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…

Adrian Serioux is back in Houston.

First it was Kevin Hartman who spun up some fun with the CBA issues, then it was Adrian Serioux. Last week Hartman got his wish to join a new club after Kansas City told him he was not in their 2010 plans and today Serioux gets the same wish.

Toronto FC has traded Serioux’s rights to the Houston Dynamo for a 2011 third-round draft pick. The trade has yet to be announced but will be by the end of the week. Gareth Wheeler of the Toronto Sun was the first to break this story earlier today.

Serioux was released from Toronto last month but due to the old MLS CBA the Red retained his player rights, meaning if he wanted to go elsewhere in MLS another club would have to work out a deal with Toronto. Houston released defender Kevin Harmse yesterday to make room for this deal from what I can gather.

This will be the second time in Houston for Serioux. He was first a member of the Dynamo back when the club first moved to Houston. He was later sent to Dallas and then to Toronto last year. Now back in Houston he will help make the Dynamo defense one of the best in the league.

I love this move for the Dynamo. They haven’t done a lot this winter but the few things they have done I do believe will work out in their favor. Getting Serioux really boosts their defense more than some might think. He already knows how to play for Kinnear which makes the learning curve that much less.

As for Toronto it still baffles me how they could let a quality Canadian defender go this easily here. Things have definitely changed in Toronto but I’m not sure yet if they are for the better.

One thing is certain in Major League Soccer, the academies in place are improving each day. The signs are pointing in the right direction and today another academy star has been signed by his parent club. The Houston Dynamo have announced today that they have signed midfielder Francisco Navas Cobo to a developmental contract, making him the second Dynamo Academy player in team history to be signed to a first-team contract.

Navas Cobo is the 11th player in league history to proceed directly from an academy program to the first team. Houston is the second team to sign multiple players directly from its academy, joining Chivas USA.

The 18-year old becomes the youngest contracted player in team history as well.

From what I’ve read and heard about this kid is he has some real potential to be a special player. One scout told me he has that special “it” quality that coaches are always looking for. Being in Dominic Kinnear’s system will only help him grow as a player too.

I think its great that we’re finally seeing some clubs make the most of their academies here. From Houston and Chivas signing a couple players each, to DC, New York and Dallas making positive strides, the academies are all improving which in the long run will easily help the product on the field in MLS, not to mention with the US Men’s National team.

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…

For some reason it only seems fitting to start a new week out with more dancer girl tryouts. This version come from Houston. I think by my tally we are four, maybe five teams in on those with cheerleaders/dancer/etc. I’m sure more videos like this will pop up in the near future.

Anyways, the Houston Dynamo girls honestly one of the better squads in the league in terms of community involvement and presence around the team.

Again, just a little something to start your Monday off with.

Progress is being made….slowly but surely. I think its good progress too.