NYFEST: Demonstrating Love and Support for Youth Soccer

New York, NY - Saturday's NYFEST, New York City's first Film & Entertainment Soccer Tournament, was an event full of wonderful and uncanny surprises. A day which commenced with rain concluded with a beautiful and refreshing sunlight hovering over Pier 40. In a partnership with the Tribeca Film Festival, Umbro and The New York Cosmos, Saturday's NYFest graciously provided soccer fans a day of soccer. Whether you were at Pier 40 to watch NYFest's 44-team "Industry Soccer Tournament," have your child participate in the youth soccer clinic, or simply watch the "Celebrity Match" where soccer stars, and celebrities from the film, music, sports and entertainment worlds competed for bragging rights, you were entertained. While the day was long and mostly wet, I was glad to have been there since 8:45 in the morning until it's conclusion way past 6 p.m. I have to commend the staff and volunteers who made this event possible, because I can honestly attest that they were working hard in training to run things smoothly. Without a shadow of the doubt, I have to commend the New York Cosmos staff because not only did they compete in the tournament, they were handling their other responsibilities. One thing many ...

2011 MLS Power Rankings: Week 6

In this Easter Sunday edition of the MLS power rankings, Real Salt Lake are back on top for another week after holding Monterrey to a 2-2 draw in the first leg of the CONCACAF Champions League Final.Meanwhile, in MLS action, the New York Red Bulls make their move, while league-leaders Los Angeles Galaxy continue to chase Real in the power rankings.Let's take a look at some of the movers and shakers this week.Begin Slideshow

Landon Donovan, LA Galaxy Chop Down Portland Timbers 3-0

Allow me to do my own, cheesy Agent Smith impersonation, ahem. Here it goes.Welcome back, Mr. Landon Donovan. Bruce Arena's Los Angeles Galaxy missed you.End impersonation. It doesn't look like that right knee seems to be nagging him too much, as he was able to score a brace in the Galaxy's 3-0 victory over John Spencer's Portland Timbers, who lacked the execution and skill that powered them to success last week.“I felt good," Donovan said after the game. "I didn’t feel as sharp or fit after 60 minutes, but it was good to get 70 minutes, I think. In the beginning of the week, 45 would have been a stretch, so I’m happy to play and it was a good result.”Oh, how can things change in the course of a week. And I will note this to all of you readers again: the Portland Timbers are not MLS Cup Playoff contenders, at least not yet. They will get their share of wins, but as you can see, they don't have what it takes to contend with the Real Salt Lakes, New York Red Bulls and Los Angeles Galaxies of the world.Interestingly enough, Real Salt Lake is the Timbers' next opponent. ...

Los Angeles Galaxy vs. Portland Timbers: Live Blog, Analysis, Reaction

Bruce Arena's Los Angeles Galaxy return home to take on John Spencer's Portland Timbers tonight at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California. The Galaxy currently have a 3-1-3 record and are seeded second in Major League Soccer overall and the MLS Western Conference. As for the resurging Timbers, they are 2-2-1 and will look to build on their two-game winning streak. Keep it here on Bleacher Report for continuing coverage of 2011 MLS season.Read more MLS news on BleacherReport.com

Deus Ex Machina: New England Revolution Rejoice as Feilhaber Falls from Sky

“Twice blessed is help unlooked for.” Tolkien always understood this. If Michael Burns and Steve Nicol didn’t previously, it’s a fair bet they both do now. The New England Revolution’s surprise acquisition of Benny Feilhaber on April 21 certainly falls into the category of help unlooked for. The Revolution (1-3-2) have looked mostly mediocre this year, save for the opener against the LA Galaxy, and are mid-table with six points from a possible 18. “Speaking frankly,” said Burns, the Revs VP of Player Personnel, to GOAL.com’s Alex Labidou. “There’s no way we thought he was going to be available.” Feilhaber, a Brazilian-born midfielder who has been capped 38 times with the US National Team, was twice passed over in the allocation draft before he fell into the laps of Burns and Nicol.Both Chivas USA and the Philadelphia Union declined to claim the former Hamburg SV player, reportedly because of his high salary, rumored to be in the neighborhood of $400,000 per year. Chivas needs help putting the ball in the net, and as Feilhaber is more of a creator than finisher, it is likely Chivas wanted to retain right of first refusal should a more attack-minded player come along. Think ...

U.S. Soccer, Not MLS, Controls Promotion and Relegation in American Game

In case you missed the latest American soccer news or were not logged on to Twitter, a bit of news broke that was likely more circulated than expected: Major League Soccer president Mark Abbott said that MLS had no plans or intentions of having promotion and relegation, nor do they have plans to ever switch to the international calendar. Clearly this reveals that MLS was only having ideas of "simulated" promotion and relegation, along with a season switch, out of hope that FIFA would buy into their semi-conformity, as well as give the United States the World Cup bid. Of course, that did not happen, and Qatar will be hosting the 2022 games. In that sense, the fact that Abbott has publicly stated that MLS now has no immediate or long-term plans to conform is hardly a surprise. Unfortunately, it looks like the only inevitable change for 2012 will be that MLS moves back to an imbalanced schedule and further promotes depreciated conferences. Reason? The promotion of regional rivalries. To many, this likely sounds outrageously tacky and unneeded. However, while the news that the league is going to retain a closed-shop model will depress non-Chivas USA fans, MLS is in no position to declare how the American ...

World Club Soccer: Real Salt Lake 22nd in Recent Rankings

Real Salt Lake continues to make soccer history by becoming the first team from the United States to be ranked in the top 25 of the World Club Soccer rankings. In the recent rankings that were put out before their strong showing in the fist leg of the CONCACAF final in Mexico on Wednesday night, Real Salt Lake checks in at No. 22. According to the ranking site, a perfect start to the Major League Soccer season, and a strong showing in the CONCACAF tournament propelled them to this prestigious ranking. The top ten of this list includes many teams that are expected to be on this list including: 1. Manchester United2. Barcelona3. Real Madrid4. AC Milan5. Borussia Dortmund 6. Arsenal 7. Porto8. Chelsea9. Lille10. Napoli Teams that fall behind Real Salt Lake in the rankings in no particular order include: Shalke 04 Lyon Tottenham Hotspur Celtic All of MLS Following the first leg of the CONCACAF finals, one would think that this ranking will only go up. If Real Salt Lake were to win the title against Monterrey, it will be interesting to see how high they can rise. To view the rankings please click on this link: World Club Soccer RankingsRead more MLS news ...

New York Red Bulls: After Winning 4-0 in DC, Are They Now MLS’ Best Team?

New York Red Bulls/Metrostars fans have had more downs than ups since the team's inception in 1996. Their heated rivals at DC United have won an MLS record four MLS Championships in that time and DC's fans regularly like to remind their New York counterparts of their failings of 16 years—no cups. 2009 was an all time low for the Red Bulls, winning just five games and ending with the worst record in the whole league. Yet the franchise was able to turn itself around for 2010 and finished first place in the Eastern Conferences before being eventually bounced in the first round of the playoffs by the San Jose Earthquakes. With that turnaround in fortunes and the addition of quality internationals Jan Gunnar Solli and Teemu Tainio joining an already impressive list of players, including former Barcelona stars Thierry Henry and Rafa Marquez, team MVP Joel Lindpere and emerging US internationals Tim Ream and Juan Agudelo, expectations were high heading into the 2011 season. In addition to a star studded roster already in place, General Manager Erik Soler pulled off a deal to bring in one of the leagues greatest talents, attacking midfielder/forward Dwayne De Rosario, to be the final piece of the puzzle. Despite all ...

New York Red Bulls vs D.C. United: Thierry Henry’s Double Ignites 4-0 Victory

WASHINGTON—The New York Red Bulls have outscored their opponents 7-0 over their last two games. After only producing two goals in the first four games of the 2011 MLS season, the Red Bulls for the second consecutive game have shut out their opponent. Playing on the road, the New York Red Bulls (3-1-2) regained the Eastern Conference lead as they decimated four-time champion, D.C. United 4-0 in convincing fashion. Excellent ball movement combined by solid defense and clutch goal keeping have helped reinforce the belief that the Red Bulls seriously contend for the 2011 MLS Cup. For the second consecutive game, Thierry Henry has silenced his critics with a double-goal performance against D.C. United. By scoring a header in the 12th minute of the game from a nice cross from midfielder Jan Gunnar Soli and later again in the 38th minute, Henry has registered three goals in his last two games. Joining Thierry Henry's scoring explosion has been Jan Gunnar Solli who recorded a hat-trick with three assists of his own. Two of his three assists against D.C. United contributed to both Henry's goals. In addition to his double-goal performance, Henry also added an assist when he beautifully lobbed ...

Major League Soccer Acting American, and It Makes No Sense

Major League Soccer continues to show signs of American isolationism. I thought we left that back in the 1800s? The league, in its 16th season, is at its highest point of popularity ever and is continuously expanding into new markets, with Seattle, Philadelphia, Portland, Vancouver, Montreal and New York all having introduced or began to prepare to introduce a new club since 2009. As more cities become interested in joining the growing phenomenon, MLS has made a statement that truly irritates me. Mark Abbott, the president of Major League Soccer, defiantly stated that the league has no intentions of exploring a promotion/relegation system. "I don't see that in the future, certainly in any reasonable future for us," he said. The American top flight has no desire to join with the rest of the world, where in most countries teams are set into single tables with the bottom three teams being relegated to the next lowest division. In MLS, the current 18 teams are split into two conferences, East and West, with the top three teams in each conference being given automatic qualification to the Conference Semifinals and the next four teams, with all teams combined into a single table qualify. Therefore, 10 of the league's 18 teams—56 ...