Soccer By Ives

MLS Preseason recap: TFC's Silva shines, Johnson scores in Seattle debut, & more

By CALEB SONNELAND

Toronto FC rookie Luis Silva drew raves heading into the 2012 MLS Draft, and is beginning to show why as he establishes himself as a real threat for TFC, which posted a 5-1 victory against South Florida in pre-season MLS action.

The dynamic playmaker found himself on the score sheet early in the fifth minute as he slotted home a 1-on-1 opportunity with the USF keeper to make it 1-0. Just 10 minute later, Joao Plata, who would end the match with a goal himself, teed up Silva in the box for the latter to calmly stroke home to double his tally and Toronto's advantage.

Silva turned provider later in the half as he assisted on goals from Nick Soolsma and Terry Dunfield to wrap up a productive half for the former UC Santa Barbara man with two goals and two assists.

USF grabbed a consolation goal in the 78th minute and the final score rested at 5-1. Toronto will be in action again this Saturday at 6pm with Orlando City of the USL.

Here are some other preseason scores to get you thinking about MLS Opening Weekend:

Four MLS clubs to play for Desert Diamond Cup this winter

By JOSE M. ROMERO

PHOENIX -- Four MLS teams have agreed to take part in the Desert Diamond Cup, a round-robin tournament to be held at Kino Veterans Memorial Stadium in Tucson, Ariz., Feb. 22-March 3.

The defending MLS Cup champions Los Angeles Galaxy, the New York Red Bulls, the New England Revolution and Real Salt Lake are the scheduled participants in a series of matches that span a week and a half.

FC Tucson, a soccer club and organization established last year that brought MLS teams to the southern Arizona city last winter, made the announcement about the tournament Thursday. There will be four sets of doubleheaders with each team playing another on two Wednesdays and a Saturday (Feb. 22, 25 and 29), with the third-place game and championship on Saturday, March 3. All matches will be played at 6 and 8 p.m. local (Mountain Standard) time.

The tournament champion will be determined via point accumulation.

MLS teams line up 2012 preseason training in Arizona

Photo by Stephen Brashear/ISIphotos.com

By JOSE M. ROMERO

The MLS Cup final was played not even three weeks ago, but teams are already making training plans in preparation for next season. 

Three MLS teams are confirmed for training at Grande Sports World in Casa Grande, Ariz., beginning in January. The New England Revolution arrive Jan. 21 and stay until the 31st.

The Seattle Sounders are at the complex from Jan. 30-Feb. 7, and the Vancouver Whitecaps will be there from Jan. 31-Feb. 11. 

Real Salt Lake -- which has a youth academy based at the site -- and the New York Red Bulls are confirmed but have yet to set dates. RSL is hosting a pro combine at its academy this month.

Whitecaps top Seattle to wrap up Cascadia Summit

 

Omar Salgado showed fans in the Pacific Northwest on just why the Vancouver Whitecaps made him the first pick in the 2011 MLS Draft.

The tall striker with the deft touch and deceptive speed repeatedly torched a second-team Seattle Sounders squad on Sunday, helping the Whitecaps post a 3-2 victory against the Sounders in the final match of the Cascadia Summit.

Salgado opened the scoring when the rookie torched veteran defender Taylor Graham to make the score 1-0. Salgado also had a hand in the Whitecaps' third goal when he chipped Seattle goalkeeper Terry Boss, only to have the shot cleared and eventually converted by Brazilian trialist Camilo da Silva Sanvezzo.

Here are the match highlights, along with some other MLS pre-season results from Sunday:

Sunday MLS Ticker: Pappa lifts Chicago, D.C. defeats Charleston, and more

Photo by ISIPhotos.com

By THOMAS FLOYD

An early Marco Pappa strike led the Chicago Fire to a 1-0 win over Toronto FC in Saturday's Carolina Challenge Cup opener between two Eastern Conference foes looking to bounce back from missing the playoffs in 2010.

Pappa found the game's lone goal six minutes in when the Guatemalan midfielder collected a feed from Davis Paul and saw his a deflected shot beat Toronto goalkeeper Stefan Frei.

Chicago spent most of the match, played at Blackbaud Stadium in Charleston, S.C., down a man after Logan Pause was shown red in the 36th minute for a slide tackle on Toronto midfielder Oscar Cordon.

But the Fire's rebuilt back line of re-entry draft selection Cory Gibbs, first-round SuperDraft pick Jalil Anibaba and Croatian signing Josip Mikulic, along with substitute Gonzalo Segares, held Toronto off the score sheet.

Here is a roundup of the rest of Saturday's MLS preseason action:

Cascadia Summit: Portland Timbers vs. Vancouver Whitecaps (Your Running Commentary)

The Portland Timbers will look to build on the momentum of their 2-0 victory against Seattle on Friday when they take on the Vancouver Whitecaps in the second match of the Cascadia Summit (7pm).

The 2011 Expansion classmates will be squaring off the for the first time as MLS opponents, with the Timbers looking to secure the Cascadia Summit crown with a victory.

The match is being shown via live stream on the Portland Timbers and Vancouver Whitecaps websites. If you will be watching tonight's matches, please feel free to share your thoughts, opinions and some play-by-play in the comments section below.

Enjoy the action.

Cascadia Summit: Seattle vs. Portland (Your Running Commentary)

 

 

It might just be a pre-season game, but any time soccer teams from the Pacific Northwest meet, the match has special meaning.

The Seattle Sounders take on the Portland Timbers tonight in the first game of the Cascadia Summit, a round-robin tournament featuring the Sounders, Timbers and Vancouver Whitecaps. All three games this weekend are being played in Seattle.

Tonight's match is being streamed live on the Portland Timbers and Seattle Sounders team websites. If you will be watching (or attending) tonight's pre-season match, please feel free to share your thoughts, opinions and some play-by-play in the comments section below.

Enjoy the action.

MLS preseason recap: Davies scores twice, Texas derby gets intense and more

By THOMAS FLOYD

The optimism surrounding Charlie Davies’ trial with D.C. United seems to increase by the day.

In a development that is sure to please U.S. national team and United supporters alike, Davies notched two goals and an assist during the Black and Red’s 4-0 win over the Trinidad and Tobago Under-20 national team Saturday in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

A halftime substitute, Davies set up a Kurt Morsink tally with a cross in the 68th minute. He got on the scoresheet himself a minute later when he latched onto a Chris Pontius through ball and converted a near-post finish. Davies capped his performance with a shot into the upper-right corner in the 75th minute.

Joseph Ngwenya opened the scoring in the first half with his fourth goal in two preseason appearances.

Here is a roundup of the rest of Saturday’s preseason MLS action:

Salgado winner lifts Whitecaps past Crew

 

By ODEEN DOMINGO

PHOENIX – The absence of creases on the cheekbones of his weathered face tells you enough.

Vancouver Whitecaps coach Teitur Thordarson is not one for smiling.

But Thordarson couldn’t help but force a hint of a smirk after the Whitecaps’ 2-1 win in a scrimmage of two 45-minute halves over the Columbus Crew at the Reach 11 Soccer Complex.

His team accomplished just about everything it wanted on Tuesday, sans a Lionel Messi signing.

The Whitecaps had an impressive showing against an established franchise, a game-winner from its 17-year-old No. 1 draft pick Omar Salgado and veterans John Thorrington and Jay DeMerit, both recovering from injuries, received their first game action.

“We got a lot of young players here and we’re getting our older, more experienced players back off injury,” said Whitecaps coach Teitur Thordarson, whose team goes back to Vancouver on Wednesday for a week before coming back to Arizona to continue its preseason training.

MLS Training Camp Preview: Philadelphia Union

By AVI CREDITOR

The training wheels have been taken off, and the Philadelphia Union is ready to ride with the big boys.

After an inaugural season that ended well short of a postseason berth, the Union has made a number of personnel moves to shore up what was a shaky defense in 2010 while providing support for its budding attackers as well.

Only the New England Revolution yielded more goals than the Union did in 2010, which is why the club went ahead and secured the services of veteran keeper Faryd Mondragon from FC Cologne, among its other transactions. In order to create some cohesiveness between all its new parts, the Union has headed to Orlando for a couple of weeks for team building and a few scrimmages.

Here's a closer look at the Union's preseason plans:

MLS Training Camp Preview: Portland Timbers

By ADAM SERRANO

The Portland Timbers hope their look in their first year in MLS not as a typical expansion franchise, but instead as a powerhouse in the nation's top league.

The Rose City faithful will have much to be excited about in their first year in MLS with a club that appears focused on being electrifying right out of the gate. With players like forward Kenny Cooper, rookie Darlington Nagbe and Colombian trialist Jorge Perlaza, the Timbers appear ready for fireworks in 2011.

With all of their attacking power, it remains to be seen how the Timbers will manage keep the ball out of their own net. To bolster the defense, the club traded for veteran Troy Perkins from D.C. United, and he'll need to marshall a young and relatively inexperienced back line. With a cast ranging from Rodney Wallace to former Arsenal defender Kerrea Gilbert, the Timbers ability to defend may be the difference between being a contender or a pretender in the highly-competitive Western Conference.

Here is a look at the preseason plans of the Portland Timbers:

MLS Training Camp Preview: FC Dallas

By ADAM SERRANO

One win away.

That is how close FC Dallas came winning the franchise's first MLS Cup in 2010. Fresh off its crushing defeat to the Colorado Rapids in the final, FCD is ready to make a return run to the championship in 2011. Led by 2010 MVP David Ferriera in attack and backstopped by the talented Kevin Hartman in goal, Dallas once more looks to challenge for top honors.

After impressive seasons by youngsters Brek Shea, George John and Zach Loyd helped lead Dallas to the final, head coach Schellas Hyndman will need his young stars to put in equally impressive seasons in 2011; however, some questions remain. Who replaces the production of Dax McCarty, the midfielder that was so influential in the run to MLS Cup? Also, who will score the bulk of the goals after the departures of Atiba Harris and Jeff Cunningham? Some of those answers will be sorted out in the next few weeks.

Here's a closer look at the preseason plans of FC Dallas:

MLS Training Camp Preview: Toronto FC

 

By JOHN BOSCHINI

2011 is a year of new beginnings for Toronto FC.

An 11th-placed finish in last year's campaign fell wildly short of both fan and ownership expectations, resulting in the ousting of head coach Preki and director of soccer Mo Johnston. Under the advisement of former German national team coach Jurgen Klinsmann, Toronto hired Ajax assistant Aron Winter head coach and brought Paul Mariner back to the MLS as director of player development following his unsucessful stint as manager of Plymouth Argyle.

With a revamped front office, Toronto played it safe in the off-season, sacrificing a first-round pick for Seattle Sounders midfielder Nathan Sturgis and strengthening its defensive and midfield core with picks in the later rounds of the Superdraft. Last season, Toronto conceded 41 goals while scoring only 31, mostly coming from 15-goal scorer Dwayne De Rosario. Seven more came from Chad Barrett but the former first-round pick was traded to the L.A. Galaxy in exchange for allocation money and Toronto has yet to fill the void with a big, off-season signing and will turn instead to its academy to provide an offensive spark

Despite all the changes that took place in Toronto this winter, the expectation for the 2011 season is the same as last year: Make the playoffs for the first time in franchise history, no excuses.

Here's a closer look at Toronto's preseason:

MLS Training Camp Preview: Colorado Rapids

By AVI CREDITOR

The Colorado Rapids enter the 2011 preseason with an unfamiliar distinction: Defending MLS Cup champions.

Not much has changed in terms of the team's make-up. Captain Pablo Mastroeni is back in the fold after climbing the champion's mountain for the first time in his career; the lethal strike tandem of Conor Casey and Omar Cummings is still in tact, which may have been an uncertainty had Cummings gotten the chance to impress on trial at Aston Villa; and the defensive unit, which had a number of unknown commodities in 2010, has a successful season under its belt as it enters another campaign together.

With the team's role shifting from hunter to hunted, though, only the best will be expected from coach Gary Smith's squad from the onset of this coming season. Prior to that, the club will be tested with five friendlies against MLS clubs in a preseason that will be spent on the western part of the country.

Here's a closer look at the Colorado Rapids' preseason plans:

MLS Training Camp Preview: Houston Dynamo

By AVI CREDITOR

To date, perhaps no team has had as active a preseason as the Houston Dynamo. And the club has barely hit the training pitch.

With the team breaking ground on its new downtown stadium last week and the club being shifted to the Eastern Conference (for this season at least), change is in the air in Houston. That's a good thing, considering the team missed the postseason for the first time since the franchise relocated from San Jose.

With a couple of highly touted draft picks in the fold, more of an infusion from the team's academy and an eye toward the future, the Dynamo are hoping to be this season's turnaround success story. Before Houston opens the season at home against the Philadelphia Union, it'll continue its loaded preseason with 11 matches, including games at the Disney Classic and Atlanta Pro Soccer Challenge.

Here's a closer look at the Houston Dynamo's preseason plans:

MLS Pre-Season Recap: Nagbe shines in debut, Seattle tops Whitecaps, and more

By THOMAS FLOYD

Is it too early to peg Darlington Nagbe as the MLS rookie of the year favorite?

The Portland Timbers midfielder-forward showed a glimpse of the lofty potential that made him the No. 2 pick in January's SuperDraft, scoring the equalizer during his side's first exhibition as an MLS club, a 1-1 draw Friday with the Ventura County Fusion in Ventura, Calif.

The Akron product finished a near-post run in 46th minute by nodding home trialist Jorge Perlaza's chip from the touchline. Ventura County of the PDL went ahead in the 17th minute when midfielder Edur Vaca scored on a counter attack.

Nagbe entered in the 20th minute after striker Bright Dike was carted off the field with an apparent leg injury. Timbers coach John Spencer told The Oregonian it looked like a "bad calf strain" for Dike, who scored 10 goals for Portland in the second division last year.

Here is a roundup of other MLS squads in exhibition action Friday and Saturday: