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Welcome to a new series on MLSsoccer.com, where each week we'll take a look at some of the best images from the week that was in Major League Soccer. Here's a look back at the best shots from May 11-12, and check back every Monday as the series continues.
Philadelphia Union goalkeeper Zac MacMath (center) skies to take the ball off the head of Chicago's Gonzalo Segares during the Union's 1-0 win at Toyota Park.
Felipe's 39th minute goal wasn't the game-winner for Montreal against Real Salt Lake last weekend - far from it, in fact, in what turned out to be a 3-2 thriller - but the Brazilian celebrated in style, playing up to Impact fans behind the corner flag.
The backflip goal celebration is nothing new to the world of soccer, but it's always spectacular when it gets thrown out on the field. Seattle Sounders forward Obafemi Martins broke out the celebration during Seattle's 4-0 romp over San Jose.
We already knew Vancouver Whitecaps forward Darren Mattocks (right) could jump over the top of MLS defenders, but we had yet to see him jump chest high on Omar Gonzalez and throw a freeze frame pose at us. Now we have.
Don't lose focus of that ball, Bobby Shuttlesworth. Stare right on down that tunnel and don't break eye contact.
I'm just praying that Columbus Crew midfielder Matias Sanchez stuck the landing on this splitting dismount, and didn't rip the seat of his pants.
Well, see what had happened was.... FC Dallas midfielder Je-Vaughn Watson (left) really wanted to win the ball, but then Dwayne De Rosario told him, "Shoulder ride's over, pal," and dropped him like a sack of potatoes.
Portland Timbers midfielder Rodney Wallace (right) is in the form of his life of late. So much so, that he's carrying the entire Timbers team on his back right now. Literally, and figuratively.
This is Houston Dynamo vs. Sporting Kansas City in a nutshell, right here. Mechack Jerome (left) wins the ball in the air, gets upended and slams heavily to the ground. Sporting got slammed to the ground a few times, but won, 1-0.
When I was a 10-year-old boy growing up on the east side (of the suburbs) of Kansas City, I had as many of the latest NFL player cards by Topps as I could con my poor mother into buying for me. She couldn't walk me down a checkout lane without my begging mercilessly in hopes I'd land my latest prized Barry Sanders or Dan Marino card.
Well, beginning in July, it'll be Thierry Henry and Robbie Keane gracing the latest set of Topps player cards, as the Sports Business Journal reported on Monday that Major League Soccer and the trading-card company have signed a six-year deal that is set to launch at or around the 2013 MLS All-Star Game in Kansas City.
MLS makes Topps its official card ... first #MLS collection to debut in July - sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues… via @sbjsbd twitter.com/courtemancheML…
— Dan Courtemanche (@courtemancheMLS) May 13, 2013
I think the biggest question on everyone's mind, though, is this: Who will headline the "Designated Player Flops" special collectors series to debut a couple years down the road? Denílson? Jéferson? Luis Ángel Landín? Or the most recent, Kris Boyd?
You'll obviously want to load your kids' stockings and birthday cards with pack after pack of these hot, new MLS Topps player cards. The actual cards haven't yet found their way onto eBay as of yet – as everything does ahead of release these days – but be sure to snag your 2013 MLS Team Checklist for the low, low price of one American dollar today!
What do you think? Will you be tempted to buy your soccer-playing child a pack or two, in hopes that it will increase their level of knowledge and interest in MLS?
Jurgen Klinsmann dropped an intriguing tweet into the Twitter timelines of US soccer fans on Tuesday morning, announcing that he had made the 6,000-plus-mile journey from Southern California to São Paulo, Brazil.
The US national team boss flew south to catch Tuesday's pivotal Copa Libertadores match between Palmeiras and reigning Mexican champions Club Tijuana (9 pm ET, Fox Deportes), where US internationals Joe Corona and Edgar Castillo are likely to feature for Los Xolos as they seek to advance to the quarterfinals of South America's most prestigious club tournament.
Here in Sao Paulo, Brazil to watch @joecorona15 @edgarcastillo40 and @xolosoficial take on Palmerias in the Copa Libertadores. #USMNT
— Jürgen Klinsmann (@J_Klinsmann) May 14, 2013
With Tijuana facing an uphill battle far from home thanks to last month's 0-0 first-leg stalemate in Mexico, the big match at Estádio Pacaembú should provide Klinsmann with a useful perspective on the gringo duo's form and mentality as he prepares his roster for the USA's upcoming slate of friendlies and World Cup qualifiers.
READ: American Exports: Klinsmann attends Tijuana's Copa Libertadores game, Yanks fail to shine
Yet that's surely not the only reason the German-American coach has made the draining voyage across five time zones and many, many miles.
The USMNT's place in World Cup 2014 is far from assured and their destinations will not be known until next year's draw. But Klinsmann is a meticulous planner and he is probably taking this opportunity to scout the lay of the land where his team will – should their ship stay on course in the next few months – spend a month or more next summer.
São Paulo is one of 12 host cities for next summer's tournament, with both group-round and knockout matches scheduled to take place at the new Arena Corinthians, the future home of Palmeiras' cross-town rivals Corinthians, which is scheduled for completion later this year.
READ: Report: Klinsmann to leave Landon Donovan off USMNT roster for June WCQs
With the sprawling metropolis located in relative proximity to fellow host cities Rio de Janeiro, Curitiba, Belo Horizonte and Porto Alegre, it would offer a decent home base for the Yanks should they receive a southern Brazilian posting from FIFA. However, Brazil's somewhat controversial decision to make World Cup venues out of several distant northern and interior destinations means that it's likely too early to start reserving hotels and training grounds just yet.
São Paulo sits just far enough from the Atlantic Ocean for Klinsmann to miss out on the nation's famous beach culture on this trip. The chopper pilot-in-training might have been tempted to take his flight log with him, though – because epic density and congestion has made it one of the most helicopter-friendly cities on earth, with many well-to-do Paulistas avoiding horrendous traffic jams by commuting via rotary-wing aircraft.
It's something of a transition year for Sporting KC, as they commit a little more fully to building chances from possession, rather than forcing chances via turnover.
That said, forcing midfield turnovers is still a huge part of their game, their high pressure still works, and someone still needs to do the dirty work in the midfield. Uri Rosell, the Barcelona product, has been more than happy to do that particular job:
| Player | Recoveries | Touches |
| Rosell, Oriol | 102 | 865 |
| McCarty, Dax | 94 | 699 |
| Chará, Diego | 90 | 825 |
| Bernier, Patrice | 90 | 707 |
| Reo-Coker, Nigel | 88 | 687 |
| Cronin, Sam | 87 | 762 |
| Baca, Rafael | 84 | 592 |
| Michel | 82 | 717 |
| Gonçalves, José | 81 | 569 |
| Johnson, Will | 80 | 778 |
| Ashe, Corey | 80 | 742 |
| Holgersson, Markus | 80 | 596 |
| Beckerman, Kyle | 79 | 799 |
| Sarvas, Marcelo | 79 | 612 |
| Alonso, Osvaldo | 78 | 580 |
Leading the league in recoveries is no small thing – Ozzie Alonso's done it each of the last two years, and is rightly regarded as one of the two best d-mids in the league. But Rosell could push himself into that conversation if he keeps playing at this level.
Dax McCarty, by the way, probably already belongs in that conversation. He was second in recoveries to Alonso last season, and would be leading the league this year if he hadn't missed the past couple of games through injury. It's fairly amazing that the Red Bulls have coped so well without him.
There might not be a "Most Interesting Man in MLS Award" at the conclusion of each and every Major League Soccer season (there should be, by the way), but if there was, Sporting Kansas City goalkeeper Jimmy Nielsen would be a worthy finalist for the award, year after year. And Nielsen got just that much more interesting on Tuesday afternoon when The Guardian's Paolo Bandini announced that he has been working in partnership with the 35-yeard old Danish keeper to write his second autobiography, Welcome To The Blue Heaven.
In recent months I have had the immense pleasure and privilege of helping #SportingKC goalkeeper @pumanielsen1to write his autobiography
— Paolo Bandini (@Paolo_Bandini) May 14, 2013
Jimmy's book is now out in shops, and will be available on Amazon from tomorrow. You can buy it here: amzn.to/17qfpyI @pumanielsen1
— Paolo Bandini (@Paolo_Bandini) May 14, 2013
Just ask anyone who's spent more than five minutes with Nielsen; they'll tell you the only thing more infectious and inspiring than his net-minding on the field, is his friendly and lovable personality off it. Needless to say, this is a book that you're going to want to get your hands on and breeze right through.
The official release form Ascend Books, publisher of Welcome To The Blue Heaven, states the book will range from topics, but not limited to, Nielsen's past gambling addiction that almost cost him his career, the trials and tribulations it caused amongst his family, the woman - his wife - that stuck by his side and helped him piece his life back together, and a whole new lease on life and career found in - of all places - the United States' Heartland, that has seen him become one of the club's all-time fan favorites and finally a Cup-winning captain.
READ: A career rebirth for SKC's Nielsen
Sporting Kansas City forward Kei Kamara was first to break the news of Nielsen's book, tweeting out a picture of his copy last week, followed up by this picture with the subject at hand, and the first ever signed copy of Welcome To The Blue Heaven:
Just got my copy signed by the MAN himself @pumanielsen1. Now its worth more than I paid for it. twitter.com/keikamara/stat…
— KEI KAMARA (@keikamara) May 11, 2013
There's only one thing that could be a more interesting time than Nielsen's autobiography itself, and that's the Jimmy Nielsen book tour, which kicks off later this month and into the summer at various Kansas City retailers.
READ: Sporting Kansas City's Jimmy Nielsen makes the toughest save of his life
You can order your copy of Welcome To The Blue Heaven on Amazon, for $24.95.
ESPN may have finally exhausted its full allotment of Barclays Premier League television broadcasting rights – they'll relinquish that hold to the NBC Sports Group in the fall – and the broadcasting behemoth may only have one more World Cup to televise before FOX Sports takes over in 2018, but that doesn't mean the Worldwide Leader is looking to get out of the soccer business anytime soon.
ESPN announced on Tuesday morning that the network will launch a brand new, highlights-driven soccer studio show called "ESPN FC" later this year, set to hit cable boxes on August 11. The 30-minute show, which will air Sunday through Friday each week, will be shown primarily on ESPN2 six days a week, with the Sunday edition spanning an hour. ESPN FC's daily scheduling has not yet been announced, but soccer fans around the United States will be hoping for a prime, mid-morning or early evening time slot.
ESPN recently rebranded its online soccer coverage with a change from the old ESPN Soccernet to the new ESPN FC iteration, and the broadcast side will focus primarily on the English Premier League, UEFA Champions League, Spain's La Liga, the US and Mexican national teams and, of course, Major League Soccer.
Some of the regular contributors to ESPN's digital and television soccer coverage – and potential on-air personalities for ESPN FC – include the likes of Derek Rae, Tommy Smyth, Shaka Hislop, Gabriele Marcotti and Janus Michalik. ESPN also boasts a stable of MLS-centric commentators and analysts such as Adrian Healey and former MLS-ers Alexi Lalas and Taylor Twellman. With Premier League and World Cup rights going the way of other broadcasting companies, MLS could be in a position to move closer to the forefront of ESPN's soccer coverage, both on television and digitally.
ESPN and ESPN2 have been a longtime official television broadcast partner of Major League Soccer since the league's inaugural season in 1996. The current broadcast agreement between MLS and ESPN runs until the end of 2014, with the network carrying 20 2013 regular-season games.
Stay tuned for further news regarding ESPN FC in the coming weeks and months. Who would you like to see spearhead this new venture for ESPN?
UPDATE: SI.com's Grant Wahl on a potential time slot...
Hearing ESPN's daily soccer show starting in August will not be a wee-hours broadcast and will be shown at an easy-to-view time.
— Grant Wahl (@GrantWahl) May 14, 2013
Le match aller de la finale du Championnat canadien Amway entre Montréal et Vancouver suscite de nombreuses questions, et l'émission Coup Franc de cette semaine (à écouter ici) s'efforce d'y répondre. Sur papier, y a-t-il un favori ? Dans quel état de forme vont se présenter les deux équipes ? Y aura-t-il un match à distance entre Wenger et Mattocks ?
Le Real Salt Lake n’est pas l’équipe la plus connue de la MLS. Les animateurs ont profité de son passage à Montréal pour parler avec Nick Rimando et Jason Kreis afin d’en apprendre plus sur son identité, son style, la transition malgré les nombreux départs de l’hiver, sa politique de recrutement.
Deux autres caractéristiques du club de l’Utah ouvrent des débats très intéressants. L’une est l’obligation pour tous ses joueurs d’avoir appris l’anglais après un an au club. Un modèle à suivre ? Les particularités linguistiques de Chivas USA et de l’Impact de Montréal entrent évidemment dans la discussion.
L’autre concerne les écoles de jeunes : le défi est beaucoup plus grand dans les Rocheuses que dans le sud de la Californie, d’où proviennent déjà de nombreux joueurs de MLS. La formation est l’avenir de la MLS : certains clubs sont-ils handicapés en raison de leur situation géographique ?
Regardez aussi les finalistes au titre de but de la semaine et comparez votre choix avec celui des animateurs de l’émission qui reviennent également sur la première défaite de Houston au BBVA Compass Stadium.
L'émission Coup Franc est disponible sur Stitcher et iTunes. Vous pouvez nous joindre par courriel (coup.franc@MLSsoccer.com), sur Facebook ou sur Twitter (@CoupFrancMLS).
We already know the British tabloids can be over the top and insensitive when it comes to issues they don't understand, but perhaps no one in the American soccer community knows that better than US national team and Everton goalkeeper Tim Howard.
The World Cup veteran and national team fixture since 2007 has gone from being called "disabled" and "retarded" by the British press when he moved to Manchester United in 2003 to something of a club legend and cult hero for current club Everton, all in the space of a decade.
Not only has Howard learned to cope with the Tourette's syndrome that accompanied him his entire life, but he's now raising awareness among children. The message? Tourette's hasn't defined Howard, and nor should it define them.
In the April-May issue of Neurology Now, Howard spoke at length about his life with Tourette's from his childhood struggles to life in the spotlight as a Manchester United and Everton star.
Said Howard of being a little boy with TS: “From the age of 9 to 15, it was just this chaos of different tics, and they were pretty strong. I would just begin to figure out how a tic worked with my body, and, bam, six months or a year later, a new tic would come.”
“On the field I wasn't Tim who had TS or Tim who had tics. I was Tim who scored goals or scored baskets or hit home runs.”
These days, Howard keep the goals out, but you can't help but admire him for pressing on and passing his message onto others with similar challenges.
Howard isn't the only professional athlete who thrived despite the sometimes nasty disorder. Former Major League Baseball player Jim Eisenreich had a 15-year career in the big leagues, while former NBA player Chris Jackson, who Howard himself cites as a role model in his early years with TS, was a first-round draft pick in 1990 and enjoyed a 15-year career in America, Europe and Asia.
Statistics are often overlooked in soccer, and we here at MLSsoccer.com think that's too bad.
So each Monday, we'll be bringing you five of the most telling stats following the previous weekend's round of games. They might be about the individual game itself, a team's recent run of results or an individual player lighting it up. This week, we've got all three.
Here's five key stats from Week 11:
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25 players have scored 3 or more goals in MLS 2013 so far. Five of the 25 – exactly one-fifth – are Portland Timbers players. [Mike Donovan, @TheMikeDonovan]
The five players are Ryan Johnson, Will Johnson, Diego Valeri, Rodney Wallace and Darlington Nagbe. The New York Red Bulls come in a close second with four players (Thierry Henry, Tim Cahill, Fabián Espíndola and Jámison Olave). To make up for those two hogging all the three-goal scorers, Chivas USA, Seattle, Vancouver, Colorado, D.C. United, Chicago and New England have a combined zero. Ouch.
- With Sunday night's victory against the Houston Dynamo, Sporting Kansas City have now handed MLS opponents their first loss at a new stadium at six different stadiums: BBVA Compass Stadium, BMO Field, Qwest Field, Rio Tinto Stadium, Robertson Stadium (Houston Dynamo) and Spartan Stadium (San Jose Earthquakes). [Sporting Kansas City]
Quite rude of them to crash house parties in such a manner, really.
- Jack McInerney's game-winning goal against the Chicago Fire on Saturday was his 15th goal in 30 appearances since John Hackworth took over as Philadelphia Union head coach for Peter Nowak last June. [Philadelphia Union]
Jack Mac has done everything in his power to earn a US national team call-up for this summer's Gold Cup. It would be more than a mild shock if his early season form doesn't translate to his first senior team cap. Are you paying attention, Jurgen?
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Following their 3-2 road loss to the Montreal Impact on Saturday, Real Salt Lake have yet to win in Canada in the club's history, moving to 0-6-4 in 10 matches across all competitions north of the border. [Real Salt Lake]
The math is in their favor, though; only one Canadian team resides in the Western Conference, so they'll avoid Toronto FC and Montreal for a second (and/or third) time in the regular season as well as the playoffs, barring an MLS Cup meeting.
- The San Jose Earthquakes have won just one of their past eight games, a stretch that includes three losses. During their Supporters' Shield-winning 2012 campaign, the fewest games they won during an eight-game stretch was four, and that run was without a loss.
For context's sake, the 2012 stretch came during the final eight games of the season with the Supporters' Shield already won and San Jose resting starters for the playoffs. Granted, it's still early in the season, but the Earthquakes are well behind their 2012 pace of 1.94 ppg (1.17 so far in 2013), which is a difference of 26 points over a 34-game season.
Did we miss something? Let us know in the comments below.
In case you haven't heard, Sporting Kansas City ended the Houston Dynamo's 36-game home unbeaten streak with a 1-0 victory at BBVA Compass Stadium on Sunday night. The 73rd-minute goal, which came courtesy of Sporting KC defender Aurélien Collin, ended the Dynamo's MLS record streak that spanned 22 months of play in all competitions.
Immediately after the game, a clever little bug in the Sporting KC communications department took to Twitter to gloat about ending the Dynamo's reign of terror in H-Town.
Sorry about your streak @houstondynamo. It was fun while it lasted.
— Sporting Kansas City (@SportingKC) May 13, 2013
The "streak" also pertains, coincidentally, to a another streak of five matchups, dating back to September 10, 2011, the last time Sporting defeated the Dynamo. That particular stretch included a 2012 regular-season loss, two draws and a pair of playoff eliminations in back-to-back years at Sporting Park. Sporting did manage to defeat the Dynamo, 1-0, in the second leg of the 2012 Eastern Conference semifinals, but were knocked out 2-1 on aggregate.
Houston, however, had the last Twitter laugh of the night, just as they did in the 2011 and 2012 playoffs.
@sportingkc Heh. #ForeverOrange twitter.com/HoustonDynamo/…
— HoustonDynamo (@HoustonDynamo) May 13, 2013