58,912 fans filled Olympic Stadium in Montreal to see the Impact draw 1-1 with the Chicago Fire Saturday night in the Impact’s inaugural home match. The crowd was the largest ever to see a soccer match in Canada as captain Davy Arnaud scored the lone tally for the Impact. “Overall, I thought that there were many strong individual performances tonight,” Impact head coach Jesse Marsch said about his club. With fanfare that Olympic Stadium has not been heard in years, the
ISN’s own Rob Ivory is in Montreal to capture history, the Montreal Impact home opener at Olympic Stadium. On Thursday night Ivory attended the open house event and training session, seeing MLS veteran Jesse Marsch in action as Impact head coach. Ivory also got to see former University of Akron and Cleveland City Star goalkeeper training with Montreal as they prepare for their match against the Chicago Fire. We will have a full match report this weekend as the Impact
The offseason has been incredibly kind to the Columbus Crew. In a matter of a few short months the Crew seemed to have solved every possible issue. Jersey sponsor. Check. New TV deal that will expand the Crew brand. Check. Some serious South American talent to help out in the attack. Check. An aggressive marketing plan to increase season ticket sales. Check. A great showing at the MLS SuperDraft. Check. Let’s only hope the season goes this well. If it does,
2012 has been good for the Crew so far. A great draft, strong South American signings, some progress in the Homegrown Player department, and now a multi-million dollar jersey sponsor. Add in an aggressive season ticket campaign and the pursuit of a stadium naming rights agreement and it’s an A+ grade for all involved. If the 2012 season goes this well, the Crew will hoisting the MLS Cup this fall.
It was a banner week for soccer sponsorships in the great state of Texas. Both the Houston Dynamo (MLS) and Galveston Pirate (NPSL) announced major sponsorship deals that put them in the forefront of their respective leagues. The Houston Dynamo announced a long-term sponsorship agreement with Mazda North American Operations (MNAO) on Thursday. The agreement will make Mazda the official vehicle of the Houston Dynamo as well as a founding partner of BBVA Compass Stadium, which will open May 12. The agreement signals Mazda’s
2012 MLS SuperDraft exposes the stretched coverage of college soccer It’s no wonder the national media was hard on Luke Holmes surrounding the 2012 Major League Soccer SuperDraft. They look at his stats from Notre Dame College and wonder how bad the competition must be … lets be serious he scored 24 goals as a junior and an NAIA best 29 as a sophomore. When you compare those stats to “only scoring” five goals in 16 games for the University of
This year’s NSCAA Convention in Kansas City was one of the most eventful in recent memory. The MLS SuperDraft featured one of the best draft classes in MLS history, while the WPS Draft took place in a cloud of uncertainty. The good news is that MLS is growing by leaps and bounds and WPS gets another season and another opportunity to be the best women’s league in the world. The Olympics should provide both leagues with
We have to start by sharing our disappointment for every MLS team passing on Akron’s Luke Holmes. We hate to be biased, but when a local player that is technically gifted gets passed over for players described as projects, we have to draw the line somewhere. His coach at Notre Dame College, Michael McBride, spoke numerous times about Luke’s superior fitness, humbleness, pace, leadership, the list of positives goes on and on. For those who criticized his fitness, keep in mind
With the first two rounds of the MLS SuperDraft in the books, we now turn our focus to the final picks of the year in the supplemental draft. There is still a lot of talent on the board and many of these players may still end up in the MLS Reserves or even sneaking onto a roster and seeing some time with “the big boys”. Remember there isn’t much difference between a 2nd round SuperDraft pick and someone taken in