Why isn't Colin Clarke back on some club's radar? (USLSoccer)

Its hard to believe that three clubs are still without a head coach this evening. Well one has an interim head coach but two big time clubs in Major League Soccer end the day without a lead boss, which could be setting them back a bit for the upcoming month with the transfer window opening up and the SuperDraft.

Yes I am talking about you DC United and Chicago Fire. Both still lack a manager after parting ways with Tom Soehn and Denis Hamlett respectively.

Last night we heard news that DC would not be able to get Akron head coach Caleb Porter which put their coaching search into a big spin. SBI broke news earlier that DC even went as far to try and get San Jose manager Frank Yallop and Houston assistant John Spencer for the job. San Jose said they couldn’t approach Yallop and Spencer said he wasn’t interested.

Yikes.

Are things that bad that no one wants to coach in DC? Second of all it says a lot about what DC thinks of former Kansas City manager Curt Onalfo who seemed to be the next guy in line after Porter. But with Porter out of the picture it just sounds like Onalfo was not good enough (which he isn’t by the way) to get the job. Now DC could still go that route if they end up with no other options but it sounds like they will continue to drag their feet in this search until they get someone better than Onalfo.

Why isn’t DC going after someone like RSL assistant Robin Fraser? Or former Dallas manager Colin Clark who’s now in the USL with Puerto Rico.

Chicago isn’t much better here with their search. According to ESPNChicago.com the Fire aren’t completely sold on their two final choices that were reported in former DC boss Tom Soehn or Chivas USA midfielder Jesse Marsch.

Honestly if I were the Fire I’d go for Soehn. I know things didn’t pan out in DC with him but honestly the guy can coach in my opinion. DC just had a loaded schedule with some injury issues the years he was there. Chicago won’t have as loaded of a schedule in 2010, just possibly SuperLiga again.

The ESPNChicago article also mentions some other possible candidates for the gig like Thomas Rongen (not a bad pick), Spencer (who won’t take a job until 2011 with Portland), and Clarke.

What do I think each club will do? Honestly I wouldn’t be shocked to start hearing John Harkes name for the DC gig here soon. I know he’s comfortable with his job at ESPN but he did do some assistant coaching under Bruce Arena in New York. In the end I do kind of see United settling for Onalfo. As for the Fire I think they’ll end up with a surprise pick like Clarke or even Rongen if they can get him away from his U-20 national team post.

Forgive me for the slow day, I’ve honestly just needed a little time away from the keyboard to focus on other things today. Blame the holidays if you will but sometimes a guy just needs a day off. Anyways, I did find one thing tonight that caught my eye and as you all know I love a good MLS expansion topic.

Portfolio has done a very interesting study of the top American markets available for expansion in sports, and those that are over saturated. (And here is the full article it comes from.) Click on the MLS logo for the MLS cities.

Pretty interesting huh? Continue Reading…

Erik Soler seems confident but will he actually get New York back on the map in MLS? (RBNY)

Erik Soler was formally introduced as the new general manager and sporting director for the New York Red Bulls today and while the hire on paper seems okay I still wonder where this club is actually going.

Soler, the former IK Start man has some connection to Major League Soccer. From Robbie Russell who use to play for his club at IK Start to former MLSers like defenders Clarence Goodson and Hunter Freeman, Soler’s roots to MLS aren’t very deep.

“Of course I’m not going to claim I’m an MLS expert,” he said. “I’ve become a generalist in football. I’m an expert in European soccer, but I think I have a sensible ability to learn things quite quickly. The most important thing, of course, is to understand more in the coming weeks and months and also build a good team around me that has all the knowledge.”

His first order of business is a big one, find a new coach. A lot of the signs should point to current interim manager Richie Williams but most people agree today that the club is probably going in a different direction. If I am a betting man I’d wager Williams is more likely to end up in Chicago than New York. In fact I’m willing to say that will actually happen before the end of the month.

So who exactly will lead this team into 2010? We know it will be someone that has little to no MLS experience. And for those wondering about Jeff Agoos’ status with the club, apparently his role will now be mostly limited to selecting players in the SuperDraft next month. Again Soler isn’t probably familiar enough with the college game here to even pick a player or two from that group. Remember Rudd Gullit doing that for LA a couple years ago?

I look at this move for this club and continue to shake my head. I want to say its a good move hiring someone like Soler but I just think the club doesn’t get “it” here. The only real positive I saw from this hire is that Soler aims to get this club more involved with it’s big brother club in Austria.

It is one thing to think outside of the box but that has been getting this club into trouble for nearly a decade and a half here. If it isn’t the owners not giving a coach a good enough shot to lead a club out of a mess or not hiring the right person it just seems like they will never fully get things right until they wise up about their moves. Soler may prove us all wrong when he picks a coach here but until then I can’t say this is a great move for this club. Hell it didn’t even seem like some of the New York media that cover this team got that excited over this move.

Who knows, maybe we’ll all be wrong about Soler but if history has anything to say about it with this club we probably won’t be wrong.

I wanted to post about the expansion draft but since Turkey Day is tomorrow I am going to just hold off until Friday to do it. Not to mention my normal day job has been killing me with work this week so time hasn’t quiet been there.

Also, I had been hoping to show off the new design that I’ve been working on here for a while now but that looks to be on hold until at least the end of this week. Just a word of warning to those with IE 6, the new look won’t show up well in that browser. Its a 7 year old browser and I just don’t have the time or energy to make things appear nice in that one. I understand if you are viewing this on a public or work machine that hasn’t had any updates even to the 4 year old IE 7 but if you are on a personal computer and can upgrade, do it. Better yet get Chrome, Firefox or Safari and do away with IE all together. You’ll thank yourself for it later I promise.

Hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving. Don’t eat too much turkey!

- Drew

So the news came down today that the TOA league would be dubbed the new North American Soccer League. Yes the return of the NASL is possibly more about the name than the actual league here. The TOA group went for name recognition right away with this choice.

The league has nine clubs now that Tampa and Baltimore have jumped ship and they could look to add a tenth with the possibility of Rochester leaving the USL after 2010.

Currently there are only 5 teams remaining from last year’s USL-1 season.  Austin, Cleveland, Portland, Puerto Rico and Rochester, with the expansion team of  New York bringing the league to 6. Some may say what about Charleston? Well, they are headed to the USL-2 in the form of a self-relegation. Some folks are saying Cleveland could easily do the same.

Let’s not forget that after this next season for the USL they will stand to lose Portland. That bring their lovely total down to just four for the 2011 season unless they get some expansion sites up in a hurry before then.

The USL does looked doomed here but will this NASL really work? Vancouver and Montreal are headed MLS’s way in the near future but this little league could be fine if the chips keep falling for the USL. But the thing that worries people like me is how in the world will they get all their crap together before the start of the season next year? At the very least they could have a website up now that they have a name but since http://www.nasl.com is already taken they could be in trouble on that front.

Things do look good for the TOA, or now rather the NASL, which is still a stupid name in my mind to go with.

Continue Reading…

Consider this the Evening Links and Thoughts for the night. I’m a bit busy at work at the moment so things just didn’t come together like I wanted today. Plus I’m still in shock over the Henry handball from the France-Ireland game earlier.

Evening Links and Thoughts appear on WVHooligan typically each day (Monday – Friday). We try to cover topics that surround MLS, the US national team and other items that are of interest. If you have a link for the ELT send them in!

Montreal inches closer to a MLS expansion bid.

By now we’ve all seen the lovely quote from MLS commissioner Don Garber yesterday about future league expansion.

“We’ve had productive conversations with Montreal to be our 19th team,” said Garber.

With all the issues going on with the USL/TOA crap you have to think that Montreal owner Joey Saputo is trying to figure out the best way to get his club into the top-tier league instead of a new breakaway league. Saputo probably would have gotten an expansion bid for the 2011 round had he not gone crazy over the expansion fee this time last year. Instead he is busting his ass to get a deal done as soon as possible from what folks up north are saying.

We mentioned last week that he was invited to MLS Cup this weekend by the league as well. That should definitely be a place that he is able to boost his club’s ratings up a bit to get into MLS.

But after Montreal we still have no idea who the 20th club will be. Garber didn’t bring up a name for who he thought was even in the running for the 20th club. Some folks sure jumped on the Detroit bandwagon real quick yesterday with the news about the Silverdome being bought to be used as a soccer facility. Honestly, like I said yesterday I just don’t buy that at all.

What about New York though? I know a group that seems keen on the idea still of a club in the city. And based on some recent news (or another mention) of David Beckham’s group looking at owning a club in either Miami, New York or Montreal when he is done with his time in MLS definitely sparks some interest for those guys in New York.

Go ahead and throw Montreal out of the mix for Beckham. We’ve known for ages it was always going to be either Miami or New York for him. A lot will come down to where the potential club would play and probably support from the local area. Are the Miami Ultras better than the Borough Boys? Only time will tell.

My money is still on New York even though we do need to see a club in the Southeast again sometime down the road. Continue Reading…