News and Notes: MLS 2012 [R]

An interesting article on Herbalife on bigsoccer few weeks ago : [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

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The Colorado Rapids will be without captain Pablo Mastroeni for a
minimum of six weeks due to the re-occurrence of post-concussion
symptoms, the midfielder told MLSsoccer.com on Sunday afternoon.

Mastroeni said he’d been sleeping poorly and feeling various
post-concussion symptoms since taking a blow to the head in the Rapids’
season opener March 10. Mastroeni’s concussion problems first began last
October, when a collision with Real Salt Lake defender Jámison Olave
forced him to miss the rest of the regular season and the MLS Cup
Playoffs.

The veteran has also consulted former New England Revolution forward
Taylor Twellman about his battles with post-concussion symptoms, and
those conversations have helped convince the former US international to
take a cautious approach to the injury.

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Welcome to the world. That’s what you find on the Vancouver Whitecaps playing field.

Players
come from 17 different birth countries ranging from Hongcheon-gun,
Korea, to Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec. In case you’re scoring at
home, 17 leads Major League Soccer. The Seattle Sounds are next with 15.

There
are at least seven languages spoken in the Whitecaps dressing room. The
team is easily the most multicultural professional sports game in town.
In comparison, the Canucks have players from five different countries —
Canada, U.S., Denmark, Sweden and Finland , while the Lions’ united
nations also number five — U.S., Canada, Congo, Jamaica and Iran.

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Major League Soccer's newest soccer-specific stadium is set to open
in a little more than a month, when the Houston Dynamo open BBVA Compass
Stadium on May 12 against D.C. United.

The finishing touches are being put on the Downtown Houston stadium, but here is a sneak peak from inside the Dynamo's new home:

Gradually, the NFL is seeing the economic potential of MLS.

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The team is resisting attempts at the state Capitol to strip out
language from its stadium plan that would give Vikings owner Zygi Wilf,
or anyone else whose family owns at least 3 percent of the Vikings, an
exclusive right for five years to pursue a soccer team that would play
in the new stadium, rent-free.

Major League Soccer spokesman Dan Courtemanche said the 19-team
league has had "exploratory expansion discussions" in several markets,
including talking to the Vikings about Minnesota. Lester Bagley, the
Vikings' vice president for stadium development and public affairs, said
a meeting this week between the Vikings and MLS Commissioner Don Garber
was postponed because of the stadium's changing political fortunes in
Minnesota.

"That's a huge issue which hasn't gotten a lot of attention," Bagley
said of the soccer franchise. "I think the Wilfs have a strong interest
in bringing a Major League Soccer team to this market." He said the
Wilfs would have to pay a $30 million to $40 million franchise fee.

gwar0127 wrote:

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There's only gone, Agudelo. Gone, Agudelo.

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Robert T. Sweeney, president of the nonprofit sports commission,
declined to comment on the study specifically, but said that the team’s
effort to build a stadium was “further along than it ever has been in
the past. Things are happening in the right places at the right levels
behind the scenes.”

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After a wide search, Major League Soccer officials have zeroed in on a run-down section of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens as their preferred site for the league's first New York stadium, according to multiple officials briefed on the matter.

In recent weeks, top MLS officials have presented a detailed proposal to local politicians, outlining a plan for a 20,000- to 25,000-seat stadium on roughly eight acres near the northern end of the park.

The plan, still in its nascent stages, would create a home for a brand-new league team, as yet unnamed. The league believes construction could be completed one to two years after the project receives the necessary approvals, according to officials briefed on the plans.

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Philadelphia Union director of scouting Diego Gutierrez and youth technical director Alecko Eskandarian are no longer part of the organization.

Gutierrez and Eskandarian's biographies [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] from the Union's website. The Delaware County Times has [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] on their dismissals.

It appears that this is an aftershock of the dismissal of Peter Nowak. Gutierrez and Eskandarian were both closely connected to Nowak, although it should be said that both brought qualities to the club that were independent of that affiliation.

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In the wake of FIFA’s approval of goal-line technology, MLS executive vice president Nelson Rodriguez stated the league will strive to get it up and running by 2013.

Three months ago, commissioner Don Garber mentioned the possibility of use during the 2012 season but that’s not feasible, really. The systems have to be installed in all league stadiums, which could cost as much as $250,000 a shot, and tested under the unique conditions in each facility. Plus, it wouldn’t make much sense to move the goalposts -- pun intended -- during the season and change the competitive procedures. Plus, waiting until 2013 gives the league a chance to sell a sponsorship for use of the systems and defray at least some of the expense.

FIFA approved both Hawk-Eye and GoalRef. Whether or not either system is used up to the discretion of the league or competition. English Premier League supremo Richard Scudamore has already said he wants technology used for the upcoming season and other major leagues may feel the pressure to jump aboard as well.

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[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] minority owners Erick Thohir and Jason Levien are expanding to another sport, reaching agreement to become co-owners of DC United in Major League Soccer, according to NBA sources familiar with the move.

Sources told ESPN.com that Thohir and Levien are poised, pending MLS approval, to become partners next week with longtime DC United owner Will Chang, who also serves on the board of Major League Baseball's [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.].

DC United has won the MLS Cup a record four times (1996, 1997, 1999 and 2004). CEO Kevin Payne, sources say, will continue to run the club's day-to-day operations.

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Eddie Gaven is in his 10th season of Major League Soccer. His career includes an MLS All-Star Game appearance in 2004 and an MLS Cup victory with the Columbus Crew in 2008. These are impressive accomplishments for anyone, but what makes them even more so is that Gaven is only 25.

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The Dynamo have finalized a deal to bring former club and country standout Ricardo Clark back to Houston.

After agreeing to the terms of a deal with Clark last Friday, the Dynamo received the final paperwork and an international transfer certificate on Thursday to bring the World Cup veteran back from German Bundesliga club Eintracht Frankfurt through the end of the 2014 season.

While the deal is finalized, Houston will have to wait to officially add Clark to the roster until outgoing center back Geoff Cameron’s move to English Premier League side Stoke City is completed. Cameron’s personal contract and a transfer agreement with his new club have been signed, but the deal is still pending him winning an appeal for a work permit, scheduled for August 8.

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Minnesota's best hope for landing big-league soccer over the next decade now rests with the Minnesota Vikings and their new $975 million downtown stadium.

But whether the Vikings, who have exclusive rights to bring Major League Soccer to the venue for five years after it opens, can secure a franchise and attract top international competition depends largely on the building's design and whether team owners believe the professional game can succeed in a market where it has often floundered.

As the Vikings and the public stadium authority collaborate on developing the project, a passionate group of soccer fans is quietly lobbying for a voice in the design. Their goal, they say, is to ensure that the facility becomes a premier soccer attraction, worthy of hosting everything from MLS to a World Cup.

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D.C. United President Kevin Payne and Coach Ben Olsen were guests on WAMU Radio’s [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] on Thursday, discussing a wide variety of topics. Judging by listeners’ questions, the possibility of a new stadium remains a hot topic.

On the search process.....

“We are talking to Baltimore and we are talking to D.C. People need to remember that [for several years], we were all struggling with a global financial collapse, the fallout and hangout which continues today. So it wasn’t the easiest time to be having conversations about a public-private partnership with the District. We are having very good conversations with the District now and I feel very encouraged. At the same time, we have been treated very respectfully by Baltimore and the Maryland Stadium Authority, and we’re having serious conversations with them as well. Our position is that we need to have a new stadium. For our business, that is something that has to happen.”

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Major League Soccer arose on Sunday morning to devastating news after the Columbus Crew announced that rookie midfielder Kirk Urso had passed away. He was 22.

The Crew issued a statement saying only that Urso had died, and that the cause of death was still being determined.

Urso is the first active MLS player to die during a season, and his passing has sent shockwaves throughout the league. Not only impacting his current teammates, and his many college teammates currently playing in the pros, but also the countless players who he played against and earned the respect of for his determined style of play.

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Seattle took a chance on Eddie Johnson, welcoming the 28-year-old back to MLS after he had spent five unsuccessful years with four different clubs in Europe. Johnson, who has scored seven headers, is now the Sounders' leading scorer.

* Johnson struck his 10th goal -- his sixth in his last seven games -- in Seattle's 4-0 rout of defending champion Los Angeles on Sunday.

Johnson signed with FC Dallas in 2001 at age 17. His break-out year came in 2004, when he scored 12 goals for FC Dallas -- tied for the league lead with San Jose's Brian Ching -- and five goals in three games for the U.S. national team. He signed for Fulham after a career high 15 goals for Kansas City in 2007. But he never hit the net for the English Premier League club. Nor could he find his scoring touch on loan stints with Cardiff City (2 goals in 32 appearances) and Preston (0 goals, 16 games) that sandwiched a season with Greece's Aris (5 goals in 16 games.)

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Major League Soccer is closing in on a final deal with state and city officials for a $300 million, 25,000-seat, state-of-the-art soccer-stadium complex in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, The New York Post has learned.

The proposed facility, construction of which could begin early next year, would be home to a yet-to-be-named new franchise.

The stadium would be located next to the Mets’ Citi Field and the Arthur Ashe tennis stadium, and would include nine high-quality soccer fields available for community and minor-league use, sources said.

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In its eighth year of operation, Chivas USA has paved its path to a different future.

Antonio and Lorenzo Cue, brothers who were co-owners of the team along with Jorge Vergara, are out. Vergara and his wife, Angelica Fuentes, have assumed control of Chivas USA, which joined MLS in 2005 wearing the same red-and-white uniform made famous by its parent club Guadalajara, which Vergara bought in 2002, but hasn't taken root in Southern California.

Whether the Cues were bought or forced out isn't known, but what's certain is that dramatic changes are imminent. General manager Jose Domene denied via Twitter reports of his firing and head coach Robin Fraser, whose team is well out of the playoff spots and has scored a league-low 17 goals this season, can't be feeling too secure.

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At long last, Marcus Hahnemann has returned to Seattle.

The Seattle Sounders [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] in exchange for the top spot in the MLS allocation order, which they promptly used to select the 40-year-old former U.S. national team goalkeeper and Seattle native on the final day teams can add players to their rosters this season.

Hahnemann not only hails from Seattle, but he played collegiately there and was a part of the A-League Sounders from 1994-1996 as well. He had long been speculated to be going back to Seattle while he wrapped up his lengthy time in Europe, and Friday night's trade paved the way for that to happen after he signed with MLS earlier in the day.