Landon Donovan was named the 2009 MLS Most Valuable Player on Thursday, and while it is tough to argue against awarding the U.S. national team star for his performance this season, the MVP results still raised a glaring question.

What about Shalrie Joseph?

It isn't a question so much about choosing between Joseph and Donovan, which is a subjective debate that has supporters on both sides.

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Landon Donovan was named the 2009 MLS Most Valuable Player on Thursday, and while it is tough to argue against awarding the U.S. national team star for his performance this season, the MVP results still raised a glaring question.

What about Shalrie Joseph?

It isn't a question so much about choosing between Joseph and Donovan, which is a subjective debate that has supporters on both sides.

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Not much of a surprise there. It was just announced on ESPNews.

Perhaps the biggest surprise is this is the first time that Landon Donovan, a five-time Honda Player of the Year and two-time U.S. Soccer Athlete of the Year, has won the MLS award.

Said Donovan:

"Well, from a statistical standpoint it wasn't my best year, but what is important to me, and I think the reason we're being recognized, is that our team was very good this year.

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Today, we continue our series by launching an inquest into our first playoff team, the Revs. How they managed to make the postseason, I'll Nicol know... erm... never know, but luckily we have someone here to make sense of all things Beantown ball. For this one, I pass it over to former American Soccer Daily colleague (and Holy Cross midfielder) Ryan O'Hanlon. Click to continue reading...

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.

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The MLS playoffs resume on Friday with the Western Conference final, but the playoffs are already over for the four teams eliminated this past weekend. How those teams respond to their first-round exits, and how they deal with very important off-seasons, will determine if they are back in the post-season in 2010.

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The MLS playoffs resume on Friday with the Western Conference final, but the playoffs are already over for the four teams eliminated this past weekend. How those teams respond to their first-round exits, and how they deal with very important off-seasons, will determine if they are back in the post-season in 2010.

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Yesterday the first news from the MLS collective bargaining negotiations leaked out, courtesy of Tripp Mickle. Sport Business Journal put the news behind the paywall, but thankfully Jason Davis scaled it so I don't have to:

Though the league has proposed a salary cap increase, the players have labelled it a "joke".

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Shalrie Joseph lead the way for the Revs in 2009. (Getty Images)

Sometimes less is more, and in the case of the 2009 edition of the New England Revolution less nearly became a lot. If you would have told me that the Revs would have lacked both Steve Ralston and Taylor Twellman for the majority of the season and still made the playoffs this year I would have called you crazy.

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The Fire came into the second leg down 2-1 in aggregate goals facing an opponent that they've faced a huge number of times in the playoffs over the years, lately with good results. I could go on about the challenges that the Revs faced this year, but frankly it's not worth the time. This Fire team came into the playoffs in mediocre form, with rumors of trouble in the locker room and using a patchwork lineup. Click to continue reading...

This was brought to my attention in the play-by-play thread on Bigsoccer: Did you notice that MLS has changed its rules for playoff yellow card suspensions? I'm not sure if this was put into place this year or last year, but it definitely was not the case as of 2007. Two yellow cards in consecutive games mean a suspension. Click to continue reading...

The second participant in the MLS Eastern Conference Final will be determined tonight when the New England Revolution faces the Chicago Fire in Game Two of their First Round playoff series.

New England will try to join Real Salt Lake in the East Final by building on its 2-1 victory in Game One.

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Landon Donovan leads the Galaxy against rivals Chivas. (Getty Images)

One more weekend of action and we will be in the conference finals here. One club is already in and three others will move on this weekend. After last weekend's play the pressure is on a couple home teams to rebound while one just has to keep on doing what they do best in front of their fans.

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If the Chicago Fire were hoping for reinforcements to bolster their chances against New England in Saturday's second leg playoff match, they'll have to look beyond Gonzalo Segares. The defender is currently listed as out for the upcoming do-or-die encounter set for Saturday at Toyota Park.

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The first round of MLS playoffs (aka MLS Conference Semi-finals)Â always spurs heated discussion about its playoff format as well as the League's two conference structure.

Let's take an overview of various playoff format options and League structures for Major League Soccer. There should be three objectives to a playoff format and League Structure:

1) Crown a worthy champion

2) Entertain the fans

3) Maximize revenue for the teams and League

No matter what playoff format is used or what tweaks are made to improve it, a percentage of fans will criticize it and offer other imperfect solutions.

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The Fire and the Revs have met in the playoffs 8 times. 8 TIMES! It's getting way too predictable, like Lakers v. Celtics in the Reagan-era NBA Finals. A handful of Chicago players and coach Denis Hamlet took a minute to talk about the most consistent post-season pairing since the Buffalo Bills and "choking". Click to continue reading...

The playoff version of the SuperClasico got off to a bang with a 2-2 draw. (Getty Images)

Some could say the results we saw in the first week of the playoffs were fairly expected. The SuperClasico ended in a draw that I think most folks expected to get; Real Salt Lake found a way to get a win over the Crew at home; Seattle and Houston battled it out to a scoreless draw; and maybe the only real shocker of the weekend was the Revs beating Chicago 2-1.

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Â
Photo by ISIphotos.com

Home teams went unbeaten on the first weekend of the MLS Playoffs, setting up a quartet of nail-biters for the second legs of all four series.

The New England Revolution and Real Salt Lake held serve at home, posting key victories, while the Houston Dynamo and Los Angeles Galaxy were able to take draws in their visits to Seattle and, well, Los Angeles.

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In-stadium rivals Chivas USA and the L.A. Galaxy played to an exciting 2-2 draw Sunday night, setting the stage for what will be the most important MLS "Super Clasico" to date next Sunday.

Chivas USA got off to a hot start in the match and they took the lead in just the 4th minute when Maicon Santos drilled a right footed shot past L.

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Catching these four match-ups in the middle, so each will be half analysis/half prediction...
Seattle Sounders FC v. Houston Dynamo (0-0 aggregate)
After tying 0-0 in Seattle for the first leg, the finale will take place Sunday. The story of the first game was 90 minutes of physical brawling, I think the second leg will be the opposite: some entertaining soccer. Click to continue reading...

I did not know that the MLS was a giant holding area for players seeking addiction counseling.

Through the Revs vs Fire match, Sullivan and Bretos in their verbiage sprinkled the word "intervention". Even in their word salad, that word stuck out. Whereas Bretos usage was confined to the more physical aspect of the game when a defender cut off a pass or cleared a corner, Sullivan's was a bit more cognitive when he said that Jeff Larontewicz's "intervention" pushed Shalrie Joseph to play better.

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The MLS playoffs have been engrossing and so far the upstarts have given the finger to the favourites.

This time it was the Revs taking it to the Fire who had all their big named players while the Revs have been without Twellman and Ralston. But the Revs African contingent stepped up admirably as Sainey Nyassi, Emmanuel Osei, and Kenny Mensally had a huge game.

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_________________Photo by ISIphotos.com

If familiarity breeds contempt, then the Chicago Fire and New England Revolution hate each other on a level no two teams in MLS can match.

The Eastern Conference foes have made meeting in the playoffs a rite of passage, having done so for five of the past six years.

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_________________Photo by ISIphotos.com

If familiarity breeds contempt, then the Chicago Fire and New England Revolution hate each other on a level no two teams in MLS can match.

The Eastern Conference foes have made meeting in the playoffs a rite of passage, having done so for five of the past six years.

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Apparently, there are six other playoff teams out there fighting for second place. And, get this, they actually all will play their entire ties BEFORE Dynamo run the Greens on Nov. 8. (Homer? Me? What ya talkin' about?)
So now I turn my prediction energies to the postseason, and just to help myself out I will only predict the first legs (The more games I predict, the better my chance to finish with something approaching respectable. Click to continue reading...

After three consecutive years suffering playoff heartbreak against the Revolution, the Fire will try to extend their playoff winning streak against the Revs to two series this Sunday, when the two sides meet at Gillette Stadium for Game 1 (1 p.m. on FSC) of their two game Eastern Conference Semifinal matchup.

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They all want to be at Qwest on Nov. 22. Where is the playoff upset as the MLS post-season begins tonight?

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I've already weighed in a bit on the playoffs in this ESPN.

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Seriously, I've been so busy this fall that I think I've watched maybe one MLS match in the last two months. So take this look at the playoff picture for what it's worth, unless I get something right, in which case, yay me.

EASTERN CONFERENCE
#1 Columbus v. #4 Real Salt Lake
This, of course, completes the trade that saw New York compete in (and win) the Western Conference bracket a year ago.

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When the Fire played the New England Revolution on Oct. 17, many saw the match as a possible playoff preview.

Now that the MLS regular season has come to a close those predictions of a Fire-Revolution postseason battle have come true. The sides will begin their two-leg Eastern Conference semifinal series at 3 p.

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Jeff Larentowicz scored his first goal of 2009 in the last game of the regular season as the New England Revolution beat the team with the most points in the league, Columbus, on Sunday, eliminating the Colorado Rapids from Major League Soccer's playoffs.

The Rapids lost 3-0 on Saturday at Real Salt Lake.

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Things took a wild turn in the MLS playoff race last night as the team with the least amount of points heading into the day, Real Salt Lake, was the only team to end the night with a playoff spot clinched.
Real Salt Lake got into the 2009 edition of the MLS Cup Playoffs in the same exact way they got into the 2008 postseason -- by defeating the Colorado Rapids in the last game. Click to continue reading...

How delicious it might have been if relegation loomed for some of these MLS sides.

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Major League Soccer has played 223 matches of its 225-match schedule

Round 32 of contests started with a dizzying, indecipherable array of playoff possibilities.

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Better late then never, right? Enjoy some TV...Let's begin an overstuffed edition with Harkesy and JPD breaking down the MLS awards races. As usual, I skip all such clips and articles for several weeks ahead of the voting. Right or wrong, I'm gonna go with my brain's output on that ballot.Sticking with ESPN, Revs coach and Liverpool man Steve Nicol offers no quarter in laying the current "crisis" Click to continue reading...

The Columbus Crew owes The Chicago Fire a favor. Actually, the Crew owes Eduardo Lillingston a favor. Maybe a beer next time Chivas comes to town.

Lillingston chalked up an own goal tonight when the Fire took on Chivas at Toyota Park. Chicago held on to win the affair, and in the process handed the MLS Supporters' Shield to Columbus for a second straight year.

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I'm not going to lie, I've given up on trying to figure out how the different scenarios for this weekend's matches need to play out for Toronto to make the playoffs. The numbers are too much for me, so I'm going to just sit back and hope for a TFC win against New York and everyone else to lose. I guess that's not entirely possible, but at least we know that if Toronto wins, they have a much better chance of making it in than if they lose!

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