Amobi Okugo could be a big time player for the Union. (Kevin Kinkead for WVHooligan)

In this expansion era in Major League Soccer we’ve seen the good and the bad on how to bring a new club into the league. The bad is obviously just about everyone but Seattle. Most clubs stumbled in their first year due to either poor management from the start or bad player choices.

With a new kid on the block it is worth looking into see how the Philadelphia Union are looking right now as they head into their first season. Coming in a year after the Seattle Sounders FC set the MLS world on fire, Piotr Nowak and company have a lot of work to do but so far their efforts have been pretty good.

The Union hasn’t dipping into any big foreign signings just yet but with the transfer window still open there is still time for a couple big signings. Also, don’t be shocked if they do end up with one of those Americans that are rumored to return to the States this winter too.

For this look at the Union I’ll go position by position to see where they need some help before the season starts. (note, I am aware there are other reports like this out there, I’ve had this one in the icebox for a week now. I was merely waiting for a rainy day to release it!) Continue Reading…

Plenty of quality goals in week 20, especially considering we had a 4-3 game, a 4-0 game and a 6-0 game on our hands. Then in non-MLS play we did have a stellar goal from David Beckham (it is posted below the league goals).

Which one was the best? Too many good ones to go through if you ask me.

Order of video: Cornell Glen, Chris Wondolowski, Jeff Cunningham (1), David Ferriera, Jeff Cunningham (2), Brad Davis, Fred, Brian Ching, and Dwayne De Rosario. (Note I couldn’t fine the Patrick Nyarko or Chad Marshall’s goal – the league’s site didn’t have them available for QuickKicks).

Beckham’s classy free kick against Barcelona:

Plenty of quality goals this past week in Major League Soccer. Week 11 definitely saw its fair share of goals (and cards too). Below are this week’s best. One video is a package of highlights and the others were goals I had to dig up to find!

Order of highlights: Kenny Cooper (FC Dallas), Aljeandro Moreno (Columbus), Nate Jaqua (Seattle), Fred (DC United), and Paulo Nagamura.

Arturo Alvarez (video via MLSnet):mls_nynbal_4801125_400k

Chris Rolfe and Chicago got back to winning on Saturday. (Getty Images)

For a few clubs we are at that one-thirds mark of the season, others do however still have a few games to catch up here. Still we are flying through this season it seems like as another week goes into the books. Week nine in Major League Soccer was an interesting one to say the least. We had a great comeback in LA, a shocker in Salt Lake, a statement in Toronto, and a load of 1-1 draws.

Five of the seven matches ended in a draw with a couple late game-tying goals to mention later today. Not a lot of change however here as the league progresses this season. We keep having a lot of draws each week, which leads me to believe that that bottom level amount of points to reach the playoffs will be in the high 30s to low 40s this season. Wins are a premium this season that only a few are getting a lot of here. But more on that later on as well. Continue Reading…

The Cauldron will be loud tonight with DC in town. (Brian Stevens, WVH Photo Correspondent)

Two midweek games for week eight. A big night in general if you count Toronto FC’s game in the Canadian Champion tonight against future MLS side Vancouver. But I’ll just stick with the MLS games for the evening to preview.

RSL returns home to host the Galaxy who just scored their first win of the year. And in Kansas City, DC comes to the CAB for a big time clash of two up and coming eastern clubs.

DC United – at – Kansas City Wizards:

1. First place on the line, who steps up for DC on the road?

No Ben Olsen, Marc Burch, or Fred tonight for the boys in black. Guess the need to lead will come on Jamie Moreno who easily stepped into that role last week against Dallas. As long as the offense is rolling fine for DC they could be fine on the road here. Just remember DC only has a single loss on the season here so far and it was at Salt Lake (a place DC and no one else wins at). Also KC is a play DC typically sees success in as well. As long as guys like Moreno step up on the road they should be fine. Continue Reading…

DC United won their 12th club trophy last night in the 2008 Lamar Hunt US Open Cup with their 2-1 defeat of the USL-1 Charleston Battery at RFK Stadium. DC was lead by their two Brazilians Luciano Emilio and Fred in this one as Emilio got the Black-and-Red up early and after Charleston leveled things at 1-1, Fred put home the go ahead goal shortly after the start of the second half.

This was probably one of the more entertaining US Open Cup finals that I’ve seen in the past couple years. Maybe it was because of the DC fans making RFK a fortress or maybe it was because you had a USL club in the final for the first time in a few years.

With the win, DC becomes the first MLS club to qualify for the 2009/10 edition of the CONCACAF Champions League. Continue Reading…

I guess maybe all along we were completely wrong about DC United. So far this season they haven’t looked at all like the Supporter’s Shield winners of the last two years and I think now more than ever we can stop throwing out the age old excuse of the CONCACAF Champions Cup hangover as to why this club is doing so poorly.

Let’s face it, Chicago looked like the better side last night and in the end they walked away with the three points after another stellar effort. Not to mention the fact that they OWN DC in RFK Stadium like no one else in this league. The 2-0 win looked easy for the most part.

It wasn’t anything special either. The first half, Chicago created chances and in the later stages of the half they were rewarded with a Justin Mapp goal. By the way, that was Mapp’s first goal since 2006. As for DC in that first half, they failed to create any real chances against Chicago. It wasn’t a defensive stranglehold on DC by the Fire defense, it was merely a United team that didn’t look at all comfortable on the pitch with one another.

There it is, this club still hasn’t come together this season as a team.

Continue Reading…