[MLS] Tops amongst all MLS teams in points, New England (10-4-3, 33 points) also leads in All-Star selections, with three Revs named for the July 24 match against English Premier League club West Ham United at BMO Field in Toronto. Goalie Matt Reis, defender Michael Parkhurst, and midfielder Shalrie Joseph – three of six players on the 11-man squad who are returning to the All-Star Game – head the team that will be coached against West Ham by their club coach, Steve Nicol. Two teams each placed two players:
Author Archives: Ridge Mahoney
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Kansas City downs, and knots up, Red Bulls
[MLS] Those two scoring machines for their respective teams each scored a goal Wednesday night, but Jimmy Conrad got some help from his Kansas City teammates.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Preki flies as Chivas USA ties
The history of the Galaxy-Chivas USA derby is a short one but perhaps the fiercest match in the series history ended 1-1 Thursday night at Home Depot Center with a Galaxy player contributing to both goals, and one of the head coaches ejected
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Toronto tie sets up must-win finale
The first Nutrilite Championship, a three-team playoff that will decide Canada’s representative in the CONCACAF Champions League, is going down to the final game.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Salt Lake lands All-Star game
Real Salt Lake’s new stadium will still be a work-in-progress when it opens in early October, but all the bells and whistles are sure to be in place next year when it hosts the 2009 MLS All-Star Game.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
USL assured spot in Open Cup final
[U.S. OPEN CUP] If New England’s reserves are barely good enough to beat a USL-2 team on penalty kicks, and a nearly-full strength FC Dallas squad gets worked by USL-1 Charleston, what does that say about the relative strengths of the first, second, and third tiers of American soccer?
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Osorio makes moves to revive Red Bulls
From the first day he took the job Red Bulls coach Juan Carlos Osorio has been fixated on rebuilding and renovating the MLS team that has promised the most and delivered the least. Soccer America’s Ridge Mahoney explains why the next few months will reveal if Osorio can truly transform a team.
Posted inSoccer America Magazine, Story
MLS: Second Wave of Argentines
A fresh influx of South American players includes numerous Argentines who have taken spots on league rosters as MLS tries to upgrade its quality and intensity.
Posted inSoccer America Magazine, Story
U.S. Soccer: Another Option at Outside Back
A heavy schedule of games in 2007 opened the door for several hopefuls to make their mark with the national team, and one of the players to emerge was left back.
Posted inSoccer America Magazine, Story
MLS: The Saving of Santino Quaranta
By his own admission, Santino Quaranta should have been dead from all the drugs he took. He was a “full-blown addict” until he hit bottom last fall and sought treatment. With the help from friends, Quaranta is again playing in MLS.
Posted inSoccer America Confidential, Story
Salt Lake plagued by Kreis’ blurred vision
The pieces are in place for Salt Lake City to join the growing cast of MLS cities offering fans a decent product in facilities that range from adequate to superb.
Posted inSoccer America Confidential, Story
Some MLS dates, and rules, make no sense
The contract guarantee date has come and gone, yet not all MLS players still employed are assured of being paid in full for their 2008 services. This is just one more topic for the MLS Players’ Union to address as it bargains for a new Collective Bargaining Agreement, to take effect for the 2010 season.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Busy month broadens Team of the Month recipients
[MLS AWARDS] With four MLS teams competing in SuperLiga, the first round of which concludes just in time for the All-Star Game, the load of league matches in July will decrease significantly from that of June, during which five weekends of play helped sort out teams in both conferences. Sort of.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
The phantom ‘elbow’
[REF WATCH] The first point to be made about Marcelo Gallardo‘s elbowing of Landon Donovan in the face Sunday at RFK Stadium during D.C. United’s 4-1 beatdown of Los Angeles is that it didn’t happen, at least not in the manner that so many reporters and broadcasters have described.
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Regulars, reserves, and reversals
[U.S. OPEN CUP] It’s nothing new for an MLS team to be bounced out of the U.S. Open Cup by an eager upstart from the lower divisions; it’s quite something else for two teams to stumble on the same night while up a man. Or two. Reigning MLS champion Houston and never-champion New York Red Bull not only went out in the third round Tuesday, out they went against shorthanded opposition.
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Foreign players no longer untouchable
Franco Neill: formerly of D.C. United. Rafael Gomes: signed in preseason, cut by the Rapids before the Fourth of July. Eloy Colombano, acquired in the summer of 2007, dumped by Kansas City less than a year later. Guilherme So and Nicolas Hernandez — one an MLS newcomer, the other an MLS veteran in his third season — set free by Columbus. The era of expanded opportunities for MLS foreign players is also a new age of vulnerability.
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Wolff to share, not bear, goalscoring burden
[MLS] Disregard those who believe Kansas City coach Curt Onalfo expects returnee Josh Wolff to solve his team’s goalscoring woes single-handedly.
Posted inSoccer America Confidential, Story
Another boost for revived D.C. United
One of the topics that Santino Quaranta wanted to emphasize while talking about his recovery from drug addiction and 90-day stay at a clinic in Southern California was the support of his teammates, notably midfielders Jaime Moreno and Ben Olsen.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Torres shoots Spain to title
[SPAIN-GERMANY REPORT CARD] Its leading scorer sidelined and its semifinal hero sputtering, Spain nonetheless deservedly captured its first European Championship title in 44 years by dispatching Germany, 1-0, Sunday night in Vienna with a Fernando Torres goal and a resilient, nerveless defensive performance. Soccer America’s Ridge Mahoney grades the players.
Posted inSoccer America Confidential, Story
Santino Speaks, Part II
This is the second installment of excerpts from a conversation with D.C. United midfielder Santino Quaranta on June 3, about five months after he completed a 90-day stay at a drug treatment facility in Southern California. Part I appeared in Monday’s edition of MLS Confidential, A feature on Quaranta’s addiction to pain pills and recovery appears in the July 2008 issue of Soccer America magazine.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Spain cruises past Russia
[SPAIN-RUSSIA REPORT CARD] Despite losing top tournament scorer David Villa to a muscle strain in the first half and a poor showing by forward partner Fernando Torres, Spain pumped in three goals while smothering Russia to win, 3-0, in Vienna to book a final date with Germany on Sunday (2:30 pm ET on ESPN). Soccer America’s Ridge Mahoney grades the players.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
One more tie in Texas
These are the ties that try men’s souls, especially Houston coach Dominic Kinnear
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Open Cup sets up 8-v-8
[U.S. OPEN CUP] In third-round play next week, eight MLS survivors meet lower-division teams that have survived their own elimination tests. Fasten your banana peels.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
U.S. World Cup vets headed to MLS?
[MLS] After Brian McBride, the list of American national team players who might leave Europe for MLS this summer is a rather short one but includes a pair of his fellow World Cup vets.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Guzan may yet land in England
[MLS] Aston Villa could sign Brad Guzan during the European transfer period this summer, even though it failed to acquire him via appeal last winter and must wait 12 months before utilizing that process again. How so?