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Major League Soccer : 2009 MLS season preview

Columbus claims their first MLS Cup title

Guillermo Barros Schelotto led the Columbus Crew to a 3-1 victory over the New York Red Bulls to win the MLS Cup 2008. The Argentine forward assisted on all three goals to lead the Crew to its first-ever MLS title. Schelotto was named the MLS Cup Most Valuable Player for his performance, becoming the third player in league history to win league MVP honors as well as in the MLS Cup Final.

The Crew dominated the Major League Soccer regular season and became one of the few teams to top league standings and win the MLS Cup in the same year. The Crew finished 18 points ahead of the Red Bulls in the regular season, which, in most soccer leagues around the world, would have been sufficient to be crowned champion. But because MLS employs a playoff system, the Crew was confronted with another month of matches in which they outclassed New York in the final.

teamstitles20042005200620072008
D.C. United4title1/41/21/4-
Houston2--titletitle1/4
Los Angeles21/2title---
San Jose21/41/4---
Columbus11/4---title
Kansas City1final--1/21/4
Chicago1-1/21/41/21/2
New England-1/2finalfinalfinal1/4
Colorado-1/41/21/2--
New York-1/41/41/41/4final
Chivas USA---1/41/41/4
Dallas--1/41/41/4-
Real Salt Lake-----1/2
Toronto------
Seattle------

The overall number of titles for each club in Major League Soccer since 1996 and their success in the last five seasons. Conference finalists (1/2), Conference semi-finalists (1/4), not qualified for the MLS Playoffs (-).

MLS in Seattle

Major League Soccer announced in November, 2007 Seattle as the 15 club to begin play during the 2009 season. The name Sounders, a result of an online fan vote, has been identified with soccer in this community since 1974. The team has sold more than 20,000 season tickets and increased seating capacity at their stadium to more than 27,000 for the remainder of the season, just so fans can purchase single-game tickets.

This page is introduction to the 2009 Major League Soccer season. Latest news, statistics, results and predictions you can find on our main Sport in USA & Canada > MLS page.

Leading the Sounders will be reigning MLS Coach of the Year, Sigi Schmid, who came over from the champion Columbus Crew, where he had spent the previous three seasons. The Sounders have a lot of inexperienced players on their roster, but they also have two of the more experienced professionals in the league, U.S. international goalkeeper Kasey Keller and Sweden midfielder and former Arsenal star Freddie Ljungberg.

#teampoints g.dif. win-draw-loss
Eastern Conference
1Columbus z571417-6-7 (30)
2Chicago x461113-7-10 (30)
3New England x43-312-7-11 (30)
4Kansas x42-211-9-10 (30)
5New York x39-610-9-11 (30)
6D.C. United37-811-4-15 (30)
7Toronto35-99-8-13 (30)
Western Conference
1Houston z511313-12-5 (30)
2Chivas x43-112-7-11 (30)
3Real Salt Lake x40110-10-10 (30)
4Colorado38-111-5-14 (30)
5Dallas3648-12-10 (30)
6San Jose33-68-9-13 (30)
7Los Angeles33-78-9-13 (30)

The 2008 MLS regular season standings. z - clinched home field advantage for Conference Championships, x - clinched playoff spot.

Major League Soccer finals (MLS Cup) in last five seasons

2004   D.C. United - Kansas City Wizards   3:2
2005   Los Angeles Galaxy - New England Revolution   1:0 (OT)
2006   Houston Dynamo - New England Revolution   4:3 (penalties)
2007   Houston Dynamo - New England Revolution   2:1
2008   Columbus Crew - New York Red Bulls   3:1

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key players

Chicago Fire

Goalkeeper Jon Busch; Defense: Gonzalo Segares, Wilman Conde, Bakary Soumare, Brandon Prideaux; Midfield: Cuauhtemoc Blanco, Justin Mapp, John Thorrington, Logan Pause; Forward: Brian Mcbride, Chris Rolfe.

Columbus Crew

Goalkeeper William Hesmer; Defense: Frankie Hejduk, Chad Marshall, Danny O'Rourke, Gino Padula; Midfield: Brian Carroll, Eddie Gaven, Emmanuel Ekpo, Robbie Rogers; Forward: Guillermo Barros Schelotto, Alejandro Moreno.

D.C. United

Goalkeeper Louis Crayton; Defense: Bryan Namoff, Dejan Jakovic, Greg Janicki, Marc Burch; Midfield: Santino Quaranta, Clyde Simms, Christian Gomez, Fred; Forward: Jaime Moreno, Luciano Emilio.

Kansas City Wizards

Goalkeeper Kevin Hartman; Defense: Jonathan Leathers, Jimmy Conrad, Aaron Hohlbein, Michael Harrington; Midfield: Herculez Gomez, Jack Jewsbury, Davy Arnaud, Roger Espinoza; Forward: Josh Wolff, Claudio Lopez.

New England Revolution

Goalkeeper Matt Reis; Defense: Chris Albright, Jay Heaps, Gabriel Badilla, Kevin Alston; Midfield: Steve Ralston, Sainey Nyassi, Shalrie Joseph, Jeff Larentowicz, Mauricio Castro; Forward: Taylor Twellman.

New York Red Bulls

Goalkeeper Danny Cepero; Defense: Alfredo Pacheco, Kevin Goldthwaite, Mike Petke, Carlos Johnson; Midfield: Khano Smith, Seth Stammler, Alberto Celades, Dane Richards, Jorge Rojas; Forward: Juan Pablo Angel.

Club Deportivo Chivas USA

Goalkeeper Zach Thornton; Defense: Carey Talley, Shavar Thomas, Jim Curtin, Ante Jazic; Midfield: Jonathan Bornstein, Jesse Marsch, Paolo Nagamura, Sacha Kljestan; Forward: Maykel Galindo, Justin Braun.

Colorado Rapids

Goalkeeper Matt Pickens; Defense: Kosuke Kimura, Cory Gibbs, Ugo Ihemelu, Jordan Harvey; Midfield: Pablo Mastroeni, Nick Labrocca, Colin Clark, Mehdi Ballouchy; Forward: Conor Casey, Omar Cummings.

FC Dallas

Goalkeeper Dario Sala; Defense: Blake Wagner, Steve Purdy, Daniel Torres, Drew Moor; Midfield: Dave Van Den Bergh, David Ferreira, Pablo Ricchetti, Dax Mccarty; Forward: Kenny Cooper, Jeff Cunningham.

Houston Dynamo

Goalkeeper Pat Onstad; Defense: Richard Mulrooney, Bobby Boswell, Julius James, Wade Barrett; Midfield: Brian Mullan, Stuart Holden, Ricardo Clark, Brad Davis; Forward: Brian Ching, Kei Kamara.

Los Angeles Galaxy

Goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts; Defenders Todd Dunivant, Tony Sanneh, Omar Gonzalez, Sean Franklin, Midfielders, Eddie Lewis, Dema Kovalenko, Chris Klein, Landon Donovan, Forwards, Edson Buddle, Alan Gordon.

Real Salt Lake

Goalkeeper Matt Pickens; Defense: Corey Gibbs, Ivan Guerrero, Ty Harden, Ugo Ihemelu; Midfield: Pablo Mastroeni, Terry Cooke, Colin Clark, Mehdi Ballouchy; Forward: Conor Casey, Omar Cummings.

San Jose Earthquakes

Goalkeeper Joe Cannon; Defense: Chris Leitch, Jason Hernandez, Nick Garcia, Eric Denton, Midfielders, Darren Huckerby, Ramiro Corrales, Bobby Convey, Arturo Alvarez, Forwards, Cam Weaver, Ryan Johnson.

Seattle Sounders

Goalkeeper Kasey Keller; Defense: Nathan Sturgis, Jhon Kennedy Hurtado, Tyrone Marshall, James Riley; Midfield: Sebastien Le Toux, Brad Evans, Osvaldo Alonso, Freddie Ljungberg; Forward: Nate Jaqua, Fredy Montero.

Toronto

Goalkeeper Greg Sutton; Defense: Marvell Wynne, Adrian Serioux, Kevin Harmse, Jim Brennan; Midfield: Rohan Ricketts, Dwayne De Rosario, Amado Guevara, Carl Robinson; Forward: Pablo Vitti, Chad Barrett.

 
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