2006 was a largely forgettable year for American soccer, writes Ives Galarcep of the Soccernet. The United States national team started the year strongly, reeling off a number of impressive international results before a comprehensive 4-1 drubbing at the hands of the World Cup hosts in March. Things spiraled downward after that; the nadir being the USA’s lifeless 3-0 defeat to the Czech Republic in its opening World Cup match. A much-improved performance in a tie with Italy and a loss to Ghana weren’t enough to see the USA through to the next round. Bruce Arena’s job came to an end soon after that, and thus began the epic failure that was the courtship of Juergen Klinsmann as head coach. Add to that the deaths of Mooch Myrenick and Lamar Hunt, and it was a bad year for U.S. soccer. However, on the plus side, there was the passing of the so-called “Beckham Rule” which will allow MLS clubs to bypass salary cap restrictions to sign foreign stars. The emergence of young stars like New York Red Bulls’ Jozy Altidore and the continued development of Clint Dempsey and Oguchi Onyewu were other bright spots. All eyes will be on Freddy Adu this year, especially after the media blitz on his training stint with Manchester United in November. He suffered press scrutiny after D.C. United traded shipped him off to Real Salt Lake shortly thereafter, so the youngster has plenty to prove this season. The other major question settling over MLS is: Which big stars? David Beckham has repeatedly said he doesn’t plan to move to the USA for a few years yet, while Luis Figo and Paolo Wanchope have already gone after bigger paydays in Asia. Then there’s the head coach question, which may not even be settled by this time next year.