Real Salt Lake's hopes of becoming the first MLS team to win the CONCACAF Champions League were boosted by last night's 2-2 draw against Monterrey in the first leg final in Mexico.
RSL manager Jason Kreis calls Wednesday’s road tie the “best draw of his life.”
In case you missed them, here are the highlights of the heart-pumping final, which featured end-to-end action. (VIDEO)
While he was elated with the result, Kreis was upset at the referee decision to book captain Kyle Beckerman, forcing him to miss the second leg due to yellow card accumulation. He called the official’s decision “a travesty.”
With or without the captain, Real Salt Lake fans are ready to give a warm welcome to Monterrey next Wednesday. Just a couple hundred tickets remain for the return match next week at Rio Tinto Stadium.
With RSL on the brink of history, this in-depth feature on the club by Sports Illustrated’s Grant Wahl will help put this final series against Monterrey into perspective.
Two more MLS clubs are in action ahead of the weekend slate of games. Tonight fans get to see if Thierry Henry and Luke Rodgers can outscore Charlie Davies when NYRB take on D.C. United (8 p.m. ET, ESPN2 and ESPNDeportes).
In his first media interviews since officially joining the New England Revolution, Benny Feilhaber admitted he thought he was heading to Chivas USA. He went to sleep back in Denmark before seeing which team would wind up with his rights in the allocation order.
Remember yesterday's news of how the Houston Dynamo wanted to make a deal to land Feilhaber? Well, wait until you see what the Revolution reportedly wanted in exchange and see if you’d have pulled the trigger.
The second-to-last graph in this article will explain loud and clear why the Philadelphia Union’s Peter Nowak decided he did not want to pull the trigger on taking Feilhaber in the allocation order.
We can also see why they call Vancouver’s goalkeeping coach one of the most creative trainers in the country. He even makes his ‘keepers play Simon Says games.
Columbus Crew defender Andy Iro compares his status with his MLS club to that of an ex-girlfriend: “it was good once. She wanted me, i wanted her. But now, she want dont want me … and i dont want her.”
Who knew that Iro’s teammate, forward Tommy Heinemann, was “a guitar-strumming, songwriting striker?” In fact he used to be part of a band called Stones Cry Out.
Heinemann can perhaps steal a few lines for his songs from one of the greatest soccer broadcasters in the USA. GolTV’s Ray Hudson explains how he comes up with the colorful language he is famous for.
Hudson’s fellow Englishman Luke Rodgers of the NY Red Bulls is also not shy about stating his mind and speaking about some incidents which have followed him to MLS. He wants fans to know that he’s “not some sicko that throws fireworks in girls' faces.”
It’s the list you’ve all been waiting for: the most valuable soccer teams in the world and the highest paid soccer players, courtesy of Forbes Magazine.
There’s a club in Brazil that is not on the most valuable soccer teams list – Corinthians Alagoano – but they’ve produced talents for Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and the Vancouver Whitecaps.
What’s one tactic you can use to make sure your team is prepared for a stretch run at a major European league title? In Italy, it involves having the owner’s wife giving some important pointers to the players' wives about how to treat their husbands.
Lastly, the video that everyone is watching online involves the Copa del Rey tumbling from the top of Real Madrid’s victory bus and getting crushed by the vehicle. Here's photo evidence of the damage. After all, beating Barcelona probably means more than the actual trophy to los merengues. (VIDEO & PHOTO)
The losing side of the Copa del Rey final at least have a fun music video to wake up to this morning, courtesy of Gerard Pique. (VIDEO)
MLSsoccer.com Must-Reads:
RSL gets another dose of Morales magic in Monterrey
Monterrey’s early subs happened because of injury and not tactics
Atlantic Cup carries extra meaning for D.C. United heading into ESPN2 match-up vs NY
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