This week has already been interesting and we’ve only seen one MLS game. The DC-Seattle game on Wednesday should have been a marquee thing but as we all saw ESPN and the family of networks dropped the ball a bit on getting the MLS game shipped over to another channel to make us MLS folks happy until the college world series game was over on the deuce.

Yes it was unfortunate but there was some good out of it. SoccerAmeria just posted a great article on the 80 seconds of silence that Glenn Davis and Kyle Martino did at the start of the broadcast when the game was finally shown on ESPN2. Looking back on the tape of that game I saw and heard those 80 seconds. Boy it was pretty neat to say the least.

Aside from the ESPN fail on Wednesday this week and weekend are pretty big. We’ve already seen Toronto FC blow away Montreal last night in the final game of the Canadian Cup to advance to this year’s edition of the CONCACAF Champions League tournament. MLS will now field five teams with Toronto now to take on Puerto Rico in the preliminary rounds with a chance to be grouped in with the Columbus Crew.

We also have another competition starting up for a few clubs this weekend as well. The 2009 edition of SuperLiga comes at a good time for teams like Chivas USA and Chicago Fire. Both clubs play on Saturday in their opening matches of the tournament. Kansas City and New England will see their first games on Sunday. All SuperLiga matches can be seen live on the SuperLiga website.

But let’s get down to business as far as the MLS weekend slate goes. Plenty of decent games on the menu for us including one that I am very interested in out in Colorado between the Rapids and DC United.

As always feel free to leave your score predictions below. Continue Reading…

Kansas City fans have been pretty good so far. (Brian Stevens, WVH Photo Correspondent)

Typically I do a version of this kind of thing for all MLS clubs but this time around I wanted to do something a little different with the typical Good, Bad, and Ugly column. Instead I will be looking at things in the league as a whole that I have liked, disliked and have absolutely hated thus far in the early going of the season.

Most of this is stuff I’ve been keeping track of here since the start of the season. I may ramble on a bit but you are always welcome to do the same below.

Good:

Quality crowds in Seattle, Toronto and even in smaller venues like San Jose or Kansas City. I believe there is a reason why San Jose and KC want smaller soccer stadiums for their future. It doesn’t all have to do with money and not being able to consistently fill those stadiums, it is because they have the fans that create good atmosphere (I think both clubs have underrated supporter’s groups). The same sort of thing you see in Seattle and Toronto. Passionate fans equal a good time at the park.

Bad:

So-so numbers in places like LA for Galaxy and Chivas games, Chicago for Fire games and DC for United games. For those clubs it doesn’t really deal with a lack of advertising or even the clubs being bad on the field. Its honestly an economical thing in my eyes.

Still seeing bad numbers in Colorado and Columbus too. Thing about the Rapids is though they’ve only played one home game so far. With the club doing pretty well so far this year things could change in their favor in terms of butts-in-seats.

Ugly:

Numbers we see in Dallas are just terrible. The fact that the club has gotten a shade under 12k for their last two home games is pathetic. Marketing around Dallas is nearly non-existent, and people just can’t get excited about this club. It has little to do with the performance on the field I think (because the town supports baseball’s Rangers decently enough each year and they are largely just as bad if not worse), but it deals more with a lack of knowledge about the club in the local community.

Continue Reading…

What can I say, its been a slow day around here. Good thing too because I have been busy busy at work. However, I do have some free time tonight to catch up on things. First up is the top five goals of the year, as voted on by you the fans out there.

The league released the five candidates for the Goal of the Year. I have the clips below for you to decide. My vote is still for Robbie Rogers’s goal back in week 26, but Blanco and Cameron both had nice finishes as well. Should have known the Danny Cepero free kick would reach the final five. Amazingly no David Beckham from 80 yards out.

Cuauhtemoc Blanco vs DC United
Danny Cepero vs Columbus Crew
Robbie Rogers vs New York
Will Johnson vs FC Dallas
Geoff Cameron vs FC Dallas Continue Reading…

By now I’m sure you’ve seen this highlight. New York keeper Danny Cepero made his debut against Columbus and scored a goal. A goal by a keeper. It was a crazy thing but seriously a keeper should never score a goal. However, saying that it was pretty cool to see. Kudos to Cepero for putting some leg behind this free kick and getting that lucky turf bounce.

Could this possibly be Goal of the Year quality though? I doubt but it is definitely taking the cake for Goal of the Week.