Greetings and welcome to another exciting edition of Total 90, still the finest (and only) American football newsletter on Bleacher Report. We'd like to wish all of our readers a safe and happy holiday weekend. Remember, it's the one weekend of the year where obscene gluttony is not only accepted, but encouraged!
First, I'd like to start on a personal note. The NCAA football tournament began this past week, with my beloved Michigan State University snagging a first round bye thanks to their Big Ten regular season and tournament titles. They faced the University of Illinois-Chicago in a second-round game and unfortunately lost on penalty kicks after a scoreless game.
Still, sending head coach Joe Baum into retirement with two pieces of silverware in his last season is something to be proud of.
The Columbus Crew are MLS champions! They dispatched
Red Bull New York last Sunday by a score of 3-1 to take their first every MLS Cup. Columbus had the best record in the regular season and backed it up in the playoffs with some very impressive results.In the final, league MVP Guillermo Barros Schelotto came up huge, assisting on all three goals. His third assist, to US International Frankie Hejduk was a thing of beauty. Schelotto chipped over the New York back line right to Hejduk's feet as he completed a run into the box. From there it was easy for Hejduk to beat NY keeper Danny Cepero and lock up the title for Columbus.
The Bundesliga seem to be very interested in American footballers of late. No, this isn't another tidbit on the Landon Donovan loan saga. FC Dallas' leading scorer Kenny Cooper is rumored to be a target of Eintracht Frankfurt. Early projections say that Frankfurt would cost MLS up to four-million for his services, and he would also be able to make significantly more money than the $325,000 that FC Dallas recently offered.
This is a move that makes a whole lot of sense. Cooper is a big, physical forward who is not afraid to pull the trigger. He's begun to make a name for himself on the international stage with Bob Bradley more willing to select him lately. He also wouldn't deal with the same problems that Donovan did during his early stint in the Bundesliga, namely being undersized and lacking in confidence.
Should Cooper make the move to Frankfurt, he would immediately start getting consideration for a spot on their first team.
MLS Commissioner Don Garber
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about 1 month ago
Excellent round-up, Joe. I don't know how you find this stuff, because ESPNSoccernet sure as hell isn't doing the job.
from about 1 month ago
Thanks, Eric. It's a combination of Soccernet, MLS' club pages, Yanks Abroad, and a few other places. Soccernet only reports on the huge stuff from MLS, like Donovan leaving.
about 1 month ago
Great stuff Joe.
Good to see Columbus winning too.
from about 1 month ago
Thanks, Willie. They played beautifully in the final, but New York was actually on the attack as well instead of sitting back and experimenting with catenaccio.
about 1 month ago
Good job, Joe.
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