Soccer By Ives

Montreal bows out of MLS expansion race

The race to secure one of Major League Soccer's two expansion slots in 2011 has been cleared up dramatically after commissioner Don Garber revealed on Friday that Montreal has removed itself from consideration.

Montreal's exit leaves Miami and St. Louis as the front-runners in a six-city race to be one of the two expansion cities added in 2011. Portland is also a contender, with Ottawa, Vancouver and Atlanta also in the mix.

What do you think of the news? Stunned that Montreal has bowed out? Do you see anybody beating out St. Louis and Miami?

Share your thoughts below.

MLS Cup Notes

Good afternoon folks. Apologies for the lack of posts but driving around LA to get to all the events doesn't always allow for the best flow of posting.

Let's get started with notes from today's training sessions:

Juan Pablo Angel sustained a left arm injury and rib injury in training after colliding with goalkeeper Danny Cepero. He isn't expected to keep him from playing.

"It was just a collision but hopefully everything should be fine for Sunday," Angel said.

MLS News & Notes: Cooper transfer looking inevitable, Donovan's loan done (or not) and more

   

                                                                                                 Photo by ISIphotos.com

U.S. national team fans weren't the only ones who caught a glimpse of Kenny Cooper's performance against Guatemala on Saturday. Scouts from several European clubs, including German club Eintracht Frankfurt, were also in attendance at Dick's Sporting Goods Park and the interest in Cooper should only continue to grow as it becomes increasingly unlikely that Cooper will be signing a new deal with FC Dallas.

Cooper is preparing to head into the final year of his current contract and negotations over a new deal with FC Dallas have stalled, sources with knowledge of the talks told SBI on Thursday. With Cooper seeking designated player money, and FC Dallas offering in the $325K to $375K range, look for MLS to do it's best to sell Cooper in January in order to avoid losing him for nothing after the 2009 season.

Here are some other tidbits to go over in the MLS scene:

Altidore discusses the Red Bulls and Villarreal

  

                                                                                         Photo by ISIphotos.com

Call it coincidence, or true twist of fate, but it is at least pretty interesting that in the same week that the New York Red Bulls are heading to the West Coast to play in their first MLS Cup final, one of their former young stars was also be shining in the Western part of the United States.

U.S. national team striker Jozy Altidore spent Wednesday night impressing observers with his ever-improving skill and the progress he has enjoyed since making his $10 million move from the Red Bulls to Villarreal. Just a day later, the Red Bulls were on a charter flight West, heading for Los Angeles and an MLS Cup final few could have imagined being in, especially without Altidore.

The 19-year-old striker won't be playing for the Red Bulls on Sunday, but he will be rooting for them. Altidore spoke with SBI correspondent Sulaiman Folarin after the U.S. team's 2-0 win against Guatemala. He spoke about his time at Villarreal and how he has kept in touch with his former MLS club:

Afternoon Roundup: Blanco joining Santos Laguna on loan and KC Stadium clears hurdle

 

With David Beckham already going on loan to AC Milan, and Landon Donovan's loan to Bayern Munich being finalized, you can apparently add Cuauhtemoc Blanco to the list of MLS stars making short-term moves this winter.

According to multiple reports surfacing on Thursday, the Chicago Fire will loan out Blanco to Mexican side Santos Laguna. The Fire confirmed the loan on Thursday afternoon.

In MLS stadium news, the Kansas City Wizards cleared the last major hurdle in their quest to have a stadium built. The news means the Wizards can start construction on a new 18,500 stadium they are hoping will be ready for the 2010 season.

What do think of these developments? Surprised to see the Fire okay a Blanco loan deal? Do you see the Wizards thriving in a new stadium come 2010, or do you think they will struggle to draw? Will you be able to live without the State Fair-like atmosphere at CommunityAmerica Ballpark once the Wizards move into their new home?

Share your thoughts below.

USA 2, Guatemala 0: A second look

 

                                                                    Photo by ISIphotos.com

If the U.S. men's national team's 2-0 victory against Guatemala was a glimpse into the future for the United States, then that future sure looks bright after several young standouts took full advantage of the chance to show that they plan on being factors in 2009 World Cup qualifying.

Freddy Adu, Jozy Altidore, Kenny Cooper and Sacha Kljestan were all impressive in the U.S. team's handling of a Guatemalan squad that, to be fair, was a young team missing several key veterans as a new coach shook up his squad. Guatemalan B team or not,The Fab Four Americans certainly had to impress U.S. coach Bob Bradley, while also exciting fans that had been waiting months to see them all play together.

What did you think of last night's performance. Did Freddy Adu restore your faith in him? Were you happy to finally see the Kenny Cooper-Jozy Altidore tandem (or as I like to call them, the People's Tandem) in action? Were you disappointed with Jonathan Bornstein's return to the national team fold? Did the match leave you excited at what lies ahead in the Hexagonal Round of qualifying?

Share your thoughts on last night's match in the comments section below.

A closer look at Schelotto's MVP victory

 

                                                               Photo by ISIphotos.com

As you may have learned on SBI this morning (or Sports Illustrated on Tuesday), Columbus Crew playmaker Guillermo Barros Schelotto has been named MLS Most Valuable Player.

Major League Soccer made the announcement official on Wednesday morning with a press release that laid out the statistical breakdown of the voting. As you might expect, Schelotto ran away with it. Here is the breakdown:

• Schelotto............%54.14 percent of the overall vote

• Landon Donovan....%19.13 percent

• Cuauhtemoc Blanco......%3 percent

What I am still trying to figure out is how Blanco was a finalist with only three percent of the overall voting (and a damning a zero percent of the voting from coaches and general managers). Was the unaccounted for 13.63 percent of votes spread out over that many candidates? I still think that both Juan Pablo Angel and Javier Morales were far more deserving finalists.

What did you think of the MLS MVP voting? Who was on your ballot? Share your thoughts below.

Your chance to win tickets to MLS Cup

 

As MLS fans from Ohio, New York and New Jersey converge on the Los Angeles area this weekend for Sunday's MLS Cup final between the New York Red Bulls and the Columbus Crew, we will see hundreds of fans realizing a more than decade long dream of seeing their team play in Major League Soccer's championship game in person.

Whether you are one of those fans, or just an MLS fan who really wants to be at MLS Cup, we here at SBI want to help at least two such fans realize that dream. SBI, in conjunction with VW Road to MLS Cup, is holding a contest that will award two tickets to fans making their way to California this weekend for the match.

Donovan lands Bayern Munich loan

  

With every passing day you watched Landon Donovan training with Bayern Munich, you just knew his trip to Germany would wind up being more than a training stint.

It has. According to multiple reports out of Germany and now confirmed on the Bayern Munich website, Donovan is set to join Bayern Munich on a short loan from the start of January through mid-March.

Donovan will join Los Angeles Galaxy teammate David Beckham as MLS players heading to Europe on these short loan deals during the MLS transfer window, which runs from January through mid-April. Donovan is expected to return to the team in time for the start of its MLS season. That is assuming Bayern Munich doesn't buy him outright.

The loan will mark Donovan's third foray into the German Bundesliga after two unsuccessful stints with Bayer Leverkusen, the last coming in 2004 before returning to MLS in 2005. He originally signed as a youth player for Bayer Leverkusen in 2001 before moving on loan to MLS.

What do you think of this news? Surprised? Excited? Think Donovan will flourish? Think he will flop? Think he will play? Think he will start?

Share your thoughts on Donovan's loan deal to Bayern Munich in the comments section below.

Schelotto wins MVP (as premature ad spoils the surprise)

 

                                                                       Photo by ISIphotos.com

If the suspense over finding out who will be named MLS MVP was getting to you, you can relax, the wait ended even sooner than most thought it would.

Thanks to a prematurely released advertisement by MLS sponsor Volkswagen in the newest issue of Sports Illustrated, the magazine's readers learned as far back as Tuesday that Columbus Crew midfielder Guillermo Barros Schelotto had won the MVP award. At least that is what the full-page ad in the magazine congratulating Schelotto on the award seemed to suggest.

The actual ceremony to "reveal" the winner of the award is set for this afternoon, which leaves us with the question of just exactly who dropped the ball so badly that they let that ad go out four days before the award winner was to be announced. MLS? Volswagen? Either way, it's just a bit embarrassing.

Not that Schelotto didn't deserve the award. Schelotto rightfully beat out Landon Donovan and Cuauhtemoc Blanco for the award after help guide the Columbus Crew to the best record in MLS during the regular season by registering seven goals and 19 assists.

What do you think of Schelotto being named MVP? At all surprised at the award/magazine ad revelation? Did you vote for somebody else?

Share your thoughts below.

CONCACAF World Cup qualifying matchnight: Your running commentary

Good evening everybody, or late afternoon to those of us on the West Coast. It's time for the final matchday of the penultimate stage of CONCACAF qualifying for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. While the United States, Costa Rica and El Salvador have already booked safe passage, thee others nations will find a way into the final hexagonal stage tonight.

What match will you follow? Which teams do you think will advance? While the SBI jet has yet to land in L.A., please join me in providing live commentary of the two televised matches -- United States vs. Guatemala and Mexico vs. Honduras.

To get you started, here is the U.S. starting lineup:

Brad Guzan; John Thorrington, Clarence Goodson, Michael Parkhurst, Jonathan Bornstein; Ricardo Clark, Freddy Adu, Pablo Mastroeni, Sacha Kljestan; Kenny Cooper, Jozy Altidore

For those wondering, that's the first ever start in World Cup qualifying for Thorrington, Goodson, Bornstein, Clark and Cooper.

Here are the starters from Kingston for the match between Jamaica and Canada. Red Bulls fans can breathe, Dane Richards is not in John Barnes' XI.

Canada: Lars Hirchfeld, Adrian Cann, Andrew Hainault, Nik Ledgerwood, Paul Stalteri, Chris Pozniak, Will Johnson, Charles Gbeke, Marcel De Jonh, Kevin Harmse, Issey Nakjima-Farran

Jamaica: Donovan Ricketts, Damian Steward, Claude Davis, Ian Goodison, Ricardo Fuller, Luton Shelton, Demar Phillips, Tyrone Marshall, Ricardo Gardner, O'Neil Thompson, Rodolph Austin

It should be a dramatic night of qualifying. Share your thoughts below.