Bruce Arena fielded a somewhat — though not very — weakened team against the USL conference’s basement dwellers and most likely expected to end up taking a comfortable lead down to Bayamon for the return leg. He won’t be.

The Islanders went on to smash the Galaxy 4 goals to 1, and LA didn’t even have the pleasure of putting the ball in the net, Islanders defender Martinez may have been feeling sorry for them when he scored a terrible own goal.

It was an almost mind boggling match in which the Galaxy dominated possession and every other measurable offensive statistic other than the only one that actually means anything. But this isn’t out of character for Puerto Rico, they often play Champions League matches like this, relying on an organized defense and the incredible goalkeeping of Bill Guadette while waiting to spring a counter attack. Colin Clarke’s tactics worked to perfection tonight as his Islanders took their chances well.

The result is especially frustrating when you consider the victories scored by Major League Soccer teams against European opposition in friendlies this weekend, while they are only friendlies you’d like to think that the results show a degree of improvement among MLS teams but it’s hard to say that when the league’s best team gets throttled by a second division team from its own federation.

Why does it seem like every year we have to talk about MLS teams failing in official competitions?

Since I don’t want to end this on doom and gloom I will mention Toronto’s result tonight. 1-0 against Motagua is nothing to sneeze at, the Honduran league is stronger than many people may like to believe and I firmly believe that TFC has what it takes to at least manage a draw in Tegucigalpa, but it won’t be an easy task.

Congrats to Puerto Rico on a well deserved win, while they haven’t finished off the Galaxy yet, they’ve given their opponents a very tough road to travel.

With the news that controversial match official Koman Coulibaly has received a rating of “poor” after his expedited evaluation following his shocking display in the now infamous United States – Slovenia draw and is likely to be relieved of his World Cup duties on Monday it’s time we shift our focus to the United States’ final opponents in the group stage: Algeria.

This match will be different for an Algerian side that were content to sit back and play for a draw in their previous matches, something they did successfully against England, and if not for a goalkeeping howler would’ve done against Slovenia. [For an extended explanation of this, check out the excellent Zonal Marking.] This was done essentially by playing a seven-man midfield in-front off the bank of central defenders that protected the goalkeeper. Officially Algeria fielded a striker against England, Gladbach’s Karim Matmour, but he rarely contributed to the attack instead electing to stay back and help solidify the defensive effort. Algeria allowed their defensive wall slight breathers by sending wing-back Nadir Belhadj on barnstorming runs up the left hand side that exploited the gap occasionally left by Glen Johnson in England’s defense. This tactic will not work against the United States because unlike the other three teams, Algeria must win by multiple goals to advance.

Goal scoring has not been easy for Algeria in 2010, having only scored six times in eleven matches — three of which came against Cote d’Ivoire in a Cup of Nations match, with one being scored in extra time — so switching to an attacking formation will represent a seismic shift for the Desert Foxes. Much of the team’s attacking inspiration comes from Portsmouth man Belhadj who likes to fly up and down the left channel, as a result his forays forward could create holes in the Algerian defense that Bob Bradley should look to exploit using the pace of Landon Donovan or Clint Dempsey. The three center backs often deployed by Algeria are all in excess of six-feet which makes it difficult to win aerial challenges but may open the door for a “fox in the box” type player such as Herculez Gomes.

Regardless of their opponent’s lack of attacking prowess, the United States must amend a glaring hole in their offside trap that has thrice been exploited in this World Cup — twice for goals, and once by an Emile Heskey effort that forced the best out of Tim Howard. A failure to rectify this flaw could be taken advantage of by a good creative player, and Algeria has one in the form of Karim Ziani who plays in the Bundesliga for Wolfsburg.

Given Algeria’s focus on their spine this match could be an opportunity for the American wide players to prove their ability by getting balls in behind the Algerian wall to Altidore and either Gomes or Buddle, the latter two being in fine goal scoring form this year. It will be very important to test goalkeeper Rais M’Bohli often who despite his solid display against England has proven shaky at club level in the past.

This group has been anything but “easy” as predicted by an infamous British tabloid and the final ties of the group will show us the true quality of the teams involved.

Following the worst possible start for the United States, going down 1-0 after just four minutes after England’s stand-in captain Steven Gerrard finished off a well worked move involving Emile Heskey you could’ve been forgive for thinking the underdog American team would’ve wilted under the bright lights and heavy pressure of the most hyped match in the history of US soccer, but you would have been wrong. While it may not have been pretty the United States put together a dogged, determined first half that with a bit of luck produced a Clint Dempsey equalizer in the 39th minute, sparking delirium from American fans both at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium in Rustenburg and back at home watching on television, many of whom were watching their first soccer match.

The spirited display that the American team displayed, led by the rock solid goalkeeping of Tim Howard, the experienced,  passionate fullback play of Hannover’s Steve Cherundolo won the hearts of many of those first timers, and may have even converted some cynics into believers.

While the feeling of euphoria is justified it’s important to remember that the World Cup has just started and we face at least two more stern tests that will require equally battling performances. While Algeria and Slovenia might not be the sexiest of opponents we must keep in mind that they qualified for the World Cup in similar circumstances to our draw against England. Both teams entered their matches as underdogs and never gave in despite pressure from Egypt and Russia respectively. If today is any indication I’m certain that Bob Bradley will have his charges well drilled for the challenges ahead.

Meh. Not exactly an inspiring performance.

Honestly this game was simply a chance for players on the fringe to prove their worth to Bob Bradley, and some may have, while some certainly didn’t.

Two of those players — Edson Buddle and Eddie Johnson — partnered each other upfront to start the match and had two very different evenings. While he didn’t score Buddle was consistently involved and showed a high work rate that had to impress the coaching staff.  Johnson, on the other hand, was largely invisible and did nothing to improve his already slim hopes of grabbing a ticket to South Africa.

Puebla’s Herculez Gomez was the other striker competing for a ticket and made the ultimate argument in his favor when he turned in Clarence Goodson’s header across the goal. Goodson had somewhat of an up-and-down night when following a solid first half he collected an assist and commited an absolute howler which allowed the Czech Republic to score their third goal of the night.

While Oguchi Onyewu had a night to forget, getting embarrassed on the Czech Republic’s opening goal, I wouldn’t be shocked if he was on the 23-man roster, in fact, I’d be shocked if he wasn’t. Given his level of fitness Onyewu simply couldn’t be held to the same standards as the rest of the team tonight and when fit he is still the top defender in the player pool.

Two players that did themselves no favors are Jonathan Bornstein and Heath Pearce. Both left backs put in appalling shifts as Bradley continues to struggle to find a fit for the position. One of the two is going to wind up in South Africa and judging from tonight, Bornstein seems to be the lesser of two evils. Certainly defending will have to be a central focus of the remaining pre-World Cup camps.

Another fringe player, Maurice Edu, scored the opening goal of the night when he headed home Stuart Holden’s free kick but he also committed an error that allowed the Czechs to score their final goal of the night, though it is worth noting that he was playing out of position at this point.

Overall while the result was disappointing it did answer any remaining questions the coaching staff may have had about squad selection, and may have helped some bubble players, such as Gomez, find their way into the squad for South Africa.

I’ve said it before in my posts on MLS Talk, but I’m really annoyed by the whole USL v NASL drama. CBS just canceled As The World Turns, sensationally, and I’m willing to bet it was because the 50-something-year-old soap opera could no longer compete with this crap. Okay, maybe not, but I believe it. Kartik posted about it — the soccer drama, not the CBS drama — on his personal blog today and one of his readers left a comment saying how they might stop watching domestic soccer if the USL comes out on-top. I disagree, for a number of reasons. MLS is domestic soccer and they didn’t have anything to do with this mess, I know how fun it can be to blame them, I do it all the time, but this isn’t their fault. Another thing is that you won’t be punishing the USL if you stop watching matches, you’ll be punishing the clubs, and many of the clubs are run on shoestring budgets and didn’t have anything to do with this crap, and that’s what I wanted to talk about before I made this paragraph entirely too broad, entirely too random, and entirely too long.

Most USL clubs are genuinely local teams run by soccer people, they own the team because they love soccer and want to be involved in soccer. Maybe they played Football Manager too much and went insane, but they most likely just wanted to bring soccer to their local area, these people are the backbone of our sport and we should do everything we can to support them, not punish them, because these clubs are true labors of love.

Take my local club — the USL-2 Charlotte Eagles (and Lady Eagles) — for instance. I know, some people disagree with the fact that they promote religion at the matches, but that isn’t what this is about. That club has never, and will likely never, run a profit. I don’t even think it comes close, in fact, I don’t even think they’re allowed to dream about coming close. But since 1991 (1993 in the USL structure) they’ve fielded a team, almost 20 seasons without fail. Not many people realize that the Eagles are Charlotte’s most successful sports team, but they are. They don’t enjoy wild support like Portland or Seattle, but they have a small and vocal bunch who wouldn’t have a team to support unless someone decided it was worth propping up. I’m thankful for the Eagles, and while the goal of the club might be different than other clubs, I’m thankful that I can go watch professional soccer in a stadium in my hometown. This story can be repeated all around the country, in Charleston, in Des Moines, in New Orleans, in Jackson, all over. Please, don’t punish these little teams, they’re already being beaten up enough by this schism we keep having to watch because the head honchos of each keep trying to yell louder than the other.

Originally I was sympathetic toward the TOA, but now I’m not. I hope they get sanctioned, because if they don’t then we might as well forget about lower-tier professional soccer, but I hope they and the USL suits realize how infantile they look.

Wilmington was recently kicked out of the USL Second Division, I’m not entirely sure why, but I hope the team can land in the NPSL if possible, it’d be a shame to see them go entirely, just like it’d be a shame to see any of these clubs caught on the fringe go.

Before I start, I will say. Yes, there is a chance that they’re working quietly behind the scenes to get everything sorted out, and that come April 2010 we may all look back and say “Why’d I ever doubt them?”, but it really doesn’t look that way at the moment.

When it was announced FCNY was treated as a big deal, MLS wasn’t in New York City proper, so it was treated as if it were the largest untapped market in the country. This new team was supposed to play in Queens, and continually talked up a possible stadium in the Borough, but we haven’t even seen a sketch yet. We heard talk of the team possibly playing some games in Manhattan at Columbia, and possibly some games at Icahn Stadium. They ended up picking Hofstra’s James M. Shuart Stadium, which has artificial turf and lines from about four other sports on it. On top of that it’s in Hempstead, and not New York.

This whole thing is starting to remind me of an old wrestling gimmick gone awry, particularly the infamous Shockmaster gimmick. Yes, I used to watch wrestling, and before anyone pipes up being smart, no, I don’t care. My point is that this whole thing looks like it’s fallen flat on it’s face to the point where it’s become embarrassing for the USL, so much so that you don’t really hear them speak of it. All the recent talk has been about the other expansion teams the USL wants to introduce: Baltimore, Detroit, Edmonton, Ottawa, and Tampa Bay. FCNY has sort of faded into the background, and some of it’s target audience have lost hope.

The team was introduced on April Fools’ Day, and it’s website hasn’t been updated since. Obviously it wasn’t a prank, they even had tryouts, but it is starting to seem like a joke. Word is the team plans to relaunch it’s website soon, maybe even this week, I hope that proves to be true. I don’t like to make fun of any team, really, but usually teams at least have a coach in place at this point, possibly even some signings made, and certainly in this day and age, a functional website.

For the sake of lower division soccer in America, I hope this thing pans out. I do. It’d be another embarassing blow if this team were to implode before it even got off the ground, especially after the bluster we saw back in April.

One has to wonder what this means for Austin and Puerto Rico. It’s pretty much assumed that Cleveland will join Charleston in the Second Division next season, if they field a team at all, and 2010 is Portland’s last season in the USL before joining MLS as an expansion team for the 2011 season. FC New York is a bit of a mystery, and there are even some rumors floating about that they won’t even be prepared for their announced start date. It certainly looks like USL-2 will become the main professional division of the USL structure next year, but we still have to see what teams will be part of it.

The other announcement concerned the slot currently occupied by the Vancouver Whitecaps who, like Portland, will join MLS in 2011. That spot will transfer to Edmonton as the Drillers name will be revived. I’m not exactly sure about Edmonton, but it does have some soccer history. I just hope this team does a lot better than the Aviators did. In truth I was hoping for Victoria. Interesting though as the USL recently announced that they might expand to Edmonton. The hair-pulling and name-calling will continue, I guess.

I know some of you are putting your faces in your hands and groaning, and if you follow basketball you have a good reason to. The second coming of the once celebrated American Basketball Association has been nothing short of a complete and utter disaster, just take a look at the list of defunct ABA teams. With that said, I trust Joey Saputo and Traffic Sports more than I trust Joe Newman.

The reaction from the American soccer public has been mixed, to say the least. Some appear to be willing to give the new league a chance while others, understandably, wonder why the new league would want to associate itself with what many people view to have been a failure.

I don’t really blame the TOA for going down this road though, lately it seems America is obsessed with sports nostalgia, nearly every team in the “big three” has throwback uniforms that they break out every once in awhile, and the NFL is openly celebrating the history of the AFL. So it makes some sense. Individual teams have recaptured pieces of the NASL with great success, notably the Seattle Sounders, Portland Timbers, and Vancouver Whitecaps, the latter of whom will play one season in the new NASL before moving on to join the other two in Major League Soccer for 2011.

I’ve always been of the opinion that the more teams we have, the better for soccer in this country, but that’s only true when the leagues involved aren’t continually throwing barbs at one another and constantly trying to one up the other, that’s when spending gets out of control and teams start folding like crazy.

I’ll give it a chance, as long as they agree to call the Silverbacks the Chiefs.

In the wake of the on-going USL soap opera that has been unfolding since summer, the Charleston Battery announced their intentions to relegate themselves to the USL Second Division for the upcoming 2010 season.

The Battery was never a member of the Team Owners Association, and in fact at one point was the only member of the USL First Division that wasn’t, and apparently no longer saw playing in what is shaping up to be a fractured First Division as a financially viable option. The TOA recently added the Tampa Bay Rowdies and Crystal Palace Baltimore to its ranks, as Kartik reports here.

This move sees Charleston follow the Pittsburgh Riverhounds, and local rivals the Charlotte Eagles and Richmond Kickers in decided to move down to the Second Division selectively. Meanwhile the other potential local rival, Wilmington, continues to search for a new owner after being kicked-out of the USL last month.

Charleston is an interesting case, they can claim to be the first professional club in the modern era to have a soccer-specific stadium, the 5,100-seat Blackbaud Stadium on Daniel Island. But they also appear to be the first victim of the schism between the USL and the TOA, it would be a great shame for American soccer to lose one of it’s cornerstone clubs because of this bickering.

No, there isn’t thing officially saying that MLS is coming to Detroit, and I’m not insinuating that it is.

Today the Pontiac Silverdome was sold for peanuts, really. $583,000 for an 80,000-seat stadium.  The Silverdome certainly has aged, and it hasn’t aged well, but it could always be upgraded and when it’s all said and done this firm, which at the moment is still anonymous, got it for a steal.

The Detroit News reports that the company would like to bring a soccer league to the area, which is interesting when you consider that the United Soccer Leagues just announced plans to put a USL First Division team — most likely promoting the existing Michigan Bucks, who also call Pontiac home, from the PDL.  I don’t think the two groups are related, which leaves open the possibly that the group is talking about MLS.  MLS is now using a guideline that expansion teams have a stadium, or at least play in a stadium that the owner has control of — like Seattle does — and the purchase of the Silverdome gives this group a stadium.

The stadium has seen soccer before, it famously became the first indoor stadium to host World Cup matches in 1994, during these matches it was specially fitted with a raised pitch to allow for more width and the use of grass, at the time the stadium used an Astroturf surface for Lions games. It was also home the the Detroit Express of the NASL briefly in the late 70’s.

Today Don Garber announced Montreal as the possible 19th MLS team, and said he wasn’t sure what the 20th would be. There are several other options, but we now know that there is a group in Detroit looking at soccer a serious possiblity.

Is this a non-story? Possibly. But it is interesting.  Personally I’d turn the Silverdome into some sort of post-apocalyptic castle and live in it, but that’s probably just me.

During the course of their debut season Chattanooga led the league in attendence, averaging well over 1,000 fans through the gates of Finley Stadium each week, especially impressive when you consider the city already has an established minor-league baseball team in the Chattanooga Lookouts who play out of the beautiful AT&T Park (yes, it shares a name with a more famous park).

Thinking back to Chattanooga’s success in a league not associated with MLS or the USL, together with the formation of a new professional league by the breakaway TOA clubs, got me asking myself: “Where is North America’s next great soccer city?”

As Kartik wrote earlier today, the TOA league will mark the return of professional soccer to St. Louis, a city which is arguably the heart and soul of the American game. It’s a wonder that a city the size of St. Louis, especially considering it’s natural rivalry with Chicago, went so long without  a professional team.  Now with St. Louis accounted for, it’s time to ask — hypothetically, of course — where one of the leagues will expand next (discounting the already announced expansion cities in MLS and the USL).

Des Moines, Iowa – A midwestern city like St. Louis, has been incredibly supportive of it’s PDL team, the Menace, to the tune of crowds approching, and at times easily exceeding, 4,000. There has been talk of Des Moines joining the professional ranks but as always, money is an issue, as is the lack of a stadium though there are grassroots efforts in place to build a soccer-specific venue in the greater Des Moines area. While not a glamorous market, and one that will certainly be scoffed at by people unaware of the Menace’s off-field success, Des Moines has shown a passion for the sport which few cities in North America can rival.

Omaha, Nebraska – In keeping with the midwestern theme, it’s hard to ignore Omaha when you get a look at the beautiful Morrison Stadium. Craighton, the stadium’s owners and main tenants, are always near the top of the NCAA attendance charts (.pdf), showing that a willingness from the city to support local soccer. It’s not possible to tell whether or not that support would automatically transfer to the professional game, but Omaha has historically shown support for minor-league sports.

Greensboro, North Carolina – And it’s sister cities of Winston-Salem, Burlington, and High Point of course. One of American soccer’s old hands, the Carolina (formerly Greensboro) Dynamo, play in the Triad (Browns Summit, to be exact) and often draw big crowds to their small, tranquil soccer-specific stadium at Bryan Park. Dynamo matches are not the only soccer well supported in the area either as both North Carolina-Greensboro and Wake Forest can lay claim to good crowds, and wonderful little stadiums of their own. Furthermore, the 11,500-seat Rhodes Stadium on the campus of Elon was built with soccer in mind. Though to many people the area sits in the twin shadows of North Carolina’s two major cities, Charlotte and Raleigh, Greensboro boasts one of the most active soccer communities in America.

Jackson, Mississippi – This one will raise a red flag with many people outside of the South, but Jackson isn’t without it’s merits. Yes, Mississippi is and will always be SEC football country, but since 2007 the Jackson area has played host to a modestly successful, and cleverly named PDL team, the Mississippi Brilla. Despite the relative lack of facilities, the Brilla have managed to impress at the gate, especially considering the competition from the Mississippi Braves, the Southern League farm club of Atlanta. While it’s very much a long-shot, Jackson does deserve a mention since it does fit the qualification of being successful “under the radar”.

St. John’s, Newfoundland & Labrador – Canada’s most historic soccer city, yet there is no professional club within sight. St. John’s is home to King George V Park, site of Canadian soccer’s most memorable triumph and one of the oldest soccer-specific venues in English-speaking North America. St. John’s is reletively small by North American standards, and is certainly remote given it’s location in the Canadian maritimes, but it’s soccer history is expansive and I get the feeling that the city would passionately support a team.

Louisville, Kentucky – Louisville is a big city. It’s not New York, Dallas, or Chicago but it’s still a city that carries with it a big reputation. I’ve always felt that the old Cardinal Stadium — though I’m unsure of it’s fate — would make an ideal soccer stadium, but I’m not sure how well Louisville would support soccer. Soccer would be the fifth sport in the city, after football, basketball, baseball and horse racing but it may just be big enough to support a USL team. I’m in the dark on this one.

I know I’m missing several cities, Victoria, BC among them, so feel free to name some more. Keep in mind that we’re talking about cities that fly under the radar, not the likes of Atlanta or Baltimore.

As we have seen from the excellent reporting by Kartik and Brian Quarstad this week, the future of the United Soccer Leagues is very unclear and very much up in the air.

Whether or not some will admit it, the USL is very important to American soccer. Some have said the USL has no reason to exist, and that Major League Soccer and the USSF — the latter of whom sometimes seem to be allergic to work — can hand both the professional game and player development. That’s wrong, they can’t. American football get away with the existence of only one domestic professional league — and yes, I am aware of the United Football League — because of the prevalence of college football in this country. Every town in America has American football of some sort, be it the Oakland Raiders or the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers, everyone in every corner of America has a team to follow. You could make the same analogy with baseball and it’s plethora of minor leagues — my city, Charlotte, has four teams in it’s metro area. MLS isn’t blessed with this luxury, no one is going to follow college soccer with the passion of college football because the gap between it and the professional game is so much greater than it is in American football, and soccer was late to the party in setting up a deep-rooted, vastly supported minor league system. People of Wilmington aren’t all of a sudden going to cheer for DC United’s prospects after they’ve been cheering for the Hammerheads, a team which represents Wilmington and the Cape Fear region first and foremost, for fourteen years. MLS needs the USL to help fill out the areas of the country it can’t reach or has no interest in reaching.

The USL has existed in one form or another since 1986. Throughout the years teams have come and gone — though one, the little known DFW Tornados of the PDL, has become American soccer’s great survivor — but overtime it has become an important part of American soccer culture spawning cornerstone clubs like the Charleston Battery, Des Moines Menace, Portland Timbers, Rochester Rhinos, and Seattle Sounders (and that’s without mentioning the Canadian clubs). It’s importance and impact must not be understated.

I believe that the Team Owners Association and NuRock will work out a compromise. The TOA needs the USL — it’s future is not as the mythical MLS2, nor can it compete with MLS — and while the USL could probably stomach the hit given that it’s importance lies in the Premier Development League and not the professional divisions, it would come away from the schism significantly weakened by the departure of it’s biggest, but not most important, markets. I think NuRock needs to handover the reigns of the First Division’s day-to-day operations to TOA and allow them to market the league but still keep a watchful eye over it. This would free up NuRock’s time and energy to focus on PDL, the bedrock that the entire USL structure stands upon. That said, something is going to have to be worked out in Atlanta for anything to happen.

If, and it would be very unfortunate for all involved, especially the fans, the two cannot come to an agreement don’t rule out a possible move to the upstart National Premier Soccer League by TOA. The NPSL was founded in part by some disgruntled USL clubs, including the one time highly-thought-of Chico Rooks, but none of those clubs exist today unless you count the Arizona Sahuaros who have been in and out of the league. Brian and Kartik discussed this possibly on the podcast this week, but it’s unlikely to happen given that the current NPSL set up is meant to keep costs as low as possible.

I hope the two parties can work this out, it would be a big blow to American soccer if they were to self destruct over a disagreement. All we can do for now is watch, and wait.

I know, this is MLS Talk, not USL Talk. But given recent events, this is newsworthy.

This has been rumored for awhile, not always the Fury, but that a party in Ottawa was interested in entering the USL First Division. But they picked a really strange time to do it, didn’t they?

A little more about the club: It was founded in 2005 and currently fields teams in the PDL, W-League (Ottawa Fury Women), and the Super-20 League.

It appears that they plan to play matches at a new stadium to be built at Lansdowne Park, pending the approval of the Ottawa city council. Currently Lansdowne Park is the home of Frank Claire Stadium, which hosted matches at the U-20 World Cup. Frank Clair is in, let’s say, less that pristine condition and there’s been talk about redeveloping the place. We may well be looking at a ground-share with a potential new Ottawa CFL team.

The Ottawa council meets tomorrow (Sept. 2) to rule on the stadium plan, and that’s probably what this whole thing hinges on.

So, what do you guys think of this news, and the timing of the announcement considering everything that’s going on with the USL at the moment? I think it’s great news for Canada, the more professional options for Canadians the better.

Update: Here’s a link to the Lansdowne Live project including the potential stadium. The stadium would seat 25,000. That’s massive by USL standards.