Steve Davis

It doesn’t seem so long ago that Clint Dempsey’s naughty little shirt pull propelled him so usefully past a Ghanaian defender that 2006 day in Nuremburg. It was quintessential Dempsey – or what we would soon know as “quintessential Dempsey.” Seeing DaMarcus Beasley had created a midfield turnover, using those instincts to recognize the moment, […]

Week 5 in Major League Soccer brought a merciful reprieve from a real downer of a trend: goals are down and the number of unimaginative draws is up in 2015. It’s been a little hard on the eyes, in all honesty. Too many matches have been naps waiting to happen. And the worse thing about […]

The outrage meter reached 11 as long suffering New York Red Bulls fans vented in a volatile, emotional January night. Mike Petke, a local son who wore the crest for years as a player and later became the club’s first truly successful manager, embodied everything the organization needed to be. And the club had just […]

Funny how history changes the way we look at things. Where some fans and media once lamented the Plain Jane, highly vanilla ways under former U.S. manager Bob Bradley, you wonder if some of those very same people are longing for the stability and general predictability of Bob Bradley? Time will tell if Jurgen Klinsmann’s […]

There’s an interesting, subtle change at work within the U.S. National Team's way of doing things. And we didn’t even need to see the disappointing result (3-2 loss on two more late goals … grrrr!) play out today in Denmark to spot that changing reality. For a decade or more, as U.S. pathfinder types pounded […]

A lot of us in soccer media have said this already. For years, in fact. But we keep saying it because … well, because it deserves to be said. Again and again until something changes. MLS is about to plow through a FIFA fixture window, and every time it happens we mark it down under […]

We know two things about the general policies of expansion in Major League Soccer: First, caution has always framed the exercise. History’s hard lessons of professional soccer taught everyone that slow-and-steady was the prudent path, and MLS leaders always seemed to get it. And the second thing we know: those days are over. How bullish […]

All due respect to Landon Donovan, no man in an L.A. Galaxy uniform has been more responsible in forging a Major League Soccer dynasty than veteran striker Robbie Keane. I was on the record two years ago saying that the passionate, highly productive Irishman should have been Major League Soccer’s MVP for 2013. There was […]

The MLS labor crisis was mercifully averted. Overall quality remains on the rise. Officials are cracking down on persistent infringement, an initiative so long overdue that it hurts. A lot is moving in the right direction in Major League Soccer. Week 1 has come and gone, and what especially memorable scenes they were in Orlando […]

It may not feel like it, but the players have already “won” in the ongoing labor negotiations, which remain stalled (as of Wednesday mid-day at least; things are moving fast) and now threaten to delay the start of Major League Soccer's 20th season. They may not love the deal they eventually get. It almost certainly […]

As labor negotiations go, the current impasse in Major League Soccer has been kitten play to this point. No one could have reasonably described the proverbial air in the room as “heated” or “contentious.” It was difficult to even sense a genuine threat of delaying this week’s important season openers around MLS. Sides had generally […]

MLS dreams of Champions League glory are about to go kablooey. Again. Montreal remains alive in the ongoing CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinals, having played to a worthy draw at Pachuca earlier this week. A return leg against the Mexican club is set for next week. But given the relative strength of the MLS clubs and […]

Wouldn’t it be just swell if D.C. United or Montreal, now halfway through their respective CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinal series, could actually advance and eventually win the thing? Generally speaking, an MLS supporter wants to see MLS teams prosper in CONCACAF Champions League – even if that means holding their nose and rooting for rival […]

I don’t like the idea of a World Cup in Qatar any more than … well, any more than about 99 percent of the globe’s soccer fans, as far as I can tell. This apparent shift to a winter event is a tourniquet that stops the bleeding on one wound opened by FIFA’s controversial choice; […]

To hear this disaffected Major League Soccer player tell it, hope is all but lost. Sounds like the gap between what players want in collective bargaining and what the league may be willing to concede is too vast, and some sort of work stoppage creeps toward maddening inevitability. "We feel like we've made a huge […]