22Aug/130
MLS Players and Their Celebrity Lookalikes
Have you ever wondered which actor would play you were anyone to ever make a movie of your life? Well, these eight Major League Soccer players, including some of the biggest stars in the league, are already set with prominent lookalike actors already waiting in the wings. Here are eight MLS players and their celebrity actor lookalikes.Begin Slideshow22Aug/130
Thierry Henry’s 5 Best Goals in MLS
Since arriving in Major League Soccer three years ago, Thierry Henry has become one of the most contentious players in the league. On the one hand, Henry can appear disinterested in games and has struggled come playoff time, scoring only one goal in six MLS playoff games. On the other hand, he has scored 14 and 15 goals in the last two seasons, respectively, and has repeatedly shown his class with some of the best goals in MLS history. Here are five of his best.Begin Slideshow20Aug/130
European Stars Destined to Play in the MLS One Day
While David Beckham will forever be the stick that others are measured by in terms of their impact on Major League Soccer, players who starred in the biggest European leagues have been coming to MLS for years. From Barcelona and Bulgarian national team legend Hristo Stoichkov to modern-day stars like Thierry Henry and Robbie Keane, MLS has a rich history of top-notch talent. Here are eight more players who've had big careers in Europe that may be headed to MLS one day.Begin Slideshow19Aug/130
20 Best Players in MLS Right Now
The 2013 Major League Soccer season is entering the home stretch with the playoff races in both conferences starting to heat up. As teams prepare to get themselves enough points to make the playoffs and put themselves in position for a solid postseason run, let's take a look at the 20 best players in the league right now. Begin Slideshow6Aug/130
Projecting an LA Galaxy Season in the Premier League
Major League Soccer pulled off a minor coup last week, signing Clint Dempsey to the league from Tottenham Hotspur in the prime of Dempsey’s career. Usually reserved for up-and-coming youngsters and aging foreign stars looking to grab one final big payday, the move was yet another sign that MLS’ appeal and quality of play is continuing to improve. With the English Premier League considered by many to be the top league in the world and the 2013-14 EPL season about to kickoff, one wonders, how would a top MLS side do competing in England’s top league?Begin Slideshow8May/130
MLS: Most Overvalued and Undervalued Players in the League
This week, Major League Soccer’s players’ union released the players’ salaries for 2013. The list contained two numbers for each player, their base salary, as well as their guaranteed annual compensation. The base salary is exactly what it sounds like. The guaranteed annual compensation is each player’s base salary, plus any signing bonus they may have received, annualized over the length of the contract. For our discussion, we will be using their base salaries only. Using numbers broken down by Liviu Bird at the blog Sounder at Heart, the average salary for a goalkeeper in MLS is $85,504, the average salary for a defender is $110,661, the average salary for a midfielder is $128,631 and the average salary for a forward is $220,943. Using those numbers as a basis, who are the most overvalued and undervalued players in MLS?Begin Slideshow7May/130
How Would the Best MLS Teams Fare in the EPL?
Trying to gauge how the best Major League Soccer teams would fare in the English Premier League is an academic question, but one that’s worth looking at just for fun. Deciding the “best” MLS teams is an exercise in itself, but to keep matters simple, I selected the L.A. Galaxy and the Houston Dynamo, the two teams who battled in the MLS Cup final in 2011 and 2012. Here are the factors I considered: How many points would it take for an MLS team to avoid relegation? The “magic number” for avoiding relegation in the EPL is generally considered to be 40 points. Looking at the past five seasons in the EPL, that number is pretty close to the center of the dart board. Here is what it took to finish in 17th place and avoid relegation in each of the last five EPL seasons. 2011-12 37 points QPR 2010-11 40 points Wolves 2009-10 35 points West Ham 2008-09 35 points Hull City 2007-08 36 points Fulham How do L.A.’s and Houston’s squads match up? Again, this is an impossible question to answer, but in an attempt to take an unbiased look at the squad ...17Apr/130
Why L.A. Galaxy Are Early Favorites to Win the MLS Cup
It’s still early in the young 2013 Major League Soccer season with most teams only six or seven games into the 34-game season. With that being said, there are many signs that already point to an L.A. Galaxy three-peat for the 2013 MLS Cup. Here are five reasons the Galaxy are already the early favorites to win the title yet again. They’ve been there beforeThe L.A. Galaxy have been the most dominant team in MLS the past four seasons, winning the Western Conference in 2009, 2010 and 2011, the Supporters’ Shield as the MLS team with the best regular season record in 2010 and 2011 and the MLS Cup in 2011 and 2012. Experience counts in MLS, and the Galaxy has loads of it. The only major loss from their 2012 championship season is David Beckham. Omar Gonzalez Early in the 2012 MLS season, with Omar Gonzalez still recovering from an off-season ACL injury suffered while on loan with Nuremberg, the Galaxy struggled. Of their first 13 games, the Galaxy won only three and fell to last place in the Western Conference. After Gonzalez’s return to the starting XI, however, the Galaxy went 11-4-3 (win-loss-draw format) and made ...9Apr/130
10 Best MLS Goals of 2013 So Far
The 2013 Major League Soccer season is well under way with six weeks of play in the books. More than any season in recent memory, the opening weeks of 2013 have been full of spectacular goals with many of this year’s early season strikes already Goal of the Year candidates. Here are the 10 best so far.Begin Slideshow3Apr/130