Game Breakers: The Stars of Major League Soccer

posted by kidpurple August 26, 2008

I had a chance to watch Game Breakers: The Stars of Major League Soccer this evening. The A&E DVD about several of the stars of Major League Soccer was just released today.

The description of the DVD lists 12 players that they profile but you will see so much more than just 12 player profiles. The show starts out with a segment about Landon Donovan. Eric Wynalda and others talk about Donovan’s greatness and we get to see many nice plays and goal by Donovan. Game Breakers continues with Brian Ching and Taylor Twellman kind of tied together being the stars of 2 consecutive MLS Cups.

The next segment features some of the foreign stars who have recently made large impacts in the league. Of course David Beckham, Blanco, Juan Pablo Angel and Luciano Emilio were featured, but I was surprised to not see much mention of Schelotto, Toja or Gomez. I guess you can’t profile everyone.

The next part featured the young rising stars of MLS. The group included several players that are no longer playing in MLS. Jozy Altidore, Maurice Edu, and Brad Guzan have all moved to Europe since the making of the show. Sacha Kljestan was the other rising star featured that still makes his paychecks playing in Major League Soccer. I was surprised there was nothing said about a lot of our homegrown young stars moving to play in Europe.

Throughout the show they have mixed in the goal of the year and goalkeeper of the year awards. There is also a bonus feature that highlights the league’s best 11 for each year of the league’s existence. The last bonus item is an extra profile of former LA Galaxy star Cobi Jones.

I’ve been a big MLS fan from the day that Eric Wynalda scored his goal of the year in the very first game of MLS, so a lot of this was not new to me. It was still a great show. I enjoyed seeing some of the older footage. They did a good job of mixing some old stuff and not showing a full hour of highlights from the 2007 season.

The one thing that I will remember from this show was Landon Donovan talking about Dwayne De Rosario during their time together playing for the Earthquakes. Landon said he would often groan about DDR coming onto the field because no one ever know what to expect. He said some days they didn’t know what DDR was going to do and others he would come out and be dominate.

Overall it is a great show for either a seasoned veteran fan like myself, or for someone new that wants to get a little bit of history and get to know a couple of players. The DVD is available as of today – so go get it at the URL below:

http://store.aetv.com/html/product/index.jhtml?id=115360

Posted in Dwayne DeRosario, Luciano Emilio | Comments (1)

TFC drop Laurent Robert and add Carlos Ruiz

posted by kidpurple August 20, 2008

Toronto FC have dropped French midfielder Robert Laurent and added Carlos Ruiz to their roster. The French midfielder joined TFC at the beginning of April this year and started 16 of 17 games since then. In those games he has 1 goal and 3 assists.

Carlos Ruiz joins after another short time spent with the LA Galaxy. With the great form of Edson Buddle and Landon Donovan, Ruiz didn’t get much playing time. Ruiz is tied for 7th place on the league all time scoring list with 82 goals in his career. The 28 year old striker has 59 goals for his team prior to joining the LA Galaxy the first time his career brought him to MLS. If those had all been goals in MLS Ruiz would be by far on top of the all time scoring list. Can Ruiz keep scoring lots of goals? Probably not at the same rate he scored during his first time spent at the Galaxy, but he should be able to help TFC.

Posted in Carlos Ruiz, Los Angeles Galaxy, Robert Laurent, Toronto FC | Comments (1)

Kasey Keller and Clint Mathis coming back to the US

posted by kidpurple August 15, 2008

Both former US National team players Kasey Keller and Clint Mathis are leaving their European clubs in order to head to the United States to play in Major League Soccer.

Kasey Keller began his career with the Portland Timbers 19 years ago. Since then he has spent some time with 7 different European clubs. Now Keller is the 2nd man on the brand new Seattle Sounders FC roster.

Clint Mathis has played with several MLS teams already in his career. His time in Major League Soccer included a poor season with Real Salt Lake in their first year of existence. Now Real Salt Lake is in first place in the West and they have re-acquired Mathis after he left MLS to play in Greece. Mathis played in 8 games and scored 1 goal for Greek club Ergotelis.

Posted in Clint Mathis, Kasey Keller, Real Salt Lake, Seattle Sounders | Comments (0)

Cory Gibbs and Eddie Lewis coming back to MLS

posted by kidpurple August 12, 2008

Cory Gibbs and Eddie Lewis, both former MLS players, are coming back to the league. After Toronto FC used their top allocation spot the LA Galaxy moved to that top position and the Colorado Rapids have the 2nd spot. So when Cory Gibbs became available the Galaxy had a chance to take him, but they used the top spot on Eddie Lewis. This gave the Rapids a change to snap up Cory Gibbs.

Lewis played for the San Jose Clash before making the move over to England in 1999. The 34 year old California native played for Fulham, Preston North End, Leeds United and most recently Derby County. Lewis will likely fit into the midfield for the Galaxy but he has played on the left side in both midfield and defense.

Cory Gibbs played for the Dallas Burn (now FC Dallas) in 2004 before moving to play in the Netherlands. While there Gibbs spent time with 2 different teams before moving to Charlton Athletic in England for the past 2 years. Gibbs will be joining a Colorado Rapids team that could use a boost. As of today the Rapids have the 2nd worst record in the league next to the brand new San Jose Earthquakes.

Posted in Colorado Rapids, Cory Gibbs, Eddie Lewis, Los Angeles Galaxy | Comments (0)

What is the 4th highest goal scorerer in league history worth?

posted by kidpurple August 8, 2008

Jeff Cunningham has 99 career MLS goals which has him at 4th on the all time league history goal scoring charts. Cunningham is currently 31 years old. How much is a player with those stats worth?

Toronto FC aparently thinks that is worth a 3rd round draft pick in next year’s draft. That is what they received in a trade that sent Cunningham to FC Dallas.

Is this a sign that Kenny Cooper is going away? There have been a lot of rumors about him recently. Maybe FC Dallas just came across a bargain and had to take it. Cunningham along with Cooper could be a very nice combo.

Am I the only person who thinks FC Dallas got the bargain of the year in this trade?

Posted in FC Dallas, Jeff Cunningham, Kenny Cooper, Toronto FC | Comments (0)

Pat Noonan back to New England and then right to Columbus

posted by kidpurple August 6, 2008

Pat Noonan played for the New England Revolution before going to Norway’s Aalesunds FK at the beginning of the year. Now the Revolution have signed their former striker and immediately traded him to the Columbus Crew. During Noonan’s years with the Revolution he has played 136 and scored 42 goals.

The Revolution will receive a first round draft pick and allocation money and the rights to trade allocation position with the Crew.

Posted in Aalesunds FK, Columbus Crew, New England Revolution, Pat Noonan | Comments (0)

Revolution finally beat Dynamo in championship game

posted by kidpurple August 6, 2008

After twice losing to the Dynamo in the MLS Cup the Revolution finally got one last night in the SuperLiga final.  Another close game saw the Revolution twice come back from one goal deficits to tie the game.  Once they did it in regulation and once again in the extra time.  The game could not even be decided by the normal 5 penatly shots.  Not six, not seven, but it took eight penatly shots to settle the game and give the New England Revolution another trophy for their case.

Posted in Houston Dynamo, New England Revolution, SuperLiga | Comments (1)

Dynamo and Revolution battle for another trophy tonight – SuperLiga

posted by kidpurple August 5, 2008

SuperLiga Final

Houston Dynamo VS New England Revolution

Houston Dynamo – New England Revolution
Gillette Stadium
7PM CST (8PM local time)
Telefutura

The Dynamo and Revolution are no strangers to each other when trophies are at stake. The two teams have played for the MLS Cup both of the past 2 years, both of which the Dynamo have won despite never having beat the Revolution in the regular season. This will be their first meeting for a SuperLiga trophy in only the 2nd year of the tournament. Last season Pachuca beat the LA Galaxy in a shootout in the final.

Road to the finals

Houston Dynamo:
The Dynamo won group A by beating Atlante and D.C. United but losing to Chivas de Guadalajara. They topped the group by goal difference. Then they Dynamo had to face Pachuca in the semi-finals. Last season Pachuca beat the Dynamo in the same stage of the tournament – this year the Dynamo advanced to the final.

New England Revolution:
The Revolution beat Pachuca and Santos and finished in a draw with MLS’s Chivas USA to win group B. They went on to beat Atlante in the semi-finals to advance to play the Dynamo for another trophy. The Revolution remain the only unbeaten team in the tournemant so far.

So what is going to happen tonight? The Dynamo have the upper hand in games where trophies are at stake but they Revolution have dominated the Dynamo when it has not been the MLS Cup. The game is at the home of the Revolution which could help them. Both teams are in very good form right now in MLS regular season play.

Posted in Houston Dynamo, New England Revolution, SuperLiga | Comments (0)

Juan Toja sold to Steaua Bucharest

posted by kidpurple August 4, 2008

Juan Toja played 2 season in Major League Soccer and played in 2 all star games. Now Toja is off to Romania – sold to Steaua Bucharest by FC Dallas. The Columbian midfielder will be the third Columbian on the Steaua Bucharest roster. He will join another attacking midfielder Dayro Moreno and goalkeeper Róbinson Zapata. During Toja’s stay at FC Dallas he played in 47 games and scored 8 goals. The amount of the transfer fee was not made public.

Posted in FC Dallas, Juan Toja | Comments (0)