Former Rookie of the Year Parkhurst on his way to Europe

posted by kidpurple December 9, 2008

New England Revolution defender and former Rookie of the Year Michael Parkhurst is leaving Major League Soccer after 4 seasons.  Parkhurst is finishing up contract negotiations with FC Nordsjaelland, a team from Denmark’s Superligaen.

Parkhurst’s contract was up at the end of this past season so his move is free for FC Nordsjaelland.  He didn’t make it a secret that he wanted to go overseas at the end of his contract, so it was no surprise to the Revolution.  The 24 year old defender thought this was going to be the right time in his career to make the move.

This past season’s rookie of the year, Chad Marshall, is also trying out Europe.  Marshall defends for the Columbus Crew but will be appearing in a test match for Mainz05 as a guest player.  Only time will tell if he will fill a more permanent role with the team than “guest”.

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MLS players going to Olympics

posted by kidpurple July 22, 2008

Peter Nowak named his sqaud for the Beijing Olympics. The team includes several current and former MLS players. Real Salt Lake, Toronto FC and Houston Dynamo are all losing 2 players to Nowak’s Olympic roster while the Columbus Crew, Chivas USA and the New England Revolution will be missing a single player to Nowak during the Olympics.

The Olympic competition is largely a U23 game – with the addition of 3 overage players. A surprise (to me at least) was the addition of Brian McBride rather than Landon Donovan. LA Galaxy coach Ruud Gullit warned that taking Donovan to the Olympics would be a bad idea due to the World Cup Qualifiers that will be going on in the upcoming months.

Here is the full squad:

Goalkeepers: Brad Guzan (Aston Villa), Chris Seitz (Real Salt Lake)

Defenders: Patrick Ianni (Houston Dynamo), Michael Orozco (San Luis), Michael Parkurst (New England Revolution), Nathan Sturgis (Real Salt Lake), Marvel Wynne (Toronto FC)

Midfielders: Freddy Adu (SL Benfica), Michael Bradley (SC Heerenveen), Maurice Edu (Toronto FC), Benny Feilhaber (Derby County), Stuart Holden (Houston Dynamo), Sacha Kljestan (Chivas USA), Danny Szetela (Brescia Calcio)

Forwards: Jozy Altidore (Villareal), Charlie Davies (Hammarby IF), Brian McBride (None), Robbie Rogers (Columbus Crew)

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All Star first XI lineup

posted by kidpurple July 10, 2008

The first XI for the 2008 MLS All Star game was announced. This isn’t necessairly the starting lineup – coach Nicol will decide who starts. These are just the first 11 guys named to the team. If it were the starting lineup it would look something like this:

Donovan – Cooper

Rogers

Kljestan – Blanco – Joseph – Beckham

Parkhurst – Conrad – Hejduk

Reis

What other players do you think will be added to the team?  What will the starting lineup really look like?

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Predicting the postseason

posted by kidpurple November 5, 2007

Well a weekend full of season ending games and a couple more end of the year awards have been finalized. How are my predictions going?

I correctly predicted that the 4th seed Chicago Fire took out overall league leaders DC United.

I also predicted that the 5th place (East) Kansas City Wizards would defeat 1st place (West) Chivas USA. That happened after a 1-0 KC win in KC and a scoreless draw back in LA this weekend.

Both of the #2 seeds advanced like I predicted, but Houston had to come back and use overtime to dispose of FC Dallas. The Revolution just got a single goal from Taylor Twellman to drop the Red Bulls.

I correctly picked the goalkeeper of the year and the fair play award. The newest awards were given to Eddie Johnson for comeback player of the year, and then the first one I got wrong was defender of the year. Eddie Robinson was my prediction but Michael Parkhurst won the award. So much for a perfect round of post season predictions…

So the next round looks like this:

Chicago Fire @ New England Revolution

Kansas City Wizards @ Houston Dynamo

It looks like we are set up for a repeat of last years MLS Cup, but I’m not making my predictions yet. I imagine KC and Houston both are hoping for a Revolution win on Thursday because no one can lose the big game quite like the Revolution can.

ps – I kinda thought the LA Galaxy might beat Hollywood United yesterday, which they apparently did, 12 – 4.

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First of the year end awards – I’m 2 for 2

posted by kidpurple October 31, 2007

Goalkeeper of the year and MLS fair play award were just awarded and my predictions for both of them were right on.

Brad Guzan from Chivas USA took the Goalkeeper of the year award.  Micheal Parkhurst and his 4 fouls all year won the MLS fair play award.

Congrats to both of them, and I guess to me too for getting those right.  Okay – maybe not to me until all of my picks have been proven right.  yeah right…..

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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

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Gold Cup Roster Announced

posted by kidpurple May 24, 2007

Eight Major League Soccer sides will have representatives on the team that will represent the US in this summer’s Gold Cup.  Bob Bradley announced the roster today featuring 12 MLS players and 11 from outside MLS.  The Gold Cup is the number one priority for Bob Bradley this summer, so this should be his top team.   The US won the Gold Cup in 2005.  All of the players listed as forwards come from Major League Soccer.

MLS Members:

  • Steve Ralston
  • Taylor Twellman
  • Michael Parkhurst
  • Brian Ching
  • Ricardo Clark
  • Brad Guzan
  • Jonathan Bornstein
  • Landon Donovan
  • Pablo Mastroeni
  • Frankie Hejduk
  • Justin Mapp
  • Eddie Johnson

Non-MLS Member:

  • Tim Howard
  • Kasey Keller
  • Carlos Bocanegra
  • Jay DeMerit
  • Oguchi Onyewu
  • Frank Simek
  • Jonathan Spector
  • DaMarcus Beasley
  • Michael Bradley
  • Clint Dempsey
  • Benny Feilhaber
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Bad news for the Revolution

posted by kidpurple March 22, 2007

On April 7th the New England Revolution travel to Chicago to open the 2007 MLS regular season but they could possibly be missing 3 important pieces of a very good team.

Pat Noonan had sports hernia surgery on his groin yesterday after taking an injury while training in Mexico.  It is not known weather Noonal will be able to play by the season opener.

Michael Parkhurst on the other hand is definetly on the sidelines for that first game in Chicago.  He seperated his left shoulder while surfing.  It is not aparent when he will be back in the linup.

Daniel Hernandez will also be missing that game with also with a groin injury.

News like that could very well lead to an opening day pick against the defending Eastern Conference Champions on opening day.

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