Bobby Rhine has been mourned across the American soccer community since his death of an apparent heart attack Sept. 5 – especially in Texas, as he spent his entire 10-year Major League Soccer career in Dallas.
But the 35-year-old Rhine, who worked in the club's front office and also was an announcer on FC Dallas telecasts, had some connections to Wisconsin.
After being drafted in the first round of the 1999 MLS College Draft, the former Connecticut standout was loaned to the Milwaukee Rampage of the USL A-League.
He made two league appearances for the Rampage, played one game for the A-League's Tennessee Rhythm the next year and logged 212 matches for the Dallas Burn/FC Dallas before retiring in 2008.
Also, University of Wisconsin men's coach John Trask worked with Rhine in 2004 as an assistant for FC Dallas.
Here's the tribute video the team showed at halftime of its match last weekend.
Major League Soccer announced a new television deal last week with NBC and its NBC Sports Network, currently known as Versus but scheduled to be renamed in January.
NBC Sports Network will show 38 regular-season matches and three playoff games each season from 2012 to '14, while NBC will televise two regular-season matches and two playoff games.
Each network also will show two U.S. men's national team matches as part of the contract, which replaces the league's deal with Fox Soccer. ESPN's contract to carry MLS and U.S. national team games also runs through 2014, as does a deal with Spanish-language Univision.
The switch will allow more people to watch matches: NBC Sports is available in approximately 76 million households, compared to 40 million for Fox Soccer. It also will be the first time since 2002 that as many as four MLS games will be available on a major network.
The contract also is a big step up for MLS financially: Media reports put the deal at $10 to $12 million per season, compared to the $6.25 million Fox Soccer is paying this season. Remember that 2007 was the first year the league was able to sell its TV rights; before that, MLS paid networks to televise matches.
The impact of being on NBC was seen pretty quickly: This promo aired Sunday night during the network's broadcast of the NFL preseason game between the Dallas Cowboys and San Diego Chargers.
The last match of the Fourth of July weekend in Major League Soccer lacked fireworks – once again.
Monday night's 0-0 tie between the Los Angeles Galaxy and Seattle Sounders set a dubious league record, as it was the 20th scoreless draw of the MLS season. The previous mark of 19 was set in 2009.
The prime concern for MLS officials surely is that there are still 16 weeks worth of matches remaining.
Soccer America notes that a 0-0 tie has occurred every 7.9 games in MLS this season, compared to every 11.2 matches for Italy's Serie A, 16.5 games for England's Premier League and 21.9 matches in Germany's Bundesliga. There were only 14 scoreless draws in the Bundesliga during the entire 2010-11 season.
Portland Timbers rookie midfielder Darlington Nagbe, though, provided a highlight over the weekend.
Nagbe's first career goal was the latest excellent strike of the 2011 MLS season, as he trapped a loose ball just outside the box on the right side, juggled it twice and ripped a shot to the far post.
Eric Hassli conjured up what many Major League Soccer fans think will be the Goal of the Year – and perhaps the best goal in the league's 16-year history – on Saturday night, a stunning 85th-minute strike that gave the Vancouver Whitecaps a 2-2 draw with the host Seattle Sounders.
More than 1.2 million had watched Hassli's incredible far-post volley as of Tuesday afternoon.
But less than 24 hours later, Sporting Kansas City midfielder Graham Zusi gave Hassli a run for his money.
Zusi nailed a line-drive free kick from 45 yards out in Sporting's surprising 4-1 rout of FC Dallas on Sunday night in Frisco, Texas. My favorite part about the goal is the noise the ball makes when hitting the net.
The goals have sparked plenty of online debate. So what do you think? Which one was better?
When I started following Major League Soccer, John Spencer quickly became one of my favorite players.
The fiesty Scot was a star for the Colorado Rapids, a tenacious striker whom I learned previously played for English clubs Chelsea, Everton and Queens Park Rangers and Scotland’s Glasgow Rangers.
After his playing career, Spencer joined the Houston Dynamo as an assistant coach and last year he was named the first coach for the Portland Timbers' MLS team.
One of the Timbers' main sponsors is Alaska Airlines, and the two teamed up for a hilarious commercial featuring Spencer, whose personality doesn't seem to have changed much since stepping into management.
U.S. soccer fans got another look at the burgeoning talent of New York Red Bulls forward Juan Agudelo on Thursday night.
The 18-year-old scored a terrific goal in stoppage time of the Red Bulls' 4-0 rout of D.C. United, flicking a ball from Jan Gunnar Solli up into the air and volleying a shot past Bill Hamid for his second goal in Major League Soccer play.
Agudelo also has two goals and has drawn a penalty kick in four appearances for the U.S. national team.
Thursday's goal has drawn some comparisons to one of the best goals I've ever seen, scored by Agudelo's current teammate Thierry Henry for Arsenal against Manchester United in 2000.
With all due respect to Agudelo, Henry's goal was much, much better – a point Agudelo himself acknowledged. "It wasn’t quite like Thierry Henry’s goal in England. That was a different class," he said.
Jay DeMerit (Green Bay/Bay Port) celebrated his 31st birthday with his first training session with the Vancouver Whitecaps on Saturday in Ventura, Calif.
The U.S. national team central defender signed with the Major League Soccer expansion team last month after ending a six-year run with Watford in England's second-division Championship in May.
Here's an interview with DeMerit, who was in Japan doing some business with his company, Songwhale, before joining his new team for its offseason training camp.
Jay DeMerit (Green Bay/Bay Port) hasn't appeared in a match for the Vancouver Whitecaps, but here's what the U.S. national team defender just might look like when the Major League Season expansion team takes the field next spring.
The Whitecaps announced a deal with EA Sports, following clubs such as Arsenal, Chelsea and Real Madrid in becoming partners with the makers of the popular FIFA game.
DeMerit, who signed with Vancouver on Nov. 18, is expected to join his new team at its offseason training camp in Ventura, Calif., on Saturday.
The top goal and save of the 2010 season were announced today, after voting on the league website.
Chicago Fire midfielder Marco Pappa's 25-yard shot against the San Jose Earthquakes on April 10 claimed the Goal of the Year award.
The rest of the top five were Los Angeles Galaxy midfielder Juninho, Philadelphia Union midfielder Shea Salinas, New York Red Bulls midfielder Rafa Marquez and Seattle Sounders forward Fredy Montero.
Meanwhile, Sounders goalkeeper Kasey Keller's stop of a drive by Kansas City's Chance Myers on April 17 was named the Save of the Year.
A stop by the Galaxy's Donovan Ricketts was second, followed by Real Salt Lake's Nick Rimando, the Columbus Crew's Eddie Gaven – a midfielder playing in goal due to an injury – and the Union's Brad Knighton.
Links to the top five finishers in each category can be found on the above links.
The Kansas City Wizards are no more – the original MLS club renamed itself Sporting Kansas City. It's the second time the franchise has changed names; it started out as the Kansas City Wiz.
FIFA unveiled the 10 nominees for the Puskas Award for the top goal of the year in world soccer. Voting Trust me, it's hard to pick one of these. The winner will be announced Jan. 10.
Voting is open on the Major League Soccer website for the league's top goal and best save of the 2010 season.
The league selected 30 finalists in each of the categories, and fans can vote online until 10:59 p.m. Thursday.
In the Goal of the Year category, fans can write in any goal not among the finalists – that could come in handy, considering that Brian Ching's bicycle kick for the Houston Dynamo isn't among the 30.
ESPN chose Ching's goal against the Chicago Fire on Aug. 21 as the best of the season in its rundown of the year's top 10 MLS goals (Video below). It is not on the MLS ballot because it wasn't selected as Goal of the Week for that week, losing out to a swerving strike by New York's Rafa Marquez against Toronto FC.
Ching earned the 2006 Goal of the Year thanks to his bicycle kick against D.C. United.
