The 2011 MLS season saw two teams tied for last place across the league, the New England Revolution and the Vancouver Whitecaps. Because of this, I got to thinking about how the off-season has been approached by these two clubs and how they compare so far heading into the 2012 season.

To start, both clubs parted ways with their head coaches, although Vancouver did so before the end of the season, and both hired on new ones.

BY ADAM SERRANO

The Los Angeles Galaxy enjoyed a banner day on Wednesday, but it was by no means a perfect one.

After signing forward Edson Buddle and acquiring midfielder Kyle Nakazawa in a deal from the Philadelphia Union, the Galaxy learned that homegrown signing Jose Villarreal will be out for six weeks.

Just when you thought the Philadelphia Union had acquired some key pieces to supplement last year's playoff team, two unexpected roster moves have left Union fans with questions galore heading into the 2012 season. This morning, Sébastien Le Toux announced ...
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Photo: Nicolae Stoian

NBC Philadelphia has a segment on the danger of brain trauma posed by too frequent heading following the release of a study at the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) annual meeting.

You can read more about this story here.

Philadelphia Union

With the announcement on Tuesday that the Union will play its 2012 home opener on Sunday, March 18, the Goalkeeper writes, "I also would not be surprised if the Union's home opener is nationally televised.

I'm hoping that this can be a regular series where we can have some discussions about how the game is played, especially the tactical/strategic side of things. In the future I'll be taking a look at the tactics of upcoming opponents, tactical implications of Sounders transfer and roster moves, and any related topics you guys want to hear about.

Over the last year or so, we have discussed MLS' efforts to measure the value of its television exposure through various local and national broadcasts. Through the website criticalmention.com, MLS tries to alert media to the "value" of its presence on various television programs. Since a few weeks have passed since we last checked in on this metric, we thought providing a snapshot of this metric of MLS media exposure.

Photo credit: Chamber Images
Good afternoon! Another blistering hot day here in Red Bulls Land and our team is back in action @The Cathedral of Football (6:00pm ET, MSG, Galavision). The opponent today (FC Dallas) is no stranger to weather like this and should feel right at home.

It was another great soccer weekend. The Seattle Sounders had a roller-coaster 4-3 victory over the Colorado Rapids. It was a game where everyone on the offense contributed to the victory with crisp passes and great runs off the ball. The defense had a couple glaring errors, but at least they can look to the offense to bail them out unlike earlier this season.

With the 2011 MLS season about to begin I thought I would group teams as I see them standing today. (This leaves me lots of wiggle room down the line to look smarter than I am.) Judging from the past 2 seasons I don't see any reason to try and predict who might win it all at this stage.
If a team gets a lot of injuries it can destroy the season.

Alan Gordon - clearly a physical playerToronto FC made a move today, trading LaBrocca (who TFC obtained in the Marvell Wynne trade last year) for Alan Gordon. Last time Gordon had any contact with TFC it involved a forearm to Adrian Cann's nose in a game last fall.
Toronto has midfielders galore and strikers are scarce, so the trade makes sense in terms of the roster.

Just a quick post to update you on some news about a couple potential roster moves for the Dynamo.

According to Dynamo president Chris Canetti's latest blog, the team is on the verge of a contract with Jamaican defender Jermaine Taylor, who arrived in town today.

In addition, the team is looking to sign goalkeeper Evan Newton, whom they selected in the Supplemental Draft.

It's been a long time since Red Bulls fans have experienced such a quiet offseason. While other MLS teams have been announcing roster moves and unveiling coaching changes (and while the David Beckham to Tottenham Hotspur loan saga has been playing out in L.A.), RBNY fans have had to be content with the merest crumbs of information.