Herculez Gomez is back...but will it be good enough to get on the National team? (Getty Images)

Okay, you’ve scored scored six goals in his past seven matches for Mexican first division side Puebla there Herculez Gomez, now what did you do with the real Herculez Gomez?

No really, tell us!

This isn’t your normal Gomez that scored just 23 goals in Major League Soccer between 2003 and 2009. So far his six goals for Puebla have nearly matched his production from his last three years in the league with the Kansas City Wizards and Colorado Rapids.

It comes to show if you put the right player in the right system things can happen. Gomez is obviously in the right system at Puebla for him. His time with the Rapids and Wizards was down right awful, then again both of those teams over the last couple years have been painful to watch at times so its no wonder why he didn’t flourish in either system.

But is this recent outburst down south National team worthy? If there were more friendlies other than the two big World Cup tune-ups in May I’d say yes but for now sadly its almost too little too late for Gomez to get on Bob Bradley’s good side. Then again if he continues to score goals like no other in the Mexican first division between now and the time Bradley picks his roster he may be a good backup choice.

What do you think? Should Bradley give Gomez a look over say a Jeff Cunningham or a Robbie Findley? All three can go from hot to cold real quick.

Toronto's O'Brian White looks to break out in 2010.

Normally in my season previews I go team-by-team but this year as I mentioned earlier in the week I am doing something a little different. Instead of the old way I’m trying something new to break up the content and give folks a little more room for discussion.

Today’s topic is all about who is the next guy to be a big impact player in this league. Or for someone to finally come out of their shell and help lead their club to the playoffs or even better a MLS Cup. I know a lot of these previews depend on the league and the player’s coming together on a new CBA but for the sake of things we’ll be optimistic here and say they do come to terms on something soon.

So I went club to club and asked a few folks who they thought would be the next big thing for their clubs. Some clubs will have just one guy to watch out for and some will have two. If a guy you think is going to break out this season isn’t on this list, hit the comments below with your reasoning behind it.

Now some are rookies and others are guys that have been around the league for a little while. I tried to balance it out between those two groups. Continue Reading…

Wow, I must say I’ve kept this post in the icebox for too long. I originally started writing this back in January when the adidas catalog came out with all the 2010 MLS kits. Somehow this got pushed back to the start of March. I’ll go ahead and blame couple things, my laziness for finishing it, the SuperDraft taking up a lot of my time in January and the whole CBA mess that is still going on.

Anyways, I wanted to talk about each kit and how the league is doing as far as their branding is concerned. Some clubs are hitting it out of the park with their branding while others aren’t doing too well with the kits that are being made. Some blame can be set on adidas for bad templates while others can be pointed to the club themselves.

The league as a whole hasn’t done great in the jersey department over the years. Who doesn’t remember when the league unveiled their first kits back in the day? Some were better than others at the time and we probably should blame Nike in a way for the train wreck in the naming of some clubs as well. But now that the league is strictly adidas it seems as though things are turning around for the better.

As FanHouse soccer writer Brian Straus points out back in January (he definitely beat me to this punch btw) there are still too many white jerseys. Straus did a similar look a while back, and he pointed out that some clubs are slowly getting things right with a few still picking up the slack. I agree with that, still too many white kits on the menu this year but it seems like as we add clubs to this league the new ones continue to brand themselves very nicely while the originals continue to catch up.

Anyways, here’s my look at the new jerseys for the year. Feel free to comment below on what  you like/dislike about the new kits. Continue Reading…

It seems like this winter Toronto FC and the Colorado Rapids are becoming big trade buddies with one another. Earlier the Rapids sent midfielder Jacob Peterson to Toronto and today the two clubs are dealing again. Toronto has traded for defender Ty Harden in exchange for third round MLS SuperDraft pick in 2011.

Interesting development for both sides. Harden came back last season after a year off but was a bit limited due to injuries. I like Preki going after him here though for TFC who still needs work on their backline. Harden isn’t quite the answer to their problems but he is going to add to their depth in the long run.

I think this deal for the Rapids point of things shows they are set to probably move Pablo Mastroeni to the back four and allow Jeff Larentowicz to control the defensive side of things in the midfield this season. Both are moves I like for them right now.

What do you all make of this deal for each side? Think Preki knows what he is doing with TFC’s defense right now?

Conor Casey and Pablo Mastroeni will be called to lead again in 2010. (Getty Images)

We’re moving on in our look at each Major League Soccer roster to see where all the clubs are at in their pre-season. So far we’ve looked at Philadelphia, Chicago and Chivas USA. Today we stay out west and look at Gary Smith’s Colorado Rapids.

Last season had some ups and downs for the Rapids. Offensively at times they looked like they could not be stopped with Conor Casey and Omar Cummings leading the charge but injuries got in the way of post season glory for this bunch.

The winter months have given Smith and his club some time to make some moves and so far they’ve been pretty active. I still see this club making more moves before the season kicks off next month. But lets see how they are doing at each position right now. Continue Reading…

Right after the deal between Philadelphia and New York it seemed like a few people immediately were emailing about the new order. The deal between the Red Bulls and Union was simple, they swapped spots, NY went down to six and Philly went to number one.

After the Union made their deal to pick up Orozco the new order now looks like this with a new leader in the clubhouse. If you are San Jose and Kansas City you have to be hoping for some more players returning home to MLS here! Let’s just hope this time around the Quakes don’t waste their allocation selection. Remember Peguero Jean-Philippe anyone?

1. San Jose Earthquakes
2. Kansas City Wizards
3. Toronto FC
4. FC Dallas
5. New York Red Bulls
6. Colorado Rapids
7. New England Revolution
8. Chivas USA
9. Seattle Sounders FC
10. Columbus Crew
11. Chicago Fire
12. Houston Dynamo
13. LA Galaxy
14. Real Salt Lake
15. DC United – Troy Perkins
16. Philadelphia Union – Michael Orozco

Jeff Larentowicz could be headed to Colorado. (Getty Images)

The big offseason trade between the Colorado Rapids and the New England Revolution is finally complete. We’ve been talking about it since last week’s draft.

The Colorado Rapids have sent  defender Cory Gibbs and goalkeeper Preston Burpo to the Revolution in exchange for Wells Thompson and the rights to Jeff Larentowicz will go to the Rapids, this all according to the Boston Herald. The Revs also get some allocation and 3rd-round draft pick in 2011.

The deal is still an iffy one for Colorado but should Larentowicz re-sign with the league it will be one hell of a trade for them. I’d say the trade earlier in the day to get allocation from Toronto in-exchange for midfielder Jacob Peterson means that Larentowicz is closer to a deal with MLS rather than going across the pond like he originally wanted to.

If he does re-sign then go a head and give the win to the Rapids for this deal. No doubt their midfield will be much better with Larentowicz there. Now they need to find a playmaker in the midfield to tie everything up nicely here.

New England gets a keeper to start out the season while Matt Reis recovers from shoulder surgery. Adding Gibbs to the defense isn’t a bad move either, as long as he is healthy.

I know New England fans will not like this deal because of the loss of Larentowicz. I’m guessing that New England just didn’t have the salary cap space to re-sign him to a good enough deal here which is why they dealt his player rights to the Rapids.

What do you all make of this deal?