This week has already been interesting and we’ve only seen one MLS game. The DC-Seattle game on Wednesday should have been a marquee thing but as we all saw ESPN and the family of networks dropped the ball a bit on getting the MLS game shipped over to another channel to make us MLS folks happy until the college world series game was over on the deuce.

Yes it was unfortunate but there was some good out of it. SoccerAmeria just posted a great article on the 80 seconds of silence that Glenn Davis and Kyle Martino did at the start of the broadcast when the game was finally shown on ESPN2. Looking back on the tape of that game I saw and heard those 80 seconds. Boy it was pretty neat to say the least.

Aside from the ESPN fail on Wednesday this week and weekend are pretty big. We’ve already seen Toronto FC blow away Montreal last night in the final game of the Canadian Cup to advance to this year’s edition of the CONCACAF Champions League tournament. MLS will now field five teams with Toronto now to take on Puerto Rico in the preliminary rounds with a chance to be grouped in with the Columbus Crew.

We also have another competition starting up for a few clubs this weekend as well. The 2009 edition of SuperLiga comes at a good time for teams like Chivas USA and Chicago Fire. Both clubs play on Saturday in their opening matches of the tournament. Kansas City and New England will see their first games on Sunday. All SuperLiga matches can be seen live on the SuperLiga website.

But let’s get down to business as far as the MLS weekend slate goes. Plenty of decent games on the menu for us including one that I am very interested in out in Colorado between the Rapids and DC United.

As always feel free to leave your score predictions below. Continue Reading…

A trade is in the works so says the Soccer Insider Steven Goff.

Columbus is said to be giving up on the Pat Noonan experiement by shipping him off to Colorado. No other details of the trade are clear but if it goes down expect some draft picks to come back Columbus’ way (my guess a conditional pick of some sorts).

Interesting trade since Columbus went out of their way with New England last year to get Noonan. For the Rapids it makes perfect sense to get another striker. With the likelyhood of Conor Casey being out most of the summer with the US national team this deal would definitely be a wise move for Gary Smith’s side.

My take on the Columbus side to unload a striker like Noonan means they will be unloading some cap space for this summer to sign some depth to their roster for the CONCACAF Champions League run that they will be in. Something tells me Noonan won’t be the only one leaving Columbus. Just a hunch.

Once more details come out I will let you know.

Jimmy Conrad and Josh Wolff will try to keep Columbus winless. (Brian Stevens, WVH Photo Correspondent)

Week eight has already kicked off with a bit of a bang with two draws on Wednesday night in Kansas City and in Salt Lake City. The RSL-LA draw was something to talk about for sure while the DC-KC draw was pretty much expected.

Time to shift focus to the weekend however as we have plenty of games on the menu to keep us going. Seven games this week, on three straight days. We have all conference battles except for one match tonight in New York with San Jose and the Red Bulls. Also this weekend we have a couple rivalry games like in Texas between Houston and Dallas. And in the east we get to see a lovely battle with Chicago and New England, two clubs that really don’t like one another.

As always feel free to post your score predictions for this weekend’s action below. Continue Reading…

Jesse Marsch and Chivas USA continue to roll. (Getty Images)

Another week down in Major League Soccer and a lot of things remain the same around the league. Week seven is in the books here Chivas USA still remains the league’s top club. Other things that are still constant in the league include:

- New York still struggling
- Columbus still struggling to win
- Chicago still drawing games, yet still undefeated
- Dallas still losing games
- Salt Lake still losing on the road
- Attendance still so-so across the league

And a little sidebar that a couple of you pointed out to me, I picked every game correctly this past week. Some of the scores weren’t right on but I did have all the winners correct and all the draws be 1-1. Yeah, sorry to toot my own horn but sometimes it is nice to be right. Continue Reading…

Just got word that the deal is now complete that sends Pat Noonan from New England to Columbus in exchange for the Crew’s natural first-round selection in the 2009 MLS SuperDraft and allocation money.

Additionally, the teams traded spots in the current 2008 allocation standings with Columbus moving into the 10th spot and New England moving to third and the two sides agreed to considerations regarding 2009 allocation rankings.

Noonan seems happy to be back in the States and with MLS again. I have to agree, this is a good signing/trade for the Crew and for Noonan. He will probably start once he gets his fitness back up. Continue Reading…

The day after their SuperLiga win over the Houston Dynamo, the New England Revolution look to resign Pat Noonan…only to then trade him to Columbus, that’s all according to the Boston Herald’s Kyle McCarthy.

The Crew are expected to send allocation money, a first-round draft pick and the rights to swap allocation slots to the Revs for the veteran striker.

A deal could be announced today, if not by the end of the week.

This is the deal that Columbus has been hunting for a while now and to me its a deal they need going forward as they are trying to catch up to New England in the standings. Usually you don’t see two clubs so close at the top of the standings work with one another on a trade like this but New England knew they didn’t want Noonan back and so a trade was going to happen. From what I’ve heard, the Crew were the most interested and appeared to give up enough in a trade for him.

What do you all make of this deal? Crew fans are you excited to get another striker?

Just a quick update from the story we brought you this morning on Pat Noonan. According to Ives Galarcep at SBI, Noonan has re-signed with the league in a deal expected to be finalized in the coming days.

MLS is still finalizing transfer details with Norwegian side Aalesunds, which still had Noonan under contract. Once that is settled, the Noonan sweepstakes could begin.

Earlier it was believed he was going to be with the Revs but that may not be the case. New England has had several offers for Noonan and could work out a deal to trade him off to someone else now that he is back with the league.

New England still own his rights (apparently they retained the rights after offering him a new contract at similar money to his old contract) and could keep him to add to their attacking depth. Galarcep went on to mention that the San Jose Earthquakes and Columbus Crew are the leading candidates to trade with the Revs.

So Crew fans your man could still end up with you all in the coming weeks if a deal works out. I just wonder how eager the Crew are to make a deal happen now that he is actually back with the league. Its usually a smart thing for a club in first place to not deal with a club in second place like the Revs and Crew currently sit. So a deal with San Jose could be more likely. Or Colorado. Or Dallas. Or Houston. Or where ever you all think.

Where will Noonan end up? Think the Revs will keep him or deal him? Let’s hear it.