Category: Soccer America Confidential

A hostile environment is anticipated at Toyota Park when former Fire head coach Juan Carlos Osorio returns to Chicago to lead his Red Bulls in a crucial Eastern Conference match against the team he abandoned during the offseason. But a far more amiable reunion is also on the docket in another conference showdown between the league’s top two teams. The Revs will line up at Columbus Crew Stadium to take on the conference-leading Crew having exchanged some pleasantries during the pre-match warmup.

Was it confidence or desperation that drove Wizards coach Curt Onalfo to steadfastly maintain his team’s playoff chances remain tangible despite it sitting six points adrift of the nearest postseason slot with eight games to play?

We all have our opinions about the Carlos-Ruiz-to-Toronto-so-Galaxy-can-sign-Eddie-Lewis deal, so here we go.

Many folks are a bit puzzled as to why U.S. coach Bob Bradley didn’t pick FC Dallas forward Kenny Cooper for the qualifier in Guatemala City on Wednesday.

He may yet wind up as coach of the Los Angeles Galaxy, but Bruce Arena does have loftier goals to fulfill sooner or later in his life.

Let’s hope that the return of Pat Noonan to MLS, albeit to the Crew instead of his former employer New England, turns out to be a win-win.

According to MLS Players’ Union executive director Bob Foose, the decision by New England and Houston players to share their portion of the prize money for contesting the SuperLiga final Tuesday night is a direct response to MLS blocking an attempt by team ownership to pay separate bonuses.

The trend of recent results is good news for fans in several MLS cities, and a worrying development to those who follow the Galaxy.

In a Q&A with comedian and Seattle Sounders FC minority owner Drew Carey, he was asked to describe SuperLiga in five words or less. He replied: “More Money for Mexican Owners,” which was clever and funny but not altogether accurate. The tournament is generating money for MLS and its marketing arm SUM, but is also reviving the ill feelings and poor sportsmanship seen before when Mexico’s national team loses to the USA.

More than one MLS general manager or team executive has expressed concerns that for all the proclamations that MLS wouldn’t repeat the mistake of the NASL, in more than a few cases it has done exactly that.

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.

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.

This latest coaching move by FC Dallas had better work out. Otherwise, short of spending tens of millions to lure Juergen Klinsmann or Fabio Capello to these shores, or a few mil to drag Bruce Arena back into the MLS fold, I don’t know what else the franchise can do.

Size may be the most overrated aspect of evaluating a promising young player, but by no means is it irrelevant.

I can’t say Jozy Altidore is a can’t-miss, since in the roughly two decades that the USA has been exporting players outside its borders, perhaps a half-dozen could have been plastered with that designation.