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.

The Galaxy could actually be better in 2010 than what they were in 2009. (Getty Images)

We’re a little over half way home in our look at each Major League Soccer club this winter. So far we’ve hammered out Chicago, Colorado, Chivas, Columbus, DC, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, and Philadelphia in out preseason look ins.

So far this winter the LA Galaxy have had a similar offseason that we expected them to have. David Beckham went to Italy to be with AC Milan and Landon Donovan went to England to play for Everton until March. We knew going into the winter months that those things would happen. Unlike last year when there was a lot of bad press about loan moves for Beckham, this year was a little smoother for the two sides.

Aside from that Bruce Arena has made a couple moves since then and even with one draft pick back in January at the SuperDraft he came away with a solid draft grade by me and most people.

Let’s see how the Galaxy are looking right now and what else they need to do to their roster before the season kicks off.

Continue Reading…

Eric Brunner trade turned into a solid deal for Columbus. (Getty Images)

Since we are nearly done with the 2009 regular season I figured it was high time we started looking back at the best deals that were made that shaped this season into what it has become. I say going into every year that there will pretty much be a trade that shakes up things a bit when it happens and really helps push a club towards the playoffs instead of an early start to winter.

This year there were loads of trades. Some were good and some were down right a waste of time. Now I won’t go through every single trade here today but I am going to point out the ones that I thought were good and some that were bad.

If for some reason you think I missed a trade that was noteworthy this year, just post it below.

Best Trades in 2009:

Chivas USA trades Alecko Eskandarian to LA Galaxy: When he was healthy this year this deal was a great one for the Galaxy. Esky proved to me that he still had what it takes to be an impact player in this league.

Chivas USA trades Atiba Harris to FC Dallas for Marcelo Saragosa: On the surface Chivas got the bad end of the stick, especially if Dallas reaches the playoffs. I put this in the good trade category solely because of Harris and what he has been able to do since he got to Dallas. Schellas Hyndman got a great deal when he finally shipped out Saragosa because Harris fits his system on the wings better than Saragosa ever did in the midfield.

New York trades rights to Eric Brunner to Columbus: There is a lot of reasons why New York has been terrible in 2009, their defense has been largely to blame. One has to wonder if they had been able to keep Brunner and sign him to a decent deal last year if their defense would be nearly as poor as it has been in 2009. Brunner got signed on by the Crew and has really come into his own with them this season. Continue Reading…

Chicago's Patrick Nyarko and Seattle's Osvaldo Alonso battle again this weekend. (Getty Images)

We steam roll into another weekend of soccer here starting with one game tonight along with a full slate of games tomorrow. Week 19 is the final week before the league’s All-Star break next week.

Plenty of good things will come out of next week during the league’s usual meetings that will go. We should more than likely hear a lot about certain things going on in the league like Beckham’s return, expansion, CBA talks and more.

But until then we have to wait it out for the news to come down the pipe with all of those goodies. Thankfully the full slate of games this weekend should keep us entertained until then. Everyone is in action this weekend except for Chivas USA, good thing too since they really need a week to regain focus here after their stumble these last two months. They pretty much are the New England of 2009, hot out of the gate then cooled off too much in the summer. At least the Revs won SuperLiga last year, Chivas can’t say the same.

Anyways, as always feel free to drop in your predictions below as well. Continue Reading…

Just as promised, even if it is a day behind normal schedule here. Plenty of solid goals this past week in Major League Soccer. I particularly love some of the combinations in plays like the Columbus game between Jason Garey and Steven Lenhart.

By the way, what was with Rob Stone’s Max Bretos call on the DeRo goal? That was just plain annoying.

Order of video: Kheli Dube, Steve Ralston, Steven Lenhart, Jason Garey, Patrick Nyarko, Blanco, Bryan Namoff, Dwayne De Rosario, Alecko Eskandarian, Landon Donovan, and Eddie Lewis.

Not too many goals to bring up this week but there did end up being a couple quality ones. A couple great headers though that could end up winning goal of the week nod from the fans.

Order of video: Alejandro Moreno, Alecko Eskandarian,  Wilman Conde, Jeff Cunningham, Kai Kamera, and Arturo Alvarez.

I blame the holiday weekend for getting me off to a late start here this week. Plus throw in the fact that I am a homeowner now all the trips to Home Depot and places like that are easily killing off any spare second over the weekend. Oh well, no time to bitch and moan about that but time to get down to business once again this week.

I felt looking at the results and each game this past week that week 16 was really predictable. I know I missed a couple games in my score predictions but aside from the RSL-San Jose game this week lacked a lot of surprise or anything worth getting overly excited about. Maybe that is the dog-days of summer kicking in here for the league but each result was as predictable as the next on Saturday.Which can be a good thing but can also be a bad thing. Continue Reading…