Yesterday, MLS released the rules for next week's expansion draft to help Philadelphia select their first 10 players. We must turn in our list of protected players Monday at 2 p.m. CT. Who do you think will make the list? Who would you protect?
Last season we lost Tyson Wahl to Seattle. The list of all players we have lost in expansion drafts is shown below. Click to continue reading...

Briefly:

*In praise of Galaxy GM and Coach Bruce Arena.

*For Real Salt Lake MLS Cup equals redemption.

* Former Chivas USA Coach Preki was officially unveiled as Toronto's new coach today. Wonder how much longer Amado Guevara will be around?

*Want to party like it's 1989?

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Thanks for The 24th Minute for posting this video. For those of you like me that don't want to wait for the press conference later on to see Preki introduced as Toronto's next coach, TFCTV has you all covered.

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Why is this man not in the All XI?

Its the numbers you produce and not the little things that you do on the pitch to improve your team which seems to drive the MLS All XI. Even when you factor in stats it does not seem to add up to why Cuauhtemoc Blanco was left out.

Blanco played 21 matches, started in 15 of them and in 1452 minutes of playing time he scored 5 goals and 8 assists.

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On Tuesday, Major League Soccer announced the League's Best Eleven players for 2009. Zach Thornton (Chivas USA) Chad Marshall (Columbus) - Wilman Conde (Chicago) - Geoff Cameron (Houston) Dwayne De Rosario (Toronto) - Landon Donovan (Los Angeles) - Stuart Holden (Houston) - Shalrie Joseph (New England) - Freddie Ljungberg (Seattle) Conor Casey (Colorado) - Jeff Cunningham (Dallas) Click to continue reading...

Rumours abound that Coach Preki, having been let go by Chivas USA, is possibly heading to Toronto as coach of TFC. He has the MLS experience that Mo says he needs in his next coach.
Stay tuned... Click to continue reading...

Wow, what a game last night. Yes, I said I wouldn't watch. And I won't lie, part of the reason it's so good is that the team I wanted to win did. It's all gone bad for Chicago - their "most talented team in MLS" has come up short yet again, with the final blow delivered by a local kid.
So now we have an all-west MLS final (LA-Salt Lake), much like last year where we had an all-east final (New York-Columbus). Click to continue reading...

Real Salt Lake will meet LA Galaxy in next weekend's MLS Cup. RSL defeated Chicago in Chicago after defeating Columbus in Columbus, so they sure qualified the hard way. Yet it is hard to cheer for the team that made the playoffs because of Toronto's collapse in New York. Click to continue reading...

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.

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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 Wizards had 4 goals up for Goal of the Year, and 2 of those goals have made it to the final 10, one from each Davy Arnaud and Claudio Lopez. Arnaud's goal is his blast from the first game of the season against Toronto. Lopez's goal is his shot from midfield that looped in over Donovan Ricketts. Click to continue reading...

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.

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The 2009 MLS regular season saw overall average attendance drop to an average of 16,037. Down from last years 16,459. It did, though, see a new record for attendance set by the expansion Seattle Sounders FC, who averaged 30,897 over the course of the season. Here are the averages of all the teams in the league this year. Click to continue reading...

Columbus loses 4-2 on aggregate to Real Salt Lake. It was a great season, boys. Maybe not Massive, but not anything to be ashamed of.

None of us expected this, no one thought it was possible. The Crew always performs under pressure. Columbus always gets the clutch goal or Jesus-save that it needs to stay alive.

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Vote for Claudio or Davy. They both are nominated twice. Claudio's goals include his beautiful free kick in week 10 against Chivas and week 19's shot from the middle of the field against LA. Davy's goals include the week 1 blast against Toronto and the week 13 goal against New England. I have hard time deciding my favorite. Click to continue reading...

TORONTO - Talented sweeper Rocco Picheca confirmed his return in 2010 as the sweeper of Pistolas FC.
Plagued by injury for most of the 2009, the team knows exactly what he can produce when he's healthy, and the lengthy off season should help.
More importantly, the additions of new players on defence not only adds depth to the team, but relieves the demands and strains felt by Rocco, Luch, and Matt Dookie. Click to continue reading...

Year end award nominees are coming out, and while no Wizards players are up the big awards, 3 Wizards are nominated for 2 awards.
Davy Arnaud and Claudio Lopez are both up twice for goal of the year. Arnaud's first blast against Toronto on the opening week of the season is one of his two nominated goals. Click to continue reading...

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.

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The Wizards have handed out their year end awards, and it's now time for me to hand out my end of the year awards to Wizards players. I'm going to hand out the same awards I did last year, I'm also adding a Performance of the Year award to the best single game performance by a player this season.
Rookie of the Year
Matt Besler
Not really a surprise, it was either going to be Besler or Graham Zusi getting this years award, and I don't think that Zusi got enough time this year to be considered for the award. Click to continue reading...

TORONTO - Age appears nothing but a number for the beloved Captain of Pistolas FC Charles Eppich, as he continues to score goals in limited games, and remains the All-Time Goalscorer.
In fact he scored 2 goals in the finals to bring his 2009 tally to 6 and his all-time tally to 12.
But his absence from the roster during the Toronto Cup - an absence not brought on by availability - left many teammates and fans wondering about the status of our fearless leader. Click to continue reading...

I'm fortunate enough to join The MLS Show once again to wrap up the Red Bulls' 5-0 season ending victory over Toronto FC. Give us a listen, won't you? Click to continue reading...

Maybe the Bayern Munich U-17s *would* start in MLS since Toronto apparently got beat by a teenage girls side on the weekend. From Monday's Du Nord:

. . . a "correspondent" on from Toronto who was all but bragging about how his team TFC would make the playoffs because their opponent in the final round was a "Kansas City U14 Girls team".

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After today's announcement that Chris Cummins will not return to Toronto, two of Major League Soccer's highest profile franchises are without head coaches. Red Bull, denizens of North America's...

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The Rapids choked away a chance at their best season ever with a 7 game winless streak culminating in the embarrassing 3-0 loss to FaKe SaLt Lake Saturday night. They finish in a tie for the last playoff spot but lose the tibreakers, missing the playoffs for a 3rd straight year. 2 years in a row they've missed the playoffs by a point. Click to continue reading...

With J Hutcherson -- All in all, not the best weekend to be a fan of half the teams in Major League Soccer. Whatever route was taken to disappointment in the final weekend of play, it's the same basic point. In 2009, this is a circuit that can't put anybody over. Toronto can't play in the rain. Dallas can't score enough. Click to continue reading...

I won't put it on the main page because it's such a long post, so check it out here:
All Time Best & Worst MLS Teams (single season & multiple)
How do this year's teams stack up?

• Columbus lost three of their last four, which means that they ended up tied for the worst Supporters Shield winners ever with the 2004 Crew.

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The final regular season numbers look like this...

5 year comparison  Final Week YTD   Avg  +/-  GP  Avg  +/-  GP  2005  18,417   6  15,108   192  2006  20,277  10.10%  6  15,504  2.62%  192  2007  20,575  1. Click to continue reading...

With all of the regular season games in the bag, the playoffs are finally all set to go.
Los Angeles has won the top spot in the Western Conference by winning their game over San Jose, and also holding the tie breaker over both Houston and Chivas USA no matter what either of those teams does in their match up on Sunday. Click to continue reading...

TORONTO - Pistolas FC player Romerinho is set to debut his new 2010 cleats during the Toronto-Mississauga Cup next Saturday, October 24th, 2009.
Thanks to our friends at http://www.soccerpro.com/, Romerinho has snagged a snazzy pair of Addidas F30 FG TRX's, which he will sport during all games of the tourney. Click to continue reading...

This is torture. The only positive I can dredge up right now is that TFC is getting shots. I guess the half time pep talk is simple. If Red Bulls can score 2 in a half, Toronto can score 3. Click to continue reading...

Toronto @ NY, DC @ Kansas City, Colorado @ Salt Lake, Dallas @ Seattle, San Jose @ LA, Houston @ Chivas, and New England @ Columbus. This, my friends, is your final weekend of the 2009 MLS Regular Season.

Chicago already locked up a spot with a win at Chivas and Seattle jumped into the playoffs as well.

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Ok, in an effort to pump up the Seattle Sounders just enough for them to beat FC Dallas this weekend which would effectively seal Toronto's place in the playoffs (provided Toronto wins too of course), here is a quick clip for the Seattle Sounders fans. Laurie at the Sounders Offside, I'm looking at you here:

Ok, it's not so much a sacrifice to the football deities, as it is clip of a football deity (in Seattle), but hey, it's appearing on a Toronto FC page, so that's the best I can do.

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Thanks to an email from a fan up north. This video of the Red Patch Boys creating a large banner for Danny Dichio may be a bit long but its still pretty cool to see the tribute that they put on for their favorite bald striker. Man Dichio will always be a legend in Toronto.

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After week 31 the numbers look like this...

 5 year comparison  WK 31 217 GP YTD  Avg +/- GP Avg +/- Avg +/- GP  2005  18,417   6  15,957   15,108   192  2006  20,277  10.10%  6  16,157  1.25%  15,402  1. Click to continue reading...

DC pulled off the 1-0 win off an Emilio 16th minute goal Saturday, keeping their chances at the MLS playoffs alive. They now share a 4 way tie with Toronto, Dallas, and New England. United must rely on going to Kansas City and must win to keep any chances alive. The guys over at behindthebadge.com broke down DC's playoff chances.

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