- Kenny Cooper to 1860 Munich: A club with a history of signing Americans, but a club nonetheless in financial peril, currently. But at least he is out of Dallas!
- Our friend, Jamie Trecker has a provocative piece on the USMNT’s summer at FOX Sports.com. This piece is worth a read and consideration even for those who seem to think Trecker’s views are off base. You can listen to Trecker articulate some of the same views on episode 101 of the MLS Talk Podcast
- For the first time since late May, Houston will have it’s full squad available for selection. Thanks to MLS’ practice of playing right through international breaks, and tournaments, the Dynamo, the elite team in the league with the league’s elite coach has been playing short handed for over two months.
- The MLS All Star game earned a .3 rating on ESPN- it was fourth most watched MLS game this year on the network behind three games involving Seattle.
- Red Bull New York did well to get two away goals in a 2-2 draw at W Connection on Thursday. This puts the New Jersey club in a good position to advance in the CONCACAF Champions League. The three other MLS/USL clubs all have tougher roads ahead of them, but of course with TFC playing Puerto Rico, at least one of those two clubs will advance.
- Jason Kreis has been suspended again by MLS, and fined $3,000 to boot. For those of us who watched this incident live last Friday night, it was simply humorous. A strange sequence of events led to a questionable PK call for FC Dallas which Nicky Rimando saved, and then a red card for Clint Mathis for verbal abuse which was then withdrawn in favor of ejecting Kreis. MLS standard of officiating continues to be poor (although unlike my argument about the level of play, which I believe has dropped since 2000 in the league, the standard of officiating has actually believe it or not improved slightly) and the continued fines and suspensions for Kreis indicate an unwillingness of MLS to admit such.
- I’ll be doing color for USL Live’s broadcast of Miami FC-Montreal Impact tonight. Our good friend Bruce McGuire of the intergalactic juggernaut DuNord will be doing color for Minnesota-Portland also on USL Live. Both games begin at 8ET.
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{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
Ah… Trecker, once again, wants Bradley fired… yet refuses to name anyone that we could actually sign that would be ag ood fit.
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WHOA, KC to Germany? Good for him and maybe FCD can try to rebuild their team.
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Lars- we’re having the Voyuegers film crew from the Gold Cup on MLS Talk Podcast #103. You’ll enjoy it.
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>>For the first time since late May, Houston will have it’s full squad available for selection.
Lets see – Robinson out since the beginning of the season on knee surgery, Mulrooney out with knee surgery, Mullen out with ankle problems, #2 and #3 strikers (Weaver and Kamara in no particular order) out or questionable, best keeper in the league questionable with back problems that kept him out of the all star game, #1 striker (Ching) still recovering from Gold Cup play and Holden still recovering from Gold Cup and All Star game…
Yeah, that’s a full squad available for selection.
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Yes, of course injuries……but I am saying this is the first time since May that the Dynamo actually don’t have guys away with the USMNT. That’s precisely the case why MLS’ scheduling needs to change.
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Rather than have the league make a one-size-fits-all schedule that means everyone has to play on int’l dates, maybe they should give teams a choice of adding extra weekday games in exchange for having byes on int’l dates. I’m sure Seattle and Toronto, some of the incoming teams, and perhaps others, would like that. Let the likes of NE play on all int’l dates if all they care about is avoiding weekday matches, as opposed to fielding their best team and winning.
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Very excited Kartik.
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Great for Cooper, bad for the fans. The most important item on MLS’ rather crowded agenda is for the league to retain it’s American stars. There is not much good in having huge media attention to MLS stars in international competitions like those just seen and then once the players finish they are gone to a Euro league.
Tonight I’m looking forward to the Fire v. RSL game to see the players that came back from the Gold Cup with good reviews. It was the heart of the pre-game story in the local press. TV ratings on FSC/ESPN will alsp jump when we can watch a MLS game that features stars just back from international events.
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>>but I am saying this is the first time since May that the Dynamo actually don’t have guys away with the USMNT
That was not intuitively obvious from the context. Now that you have clarified, I understand what you mean, but I think you could have stated it better.
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Watch Cooper become an automatic callup for the Nats now that he’s out of MLS.
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You were a great color commentator but no offense when you handled play by play duties you stunk. I actually thought you’d drone on as a color man but you were timely, succinct and actually very interesting. Good interview with Fernando Clavijo- very informative. Did not know (or forgot) he drafted Shalrie Joseph. Good job, but stick to color. The play by play guy with you was kind of boring also.
Have not watched Bruce yet. Is that game archived?
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LI Matt- That’s the way Bradley operates. And can you blame him? Sure some MLS players are good enough but by and large MLS does not prepare you for international soccer.
Jaqua, Noonan, Corrales and Wolff were all called in by Bradley when they wer ein Europe and have not been since they returned to MLS.
Goodson, and Perkins were never called in while in MLs and now have become semi-regulars since going abroad.
Coincidence? Nope.
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