Major League Soccer- Latest news, results etc.

[Frank Cunha]

CONCACAF Champions League
× 20:00 19'1st Tauro FC 1 - 0 CD Chivas USA

× 20:00 18'1st Joe Public 0 - 0 New England Revolution

× 22:00 0' Cruz Azul - Hankook Verdes

× 20:00 0' Montreal Impact - Real Esteli

[Frank Cunha]

2008 Schedule Team Schedules Chicago Chivas USA Colorado Columbus D.C. United FC Dallas Houston Kansas City Los Angeles New England New York Real Salt Lake San Jose Toronto FC March & April May June July August September October November
August 2008 Print the schedule
- single-game tickets - ticket packages
away team home team time (ET) / result tickets / highlights TV / attendance
Saturday, August 2
Kansas City Wizards D.C. United DC 2, KC 0 18,731
Chivas USA Chicago Fire CHI 1, CHV 0 20,492
Columbus Crew Houston Dynamo HOU 2, CLB 0 15,371
Sunday, August 3
Los Angeles Galaxy San Jose Earthquakes SJ 3, LA 2 26,071
FC Dallas Toronto FC DAL 2, TOR 0 20,247
Saturday, August 9
Toronto FC Colorado Rapids TOR 1, COL 0 11,752
Chicago Fire New England Revolution CHI 2, NE 1 19,240
Chivas USA Kansas City Wizards KC 3, CHV 2 9,597
Sunday, August 10
D.C. United New York Red Bulls NY 4, DC 1 15,038
Thursday, August 14
Los Angeles Galaxy Chivas USA 2-2 27,000
Saturday, August 16
FC Dallas Columbus Crew CLB 2, DAL 1 17,647
D.C. United Chicago Fire DC 1, CHI 0 19,560
Real Salt Lake Houston Dynamo HOU 4, RSL 3 13,579
Kansas City Wizards Colorado Rapids COL 2, KC 1 10,609
New England Revolution San Jose Earthquakes SJ 4, NE 0 9,859
Sunday, August 17
Toronto FC New York Red Bulls NY 2, TOR 0 11,119
Wednesday, August 20
D.C. United New England Revolution NE 2, DC 1 14,962
Chivas USA Houston Dynamo HOU 4, CHV 0 10,908
Thursday, August 21
Chicago Fire Los Angeles Galaxy CHI 1, LA 0 27,000
Saturday, August 23
Colorado Rapids D.C. United DC 3, COL 0 17,283
New England Revolution Toronto FC 1-1 20,461
Real Salt Lake Columbus Crew CLB 3, RSL 0 12,448
FC Dallas Kansas City Wizards 1-1 9,825
San Jose Earthquakes Chivas USA 0-0 12,209
Sunday, August 24
Houston Dynamo New York Red Bulls NY 3, HOU 0 12,549
Friday, August 29
Colorado Rapids Real Salt Lake RSL 2, COL 0 15,257
Saturday, August 30
Los Angeles Galaxy New England Revolution 2-2 39,256
New York Red Bulls D.C. United 0-0 15,616
Columbus Crew FC Dallas CLB 2, DAL 1 10,590
Kansas City Wizards San Jose Earthquakes SJ 2, KC 1 10,089
Toronto FC Chivas USA CHV 2, TOR 1 12,561
Sunday, August 31
Chicago Fire Houston Dynamo 7:00 p.m. DK, MLSLIVE.tv

[Frank Cunha]

Revs fall short, bow out of tourney
New England shut out by Joe Public FC, lose aggregate series
By Kyle McCarthy / MLSnet.com Staff
Gregory Richardson scored three goals to lead Joe Public FC to a 4-0 win over the Revolution. (AP Photos)
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FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- Joe Public FC advanced to the CONCACAF Champions League group stage with a 4-0 victory against the New England Revolution at Gillette Stadium on Tuesday night.
Gregory Richardson scored a hat trick and Roen Nelson added a goal as Joe Public became the first Caribbean team to advance past an MLS team in a CONCACAF club competition, winning the two-leg series 6-1 on aggregate after a 2-1 victory last week in Trinidad and Tobago.

Revs head coach Steve Nicol had nary a striker to name in his starting lineup with Taylor Twellman (cheek), Adam Cristman (toe), Kheli Dube (adductor) and Kenny Mansally (ankle) all out. Khano Smith partnered reserve striker Brandon Manzonelli up top. Michael Parkhurst had the night off as Gabriel Badilla and Amaechi Igwe partnered in the center of defense.

The Revs attack had a makeshift look to it and it showed in the opening stages as the team struggled to get forward. Some neat interplay helped the Revs keep possession, but there wasn't much in the way of danger in the early stages.

Joe Public looked content to hit the Revs on the break with their pace. That tactic paid off after 17 minutes. Wolry Wolfe collected a loose ball in midfield and slipped a ball through the Revs backline. Richardson surged through Igwe and Badilla, latched on the pass and deposited into the far side netting to give Joe Public a shock lead.

Needing a minimum of two goals to force extra time, New England started to inch forward in search of goals. Combination play from Wells Thompson and Manzonelli created a corner kick opportunity that ended up astray.

Shalrie Joseph should have tied the score after 36 minutes after Jay Heaps played a ball into his run. Joseph walked in along the byeline, but dragged his shot wide from a tight angle.

Joe Public hadn't given up on getting the killer second goal on the counterattack. Wolfe forced Reis to palm over the bar minutes before the break.

Richardson scored the second on the stroke of halftime to effectively end the tie. Richardson collected from a throw-in on the right side of the penalty area, skipped around Badilla and shot high to the near post past the cheating Reis to place his goal on the highlight reels. The goal sent the Revs from the field to the boos of the Gillette Stadium faithful as all hope had gone in the first 45 minutes.

Things didn't improve after the break as Joe Public added their third after three minutes. Nelson missed a boatload of chances in the first leg down in Trinidad, but rectified that with a simple finish here. Richardson again provided the impetus as he cut inside and pulled back for Nelson to sidefoot past Reis from just outside the area.

The Revs improved a bit after the third goal with the game well and truly gone, pushing up the field. Joseph went off for a substitute with Saturday's match in Columbus in Steve Nicol's mind, but chances were still hard to find.

Richardson added his third when Silan Spann created some space for him and he finished to the far post with a thumping strike to end the scoring.

But the night ended in misery for Heaps after he was issued his second yellow card in the 90th minute to cap performance the Revs will likely soon hope to forget.

Kyle McCarthy is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.

[Frank Cunha]

Tough times for the MLS
Tough Times for Major League Soccer - AOL Sports

[Frank Cunha]

San Jose undefeated in the last 8 games

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MLS INFORMER News and notes from around the league

MLS INFORMER
News and notes from around the league



Hot Quakes
The San Jose Earthquakes are unbeaten in their last eight MLS matches after last weekend’s 2-1 win over D.C. United, posting four wins and four ties in that stretch. It is the third-longest unbeaten streak in team history. The team posted a 14-game unbeaten run from July 20-Oct. 15, 2005 and a 12-game unbeaten run from April 28-July 4, 2001.

The streak is the longest unbeaten streak in MLS this season and the second longest ever by an expansion team. The Chicago Fire had an 11-game unbeaten run as an expansion team in 1998.
Including the Quakes, four expansion teams have entered MLS since 2005. In 2005, Chivas USA and Real Salt Lake earned four and five wins, respectively, while Chivas picked up 18 points and RSL 20 points. Last season, Toronto FC had six wins and 25 points for the entire season. Saturday’s win over D.C. was the Earthquakes’ seventh victory of the season, and gave them 28 points for the season with seven matches remaining. The Quakes have now moved past Toronto as the winningest expansion team of this decade in MLS.

Homecoming
D.C. United ‘s 1998 team will return to RFK Stadium to be honored at halftime on a night the club pays tribute to local military members and public servants during the club’s Seventh Annual Hometown Heroes Night. Jeff Aunger, Judah Cooks, Marco Etcheverry, Scott Garlick, John Harkes, Brian Kamler, Roy Lassiter, Carlos Llamosa, Jaime Moreno, Ben Olsen, Eddie Pope, Tom Presthus, Mark Simpson and AJ Wood will all be in attendance on Saturday, September 13, when the club hosts FC Dallas.

Flipped off
Real Salt Lake’s Fabian Espindola had an energetic celebration to his goal against the LA Galaxy on Saturday night, doing a pair of back flips. Unfortunately for Espindola, the goal was called back for offside, and he severely sprained his ankle landing on the flip, and will be out 4-6 weeks.

A black hole
The LA Galaxy’s season is quickly turning into a black hole. Last Saturday’s 2-2 home draw against Real Salt Lake stretched the Galaxy’s winless streak to a club record 11 games. This streak ties Chivas USA for the fifth longest winless streak in MLS history, after that team went 11 games without a win in 2005.

Since their last win on June 14 at San Jose, the Galaxy are 0-5-6 and have been outscored 26-16, allowing two or more goals in nine of those 11 games. In comparison, during their 11-game winless streak, Chivas USA went 0-9-2 and were outscored 27-9, allowing two or more goals eight times.

Slipping
The Revs (11-7-5, 38 pts.) – who occupied the top spot in the overall MLS standings for almost three months from late May to August – have slipped into a tie for second place in the Eastern Conference after going 1-3-2 in their last six league games since winning SuperLiga 2008.

Chivas USA (8-9-6, 30 pts.) has won two straight – both against Toronto – after snapping a six-game winless streak and has jumped into third place in the West, just one point behind Real Salt Lake and eight behind Houston.

Transactions
CHICAGO FIRE: Signed midfielder Justin Mapp to a four-year contract extension through the 2011 season.

SEATTLE SOUNDERS FC: Singed Sanna Nyassi, a member of the Gambia U-20 National Team and twin brother of New England’s Sainey Nyassi, at the 2007 FIFA Championships.

Nyassi, a 19-year-old midfielder, becomes the third player signed by Sounders FC, joining American goalkeeper Kasey Keller and French forward Sebastien Le Toux. Sounders FC begins its inaugural MLS season in 2009.

KANSAS CITY WIZARDS: Acquired forward Abe Thompson Friday from FC Dallas for allocation money.

PHILADELPHIA: Selected T.N. Ward to build its $115 million multiuse stadium.

SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES: Signed Michael Ghebru and Davide Somma to developmental contracts.

Ghebru, 20, was born in Germany and played in the youth system at three different clubs. He spent time with Offenbacher Fotball Club Kickers 1901, MSV Duisburg and Eintracht Frankfurt. Ghebru will count as an international on the Earthquakes roster.

Somma, 23, was born in South Africa, but has Italian citizenship and also possesses a green card. He has spent time with three Italian clubs in his career. He started his career with Perugia in 2004, before signing with FC Pro Vasto in 2005. Somma played most recently for Olbia Calcio.

Player of the week
Columbus Crew midfielder Guillermo Barros Schelotto was voted Major League Soccer’s Player of the Week for Week 24 of the 2008 season.

Schelotto had a goal and two assists as Columbus defeated the New England Revolution 4-0. The victory improved the Crew’s record to 13-6-4 (43 points) and helped them gain a five-point lead atop the Eastern Conference.

The Crew have won four games in a row, and five of six since the All-Star break. This is Schelotto’s fourth Player of the Week award this season and the sixth of his career.

You can quote me
Real Salt Lake midfielder Kyle Beckerman on the team’s 2-2 draw with LA:

“We felt like we lost two points tonight.”

[Frank Cunha]

team w l t pts
Columbus 13 6 5 44
New England 12 7 5 41
Chicago 11 7 5 38
New York 9 7 8 35
D.C. United 10 11 3 33
Kansas City 7 9 8 29
Toronto FC 7 11 6 27



team w l t pts
Houston 10 5 9 39
Real Salt Lake 8 9 7 31
Chivas USA 8 10 6 30
San Jose 7 9 8 29
FC Dallas 6 9 9 27
Colorado 8 12 3 27
Los Angeles 6 10 8 26


name gp g
Landon Donovan
LA 19 16
Kenny Cooper
DAL 24 14
Edson Buddle
LA 21 13
Luciano Emilio
DC 23 11
Jaime Moreno
DC 22 10
Brian Ching
HOU 20 10

[Frank Cunha]

USL First Division
× 22:00 15'1st [5] Seattle Sounders 0 - 0 Vancouver Whitecaps FC [2]

× 18:00 0' [11] Miami FC - Atlanta Silverbacks [9]

× 19:30 0' [3] Montreal Impact - Puerto Rico Islanders [1]

× 19:30 90'FT [8] Carolina RailHawks 1 - 0 Portland Timbers [10] 0-0

× 20:05 90'FT [7] Minnesota Thunder 3 - 1 Montreal Impact [3] 1-1

× USA Major League Soccer
× 21:00 50'2nd [8] Colorado Rapids 1 - 0 New England Revolution [2] 1-0

× 21:00 53'2nd [7] Real Salt Lake 0 - 0 CD Chivas USA [9] 0-0

× 23:00 0' [14] Los Angeles Galaxy - Washington D.C. United [6]

× 15:00 0' [4] Chicago Fire - FC Dallas [12]

× 20:00 89'FT [11] Kansas City Wizards 2 - 0 Toronto FC [13]

[Frank Cunha]

USA Major League Soccer
× 21:00 73'2nd [8] Colorado Rapids 1 - 1 New England Revolution [2] 1-0

× 21:00 76'2nd [7] Real Salt Lake 0 - 1 CD Chivas USA [9] 0-0

× 23:00 0' [14] Los Angeles Galaxy - Washington D.C. United [6]

× 15:00 0' [4] Chicago Fire - FC Dallas [12]

× 20:00 0'FT [11] Kansas City Wizards 2 - 0 Toronto FC [13]

[Frank Cunha]

USA - Major League Soccer
23:45 September 20

FT Kansas City Wizards 2 - 0 Toronto FC

FT Colorado Rapids 1 - 1 New England Re'lution

FT Real Salt Lake 0 - 1 CD Chivas USA

45' Los Angeles Galaxy 2 - 1 DC United

[Frank Cunha]

USA - Major League Soccer
19:15 October 25

19:30 New England Re'lution ? - ? Kansas City Wizards

20:30 Colorado Rapids ? - ? Real Salt Lake

21:00 San Jose E'quakes ? - ? Toronto FC

21:30 CD Chivas USA ? - ? Houston Dynamo

[Frank Cunha]

MLS News and Notes
by Frank Giase/The Star-Ledger Friday November 21, 2008, 10:13 PM
CARSON, Calif. -- Major League Soccer commissioner Don Garber touched on a number of subjects last night at his annual state of the league address prior to Sunday's MLS Cup.

The Reserve Division will cease operations after four years.

The league's Board of Directors felt it wasn't worth the time or money to have each club's reserve teams play each other the day after the senior clubs play.

Instead, the money will be diverted to other programs, such as a bolstered senior roster and increased commitment to the Generation adidas program.

The senior roster, limited to 18 players this year, will increase to 20. Teams will also be permitted to carry up to four developmental players outside the salary cap.

The 2009 season will begin March 21, one week earlier than 2008.

This was done to try to open some summer dates to accommodate the U.S. national team playing in both the Confederations Cup and CONCACAF Gold Cup, and taking part in World Cup qualifying.

MLS will clear its schedule on two weekends or play with a reduced schedule over four weekends to limit playing on the same day as the national team. The league will also play more games on weeknights.

Each team will again play a 30-game schedule, taking on the other 14 teams home and away. The remaining two games will be against intra-conference rivals.

Expansion news:

The Seattle Sounders will enter MLS next year and a yet-to-be-named team from Philadelphia will join the league in 2010, but there will be further expansion beyond that.

Garber said Seattle has already sold 18,000 season tickets and that Philadelphia will hold a groundbreaking ceremony Dec. 1 for its new stadium in Chester.

On Oct. 15, seven cities submitted bids for expansion clubs: Atlanta; Miami; Montreal; Ottawa; Portland, Ore.; St. Louis and Vancouver.

In a surprise announcement, Garber said Montreal dropped out of the race, leaving six cities bidding for two spots. The winning bids will be announced early next year.

[Frank Cunha]

MLS misses its shot to make a big splash
by Frank Giase/Star-Ledger Staff Monday November 24, 2008, 11:56 AM
CARSON, Calif. -- No one is comparing MLS Cup week to the week leading up to the Super Bowl, but Major League Soccer could learn a thing or two about selling its sport at its most visible time.

After a season of coverage from ESPN, Fox Soccer Channel and various Spanish network stations, this was the league's chance at network television, with a three-hour window on ABC.

And they just didn't take advantage of it.


Here was a game taking place at The Home Depot Center, the field where the league's biggest name and the league's biggest American star play their home games, and both were a no-show.

Perhaps it's because David Beckham and Landon Donovan are having problems with the league. No one was saying.

After two years of not making the playoffs and having offseasons too long for his liking, Beckham, in an effort to save his international career, went on his own to search for a team to train with. He chose AC Milan, and we'll have to wait and see if one of the most powerful clubs in the world can pry him away from MLS.

Donovan also made contact with a foreign club on his own, in his case Bayern Munich, and while MLS commissioner Don Garber insisted no transfer fee has ever been discussed, he acknowledged mistakes in communication were made.

Speaking of mistakes in communication, another was made regarding future expansion.

At his annual state-of-the-league address Friday night at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza, Garber said the ownership group from Montreal had dropped out of the running to be one of the two expansion clubs that will enter the league in 2011.

But reports out of Montreal claim that isn't so. While the two sides argue about semantics, it is believed Montreal's ownership group feels the $40 million price tag is too high.

It's likely a joint statement saying both sides agreed to go their separate ways will be released at some point.

Without Montreal, that leaves six cities -- Portland, Ore.; Vancouver; St. Louis; Ottawa; Miami and Atlanta -- in the running. Word has it that other cities are complaining the expansion fee is too high, but the league has set its price and will lose a lot of credibility if the fee is lowered.

But back to the game.

Part of the halftime ceremony on the field honored the Best XI, the top players at each position this year chosen by the media, players, coaches and general managers.

Unfortunately, just a handful of the players showed up, which took away from the moment and made the award seem trivial.

Another problem was the embarrassing number of empty seats at the game.

A league spokesman said all 27,000 seats were sold and they can't be responsible if people don't show up. He said Galaxy season ticket holders were given first crack at tickets for the final and bought a number of them. Apparently, after the horrible season they went through, and with the team's recent glory still fresh in their minds, watching another team raise the trophy in their home stadium was too much to bear.

Garber said one of the ideas the league is considering is having the highest remaining seed after the two conference finals host MLS Cup. He said now that the league has more stadiums at its disposal it could be done.

That would certainly solve the problem of empty seats, but it would require the host team to have to do a lot in a short period of time to prepare for the game, and it would require the host city to do the same.

But then again, this isn't the Super Bowl.

[Frank Cunha]

November 23, 2008, 8:05 pm
M.L.S. Cup Final Player Ratings
By Jeffrey Marcus

Red Bulls defender Diego Jimenez, right, couldn’t stop Guillermo Barros Schelotto of the Crew. He couldn’t contain him; all he could do was foul him. (Nick Ut/Associated Press)The Columbus Crew, the best team in Major League Soccer this season, won the M.L.S. Cup with a 3-1 victory over the New York Red Bulls, a team that finished the season below .500. The Red Bulls eked into the playoffs and scraped through the postseason on the strength of individual performances from John Wolyniec, Dane Richards, Dave van den Bergh and the posts on either side of goalkeeper Danny Cepero. The league M.V.P., Guillermo Barros Schelotto, saw the Crew through to the promised land, earning most valuable honors for the title game. The Crew and the Red Bulls were the only two original M.L.S. teams that, before today, had never played in the championship match.

Final Score: Columbus Crew 3, Red Bulls 1

The Ratings (on a scale of 1, diabolical; to 10, world class):

Columbus Crew

Goalkeeper: William Hesmer, 6
Hesmer was strong at the back