New York City FC: How Will the Club’s Entrance into MLS Realign the Conferences?

In 2015, New York City FC will be the newest member of Major League Soccer. While there certainly won't be any expansion teams in 2014, it's entirely possible there will be a club or two entering MLS in 2015. But for the sake of this article, let's pretend that this will not happen. When NYCFC—which has a nice ring to it—enters the league, there will be 20 teams. Which means (hallelujah!) there will be two conferences with the same number of teams in each. With 10 teams in the East (NYCFC will play in that conference, obviously) and nine in the West, an Eastern Conference club will make the switch to the West. The question is, which one? The teams on the coast are ruled out, so no Red Bulls or Revolution. Any team in the Eastern time zone is safe for that matter, so Toronto, Montreal, Columbus, Philadelphia, and D.C. United will all be staying put.  That leaves the three teams in the Central time zone, Chicago, Sporting KC and Houston. Chicago is safe, because it's visibly more east than either Kansas City or H-Town. On a map, Houston is only slightly more to the west than KC. That's not the only reason they should move ...

MLS: Should the League Introduce a Community Shield?

A few days ago, I was listening to the MLS Extra Time radio podcast, and they touched on something I'd been thinking about for a long time. What if MLS were to introduce a Community Shield of sorts, a cup final that is a trophy of it's own? The first question is, is this a good idea? I certainly think so. Having a game to kick off the new season would be a great way to start, like the traditional Thursday season opener in the NFL. It's the only game on and it gets the season underway. The next question is, who will be in it? While there may be some shouts for the Supporters Shield winner, it has to be the winner of the MLS Cup and the US Open Cup. If a team wins both then they can play against the Shield winner. Who should host it? This is also intertwined with the amount of legs there should be. Although all the top European leagues have a cup final between last year's champions, the amount of legs varies. While the English Community Shield is one game at a neutral venue, the Spanish Super Cup is two legs where each team hosts ...

New England Revolution’s Juan Agudelo Scores on Unbelievable Chip

On Saturday, Aug. 17, 20-year-old Juan Agudelo got the call for his New England Revolution against the visiting Chicago Fire in a crucial Eastern Conference matchup. This was a little over a week since it had been confirmed that Mark Hughes and Stoke City had reached an agreement with the Colombian-born player that would bring him to England at the start of January. He signed a pre-contract with the club, which was first reported on Aug. 6.  I'm sure Hughes will be even happier with his decision after he sees what Agudelo did to open the scoring in this crucial fixture. It occurred in the wee hours of the morning in England, so I would assume he was asleep when this happened: As Chris Tierney hit a great ball over the top from behind the halfway line, Agudelo realized that onrushing keeper Sean Johnson would prevent him from hitting the ball straight at the goal for a classic breakaway finish. With this in mind, he had the audacity to hit it with his heel, looping the ball way over the keeper from around 10 yards out. Despite the impressive attempted defensive clearance from Bakary Soumare, the assistant referee affirmed that it had crossed the line. The American ...

MLS Expansion: The Top 3 Cities No One’s Talking About

When New York City FC were announced as an MLS expansion side in May, they became the 20th team in a constantly growing league. From that point on, the question switched to which team would become the 21st team. At the present moment, there are several cities where expansion talks are high. Orlando City SC has made it clear it wants to be in MLS, and that dream may become a reality should it land a stadium. Further south in the Sunshine State, Simon Evans of Reuters reports that Miami is where David Beckham wants to locate his MLS expansion franchise. Being the savvy businessman he is, when Beckham entered MLS and signed with the LA Galaxy in 2007, he made sure there was a clause in his contract that if he chose to start an MLS expansion side, the expansion fee would be highly reduced. So Beckham will start a franchise, and it seems Miami is the place where he will do so. However, beyond the buzz in the southeast corner of the United States, there are several cities that would be fantastic locations for MLS expansion franchises that are rarely talked about. (These are also prime candidates for places to relocate Chivas ...