Big ups to Columbus for doing the right thing and keeping Guillermo Barros Schellotto on and making him the club's first designated player. They did the right thing by rewarding him for his ridiculous play and rewarding the fans by not letting him slip away over money. Nice to see Hunt Sports Group commit and marry their baby momma: Congrats Guille on becoming Mark McCullers' "diamond girl". Click to continue reading...

The Crew and it's staff should just be chillin' and not thinking about anything more pressing than "What cut of steak shall I have at dinner tonight?" right now; this is their Purple Rain tour. They won the league and by all rights should be spending the week poppin' bottles, picking up chicks because they are now champion athletes (the single guys) or (the married guys) sending their kids to grandma's for a few days so Daddy can remind Mommy that he's still the man in very expensive hotel room somewhere. Click to continue reading...

The best team during the regular season claimed Major League Soccer's ultimate prize on Sunday, and the league's best player, Guillermo Barros Schelotto, turned in a performance for the ages, as the Columbus Crew earned their first-ever MLS Cup with a 3-1 win against a game New York Red Bulls side in MLS Cup 2008 [. Click to continue reading...

 

                                                                 Photo by ISIphotos.com

MLS MVP Guillermo Barros Schelotto and Los Angeles Galaxy star Landon Donovan were among the top names in the 2008 MLS Best XI, which was revealed on Saturday afternoon.

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So yeah, GBS is MVP and IMHO that is AOK. FWIW this piece in SI is also AOK. Click to continue reading...

...and then there were two. New York Red Bulls 1 - Real Salt Lake 0 One-time Dutch international, Dave van den Bergh scored midway through the first half as the fourth-seeded New York Red Bulls got a few fortunate bounces as they clinched their first-ever appearance in the MLS Cup with a 1-0 victory over third-seeded Real [. Click to continue reading...

I know that image is really large but a big picture is fitting for Luis Bueno's piece about the recent Latino influx in MLS, which is great from the league's big picture. Angel, Schelotto, Blanco, Javi Morales are the heart of their respective teams and bring in style and skill that hasn't been seen since the days of Etcheverry, Graziani and Savarese. Click to continue reading...

At the beginning of September, I commented that Guillermo Barros Schelotto had a good chance of becoming just the second MLS player to ever tally 20 assists. While Schelotto had an MVP-caliber season he came up just short, tying Marco Etcheverry, Carlos Valderrama and Steve Ralston for the second highest total in league history. Click to continue reading...

It was an odd week in the standings. The top teams from last week did well and so did most of the teams near the bottom. The middle-of-the-pack, though, had some downright terrible losses as DC, New York and Chicago were all embarrassed soundly.

It had a slight affect on the table, though the top and bottom didn't change too much. Click to continue reading...

Crew 4, Revs 0 Schelotto(unassisted) 40, Iro(Schelotto) 45, Garey(Schelotto) 67, Garey(Noonan) 90 This was the Revolution's second 4-0 pasting in one week, having lost to Trinidad's Joe Public in CONCACAF Champions' League play on Tuesday. New England was missing several starters and fielded a makeshift side. Click to continue reading...

Do you ever read Unprofessional Foul? If you don't, check it out sometime. Good guys who are kinda funny and are pretty well-rounded in their footie coverage, although if I could request more American coverage I would (wink, wink if you're reading this UF).

Today I get my wish because they've got an excellent interview with San Jose's British bad-ass Darren Huckerby. Click to continue reading...

I had a chance to watch Game Breakers: The Stars of Major League Soccer this evening. The A&E DVD about several of the stars of Major League Soccer was just released today.

The description of the DVD lists 12 players that they profile but you will see so much more than just 12 player profiles.

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Crew 3, RSL 0 Marshall(Schelotto) 15, Schelotto(PK) 25, Evans (Gaven, Schelotto) 55 There's always something new to see at Crew Stadium. This week we sat to the right of the tunnel before the game and learned that there is such a thing as MLS groupies. I hadn't considered that. It's also an interesting vantage point for watching [. Click to continue reading...

Crew 2, Hoops 1 Dallas: Cunningham(Adrian Serioux) 35 Columbus: Carroll(Schelotto, Moreno) 62, Evans(Schelotto) 65 Kenny Cooper and the FC Dallas Hoops came to Columbus Saturday night. Shellas Hyndeman has added 2 new players since he replaced Steve Morrow in June. Those additions, Jeff Cunningham and Nick Sikora, played well in Columbus, but Cunningham's lone goal wasn't enough [. Click to continue reading...

The first-place Columbus Crew. Has a nice ring to it, doesn't it? Sure, it only lasted until Wednesday, when New England beat D.C. to move back on top of the East, but for four days the Crew enjoyed the rarified air of first place in the brutal Eastern Conference.

The fact that Columbus beat red-hot FC Dallas to move into first made the accomplishment even more impressive.

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Crew 3, Wizards 3 Kansas City: Own Goal (Hejduk)22, Espinoza (Jewsbury/Morsink)24, Wolfe (Jewsbury/Morsink)75 Columbus: Schelotto (unassisted)26, Moreno(Schelotto,Rogers)33, Marshall (Schelotto)38 Well, I'll be a suck-egg mule. That should have been 3 points in the bank. you can bet that this game ends up on the Wizard's highlight reel for the season. Click to continue reading...

That's probably the biggest question surrounding tonight's game against the Crew. Will Josh Wolff make his KC return? He's itching to do so. And if he does, how much of an impact will he have? Clearly, this is a team that needs goals in order to have any kind of shot at the playoffs. Trading Sealy is a bit iffy because of that, but according to Ives they received upwards of $125,000 for him - not bad.

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The Wizards make their token appearance on ESPN tomorrow night when they travel to Columbus to take on the Crew. The Wizards are 0-2 against the Crew this year after dropping the first game in Columbus 2-1 and then being humbled at home 3-0 a few weeks ago. The Wizards come in on a four game unbeaten run in the league (2-0-2) and on a 6 game unbeaten run overall (3-0-3). Click to continue reading...

Photo by ISIphotos.com

D.C. United is on fire.

When D.C. and Los Angeles took the field on Sunday it was supposed to be a battle between two of the most in-form teams in MLS.

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Defensive calamities for the Crew and a tepid offense combined to allow the Galaxy to take a one goal lead after the first 45 minutes.

A horrendous mistake by Crew goalkeeper Will Hesmer in just the fourth minute gifted the Galaxy their goal, the Columbus net minder failing to hold a David Beckham cross when challenged by Landon Donovan who then turned and fired the ball home.

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Word from my sources in C-Bus, Guillermo Barros Schelotto arrived this morning. Those cries you hear may be from Gimnasia down in Argentina. But at least, for now, the Crew and their fans can breathe again. Also the word from C-Bus is that the Crew have had some more talks with Polish striker Maciej Zurawski. Click to continue reading...

Good morning all. It is a busy day in the MLS world as the news is permeating throughout the league. My colleagues around the country are cranking out the information, which is definitely a good sign.

Here are some MLS-related stories to digest with your morning coffee:

Spencer out of the Fire race

Houston Dynamo assistant John Spencer tells the Houston Chronicle's Bernardo Fallas that he turned down the Fire coaching job, claiming that he did so because the contract offer was too low.

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Add Crew president Mark McCullers to the list of people who insist that Argentinian star Guillermo Barros Schelotto will be returning to Columbus for the 2008 season.

"I talked to (Schelotto) last night and he was confirming when the reporting date was," McCullers said. "He did get some offers and some attention from some clubs in Argentina and that?

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Good news for Columbus Crew fans, their star midfielder Guillermo Barros Schelotto isn't going to leave just yet for his hometown club in Argentina Gimnasia de La Plata. Crew coach Sigi Schmid said that Schelotto has maintained his desire to return to the Crew. This all according to Ives. Schmid went on to say the following [. Click to continue reading...

With Adu bidding adieu to Real Salt Lake and the MLS for Benfica and Sal Zizzo shunning Major League Soccer all together and signing with Hannover 96 before he can get trapped in the MLS slave trade, who will be the next US player to change continents?

Danny Szetela? The Columbus Crew midfielder may be gaining a world of knowledge by playing along side Guillermo Barros Schelotto, but other than that, he's wasting his time and talents. Click to continue reading...