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▪ MLS West Season Guide A day late, but definitely not a dollar short, our first team-by-team swing through the title hording Western Conference is finally here. |
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▪ MLS East Season Guide Now less than a week away from the 2008 MLS icebreaker, it's time for us to unveil our the Eastern Conference season preview. |
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▪ And Then There Were Three Any sports journalist who says he is totally impartial is a liar - just try watching nine Americans headed for the Premiership drain from up close without taking it to heart. |
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▪ The Road to China With Olympic qualifying fast approaching, US Under-23 coach Piotr Nowak must turn his attention away from Summer Games, but we won't. |
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▪ To Prem or Not to Prem? Staffers in New York, London and Glasgow jumped on the hot button topic of competitive EPL games in the States - and none of them see the benefit beyond further stuffing glamour club coffers. |
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▪ US v Mexico Player Ratings The game was a bit of a thriller, with offense and then a long series of crashing challenges - but was it everything we'd hoped for? |
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▪ SuperDraft Report Card It was the year of the defender at the 2008 MLS SuperDraft, but offensive selections like Joe Lapira could alter grades down the line. |
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▪ A USMNT Look Ahead Bob Bradley's first year in charge of the US National Team was an eventful one, to say the least... so what's next? |
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▪ ASD's 2007 All-Euro Team As one of only two unanimous choices, Fulham top gun Clint Dempsey headlines our first ever overseas XI. |
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▪ The Road to China Here's our first look at the tough choices facing Piotr Nowak in picking his 2008 Olympic squad, complete with projected starters. |
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▪ The Offside Trap Maybe the Galaxy and MLS won't say it, but I will: it's a great for the league that David Beckham's England missed out on Euro 2008. |
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▪ US v South Africa Player Ratings Never mind the victory... our match against South Africa was a wildly disappointing snoozer rife with (sigh) repeated tactical flubs. |
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▪ The Offside Trap Whoever takes over the US Women's National Team - man or woman - faces a total lack of developmental control. Why is that? |
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▪ ASD's 2007 All-MLS Team With the regular season in the rear view mirror, it's time to name our first All-MLS team. |
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▪ US v Switzerland Player Ratings Second viewing complete, it's time to hand out marks for the US National Team's leave it late win over hosts Switzerland in Basel on Wednesday. |
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▪ Bradley Double Play Keeps US Learning In Basel, Bob Bradley's team showed they had begun to master an important lesson in soccer - win when you are playing badly. |
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▪ MLSU Power Rankings - Week 27 No movement at the top this week with the top eight holding their slots, but the Galaxy are quickly climbing through the bottom half. |
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▪ The Offside Trap Who says the "Beckham Rule" has been good for MLS teams this season? |
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▪ MLSU Power Rankings - Week 26 The top four in "our table" hold firm in their places for the second consecutive week, while FC Dallas takes the big tumble in the MLSU chart. |
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▪ MLSU Power Rankings - Week 25 The top four retain their spots, while Toronto FC moves out of the cellar in this week's rankings. |
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▪ MLSU Power Rankings - Week 24 Seven teams held their places in the new Power Ranking, including #1 DC United, while the Chicago Fire made the week's biggest jump. |
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▪ US v Brazil Player Ratings A second viewing now in the wind, it's time for a slightly belated report card on the 'Nats performance against Brazil on Sunday. |
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A Player's View The Brazil match was definitely entertaining, but I'm still trying to figure out exactly how I feel about the US performance. |
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▪ MLSU Power Rankings - Week 23 by MLS Underground - September 5, 2007 After a quick vacation, MLS Underground is back with the countdown: United goes top, Chivas USA makes the big move and Toronto FC hits the bottom. |
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by Clemente Lisi - September 3, 2007 Don't be surprised if Red Bulls striker Josmer Altidore soon provides another fine example of how MLS is becoming a victim of its own success. |
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by TJ Boyce - September 2, 2007 With the lights seemingly turned out on David Beckham's first season in Major League Soccer, the English midfielder will have plenty of time to reflect on what went wrong in what should have been the Summer of Beckham. |
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by Mark Flannery - August 28, 2007 Finesse is all well and good, but sometimes in soccer, as in life, one simply has to let fly - just ask US Under-17 midfielder/goal hero Kirk Urso. |
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by Mark Flannery - August 24, 2007 He may have gone from being the biggest signing ever to the biggest bust ever when he flamed at Real Betis, but Denílson de Oliveira Araújo was, and always will be known to me as: Best. Dribbler. Ever. |
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by Sean O'Conor - August 24, 2007 Gothenburg was no Gotham City on Wednesday. There were plenty of Victoria Silvstedt supermodel look-alikes, but no superheroes to take on the evil duo of Zlatan & Elmander. |
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by Clemente Lisi - August 22, 2007 FIFA, Major League Soccer, the Los Angeles Galaxy and marketing forces have Beckham burning the candle at both ends of the Atlantic. |
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▪ MLSU Power Rankings - Week 21 by MLS Underground - August 22, 2007 In a week with movement to burn, the Revs climb to the top in place of plummeting FC Dallas, while Colorado and New York make the big jumps. |
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by Sean O'Conor - August 20, 2007 "I was thrilled to be on the bench today," Benny Feilhaber told Derby County FC's website. "This is a dream come true." |
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▪ MLSU Power Rankings - Week 20 This week's league ladder sees plenty of movement, with FC Dallas replacing weekend hosts/top droppers Houston at the top. |
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▪ From the Bleachers It seems we had something of an English flavor to this past week and weekend in the soccer world. Whether it be via the import or actually across the pond, everything centered around England. |
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▪ MLSU Power Rankings - Week 19 DC United are the top movers this week, jumping two places to third after raiding New England for points on the weekend. However, only five of the league's team find themselves in a new slot. |
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▪ MLSU Power Rankings - Week 18 The top four teams (and bottom two) remain the same in the newest edition of the MLS Underground Power Rankings. |
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▪ From the Bleachers In a league that has always struggled to make headlines, the last week showed just how far MLS has come this season. |
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▪ MLSU Power Rankings - Week 17 In a new addition to the starting line-up, ASD is proud to welcome MLS Underground to handle the weekly MLS Power Rankings. |
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▪ U20WC: What Did We Learn? Our resident word hog looks at what happened, and at what's next for our US Under-20 National Team post-World Cup. |
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▪ Let Freddy Be Freddy! The talk amongst most US soccer supporters recently has been the jaw-dropping play of Freddy Adu at the Under-20 World Cup in Canada. But the question on everyone's mind is simple - where have these performances been in MLS? |
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▪ From the Bleachers This is a time in sports history that is notable for the inability of teams to collect excess talent - unless you are the Houston Dynamo, of course. |
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▪ US v Colombia Player Ratings In the wake of the US National Team's 0-for-3 Copa América appearance, I find myself wondering whether Bob Bradley took the time to watch the Under-20's 6-1 World Cup defeat of Poland. |
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▪ US v Paraguay Player Ratings It was technically a smaller loss than the one against Argentina, but it was no softer defeat. The Paraguay match carried a lower degree of difficulty, less to celebrate and more to throw your hands up about, so the scores must come down - in some case, a lot. |
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▪ From the Bleachers With so much going on in US Soccer right now between the Under-20 tournament and Copa America, it's hard to keep a serious focus on MLS - throw in a vacation to New Hampshire into the mix and things get a lot tougher. |
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▪ US v Argentina Player Ratings Before anybody who missed Thursday's 4-1 Copa America loss to Argentina starts to cast about, I suggest you get a video of the game and watch the opening 65 minutes twice - you will find a lot to like. |
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▪ USMNT Notepad Before I get started with some gripes, let me just get this out of the way: Gold Cup 2007 was great fun as a whole and the US National Team showed a nice amount of pluck in raising the trophy for the third time in the last four tries. But... |
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▪ From the Bleachers Isiah Thomas - the name used to conjure images of one of the best players pound-for-pound in NBA history. He was a great scorer, an effective passer, all-around team leader and two-time NBA champion. MLS may now have its own version in Alexi Lalas. |
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▪ Same Gol' Cup The United States advanced on Saturday night with a 2-1 victory over Panama, to continue their unbeaten run in this 2007 edition. |
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▪ The Can't Miss Kid There was a time when Ben Olsen was the future. |
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▪ From the Bleachers THIS, this is what we were hoping for from Major League Soccer when it was conceived in the wake of the 1994 World Cup. |
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▪ Bogside Musings As the US Men's National Team prepares to defend its Gold Cup reward from 2005, it has to be said that Bob Bradley's inclusion of New England Revolution defender Michael Parkhurst was a very intriguing selection. |
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