Dejan Jakovic joins DC's defense.

The Black-and-Red have added to their defense yet again. Instead of going with another South American like a year ago they looked north to Canada.

DC United has paid a transfer fee to Red Star Belgrade for Canadian defender Dejan Jakovic, according to Steve Goff. The Canadian U-23 defender should arrive with the club next week, pending visa approval.

Jakovic attened the University of Alabama-Birmingham before joining Red Star Belgrade a year ago. He made only starts for the club.

The move means he will compete with Devon McTavish and Greg Janicki for the starting center defender roles.

Davy Arnaud lead the Wizards in scoring a year ago but will need to do more in 2009. (Getty Images)

Last of the season previews for this week, we are about half way done with the previews for 2009. Today we turn our attention to the team in the middle of the country, the Kansas City Wizards. The boys in blue found a way to reach the post season a year ago as one of the wild card births, but with little changes did the Wizard’s improve their chances of repeating their playoff chances? Time to find out.

2008 record and finish: 11-10-9, 42 pts., finished 4th in east, lost in first round of playoffs. Continue Reading…

Sorry Miami folks. There just won’t be any news regarding your potential MLS club today. Earlier some had thought there would be news regarding Marcelo Claure and his visit with Barcelona FC in Spain. But according to Total Futbol in Miami there will be no news given today.

Any notion that an announcement would be made by the league regarding Miami today was indeed premature.

But if some news does come down about Claure’s meeting with Barca and if he was able to keep them on board in the bid we may get that later on today. Its just a wait and see game right now for this bid.

Thanks to the tip from WVH reader Brian Z., the Houston Dynamo have announced a press conference for later today to announce the signing of their first academy player. Goalkeeper Tyler Deric will be introduced as the Dynamo’s first academy signing.

Deric is a native of Houston suburb Spring, Texas. He has been with the University of North Carolina soccer team since graduating from Klein High School.

Some also believe the announcement could also be about signing Canadian defender Andrew Hainault. From what I understand a deal with Hainault has not been reached yet.

A lot of 2009 depends on Stuart Holden and Brian Ching. (Getty Images)

Moving on in our season preview quest here at WVH. Today we head down to Houston as we knock out the other Texan club (yesterday was FC Dallas’s day). Another early start to the year for the Dynamo with the CONCACAF Champions League, can the Dynamo block out the memory of last year’s post season exit in the first round to the New York Red Bulls or will we see the Dynamo slide into unfamiliar territory and not be a contender for once?

2008 record and finish: 13-5-12, 51 pts., first in west, lost in first round of playoffs. Continue Reading…

A deal that could finally make Colorado’s offense a good one. The Rapids are set to complete a deal with Toronto FC to land Guyanese forward Gregory Richardson, according to SBI earlier today.

Colorado will send an undisclosed 2010 draft pick in exchange for the top discovery rights to sign Richardson. The former Trinidad & Tobago club Joe Public striker had been on trial with the Reds but Toronto decided to deal the striker’s MLS discovery rights rather than to sign him.

You may recall Richardson’s rise to fame when he scored an impressive hat-trick against New England in Joe Public’s 4-0 CONCACAF Champions League win at Gillette Stadium last September. That hat-trick put Richardson on the MLS map.

Richardson still hasn’t signed with the Rapids but seeing as how he has been traded away from Toronto can of tells me he will sign a deal pretty soon.

My wonder with Richardson is will he really be MLS ready? Sure he had a hell of a game back in the fall against a very injury depleated New England squad. That was only a single game. My worry is that game went too far with most MLS clubs that looked at him. I know Toronto was quick as always to put their discovery tag on him but I think looking at it now they always wanted to deal him away regardless.

What do you make of Richardson possibly joining the Rapids this year? Will he be the piece to the puzzle that Gary Smith has been looking for all along here?

I know I forgot to mention the Houston Dynamo’s 1-1 draw in Tuesday’s CONCACAF Champions League game but to be honest I sort of viewed last night’s contest up in Montreal to be a little bigger. We’ve seen Houston in that environment before but not a USL side like Montreal.

In front of a massive record crowd of 55,571 the Montreal Impact downed Mexican side Santos 2-0 thanks to two goals from forward Eduardo Sebrango. The crowd was the largest ever for a CCL game but more importantly it could draw some major attention from MLS front offices again for MLS expansion.

What’s more impressive, the crowd or the result? I kind of think both are equal. To me it show be a major eye opener to MLS that Montreal should have been a major player in the expansion race. The fan base is there and could instantly be ready to go if needed. I can only name a couple MLS clubs that could even come close to that number for a CCL game, and most of those clubs would only draw that number on a weekend.