Author Archives: Ridge Mahoney

[TV REVIEW] Less than a month into the regular seasons, MLS teams are far from the finished product, as coaches juggle players and alter tactics to find the right formula. Last year, a lot of juggling took place with the broadcast teams selected by ESPN2 for its MLS telecasts. Some games featured on-site hosts, some didn’t, several sideline reporters were used, and from the third week of the season the cable system used a three-man crew in the broadcast booth.

[MLS] The first tangible result of a marketing partnership announced between MLS and the German Bundesliga last year has come to light.Borussia Moenchengladbach, which has won the league title five times and is leading the second division in its bid to earn promotion, will train for 10 days in the United States this summer and according to Associated Press is to play Colorado and FC Dallas during its visit.

To varying degrees of fanfare, more than two dozen foreign products — including two Designated Players — arrived in time for the start of the MLS season. Some have been in the lineup since the first weekend, a few others debuted last weekend or a week prior. Perhaps not until, say mid-June, will all of them have played at least a handful of games. Funnily enough, that’s when the USA/MLS secondary window opens, which could trigger at least one or two “major signings” and a few lesser ones. But with four weekends in the books, there’s enough data to highlight those imports who have adjusted most quickly to the demands of MLS and the roles given to them by their head coaches. Soccer America’s Ridge Mahoney ranks the MLS’s foreign newcomers. …

MLS, somewhat artificially, is promoting a few of its games along the lines of “Rivalry Week.” In the case of the Red Bulls playing the Revs, OK, why not, though both teams have fiercer histories against D.C. United and Chicago, respectively. The D.C.-Crew matchup Thursday night pitted former Argentine club rivals Guillermo Barros Schelotto (Boca Juniors) and Marcelo Gallardo (River Plate) in the “Yankee Superclasico,” a term that hopefully will be buried and forgotten by the next time they play, if not sooner.

[MLS] It seems nothing can shut down the young New England foreign players: not injuries, not jet lag, not paperwork snafus. A day after young Gambians Kenny Mansally and Sainey Nyassi, both 19, each scored a goal in a 3-1 triumph over Kansas City, the Revs reserves tied their Wizards counterparts, 2-2, as Costa Rican striker Argenis Fernandez, 21, scored both goals after joining up with the team late Wednesday afternoon.

Much that is good and bad about the MLS player-distribution system is personified in the return of Amado Guevara, who has left Honduran club Montagua, has been acquired by MLS, and was traded by his previous club, Chivas USA, to Toronto FC, for which he refused to play last year. Soccer America’s Ridge Mahoney explains the intricacies of the transaction.

[CONCACAF CHAMPIONS CUP] Houston didn’t have the horses. D.C. United didn’t have the archers. Both MLS teams, for the second straight year, fell in the semifinal round. In second legs played Wednesday night, Saparissa beat the shorthanded Dynamo, 3-0, in its home leg to win the series, 3-0, on aggregate; at RFK Stadium, United fell behind, 1-0, before rallying with two late goals to leave it a goal short of Pachuca on aggregate, 3-2.

[CONCACAF CHAMPIONS CUP/TV] The odds of an MLS team reaching the Concacaf Champions’ Cup final had seemingly increased when only one Mexican team, Pachuca, reached the semifinals and both Houston and D.C. United advanced. Yet both face an uphill battle in their respective semifinal series, the second legs of which take place Wednesday. Soccer America’s Ridge Mahoney explains MLS teams’ biggest handicap.

Can it be coincidence that the rumors of Thierry Henry perhaps heading to Seattle sooner rather than later surfaced at about the same time was announced the team nickname, which turns out to be a paragon of compromise? There’s nothing like a convenient distraction. After months of heated discussions among the ownership members and despite the adamant insistence of Commissioner Don Garber that the 2009 expansion team wouldn’t carry the same nickname as a loved but departed NASL franchise as well as the current USL entry, at high noon Monday came word: Seattle Sounders FC, joining the MLS club of Football Clubs that already includes Dallas and Toronto.

Tales of the Galaxy’s demise may yet prove to be apropos, not premature, but for the time being it must be said they are exaggerated. Soccer America’s Ridge Mahoney reports from Carson, Calif., on how Beckham, Donovan & Co., bounced back from their season-opening debacle against Colorado when they met San Jose on Thursday.

[PREVIEW] In kicking off its 2008 broadcast schedule with a doubleheader, ESPN2 couldn’t do much better than trot out a double feature, complete with heroes and villains and subplots and themes, linked by a live intermission.

There were R-words being bandied about the hotel lobby yesterday as the new San Jose Earthquakes prepared to open their second life against their old rivals from Los Angeles, but rarely was heard a reference to rivalry. Or revenge.

[GAME REPORT] If Luis Montes isn’t a regular starter for Pachuca, D.C. United players and coaches would like to know why. In the Concacaf Champions Cup Wednesday night at Estadio Hildago, he came on as a halftime substitute and proved to be the perfect focal point for an attack that couldn’t stop squandering chances.

[PREVIEW] The 2007 MLS champion has yet to hit its stride and is in the midst of a stretch that would be tough for any team, even one that has all its players healthy and available. The Dynamo is missing a few bodies for its semifinal, first leg encounter with Deportivo Saprissa of Costa Rica in the Concacaf Champions Cup Wednesday (10 p.m. ET, Fox Soccer Channel), but it could have two players added from the squad that lost in feeble fashion to New England, 3-0, in its MLS opener last weekend.

[MLS] The life of Galaxy coach Ruud Gullit isn’t going quite the way he hoped it would. At the tail end of a 4-0 thumping in Colorado Saturday night that marked Gullit’s coaching debut in MLS, the Rapids’ Ciaran O’Brien crashed into Carlos Ruiz from behind. The tackle removed both players from the game; O’Brien with a red card and Ruiz hobbling from a knee injury that Tuesday required arthroscopic surgery.

[MLS] If any MLS team might be well-prepared to lose two of its best players, it’s New England, which takes on Chicago Thursday in the first game of the ESPN2 doubleheader (7:30 p.m. ET) minus Taylor Twellman and Steve Ralston.