Like much of the current MLS season, last night was a little bit odd.
Expansion teams are supposed to suck - unless you are the Chicago Fire.
So last night the new San Jose Earthquakes, the expansion team, beat the old Earthquakes and 2 time defending MLS champion Houston Dynamo 2-1. This win for the Earthquakes puts last years Supporters’ Shield winner (DC United) into last place.
Meanwhile the Columbus Crew are still on top of the league. The Crew have been miserable since 2004.
It sure is going to be an exciting season!
Real Salt Lake had another impressive victory at home last night in their US Open Cup play-in game vs expansion San Jose EarthQuakes. Kyle Beckerman notched the first two goals of the game. After that Yura Movsisyan and Andy Williams each got a goal of their own to complete a 4-0 demolition of the EarthQuakes.
This sends Real Salt Lake to Columbus for their next Open Cup qualifying game. The winner of that game then plays at Chicago Fire in a winner qualifies, loser out game.
The newest team playing in MLS right now is the San Jose Earthquakes. They’ve got 2 games under their belt - in their current incarnation. The Earthquakes were around years ago, but the club moved to Houston and became the Dynamo.
Next year Seattle will have a new team, kinda like an old team. The Seattle Sounders have been playing in the USL for 15 years now. Next year there will be no more Seattle Sounders, but instead they will have Seattle Sounders FC - and they will be playing in Major League Soccer. So they are a new team and kinda an old team.
The owners of the new Seattle soccer team wanted to have a “democracy in sports” philosophy, so they let the Seattle soccer fans vote on a name. The choices were Alliance, Republic or Seattle FC. The winner was the write in option of Seattle Sounders. The owners (mostly) stuck with their democracy in sports philosophy by naming the team “Seattle Sounders FC”.
The new team already has 14,000 deposits for season tickets, long before they have their first coach. Hopefully Seattle shows MLS love like Toronto has. Imagine the day that Toronto FC starts winning some games! As one of the worst teams in the league they have some of the best support in the league.
I would have voted for Seattle Sounders FC if I was choosing a name for a team that I was going to be a supporter of. What do you think of the (kind of) new name?
The newly created San Jose Earthquakes team just finished up the Carolina Challenge Cup, an annual pre-season tournament featuring 4 teams. This year along with the Earthquakes the New York Red Bulls, Toronto FC, and home team Charleston Battery. San Jose went a perfect 3-0 to win the tournament while the USL team went 1-1-1 which was good enough to finish in 2nd place above the other 2 MLS teams.
Usually pre-season results don’t mean much - but that hasn’t been the case of the Carolina Challenge Cup. Each of the past 4 years the winner of the Challenge Cup has gone on to see great results in the MLS regular season. The winner has either won the MLS Cup or the MLS Supporters’ Shield in each of the past 4 years.
Which will it be for the Earthquakes?
Three time MLS All-Star Ronnie O’Brien is no longer a member of Toronto FC. O’Brien played one year with Toronto FC but due to a bad knee injury only was able to make 13 appearances during the whole year. TFC decided to trade O’Brien to the expansion San Jose Earthquakes for some cash and a first round draft pick in the 2009 Superdraft.
The Earthquakes are putting together a decent looking roster for their first year of MLS play. As of today this is what the roster looks like according to the Earthquakes official site.
GK
Preston Burpo
Joe Cannon
D
Ryan Cochrane
Nick Garcia
Jason Hernandez
James Riley
M
Ramiro Corrales
Ivan Guerrero
Ned Grabavoy
Chris Pozniak
Joe Vide
Ronnie O’Brien (not on the official roster yet)
F
Gavin Glinton
Kei Kamara
Several of these guys are listed at 2 positions, both Ramiro Corrales and Ivan Guerrero are listed at M-D so I put all those guys in the category that was listed first.
Ramiro Corrales is just coming off a successful US national team camp, and is on his way back to the MLS. Corrales has spent the last 3 years playing in Norway. He will be coming back and immediately traded from the defending champions Houston Dynamo to the team that he last played for before they moved to Houston - San Jose Earthquakes.
Houston will be receiving allocation money that they will need to spend on getting themselves a forward. Since the loss of several forwards this past off season - they are very thin up top.
So Dynamo fans - who would you like to see working with Brian Ching this year?
Carlos Ruiz on on his way out of FC Dallas and going back to his first MLS team the LA Galaxy. The Galaxy paid an undisclosed amount of allocation money as well as a 2nd round draft pick to bring Ruiz back to LA.
The Kansas City Wizards have sent a quality defender, Nick Garcia, to the San Jose Earthquakes in exchange for the first overall pick in the expansion draft that will take place this Friday. It is rumored that the Wizards will Patrick Nyarko to replace Eddie Johnson who is rumored to be on his way to Fulham. Nyarko is a native of Ghana playing for Virginia Tech. He is one of three finalists for the Hermann Trophy, which is awarded to the nation’s best player. Nyarko has college eligibility left but will be coming to the MLS rather than finishing his collegiate career.
I’ve been out of town and away from the computer for the holiday weekend so I missed the expansion draft. San Jose was able to draft 10 players while I was gone. I don’t have much else to say (or the energy) so I’ll leave you with the list:
- Ryan Cochrane (Houston Dynamo)
- Clarence Goodson (FC Dallas)
- Ned Gravaboy (Columbus Crew)
- James Riley (New England Revolution)
- Joe Vide (New York Red Bulls)
- Ivan Guerrero (Chicago Fire)
- Brain Carroll (DC United)
- Jason Hernandez (Chivas USA)
- Gavin Glinton (LA Galaxy)
- Chris Pozniak (Toronto FC)
No one picked up from Kansas City Wizards, Real Salt Lake or Colorado Rapids.
Frank Yallop is leaving the Galaxy to go back to San Jose when they become the newest expansion team next year. Even newer news is that Bruce Arena and the NY Red Bulls will no longer be working together.
So what is going to happen in the now vacant coaching positios in NY and LA? Maybe Bruce will just move to LA? I doubt it but I really don’t know what is going to happen.
I think if I were a Red Bulls fan I’d be kinda sad to see Bruce going. Galaxy fans are probably happy to see Yallop leaving. Am I very far off on this Red Bull and Galaxy fans?
Where do you see Bruce Arena ending up next?
The San Jose Earthquakes may likely be back for the next season of Major League Soccer. An announcement is expected tomorrow to officially declare San Jose as the newest location for MLS Expansion.
It wasn’t that long ago that the San Jose Earthquakes moved to Houston and became the Dynamo. The Earthquakes had a couple of championships and the Dynamo did get a championship in their first year after leaving San Jose. How long would the new Earthquakes have to wait to get another one?
