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)

MLS All Star roster is completed

posted by kidpurple July 15, 2008

Coach Steve Nicol added 5 players to the MLS All Star roster and commissioner Don Garber added his 2 commissioner picks to the squad that will face West Ham.

Nicol added Pablo Mastroeni, Juan Pable Angel, Jim Brennan, Christian Gomez and Pat Onstad. Garber choose Edson Buddle and Dwayne De Rosario.

So this is what the full squad looks like:

Goalkeeper: Pat Onstad (Houston Dynamo), Matt Reis (New England Revolution)

Defenders: Jim Brennan (Toronto FC), Jimmy Conrad (Kansas City Wizards), Frankie Hejduk (Columbus Crew), Michael Parkhurst (New England Revolution)

Midfielders: David Beckham (Los Angeles Galaxy), Cuauhtémoc Blanco (Chicago Fire), Dwayne De Rosario (Houston Dynamo), Christian Gomez (Colorado Rapids), Shalrie Joseph (New England Revolution), Sacha Kljestan (Chivas USA), Pablo Mastroeni (Colorado Rapids), Robbie Rogers (Columbus Crew)

Forwards: Juan Pablo Angel (forward, New York Red Bulls), Edson Buddle (Los Angeles Galaxy), Kenny Cooper (FC Dallas), Landon Donovan (Los Angeles Galaxy)

The bold names could be on an Olympic roster – so alternates will be named by Nicol soon.

Who is most deserving that isn’t on that list? Emilio? Schelotto?

Who would likely replace those 3 if they are not able to compete?

Posted in Christian Gomez, Dwayne DeRosario, Edson Buddle, Jim Brennan, Juan Pablo Angel, MLS All Stars, Pablo Mastroeni, Pat Onstad | Comments (0)

Houston Dynamo losing strikers

posted by kidpurple January 22, 2008

The defending champions Houston Dynamo are losing strikers left and right.  Paul Daglish was released at the end of last year.  Nate Jaqua is supposedly looking for a job in Austria and it was just announced that Joseph Ngwenya is on his way to Austria.

Ngwenya has just signed a deal with SK Austria and keeps him there until the end of the current Austrian season with an option to add another full season.  SK Austria is currently at the bottom of the top Austrian league approximately half way through their season.

Assuming Jaqua goes as well, this leaves the Dynamo with Brian Ching as the only real proven striker on the roster.  As of right now Corey Ashe, Dwayne De Rosario, Brian Mullan, and Erik Ustruck are the only players on the roster listed as forwards or M-F.  De Rosario and Mullan are more suited to play in the middle.  I don’t know much about Ashe or Ustruck.  Dynamo fans – you want to depend on Ashe or Ustruck to partner with Ching this year, or do you move De Rosario and Mullan share time moving forward to partner with Ching?

Posted in Brian Mullan, Corey Ashe, Dwayne DeRosario, Erik Ustruck, Houston Dynamo, Joseph Ngwenya, Nate Jaqua, Paul Daglish | Comments (0)

Dwayne DeRosario Staying With Dynamo Through 2010

posted by kidpurple July 10, 2007

DeRo extended his contract with the Houston Dynamo to go through the 2010 season. The 29 year old Canadian international had a contract that kept him with the Dynamo through 2008 before the agreement to extend it.

Houston fans rejoice, Toronto FC fans probably not. DeResario talked about the possibility for playing for the Canadian MLS side someday. DeRo grew up near Toronto. His decision to extend his contract with the Dynamo is probably not welcome news for the Toronto FC fans.

Official Press Release

Posted in Dwayne DeRosario, Houston Dynamo, Toronto FC | Comments (2)

MLS All Star First XI announced

posted by kidpurple July 5, 2007

The MLS All Star game first 11 was announced today. This isn’t necessairly the starting lineup, just the first 11 guys voted onto the team. 7 more will be added later. No representative from the Colombus Crew, Toronto FC, Chicago Fire, Colorado Rapids, LA Galaxy and Real Salt Lake.

Juan Pablo Angel – Eddie Johnson
Chrisian Gomez – Dwayne De Rosario – Juan Toja
Sharlie Joseph – Ricardo Clark
Jonathan Bornstein – Jimmy Conrad – Michael Parkhurst
Matt Reis

Posted in Christian Gomez, Dwayne DeRosario, Eddie Johnson, Jimmy Conrad, Jonathan Bornstein, Juan Pablo Angel, Juan Toja, MLS All Stars, Matt Reis, Michael Parkhurst, Ricardo Clark, Sharlie Joseph | Comments (1)

Dwayne De Rosario wants to play for Toronto FC someday

posted by kidpurple February 3, 2007

Dwayne De RosarioIt should be no surprise that Houston Dynamo star Dwayne De Rosario would someday like to play for his hometown new-boys Toronto FC.

In 1997 De Rosario played professional soccer in Toronto with the Toronto Lynx of the A-League for a short time before he went to play in Germany.

De Rosario isn’t about to give up on his Houston Dynamo quite yet. Don’t worry Dynamo fans, he’ll be around Houston for a little bit more at least.

Posted in Dwayne DeRosario, Houston Dynamo, Toronto FC | Comments (0)