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…

Brian Ching will be called to lead the Dynamo yet again. (Getty Images)

The 2010 season presents a challenge for Dominic Kinnear and the Houston Dynamo. First of all their top two stars from a year ago are now gone to Europe. Stuart Holden and Ricardo Clark left a big hole in the midfield and some would even argue that the club is still recovering from the trade of Dwayne de Rosario from last winter.

Today we take a gander at where they are right now going into the new year. So far the Dynamo have shifted some players around drafted a couple guys that may never see time on the field and for the most part done very little in terms of player movement this winter. We’ve actually heard more news surrounding this club’s potential stadium deal than new players joining the roster this winter.

Let’s take a look at who the Dynamo have and where they still need to go before the new season starts next month.

Continue Reading…

EDIT: Currently experiencing some issues with this video…check back later to see if it is work! Sorry for the hassle!

A decent amount of goals this week. I’ve once again put together the usual list of my favorites. I may have missed a couple others though but these are the ones I thought were the better goals out there scored this weekend. Lots of goals scored off set pieces this weekend or just sloppy goalkeeping.

Order of goals: Guillermo Barros Schelotto (Columbus), Marco Pappa (Chicago), Christian Gomez (DC), Danny Dichio (Toronto), Freddie Ljungberg (Seattle), Richard Mulrooney (Houston), Cam Weaver (Houston), and Stuart Holden (Houston).

Folks, just face it if you haven't alread...Houston is good. (Getty Images)

One could say the 13th week of the season was sort of a changing of the guard type week. Entering the week we had two seemingly clear front-runners in each conference. After the dust settled on the week we now have two new leaders in each conference. The luck changed for some clubs looking to get out of the losing ways while others just continued to find new ways to lose.

Yes, week 13 was just about what we expected excapt for the lack of draws (more on that in a second). I jotted down the usual notes and thoughts from the week to share with you all. Forgive me if some of it is just randomness thrown your way. I ususally try to not dwell in the stats or numbers but I am slowly dipping my feet into that pool for a bit.

Playoff Chances

I know I am a buzzkill to some fans out there who’s clubs are doing bad. But the facts are these, if your club stinks and you think they still have a shot at things because this is Major League Soccer then you’re wrong this time around. The way this season is going, you won’t find a losing team in the playoffs this season but you will find at least one club with more draws than wins. I think it will happen.

Anyways, I’m no math major, nor was I ever during college. Math was actually my worst subject to say the least but I can do some number crunching when I want to and get fairly decent results out of it. Based on the way things are going this season I’d say the magic number to reach the playoffs this season may be right at 39 or 40 points just like a season ago. Which should mean we won’t see any losing clubs.

With that right there you can pretty much go a head and eliminate New York, San Jose and Dallas from contention. Especially New York who have played half of their season slate right now and are 2-10-3 in those first 15 games. To even reach the playoffs based on what they’ve done midway through their season they will need at a minimum of 10 wins (30 pts.). Which would be 39 total points. Anyone see the Red Bulls pulling off 10 wins in their final 15 games? Didn’t think so either.

Dallas and San Jose aren’t nearly as bad but aren’t that far off from New York’s pace. Their chances combined are probably a good 2-3%. In other words it probably won’t happen this season.

On the flip side I think you could nearly pencil in Houston and Chivas already. Both clubs can pretty much reach the post season with another three or four wins each. Continue Reading…

Rookie Michael Lahoud is expected to make his second career start tonight. (Getty Images)

Tonight’s western conference battle is a big one. Not only is Major League Soccer getting a primetime clash on ESPN2 on a night without the NBA Finals or the NHL Stanley Cup Finals. But they are also getting the league’s two best clubs showcased in front of a national audience. You really can’t beat that if you ask me right now for a league that needs a boost in terms of eye-balls watching.

Houston comes into tonight’s game red hot, putting their three-game winning streak and eight-game unbeaten streak on the line against the top team in the west and the MLS overall standings – Chivas USA. The AmeriGoats are six points ahead in the standings but Houston does have two games at hand.

The only downer on this game is the fact that both clubs are missing their marquee players at the moment. Houston is lacking Brian Ching to injury and Ricardo Clark to national team duty with the US. Chivas is also missing Sacha Kljestan and Jonathan Bornstein to national duty as well. So in a way we aren’t seeing either side at full strength.

1. What can Houston do to continue owning the league’s best defense?

It all starts and ends with defense up top. If your strikers and midfielders are defending well then it puts less pressure on your backline and keeper. Houston does it better than anyone though Chivas isn’t far off their pace as they’ve only given up two goals more this season. I think the play out of Stuart Holden in the midfield has been huge lately for Houston which has allowed the Dynamo defense to keep the other clubs off the board in recent games. Also throw in the fact that Houston has made some big changes to their offense these past couple weeks in getting Dominic Oduro and Cam Weaver will really help I think.

Though if you want another unsung heroes for the Orange and their defense you have to give some credit to two guys, Geoff Cameron and Richard Mulrooney. Both are playing very well and I’d say Cameron is playing like an All-Star these days for Houston.

2. What does Chivas need to do to overcome their history at Robertson Stadium?

All-time in Houston the Goats have not played well at all. Six games with four losses, two draws and only one goal scored. Houston in that timeframe has scored 12 goals. Thing is this is not the same Chivas club that we’ve seen the last couple years. Preki has put together a very strong defensive group that is getting results. I do worry though that the absense of Mariano Trujillo (suspended) and Bornstein in the back will hurt this club big time tonight.

Chivas just has to play their style of game. Pack the midfield and wait for their chances. They’re good enough to sneak one by Houston if they play their style tonight. They also need a big game out of young guys like rookie Michael Lahoud and veteran Jesse Marsch.

3. Player to keep an eye out for:

I think if Chivas is to be successful tonight on the road they need a big game out of Paulo Nagamura. He’s been the one guy this season for them that continues to impress me week after week.

Quick Thoughts:

This game really should bea  good one tonight even with the lack of big names that I mentioned above. I think if there is one club to cool off Houston, even at home, it is Chivas. Thing is I just think Houston is too hot to handle right now and that is why they will pull out the three points tonight at home. They’ve been too good lately and with the new additions I see them making an impact right away. It will be a tight game but Houston pulls it out in the end thanks to the play of guys like Holden and Brad Davis.

WVH Prediction: Houston 1, Chivas 0

Give serious credit to Houston Dynamo manager Dominic Kinnear for his latest tweak to his roster. Today the club announced another trade, just weeks after their trade for Dominic Oduro from New York. The club sent forward Chris Chris Wondolowski and a conditional pick in next year’s MLS draft to the San Jose Earthquakes in exchange for Cam Weaver.

On the surface it is a pretty fair deal considering how Weaver really never lived up to any expectation that most thought he would bring to San Jose at the start of the season. I see him really working out in Houston though with that attack. His size is something Hosuton needs up front with the way they score off so many set pieces that this deal makes perfect sense.

San Jose unloads another failed striker in some sense for them. Adding Wondolowski won’t vastly upgrade anything that they currently have right now up front.

What do you all make of this deal?

Freddie Ljungberg and Osvaldo Alonso have been huge additions to Seattle and to MLS this year. (Getty Images)

While rookies have been doing well this year so far, so have the list of newcomers to the league that aren’t rookies. It seems like last year we talked at length about the lack of positive newcomers until the summer months when guys like Darren Huckerby came into town for the San Jose Earthquakes.

This season is far in a way different as plenty of newbies are making a positive impact on the league. Most of the list below does contain a lot of Seattle Sounder players, but there are a few others that have made similar headlines this year that aren’t in Sounder green.

The list below is really no particular order here. After a while though I will still track the newcomers to the league this season as we gear towards the end of season awards. If you see a newcomer that I failed to remember, be sure to post his name below. Again, no rookies please, they have their own watch list that will probably be updated again next week.

Freddie Ljungberg (Seattle) – As some of you know, I am part Swedish so I am a little biased on this one when I see a Swede in the league and one doing well. So far Ljungberg is playing just the way Seattle needs him to be, a strong part of the midfield and one that hits the back of the net when called to do so. Continue Reading…