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…

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.

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…

That was fairly quick. KC Wizards president Robb Heineman just said via Twitter that a deal couldn’t get done with Luis Gil and that he will be going to KC shortly.

unable to speak with gil…doind a deal with real salt lake

part of transfer fee, 2nd, and intl slot

We knew yesterday that an international roster slot was part of the deal. From the sounds of things probably some allocation money as well to help pave the way for a couple international players that the Wizards are reportedly looking to sign here. The Wizards also want a portion of any transfer fee that Gil gets if/when he leaves MLS to go to Europe (smart move on their part).

Give some credit to KC here folks, they’re really looking to get back in the thick of things in the east here. As for as Gil to RSL goes I do like this move, Jason Kreis will be a good coach for Gil here though I was hoping to see him in Seattle with Sigi Schmid.

Once things become more official I’ll let you all know.

Update: Here’s the official release from the league.

Yes the Kansas City Wizards have won the Luis Gil lottery today. They had the third best shot of winning behind New York and San Jose but according to Steve Goff they plan on shipping the talented midfielder out to a west coast team (Gil is from LA).

So which west coast team will end up with Gil? The one who gives up the most of course. KC is interested in an international slot for starters, according to Down the Byline the Wizards are after either a midfielder or a defender (article mentions midfielder but this Tweet talks defense).

I’d imagine some allocation would be apart of the mix here if not maybe a future draft pick. Or both, someone could be desperate to get Gil here for all we know.

So what are the odds? Its a four team race as I am concerned with LA and Seattle having the bet shot at trading for Gil. Most fans want to see him go to either place as both Bruce Arena and Sigi Schmid are great with young players. But don’t sleep on Chivas USA and Real Salt Lake here either.

Once we hear who deals for Gil I’ll have an update here.

Update: Looks as though KC is hoping to hold on to him a little bit longer here. The Wizards want to see if Gil is interested in coming to KC (yeah right) before they take offers from Seattle, RSL and probably the two LA teams. Honestly it sounds like none of the clubs offered the right deal to KC for Gil here, maybe a day or two of dealing will get it sorted out.

I love that KC is doing some fairly frequent updates on their new stadium through videos.

And a side note after yesterday’s post about the capacity of the stadium going down to 16,500 I have been told a few times today that number did not include stadium suites. I figured as much when I mentioned that yesterday. Anyways, enjoy this new update.