Sorry for some delays, I've been having some issues with my firewall and I think I finally have them taken care of. 

According to reports Bob Bradley will be made the permanent USMNT coach.  I think this is the best move USSF could have made.  I wonder, however what the motivation was to sign Bradley when it seemed like every sign pointed to going with a foriegn coach.  My hunch is that Klinsmann wanted too much money and control and anyone else was either under contract already or someone like Sven Goram Erikson who is a worse coach than Bradley.  Bradley isn't the savior of US Soccer, but he's a step in the right direction, and much better than a foriegner who Average Joe American would not get behind.  About all I can say is that at least USSF isn't near as screwed up as the English FA, not that that is really saying much. 

I wanted to talk about MLS expansion.  Garber last year said he wanted to get the league expanded to 16 teams by 2010.  This seems like a worthy goal and would be a great step in the direction of going to a single table with a home and away match with every team in the league which I think MLS needs to eventually go to.  I wouldn't be dissapointed if they even went so far as to go to something like Mexico with an opening and closing season system, so that some of the rival teams like RSL and the cRapids could play more often. 

The most likely candidates for expansion in my opinion are these:

• Las Vegas-The rumor came out that there is a group that talked to Garber about getting a team and building a retractible-roof stadium connected to a casino.  I think this would be a coup for MLS to be the first major sports league to get a team in Vegas.  It would be a great draw to visiting fans and has a fairly large population that is growing extremely fast.  The gambling aspect (and potential problems with players throwing matches) has kept most other leagues away, but I think that's overblown and really would not be an issue.
• Philadelphia-great sports town, plus it's a major market that is not represented by MLS.  They already have a supporter's grou from what I understand.  This would be a great option, but of course pending a stadium.
• Seattle-the northwest is beautiful in the summer.  I can't think of too many places with better summer weather than Seattle in June (and probably the city's best kept secret).  The Sounders are pretty established and they sold out Qwest field last year when DC United played Real Madrid in a matter of hours.  The only real hangup there is a stadium.  The Sonics are having major problems trying to get something built and I doubt after footing the bill for both Safeco and Qwest that the taxpayers there will go for something new for the Sonics, much less an MLS team.  No stadium=no team as far as MLS is concerned.
• Vancouver-much better option than Seattle in my opinon.  Large city with a good USL team that does ok.  If Vancouver is anywhere near what Toronto is, this will be great.  I am not sure what sort of stadium situation could be worked out, but if that could be done, I think this would be great.
• Montreal-see above for much of the same reasons as Vancouver.  Even better is that there would most likely be a good rivalry between Montreal and Toronto as well.  I know the Habs and the Leafs are huge, tis could be just like that. 
  
• St. Louis-if thier bid to get RSL if Utah failed was any indication, this would be a good idea.  I am more leaning to moving the Wizards to St. Louis than starting a new expansion team, especially since it's just pathetic to see Arrrowhead stadium so empty.  I don't see the St. Louis people paying the money to not only get a stadium but also an expansion team, so this is the most likely place for a move.
• New York-Cosmos anyone?  I think that this is definately in the cards, but probably not in this round of expansion.  They could share grounds with Red Bull for a while until a stadium is built for them, hopefully somewhere actually in New York itself (Queens would make a lot of sense). 
  
• Phoenix-this makes a lot of sense only if there was a stadium with a retractible roof built.  Not sure that would happen, but Phoenix in the summer without a roof would be a great way to make a lot of people get heat stroke.  With the opposition to the Cardinal's stadium, I don't really see this happening at least not right now.  Using the Glendale facility would be great, it worked well for the US-Mexico friendly, but MLS has pretty much proven that using an NFL stadium makes little economic sense. 
  

These are in my opinion the front-runners.  I'm sure there's a few out there that will make some sense as well.  A return to Florida perhaps?  Regardless, the biggest deciding factor that I see is getting a stadium built.  The old model of using an NFL stadium for MLS has been pretty much proven not to work so a soccer-specific stadium is essential to the future economic viability of the league.

As for a wish list, I would certainly love to see promotion/relegation.  Maybe a future buyout of USL?  One can only wish for that at this point. 

One final note, as a West Ham United fan, all I can say is that this has been a very up and down, heart stopping season but at least we're still in the Premiership.  Thank you Carlos Tevez!

        

 

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