LA's defence doesn't appear to have been improved by the lack of X. Judging by the playbyplay, Cooper seems to have shredded them. And it looks like Landon's first shot on goal came in the 80th minute.

Hopefully, this week can serve to let DC's MASH unit of a starting lineup get a little bit healthier. Our bench is awful. Like most in MLS, actually.

A belated, but very warm, welcome to Mr. Whitall, whose recent multi-part series on the history of football in Toronto was absolutely first-rate.

I obviously grew up with the American penchant for playing the national anthem at any opportunity (in fact, the US anthem may well have been the first song I knew all the words to, as a result of its ubiquity on baseball broadcasts), but do find them increasingly jarring as the length of my exile increases. Ursus minor finds them rather bizarre.

The God Bless America fad is abhorrent and can't die quickly enough for me.

One thing I will say in favour of the anthems is that if it wasn't for the NHL following US tradition, I don't think that I ever would have heard Roger Doucet sing O Canada at the Montreal Forum, a part of my musical heritage that I would hate to have to jetison.

Hey thanks Ursus...it's nice to be here, if a bit disjointed...the series for anyone interested ends this Friday so there are three days left!!

Cooper apparently going to Rosenberg without even meeting Cardiff's reprasentatives to discuss a move. I presume they matched the fee we bid or MLS wouldn't have allowed him to speak to them.

Cooper is not going anywhere it turns out. FC Dallas shot down any move today, per Steve Goff at the Washington Post.

DC picked up Ivan Guerrero from SJ to fill in on the left. Given the injuries and illnesses DC has, it looks like he'll be put right in the starting lineup tomorrow against KC.

Anyone heading out to see a game this weekend?

How much does MLS pay Shalrie Joseph? Whatever it is, it isn't enough! He is some player. I don't watch as many MLS matches as most here but whenever I've seen him play, he's been superb. Rarely do you see a defensive midfielder control a game like he does. Not only an excellent destroyer but one who knows what to do with the ball. If I had to pick one player from MLS to start a team with, it would be Joseph.

I'm going to the Fire-Chivas USA game tomorrow. It will be interesting to see how the Fire do without Blanco, who is suspended. We played without him midweek against Everton, and we moved the ball quickly and effectively in an easy 2-0 win over an admittedly disinterested Everton. Sometimes our play can revolve around Temo too much.

On Sunday, I'm going to see Barcelona-Chivas Guadalajara at Soldier Field. That should be a lot of fun. Tonight, I'm going to see Barca practice at Toyota Park.

Quite a soccer-filled weekend.

Merengue wrote:

QUOTE:
How much does MLS pay Shalrie Joseph?

$300,000 a year according to http://www.mlsplayers.org/files/6_5_08_salary_info_alpha.pdf

It was mentioned in the commentary of the MLS Allstars - West Ham match that a couple of bids from Celtic has been rejected.

It was quite strange hearing the Toronto fans singing about Dichio during the match (on the 24th minute of course)

Was there a reason for the horrid black-blue-black kit combination in that match by the way?

MLS has turned down two bids from Celtic for Joseph, one of $1M, one of $2M I believe.

I wonder how long that TFC tradition is going to last, personally.

The Cooper bids were 4 million and 3 million from Rosenborg and Cardiff, which was which I can't remember. Rosenborg's salary was going to be about a million dollars a year or so, MLS pays him $80K. Steaua Bucharest are apparently paying $600,000 for Toja, MLS got him for $400k, so they make $200k in 18 months.

Red Bulls traded Zach Thornton to Chivas. San Jose signed a Spanish forward from some club I've never heard of, among many moves I've lost track of at this point.

It will last as long as Dichio is at the club.

Off to another match tomorrow. No Wynne (bad), no Edu (not terrible since he's been shite for weeks anyways). The problem is Harmse is the back-up. Too bad we got rid of Phelan.

We now have three first round draft picks for next year. My bet is we're going to try to trade two of them and whatever else it fucking takes to get DeRo back to Toronto.

Motherfucking bunch of talentless crap artists.

Ratbag twat-mongering arseholes.

Hopeless, vacuous, do-nothing, shit-eating surrender monkeys.




And that's just the back office staff. My views on TFC's first XI are literally unprintable.

I saw chunks of the game around work. It truly amazes me the things TFC manages to both do and not do when the ball gets 30 yards from the oppositions goal. There are many ways in which they look so much better from their opening season, and yet in others either nothing has changed or somehow regression has set in.

Things are predictably falling apart with the Galaxy. Leiwecke apparently showed up in the locker room recently and told the team to start winning, or else. Lalas and Gullit don't like each other, and some are grumbling that Beckham has too much power.

Perhaps I've been out of it, but I never knew that Gullit was hired by Beckham's guy Terry Byrne, and not Lalas.

NE won what may well be the last Superliga title last night on penalties. Reis proved that he was better at stopping penalties than scoring them.

Also, Goff was reporting that the players agreed beforehand to split their allotment of the prize money evenly, in protest of their receiving a meager percentage of the total pot. A small shot across the bow in advance of the collective bargaining discussions, it seems...

Hold on...

NEW ENGLAND WON IN A FINAL???