In order for Soccer to make it to the U.S. sports fan's main menu, it must play a schedule that has both sense and purpose.  An American professional soccer league must begin play every year 1-2 weeks before the Major League baseball season begins and it must end its regular season 1-3 weeks before the start of the NFL [. Click to continue reading...

You can watch the video, but you might not understand at first.

Even, I dunno, fish know that in soccer the ball has to go into the goal for a score to count, right?

Apparently the referees in the Reading v. Watford goal decided otherwise. In this game, a ball that goes next to the goal counts. Click to continue reading...

From Matt: Can we analogize different major sports leagues to different branches of the federal government? Yes we can! Presidential politics is like the star-driven NBA while congress is the NFL and the judiciary is MLB. It's surprisingly plausible. And I'll extend — state government is like MLS with people occasionally telling themselves they'll pay attention [. Click to continue reading...

Goff reported that he was given the vote of confidence for the rest of the season yesterday, though now it's edited to quote a Rapids official saying that actually didn't happen. I'm not surprised that there's no move to fire him. If they didn't do it after last year, why do it now? His contract is up after this season, and hopefully then the Rapids will make a better decision. Click to continue reading...

The title of this post refers to the age of a player for a particular season. I set a specific age for a player in each season, which is something commonly done on baseball sites. That way, you can look at a player's stats and say, ok, he was 22 during that year. Then you can easily compare his age 22 year to those of other players. Click to continue reading...

In a few days the MLS will host their annual All-Star game in Toronto at BMO Stadium. This year they will be put up against West Ham a middle to low end of the table club in the EPL.


But lets get down to brass tacks (I never really got that saying.. does anyone really know where that comes from). Click to continue reading...

When you compare all-star games, it's clear that the MLS All-Star game is not one watched too closely by the mainstream sports media.

Nothing new, really. The next time the MLS All-Star game leads highlight shows will be the first time, probably. The mainstream media gives all kinds of coverage to other All-Star games, notably the Major League Baseball one which was played on Tuesday in New York. Click to continue reading...

My SI.com editor Jonah Freedman was out at the Oakland A's-LA Angels game on Saturday and brought back with him a somewhat positive snapshot of the San Jose Earthquakes' presence in the Bay Area.

Even though they're the worst team in MLS (though the Red Bulls are giving them a run for their money), they are still beloved in NoCal. Click to continue reading...

Remember all those many days ago when we had a home game? Well, one of those home games happened to coincide with another certain sporting event. Trying to accomodate our fans who enjoyed both events, we moved the game time around. There were several comments posted here and on Big Soccer and other places. Click to continue reading...

Ho-hum.

Another day, another winless result for Kevin Keegan and Newcastle today as his side managed to earn a 1-1 draw at fellow bottom-feeder Birmingham City. Michael Owen's oh-so-masterful toe-poke into the back of the net levelled the score in the second half and both teams came away with a point, a point that could turn out to be valuable at the end of the season. Click to continue reading...

According to a graphic released by Uni-sport.com, the new MLS kit numbers have arrived, as well the home/away unis for each MLS side for the 2008 season. The numbers may look familiar: they're similar to the number font used by Italy during Germany '06.

Oh, and an added bonus - no more standard black or white (or gold, if your Chivas USA) numerals. Click to continue reading...