Nothing like a little USL expansion news on a rainy Friday here in the Big D. It turns out New York City will indeed get an expansion club…in USL first division. The club will start in 2010 according to several reports.

FC New York LLC, a New York City-based ownership group, has purchased a United Soccer Leagues First Division franchise.

According to SBI, an announcement is schedule for April.

For the 2010 season, the club will call Hofstra University home, as was the case for the Long Island Rough Riders during its heyday in the 1990s. There are also plans to play games at Icahn Stadium on Randall’s Island and Baker Field at Columbia University, according to sources.

After that, sources say, the organization is looking to build a soccer-specific stadium in Queens, the most ethnically diverse county in the country. The stadium would seat 9,000, but could be expanded to house another 9,000 if the situation dictated. A possible site would be the area by John F. Kennedy International Airport.

Are you excited to see a club in the city and not in Jersey? For me I think this is a good test for MLS to see if a club in NYC actually does work like most believe it will.

A very entertaining night of soccer in the quarterfinal round of the 2008 Lamar Hunt US Open Cup. Entering the night was five MLS clubs, two USL1 clubs and a lone USL2 club. After it was all said and done two MLS sides prevailed and two USL1 sides upset their big brothers from MLS.

Three of the four games went into extra time, two of the games were decided on penalty kicks. Great night of soccer all around.

The results set up an all MLS semifinal and an all USL1 semifinal. No matter what, each division will get a club in the final game later this summer. Continue Reading…

The second round of the 2008 Lamar Hunt US Open Cup kicks off tonight in cities around the country. The winners will move on to face the MLS clubs in round three.

Second Round Games:
Carolina Railhawks v Real Maryland Monarchs
Richmond Kickers v Western Mass Pioneers
Minnesota Thunder v Cleveland City Stars
Pittsburgh Riverhounds v Rochester Rhinos
Atlanta Silverbacks v Miami FC Blues
Charlotte Eagles v Charleston Battery
Crystal Palace Baltimore v Harrisburg City Islanders
Seattle Sounders v Hollywood United

You can follow a live scoreboard here of all the matches tonight.

The following few matches will be broadcast online for your viewing/listening pleasure:

Real Maryland Monarchs at Carolina RailHawks
WakeMed Soccer Park – Cary, NC – 7:30 PM
Link: USL Live

Pittsburgh Riverhounds at Rochester Rhinos
PAETEC Park – Rochester, NY – 7:30 PM
Link: Online Audio

Charlotte Eagles at Charleston Battery
Blackbaud Stadium – Charleston, SC – 7:30 PM
Link: USL Live

Cleveland City Stars at Minnesota Thunder
National Sports Center – Blaine, MN – 8:05 PM
Link: Online Audio (Teamline)

Hollywood United at Seattle Sounders
Starfire Sports Complex – Tukwila, WA – 11:00 PM
Link: USL Live

Yeah, I guess a month or so back when we talked about Seattle’s expansion club already signing some of it’s USL players to MLS contracts for next year was a little premature.

Well sorta at least.

Not that we didn’t have the right information or anything on it but it appears that the club is finally coming out and saying they have signed Sebastian Le Toux to a MLS contract.

This may not be anything new to people in Seattle. Though I did find it interesting to see that a few people had already sent me this link today.

No word yet on if Le Toux had indeed signed a four-year deal with the expansion club or if that talk was just talk to start out with.

Same thing goes for the talk of Le Toux and a couple other Sounders being on loan this season to the USL Sounders. Yeah, that was something floating out there that a couple players had been signed by the league only to be loaned back out to the USL version of the Emerald City club.

Either way its more official now I suppose than it was a month and a half ago.

And for info on Le Toux, you can revert to the previous post about this subject or check out his wiki page.