Los Angeles’ newest MLS team has celebrity backing as well as a vice-president of soccer operations who learned under Sir Alex FergusonGraduates of the Sir Alex Ferguson university of football continue to reap the rewards from their education.Earlier this season, Jaap Stam became the 31st player of Ferguson’s United era to step into management. Fringe players to first-team fixtures have studied under English football’s most successful manager and then gone on to patrol the touchline themselves. Related: MLS expansion: why cities are deciding stadiums are 'welfare for millionaires' Continue reading...
Teams will often play in a snowstorm one week, and blazing sun the next. Does any other league in the world present such challenges?Playing on the road in Major League Soccer is notoriously difficult.Especially for players coming in from foreign leagues where travel is comparatively condensed, the mileage piled up over the course of a season can take its toll. That issue is only exacerbated by league rules limiting how many charter flights each team can take per year – during Ashley Cole’s first year with the Galaxy, he missed a match because his back locked up during a long flight spent in coach. Related: LA Galaxy ditch their ageing stars – but can they still be successful? pic.twitter.com/a2CjzS48dZ Continue reading...
The World Cup winner’s arrival at Chicago Fire was overshadowed by a bemusing press conference but he was all business on the fieldThe Chicago Fire are now one point closer to the World Cup. Or at least that was the running joke this week as MLS teams decided to fully embrace comedy in honor of April Fool’s Day. The carnival started on Wednesday when Bastian Schweinsteiger was asked in his inaugural press conference if he believed the Fire could win the World Cup. A media officer scurried in to intercede, clarifying that the reporter in question, Derek Henkle, must have meant the Club World Cup, a trophy Chicago could conceivably win, or at least play for. Related: Cold open: Minnesota...
Bruce Arena is gone, Keane and Gerrard have gone, and Landon Donovan isn’t coming back. But, reports Matt Pentz, the club’s aim is still the same: successThe five trophies are hard to miss, by placement and sheer number.Walking into the StubHub Center through the players’ entrance, past the tunnel that leads on to the field, they’re off to your left. The two comet-like statuettes commemorate titles from Major League Soccer’s early years, and the three cups that complete the quintet speak to the LA Galaxy’s staying power. Related: Steven Gerrard was a much better tourist than a player in LA Continue reading...
This was supposed to be a season of maturity for Major League Soccer, but as Portland’s 4-2 win over Houston showed, it still has some growing up to doInternational breaks in the Major League Soccer season, like the over-emphasized punctuation marks in a Victor Borge stand-up routine, are interruptions that take on a comedic effect. One could lament the nascent season’s loss of important players so that Canada can play a friendly against Scotland, or so the US can continue muddling through World Cup qualification. Laughing, however, is more enjoyable. One might as well embrace the opportunity afforded by the strip-mining of rosters for international matches to ruminate on the state of the league. The three-week marker in a 34-week...