Has San Jose done enough to improve on their dismal 2009 campaign? (Getty Images)

Forgive me for a second for this coming out as late as it did. I had every intentions earlier in the week to get this one out on Wednesday but a certain clash in Holland kept me from finishing it until yesterday.

Anyways, we continue on with out look at each Major League Soccer club’s preseason happenings here. We’re in the final stretch with just San Jose, Seattle and Toronto to go. Up first today is San Jose, a club that is hoping to rebound after a dismal effort in 2009. Frank Yallop has made some moves this winter to shake things up by the Bay but will it pay off is the key question.

I thought going into the winter that Yallop and GM Frank Doyle would do a lot of work on this roster that only won seven games in 2009. Reshaping an offense that only scored 36 goals was also another issue but the biggest may be redoing a defense that gave up a league-high 50 goals.

So let us dive into the Earthquakes to see who they have going into the new campaign and where else they need to go to get back into the playoffs. Continue Reading…

Ryan Johnson was one of the few bright spots for San Jose in 2009. (Getty Images)

It’s hard to decline as a club after being an expansion team in 2008 but the 2009 version of the San Jose Earthquakes did just that. They became the first team to lose more in their second season than in their expansion season.

The only difference is this version of the Quakes are actually improving. After a load of failed mistakes in player pickups over the offseason manager Frank Yallop and GM John Doyle bucked the criticism and did start to bring in talent that not only produced but was able show that this club has the potential to actually contend in 2010 if the chips fall in the right order.  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…

With Joe Cannon coming back the Quakes could be contenders in 2009. (Getty Images)

(Note: Forgive me if this is a few days late, last week was a very busy week for me at the 9-5 job and I didn’t get around to this news item until today. Still better late than never for some.)

Center Line Soccer is reporting that San Jose and keeper Joe Cannon are very near to inking a new deal for the keeper. General Manager John Doyle stated that the two parties have agreed in principle to a new deal. One would imagine the deal could be announced sometime this week even.

“Joe Cannon will be back in 2009, and we’re happy to have him back,” said Doyle.

‘Frank Yallop and I brought Joe Cannon back to San Jose, and we always wanted him to be here,” Doyle added. “I think it was a little unfair the way it was portrayed, that we were the bad guy. But we always wanted to make it work.”

I think getting Cannon back could very well make this a playoff contending club in 2009. All is left to do is add depth to the defense and sign a good striker to lead the way. Reports suggest the club is close to siging a couple strikers in the coming weeks so we will see how it pans out for the 2.0 Quakes.

What do you all make of the Quakes chances with Cannon back in the fold? As long as a quality striker or two are signed this club could be a strong contender for the playoffs in 2009.

Michael Parkhurst is as good as gone from MLS, but who is will join him? (Getty Images)

I think it is safe to say that it is open season right now for foreign clubs to pick apart MLS talent in preparations for the upcoming transfer window.

Lots of rumors are swirling around who will go where and for how much. A lot of transfers unfortunately will probably cost MLS more due to the lack of possible transfer fees as some players are out of contract. But they could make up for it with some young stars that are looking to move on from the league.

Defenders are at a premium for the taking right now. But so are some young talent that we’ve been saying would be ripe for the picking for a while now. There is also now some veteran players in the league that could see their chances elsewhere increase in the coming weeks.

Again, loads of rumors and only so many will come true. Even with the amount of possible players leaving it always means the door will be open for more to come in. From what I’ve seen so far there are plenty of possible players to join the league this winter in transfer deals.

Let’s just look at this at a player-by-player case: Continue Reading…

A lot of end-of-season awards in Major League Soccer are just as tight as the playoff race. I’ve been tracking the Rookie of the Year and MVP races for some time now but I figured I would weigh in on all the awards for once since we are in the final few weeks of the season.

MLS MVP Award:

1. Guillermo Barros Schelotto, Columbus Crew: His club may be playing well without him but his numbers still make a serious case for MVP this season. He should be back soon, which can only mean his soccer IQ on the field will enhance the Crew even more here.
2. Landon Donovan, LA Galaxy: 19 goals in just 21 games. I think that may be all I need to say here. Earlier I thought his production wasn’t enough for the MVP this year but I am thinking otherwise now.
3. Shalrie Joseph, New England Revolution: He and his club may be stumbling but that should all work itself out once the Revs clinch a playoff spot.
4. Darren Huckerby, San Jose Earthquakes: If this were a half-season MVP I would probably have a tough time picking between Schelotto and Huckerby. Both have been stellar in the second half of the season. Huckerby has only been here for a half season, just think what he can do for a full year.
5. Juan Pablo Angel, New York Red Bulls: He’s forth in goals this season in the league but I don’t think that will be enough to get him this award this year.

Others in the discussion:

Javier Morales, RSL; Cuauhtemoc Blanco, Chicago; Kenny Cooper, FC Dallas; Jamie Moreno, DC United; and Sacha Kljestan, Chivas USA.

Continue Reading…

I think week 11 was one of the more memorably weekends in the 2008 season. It was a long and stretched out week with games every night from Wednesday all the way to Sunday. Thought that Wednesday night game was washed out in DC, it showed us something that this was going to be one wild weekend. I mean, when was the last time we had a MLS game postponed due to rain?!

Anyways, as far as the interconference battles went this weekend. The west is showing they can back up their play against the east. The two sides split their five matches going 2-2-1 on the weekend. The one match that would have fixed the split was that washed out match on Wednesday night.

Let’s start out with some points from around the league before diving into each match:

• Yes, I know the Crew fans went against league policy on the streamers. Please spare me the fact that they ignored it and what not. I know they did but it was only on one occasion and all it did was slow down the game. Pay more attention to this when Toronto has their next home game.
• By the way, those Crew fans were well behaved other than the one streamer throw.
• Something that needs to stop more than the streamers is this random fans that decide to run out on the field during the game. We’ve seen it in Toronto a couple times but now in LA. Folks that has to stop, more so than the streamers. Let’s see now if MLS Rumors attacks those LA fans like they have with Toronto and Columbus fans. Yeah, I doubt they will too.
• Funny to see Beckham laugh it off and Chris Klein tackle the dude though.
• The officiating was very questionable for the most part this weekend. One thing this league has problem with is sub-par officiating. Too many times they dictate the play, that has to change.
• Attendance was a typical so-so here. DC would have had solid number if the rain hadn’t come. New England will boost the numbers with the Brazil friendly. Other than those two the week was a typical so-so. But I say that with LA and Chicago posting near sellouts. That is a so-so in the form of its typical and highly expected of those two clubs.
• Three clubs still undefeated at home right now. We all talk about Toronto and Salt Lake, mainly because of the turf but look at Houston. They sit at 3-0-2 on the year at Robertson Stadium. That place is a great venue, too bad it isn’t their own.
• The west still has one club above .500 (LA), while the east has five (NE, Columbus, Chicago, Toronto, and NY).
• Still no draws for Colorado. I don’t think I’ve ever see a club go 11 games into the season without a single draw. Remarkable and sadly impressive on the fact that they are so inconsistent.

Now on to the weekend’s games. Continue Reading…