Here are the top 15 stories everyone's talking about this morning:
1. GALAXY WANT BIG RED
While the LA Galaxy may have lost a couple of key players this offseason, could the club be set to add a veteran who can fill a few vacant roles? A new report on Wednesday has the club linked with a move for former Chicago fire midfielder/defender and current free agent Jeff Larentowicz.
2. RIDGEWELL SET FOR LOAN SPELL
Liam Ridgewell is clearly a man who likes to keep busy, as less than a month after winning MLS Cup with the Portland Timbers, the defender is set to join English Championship side Brighton & Hove Albion on a short-term loan.
3. EXPANSION IN PORTLAND?
As for the Portland Timbers themselves, the club’s run of sellout games at Providence Park continues and, with their recent success, the Timbers are apparently exploring a way to add 2,000 extra seats for 2016.
4. LIVING THE DREAM
The New York Red Bulls have added several Homegrown players to their roster over the last month and one of them, attacking midfielder Derrick Etienne, considers signing for the senior side the culmination of a childhood dream.
5. CHANGE THE CHANNEL
It seems there could be another change for Orlando City this offseason, with the Orlando Sentinel reporting that the Florida side is exploring a change on the local television front.
6. WHITECAPS DENY INTEREST
The Panamanian national team is calling Armando Cooper a Vancouver Whitecaps player at this point, but with nothing officially announced, the Vancouver Whitecaps are still denying rumors surrounding in the midfielder.
7. CHELSEA TALK UP DROGBA
Interim Chelsea boss Gus Hiddink has been talking up the role he would like to see Didier Drogba play with the English Premier League club should he return. However, the Dutchman was also keen to stress that the Ivory Coast striker is still employed by the Montreal Impact.
8. VILLA CONSIDERS LA ROJA RETURN?
David Villa retired from the Spanish national team after the 2014 World Cup, just three appearances short of reaching 100 caps, and it seems that that target is enough to have the New York City FC striker considering coming out of retirement.
9. FIRE STORIES TO FOLLOW IN 2016
The 2015 season wasn’t a memorable year for the Chicago Fire, but with a new head coach and plenty of changes in store this offseason, what could 2016 look like for the team from Illinois?
10. A CARIBBEAN STANDOUT
Looks like there’s been one standout player at the MLS Caribbean Combine so far: 21-year-old Jorginho James. The midfielder, who has played for Jamaica, has apparently turned some heads and he might have done enough to earn a shot at the adidas MLS Player Combine in Florida.
11. EVERTON’S NEWEST AMERICAN
There's now another American at Everton alongside goalkeeping legend Tim Howard. The English Premier League side has hired Peter Vint, a man who helped oversee the US Olympic team in 2012, as the new head of its academy.
12. SAN DIEGO EXPANSION TALK
This week has seen San Diego become the latest city to be linked with MLS expansion and the news has created plenty of discussion points in the soccer community just as the San Diego Flash get set for some changes in 2016.
13. WHAT'S UP WITH JULIAN GREEN?
The beginning of the new year is also the start of the new European transfer window and US World Cup scorer Julian Green could be in store for a change with an ESPNFC report claiming that "Bayern wouldn't stand in his way if his agent could find him regular football elsewhere."
14. THE WINNERS OF 2015
As 2015 comes to a close, the year was particularly memorable for three teams, with the Portland Timbers winning MLS Cup, Sporting Kansas City capturing the US Open Cup on PKs and the Vancouver Whitecaps clinching their first-ever Voyageurs Cup in the Amway Canadian Championship.
15. USMNT EYES FRESH START
Our own Armchair Analyst called 2015 a year of discontent for the US national team and he wasn’t the only one to share that sentiment, with ESPNFC also considering it a year to forget for the USMNT.
MLSsoccer.com Musts
Armchair Analyst: Three things about MLS at the end of 2015
Best Of 2015: Sebastian Giovinco was the signing of the year
The Exp-ys: The best and the worst of American exports in 2015
