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?

For those too lazy to click the link the map suggests the follow are potential markets for expansion:

Sacramento, CA
Fresno, CA
Oxnard, CA
Riverside, CA
Las Vegas, NV
Tuscon, AZ
Honolulu, HI
Albuquerque, NM
Omaha, NE
Tulsa, OK
Austin, TX
San Antonio, TX
Little Rock, AK
Baton Rouge, LA
Birmingham, AL
Miami, FL
Bradenton, FL
Orlando, FL
Jacksonville, FL
Columbia, SC
Louisville, KY
Dayton, OH
Akron, OH
Grand Rapids, MI
Allentown, PA
Richmond, VA
Norfork, VA
Providence, RI
Rochester, NY
Poughkeepsie, NY
Albany, NY
Springfield, MA
Worcester, MA

Canadian Markets:
Calgary
Winnipeg
Hamilton
Ottawa
Montreal
Quebec City

Now the map already indicates future expansion clubs like Portland and Vancouver for those wondering. Looking at some of these markets though it is quite laughable to think a MLS team would be a good idea in Little Rock (no offense to those from that area that read this site). It is interesting to see some areas on the map that aren’t indicated as a good fit for expansion like Detroit, St. Louis, Charlotte or Cary, NC, and Tampa Bay (duh).

Interestingly enough in Ohio instead of expected cities on the list like Cleveland or Cincinnati we get Akron and Dayton. Weird.

Seeing cities like Montreal on the map only adds a little more fuel to the fire for it’s expansion bid into the league.

Looking at the map though I can’t help but think the league won’t even come close to expanding to even more than four of these potential cities.  While some of these cities are great towns to visit they just aren’t good sports markets in general. Potential markets do need lots of cash in them like this report talks about but more importantly these cities need to have a lot of big businesses in them, like Fortune 500 companies. Why do you think sports in markets like LA or Chicago work? Because there are enough big money people to make it happen. We won’t see enough big money in a town like Grand Rapids, Michigan right now.

Its a fun debate that will mostly get people talking again but that’s about it. Which market though on the list above would you like to see the most?

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.

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

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.

—————————————————–

Wynada On His MLS Time

Link

He still regrets coming back to MLS when it started up. I respect Wynalda but its a douche bag kind of thing to say about a league that probably did him more good than anything else. I’d be willing to be we would have never see him in broadcasting had it not been for MLS.

—————————————————–

Missed PK and What It Means For Donovan

Link

An excellent point that I thought about last night when I saw Landon Donovan blast his PK try over the bar and into the 40th row. How will that missed PK affect his potential to go back to Europe this winter? Hell the bigger picture that I am concerned about here is how will it affect him going into next year’s World Cup. We need Donovan to be the dominate player he was in the summer and not the LandyCakes we’ve seen in the past and during that PK try.

—————————————————————-

Duka Ready For MLS

Link

So young Dilly Duka didn’t get a contract in Europe like some had figured so he will stay with MLS and get selected in January’s SuperDraft. The kid sounds excited though about coming to MLS and I think he has a great shot to do something special here for a couple years before heading to Europe.

——————————————————————–

More Somerville Talk For Revs

Link

The Revs have been “talking” about building a stadium in Somerville for a couple years now. Will they finally do it is the question. They definitely need to that is for sure. We know they need to get out of the NFL stadium that they are in right now because they cannot draw well in there at all.

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.

—————————————————————

No GBS Next Year?

Link

This is not what I would call good news for the Columbus Crew or even for Major League Soccer. Apparently the Crew’s owners are going to low-ball their MVP Guillermo Barros Schelotto for a new contract. Are they stupid or just stupid? Low-balling their best player is not a way to stay competitive and if he doesn’t go for the lower contract then they are going to be shit out of luck come next season. The Hunts really need to get their act together about their two clubs.

————————————————————-

Lee Nguyen Talks

Link

A nice little interview with Nguyen who has been playing in Vietnam of all places. Now he is currently training with FC Dallas and would even like to play with the team in Frisco if things can work out that way. Definitely an interesting interview that is worth a read.

————————————————

Clark Leaving Dynamo

No link just yet on this one, the Houston Dynamo quietly announced that midfielder Ricardo Clark would not be returning for next season with the Dynamo. Tough break but one that we shouldn’t be totally shocked by as we knew he was looking in Europe this past summer for offers. The bright side thought for the Dynamo is the salary cap break they will get as losing Clark off the books means about $220k is now available.

——————————————————-

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!

Garber sees growth in MLS. (Getty Images)

I’ve spent a good portion of the day collecting my thoughts on a couple subjects and then it happen to be the same day that MLS commish Don Garber had his State of the League address. Yeah, let’s just say some of his comments just made my head go nuts (and your’s too judging by some emails).

For a full rundown of comments made by Garber head over to the Soccer Insider blog for lots of good quotes. Anytime The Don speaks we seem to listen and then discuss at length.

One big item that got a lot of people going loco today was the comment made about a single table format. Basically Garber bluntly told people to it’s not gonna happen next year so shut up. While I think the idea of single table is the right step for the league down the road I totally agree with not doing it next year.

The only thing I do disagree is not going to a single table format for the playoffs. What I mean by that is the league should restructure the current format to include the top eight clubs no matter the conference and get rid of the eastern and western conferences for playoff purposes. Keep the conferences for schedules and what not but let’s get rid of them for the playoffs. Basically I am tired like some of you of seeing a team from New York win the western conference and a team from Salt Lake win the eastern conference. What is this Major League Baseball 1992?

Garber also had a nice mention of future expansion to Montreal. That’s news we already knew right?

—————————————————

Houston Stadium Update

Link

Cross your fingers folks because things in Houston surrounding their stadium is getting dicey because of the Mayor race. One is for the stadium issue and one is (almost without saying it) against it from the way I read things. For all of the league we gotta hope this deal goes through and the Dynamo are in a new stadium in a couple seasons.

————————————————

Detroit Stadium Sold…Soccer Team On The Way?

Link

We know MLS doesn’t know where the 20th club will be located in a couple years but don’t count on Detroit. While this news speculates a new soccer team is part of the deal to by the Silverdome don’t jump on the MLS bandwagon just yet. Seriously, don’t do it.

—————————————————————

Wynalda Regreats MLS Time?

Link

So he wasn’t happy about his time with Major League Soccer. Should we be shocked by this comment by Eric Wynalda? I don’t think so because he typically has these foot-in-mouth moments.

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!

Interesting that this new league, that has no name is expected to just be another step below Major League Soccer here. Think about this for a minute about each club that is involved with this new league, most aren’t in a good place right now financially and a couple are looking towards MLS for their future. Additionally we don’t know what to call it and there is no PR team set up, no media site for us to look at, nothing. I know its early but this group really could have had their act together a little more if they wanted to make themselves sound legit.

Now I got to thinking earlier about each club and where they’ve been at over the last year or so. Some look good for this league while most just down right scare me for the future of this new league.

Atlanta: They had to stop operations in the USL last year because of money. I really and truly wonder if their money situation is any better today than it was a year ago when they decided not to play in 2009.

Carolina: One of the better clubs last year in the USL. Apparently they have a pretty solid group of owners here. One of the few clubs I’d be worried about in this league doing well.

Miami: Remember they barely got a team on the field in the USL for the 2009 season? Yeah, I know they have a big money backer in Traffic but we all know the issues in Miami are real even if some paint them in a different light. They don’t do well at the gate and in a new league it will be even harder to do so.

Minnesota: As reported earlier on here and other places the club is in bad shape. They just released their players because of money and that doesn’t sound good for a club going into a new league that has no history.

Montreal: Winners of the USL in 2009 and we know where they stand as far as going to MLS in a couple years. From what I’m being told we will probably hear that they are getting a MLS expansion bid for 2012 or 2013 later this year.

St. Louis: Never fielded a team in any league, ever. Don’t really know what kind of market this is and we still have to wonder if this owner (Jeff Cooper) is still holding out for a MLS club.

Vancouver: Runner up in USL, but also headed to MLS in two years. Apparently will field another club or reserve team in this new league when in MLS.

Then there is also the possibility of Tampa returning to this group to make eight clubs.

The USL front offices also sent out a nice little release today about this new league. Nothing ground breaking if you ask me, just a typical release.

——————————————————————

Let’s Not Relocate The Crew

Link

A retraction of sorts from Jason over at MatchFit USA about his idea to relocate the Crew. Worth a read if you haven’t seen this yet today.

———————————————————–

FC Dallas Off-Season Plans

Link

I always enjoy seeing what people have in-store for the off-season. Buzz Carrick lays out what FC Dallas needs to do this winter to improve for 2010. He is spot on as always with this club and hits on some items I said in their season recap a week or so ago…though he does it in far greater detail than what I did!

McCarty Re-signs with FCD (link) – Good stuff by Dallas to get one of their better midfielders back for next year. Hard to believe he was pretty much dead in the water to start 2009 in most people’s eyes here. Glad he and Schellas Hyndman got rid of whatever issues they had with one another.

Move the Crew? (link) – This came down last week from Jason over at MatchFit USA. I wanted to post something about it over the weekend but my travel schedule got in the way. Honestly I don’t agree with the comments to move the club. Sure they struggled at the gate but if you go on this model then you need to move about six other clubs.

Hall of Fame Nominees (link) – Gotta love the long list of guys and gals up for HOF. Earnie Stewart, Peter Vermes and Thomas Dooley definitely get my vote without question. Marco Etcheverry, Peter Nowak and Carlos Valderrama are some of the non-Americans on the ballot that are worth a vote as well.