They've been clamoring for a Designated Player in Montreal and the MLS expansion side finally has its first one.

The Impact officially announced the long-rumored signing of prolific Italian Serie A striker Marco Di Vaio, who has just concluded a 10-goal season for Bologna FC in Italy. It was his fourth consecutive season of double-digit goals for the top-flight Italian club.

Any given matchday.

With apologies to Al Pacino, the line could not be more appropriate in MLS these days.

CARSON, Calif. – If there’s further proof needed that the LA Galaxy are indeed snakebit, consider Wednesday’s loss to San Jose as the last bit of evidence.

With what players called their best performance of the season, the Galaxy held a 2-0 lead with 73 minutes gone against San Jose and still found a way to lose.

“It just seems like we can’t get any luck to go our way – a bounce, a call, something,” Galaxy defender Sean Franklin said. “Things aren’t going the way we wanted them to go.”

Conventional wisdom says San Jose Earthquakes forwards Alan Gordon and Steven Lenhart are too duplicative in terms of their skill sets to complement each other on the pitch.

The shorthanded Los Angeles Galaxy found out Wednesday just how wrong conventional wisdom can be.

After a toothless first half without 11-goal scorer Chris Wondolowski, away on U.S. national team duty, Quakes coach Frank Yallop inserted Gordon at intermission for an ineffective Sercan Guvenisik.

SEATTLE — One bad result can be called a fluke. Two could be chalked up to coincidence. But now that the Seattle Sounders are sitting on three straight disappointing results, they are hoping it’s not the start of a trend.

The latest was easily the most frustrating. In losing 2-0 to the Columbus Crew at home, the Sounders dominated the run of play but could find neither the scoring touch they needed nor the clamp down defending they showed earlier in the season.

When Dilly Duka, the Columbus Crew’s 22-year-old midfielder, was told last week of the team’s struggles on the West Coast, he said the young players in the locker room represented a new era and were looking forward to playing at San Jose and Seattle.

“I think we’re going to go out there flying” he said to MLSsoccer.com at the time.

Eight games.

That's how long it's been since FC Dallas has won a game. And Wednesday night brought no respite, as the winless streak continued with a 2-1 loss at Chicago. It was the Fire's first MLS win over FCD in seven tries as Chicago also collected the Brimstone Cup for the first time since 2001.

GOAL: Hedges heads home opener

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PORTLAND, Ore. – Aritz Aduriz christened Valencia CF’s first US trip with a goal in their 1-0 victory Wednesday night over the Portland Timbers at JELD-WEN Field.

The Spanish La Liga side, fresh off a third-place finish in the 2011-12 season, put on an impressive first-half performance with eight shots in fast-paced action. The Timbers, who fielded a lineup of a number of starters despite a Cascadia rivalry game with Vancouver looming Saturday, gamely competed against the top-level club with five shots of their own in the first 45.

Read More]]> Thu, 24 Mayo 2012 01:11:33 GMT http://www.mlssoccer.com/es/node/186881

BRIDGEVIEW, Ill. — During 13 minutes of madness in the second half of Chicago’s 2-1 win over FC Dallas, two penalty kicks were saved, Fire coach Frank Klopas started seeing "a different Sean Johnson" and the Fire went ahead, sealing their first Brimstone Cup success since 2001 in the process.

GOAL: Pappa reacts first

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