The super-duper MLS season preview 14 Mar 2011 It’s become obligatory for every sports journalist to provide season previews for the league he or she covers. It’s automatic, and a great space killer! In that vein, The 11 presents its “waited until the last possible second before the regular season” season preview! Why the wait? Because it’s hard to figure out the East. The West? Wow, a lot of power and depth there. As for the East? Last season, New York and Columbus and six other mediocre to bad to awful clubs were in the conference. New York and Columbus left them all in the dust.
MLS Cup champs beat Whitecaps in final preseason game 13 Mar 2011 There’s something about Canada that brings out the best in Jamie Smith. The Colorado Rapids’ midfielder scored the only goal as the MLS Cup champs beat the Whitecaps 1-0 in Vancouver Saturday in the teams’ final tuneup before the season kicks off.
MLS confirms new 10-team playoff format 23 Feb 2011 With less than a month to go before First Kick, Major League Soccer has finally confirmed the new playoff structure for 2011. As hinted by commissioner Don Garber at last year’s MLS Cup in Toronto, the playoffs will expand to 10 teams from eight.
MLS releases schedule, playoff format still undecided 10 Feb 2011 Major League Soccer released its full schedule today http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/new-rivalries-highlight-2011-mls-regular-season-schedule, but fans don’t yet know how many teams will make the playoffs this season, or if there will be wild-card slots again in 2011. League spokesperson Will Kuhns stated Thursday that “MLS is reviewing the playoff format and playoff schedule for 2011 and will announce details soon.”
All-Star Game announcement creates interesting MLS Cup questions 1 Feb 2011 With the Red Bull Arena being awarded the MLS All-Star Game, not MLS Cup, there is plenty of food for thought about who is going to host the final game of the season. If MLS is to retain its system of awarding the game to a neutral site — something the league reviewed in 2009 but decided to continue on with after Seattle fans packed the house on a rainy Sunday November night to see Real Salt Lake take the title in penalty kicks over the Los Angeles Galaxy — New York is out for 2011. Commissioner Don Garber said the MLS Cup “could be at some point” awarded to the New York area, but he and the league are concerned about the cold November weather. That means the league may have learned something from holding a night game in Toronto last season, where there were thousands of empty seats. Temperatures near the freezing mark and bitter breezes off Lake Ontario made the game a chilly one. MLS Cup was held in cold-weather venues before, such as Foxboro, Mass. and Columbus, but those were day games. And that’s a massive difference.
Houston Dynamo makes the move East 28 Jan 2011 The Houston Dynamo will spend the next season in the East. MLS announced that, to keep the conferences balanced at nine teams apiece and, with two Pacific Coast teams, Vancouver and Portland, joining in 2011, the Dynamo will be the team on the move.
Sidra’s speed could be a major boost for TFC 28 Jan 2011 Could Eddy Sidra be a difference-maker for Toronto FC? Sidra is currently out of contract after leaving Energie Cottbus, the German side that signs so much Canadian talent, last year. TFC announced that he is one of three confirmed Canadian trialists who will join the team in Turkey.
FC Edmonton to add some MLS experience 7 Jan 2011 FC Edmonton announced Thursday that it will partner with U.S. based marketing firm Playbook Marketing International (PMI) to develop customer-service strategies and spur season-ticket sales.
Scottish referees standing up for themselves — and they’re right to do so 27 Nov 2010 The referees are on strike in Scotland. They have had it. They’ve had it with the criticisms of coaches and players. They’re tired of being made the scapegoats whenever a close decision goes against a fiery manager with an axe to grind. Good for them. They’ve gone on strike, leaving the Scottish FA scrambling to find refs for this week’s matches. Polish and Portuguese refs who the SFA thought it had secured to officiate this weekend’s games have gone back home. Scotland did find enough foreign refs to keep the Premier League going, so fans could be treated another weekly instalment of Rangers, Celtic and Everybody Else.
Whitecaps, Timbers stay away from high-priced players 24 Nov 2010 The shop window featured a heck of a lot of high-priced talent. The Vancouver Whitecaps weren’t buying.