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NYCFC announcement leaves more questions than answers — and that’s good for MLS

By
Steven Sandor
– 05/22/2013

MLS-logoMLS showed some media mastery in announcing the new New York City FC franchise Tuesday. By leaving us with as more questions than could possibly be answered in a conference call, the league has ensured that columnists and bloggers — even ones that don’t regularly cover soccer — will write the kind of speculative articles that every league PR person publicly berates but secretly loves.

That’s because these sort of speculative articles keep the new franchise in the hearts and minds of New Yorkers — and that’s important, because the new team will start play in 2015 in a temporary venue, while it searches for a home.

So many questions:

What will NYCFC mean for the Red Bulls? Commissioner Don Garber said he hoped it would stoke a fierce rivalry in a city of 19 million. But it’s not like NYCFC is coming in as an upstart, looking to knock off a team with lots of history and trophies. What NYCFC is competing with is a team that doesn’t sell out its soccer palace that you’ll find out on the train to Newark Airport, a team that’s name is a brand, a team that’s devoid of championships.
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U.S. Open Cup results work out perfectly for FC Edmonton

By
Steven Sandor
– 05/22/2013

USOCCoach Colin Miller and his FC Edmonton players lamented the number of breaks that went against them in the early portion of the NASL spring campaign. There were the phantom penalty calls. There were the goalposts and crossbars that were magnets for balls off the heads, thighs and feet of the Eddies’ players.

But Lady Luck has a way of evening things out. And, while the Eddies have been on a bye, pretty well each and every result they wanted to go their way has, well, gone their way.

Going into the weekend, the Eddies were three points out of first place in the NASL spring season table, but each of the other six teams in the league had a game in hand on FCE. When the weekend’s action was done, the Eddies found themselves still just three points off the top of the table — yet the rest of the league had burned their games in hand.

Now, the Eddies go into the final six games of the spring campaign just three points down — and with four of the team’s final six on Clarke Stadium turf, where the team is 2-0-0 and has yet to surrender a goal so far.
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No contest: Johnson is MLS Player of the Week

By
Steven Sandor
– 05/21/2013

Eddie Johnson

Eddie Johnson

Sometimes, you are so sure of the Player of the Week outcome, you almost forget to fill in your ballot and have it to the head office in time.

Sorta like an Alberta election: Voter turnout suffers because it’s assumed that the election is a done deal before the writ is signed by the lieutenant-governor.

This was one of those weeks. With two goals and an assist against FC Dallas, the team with the league’s best record, Seattle Sounders forward Eddie Johnson ticked off all the boxes when it comes to Player of the Week-worthiness. So, it wasn’t a surprise that he got the most checkmarks on the ballots from the members of the North American Soccer Reporters.
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Haber scores again for Maccabi Haifa

By
Steven Sandor
– 05/19/2013

Daniel Haber

Daniel Haber

Daniel Haber’s strike rate is an amazing goal-per-40.5 minutes.

The Toronto native scored his second goal of the season for Maccabi Haifa. After coming in as a sub, he scored the 85th-minute winner in a 3-2 win over Hapoel Tel Aviv.

Haber’s appearances in Israel’s Ligat Ha’al have been infrequent since he decided to forego his final year of eligibility at Cornell University and turned pro in January. The sub appearance in this weekend’s win was just his third showing in a league match this season — all of them seeing him coming in off the subs’ bench. But, with this weekend’s tally, Haber has now scored twice in just 81 minutes of total time on the pitch.
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On last day of season, Hainault scores his first for Ross County

By
Steven Sandor
– 05/19/2013

Andrew Hainault

Andrew Hainault

On the last day of the Scottish Premier League season, Canadian defender Andrew Hainault scored his first goal for Ross County.

Just before the end of the first half, Hainault came up to join the attack on a corner, and the ex-Houston Dynamo centre back/right back rocketed a volley into the goal after the ball fell to him at the far post. The goal gave Ross County a 1-0 win over Inverness Caledonian Thistle.

After Hainault came to Ross County in January, he struggled to get into the lineup. Up to April 6, he had made just three substitute appearances for his side — a total of just 10 minutes on the pitch with the first team.
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Ref takes centre stage in Portland-Vancouver clash

By
Martin MacMahon
– 05/19/2013

Camilo

Camilo

The Vancouver Whitecaps conceded late to Jose Valencia in controversial circumstances on Saturday, as they drew 2-2 with the 10-man Portland Timbers in front of 19,823 at BC Place.

On the game-tying play, in the 84th minute, the substitute appeared to bring a long ball from Will Johnson down with his hands – match officials were asked by a pool reporter what they saw on the play, and responded that from their view Valencia brought the ball down with his chest.

Replays proved otherwise, but Whitecaps head coach Martin Rennie seemed dissatisfied with the officiating both ways.

“I thought it was a hand ball,” Rennie remarked when asked about Valencia’s equalizing goal, before later addressing Portland’s red card, in which Futty Danso collided with Camilo as last man back. “Whether it was a red card or not – I don’t necessarily think it was – both players were running together so that was a little harsh.

“Sometimes when a team goes down a man, it doesn’t necessarily help you.”
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