QUESTION ON MY MIND
Who is going to MLS Cup in Seattle? I am. Let me know if you are.
STARTERS
Chicago needs a result tonight to guarantee their spot in this years MLS playoffs. Click to continue reading...

As the CONCACAF Champions League group stage entered its last week, all three MLS representatives were still with a chance of qualification to the knockout round of the competition. Results through Wednesday night have cleared up the fates of the Columbus Crew and the Houston Dynamo, while DC United must sweat out the last Group B game taking place tonight.

Click to continue reading...

Columbus Crew sealed their place in the Quarter Finals of the CONCACAF Champions League with this draw against the Islanders.

Join Our Facebook Fan Page for the Latest News/Rumours/Forums/Videos/WAGS/Funny Stuff/Features!

Don't forget to check out Online Football Manager!

Click to continue reading...

The next few days promise to be big ones in US professional football. Major League Soccer has proven this summer and into the fall to be the most compelling and competitive first division the English speaking world. The MLS season comes down to the next few nights of football: every match in the final weekend has an impact upon the title race, unlike the final weekends in most European leagues.

Click to continue reading...

The CONCACAF Champions League began its final week of group stage matches on Tuesday, October 20, 2009. Toluca faced DC United, the Columbus Crew traveled to play the Puerto Rico Islanders, and Cruz Azul faced Saprissa. Here's a recap of these matches along with video highlights.

Toluca draws with DC United 1-1 Video Highlights

DC United took an early lead with a great shot from Christ Pontius in the 5th minute but conceded a penalty as the two teams played to a draw.

Click to continue reading...

A year after every MLS team failed to reach the knockout round of the CONCACAF Champions League, the defending MLS champion Columbus Crew has stepped up to make sure Major League Soccer will be represented in the current Champions League Tournament.

The Crew tied the Puerto Rico Islanders, 1-1, on Tuesday night to lock up a quarterfinal berth.

Click to continue reading...

A year after all but one MLS team failed to reach the knockout round of the CONCACAF Champions League, the defending MLS champion Columbus Crew has become the first Major League Soccer team to earn a place in the quarterfinals.

The Crew tied the Puerto Rico Islanders, 1-1, on Tuesday night to lock up a quarterfinal berth.

Click to continue reading...

STARTERS
ADVANCE NOTICE: Don Garber will take calls on Fox Football Fone-In show on Mon Oct 26 from 6-8pm Central.
CONCACAF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
This is ti! The last round of the group stage.
dN
Official Web Site, and video highlights from all the games. Click to continue reading...

CONCACAF Champions League Previews, Predictions, and USA TV Listings for Oct 20, 21, and 22-1.052009-10-19 18:42:57Jonathon Feyerherm

The CONCACAF Champions League wraps up its group stage with matches on Tuesday, October 20, 2009, Wednesday, October 21, 2009, and Thursday, October 22, 2009. There are several places in the knockout stage up for grabs.

Click to continue reading...

I had written a post match story about how terrible it was for CONCACAF to have Costa Rica representing the region instead of Honduras. Scratch that- new post match story coming soon- leave your comments here in the mean time.

Related posts:

1. CONCACAF Gold Cup Semifinals: US 2-0 Honduras, Mexico 1-1 (5-3PKS) Costa Rica AET Join us beginning at 6:15pm ET for live commentary.

Click to continue reading...

With one round to go in the group stage, all three remaining MLS teams still have a chance to advance. In my eyes, one is a shoe-in, one is a tossup and one needs a well-placed outbreak of swine flu among their rivals to advance.
Houston
Houston is currently in third place, but they hold the tiebreaker with Arabe Unido. Click to continue reading...

Today's guest on the Jared Montz Soccer Podcast is Joey Gjersten. Joey is the leader in games played for the Montreal Impact this season in the USL1. On Sunday he helped lead his team to the USL1 Championship series by beating the Puerto Rico Islanders.

On the pod we are going to be talking about Joey's personal season, Montreal's run to the final, why the Impact are such a successful organization, take some user submitted questions, and then of course preview the epic all Canadian USL-1 final against the Vancouver Whitecaps.

Click to continue reading...

Today the Montreal Impact take on the Puerto Rico Islanders in the 2nd leg of the USL1 Semi finals in Puerto Rico. Game time is 5pm central time. Montreal currently leads the series 2-1 with a victory in Montreal this past Thursday.

Montreal's leader in games played this season, Joey Gjersten, took some time out of his busy weekend to answer a few questions for us.

Click to continue reading...

STARTERS
Ugh - The USA U20 team laid another egg at the World Cup. Losing 3-0 to South Korea. And again they looked quite inept on the green. Strange team. Horrible in game 1, very good in game 2, horrible in game 3.
CONCACAF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
Official Web Site, and video highlights from all the games. Click to continue reading...

Major League Soccer

I am an advocate of playoffs in American football. I do not believe the solutions often advocated by European oriented fans of balanced schedules, single table and no playoff competitions are practical or logical in North America.

Playoffs build a brand and build excitement.

Click to continue reading...

QUESTION ON MY MIND
1-888-388-2650 - This is the phone number of the dopes trying to sell the Honduras v USA game via closed circuit in the USA. Call them and tell them that they are dopes. So far they have signed up a whopping 5 places in the entire country to carry the game. Click to continue reading...

STARTERS
All my best go out to those folks in American Somoa and Somoa. Let's hope your lives can get back to normal soon.
dN
From the U20 World Cup: Dilly Duka scores one of the most amazing goals in all of USA soccer history (third USA goal of this game). Click to continue reading...

The United Soccer League announced today that the Minnesota Thunders Lawrence Olum was named as a midfielder to the All-League Second Team.

Lawrence Olum wins All 2nd Team honors - Photo by Jeremy Olson -www.digitalgopher.net

The honor is given to 11 of the top 22 players in the league and voted upon by league coaches and general managers.

Click to continue reading...

The United Soccer League announced today that the Minnesota Thunder's Lawrence Olum was named as a midfielder to the All-League Second Team.

Lawrence Olum wins All 2nd Team honors - Photo by Jeremy Olson -www.digitalgopher.net

The honor is given to 11 of the top 22 players in the league and voted upon by league coaches and general managers.

Click to continue reading...

STARTERS
USA U20 redeem themselves with a great 4-1 win over Cameroon at the World Cup.
Scoring for Cameroon: Banana Yaya! One of the great names of all time!
dN
Reuters reports that Mexico has withdrawn their bid for hosting the 2018/2022 World Cups due to the economy. Click to continue reading...

It wasn't as exhilarating as last year, when the Islanders scored 3 goals at home (the last on the 119′, in overtime) to win the series 3-2 on aggregate; but the Islanders duplicated the feat: To knock out the Rochester Rhinos of the USL Playoffs.

After losing 2-1 to the Rhinos last Thursday in the away leg of the 2009 USL Quarter Finals, the Islanders won 4-1 in the return leg in Bayamón to win the quarterfinal match up with a 5-3 aggregate, and eliminate the Rhinos from the playoffs for the 2nd year in a row.

Click to continue reading...

It wasn't as exhilarating as last year, when the Islanders scored 3 goals at home (the last one on the 119′ in overtime) to win the 2008 Semi-Final match up 3-2 on aggregate; but the Islanders duplicated the same feat this year: to knock out the Rochester Rhinos of the USL Playoffs.

Click to continue reading...

It wasn't as exhilarating as last year, when the Islanders scored 3 goals at home (the last one on the 119′ in overtime) to win the 2008 Semi-Final match up 3-2 on aggregate; but the Islanders duplicated the same feat this year: they knocked out the Rochester Rhinos of the USL-1 Playoffs.

Click to continue reading...

The Islanders had leads against Cruz Azul (3-1) and Saprissa (1-0) in the home games at Bayamón, but...

The Islanders 2008 killer alajuelazo weapon (last minute goal) was used twice against them at home in Bayamón, and Puerto Rico had to settle with sour draws (that tasted like defeats) against both Cruz Azul (3-3, tying goal in 85′) and Saprissa (1-1, tying goal in 90′+3).

Click to continue reading...

The Islander finished 3rd place.

How they ended the regular season, later...

Click to continue reading...

Three Games took place on Sunday that determined the semifinals of the USL-1 playoffs.

Montreal, Puerto Rico and Vancouver join Commissioners Cup Winner Portland Timbers to fill out semifinal bracket.

Montreal Impact
The Montreal Impact (5th place) qualified for the USL-1 semifinals, with a 2-1 win (4-1 on aggregate goals) over the Charleston Battery (4th place), Sunday at Blackbaud Stadium in Charleston, South Carolina.

Click to continue reading...

Three games took place on Sunday that determined the semifinals of the USL-1 playoffs.

Montreal, Puerto Rico and Vancouver join Commissioners Cup Winner Portland Timbers to fill out semifinal bracket.

Montreal Impact
The Montreal Impact (5th place) qualified for the USL-1 semifinals with a 2-1 win (4-1 on aggregate goals) over the Charleston Battery (4th place), Sunday at Blackbaud Stadium in Charleston, South Carolina.

Click to continue reading...

CONCACAF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
Official Web Site, and video highlights from all the games.
dN
Group Stage
Matchday 4:
-Tue Sep 22
Puerto Rico Islanders 1-1 Saprissa - PRI goal by Josh Hansen. Sap goal by Kenall Watson.
Metapan 0-4 Pachuca - Pac goals by Ulises Mendivil(2), Edy German Brambila & Edgar Benítez. Click to continue reading...

STARTERS
I want to float this idea right now: Next season in Kansas City the head coach should be Preki! You read it here first.
CONCACAF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
Official Web Site, and video highlights from all the games.
dN
Cruz Azul got a decisive win in Columbus last night and has officially advanced to the knock out rounds. Click to continue reading...

Having had the great honor to serve as a color commentator for Miami FC's local broadcasts this season (both on USL Live and local cable), I have seen every USL-1 team in person and broken them down. Here is my analysis of the first round of the playoffs.

#2 Carolina RailHawks (16-7-7, 55 pts) vs #7 Vancouver Whitecaps (11-10-9, 42 pts)

Carolina is just too deep for Vancouver, the defending champions who struggled much of this season.

Click to continue reading...

Regular season USL-1 play has now concluded for 2009. The playoffs start tomorrow (Thursday). Sure it would have been nice to see Austin there; but I guess it just wasn't meant to be. We might as well get a head start on looking back.
Both of the league's expansion teams, the Austin Aztex and the Cleveland City Stars, fared poorly in their inaugural seasons, winding up at the bottom of the final standings:
P
Team
Pld
W
D
L
GF
GA
GD
Pts
1 Portland Timbers 30 16 10 4 45 19 +26 58 2 Carolina RailHawks FC 30 16 7 7 43 19 +24 55 3 Puerto Rico Islanders 30 15 8 7 44 31 +13 53 4 Charleston Battery 30 14 11 5 33 21 +12 53 5 Montreal Impact 30 12 7 11 32 31 +1 43 6 Rochester Rhinos 30 11 10 9 34 32 +2 43 7 Vancouver Whitecaps FC 30 11 9 10 42 36 +6 42 8 Minnesota Thunder 30 7 10 13 39 44 -5 31 9 Miami FC 30 8 5 17 26 52 -26 29 10 Austin Aztex FC 30 5 8 17 28 51 -23 21* 11 Cleveland City Stars 30 4 19 7 22 52 -30 19
As you can see, the Aztex escaped the very last spot, if barely. Click to continue reading...

STARTERS
Jens Lehman answers his team who suspended him for attending Oktoberfest celebration: "That evening, I drank only half a Radler and then mineral water after that. I drove myself home later on. The visit to Oktoberfest was for a charity event which had long since been planned, but had not been agreed with the club. Click to continue reading...

The last time the Houston Dynamo faced Panamanian side Arabe Unido, there were five red cards issued in the match. On Tuesday, red cards weren't raining. It was only raining Dynamo goals.

Houston had four different players score goals, including Stuart Holden, who netted a brace in the Dynamo's 5-1 thumping of Arabe Unido at Robertson Stadium on Tuesday night.

Click to continue reading...

The last time the Houston Dynamo faced Panamanian side Arabe Unido, there were five red cards issued in the match. On Tuesday, red cards weren't raining. It was only raining Dynamo goals.

Houston had four different players score goals, including Stuart Holden, who netted a brace in the Dynamo's 5-1 thumping of Arabe Unido at Robertson Stadium on Tuesday night.

Click to continue reading...

The CONCACAF Champions League continued its group stage matches on Tuesday, September 22, 2009 with three matches. The Houston Dynamo hosting Arabe Unido, Puerto Rico Islanders v Saprissa, and Isidro Metapan v Pachuca. Here's a recap of all three matches along with video highlights.

Houston Dynamo crushes Arabe Unido 5-1 Video Highlights

The Dynamo greatly improved their chances to advance to the next stage with a 5-1 thrashing of Arabe Unido.

Click to continue reading...