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2013 MLS Season, Week 13: Predictions

By on May 24, 2013 | Follow @WVHooligan |
Sporting KC hopes to extend Houston's losing streak this weekend. (Photo by Mark Shaiken - WVHooligan staff photographer)

Sporting KC hopes to extend Houston’s losing streak this weekend. (Photo by Mark Shaiken – WVHooligan staff photographer)

First off, forgive me for the lack of posts yesterday. I had the day off from the real world and took full advantage of it by just getting tons of other little things done that I’ve been putting off for ages. So thanks.

Now on to the task at hand. MLS rolls into the final week of the May. I skipped over the What To Watch For this week so I’ll try to provide a little more context to the weekend ahead before I get into my predictions.

1. Montreal humming along. The Impact are still a club that I feel is not getting the respect that they deserve so far this season. It may be due to the fact that they’ve only played ten games where the clubs above them in the Eastern Conference have two or three more games in the books on them. I look at these next few weeks as huge for the Impact both in the league and in the Canadian Championships. If they want to be taken serious by all, winning in both is key. They host a streaky Philadelphia club this weekend, which brings another chance for Marco Di Vaio to do his usual thing up front for them.

2. Rivalry budding between SKC and Houston. We know where this one has been going for years. Ever since the Dynamo were moved to the Eastern Conference to make way for Portland and Vancouver to join the league in the West, these two have been getting a nice rivalry going. Most of that is due to the fact that they’ve met in the conference finals the last two years and throw in the fact that Sporting just ended Houston’s long unbeaten streak at home and this one has a lot to be excited by. Houston knows how to win at Sporting, so this one will certainly go either way this weekend. Easily the game I am looking forward to the most.

3. Sounders hope to continue hot form. No team is hotter in MLS right now than Seattle. Eight goals in their last two games, both at home against conference foes is a big deal. But I look at what Dallas was able to do against Seattle in the second half of last week’s 4-2 win for the Sounders as proof that good teams will give this Sounder club trouble if they aren’t pressing enough. Sigi Schmid’s team took the foot off the gas for just long enough for Dallas to get two quick goals. Seattle may have won that game but they have to play a complete game to continue their charge up the standings. They get LA on the road this weekend, never an easy game for the Sounders. The contrasting style of play out of both clubs makes it difficult for Seattle to play their speed game from the wings and up front.

4. Is anyone talking about RSL? The quick answer is no. Everyone in the West is focused on Dallas, Portland, LA and Seattle while Jason Kreis’ club is sneaking up and around everyone. Currently RSL is second in the West and have been sneaky good as of late.  One reason why they may not be getting the respect is due to who they have lost to. They’ve dropped games against good clubs like Montreal, Dallas, LA, and even against rivals Colorado. Kreis and company just need to continue to win no matter what and with Chivas USA in town, that form should continue.  Continue Reading →

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Fourth Round US Open Cup Pairings Released

By on May 22, 2013 | Follow @WVHooligan |

Some potentially big matches are ahead for the 100th edition of the US Open Cup. Today the fourth round pairings were released and several big potential MLS matches could be involved.

Two that jumps right off the mat would be the Texas Derby between FC Dallas and the Houston Dynamo and the Cascadia Cup between Portland and Seattle.

Both Seattle and Dallas would get their rivals at home in these matches.

Elsewhere, Chivas USA and the LA Galaxy could meet in the forth round.

One match that does sound pretty interesting is Orlando City and Sporting KC, another one of those MLS-USL partnerships potentially meeting. That would be very interesting given how Sporting KC loanee Dom Dwyer is killing it with the USL side this year.  Continue Reading →

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Fans Already Designing NYC FC Logo, Kits

By on May 22, 2013 | Follow @WVHooligan |

It didn’t take long for some folks to get in on the MLS expansion fun yesterday with the 20th club New York City FC. While no decision has been made on colors, logos or anything design related, it didn’t stop one person on Reddit from mocking up something of their own.

 nycfc-mockup

[Click the image to make it larger.]

Obviously this is a big dream for someone but I have to admit, I love the color scheme. It is very New York City to me. I love the ideas of pinstripes for the home jersey.

Have you seen any other better mock-ups for NYCFC yet? Let’s hear them.

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Third Round Set For 2013 US Open Cup

By on May 22, 2013 | Follow @WVHooligan |

MLS teams now know who they’ll face in the third round of the 2013 US Open Cup.

Here is the complete list of third-round matchups, based on U.S. Soccer’s draw, with the home team listed first:

  • May 28: Richmond Kickers (USL PRO) vs. D.C. United (MLS), 7 pm ET
  • May 28: Philadelphia Union (MLS) vs. Ocean City Nor’easters (PDL), 7:30 pm ET
  • May 28: Orlando City SC (USL PRO) vs. Colorado Rapids (MLS), 7: 30 pm ET
  • May 28: Fort Lauderdale Strikers (NASL) vs. FC Dallas (MLS), 7:30 pm ET
  • May 28: Charleston Battery (USL PRO) vs. San Jose Earthquakes (MLS), 7:30 pm ET
  • May 28: Rochester Rhinos (USL PRO) vs. New England Revolution (MLS), 7:35 pm ET
  • May 28: Sporting Kansas City (MLS) vs. Des Moines Menace (PDL), 8:30 pm ET
  • May 28: Real Salt Lake (MLS) vs. Atlanta Silverbacks (NASL), 9:30 pm ET
  • May 28: LA Blues (USL PRO) vs. Chivas USA (MLS), 10:30 pm ET
  • May 29: Charlotte Eagles (USL PRO) vs. Chicago Fire (MLS), 7 pm ET
  • May 29: Carolina RailHawks (NASL) vs. LA Galaxy (MLS), 7:15 pm ET
  • May 29: Columbus Crew (MLS) vs. Dayton Dutch Lions (USL PRO), 7:30 pm ET
  • May 29: New York Red Bulls (MLS) vs. Reading United AC (PDL), 7:30 pm ET
  • May 29: Tampa Bay Rowdies (NASL) vs. Seattle Sounders (MLS), 7:30 pm ET
  • May 29: Houston Dynamo (MLS) vs. FC Tucson (PDL), 8:30 pm ET
  • May 29: Portland Timbers (MLS) vs. Wilmington Hammerheads (USL PRO), 10:30 pm ET

Nine MLS teams on the road including Seattle and LA. Very interesting seeing teams like D.C. United and New England go against their USL-Pro affiliates as well.

Lastly, four PDL sides go through to the third round but no amateur sides like last year’s Cal FC.

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Additional Thoughts On NYC Expansion

By on May 21, 2013 | Follow @WVHooligan |

Big day for MLS huh? With plenty to talk about I figured I would just run down the line of some key points that I didn’t include in my initial post about the expansion announcement from earlier in the day.

- The stadium. MLS officials thought they were close in negotiations with New York City suits on league plan to develop a 25,000-seat facility in Queens, just east of Manhattan. The facility, at a price tag of around $350 million. They hope to have it up an running by 2016.

- Expansion fee. That $100 million price tag for the expansion fee is huge. That is $60 million more than what Montreal paid to get into the league.  the Yankees and Sheikh Mansour, Manchester City’s owner, represent the kind of deep pockets MLS has long sought. No one else buying into this league has their kind of money. The only one that could rival it would be Carlos Slim but he’s not taking over Chivas USA anytime soon.

- The MLS CBA expires in 2014, one year before this new club enters the league. I’d imagine this new CBA won’t be as much about players vs league like the last round of updates to the CBA went. No, this time around may focus more on owners against other owners in getting more money for salary cap space and DP limits. Seriously, things will get very interesting following the 2014 season.

- The salary talks. Another big money owner likely means another big talker at the table for the owners meetings that usually take place. The number of clubs that want to spend are quickly going to outnumber those who would rather kept things tight. Throw the soon-to-be David Beckham club into that mix and the days of low salaries caps could be out the door.

- Current TV deals also expire in 2014. You have to believe that adding this club for 2015 has every bit to do with the TV deals that the league will be going after. Adding a new club in NY for the following season is certainly going to help the league’s case in getting another and possible better TV deal with the outlets they currently have.

- Nike/adidas. Man City has a deal with Nike for 8 years, MLS deal with adidas ends in 2018. Curious to see if there are any conflicts there or not.

- Impact. Garber calls this a ‘transformation moment’ in MLS. In other words, this is just as big as the David Beckham signing.

- YES Network. NYCFC on the YES Network hasn’t been discussed yet apparently. But you can go ahead and expect it. Another big ‘get’ for the league to be on a very widely watched network in NYC.

- Temporary venue. Yankee Stadium is a possible temporary stadium solution for 2015. So is Giant’s Stadium. I do wonder if they could go the route that Vancouver took and place a temporary stadium in some random location like the Caps had with Empire Stadium. Hey, just throwing out suggestions.

- The Cosmos. It sort of sucks to be them right now, don’t ya think? The new version of the famed club begins play in August in the second-tier NASL with games at Hofstra University. They have big plans of their own that don’t include MLS. We’re talking a fancy stadium and the whole nine yards. Makes you wonder that if NYCFC finish their stadium and the Cosmos end up getting their’s as well, that NYC will have three really nice stadiums in the same area.

- Those future expansion sites. So it may be a tough day too for Orlando, Miami and other expansion hopeful cities out there. I can’t imagine any of those future cities having to pay $100 million to get into the league though. We know a Beckham owned team won’t cost that much. I’ve long said that the league would not stop after 20 and more than likely the year following NYCFC we’ll include two more clubs. Yes, two more.

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MLS Announces New York City Expansion Club

By on May 21, 2013 | Follow @WVHooligan |
Official. (Photo via MLS/NYCFC)

Official. (Photo via MLS/NYCFC)

After years of speculating, the talk is now official. Tuesday morning Major League Soccer announced their 20th club, New York City FC.

Major League Soccer Commissioner Don Garber announced on Tuesday that English Premier League powerhouse Manchester City FC and Major League Baseball’s legendary New York Yankees have teamed up to acquire MLS’s 20th expansion club.

The club is expected to begin play in MLS in 2015.  Continue Reading →

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Reports: Updates On Orlando Stadium

By on May 21, 2013 | Follow @WVHooligan |

The failure to get money from the State of Florida left the Orlando City group looking for another option to fund their stadium construction. Things are moving forward however now in Orlando as the group has put together a new plan to help fund their stadium.

Reports from the Scoring Third this morning suggest that the stadium project will now cost slightly less than what the group had originally estimated.

Again, though not official, the new total for stadium construction/land costs is rumored to be $95M; down from previous estimates of $105M-$110M. Additionally, the cost breakdown would see an adjustment to the team’s contribution as follows:

$50M -  Cash from Orlando City Soccer Club
$20M – Land/Cash from City of Orlando
$25M – Cash from Hotel Taxes from Orange County

The Scoring Third also mentioned that the Orlando group was in New York on Monday meeting with Major League Soccer, including MLS commissioner Don Garber.

Things are still progressing for Orlando after the bill failure in the Florida House of Representatives. Local officials in Orlando are also said to be pleased with the new funding plan for the stadium as well.

It isn’t major progress in some ways like what one would have expected to see had the bill passed through the House in Florida a few weeks back. That delayed a slew of things from what I am told, including design renderings and more.

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2013 Rookie Watch: Defenders Getting More Minutes

By on May 21, 2013 | Follow @WVHooligan |
DeAndre Yedlin has been getting a lot of minutes early this season for Seattle. (Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports)

DeAndre Yedlin has been getting a lot of minutes early this season for Seattle. (Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports)

Everything remained status quo for the rookies of Major League Soccer in Week 12. Four players went the full 90 in their weekend games, two of them were usual suspects to do so. Andrew Farrell of New England is now at 900 minutes for the season with Seattle Homegrown defender DeAndre Yedlin just right behind him.

It appears that defenders are getting the bulk of the minutes here so far this season with guys like Yedlin and Farrell. Real Salt Lake Homegrown defender Carlos Salcedo is also starting to earn his keep, as he had made two straight starts in the center of the RSL defense lately.

D.C. United rookie Taylor Kemp was recalled from his loan to Richmond this past weekend, and he made his MLS debut in the process during the 1-1 draw to Sporting KC.

One last interesting note, as you’ll see below in the post, is that there are three players from the first round of the SuperDraft that haven’t made their debut yet with their respective clubs. Sporting KC midfielder Mikey Lopez has and will see more time with the US U-20s this summer than he will with Sporting, probably not a bad thing to bring him along slowly there in KC if you ask me.

Elsewhere, San Jose defender Tommy Muller and Montreal midfielder Fernando Monge have yet to debut. I believe Monge however was let go earlier this year by the Impact.

Here is how the rest of the rookies did in Week 12. Continue Reading →

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Reports: Beckham Looking at Miami

By on May 20, 2013 | Follow @WVHooligan |

It didn’t take long for the David Beckham-MLS-Miami story to start picking up following the English star’s retirement from the game.

SI.com’s Grant Wahl has the latest report on the matter and it is what you might expect for the post-retirement MLS ownership phase of Beckham’s career that is going to get underway here shortly.

Now that David Beckham has retired from playing, he may be looking to exercise his option to become an MLS owner sooner than later. Beckham has said he plans on becoming an MLS owner, and MLS vice-president Dan Courtemanche tells me his advisers have already discussed moving forward with the MLS. The contract specifies that Beckham would own an expansion team, not an existing team, and his expansion fee would be $25 million, below the $40 million fee that Montreal paid last year. The more people I talk to, the more I’m hearing that Miami is the city Beckham is most interested in right now.

The big item in that for most fans is the fact that he’ll get an expansion team, not an existing club. I’m fairly certain that has been the case since day one that we found out about Beckham being able to own a MLS club in the future but given the recent talk about relocating Chivas USA, some folks pondered out loud if MLS would allow Beckham and his group to have that club once they take them over.

Miami being the leading candidate for Beckham has always seemed to be the case as well. I wouldn’t sleep on some other cities out there though. You know the league will research the heck out of the potential sites out there (if they haven’t already) for Beckham. They won’t allow him to place a team in a city that won’t do well long term either. Time will tell where this all goes but like I’ve mentioned before, the Beckham-MLS-expansion train is heating up.

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2013 MLS Season, Week 12: What We Learned

By on May 20, 2013 | Follow @WVHooligan |
Seattle walked all over Dallas this weekend. (Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY)

Seattle walked all over Dallas this weekend. (Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY)

There are plenty of points to go over from Week 12 in MLS. Both conferences saw games that helped tighten up each race. One quick look at the standings this morning and you’ll see that as the month of May draws to a end here, there is still a ton left to be played this season that will determine the playoffs and Supporters’ Shield.

Eight teams within six points of one another at the top of the table is pretty impressive to see. Eventually those games in hand by several clubs will come into play and be even more vital as this season rolls on.

All we know is summer is right around the corner which means things will really heat up in MLS. Here are some items that I took away from this weekend’s matches. Continue Reading →

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