Rookie of the Year. For the second straight year a LA Galaxy defender has won it as the honor went to Omar Gonzalez today.

Gonzalez helped a defense go from one of the worst in league history to one of the better ones this season.

I know this news came down yesterday but I just never got the time to talk about it until this morning. Funny how only a couple days before RSL's big conference final in Chicago the big news surrounding the club isn't an injury to a key player or anything like that but the pending sale of 49% of the team to a local businessman from current owner Dave Checketts.

No a real shocker for most folks out there, Major League Soccer has announced the 2009 Coach of the Year is LA Galaxy front man Bruce Arena.

The turnaround in LA this year has been nothing short of remarkable. Arena found a way to get everything on board with stars like Landon Donovan and David Beckham by plugging in solid veterans and excellent young stars like Omar Gonzalez and Sean Franklin.

Today has been a day to say the very least. The news from the TOA group that they are forming their own league certainly took over a lot of folks reading and writing today. I know it did for me as I am still going to be talking about it tonight and maybe more for the coming days. I have some more thoughts about it as well as some other items to discuss.

A change is coming to Chivas USA as Preki is set to leave the club. (Getty Images)

Don't say we didn't tell you so. Preki is not be coming back as Chivas USA's manager next season as his contract option for 2010 is not being picked up. Goal.com is reporting that with Preki leaving assistant Martin Vasquez is likely to get the top spot as Chivas' front man.

Add another award for Zach Thornton on the season. Today the league named Thornton it's Comeback Player of the Year. At the same time the league also announced Fredy Montero as the Newcomer of the Year.

Montero was one of the league leaders in goals scored this year. His 12 goals on the season blew away any other newcomer in that category.

Peter Vermes is now the head coach of the Kansas City Wizards. (Getty Images)

I guess Peter Vermes liked coaching enough after all. Today the Kansas City Wizards are set to remove the interim tag from Vermes title and name him their full time head coach.

The Wizards will formally announce Vermes as the club's head coach at a press conference later today at the Wizards Swope Park Training Complex.

We all know the Collective Bargaining Agreement is coming close to it's end and the MLS Players Union and league front offices are set to battle it all out. Well today we got some rough news from the Sports Business Journal (subscription based link, sign up for a free trail if you haven't) that the players union is already talking strike if things don't improve.

I know I normally take the weekend's off but I do think this news is noteworthy enough to get me to the laptop to type it out. Steve Goff reported earlier today that former New York Red Bull academy player and Rutgers star Dilly Duka is set to sign with Major League Soccer.

Instead of exploring options in Europe like he had hoped after he left Rutgers earlier this fall, Duke now is set to sign a four-year deal with the league.

Make that two straight Defender of the Year awards for Columbus' Chad Marshall. The league announced today Marshall won the award for best defender.

Marshall helped lead the Columbus defense that only allowed 31 goals during the regular season, a record low for the Crew. What's more impressive is that he only played in 18 games for the Crew this season as he missed a few games with the US National team and a few others to injury.

Will we see more of Conor Casey with the US National Team? (Getty Images)

Good evening folks, I hope everyone is having a good day. Now that we are in the evening it is time once again for some links and thoughts. I only have two items tonight and really only one link.

My first thought of the night centers around the US Men's National team and their upcoming friendlies this month in Europe.

It seems like the clock had been turned back to 1998 this year as a revival for Chivas USA keeper Zach Thornton took place. It was just 11 seasons ago that Thornton won his first keeper of the year, now he has two as the league announced today that he was named the 2009 Goalkeeper of the Year.

As mentioned earlier on my Twitter feed today has been a slow day due to some bad headaches on my end. I won't go into it much but I am feeling a little better after some medicine kicked in here (thanks to the few who asked). I didn't have much planned for tonight but I did want to get into the coaching carousel that is going on in Major League Soccer.

We got 32 goals to pick from for the AT&T Goal of the Year. Did the league miss out on any better goals?

Empty stands were a common sight at Pizza Hut Park this year. (Getty Images)

I hope everyone is getting use to the longer days again after the time change this weekend. Nothing like getting darker a bit earlier again here but that's just how it goes. I have a few goodies to discuss tonight leading off with a big time look at something former Chicago Fire GM Peter Wilt sent Alexi Lalas a few years back.

Hot off the presses from the league front office. Major League Soccer has announced the finalists to their season ending awards today. Only a few shockers jump out at me here with these but I'll get to that in a moment.

Keeper of the Year (to be announced Nov. 4)
Kasey Keller, Seattle
Donovan Ricketts, Los Angeles
Zach Thornton, Chivas USA

Defender of the Year (Nov.

Blanco is headed back to Mexico after the playoffs. (Getty Images)

Like we didn't see this news coming at the start of the 2009 season. Chicago Fire designated player Cuauhtemoc Blanco stated he would not return next year after his contract ended this season and he has made good (for now) on that word.

There isn't much tonight for the evening links and thoughts. Got some USL-TOA talk and a brief thought about Kevin Payne's fine from the league earlier today.

But first there we gotta go back into the TOA-USL talk that we've been going around and around with for the last few weeks. Reports tonight suggest the TOA and their clubs could very well soon be forming their own league, even as soon as TOMORROW.

Andre Akpan could be a beast on the next level. (Harvard photos)

Last week I threw out some names that you may have already heard in line for next year's MLS SuperDraft and I am back today with a few more. I hope to start making this list at least a twice a month deal up until the draft in January.

The old Empire Stadium in Vancouver.

Here's some interesting news about Vancouver's expansion bid that most may not know of yet. They will have to play in two different stadiums in their first year in Major League Soccer in 2011. The Vancouver Sun is reporting today that due to the renovations to BC Place the expansion Whitecaps (or whatever they will be called) will also play an unknown number of home games at a temporary facility on the old Empire Stadium.

Don't you just love it when you begin something and think you are close to finishing when you realize you are better off starting all over again? I've had that happen here with what I thought was going to be a new look for this place. I had spent a couple weeks on a new design when I just basically hit a wall with it and couldn't get myself to go any further with it.

I just got word from the FC Dallas front office that Michael Hitchcock is out as General Manager. A letter was sent to season ticket holders with the news. In the letter Clark lays out the plan to replace Hitchcock, which includes President John Wagner officially taking over full control operations.

Several clubs are getting in the marketing mood for the playoffs. New England, Columbus and Houston all released promotional videos today. Once other clubs release their videos I will post them here.

Enjoy.

Columbus Crew:

Houston Dynamo:

New England Revolution:

Not a real shocker here since Toronto FC got spanked on the final day of the season when they needed a win to reach the post season. Toronto FC announced today that interim head coach Chris Cummins will not be returning for the upcoming 2010 MLS season. Effective immediately, the search begins for a new head coach.

The regular season is done, over, finished or whatever other adjective you want to use. For the second straight season WVH got to participate in the league's media vote for the season awards. Voting is now over and I felt it was time to share my votes with you all.

I'll have to admit some awards were tougher to vote on than others but I tried to span the entire season's body of work as much as I could for these awards.

Here is a full rundown of the playoff schedule. Only one game not on national TV (Crew-RSL game this weekend).

2009 MLS Cup Playoffs Schedule
All times Eastern; schedule subject to change

Conference Semifinals Game #1

Eastern Conference
(1) Columbus Crew at (4) Real Salt Lake, Saturday, Oct.

Time once again for another Jared Montz interview. This week's guest on the Jared Montz Soccer Podcast is Ryan Johnson. If you haven't checked out any of Montz's previous interviews with MLS players be sure to check them out because they are always a good listen.

Enjoy!

Its a pretty full night here at WVHooligan as far as the links and thoughts go. I have a couple stories that kind of make my head spin, a couple surrounding the US national team and a brief discussion on a rule that could really help some young players out with the NCAA.

First up is a post I saw earlier today that I felt needed to be held off until today.

Teal Bunbury is a player to watch out for. (University of Akron photos)

While the MLS season is about to end it only means one thing, the SuperDraft is just right around the corner. Yes, that means a boat load of college kids will head to the combine for MLS coaches and scouts to pick out and find the very best of the best.