Every team has that one guy that will either help lead them to the MLS promise-land or be partly the reason why they are stuck at home in November instead of seeing the playoffs. These are you X-Factor players.

I have one (maybe two) guys for each MLS team that are those X-Factors for this new season. Some guys are really no brainers while others may surprise you a bit. Its safe to say that each club needs a big year out of their X-Factors.

If you think I’m way off base on someone or think I missed a sure-fire X-Factor please list it below. Continue Reading…

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…

To be honest I see Kevin Hartman starting real quickly here in Dallas over Dario Sala. You don’t bring in a keeper like Hartman to just be a backup now do you? Still Hartman is saying all the right things so far. This will certainly be an interesting keeper battle this spring.

Well that was quick.

I mentioned earlier that Kevin Hartman could be on his way to Dallas and that appears to be the case. Buzz Carrick is now reporting that Hartman has come to terms on a deal with Dallas.

The terms of the deal aren’t confirmed yet but a good bet it will be some form of allocation and maybe a SuperDraft pick. Hartman was never waived by KC so Dallas has to give up something to gain his player rights under the current, yet expired CBA.

Look for this to be a very interesting keeper battle between Dario Sala and Hartman. Dallas manager Schellas Hyndman has said all winter long that he was pleased with Sala but keep down I think he knows he needs someone else in goal to make this club a true contender.

Dallas is also looking to send backup keeper Josh Lambo out on loan, likely to a USSF Division II club this season (most likely a USL club, not a NASL one).

I’ll update this with more information as I get it.

Update: Just got a press release with the details on this deal. KC gets a second round pick in the 2012 SuperDraft. Guess KC really wanted to be free of this dude.

Hmm..just a little note from Steve Goff.

Former Kansas City goalkeeper Kevin Hartman, whose club-less situation has been at the center of the CBA storm, is close to being acquired by an MLS team, the Insider has learned. Where is he headed? Dallas?

Dallas has been in the market for a second keeper all winter long so a possible move for Hartman makes total sense, one I would honestly love to see. Dallas may have an extra international roster slot for trading (some reason KC is after a bunch of them right now). I still think New York is another destination for Hartman as the Red Bulls still currently lack a quality number one (come on, Bouna Coundoul is no number one folks).

I’ll try to do some digging here in Dallas to see if anything is close to happening here for Hartman.

I love a good laugh and this one got a lot of folks laughing at FC Dallas Media Day last week. Some journalists need to learn to do some homework before coming to these kinds of things…or else they’ll look this bad. See for yourself.

I swear this should be the final dancer video on here for a while…or at least the final Dallas based one. This is a little something to start the day with, I kind of expect a light day around here as the US is about to play Holland here in a little bit. I may have some items after that game but we will see.

Until then enjoy.