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…

I do believe this is the first time an owner has actually stepped up and spoke out on the CBA issue in Major League Soccer. The LA Times sat down with LA Galaxy boss Tim Leiweke and discussed the lack of respect the owners are getting right now from the players.

“Here’s our issue, and I’m speaking on behalf of AEG,” Leiweke said in an interview with The Times on Monday. “We have spent to the tune of $300 million on soccer. We have spent money on facilities. We at one point owned six of the 10 teams to keep the league alive.

“I don’t even know how to react when I hear the players now saying that we have treated them poorly and they’re going to strike. The fact is, the Galaxy isn’t going to make money this year. There are only a couple of [MLS] teams that will make money this year.

“It’s not like this league is a work of completion. It’s not like we have accomplished what we have to accomplish to be stable and to know we have a great future. It’s not like we have reached the potential of a soccer league in this country.

“So when I hear them talk about striking and shutting the league down, I’ve got to tell you, they’re going to lose us when they talk like that.

“We do this out of passion. If this were a business, we would have quit this 10 years ago.”

“It would have been easy for us to quit over the last 10 years,” he said. “There were five different times we could have called it a day. But we didn’t. We fought through it.

“So for them to suddenly threaten that they’re going to shut it all down, I’m a little amazed at the lack of respect they show for the commitment that we all have made to get the league to where it’s at today.”

I’ve read and been told in the past AEG was one of the few owners that actually wants to make concessions to the players and based on that I would imagine they were one of the owners this time around that was at the center of making those concessions the league has talked about.

I’ll admit, I’ve been waiting for Leiweke and AEG to speak out on this issue. Its not secret that they along with the Hunts and the Krafts saved this league a while back from going under. Thankfully they aren’t about to quit on the league either even with this on-going issue.

There will certainly be some folks today that see the disrespect line and will run with it in support of the players. I loved that Leiweke talked about the league and the sport in general not reaching its full potential here. The players have to know that too. I kind of wonder too if the players even realize what the owners have put into this league at this point.

Leiweke said that it’s basically up to the players here, which is something we’ve been saying for a while. But like he said at the end of the article, its ridiculous and it needs to get done and be over here.

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…

Some sad news earlier today, Alecko Eskandarian is going to have to sit out a bit longer due to his on-going battle with concussions.

In an email to Steve Goff, Esky said the following:

“As a result of injuries that I suffered, I am being forced from the game of soccer at this time. I have not been able to receive clearance by doctors, and therefore I must take a step back to focus on my health and recovery. This has been a very frustrating and disheartening realization for me, and I don’t think the reality of it has set in yet. However, after consulting with several doctors, it is clear that I have no other option at this point in time.”

Retirement wasn’t a word used but believe me based on all the concussions he’s had over the years tells me he’ll have to hang his boots up soon enough if he doesn’t get any better. Goff mentioned that he is looking at other career options at this point too.

I can tell you first hand what concussions do to you. Back in my playing career I had a hand-full of them. I had two broken noses that resulted in concussions, and another couple concussions from others from just normal run of play. They aren’t fun at all and getting over a couple of them in a few years time is not easy. Still to this day I have neck problems and get headaches and migraines.

I’d hate to see Esky have to hang it up because of these things, mainly because I know the feeling. He really hasn’t been the same guy since his first one a couple years back. But each time he was out on the field he definitely gave it his all. No doubt he was a big fan favorite where ever he went.

If he doesn’t make it back on the pitch I’m sure he’ll always go down a big fan favorite for all. No doubt his Red Bull drink goal celebration is still one of the all-time best goal celebrations in league history.

For a while now we’ve said here on this blog that MLS Cup 2010 was likely going to be in one of three places, Toronto, Philadelphia or New York. Turns out that is just the case as a couple sites have reported the four (yes four) cities that are in the running for MLS Cup 2010. Apparently the league has heard bids from each city and will be picking a host in the very near future.

Those cities are three mentioned above with LA being the fourth.

Deep down I see it coming to either Toronto or New York in the end here. But let’s look at each cities’ chances here.

New York (Red Bull Arena): A brand-new stadium, which happens to be the best stadium the league has ever seen to this date, in the league’s biggest media market. I think all they had to do was show up with a couple photos of the facility and the league was probably already hooked.

The thing about Red Bull Arena is most of the cool stuff that will be around the stadium hasn’t been built yet. I’d say the league may hold off until 2011 for the MLS Cup. By then all the cool little things around the stadium should be in place and this truly will be a great venue in and out for hosting a MLS Cup.

Philadelphia (PPL Park): The new stadium on the waterfront in Chester is a nice one. The thing going against their bid (which was a good one) is the fact that the stadium won’t be finished until summer. Which also means a lot of items around the stadium may not be done by then either. My wonder is if their bid contained PPL Park (which I assume it would) or if they went bigger by going with the Linc.

Toronto (BMO Field): I saw their pitch in PDF form, and it was pretty cool. We’ve all heard about the promise of Toronto hosting a MLS Cup by 2012 but this year would make the most sense with the new grass field at the stadium. Now that the FieldTurf is gone it makes more sense to go ahead and give Toronto this game.

What could go against Toronto is the two new stadiums in the US. I still see this being the year Toronto gets to host the game…even if it means hosting a game in November in cold weather. (note: remember the first few MLS Cups, they were in nasty cold weather in the Northeast)

LA (Home Depot Center): This venue is really a fail-safe for the league. Its in the second biggest market and the stadium can easily host a good MLS Cup. This really however is probably a backup plan for the league should something go wrong with one of the three eastern bids.

Landon Donovan has seen plenty of success in England, but should he come home now? (Getty Images)

Part of me wants Landon Donovan to stay in England. The other part of me wants him back here in the US with the LA Galaxy. Thing is I cannot for the life of me decide which is the right one to go with.

Its a rough dilemma to be in for Donovan. He wants to stay on with Everton just a little bit longer but we know LA manager Bruce Arena has said no a few times to the press recently.

“It was kind of like in that movie ‘Dumb and Dumber’, where the man says that there is a chance, it’s just one in a million,” said Arena. The Galaxy coach, who has remained in frequent contact with the midfielder throughout his loan, did not appear concerned about the comments.

“There is always a chance, it may be one in a million, but there is always a chance.”

Yeah a chance, a very small one but one nonetheless. 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…