Every team has that one guy that will either help lead them to the MLS promise-land or be partly the reason why they are stuck at home in November instead of seeing the playoffs. These are you X-Factor players.

I have one (maybe two) guys for each MLS team that are those X-Factors for this new season. Some guys are really no brainers while others may surprise you a bit. Its safe to say that each club needs a big year out of their X-Factors.

If you think I’m way off base on someone or think I missed a sure-fire X-Factor please list it below. 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…

Stuart Holden is on his way to Bolton. (Getty Images)

The day has some for those Houston Dynamo fans, their club no now longer has Stuart Holden. Bolton manager Owen Coyle has confirmed that the club will sign Holden as one of two winter acquisitions.

Holden joins former Dynamo teammate Ricardo Clark, who has signed with Eintracht Frankfurt, as Americans to make major transfer moves from MLS this winter.

How can a team recover from the loss of their two most important midfielders? It won’t be easy though having quality coaching in Dominic Kinnear, who has been a master at getting exactly what he wants out of players and deals with other teams. Also having some quality talent like Brad Davis and Geoff Cameron doesn’t hurt either.

But it is more than losing the likes of Clark and Holden that will be a game changer this winter for Houston and for that matter Major League Soccer. Clark we knew was headed overseas and the Dynamo easily knew last winter that they’d need to prepare for such a move. As for Holden there was always some hope that they could retain him even though his price tag was far higher than anything they could pay for.

Houston will have to recover fast here as the western conference is getting better each day with LA, RSL, Chivas, Seattle and even Dallas being major players for this coming season. If they don’t want to get passed up as the top dog in the west for good Kinnear will have to make some moves, which have to be expected at this point. I wouldn’t be shocked to see him go within the league for a veteran looking for a new home. Possibly a guy like Pablo Mastroeni would be a decent fit to replace Clark (just an idea floating in my head).

Houston is going to be down this year but I don’t think we can count them out just yet.

Houston had another strong season behind Brian Ching. (Getty Images)

Dominic Kinnear teams always compete, always and the 2009 edition of the Houston Dynamo looked very similar to the ones we’ve seen win league titles over the last few years. Even though the Dynamo lost their big star in the midfield in a trade to Toronto before the season started everyone knew this team would still compete.

Just as in years past the Dynamo started out strong on the year. Brian Ching, Stuart Holden and up and coming stars like Geoff Cameron lead the way for the Orange. Pat Onstad had yet another stellar season in front of the net thanks to another strong defense in front of him.

And just like in years past Kinnear pulled all the right strings in trades by getting parts on his roster that were missing like speed up front when he got Dominic Oduro from New York or some extra size when he got Cam Weaver from San Jose. Yet again we asked questions like “why are clubs even going into business with Kinnear and the Dynamo?” We knew the results would be the same as before as Kinnear would get something out of nothing and lead his club to the top of the standings again.

But then the ladder part of the summer hit. Ching, Holden and Ricardo Clark missed buckets of time with the US national team and that seemed to be when things got a little dicey. They brought in Luis Angel Landin as their DP, and while that should be a good move for 2010 it didn’t pan out all that much for 2009. Also for some reason the club’s discipline kept shooting themselves in the foot. August and September saw more cards, particularly red cards than most would want to see.

By the end of things the Dynamo lost on a weird night in LA in the playoffs. They may have been the better team on the night but moving forward into 2010 will certainly be interesting.

What Went Right In 2009:
A lot of good did happen in Houston this season. Ching produced, Brad Davis continued to be completely underrated, Cameron emerged like most had figured he would and Holden showed he could very well be the real deal. The Dynamo continued to have strong depth that kept them afloat despite all issues they had late in the season with suspensions and what not.

What Went Wrong In 2009:
As mentioned before the lack of discipline they showed late in the season was a real bummer to see. They went from being one of the most consistent clubs in the league on the year to a wildly inconsistent bunch. Offensively they still lacked a punch when needed and Landin didn’t step into the role as a DP like most would have liked this year.

What’s Next:
Well we know Ricardo Clark is out and its possible Stuart Holden could join him. Should that happen this bunch will go from being one of the deepest teams in the midfield to just a mid-level team. Kinnear will have to do his best to find replacements if that happens. They have to find a way to retain Holden and improve their roster on offense. But at the same time they do need to find some depth in defense behind Bobby Boswell and Cameron.

Its that time of the year, the season is nearly complete and the league has handed out it’s ballots for voting for their season awards. Yes today I received an email with a link to my online ballot for voting this year. I have to admit I wasn’t expecting it to come this week but since the season ends this weekend it makes sense. I suppose I just lost track of time.

Anyways, I’ll have a full rundown next week of who I voted for and why. Not to say that I won’t take some input from you all on these matters. Tonight I wanted to go into another award race that is pretty tight as the one I discussed earlier in the day. The Defender of the Year.

This is another award that is going to be very tightly contested between a number of players. Last year we saw Columbus’ Chad Marshall run away with the award, and while he is in the running yet again for it this year I don’t believe he has completely won everyone over for it this season.

Who exactly do I see in the running? I have a few guys here listed below that I think are all candidates for this award. If you feel I left anyone out just comment below with a good reason and they may get my consideration.

Chad Marshall (Columbus): Yes Marshall is in the running and you got to believe he will get his fair share of votes this season. The thing is his injury issues will keep him off some folks ballots and at the end of it all I kind of doubt he will repeat as Defender of the Year.

Geoff Cameron (Houston): Had the season ended last weekend you could bet Cameron would be the top choice for this award. More than likely we should see Cameron walk away with the award this season for many reasons. He’s been by far one of the most consistent defenders in the league and how sick was the bicycle save last week?

Jhon Kennedy Hurtado (Seattle): Some say Kasey Keller has been the reason why the expansion Sounders have been fairly solid on defense this year but I would argue that it is mostly been due to the play of Hurtado. This winter addition has been one of those that you have to give the Seattle front office credit for because he’s been a total gem of a find.

Wilman Conde (Chicago): About two months ago I would have said he was the top choice for this award but as the Fire have slipped lately so has Conde’s play. Conde is still one of the best defenders in the league but something tells me the in-house issues in Chicago still remain and Conde won’t be there next year.

Jonathan Bornstein (Chivas): One of the reasons why Chivas USA has been near the top all year is due to the consistent play of Bornstein. He missed a decent amount of time this summer with the National team but it hasn’t kept him from picking up the slack when he is with the Goats. The Chivas defense would be nothing without him I think.

Omar Gonzalez (LA): The LA rookie has been very good, so good in fact that he has a shot at two awards (other being rookie of the year).

Others in consideration: Darrius Barnes (New England), Bobby Boswell (Houston), Tyrone Marshall (Seattle). Continue Reading…

Plenty of good goals this past week in Major League Soccer. Some were better than others but that is for you all to decide. I’ve took out what I thought were some of the best from this past week including one hat trick.

Order of video: Geoff Cameron, Nate Jaqua, Kheli Dube (hat trick), Juan Pablo Angel, Dax McCarty, Dane Richards, Chris Wondonlowski, Sacha Kljestan, and Landon Donovan.

Cam Weaver and Dave van den Burgh battle again tonight. (Getty Images)

There’s nothing like kicking off a week with a good in-state derby. Tonight we get just that for week 21’s kickoff as the Houston Dynamo travel to Frisco, TX to face FC Dallas. Both clubs are coming off big wins from last weekend and look to take ownership of El Capitán, the prize given to the winning club in the season series.

So far this season Houston has gotten the better of their northern rivals by beating them 1-0 and 3-1. The Orange would love nothing more than to do it again for a clean season series sweep.

Dallas may have gotten their offense off the ground last week against Kansas City but looking at what kind of defense they are going up against I think it will be tough for them to get more than one by the Dynamo defense. Sure Houston let in three last week to DC but I just don’t see Dominic Kinnear’s bunch doing that again.

Houston should be able to control things in the middle with Brad Davis and Stuart Holden, which should allow Brian Ching to find openings in the Dallas defense.

I think the difference will come down to guys like Bobby Boswell and Geoff Cameron in the back for Houston going against Jeff Cunningham and Dave van den Burgh for Dallas. I’d like to think that Dallas can keep their offense flying here but they’ve never really been able to dominate Houston since the Dynamo were moved to Houston a few years ago. I also wouldn’t expect a good crowd for this one as no one in Dallas likes to travel to Frisco on a week night with all the traffic around here.

Anyways, I see Houston carrying this one out and extending their lead in the overall standings.

WVH Prediction: Houston 2, Dallas 1