Former Lorient player Sébastien Le Toux has been selected as the fourth pick by the expansion franchise Philadelphia Union in the 2009 MLS Expansion Draft.

Le Toux had come up through the Rennes youth system, before playing for Lorient’s senior squad for two years, with the midfielder netting one goal in fifteen games. In 2007, Le Toux made a move to the Seattle Sounders, while the team was still in the USL. In 2008, he was part of the MLS Sounders side that finished 4th overall in the MLS.

Le Toux, who is one of the founders of the French Soccer Academy (which hopefully we will be doing a piece on soon) in Washington State, is considered to be a hard-working play and that gives it everything he has, according to Seattle Time’s soccer writer Jose Romero. Romero also said that Le Toux worked will with the fans, which is ever so important for expansion teams like The Union.

Le Toux was picked as the 4th player of the Expansion Draft and is considered to be one of the senior players on the field for the Union.

Le Toux said that he would be interested in playing for the US National Team. He said that the US has “accepted him” and would be honored to play for the country.

Moreno's Crew Tenure Ends (Fahmi/Studio79)

Striker Alejandro Moreno was drafted by the Philadelphia Union today in the expansion draft. A fan favorite, Moreno came to the Crew in 2007 scoring 20 goals and 12 assists in 74 games (69 starts). His form dipped in 2009 as he scored 4 goals in 22 games (17 starts). He was out of contract and his future with the team was already up in the air.

I have many great memories of Moreno. I got the first idea that 2008 would be a good year when, in the opener against Toronto, I watched Moreno expertly beat an offside trap and score a well taken goal to put the Crew up 2-0 and kick off the season in grand style.

I probably won’t ever forget his goal in MLS Cup that game the Crew a 1-0 lead at the time. It was a classic Ale goal, he took a Schelotto pass and just put his head down and kept going. He hustled past the shambolic Red Bull defense and slipped one past Cepero. It was a goal that settled down a shaky Crew team as they cruised to the Cup.

I think this is probably the best possible outcome for Columbus. Moreno was not going to come back at his $100,000 plus cap number. Lenhart and Renteria would press him for playing time. At 30, Moreno was already showing signs of wearing out. Never a speedy player, he looked down right glacial at times late in the year.

I wish Ale nothing but the best in Philadelphia and beyond. He has always been a classy individual. He would stop to talk to any fans who asked him for an autograph and he was most gracious to answer this novice writers questions. Though he only wore a Crew kit for two and a half years, he made a tremendous mark.

This article originally appeared on Match Fit USA this morning.  Occasionally I will be doing features for Jason, but they will also be posted here later on the day of publication.

On Tuesday there was a lot of noise about how MLS is mistreating its players by denying them the basic rights of athletes.  While the criticism is warranted, the reactionary statements are starting to get out of hand.  What everyone’s forgetting is that MLS isn’t in as good of shape as Don Garber would have us believe.  Some teams in MLS have yet to reach the break-even point financially.  Four teams have yet to sign a jersey sponsor.  The league’s flagship franchise (historically), DC United, still pays rent on a stadium where they are the only reason it isn’t being torn down and can’t get the local government to agree to a new stadium plan.

Soccer, whether we want to admit it or not, is still very much a fringe sport in America.  Sure, it’s on the cusp of exploding, but it hasn’t happened yet.  Rather than storming the gates of Garber’s office demanding broad sweeping change, the union needs to take a step back and realize that baby steps are the only way.

The big sticking points in the discussion are free agency, guaranteed contracts, option years, and transfer fee sharing.  MLS is set against making any major changes to any of these topics.  For the time being, they are right in doing so, to a certain extent.  There is a middle ground.

The easiest change to make is with the sharing of transfer fees.  It has been reported that MLS keeps 10 percent of a player’s share of a transfer fee.  That has to stop immediately.  Simply put, it is stealing.  No other business would get away with it, so MLS shouldn’t.  The league already gets a large portion of the transfer fee.  If they are dead set on taking a bigger cut, take it from the team’s cut.  The owners still get the money either way.

Guaranteed contracts are also a relatively simple fix.  Before looking at the solution, we must look at the reasoning.  The players have guaranteed contracts usually deserve them.  They’ve performed well enough to deserve better treatment.  Some of the other players, players described as being treated as second-class citizens, quite frankly, are second-class (or even third) in MLS.  Rightly or wrongly, some players just plain suck.  They don’t deserve a place on an MLS roster.  A guaranteed contract puts a financially shaky team like Kansas City in a worse position of having to pay a player they are using.

The solution to guaranteed contracts is simple: don’t give every player a full-season contract.  If FIFA regulations require that contracts can only be terminated at the end of contract’s length, give fringe players shortened contracts.  The NBA, the king of guaranteed contracts in sports, does this with developmental players from the NBDL.  If a player isn’t a regular starter, give him until “X” amount of games and renegotiate after that point.  Find a middle ground and when things get better in a few years, renegotiate a better situation.

The idea of option years dovetails out of the guaranteed contract situation.  As it stands now, the majority of option clauses in MLS are in favor of the league.  As far as I know, only David Beckham has a true option clause, but even his clause (to my knowledge) involves a buyout.  The most prominent player affected by the option situation is Landon Donovan.  Donovan wants to make a move to Europe.  Technically, his contract is up; however, MLS holds an option for one more season.  Essentially, Donovan is stuck unless a club is willing to pony up the minimum $10 million (rumored MLS asking price) for a transfer.  Life isn’t fair, but contracts should be.  Situations like Donovan’s shouldn’t happen.  MLS can fix this. 

One way would be to allow players to make a move to a different league instead of accepting an option decision.  If the player wants to move to a different MLS team, the two teams need to work out some sort of deal.  While that isn’t an ideal solution, it is a step in the right direction.  Team options appear in other sports, so getting rid of them entirely is impossible.  Another option is to create more player options.  After all, fairness has to go both ways.

Far and away the biggest sticking point and the major battle in the collective bargaining process is free agency.  It needs to happen.  More than likely, it won’t.  Some have said free agency destroys the single-entity concept of MLS.  For the most part, that is true.  If that happens, it destroys the very thing that makes MLS a viable business right now.  As a solution, I propose a modified form a free agency along the lines of the NFL and MLB’s compensation system. 

At the end of a contract, players can negotiate with any team.  If the player and his new team agree to terms, the new team must pay a minor compensatory fee (or an equivalent draft pick) to the player’s old team.  This would only apply to players who have started a minimum number of games or played a minimum number of minutes.  Fringe players would be free to move from team to team as true free agents.  These are the players that are routinely cut at the end of the season anyway.  In the event that the player leaves MLS in the offseason, the old MLS team loses all rights to the player.  If the player leaves in the middle of the season, player rights are retained for the remainder of the current season.

All of these solutions to MLS’ contract issues are just ideas.  The overall idea I want to convey is that simply handing over concepts like free agency and guaranteed contracts as other American professional leagues would be suicide for MLS.  The financial system in MLS works.  The league exists because of it.  Still, improvements can be made.  The goals of the players and fans can be achieved.  It’s just going to take time.  It took the NFL decades to establish itself as America’s sport.  Why should soccer be any different?

I want to start by saying I don’t believe that any championship soccer game should be decided by penalty kicks.  Soccer is the ultimate team sport, 11 players coming together as one for a full 90 trying to overcome complicated defensive alignments to achieve the ultimate goal.

However, last night’s MLS cup final in Seattle was not only a great soccer game, dominated in the first half by a very deliberate Los Angeles Galaxy team that had a game plan and executed it almost flawlessly, to Salt Lake, who took over in the second half and had plenty of chances to win the game both in regulation and in overtime.

You have to give credit to LA, who had to replace their Goalkeeper (the first time in MLS cup play that a goalkeeper had to be replaced in a game), and Josh Saunders responded with a great second half, and a fantastic penalty kick round.

What Real Salt Lake was able to accomplish without a designated player from the MLS, battling arguably the two best offensive players in the league in Landon Donovan and David Beckham was truly remarkable – and to bring the first major league championship to the State of Utah is fantastic, and my hat is off to them.

Dave Checketts is in my opinion one of the best owners in all of sport.  With multiple sports properties under his belt, he does what every owner should do – he hires the right people, puts them in the right places and doesn’t interfere.  The difference between Mr. Checketts and most owners is – he could interfere and know exactly what he is talking about, having become the youngest General Manager in the NBA when he ran the Utah Jazz, and ultimately becoming the President of the Knicks, Rangers and Madison Square Garden.  He get’s it – and puts people in place that get the job done.  He deserves a lot of credit here too.

And to Jason Kries, what a story the coach of Real Salt Lake is.  When he retired to take on this job two years ago, I thought he was crazy.  He was such a talented player, and now at 36, he still looks like he could lace up and go at it.  He brought this group of guys together like no other coach could, and they would run through a brick wall for him.

Congrats to the 2009 MLS Cup champion Real Salt Lake.  Don’t get to used to the title though, the Sounders are coming for you.

Former Gamecock striker Clint Mathis was on the winning end of last night’s Major League Soccer Cup Final as Real Salt Lake defeated the LA Galaxy in penalties at Qwest Field in Seattle. Coming off the bench for the injured Javier Morales in the 22nd minute, Mathis created several opportunities for RSL as the game went on. Mathis was the first RSL player to convert a kick in the shootout as his team prevailed in the end over David Beckham and the Galaxy.

Mathis played for the Gamecocks from ‘94-’97 and was a tw0-time All-American at South Carolina. He scored 53 goals in 58 games and is third on South Carolina’s all-time scoring list.

It’s such a big difference between this year and last. Without Columbus in the game, I have only half paid attention to the run up to this year’s Cup. It’s also tough to watch because it’s such a missed opportunity for the Crew. No team in the league stands out, only 9 points separated top from bottom. This was a real chance to do the back to back “Double”.

I have no real rooting interest in the game. Both would be flawed champions; that’s the effect of parity in MLS. It should be an interesting game, the teams are evenly matched. Donovan may play his last game in MLS tonight. Seattle and their fans are hosting a great party. Even if it won’t be a great week for the Crew, it’s a great night for MLS. I hope the game can match the storylines.

Garcia... hoping to impress.

SIMON GRAYSON will decide whether to offer out of contract Argentinian defender Walter Garcia a deal at the club over the next week.

Garcia is currently a free agent after being released by Major League Soccer outfit New York Red Bulls and is hoping to impress during a trial game on Wednesday.

The 25-year-old previously had spells in Russia with Rubin Kazan and Italy with Catania.

If offered a contract Garcia would only be available to play for Leeds when the transfer window opens in January.

Sports are the indispensable parts of the American society. Each and every person has got ample interest in various sporting events that happen in the various arenas in the USA. There can be lots of speculation in regards to prepare a list about the top best sporting events to watch in USA. The range is huge- basketball, soccer, tennis, baseball, golf etc. But the ones that are really special will find their places in the list. The best sporting events in the USA pull a huge amount of crowd in consistent proportions over a period of many years.

To name a few, let us begin  with the NCAA Men’s Basketball. It is a very popular tournament that is of single elimination type and involving sixty five college basketball teams. It has got a huge craze all across the country and is being publicized in massive proportions. Basket ball is becoming more and more popular with each passing day and the craze for the tickets of NCAA Men’s Basketball is a solid evidence and it easily ranks among the top sporting events in the USA.

The NFL American Football is next to follow. It is no less popular than the basketball events. Irrespective of gender and race, people from different sections of the society get madly interested in the football events on the American soil for the reason that it reflects pure passion and competence of the players and also the mass as a whole.

The exciting event of Super Bowl is in huge demand too. The antiques of the players and the coaches are treat to watch in this particular sporting event. The people are eager to gain experience in this event as it is really exhilarating to the maximum possible extent. There is a rush for cheap tickets for the Super Bowl as everyone is on their toes to grab the opportunity to be a part of the audience.

And who can forget about the MLB Baseball? Perhaps not a single person can do so! The MLB Baseball event has an unprecedented fan following and the auditoriums are filled with thousands of die hard fans to have glimpses of their favourite baseball heroes. The rush for tickets is obviously huge in this case to as the MLB Baseball event is easily counted among the top best sporting events to watch in USA.

The NHL Hockey is not far behind. The madness surrounding this specific sporting event is beyond one’s comprehension and people really fight it out in order to get hold of the tickets. The common masses are always restless to watch the NHL Hockey matches not electronically that is via televisions, but by being present in the stadiums and witnessing the actions live in front of eyes.

The NBA Basketball is arguably among the most popular sporting camaraderie not only on the American soil, but in the world as a whole. There are high fuelled actions and the speed of the game takes it to another level. The adrenaline rushes at a good pace all the time and one feels privileged by being one of the audiences.

One should also not forget the amount of craze attached to the game of tennis in the USA, especially the US Tennis: US Open Men and Ladies Finals. Apart from the common people, the elite class and also various delegates of different countries feel proud to be the audience of the US Open Men and Ladies Final matches that are generally being held at Flushing Meadows.

There are more sporting events that occur in the USA that can be easily counted among the best lot. One such example is the USA Horse Racing: Kentucky Derby. There is pace, there is passion and there is a lot of excitement in this particular sporting event and no one can deny about its growing popularity over the years.

The list is incomplete without the mention of the eponymous Major League Soccer that is loved by every American and being followed by thousands of fans worldwide. Soccer is slowly becoming like a religion in the USA and the Major League Soccer event is indeed among the top sporting event that is to e watched diligently in USA.