By any measurement, 2015 was the Year of the Woman in soccer.

Abby Wambach played her last game for the USA Wednesday, walking off the field at the New Orleans Superdome to the roars and cheers of more than 30,000 fans and the hugs and tears of her teammates and coaches. She departs with an all-time record of 184 goals in 255 U.S. appearances, which includes 22 goals in 30 matches played at a Women's World Cup and Olympic Games.

Defender Drew Moor, a veteran of 11 MLS seasons who won an MLS Cup title with Colorado in 2010, has left the Rapids and signed with Toronto. He and Justin Mapp (Montreal to Sporting Kansas City) are the first two players to change teams in the free-agent mechanism negotiated by the MLS Players' Union last March.

If you are like me and have followed the international game for many years, you quickly become fast friends with complete strangers from abroad thanks to that international language: soccer.

More than a decade after helping D.C. United win its fourth MLS Cup, former U.S. international Earnie Stewart has come back to MLS -- wearing a suit and tie! -- as sporting director of the Philadelphia Union,

U.S.-educated Prince Ali bin Hussein of Jordan is again running for FIFA president. In October 2014, he chose to take on FIFA president Sepp Blatter and was given no chance. Two days before the election in May, the arrests of seven FIFA officials at the Baur au Lac hotel in Zurich shook international soccer to its core. Prince Ali garnered 78 votes, not enough to unseat Blatter with 138, but it sent a message. Within a week, Blatter announced plans to step down after the election of a new president in February.

Just five months after its introduction, Targeted Allocation Money has taken in a greater role in MLS player acquisitions. The league announced Wednesday that each team can spend up to $800,000 per season in 2016 and 2017 to acquire higher-salaried players without them counting against the limit of three Designated Players.

Caleb Porter has never lacked for believing in his teams or his players. Nor has he been afraid to say when they played well. After the Portland Timbers rode out their first MLS Cup title with a strong second half against the host Columbus Crew, Porter wasn't afraid to tell it like it was.

They started out in MLS 15 years apart, so Columbus and Portland in many ways personify what MLS was in its formative years and what it has become. Crew SC pioneered the building of soccer-specific stadiums that are the foundation of remarkable growth and since being re-branded have ushered in a new era featuring such success stories as the Timbers, which pack Providence Park for every game and have helped transform the league in their five seasons.

The Portland Timbers are the poster child for MLS parity.

Apparently, Targeted Allocation Money has been such a success since being implemented by the Galaxy and others four months ago that the Board of Governors is finalizing plans and procedures to increase its value.

MLS has released its Best XI for the 2015 season, Robbie Keane plus 10 first-time recipients. Just six of them were around for the conference finals, and only two of them make Soccer America's MLS Playoff Best XI, Luis Robles and Kei Kamara.