4Apr/140
MLS Week 5: Complete Schedule and 5 Things to Watch for This Weekend
The battle between turf and the New York Red Bulls will be the story to watch in MLS Week 5, but what additional storylines will complete your weekend preview? In the coming slides, a majority of the nine matches scheduled for this week will be covered in great detail. Each match selected will be dissected from a unique angle to intensify your viewing pleasure. So, what exactly warrants your attention in Week 5? Read on to find out. Note: Unless otherwise mentioned, credit all statistics to Squawka. All data collected is licensed from Opta Sports.Begin Slideshow4Apr/140
Bobby Burling to Auction Chivas Jersey, Tribute Shirt for Kidney Cancer Charity
In the above clip, Chivas USA defender Bobby Burling powers home a late header to win their MLS season opener against Chicago Fire. The goal was especially poignant to Burling, as he dedicated it to his late friend, Tommy 'Tomcat' Phillips, who had died of a rare form of kidney cancer, aged just 28, two weeks before. Burling planned to reveal a tribute t-shirt during the game at some point, but, having already been booked, he would have been sent off for doing so in celebration, so opted not to. Instead, Burling will be auctioning off the t-shirt he had on, along with the Chivas jersey he wore in the match and the match ball, at a pub crawl to pay tribute to Phillips in May. All monies raised will be added to an endowment set up in Phillips' name by his friends and relatives, which has already seen almost $60,000 donated to cancer research. Read more MLS news on BleacherReport.com3Apr/140
Houston and FC Dallas Both Striking MLS Oil Ahead of Texas Derby
Heading into Saturday night's Texas derby at BBVA Compass Stadium, the pressure will be on both the Houston Dynamo and FC Dallas to prove that a hot start can turn into a big result early in the season. Both sides got off to blazing starts in the month of March with 16 combined points earned from seven games played between the two sides. Houston has been one of the most consistent franchises in the league over the last five years, and in its first two games, it proved that this year will be no different. The Dynamo thrashed New England in Week 1 at home before beating Montreal the next week by a 1-0 score. After a bye week, Dominic Kinnear's club faced a trip up to BC Place to take on Vancouver, a game which resulted in a 2-1 loss. That result could have been much different had Houston put away another chance or two on the treacherous turf up in British Columbia. FC Dallas has come out of the gates on fire for the second consecutive season, as the team is currently in pole position to win the Supporters' Shield. New manager Oscar Pareja ignited his team with a spark in Week 1 against Montreal ...3Apr/140
5 Keys for MLS to Attract More Stars
Major League Soccer is in its 19th season, and the beautiful game has never been in stronger position in the USA. Last season, the average attendance was higher than the English Championship, and internationally renowned players such as Thierry Henry and Robbie Keane flourished. The American top flight aspires to be among the world's biggest leagues by 2022, but in its current state, this seems like a very ambitious target. MLS still has a reputation of being a "retirement league" for pros in their autumn years, and the standard is unquestionably lower than Europe's elite divisions. Here are five ways in which Major League Soccer might attract more big stars—and therefore get closer to reaching its 2022 target. Begin Slideshow2Apr/140
Early Numbers on the Home Guard
As the Home Guard prepare to take on Mexico this week, we're going to look at some of the early-season stats for these U.S. men's national soccer team hopefuls. This is the last U.S. national team game before head coach Jurgen Klinsmann names his preliminary 30-man World Cup roster. After this game, Klinsmann's evaluations of a player's form will come from games in Major League Soccer. Soccer is a notoriously stat-starved sport. If you look at a "box score" for a soccer match, you see relatively rare events like goals and assists along with more mundane factoids like the match attendance, red and yellow cards, the number of corner kicks taken and substitutions. Recently, several soccer news outlets have beefed up their stat reporting, but the raw data doesn't tell you much and the various attempts at graphical representation (heat maps, passing charts, etc) don't tell you much about the data that goes into those images. MLSsoccer.com is one soccer news outlet that does a good job of coding and reporting raw numbers for basic but important indicators of a player's performance in offensive, defensive and possession phases of the game. For the analytical enjoyment of B/R readers, the following statistics will be recorded ...1Apr/140