As you may have noticed when you excitedly opened your podcast app this morning, we were unable to record a post-Thursday episode of the MLS Talk podcast due to a variety of conflicts.  However, after a wild and crazy first round/conference semi-final round, I wanted to approach a wrap-up from a different perspective.  After elections, […]

Tonight the road to MLS Cup 2012 begins with Chicago hosting Houston in the Eastern Conference 4/5 game.  Over the next month ten teams will battle to determine who is the best team in MLS this season (at least, the best playoff team) and based on the regular season all of these games are must-see […]

Injuries, an international break, and a bevy of good matches gave MLS fans a number of games to watch Friday and Saturday.  With the number of games to be played dwindling, every match-up takes on that much more importance, and this weekend the results shook up the Eastern Conference standings. On Friday, a back and […]

As the preseason gets into full swing and rosters begin to stabilize, it's time to take a look at the men who pull the strings and have the greatest impact on the team itself.  The modern manager is part tactician, part showman, and part PR man.  The best are the ones who can bring a […]

"In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king" said a famous philosopher centuries ago, but he may as well have been writing for MLS Talk about the 2011 Eastern Conference champions.  The Houston Dynamo took advantage of a weak conference and a hot streak to face the Los Angeles Galaxy in the MLS […]

It's always a drag when work gets in the way of your retirement dreams.  On Wednesday as millions of us were travelling to Thanksgiving dinner, the Montreal Impact selected ten players left unprotected by their fellow MLS clubs and, for the most part, their picks were quality and unremarkable.  However, their first pick has sparked […]

With their 1-0 victory over the Houston Dynamo yesterday, the Galaxy reached their season-long goal of winning an MLS Cup and certain high-profile players notched their first North American championship.  Anytime a team wins a championship, writers and bloggers take to the keyboard to assess where that team or franchise fits in the pantheon of […]

The 2011 MLS Cup will truly be a David v. Goliath affair.  In this corner, you have the regular season's best team with the most star power and biggest names who, by the way, will be playing at home.  In this corner, you have a team that fought all season for a playoff spot then […]

Houston Dynamo 1 – Chicago Fire 1 (Clark 33′, Oduro 43′) With the way the results in the Eastern Conference shook out this weekend, not getting the full three points was a major blow for Chicago, who see their playoff hopes still alive but a bit more on life support.  Neither team looked like they […]

The question I wrestled with in my head last night was this: if there were no playoffs or a playoffs with just four teams instead of 10, would this weekend be as exciting?  Regardless of how you feel about the playoff format or the playoffs in general, the answer I came up with was YES. […]

It was an incredibly busy week in American soccer.  Between the US national team, MLS midweek matches, and all sorts of FIFA controversies, there was a wealth of story lines for fans of the beautiful game.  Below are some of the ones we were following this week that we did not have time to post […]

One would be tempted to overlook the two matches going on tonight in MLS and focus on an incredible slate of games this weekend, with LA/NY as the headliner.  To do so would be to miss some important storylines as the four teams taking the pitch tonight are all in a critical stretch of games […]

Quite possibly this has been one of the darkest weeks in MLS in a long time.  David Ferreira is gone for a while, Steve Zakuani's situation is even worse, the league handed out the longest suspension in its history, Seattle is suffering even more with O'Brian White's surgery, and RSL suffered a gut-punch defeat.  All […]

Our week of action has already kicked off with the, ahem, controversial draw between New England and Vancouver.  But there is a full slate of intriguing games this weekend, so please vote in the poll at the end of this post.  Before doing that, however, let's take a look at the news from the past […]

Columbus opened the weekend with a 2-0 victory last night over a ten-man FC Dallas team.  But today has a full slate of intriguing match-ups.  Storylines to watch include: Can the Union grab an eye-opening point or three and get a result on the road against LA? Will New England be in the top three of […]