Before ESPN or Fox Soccer Channel begins the live broadcast of a Major League Soccer game on a Saturday evening, many soccer fans are burned out. They're burned out from watching a smorgasbord of European soccer that has been on television all day. Take a typical Saturday on US cable and satellite television, for example. […]

Professional Soccer has often been a spottingly available product across North America, and MLS, as a Premier Division, cannot fill the gaps by itself. This is where USL has often filled in, in the past, although USL has often been perceived as small market, for good reason in many cases. The reformed NASL aims to […]

Stuff I Follow from the Cheap Seats MLS Superdraft A good starting point for Superdraft information. Generation Adidas explained, reported by L.E. Eisenmenger. Before the expansion draft I was pegging Philadelphia to take defenseman Ike Opara with the first pick in the upcoming SuperDraft. But with their strong back line picks, Jordan Harvey and Shavar […]

An End of Year, Cleaning out some files post A bit of an older article by Fake Sigi illuminates some of the correct linkmachinizations that occur beyond the pitch that surround clubs and stadiums. Bill Archer's post, The End of the Beginning, is a good piece on the labors issues in MLS. Mike Woitalla of […]

You know, I think the Honda Fit is a cute car. I think that every time I see the banner ad on the front page, what irks me about it is the fact that I can't really fit — no pun intended — my 6'7" body in one without feeling like a sardine, oh well. […]

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 […]

Yesterday the Rochester Rhinos announced they would leave the USL in favor of the new NASL for the 2010 season. This more-or-less leaves the USL First Division dead in the water for next year, although you should fully expect their lawyers to be on the case. This is a sign of the times though, just […]

Luke Wileman reports – Turf Removal Starts At BMO Field – New coach, new grass, different result for TFC in 2010? Late note: The CFL Argos are once again talking about playing at BMO. Uh Oh. My take: Unfortunately, TFC does not own BMO Field, but wouldn't it be terrible if they finally got grass […]

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 […]

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 […]

Here's a link to the press release. 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 […]

Today is the last day of Interleague baseball for this season of MLB. It ends coincidentally on the same day as the final of the Confederation Cup. As great as the Confederation Cup has been for Soccer, Interleague play has given baseball a great boost as well. MLB scheduled its Interleague dates to start right after the […]

Who is the real target demographic of professional soccer in the U.S.? Is it Soccer Moms? Is it Soccer players? Is it Latino people? Sure, Soccer Moms, Latinos and Soccer players make up some of the peripheral targets, but who makes up the core target? One U.S. pro soccer fan thinks he's the core target demo. He's 41 and 1/2 […]

There has been a lot of discussion among fans of the beautiful game in the U.S. about promotion and relegation. On this site, Daniel Feuerstein supported the idea down the road. One of his main points was that, once MLS and USL clubs have their own stadiums … a lot of the obstacles to […]

In the comments made to my last post on this site, an individual stated that they were sick of hearing about ways to grow the MLS and suggested it should be shut down, put out of its misery. Well as both a fan and commentator on the Beautiful Game (whether you call it football, futbol, […]