So much has been made over the clubs starting this new NASL. Today we learned another has jumped ship leaving the USL-1 with only five clubs. That number could go down one more if Cleveland does what most expect and relegate itself back to the USL-2.

But back to the more topic at hand, yes another club jumped ship today and it turned out to be the club most expected to the Rochester Rhinos.

“We evaluated the situation very carefully and decided that the best decision for the future of the Rhinos and soccer in Rochester was for us to join the new NASL,” said Rhinos CEO Rob Clark. “Soccer is maturing before our very eyes.  We are joining a family of team owners who are committed to investing in our league and their teams to further the development of players and support the future growth of the sport in North America.  The NASL is a new beginning for soccer in Rochester.”

This makes club number 10 for the NASL. The new league is still waiting on official word from the U.S. Soccer Federation to legitimize its status.

Its funny the longer things go here the more clubs this league is collecting. Funny part is the longer it goes the more we wait on the USSF’s approval for this league. How will a league that may end up with about four months time to get off the ground here? They have so much work to be done I have to believe this league won’t kickoff in April like they hope to.

I’m sure they have a lot of things lined up to do once they get the approval but just public opinion (or at least mine) wise it doesn’t look good for them right now. At least get a website up and inform people about things here. A little bit of info would never hurt their cause here because press releases to select journalists and from the clubs just doesn’t get it done enough in my book.

Continue Reading…

Don Garber is set for a raise. (Getty Images)

MLS owners have offered Don Garber a contract extension, the only catch is if a new collective bargaining agreement can be reached with the players this according to the Sports Business Journal (subscription, sign up for a free trial).

Garber will make some good money too if a deal is finished. According to the report he could be set to make up to $3 million per year for four years.

There’s no doubt that since Garber took over as league commissioner back in 1999 the league has taken off in bigger and better ways than imagined a decade ago. With expansion, to soccer specific stadiums to jersey sponsors, the league is doing much better than it was back then.

Giving him a contract extension is really a no brainer. No one right now is really fit to replace Garber as league commissioner, though I’m sure there are some out there that would probably like a change. I think putting a new deal towards Garber shows the owners have faith he will get a new CBA worked out with the players here.

Some will be quick to point out, just like the report did that Garber could end up making more than an entire MLS roster’s salary cap after everything is said and done. Honestly, I don’t have a lot of issues with that because I do believe the cap will be raised enough to make folks happy here.

Yes this Friday is the big day for us all, we learn who exactly the US will be grouped with in next summer’s World Cup. I recall the 2005 World Cup draw before the Cup in Germany the following summer, that was a stressful day as we learned the group of death was going to involve the US. Hopefully this time around things will go a little better for the US.

ESPN is already getting the hype together for this week’s draw. They take a look today at the US’s outlook here.

Alejandro Moreno was one of the better picks in Wednesday's draft. (Getty Images)

Another year has come and another Expansion draft has gone in Major League Soccer. No high profile names were taken, and not many players selected were expected to go. Only a couple that were taken most people figured would be selected by Philadelphia and Peter Nowak. While it wasn’t a roster that most expected it was one that fits the mold of what Nowak looks for in a roster.

Below are my grades for each pick. Just like in years past some picks were better than others. Continue Reading…

For some reason tonight felt as good of a night as any, even being Thanksgiving to finally make the switch around here. I’d like to thank those who’ve helped along the process of this new design. The feedback given was greatly appreciated.

I’ve been wanting to make a switch in looks around here for a while. Basically I decided to clean things up a bit. I got rid of one of the two sidebars on the right and tried to cut some of the fat. I also wanted to add some featured categories to the right for each club, it was a suggestion made by a couple readers and I hope everyone likes the look of it.

Again, to those who are unfortunately viewing this in IE 6 things will not display correctly. I’m sorry but that is just a browser I cannot spend months getting this place to render properly in. If you are able do yourself a favor and at least upgrade to IE 7 or 8. If not please download Firefox, Chrome, or Safari. Honestly the internet would be a much better place if we all used one of those three browsers.

I hope you like the changes, I plan on adding more to it in the coming months! And if you don’t like it, that is cool too.

Cheers,

- Drew

I wanted to post about the expansion draft but since Turkey Day is tomorrow I am going to just hold off until Friday to do it. Not to mention my normal day job has been killing me with work this week so time hasn’t quiet been there.

Also, I had been hoping to show off the new design that I’ve been working on here for a while now but that looks to be on hold until at least the end of this week. Just a word of warning to those with IE 6, the new look won’t show up well in that browser. Its a 7 year old browser and I just don’t have the time or energy to make things appear nice in that one. I understand if you are viewing this on a public or work machine that hasn’t had any updates even to the 4 year old IE 7 but if you are on a personal computer and can upgrade, do it. Better yet get Chrome, Firefox or Safari and do away with IE all together. You’ll thank yourself for it later I promise.

Hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving. Don’t eat too much turkey!

- Drew

The new kids of the block finally have some spots filled on their roster today as the 2009 Expansion Draft is complete with Philadelphia Union selecting their first 10 players. Some names won’t shock you while others may leave you guessing what Peter Nowak and company have up their sleeve.

-Jordan Harvey – Colorado Rapids
-Andrew Jacobson – DC United
-Brad Knighton – New England Revolution
-Sebastian LeToux – Seattle Sounders
-Stefani Miglioranzi – Los Angeles Galaxy
-Alejandro Moreno – Columbus Crew
-David Myrie – Chicago Fire
-Shea Salinas – San Jose Earthquakes
-Shavar Thomas – Chivas USA
-Nick Zimmerman – New York Red Bulls

Five clubs escaped without losing anyone: Real Salt Lake, Dallas, Toronto, Houston and Kansas City.

It’s also been reported that Philly has traded for RSL keeper Chris Seitz. Steve Goff is saying Seitz went from RSL to Philly for allocation money and the promise not to select any of its players in the expansion draft. Not a bad promise if you think about it. If that deal is indeed true then the Union has two solid young keepers.

What do I think of this roster? Certainly surprising compared to what I predicted. They could have come away with a better roster for sure but one has to think Peter Nowak is getting guys to fit his system, which is more important sometimes than getting the best players out there. I’ll have more thoughts on this roster later.