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.

But, anyone who tuned in to watch the Vancouver Whitecaps hang on to beat the Seattle Sounders 3-2 in the finale of the Cascadia Cup — or any of the 4,000 people who packed what’s normally a training pitch in Tukwila, Wash — got to see about as entertaining a MLS preseason game as you’re ever going to see.

With seven members of his national championship side off to the pro ranks, coach Caleb Porter has to replenish the cupboards at the University of Akron. What Porter has established in his five years has helped the cause. “We’re always going to have to work hard,” Porter says of recruiting. “Everybody wants those (top recruits) guys and we’re going to have to work to get them. I think our biggest sell right now is not so much that we’ve won but it’s the way we play. The way we play helps to develop players for the next level.

It’s rare for Caleb Porter to take a break from his passion. The University of Akron head coach is a self-professed soccer junkie, constantly watching, reading about and developing tactics for the game so it was a strange thing for him to put everything aside for a month following his Zips’ 1-0 win over Louisville in the NCAA title match on Dec. 12. The championship was Akron’s first as a school. But given the stamp the 35-year-old Porter has put on the program in his five years in charge, it might not be the last.