Author Archives: Ridge Mahoney

[MLS] The “dream team” may be headed for a divorce. An expansion application to place a team in Miami from legendary Spanish club Barcelona and Bolivian businessman Marcelo Claure has taken a rocky turn, according to press reports on both sides of the Atlantic.

[MLS] With a month to go before New York opens the 2009 season in Seattle, head coach Juan Carlos Osorio took the time to scout talent in El Salvador.

[MLS] Chicago led until the final minute of its exhibition match against Mexican second division club Queretaro FC Wednesday but was left with a 1-1 tie at the final whistle.

[MLS] Changing by the hour if not the minute, the David Beckham saga rolls, or lurches, on. A proposed meeting between AC Milan sporting director Umberto Gandini and Galaxy officials, set for Thursday and then pushed back to next week, may be back on.

[MLS] Another piece in the building of Seattle’s back line had been laid into place. Colombian center back Jhon Kennedy Hurtado has been signed and will join the team during its preseason trip to Argentina, which begins next week. For more on Hurtado’s signings and the other MLS moves …

[PAN-PACIFIC CHAMPIONSHIP] Opening without David Beckham and Landon Donovan and serving as host rather than as Hawaiian guest, the Los Angeles Galaxy begins its 2009 season Wednesday with semifinal play in the second Pan-Pacific Championship at Home Depot Center.

[MLS] FC Dallas upped its preseason record to 2-1-1 by beating Colorado, 1-0, Tuesday during its training camp in Sunrise, Fla.

D.C. United rolled out a few political backers and ambitious plans for a 24,000-seat stadium in Prince George’s County, Md., at a press conference on Monday. But given the on-again, off-again nature of United’s efforts to secure a stadium of its own, president Kevin Payne admitted, “I’m knocking on wood a lot.”

[MLS] Months of haggling and negotiations have ended with goalkeeper Joe Cannon signing a new deal with San Jose that gives him less money and more security.

[MLS] On the day AC Milan’s hopes of winning the Serie A title suffered a serious blow, the hopes of David Beckham staying with the Italian club rather than return to MLS took a another new twist.

[MLS] With five weeks to go before its MLS debut against New York, Seattle has traded one of the players it claimed in the expansion draft to the Red Bulls.

There’s no shortage of explanations as to why Mexico can’t beat the United States national team in the USA, but two former internationals have very interesting perspectives, and one former U.S. coach refuses to call it dominance, per se.

[HEXAGONAL] Once again Mexico failed to scale its own psychological barrier, once again the Americans relied on their poise and experience to down their bitterest rival, and once again U.S. coach Bob Bradley proved that, at least some of the time, he knows what he’s doing.

[MLS] Bluff or bluster, or plenty of both? By issuing a statement that AEG and Milan must reach a transfer agreement regarding David Beckham by Friday or MLS won’t approve the deal, league Commissioner Don Garber has jumped into the fray with both feet and studs showing.

[USA-MEXICO REPORT CARD] Soccer America’s Ridge Mahoney grades the U.S. players and comments on their performance in Wednesday’s 2-0 victory over Mexico …

[USA-MEXICO] Where the 2006 World Cup qualifying campaign effectively ended, the serious push for 2010 begins. And since then, much has changed. The Hexagonal campaign for the U.S. and Mexico commences Wednesday (7 p.m. ET, ESPN2 & Univision) at Columbus Crew Stadium, with both teams expected, once again, to top the six-team group, and both beset by growing pains.

[MLS] At least one MLS coach believes allocations should be used to bring U.S. players back to Major League Soccer, and a rival team has done just that. San Jose has used its slot atop the allocation rankings to sign midfielder Bobby Convey, whose contract with English club Reading was terminated last week. Terms of the deal and his salary details have not been announced. He is scheduled to report to the team in the next two weeks, after the Quakes play two preseason games in California.

[MLS] As he prepares Seattle for its first MLS season with a training camp in Southern California, Coach Sigi Schmid is looking for help in the back. He turned to a familiar source.

[MLS] Players on loan take some convoluted journeys, and following just such a path is Argentine forward Pablo Vitti.

[USA-MEXICO COUNTDOWN] For all the major matches played by Frankie Hejduk against Mexico during more than a decade of service to the U.S. national team, he still regrets missing the big one played in his backyard. “I was on the bench, freezing my butt off,” he recalls of the 2001 Hexagonal opener played in Columbus won by the USA, 2-0. “It’s a lot better to be playing in those games than watching them, so hopefully I’ll be out there playing.”

[TELEVISION] Following his dismissal from the Galaxy last summer, Alexi Lalas eased his way back into television by appearing on the MLS Cup 2008 and 2009 SuperDraft telecasts. There’s lots more to come.

[USA-MEXICO COUNTDOWN] There wasn’t all that much suspense regarding which of the European-based players would be selected by Coach Bob Bradley for the Hexagonal opener against Mexico Wednesday in Columbus. So the inclusion of Jozy Altidore, who just went on loan to CD Xerez, and the exclusion of Freddy Adu, stuck on the bench while on loan to Monaco from Benfica, is notable for Adu’s notoriety, but not at all surprising.