First off, the great Josh Wolff in the Bundesliga(2) experiment is over, he's coming back to Kansas City asap.

Secondly, for the length of MLS history, Columbus Crew supporters have always been guaranteed to provide some of the most entertaining paranoia and conspiracy theories around concerning everyone in their sights: MLS HQ, local government/media, the amount of ESPN tv games, their own coaching staff/front office, et cetera. It pains me to admit that this time the bastards might actually have a point, as follows.

Last year, New England waived Pat Noonan for the purpose of cutting his $225,000/year salary and saving cap space while also waiving the league option on his contract, expecting him to resign at a lower offer. Instead he got himself a job in Norway, at Aalesunds for 3 years at $400K/yr. Now he apparently is amenable to coming home ( I have no idea how well or not he did there), but not to NE who still hold his rights. Columbus wants him, waived people to get cap space for him, made him an offer close to his old $225K, and MLS HQ shot down the deal on the grounds Columbus' offer was too rich, although whether to too rich is in terms of Noonan's potential salary, the purchase price from Aalesunds, the acquisition price of his rights from NE, or any or all of the above is unclear at the moment.

One explanation for this is the MLS is afraid of this somehow establishing backdoor free agency, although I can't follow the rationale, or preventing transfer fees inside the league. Or possibly making sure Aalesunds can't profit off Noonan, having gotten him free/out of contract. Columbus fans are assuming they're being screwed for being Columbus.

Also, it was Rosenborg that offered $1M for Kenny Cooper and got denied last week.

Tor 0- Van 1

Fuck. That was never a penalty, but we were shite anyway and didn't deserve to win.

Just as a quick reminder, match day 3 of the USOC starts right about now. KC-Carolina, Charleston-Houston, Dallas-Miami, Chicago-Cleveland, and Seattle-Chivas are all being streamed, the round being completed by NE-Richmond, DC-Rochester, and Palace-NYRB. usopencup.com has a matchtracker and links to all the streams.

So far tonight:
Carolina 2-2 KC; Charleston 1-1 Houston both playing extra time right now. Charleston went down a man and gave up the equalizer in the 89th. Ouch. And KC goes up 3-2 in the 93rd early in extra time.
DC 2-0 Rochester final, thank you Marc Burch x2.
RBNY gave up a goal, were up a man for an hour, let Palace score again, and crash out 2-0. Ahahahahaha.

Tor 0- Van 1

<giggle>

You coming out here for the rematch AG?

I wish. Unfortunately, I'll be about 12,000 miles away.

Darren Huckerby? Paul Dickov???

When we have millions lying around for a DP?

Mo needs to be fired, NOW.

If it makes you feel better, one of them's in San Jose right now being looked at by the Quakes. You might not get stuck with both.

Also, the apocalypse may well be nigh. Bayern Munich are giving a 3 week trial to....Joseph Ngwenya.

NPR actually had a story about the Open Cup. Hopefully this can be the start of Cup Fever in the States.

Unfortunately, it's the better of those two who's looking at San Jose.

Paul Dickov my ass. Martin Palermo, damn it!

Um... Is it just me (and granted its mostly from the replays), or is Real Salt Lake playing some really nice football? That's two games in a row (I think) where they looked the far better team.

It's the turf in Rice-Eccles that gives RSL that advantage, isn't it? I mean, everyone that goes out there seems to struggle to play to their normal levels.

Or maybe I'm just projecting DC's perennial inability to play well out there onto the league as a whole.

Turf plus altitude, basically. RSL home=4-0-5. RSL away=1(Chivas)-6-0. They're better, but still not that good.

Climbing the Ladder has midseason points, goals scored and goals allowed per game averages up, with comparisons to last season.

Interestingly, DC has the exact same goals scored average, but a much worse goals allowed.

The Galaxy are on pace to set a record for highest average goals scored/allowed per game, at over 4:

QUOTE:
Definitely one of the most exciting teams in MLS history, and not just because of the star power, the famous coach, and the many player rumors. The total of 4.20 goals per match (for and against) would be the higher ever; they simultaneously lead the league in goals scored and allowed. If the season ended today, they would rank in the top ten all time for best offense and worst defense.

It will be interesting to see how all this shakes out a week or two after SuperLiga. MLS teams seem to always have a letdown after playing emotional, hard fought games against tougher opposition.

The points per game stat will become even more useful as the Superliga teams stop playing until nearly August (DC only has the replay of the monsoon game against Houston all month).

I actually heard an ad on the radio the other day for the SuperLiga games. Somewhat amusingly, they only mentioned the two games against the Mexican teams, and left off the Houston match, even though all three are at RFK.

Anyone here going to the Fire-DC game? If so, let me know how it goes, since the complete idiots who run soccer in this country are not even capable of setting up a video stream of it.

Sometimes it's so obvious why soccer isn't growing as it should in this country.