Exclusive: Tottenham Hotspur and San Jose Earthquakes Developing A Special Relationship

This was cross-posted at Huffington Post Sports. While other MLS clubs are preparing for the new season by playing lower tier US clubs, the San Jose Earthquakes are in London testing themselves against Premier League competition and practicing at the training facility of Premier League risers Tottenham Hotspur. What is an MLS club doing in [...]

Beckham’s Injury May Effect Landon Donovan’s Summer Plans

By rupturing his Achilles yesterday playing with AC Milan, David Beckham’s World Cup dreams are over. This, in footballing terms is not that great of a blow to England, as the Guardian’s Rob Smyth dryly notes. But this is a big blow for MLS and to the LA Galaxy who have now likely lost Becks [...]

MLS Labor Brinksmanship – How its like the Cuban Missile Crisis

In my day job I follow international negotiations on nuclear issues (ie US treaty talks with Russia, international talks with Iran and North Korea). So when the MLS players came out of talks collective bargaining and publicly complained about the owners, only to be followed by the MLS to make their public case, I immediately [...]

DC United’s Stadium Saga Not As Lifeless As It May Seem

There is reason to be optimistic about DC United’s stadium situation. While almost every interview that United gives about the stadium seems to say very little, there are some tidbits and some things that can be gleaned from reading between the lines. Steve Goff at Soccer Insider has an interview revealing that while Will Chang, [...]

Options For Expansion

[See part 1 here] Expansion depends on a lot of different factors: a wealthy and committed ownership group, an amenable local government, the economic climate and the country. Therefore league expansion is not something that can simply be determined by the league in its corporate headquarters. However, given the last round of expansion into smaller [...]

A Plan For MLS Expansion

MLS has grown rapidly over the last half decade and is on the cusp of becoming a true national league. Following the contraction of Tampa and Miami early this decade, MLS has placed franchises in Houston, Salt Lake City, Seattle, Toronto, a second team in Los Angeles, Seattle, Philadelphia and next year Portland and Vancouver. [...]

Second thoughts on Perkins and DC United’s “dumb” trade

I may have been a little harsh in my assessment of the DC United – Philly Union trade. I called it “dumb.” Thinking about it a bit more that was kinda of a “dumb” reactionary assessment. There is clearly a logic to this deal for United. One of the most frustrating things about the deal, [...]

DC United’s Dumb Trade

News broke yesterday that DC United has traded with Philadelphia for the rights to sign Troy Perkins who is leaving Norway to resign with the league. Perkins is an excellent keeper and United have been struggling to replace him since he left a couple of years ago. With Josh Wicks injured, getting a goal keeper [...]

Thoughts On The MLS Labor Negotiations

I am not all that familiar with the history of MLS labor negotiations, but the heated rhetoric and threats of a lockout or strike have clearly raised the temperature to a point where we should all be concerned to a point. Having followed international negotiations at times in my day job, much of this is [...]

The Decade American Soccer Arrived

As the sun sets on the 00s, it is worth an initial look back on the decade that was and some thoughts on the decade that will be. While politically, economically, and socially this will be seen as one of the worst decades in memory, when it comes to soccer, this is the decade that [...]

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