Category: Soccer America Confidential

The Seattle MLS franchise is more than a year away from its first game but has already signed one of Washington state’s most famous players. No, not Kasey Keller, at least just yet.

With two championships in tow, the Houston Dynamo organization could be forgiven for sitting still, even a bit. Nothing of the sort is occurring. The political process to build a stadium for the team is forging ahead and a possible buyer has emerged.

Remember the item of a few months back referring to a “disgruntled Eastern Conference assistant coach?” He wasn’t, as some suspected, working for Red Bull New York, at which confusion or miscommunication between former head coach Bruce Arena and his assistants filtered down to the players and helped trigger Arena’s departure shortly after RBNY was eliminated in the playoffs.

He’s shot pictures from the sidelines of many U.S. national team games. He pondered being part of a Cleveland MLS expansion franchise before that attempt withered. He played a drag-out video-game duel with Landon Donovan to raise money for a worthy soccer cause. Finally, Drew Carey has put his money where his heart is. He’s a minority partner in the expansion MLS Seattle franchise scheduled to start play in 2009.

All was merry and light Tuesday at the San Jose Earthquakes offices in Santa Clara, which are literally across the street (El Camino Real, for you cyber-map enthusiasts) from the entrance to Santa Clara University and the team’s home for at least the next two seasons, Buck Shaw Stadium.

MLS has announced three finalists for each of its end-of-season awards. Here’s the view on the major honors from this perspective.

Some leagues call the playoffs “the second season.” In MLS, it’s more a case of “Brave New World.” Out go six months of fluctuating fortunes, ebbs and flows, barren spells and hot streaks. In comes knockout play, excruciating pressure and the magnified impact of luck, good and bad.

So what sparked that angry exchange between coaches Preki and Dominic Kinnear Saturday in the melee that broke out seconds after Chivas USA and Houston had played a 0-0 tie at Home Depot Center? According to a source who spoke with one of the participants – not Preki or Kinnear – tensions between the benches […]

With the Red Bulls and FC Dallas assured of playoff participation, and five teams – theoretically – still in the hunt for the remaining two spots, will the eighth-place team set a record for the poorest mark ever to qualify?

Watching Matt Reis have a ball kicked from his grasp, which is specifically prohibited by the rules, into the net for the winning goal in D.C. United’s 3-0 win over the Revs last weekend brought back memories of a conversation with U.S. keeper Kasey Keller regarding his days with English League club Millwall.

MLS’s “First XI,” determined by voting, for the July 19 All-Star Game against Celtic is a solid group. Seven more players are to be picked — five by Coach Steve Nicol and two by Commissioner Don Garber — and there are far more candidates who merit serious consideration than allotted places.

The list of candidates to take over the head coaching position in Chicago – interim coach Denis Hamlett, former U.S. international Frank Klopas, ex-MetroStar assistant coach Juan Carlos Osorio, and Revs’ assistant Paul Mariner – does have a favorite. President and GM John Guppy, a native of England, has stated the coach will speak Spanish.

CHANGE IN CHICAGO. The Fire has dropped head coach Dave Sarachan, who’d bought himself some time by starting the season with three wins and a tie but had lost six of the last eight with a squad depleted by national-team call-ups and injuries.

Hollywood must truly be the land of make-believe, in sports as well as films. When asked if David Beckham, whose return to the English national team sparked a flurry of proclamations between FIFA and the Galaxy about his availability, might be loaned out to a European team during the MLS offseason, Galaxy president Alexi Lalas couldn’t pass up yet another chance to whip up the waters of controversy.

Galaxy general manager Alexi Lalas, talking on his cell phone at the Denver airport waiting for a connecting flight to Los Angeles, is wary of loading too many exhibition matches onto his team’s schedule. Lalas was returning from Minneapolis, having concluded negotiations for his team to feed off the frenzy that will hit these shores in another month or so. Still, playing at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome Oct. 10 against an opponent to be named later makes sense

If the MLS disciplinary committee can review incidents like Andy Herron‘s elbow into Jay Heaps‘ face and Sacha Kljestan‘s tackle from behind on Andy Williams and mete out fines and suspensions after the fact, why can’t red cards like the one Terry Vaughn handed out to Shalrie Joseph in last week’s Revs-D.C. game be reviewed and perhaps rescinded?