Author Archives: Ridge Mahoney

[MLS] Another highly-regarded college player has come back to MLS after failing to land a spot in Europe. Former Duke midfielder Michael Videira has signed with the New England Revolution following a six-month stint in Scotland.

[MLS] Former Crew head coach Sigi Schmid, whose hiring as Seattle’s boss lagged for months yet was never in serious doubt, has followed a similarly predictable course by naming Brian Schmetzer as an assistant coach. The former NASL Sounder coached the USL-1 Sounders from 2002 to 2008, winning a pair of championships along the way. He will give the MLS franchise continuity as well as provide a baseline of knowledge and experience as Schmid builds the city’s MLS team.

[MLS] More than a dozen years after signing as the Crew’s first discovery player, Robert Warzycha is taking over as its fifth head coach.

[MLS] The Curse of the Designated Player, like that of the Sports Illustrated cover, is alive and well.Yet another DP has been struck down by injury and will arrive, if not damaged, certainly on the mend. This time the victim has yet to play as much as a minute for his MLS team.

USA-Mexico, Act III in Columbus will take place Feb. 11 when the Concacaf rivals will meet at Crew Stadium in the opening game of the Hexagonal, the final round of World Cup 2010 qualifying in the Concacaf zone.

[MLS] Sighs of relief, hearty handshakes, jokes and reminisces, and a few tears highlighted the official announcement Tuesday of Seattle Sounders FC landing Sigi Schmid as its head coach.

The long, twisting saga of Seattle FC’s pursuit of Sigi Schmid will end Tuesday with the official announcement of his hiring, a day after MLS imposed a penalty on the expansion team for unspecified improprieties.

[U.S. WOMEN] When she took the job as head coach of the U.S. women’s team 13 months ago, Pia Sundhage signed a deal that guaranteed her only nine months of employment. Upon an exhaustive review following the team’s gold-medal performance at the Olympic Games, which U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati indicated took about 30 seconds, negotiations began for a longer alliance. Monday came the official announcement that she will be in place until the next Olympics, scheduled for 2012 in London. In the meantime, Sundhage laid out plans for 2009 …

[MLS] American representation on both sides of the field came into play Thursday when the MLS Select/Generation adidas team finished its three-game visit to London against the reserves of West Ham United.

[CONCACAF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE] He isn’t saying he prefers SuperLiga to the Concacaf Champions’ League, but Houston coach Dominic Kinnear can’t help but get excited about playing Mexican teams in real competition. Five months after playing Atlante in the SuperLiga, Houston was matched up with the Mexican club for the CCL quarterfinals to be played next year. Houston hosts the first leg (Feb. 24-26) and faces Atlante in Cancun a week or so later.

[MLS] Scott Sinclair hit a hat trick as a young MLS Select squad fell to the Chelsea reserves, 4-0, Wednesday in the second match of a three-match tour.

[AMERICANS ABROAD] Following in the footsteps of U.S. international Charlie Davies, Boston College senior forward Alejandro Bedoya has signed with a Swedish club.

[MLS] Several key members of Chivas USA suffered significant injuries during the 2008 season and one of the players who stepped up to fill in has been sidelined by offseason surgery.

Defender Bobby Burling, a reserve in his rookie 2007 season, underwent arthroscopic surgery on his left ankle last week and is expected to be back in time for the start of preseason training in early February.

American fans love to romanticize about players who find jobs with European clubs, yet the success record of them moving up the U.S. national team depth chart is spotty at best. With the news of the Columbus Crew’s Chad Marshall testing the German market with Bundesliga 2 team Mainz 04 and New England’s Michael Parkhurst set to follow Heath Pearce to Danish club Nordsjaelland, their prospects are in flux, yet neither has attained status as regular call-ups for U.S. matches.

[UNDER-20 WOMEN’S WORLD CUP] North Korea displayed persistence and precision while reaching the  U-20 Women’s World Cup final; the USA got there by utilizing both of those elements, plus an occasional dash of brilliance. In the final Sunday in Santiago, Chile, opportunistic strikes by Sydney Leroux and Alex Morgan — honored with the Golden Ball and Silver Ball, respectively, as tournament MVP and runner-up – carried the USA past North Korea, 2-1, to secure the first American win at the under-20 level.