I’ve been a little busy today so the links will be fairly light tonight. I guess that’s what you can expect when it is the week of your wedding and you have loads of things to do other than write on a blog. But I will have more on that in a couple days.

Tonight I want to really get into a couple things here. First being the current playoff chances for each MLS club thanks to the wonderful SportsClubStats.com and the second being the on-going situation with the USL owners.

I’ll be quick with the playoffs here as I’ve already given you all my thoughts on the matter earlier in the day. I just wanted to post the current chances for each club according to the site above. For those of you who like to see percentages and what not in terms of each club, this site is pretty good. May not totally accurate but more times than not they seem to be pretty dead on about where each club stands.

Just like we’ve been saying on here that Dallas, KC, San Jose and New York are all pretty much out of it. Well New York is out. Toronto’s chances have taken a huge hit lately and even with the two wins this past week RSL’s chances haven’t improved that much.

Still a lot to be played though, a lot to be played.

Continue Reading…

Not too many goals to pick from this week with all the 1-0 games we saw. So this week all the goals are included in the list.

My favorites were Beckham’s and Richards. What did you all like?

Order of goals: Dane Richards, Julien Baudet, David Beckham, Pablo Campos, Bryan Namoff, Steve Ralston, Wells Thompson, Ramon Sanchez, Pablo Campos (Chivas game), Fabian Espindola, and Robbie Findley (1 and 2).

The Colorado Rapids are hoping to reach the playoffs and some defensive help should go a long way in correcting some of their inconsistent issues. Today they have traded with FC Dallas for defender Drew Moor in exchange for Ugo Ihemelu, according to both clubs.

The Rapids also pick up a second-round pick and allocation money in the deal.

Interesting deal from a Dallas stand point. Ihemelu is a little more physical than Moor and probably brings a little more speed to the backline. But was he worth a second-round pick and allocation money? That part I question a little bit.

Plus, Ihemelu is a former SMU player under Schellas Hyndman. It also looks like Hyndman is going to start clearing out more players in the coming weeks that don’t fit his system. I expect more deals to be made.

Colorado adds a quality defender to their defense as they look to make the playoffs. Moor should fit nicely in their defense.

In terms of salaries, both were making around the same, Ihemelu with $140,000 and Moor with $132,000 with bonuses adding up to a little over $149,000; which may explain for the allocation money being sent to Colorado.

It’s just what we expected, a very tight playoff race this year is happening. Out of the 15 clubs in the league, 11 are in playoff contention. Sorry San Jose, Dallas and KC fans…we’re pretty much writing you all off for the playoff race this year along with the Red Bulls who have been out of contention for months now despite the two straight wins.

Just how tight is the race? Let’s have a look. For our purposes in tiebreakers we will use the teams with the most remaining games as the higher team.

—SUPPORTER’S SHIELD RACE—-
Houston 11-7-7, 40 points
Columbus 10-4-9, 39 points
Chicago 10-6-8, 38
Los Angeles 9-4-11, 38
—AT LARGE BIRTHS—-
Seattle 8-6-10, 34 points
New England 9-6-6, 33
Colorado 9-7-6, 33
Chivas USA 10-9-3, 33
——-NEXT IN LINE——–
Real Salt Lake 9-9-6, 33
D.C. United 7-5-11, 32
Toronto 8-8-7, 31
—–ALL BUT ELIMINATED—–
Dallas 6-11-5, 23
Kansas City 5-10-6, 21
San Jose 5-12-5, 20
New York 4-16-4, 16

Right now it is a true dead heat for the Supporter’s Shield crown as LA inches closer to the top with a win over their rivals Chivas USA. Houston, Columbus and Chicago all dropped games this weekend. I still feel that LA has the best shot out of the four to win the Supporter’s Shield crown this season. Chicago doesn’t look like they have the right mix of things to do it and Columbus’ and Houston’s schedules are too packed in the final months of the season. LA has plenty of win-able games left and it makes sense to see them continue on their current form. Continue Reading…

Steve Zakuani makes a strong case for ROY. (Getty Images)

Last night in the links and thoughts we discussed the MVP race that is heating up, tonight we shall take a look into an even tougher Rookie of the Year race. We all know how deep this year’s rookie class is and right now we could make a serious case for about five or six guys. This time last year we were all digging real deep to even come up with candidates. Thankfully that is not the case right now.

Right now I won’t put out my 1-whatever order as there are still plenty of games to be played. Feel free to leave who you think is the top rookie below.

- Steve Zakuani (Seattle Sounders FC): The number one pick really hasn’t disappointed, except for that nasty miss in Houston. He’s produced well with three goals and four assists and has seen plenty of good minutes for Sigi Schmit this year. He’s also found a way to live up to the number one pick hype unlike last year’s number one (Chance Myers).

- Omar Gonzalez (LA Galaxy): Could LA make it back-to-back rookie of the years? Its possible since Gonzalez has seen action in every game this year for the Galaxy. Not many other rookies have seen the field as much as Gonzalez. After a little shaky start to the year I think we’ve seen this kid turn out to be one of the better defenders in the league, just like we expected him to be. Safe to say this kid could be in for a nice long career if he keeps this up.

- Sam Cronin (Toronto FC): One of TFC’s three first rounders has done very well so far this year. He’s seen plenty of time on the pitch and has produced rather well for a defensive midfielder. His chances at this award will go a long way if he helps lead Toronto into the playoffs for the first time in club history.

- Stefan Frei (Toronto FC): The only keeper on the bunch of rookies but he was rated the highest keeper for a reason. Toronto has had faith in him since day one and hasn’t really wavered from him even when the team has struggled. His four shutouts are a pretty good number as well for a rookie.

- Rodney Wallace (DC United): One of two DC players on this list. Wallace is a beast to deal with and lots of teams are dreading seeing this kid in the midfield for DC for years to come.

- Chris Pontius (DC United): I still remember draft day when DC picked him and United fans all booed heavily because of it. I think their mood changed quickly though when Pontius started producing goals early on. He’s cooled off a bit from his nice start but he still is enjoying a solid rookie campaign.

- Darrius Barnes (New England Revolution): The biggest steal of the draft still is Barnes who was taken in the third round. Steve Nicol found a gem as Barnes has played in every minute of every game this season. Continue Reading…

Landon Donovan and Paulo Nagamura battle in the third and last SuperClasico of the year. (Getty Images)

We have another loaded week of soccer ahead of us. Week 24 got off to a bang earlier in the week in Salt Lake as Real Salt Lake got their playoff chances back on track with a resounding 4-0 blowout of expansion mates Chivas USA. One has to wonder if this is more to come for RSL and if Chivas can bounce back.

Other games this week with MLS clubs didn’t go as well as three teams played in CONCACAF Champions League play. Only the Houston Dynamo made it out of this week with a point, though it came at a price with a few red cards. Both the Columbus Crew and DC United were pounded in their respective games. No need to go into how each of them lost, its a simple math problem facing MLS sides against teams from Mexico and other countries with money. These smaller rosters and low budgets will continue to kill MLS clubs in these competitions.

Anyways, we have too many games to discuss and not enough time to go into why the league needs higher salary caps and what not today. Nearly every club is in action this week with games on both Saturday and Sunday for your viewing pleasure. Continue Reading…

Editor’s Note: Geoff Reid appears on WVHooligan each week. Today he returns to us with his weekly series on the life of a Liverpool fan in America. Feel free to leave him your thoughts below.

Premiership football is back in full swing and it doesn’t feel any better does it? Well that depends on who you ask. Before Monday nights match against Brad Friedel and Aston Villa I was thinking which Liverpool would show up: the one that lost to Spurs on opening weekend being very inconsistent or the one that trashed Tony Pulis’ Stoke City the following Wednesday? The best explanation I can come up with was a mixture of both. Obviously my first reactions were a little blown up after a defeat and I’ve always been someone who gives myself 24 hours to gather my thoughts and look at things more rationally. It was the same back in my college days after we’d win or lose a match because our reactions were always different right after the match ended compared to analyzing it the following day. Continue Reading…