In Canada

Despite an inaugural season ended with a league-worst 18 losses, the hype is high for the second season of Canada's second franchise. The Caps had a busy offseason with new players and a new head coach --  Martin Rennie from the NASL's Carolina Railhawks -- coming on. The most exciting signing was Korean veteran left back Lee Young-Pyo. After a stint in Europe with PSV, Tottenham and Borussia Dortmund and two seasons in Saudi Arabia, the 34-year-old Lee joined a weak defense reinforced with the experienced Jay DeMerit and Alain Rochat. The team released Lee Nguyen but has a lot of weapons up front to work in Rennie's offensive 4-2-3-1, starting with  goal scorer Sebastien Le Toux and skillful Davide Chiumiento. They also drafted Darrenn Mattocks to pair with last season's No. 1 pick Omar Salgado to add depth. Rennie will have the goal to stabilize the team after coach Teitur Thordarson's tenure. Montreal Impact, the Major League Soccer's fifth new team in four seasons, picked up various players just to trade them. Going for experience, the Impact acquired veteran goalkeepers Donovan Ricketts and Greg Sutton, defender Nelson Rivas and holding midfielder Davy Arnaud. Impact head coach Jesse Marsch built a solid back line adding Bobby Burling, Zarek Valentin, and Tyson Wahl. Andrew Wenger, the MLS top pick in the SuperDraft, has lined up as a midfielder and forward in preseason. All the roster is technically gifted.

MLS Preview

Next March 10, Major League Soccer will kick off its 17th season. It means MLS lived more than North American Soccer League, which faded after just 16 seasons. This is a Don Garber's success. The commissioner has seen a lot of good news latest seasons. Despite the schedule's differences, last year MLS' average attendance of 17,872 surpassed NBA's 17,323 and NHL's 17,132. The league has grown to 19 teams and has three overboarder teams right now. On the field, we will see if the tendence to decrease the percentage of minutes of American and Canadian players will continue. Some American young players, such as Juan Agudelo, struggled to get playing time last season. This offseason, MLS teams have seen a big make up. On the pape, MLS champions of LA Galaxy improved their roster. The champs retained David Beckham and managed to re-sign Juninho back out of Sao Paulo for another season. The signing of Marcelo Sarvas and the return of  Edson Buddle upgrades the offense. Landon Donovan and Robbie Keane are still there. The Red Bulls, the other powerhouse, added former Germany star Michael Ballack as its third DP.  As for the rest of the league, there is parity? Or there is a gap between rich and poor? RSL is set to challenge Galaxy. Javier Morales, Kyle Beckerman, Nat Borchers, Jámison Olave, Nick Rimando and Álvaro Saborío are the core of a good team. With Robbie Russlle now in D.C., Tony Beltran will be the fulltime right back  starter. Last season, United was a young team. This year, head coach Ben Olsen wanted more depth and experience. To set the goals, United left Santino Quaranta and Devon McTavish and acquired defender Robbie Russell from Real Salt Lake to add experience to the back line. The improve the team, United went also on to sign strikers Hamdi Salihi and Maicon Santos. Salihi, an Albanian international, had an impressive scoring record in the Albanian and Austrian leagues and is one of the newcomers to watch. A young team on the rise is Kansas City.  Peter Vermes' 4-3-3 system will have a news in Bobby Convey moving up top to play as a real winger. The starting fullbacks Chance Myers and Seth Sinovic are a good couple of backs. Vermes has talent and depth and with Graham Zusi still leading the midfield, this is a team to keep an eye on. After Freddy Adu, another big come back was Eddie Johnson. Seattle added former U.S. international to a new team featuring Austrian Michael Gspurning as new goalkeeper and with Steve Zakuani back. A Johnson-Fredy Montero up top couple sounds good. Frank Yallop is on hot seat. His second tenure with San Jose didn't work until now. Yallop assembled the best Earthquakes roster since 2008 but he needs of a playoff appearance to retain the job. A healthy Ike Opara could help. Timbers coach John Spencer has Darlington Nagbe competing with Jorge Perlaza and Bright Dike to partner Kris Boyd up front. Courted by the Houston Dynamo, Boyd decided to sign with Portland. The all-time top goalscorer in the Scottish Premier League, 164 goals in 296 appearances, should fit the Spencer's 4-4-2. The team has an identity and good personnel in Eric Alexander, Kalif Alhassan, and Sal Zizzo. Colombian defender Hayner Mosquera should improve the defense.

USMNT vs Italy Preview

With Jurgen Klinsmann's side still searching for the right tactical system, USMNT prepare to face a tough challenge against Italy, another European opponents after Belgium and France, which both beat Americans 1-0. USMNT is without forward Landon Donovan and with defender Timmy Chandler and midfielders Jose Torres and Jermaine Jones who all suffered minor injuries. With also defender Oguchi Onewu and midfielder Stuart Holden still out with long-term injuries, Sacha Kljestan and Brek Shea were shuttled in. The biggest challenge for Klinsmann will be to continue trying to build a possession-minded, attacking style soccer considering Klinsmann's weakened bunch of midfielders. The Klinsmann's idea to keep the ball and control the tempo playing with a high defensive line is interesting, but hard to play without athletic central defenders. Bob Bradley used to get killed for being more defensive-minded. Klinsmann works in the opposite direction. Also, the question about what Klinsmann does at left back remains in place. Timothy Chandler's absence leaves Klinsmann without a potential starter. Fabian Johnson, who has been at left back for Hoffenheim, is the best option for the Yanks. Jonathan Spector is another one.

New regime

"I don't necessarily care where they play as long as they play, that's what's important," Jurgen Klinsman pointed out. Klinsmann has proved a lot of  MLS players during  his six months gig. Right now, we can argue that  FC Dallas winger Brek Shea and Real Salt Lake holding midfielder Kyle Beckerman are regular starters for Klinsmann. All others will fight for the places on the starting XI. Some fight to gain attention, such as Sporting Kansas City midfielder/forward Graham Zusi and C.J. Sapong, Seattle Sounders defender Jeff Parke, D.C. United goalkeeper Bill Hamid, and Los Angeles Galaxy defender A.J. DeLaGarz. Some others will fight to regain their place in the Klinsmann'thoughts: Eintracht Frankfurt holding midfielder Ricardo Clark, New England Revolution attacking midfielder Benny Feilhaber and Schalke 04 central midfielder Jermain Jones are in this list. The voids are above all on the back line, with Steve Cherundolo and Carlos Bocanegra getting older. Newcomers Tim Chandler, Tim Ream and Michael Orozco-Fiscal have to convince. It's normal for a new head coach to try to find the right men for the right pattern. Klinsmann also is dobious about the ideal formation, switching from a 4-4-1-1 to a 4-4-2. The transition will be rocky as reflected the team's record under Klinsmann. The German will have to decide if to continue to emphasize a possession game or to come back to a classic counter-attack style of play. Sure is the new Klinsmann's philosophy: he showed more attention than usual on the fitness preparation of his players; he ran a new diet regime for his team; the fitness sessions was higher than in previous camps.

Who after Cho

The dismissal of head coach Cho Kwang-Rae testified the bad situation of the South Korean football. Korean Football Association showed to be amateurish after technical committee head Hwangbo Kwan said the organization is starting from a blank hole in its search for the new coach due to the fact that the announcement of Cho Kwang-Rae's replacement will go out at the end of January. Cho paid for his mistakes, and for the shocking loss in Lebanon but also for a football system unable to produce rising stars in the local tournament and for the successful state of the rival Japan. Now, who next? There are good inside options to sub Cho? Jeonbuk Motors' 52-year-old coach Choi Kang-Hee is the most obvious name. After clinching the K-League Championship and leading the team to the Asian Champions League final he's a good name to take a look to. Former 2002 South Korean World Cup captain Hong Myung-Bo leaded the Under-20 team to 2009 Fifa U-20 World Cup quarter-finals and is another viable option.

Cho fired!

It was under fire already after his Korean national team, ranked 31st in the FIFA world rankings, lost to Lebanon (146th), 2-1 in their fifth Group B game of Asian qualifiers for the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Both Korean fans and media experts was disappointed. Apparently, the KFA's board of direction too. Since he took over the job, in July 2010 Cho Kwang-rae has stressed a playing style based on short passes and fast movement to create spaces but it simply didn't work. As a result, the players seemed confused. And din't work the Cho's way to switch frequently the players' positions in the national team. After the Lebanon match, supporters was demanding that the coach be replaced. It happened. By the way, despite his mistakes, not all is Cho's fault. The Korean football system failed to provide proven backup players from K-league able to become good alternatives to the high-profile players playing overseas. In recent months, South Korea was unable to find players to replace the time after time missing Ki Sung-yeung (Celtic FC), Lee Chung-yong (Bolton), and Park Chu-young (Arsenal). Park Ji-Sung and Lee Young-Pyo's intention to retire from international football also didn't help. Now, who next? Shimizu S-Pulse of Japan's Afshin Ghotbi, Jeonbuk Motors' Choi Kang-Hee and Korea under-23 coach Hong Myung-Bo are strong candidates to sub Cho Kwang-Rae. But what about Park Kyung-Hoon? And a foreign solution isn't out of question.

Reloads

Two teams, two busy offseasons. While the MLS is all around the David Beckham's situation and the rumors about his move to Paris St. Germain, an expansion team and 'classic' one started their offseason. The Montreal Impact will start their MLS adventure with plenty of talent in veteran midfielder Davy Arnaud, defender Nelson Rivas and goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts. The goal is to put on the field a competitive team. The same goal of the Sporting Kansas City which added midfielder Paulo Nagamura and defender Seth Sinovic, lost and reacquired in the trade with Montreal.With Milos Stojcev, Craig Rocastle, Arnaud (after 10 seasons with Kansas City), and Ryan Smith out, the roster was shaked. We will see if the midfield with Nagamura, Julio Cesar, Roger Espinoza and Graham Zusi will work.