retired_mallory08

MLS Annouces Award Winners for 2005 Season

Supporter's Shield Champions, Vancouver Lions, cleaned up in the player awards at today's annual awards gala at MLS HQ.

Taylor Twellman scooped the two most prestigious awards as the Budweiser Scoring Champ and MLS MVP. It only goes to show that in the playoffs anything can happen!!

See you all soon for MLS 2006!!

retired_hellokity111

Our expert analysts have worked around the clock to sort all the available players and provide for us a mock draft for the 2006 MLS Superdraft complete with the profiles of the players expected to be picked in the first round.




1st pick - Muskegon - Aaron Provan
2nd pick - Toronto - Mike Saunders
3rd pick - Nashville - Brian Taylor
4th pick - Boston - Ryan Flores
5th pick - Nerdington - Paul Johnson
6th pick - New Liskeard - Brad Jones
7th pick - Kentucky - Jason Stone
8th pick - Vancouver - Chris Moore
9th pick - Marquette - Michael Flores
10th pick - Rochester - Danny Glazer
11th pick - Texas - Mike Dombrowski
12th pick - Alaska - Troy Gibson

retired_terragyrl

Season Review

It was a tumoultous season for the New Liskeard North in the inaugural year of the new MLS. A group of players were thrown together, and a team was created out of nothing. All credit must go to that mastermind of tactics, that svengali of soccer, that sincere and modest guy, manager Stu Hopkins.

It was a year crippled by injuries as evidenced by no fewer than three keepers reaching double digits in games played in nets. Jarmoir Blazek, the seasoned SI, played exceptionally when healthy, but his constant absence must have been worrying for the Liskeard management team. Matt Pickins, the keeper of the future, performed adequatley, until he too was injured. Zach Wells, the third choice, insurance keeper, was steady.

DL
The fourth choice left back, Leroy Griffin, got a chance early in the year to seize the position and he did. Griffin, brought onboard solely as an insurance policy, played so well that he made the year-end MLS all-star team. Christian Pulhac had been the pre-season choice for the position, but early returns were not great and he was moved up to left midfield were he became irreplaceable. Phil Salyer and Chris Wingert were both handed chances to win the position before Griffin got his shot, but both wound up injured.
Griffin now has a stranglehold on the slot for next season, and all that remains is a search for a capable back-up for the all-star. Wingert and Salyer are probably both on their way out of the Widowmaker as they are both dissatisfied with their roles.

DR
Michael Svec, the young YI, was outstanding all year long in his preferred position until an injury late in the year. Chris Williams was brought in for cover at the trade deadline from Vancouver, (for a 3rd rd pick), and played great. Right back is set for the forseeable future with two solid pros.

DC
Central defense was in constant flux all season long. Youngsters Michael Parkhurst and Chad Marshall were handed the job early but faltered quickly, unable to stop the seasoned pros of the MLS. Capable pros Craig Waibel and Richie Kotschau were brought in to steady the defense and were solid if unspectacular until Waibel's subsequent season-ending injury and release. This forced holding mid Pablo Mastroeni to partner Kotschau and they formed another solid if undistinguished defence. Injury crisis among the midfielders forced Mastreoni back upfront and handed young YI, Geo Caicedo his chance at the position. He and Kotschau formed another solid albeit ordinary pairing.
The upcoming season brings with it many questions surrounding the Northmen's central defence. Management is hopeful that Parkhurst and Marshall are ready to accept the mantle and form a formidable youth triumvirate with Caicedo. No one wants another unsettled year of Kotschau and 'partner of the day'. Rumors are rife of the Northmen looking to bring in an experienced quality central defender.

DM
Pablo Mastroeni was capable although not as formidable as New Liskeard had hoped. A distinclty average season was a poor return on the big wages spent. Perhaps he was a victim of his constant position change. Happily, Danny Szetela came up huge when given his chance, and the 18 year-old may well have done enough to wrestle the starting job from the veteran. Danny O'Rourke, another youngster, is chomping at the bit to get minutes and may well be given his chance this year.

M
A treadbare position for the green and white, and when star performer Atiba Hutchinson went down to injury, the club was left scrambling for a replacement. Several players were auditioned but all looked out of place as they struggled under a foreign position. A new recruit for the Northmen is imperative heading into the new year.

ML
Christian Pulhac recovered quickly from his early season left back debacle and performed spectaculary. The young YI has earned the position over such luminaries as SI Darren Huckerby and starlet Freddy Adu. To be fair to Huckerby and Adu, neither are that comfortable as flat middies and perhaps the gaffer's tactics were ill-suited to them.

MR
The same could be said about the right side of the midfield as each of SI Karel Poborsky, Johnathon de Guzman and Iain Hume failed to have much impact. Poor planning by the gaffer blunted the impact of these fine wingers.
A right sided midfilder is a necessity for the upcoming season, and look for Poborsky and Huckerby to be sold to finance the acquisition of such a player.

Strikers
Old man river kept right on rolling. Alan Shearer started slow and tailed off badly, but did enough in the meat of the schedule to earn all-star status and finish second in goals. But...how much longer can he be expected to provide for the Northmen?
Tomasz Radzinski was a dispointment on the whole. He scored some spectacular goals but also went missing more often than not. The Canadian star will be expected to lift his game this year.
Clint Mathis was brought in at the transfer deadline and fired four goals in four starts and a sub appearance. The *****ly player has so far resisted the urge to disrupt the harmony at the Widowmaker, but the clock is surely ticking on that.

Players headed out?

Huckerby
Mastroeni
Poborsky
Sayler
Wingert

Needs

MR
DC
backup DL
backup MC

retired_mallory08

MLS II Kicks Off!!

The seemingly endless winter is over and the new season is here; MLS II awaits the 12 teams as the fight for supremacy starts over again.

Last year's champs, Alaska, will be the team to beat according to the bookies. Clark's Kaiser's were T-4th favourite at 33-1, well behind Alaska at 2-1.

"We're okay with that" said Clark, "We can play the role of dark horses this season, and perhaps that will actually help us".

For all the personnel moves in the offseason, Clark arrived at roster deadline day with a few spaces and a relatively unchanged first team squad. The new faces included some high profile signings - Justin Mapp (Vancouver), Christian Gomez (Rochester), Juan Pablo Lucero (Argentina) and Carlos Ruiz (Vancouver).

The opening day squad for the trip to rivals Vancouver featured just 4 new faces from 2005:

GK: Kevin Hartman
DR: Chris Albright
DC: Oguchi Onyewu
DC: Jimmy Conrad
DL: Marko Lomic
MR: Christian Gomez
MC: Claudio Reyna ©
MC: Leozinho
ML: Justin Mapp
FC: Pedro Junior
FC: Carlos Ruiz

On the Bench:
GK: Joe Cannon
DRC : Nick Garcia
DMRC: Richard Mulrooney
FC: Juan Pablo Lucero
FC: Josh Wolff

Clark seemed very happy with his pick up from Rochester "Gomez was a victim of the league's salary cap and Rochester had to cut him loose. That's our second excellent pick up off waivers from Rochester, following on from Joe Cannon. It's a pleasure doing business with them! Seriously though, it's always good to strengthen the team and Christian wanted to be a part of what is happening here...that was reflected in his wages as he signed for a very reasonable $55k a year. A player of his calibre could demand as much as 3x that if he wanted to leave MLS."

Gomez made the perfect start too - scoring inside of 30 seconds on his debut. He stealthed in from his AMR position to slot the ball past El Guzano in the Lions net.

But the game certainly didn't go all the way of the Kaisers "we've never had an easy game against a team with Omer at the helm, infact, seldom do we get anythign from those encounters. We hadn't forgotten the 3-0 and 3-2 (and we were 2-0 up in that one) defeats we suffered at their hands last term. Neither had the board. We needed a win."

The game was pretty evenly contested, Clark's reversion to his preferred 4-4-2 formation caught Roger Saint Vil slightly offguard. But as the game wore on it became clear a goal would not suffice. Sure enough, a penalty decision against Chris Albright provided the perfect platform for the home team. 1-1.

It would have been easy for Kentucky to fear the worst, and with their track record in these fictures who could blame them! A couple of subs for the tiring forwards in the KK team saw Mulrooney and Wolff thrown into the fray for Reyna and Ruiz. The departing players looked exhausted.

Wolff however, did not. He burst onto the pitch and notched a goal within minutes, connecting sweetly first time to drill past the diving Brad Guzan. 2-1. It was clear message to Clark who had started with Ruiz and Pedro Junior up front. Clark defended the decision saying "Josh Wolff was our joint top scorer last seaosn, there's no denying that, but he cooled off badly towards the end of the campaign and was AWOL during the playoffs. Pedro Junior had waited for his chance and had been great in our preseason. He earned the right to start. As for Ruiz, well, he's been a top 3 striker in theis league for 5 years and was a big piece of our major summer trade (Julian de Guzman for Mapp & Ruiz) and figured to start on most teams. We're not paying him $200k a year to ride the pine. A bit of competition up front is EXACTLY what we were missing last term".

The game wasn't over yet, as time wound down the Kaiser's won a corner. Inexplicably, time stood still whilst Lomic ran over to take it? Those seconds that were saved were enough for the Lions to charge up the field, and with the home striker looking like he was clean through, Richard Mulrooney hacked him down from behind, duly earning his marching orders. It was clearly a match saving foul. "I hate to say this, particularly as we had the lowest number of cards in the league last year, but that was a good foul to take. Frankly, the whistle should already have been blown, and we'd have been looking at a major controversy should a goal have resulted from that oversight". A goal was not forth coming, as the Lions' last charge resulted in a tame effort wide to the right of Hartman's far post. The whistle blew and you could see on Clark's face he felt he'd dodged a bullet at Queen Elizabeth stadium.

Recent signing from the minor leagues Lucio Filomeno was unable to hold down a place come the roster deadline, losing out to Christian Gomez, but Clark still has 6 strikers vying for a place up front. "In my mind, we've got 4 in the first team and 2 youngsters...that should only be good for our club."

So a win on the road to start the campaign away at 2005's Supprter's Shield winners, what more could the board ask for? Who knows, they stayed silent after this one......there's just no pleasing some folk.

retired_kcnoodle@cox.ne

SEASON II IS UNDERWAY

With a quiet offseason, which is unexpected from coach Lung, the Toronto Syclones are ready to get things going again.

"...Last year, we didn't do too well, despite grabbing a piece of silverware. We finished last in the conference, gave up too many goals, we need to tighten the defense this season. With the quality of the players, I definitely expect more..."

With the same group of players from last season, they sure will have a good chemistry.

The Syclones picked up 5 rookies from the draft. A couple of them have some upside, let see if coach Lung will give them some playing time at some point of the season. They are all in the reserve squad at this moment and will get to play regularly once the reserve league begins.

Just before the start of the new season, wing back Ricardinho and Occean both demanded transfer. Ricardinho agreed to stay and helps the team get to a higher level after a meeting with the coach. On the other hand, Occean does not buy into this idea, but the Sylcones are not ready to let him go just yet, they hope he can understand the situation and reconsider his option. Hope this will be a source of motivation instead of a disease in the locker room.

The Syclones get thing started with the Slingers at ACC, a few of them were not match fit due to a late preseason trainning week, Lung was forced to play a few reserves to start the game. They controlled the first half, but fail to create any close chances. They forced their way with a few long attempts. Lung brought in Occean and Donovan at the 70-minute mark. This made immediate impact, Occean passed to Jarvis then to Donovan and he buried it, thats why they were the Syclones triangle offense last season which combined for 30 goals and 30 assists. Guevara hit one later and the Syclones ran out with a comfortable win.

retired_hellokity111

2006 Vanouver Lions Squad

With offseason coming to an end, Vancouver have declared their 28-man roster for the 2006 season. Many players are returning especially in defense but midfield and attack has seen some changes which should give Vancouver more options down the stretch.

Goalkeeper: Brad Guzan, Troy Perkins, Dan Kennedy and Steve Cronin
Going with 4 keepers in the squad for the second year in a row Roger Saint-Vil will have the opportunity to pick from Guzan and Perkins as his top choices with both players looking comfortable as the first choice and both still among the youngest keepers in the league. Despite winning the goalkeeper of the year last season, Guzan is still being groomed into his position and will likely be rotated with Perkins.

Centre Back: Alpay Ozalan, Clarence Goodman, Danny Califf, Zak Whitbread and Jason Di Tullio
Alpay and Goodman will likely get the starting spots in most matches with Calff getting rotated. Whitbread and Di Tullio are still young but have the ability to step in during injuries.

Full Back: Steven Cheurndolo, Julian De Guzman, Greg Victor and Heath Pearce
Last year Steven Cherundolo had the joint lead in assists and won the defender of the year. A repeat performance would be fantastic but even with a drop in performance Cherundolo is still one of the best full backs in the league. While full back isn't De Guzman's natural position, his ability to put the ball in play will be a good addition to the Vancouver back line on the left side. Victor and Pearce are also capable players who could start on most teams in the league.

Defensive Midfield: Emanuel Sarki and Marcel De Jong
Despite his young age Sarki was phenomenal in his position last season, picking up the Rookie of the year. Comfortable with the ball at his feet, he is the rudder of the Vancouver Lions offense. De Jong is a flashy player who can deliver good balls from deep and is a capable player in the centre of the field.

Midfield: Jay-Jay Okocha, Eddie Gaven, Kalle Ljungberg, Felix Alexander Borja, Patricio Perez, Luke Kreamalmeyer, Arturo Alvarez and Chris Barrett
Plenty of talent here even if Jay-Jay Okocha's transfer demands are accepted by Saint-Vil. Despite missing the end of last season Gaven showed major improvement. Ljungberg and Borja are talented youngsters who can play in the midfield or attack and make an impact. Patricio Perez has also improved over the last season and his grooming to be the next midfield general for Vancouver appears to be well on track. Kreamalmeyer is also a very capable midfield man and can also fill in as a defensive midfielder or full back. Barrett was picked in the first round of the SuperDraft and looks to be technically capable but will need to improve in the reserves before he sees any action.

Attacker: Taylor Twellman, Jorge Daniel Achucarro, Chad Barrett, Abe Thompson and Alan Gordon
The league MVP Taylor Twellman is back with Vancouver after a season ending injury suffered against Marquette last season. Twellman finished as the joint top scorer in 2005 with Alan Shearer and if he can recover he looks to have many more goals in him. Achucarro is a hardworking forward who joined from Cerro Porteno this season. Whether he can complement Twellman is still a question to be answered. Chad Barrett showed his scoring abilities after Twellman's injury last season but his injury against Rochester in the first round defeat kept him and perhaps his team from progressing further in the playoffs. Able Thompson and Alan Gordon are players who are highly capable in the air though neither look like they will receive much playing time except performing niche duties.

retired_hellokity111

FC United of Boston Looking for a new Manager

The commissioner's office announced this morning that they have had it with Coach Lofurmento's holiday taking over the last several months and are looking to replace him with a manager with more stability.

The current team squad looks like this.

Interested parties should apply at the league web site here. The time commitments are Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday from 9pm to 12am EST.

retired_hellokity111

retired_hellokity111

For full stats see the latest edition of MLS Gazette.

MLS Gazette - Tables, Rosters and Stats

retired_mallory08

The Long and Winding Road....


After a blinding 3 game win streak to start the season, the schedule finally got the better of Clark's Kaiser's. A streak of four away games to start the season, and 6/7 was a tough start by anyones standards.

"I don't know who i upset at MLS HQ, but our fixture list read like an A List Horror movie. We had away games against Vancouver, Alaska, New Liskeard and Rochester with the only home game against Texas. No easy games there." Next up is Marquette away, another toughie.

"All in all, we should be pleased, I think", said Clark. We took 9/15 points on the road against some top teams, scoring 9 goals and going +3 in GD. That's pretty good. "

Rochester, who were top of the North at the time, were the first team to beat the Kaisers. A good showing by manager Tristan, saw former KK player EJ show up big time, grabbing a goal and MOM honours. "Barsteward" said Clark. A tough 1-0 loss away to reigning champs Alaska in a game where frankly no team deserved to win was the other defeat on the season. "We were beaten fair and square in Rochester, but the Alaska game probaly got away from us. We had more shots and the two teams barely mustered 4 shot OT in the whole game. I don't think either side did enough to take the 3pts, but hats off to Gabor - his side found a way to win and that's all that counts."

The poor streak coincided with the loss of a few key players - Carlos Ruiz, Justin Mapp, Juan Manuel Lucero from the 1st team squad. "That was a contributing factor, but we have enough strength in depoth that we should have been able to overcome those loses."

Josh WOlff has started hot again, scoring 4 goals in the first 6 games. The question will be whether he can get some scoring support this season. Pedro Junior - who in a gesture of his love for the club is now sporting the name "Kai" - has looked lively without finding his killer touch. His 7.50 average belies his inability to hit the back of the net, with only 1 goal on the season. His fitness has also been called in question and a regimen of stamina training combined with shooting looks likely.

Other standouts in thea early part of the season are Kevin Hartman (7.50), Leozinho (7.50) and Carlos Ruiz, wo was 2 goals in 2 games (8.00) before being struck down with a pulled hamstring.

There are a couple of minor roster moves to mention....Clark finally lost patience with Nick Garcia and his $120k salary. "He just wasn't earning that money and even when he got a chance in the team looked poor. I wish him well, but I expect he'll have to take a serious pay cut to get another deal in MLS." He was replaced by Tony Menezes, the Canadian international, who came in on loan and the signing of Tyrone Marshall, the Jamaican, from Montreal. The former LA Galaxy player was amongst the best defenders in the old MLS, and Clark hopes to have snagged a bargain. "Tyrone will be our 3rd DC, stepping in when Onyewu and Conrad are unavailalble. He's international class and signed a fair deal - in the $50's - which helped him. We've still got a little cash to spend and I'll consider those options as the season progresses."

"A little money" referred to wages, as the Kaiser's piggy bank is literally bursting with over $10m in the transfer kitty. "Using the money is the issue when you have a cap in place. But I'll let you into a secret, I've signed an Argentine U21 international for next season, hes a DMC and is one of the best prospects in the world at that position. The fans are just gonna love this one. His name is Biglia and we're only having to wait as he's out on loan. He'll be worth the wait though!"

Clark has been beaten out to a couple of other players, most notably Freddy Guarin. "I just have to keep at it." Clark's foreign allocations are full, but its common knowledge that Liam Ridgewell is looking for a new club after being told he was not in Clark's plans last term. So far there have been no takers for the England U21 international which has surprised many.

So, with Marquette up next, Clark will need to rally his troops after a disappointing 0-1-2 run if he is to take anything against his main divisional rival.