Though Columbus is the team that Hunt Sports Group is reportedly willing to sell, neither the defending champion Crew nor FC Dallas, the other HSG-property, is off to a great start at the gate.

For better or worse, Quakes coach Frank Yallop is doing something akin to what he tried to do with the Galaxy; i.e., transform a wing midfielder, Bobby Convey, into an effective central player. The same experiment failed miserably with David Beckham for many reasons, and though the situations are hardly similar, since so different are the players involved and the situations to which they've been introduced, Convey's return to MLS comes at a critical phase, not the tail end, of his career to a team nearing a crossroads of its own. "I played there [in the …

Three goals a game, I'll take it. But it's probably not long for this world.

The only expansion choice that wouldn't involve a gamble in these economic times would be to not to expand at all, but the MLS Board of Governors and the league's Expansion Committee are forging ahead.

I don't wish ill on anyone in MLS, though I may disagree with the tactics of a coach, the attitude of a player, or the sanity of a marketing campaign. If that means I'm someone who sees the glass more than half-full, well so be it.

I don't believe the financials, any of them, being bandied about in the wake of David Beckham's extended loan deal. But I never really believed he would, or could, earn $250 million during his original five-year MLS deal, either.

The share-loan agreement between AC Milan and MLS regarding David Beckham will generate not a ripple effect, but rather a shockwave of changes and adjustments. Still, don't expect Beckham, nor AC Milan, to directly bear the brunt of financial burdens his departure will impose. The majority of the costs instead will be borne, and balanced, by those entities soon to be without him.

Is 2009 the season that an MLS team takes the plunge and hangs the Designated Player label on a U.S. player who hasn't been to Europe in some shape or form?