MLS News Archives

Image courtesy of the Chicago Fire and Major League Soccer.

Last year, Major League Soccer welcomed David Beckham amidst significant mainstream media coverage in North America. Another player who joined the growing league in 2007, although with less fanfare, was a legend of Mexican football: Cuauhtémoc Blanco Bravo. Many believe that he had much more of an impact than Beckham’s injury-plagued campaign.

He began a stellar career with his childhood side, Club América, of Mexico City. Since 1995, he has represented his country at two World Cups, along with several other prestigious international competitions. Until 2007, with the exception of two years in Spain, Cuauhtémoc had spent his entire professional career in the Mexican Football League.

Read the rest of this entry »

Being the Los Angeles Galaxy manager isn’t easy, or rather, it’s much harder than Ruud Gullit had anticipated. The former Chelsea coach and 1987 European Football of the Year is getting a closer grip on reality day after day, and isn’t hiding his malcontent (event though the team is currently ranked 2nd in the Western Conference, behind FC Dallas).

“I’m sure that when people think of LA Galaxy, the picture that comes to mind is not of our staff making phone calls to friends on Friday to see if they can play in a reserve game on Sunday, but, strange as it may seem, this is the reality” declared the Dutch manager in an interview to English newspaper Sunday Times. “I can’t play sexy football with this team at the moment because we are not ready for this”.
.
Read the rest of this entry »

This is the moment North American soccer fans have been waiting for; the CONCACAF Champions Cup Final is here. However, with more exciting MLS action coming up this weekend, Americans are spoiled for choice as we creep closer to summer.

Read the rest of this entry »

Although there are two teams (San Jose and New York) that have only played two matches, this will be the first review in which I publish the Major League Soccer table, and this season there are some surprises early on. In fact, what I predicted to be a weekend of matches that are nothing special turned out to be a very exciting weekend of big teams losing to supposedly weaker opposition yet again. Welcome to the MLS.

Read the rest of this entry »

In the past couple of days:

•The Mexican league continued its commanding dominance in the Champions Cup – the most finalists in the history of the competition with thirty-two, twenty-three of which have won.

•Costa Rica has also had a good record – in second place with ten finalists, six of which were also winners.

•The Revolution win their second match of the season.

•The Galaxy take on three new players.

•A new MLS club starts to forge their identity.

Read the rest of this entry »

In many ways US soccer remains a bastard child. Unwanted by many sports fans in the states, and scoffed at by much of the rest of the world as second class. I generally try to ignore my countrymen who hate soccer. For the rest of the soccer world, I try to present a realistic picture of the current state of things to show they may not be as right as they think they are. This is my attempt, in writing, to show that US soccer may not be there yet, but is heading in the right direction.

I’ll start with the bad news. We still have a long way to go. These are the areas where I think the US is still lacking.

Read the rest of this entry »

Major League Soccer’s second week kicked off on Thursday, with two matches, and finished with five more at the weekend. Also, CONCACAF Champions Cup semi final action took place in Pachuca, Mexico, and Houston, Texas.

Read the rest of this entry »

Laurent Robert has signed for Major League Soccer side Toronto, after his contract at Derby was cancelled by mutual consent.

The French winger was one of several players signed by Paul Jewell during the January transfer window, but made just three appearances.

Robert, 32, played under current Toronto coach John Carver at Newcastle.

Carver said: “I’ve spent a lot of time with Laurent and know about his game. He’ll be a big asset to the team.”

Robert, who also played for Portsmouth, has not started a game since early February.

But Toronto general manager Mo Johnston, the former Celtic, Rangers and Scotland striker, said: “We are thrilled to have Laurent join Toronto FC and become part of our club.

“He’s a tremendous player with a lot of talent, and we expect him to come in and make an impact with our club straight away.”

David Beckham scored his the first goal and set Landon Donovan (who set Becks up for the first one) up for another as LA Galaxy win 2-0 against the San Jose Earthquakes. I don’t care what the match was like. I don’t particularly care about the LA Galaxy either.

All I care is that Beckham scores - and without being presumptious, that’s a view many other non-American ‘newcomers’ to the MLS hold as well.

Here’s hoping for many more from Becks this season. Here’s the goal (don’t have the Beckham assist / the second goal, if anyone has a video link to it please drop it in the comments.

Will Beckham start when England play the US at Wembley? I imagine pressure from sponsors will make it happen, but then Beckham sells, and that’s what football in the US needs in the first place - the ability to attract massive attention.

Resident MLS expert Dan Leo takes - believe it or not - an optimistic look at the future of the MLS.

Saturday, March 29th marked the opening kick-off of the 13th MLS season (see Liviu’s review here), the United States’s and Canada’s top professional soccer (football) league.

As I had pointed in my previous pieces, the league isn’t considered a true “major” sports league in the US, if one only judges it from paid attendance and gross financial revenues (aka turnover).

Moreover, MLS has struggled mightily to attract a hard core soccer fan over its existence. If one were to make comparisons to the top world leagues, the overall quality of soccer just wasn’t there for the duration of its run. That in turn greatly affected the economic aspect of the sport.

Of course, it wouldn’t be American to give up on a dream. However few soccer fans may be in the US, those fans are loyal and vociferous. More importantly, they are growing bit by bit every year. Some are new converts, who have sampled what the league had to offer and stayed. Some are lurkers, who still prefer a Premiership or a Bundesliga but will watch MLS too because it is still soccer. Others still are brought in because of selected stars or because of having played soccer at an earlier age or because there was nothing else on TV.

And growth is good.

But how has MLS gone from there to here?

Read the rest of this entry »

This was a week of surprises for the MLS. Opening weekend, officially known as MLS First Kick 2008, was riddled with surprise results and courageous showings by supposedly inferior sides.

Read the rest of this entry »

Soccer season in the USA is almost here. We’ve had some exciting times already, with both DC United and Houston Dynamo advancing to the semi finals of the CONCACAF Champions Cup, the Los Angeles Galaxy completing successful tours of Australia/New Zealand and Asia, FC Dallas traveling to Brazil, and the United States U-23 team qualifying for the Beijing Olympics later this summer after missing out on Athens in 2004.

On to the first set of fixtures this weekend:

Read the rest of this entry »

The moment we’ve all been waiting for is finally here! The 2008 Major League Soccer season is upon us. Here are a few things to look out for this season:

• David Beckham makes his second go-around with the Los Angeles Galaxy.
• Stars Juan Pablo Angel and Cuauhtéhmoc Blanco look to continue their great form from the 2007 season.
• The return of the San Jose Earthquakes gives the Bay Area another lease on soccer life.
• The dominant University of California, Santa Barbara senior class comes to the MLS from the SuperDraft.
• The MLS 2008 Kits.

As usual, at the end of the season, Major League Soccer will deliberate over a number of awards, along with the silverware that the deserving teams will carry away. I have predicted who will win the ones that arouse my interest:

Read the rest of this entry »

In my previous Soccerlens column, I touched on the quality of soccer/football in the top domestic US league called MLS (Major League Soccer). Clearly, the subject isn’t an entirely comfortable one for the fans of the league and most home grown American soccer fans do tend to follow it.

I follow it as well, sometimes with excitement, sometimes in bewilderment, occasionally in shame. While can provide glimpses of delightful football, it can also be the ugliest soccer on the planet.

But, if beauty is in the eye of the beholder, then what makes the American soccer such a frequently tepid affair? In this piece, I tend to touch on some contentious subjects that hopefully will stimulate further debate. I hope that I can be critical and fair without using the British tabloid dismissive of the 2007 LA Galaxy as a “pub team”.

Read the rest of this entry »

With CONCACAF Olympic Qualifying also taking place this week, the Champions Cup squads were left without some of their more talented young players. However, the show must go on, and the more experienced players took to the pitch once again to defend their club’s honor in the second leg of the quarter finals.

Read the rest of this entry »

Entertaining and unpredictable are the two words I would use to describe the first leg of the CONCACAF Champions Cup quarter finals.

There are several reoccurring themes in Central American football, all of which were on display this week: lots of bookings, a bit of diving, and crazed supporters. It will be interesting to see how the American teams fare at home, since American supporters aren’t commonly known to be that wild. Hopefully DC United’s Barra Brava will have some part to play in proving me wrong, and I hope the MLS Cup Champion Houston Dynamo’s fans will also be in good voice.

Read the rest of this entry »

Formerly the fans without a team, it’s been a long time coming for The SOBs.

The Sons of Ben are a group of soccer fans from Philadelphia whose outspoken support lead to February’s announcement of an MLS expansion team landing to the City of Brotherly Love in 2010. The team will play in a plush new stadium along the Chester waterfront, and fans can already reserve their seat’s on the unnamed squad’s website.

On the Sons of Ben website, the group claims to be about 1500 members strong, and is known for their devotion to traveling to matches (necessary with the lack of a “home” team), where they are sometimes admired for the level of noise and enthusiasm they bring to matches- though they may not be supporting either side on the field.

After the MLS expansion team announcement I sent an email to Sons of Ben founder Bryan James, who put up with the snarky queries to dish some dirt on the supporter’s club for those not in the know:

Read the rest of this entry »

2007 review

2007 was Toronto FC’s first year in existence. While it wasn’t always smooth (setting the record for most consecutive goal-less minutes), they did manage a respectable six victories in their first season. A lack of squad depth and an abundance of injuries hurt the team in ways they would not recover from, ending up fifteen points adrift of the playoff spots.

After an unsuccessful start to the season, losing four matches in a row, they beat then one-loss Chicago Fire and eventual champion Houston Dynamo. Things seemed to be looking up, but they went on to win only one of their last sixteen league matches – failing to score in 824 straight minutes – leaving them in last place.

The first season of Toronto’s existence really did belong to the fans. After their last home match, a 2-2 draw with finalists New England (coming back from 2-0 down to equalize in stoppage time), the players did a lap of honor around the pitch, applauded by a sell-out crowd. All of Toronto’s home matches sold out. There were 14,000 season tickets available, and they were all sold. For the 2008 season, 16,000 season tickets were made available, and they were all sold by the middle of November.

Read the rest of this entry »

2007 review

Well, there isn’t much to say about the Earthquakes. There used to be a San Jose Earthquakes club, but they moved to Houston in 2005. All the players and most of the coaching staff went to the Houston Dynamo, and the community of San Jose mourned the loss of their club. The Bay Area will have their team back beginning this season, but with all new players and an all-new hope for the future.

Read the rest of this entry »

2007 review

New York were unlucky to have to play New England in the first round of the MLS Cup playoffs in 2007. Finishing third in the Eastern Conference, with a record of twelve wins, seven draws, and eleven losses wasn’t enough to save former US manager Bruce Arena’s job, but an up-and-down season also led to his departure.

In the US Open Cup, New York were ousted by the Galaxy, 3-1, in their first match. The match was a wild one, ending 0-0, but there were four goals scored in extra time. That was New York’s only match other than league matches in 2007.

Read the rest of this entry »

2007 review

2007 was another disappointment for the team established in 2005 in Utah. It was just like their first two seasons in that they ended one spot off the bottom of the league table. They won six, drew nine, and lost fifteen in a season that can be described only as another building year.

Coach Jason Kreis, himself a former MLS star striker, is now trying to build a team in his likeness, and it may be working. A win over Everton FC and Boca Juniors in last season’s mid-season friendlies may show signs of what is to come for the club.

Read the rest of this entry »

2007 review

2007 was a year of ups and downs for the Wiz. Ultimately, defeat to eventual champions Houston in the MLS Cup semi finals was about as good as they could have hoped for. Kansas City was one of the most entertaining teams to watch last season, mostly thanks to manager Curt Onalfo’s refusal to play for anything but an all-out win.

Unfortunately, in the Open Cup, they didn’t win. At all. A third round (their first match) loss to MLS bottom dwellers Réal Salt Lake in extra time ended their cup dreams early. This allowed the Wizards to focus on the league, with only one other (friendly) match besides their league matches to worry about.

Read the rest of this entry »

2007 review

In 2007, New England finished in second place in the MLS Cup for the third straight season. In fact, the Revs have been finalists four times and semi-finalists twice in the last six seasons, but they have never won an MLS Cup. This is agonizing for me personally because New England has always been my favorite club, and even when Seattle joins the league next summer, I’ll still have a soft spot for these lads.

The 2007 season brought silverware in the form of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, which is the American FA Cup. However, skeptics will look at the fact that the only MLS team New England faced was FC Dallas in the final. They cruised past second and third division teams all the way to the final, beating FC Dallas 3-2.

Read the rest of this entry »

2007 review

To sum it up quickly, a season full of hope, glamour, and global expansion ending in mediocrity, shame, and defeat on the pitch. Maybe that’s a bit dramatic, but for the hype the LA Galaxy were given in 2007, they were a huge disappointment. Fixture congestion and injuries led to the Galaxy finishing fifth in the Western Conference (eleventh overall) with nine wins, seven draws, and a whopping fourteen losses. A late surge couldn’t get them into the playoffs, and when they lost 1-0 to Chicago on the final day of the season, even a 12-4 victory in a friendly against Hollywood United couldn’t make them feel better.

A good run in the SuperLiga distracted many fans from LA’s MLS troubles, as did friendlies against top sides like Chelsea FC and Rangers FC of Britain. In the SuperLiga, LA forced extra time in the final against CF Pachuca of Mexico with a stoppage time bicycle kick from Chris Klein before losing 4-3 in a penalty shootout.

Read the rest of this entry »

2007 review

Not too many things need to be said about the Dynamo in 2007. They won the MLS Cup by using their established core of players (much like New England’s core) and winning matches at key times. For instance, they were on a three-game losing streak in early June when they came up against their in-state rival FC Dallas and won 2-1, spurring them on to a eleven game league unbeaten run that led into August.

In cup competitions, Houston made it to the semifinals of the CONCACAF Champions Cup, going down in extra time to Pachuca of Mexico. The US Open Cup was very disappointing, going out in the third round (their first match) to Charleston of USL-1, which is the American second division. The SuperLiga ended similar to their Champions Cup run – against Pachuca again, but in penalties this time.

Read the rest of this entry »

2007 review

Owners of 2007’s last Western Conference playoff spot, FC Dallas made great strides with a very young team. They ended the regular season with thirteen wins, five draws, and twelve losses, but they safely qualified for the playoffs and were seeded fifth.

The US Open Cup is usually a great competition for young players, and FC Dallas took full advantage, making it to the final before losing 3-2 to New England. However, New England was the only MLS team they faced in the competition. Dallas did have to beat two of the top teams from USL-1 (American second division) to make it to the final, including the champion Seattle Sounders.

Read the rest of this entry »

2007 review

After losing to Chivas de Guadalajara in the semi final of the CONCACAF Champions’ Cup, DC United went on to win the MLS Supporters Shield with sixteen wins, seven draws, and seven losses in the league. Even if Chivas USA had won their last match, DC would have still won the Shield on goal difference, thanks to a twenty-goal season from newcomer and league Most Valuable Player Luciano Emilio. However, their season ended frustratingly when they lost 3-2 on aggregate to the Chicago Fire in the first round of the MLS Cup playoffs.

Besides the Champions’ Cup, DC were also involved in the SuperLiga, US Open Cup (briefly), and the Copa Sudamericana. They lost 1-0 to Harrisburg City Islanders of USL-2 (American second division) in the Open Cup, but they were anything but disheartened by that. In the SuperLiga they lost to the LA Galaxy in the semi finals. And finally, the Copa Sudamericana ended when DC lost to Chivas de Guadalajara (again) on the away goals rule, after the two-legged tie ended 2-2.

Read the rest of this entry »

2007 Review

Missing out on a playoff spot and failing to score were the most common themes for the Rapids in 2007. Despite drawing up an agreement to be Arsenal’s American representatives, the Londoners’ magical footballing prowess did not rub off on the Rocky Mountaineers. They finished five points and two places adrift of the last playoff spot, only giving up thirty-four goals, but only scoring twenty-nine in thirty matches.

The US Open Cup started brightly for them, beating Mountain area rivals Réal Salt Lake 2-1, then beating the California Victory of USL-1 (American second division) 3-1, before losing in the quarter finals to the USL-1 champion Seattle Sounders 5-0. The Rapids made a much more successful run in the Cup thanks to goal-scoring that they did not find in the league.

Read the rest of this entry »

2007 review

A fantastic season for Chivas ended in frustration. Injuries to leading goal-scorers Maykel Galindo and Ante Razov led to the team scoring just once in their final three matches and not at all in the playoffs. Before losing 1-0 on aggregate to the late surging Kansas City Wizards, Chivas won fifteen, drew eight, and lost seven, winning the top seed in the Western Conference and missing out on the MLS Supporters Shield by just two points.

In the Open Cup, they lost 3-1 to the USL-1 (US second division) champion Seattle Sounders in the third round (their first match). It turned out to be a massive disappointment, considering that they had beaten the same Sounders by the same score just a month before. However, it left them able to concentrate on the league, which they ended up tearing up.

Read the rest of this entry »

2007 review

A desperate attempt to get a playoff spot ended just three points short for Columbus in 2007. They won their last two matches, against good opposition in New England and DC United. However, a mediocre start, with just one win in their first eleven matches, caught up to them. Looking back, there are several results in that run that Columbus would love to replay, including a draw with Réal Salt Lake, a loss to Kansas City, who grabbed the last playoff spot, and a draw with Toronto FC.

In the Open Cup, they lost at home to the Los Angeles Galaxy in the third round (their first match) by a score of 1-0. Notable friendlies include a 3-1 loss to Aston Villa and a 9-1 routing of a team of Latin All-Stars (Latinos Unidos).

Read the rest of this entry »