The name of St. Louis' new Women's Professional Soccer team is actually growing on me, the more I hear it. Athletica. Different, but really different. Not corny, not comical, not trendy or cartoonish. Kind of Hellenic, which makes sense in a way. I kinda like it. I think this gives us the seven names for seven teams for [. Click to continue reading...

USA Today's Michael Hiestand reports that the overnight rating for MLS Cup was a 0.7*, which is pretty much what the overnight has been for the last few years, if memory serves. It's also fitting because Heistand trots out his same old "soccer is the sport of the future - and always will be" laugh [. Click to continue reading...

Montreal Impact boss Joey Saputo gives his side of the story as to why their bid for an MLS team in 2011 is (apparently) no more. Click to continue reading...

1) Colorado was your all-time overall champion, nicking Kansas City in terms of points per game (the Wizards played one more reserve game over four years than the Rapids): CLUB GP W L T PTS GF GA +/- PPG Colorado 44 25 11 8 83 89 61 28 1.89 Kansas City 45 25 12 8 83 92 63 29 1.84 Houston 33 17 12 4 55 66 50 16 1. Click to continue reading...

We're good now, right? New York didn't win, the world is still on its axis? The team with the best record in the regular season actually went through the byzantine playoff structure so many decry and turned in an emphatic performance in winning MLS Cup 2008? Whew. That's a relief. (On a side note - Shawn Mitchell [. Click to continue reading...

Somehow I don't get the feeling it's quite the holiday it is in other countries. Anyway, I'll be watching, and here are a few thoughts on that and recent announcements: Columbus should win. They're the better team. I can't believe New York has all of a sudden discovered how to play the game when a month ago [. Click to continue reading...

I'm going to guess that MLS Commissioner Don Garber will take the chance to amend, extend and clarify his comments of yesterday (as reported by Nick Green) in today's State of the League address. I'm also guessing that Mr. Green's piece is a little heavier-handed than it deserves to be, and that Garber's big point is [. Click to continue reading...

Mark Zeigler of the San Diego Union-Tribune has a really good story on the deliciousness of Columbus Crew coach Sigi Schmid returning to LA four years after he was dumped by the Galaxy. The Crew hadn't exactly been a model of excellence under Schmid before this year, but there he is, leading his club into MLS [. Click to continue reading...

He blogs less often than most Amish people, but Major League Soccer Commissioner Don Garber did speak to the New York Times' Jack Bell in this very good Q and A. Hopefully some of those Qs will stop coming (the league's not moving to a fall-to-spring schedule, Europoseurs, so stop frigging asking) eventually. Click to continue reading...

Loyal blog reader Mike Silver pointed me in the direction of this interview with Queen City FC (NPSL) president and general manager Ryan Knapp. Just 25 and with much more passion than available funds, he has helped build a successful club in Buffalo, New York. Although, now that I poke around a bit on their website, [. Click to continue reading...

Speaking of the Bay Area, the San Jose Mercury News reports that plans for a new stadium for the Earthquakes (as well as new homes for the A's and 49ers) may fall victim to Great Depression II: Electric Boogaloo. Partly because of the economy, the soccer stadium also has been scaled back, with Wolff now proposing [. Click to continue reading...

The San Francisco Bay Area's team in Women's Professional Soccer will be the FC Gold Pride, it was announced today. They'll share Santa Clara University's Buck Shaw Stadium with the San Jose Earthquakes of MLS. I'm supportive of WPS and really hope they do well. But between the LA Sol, the St. Louis We Don't Need [. Click to continue reading...

The Atlanta Silverbacks are "sitting out a year" (let's be honest - they're done). This is further bad news for the United Soccer Leagues, which had been making great strides in the last few years. Here's what's going on in the top division (the teams that played last year and expansion teams on the books): Atlanta Silverbacks: [. Click to continue reading...

  I like Will Johnson. I do. And this is a very nice goal. But Goal of the Year? Really? No one else had a better goal than that in 2008 in Major League Soccer? Really? Click to continue reading...

There's just something about the Canadian soccer press, I guess. I've written about it time and again. Now it's someone named Gareth Wheeler of the Toronto Sun, who's come to the unique conclusion that MLS should do away with its playoffs so it'll be like the rest of the soccer world* and because that will fix [. Click to continue reading...