MLS 2011 Preview

Vein of Form will not be negative about our 2011 MLS season forecast. While we fully expect there to be slow build ups from the back, shoddy passing, periods of the match where it looks like no one wants to be out there and a ridiculous playoff format there is plenty to be excited about!

Friday Night Football. MLS will be featuring a Friday night match on Fox Soccer Channel throughout the season. This is fantastic. The matches will probably get shitty ratings but fans are going to tune in for this. What a better way to start off the footballing weekend? A quick glance and these Friday fixtures look like the match-ups of the weekend in MLS. Just look at these:

• March 25 - Seattle at Houston
• April 1 - Columbus at FC Dallas
• April 8 - FC Dallas at Colorado
• April 22 - Colorado at Seattle

Not kidding - I am so looking forward this change in the schedule and plan on tuning in to Fox Soccer Channel with the television on mute.

Red Bull New York need a big season. I want this to happen so bad. The league needs a true beast to emerge from the East and create a super rivalry of sorts with Galaxy or Real Salt Lake. A dream scenario would be for Thierry Henry to lead that charge. Imagine Henry banging in 30 or more goals and terrorizing MLS defenses like back in his days roaming the Highbury pitch. He remains my favorite all time Premier League player and is only 33 years old. A fit Henry approaching his mid-30s should still be unstoppable in this league. And hopefully he forms an explosive partnership with Juan Agudelo.

Agudelo is Vein of Form's MLS Player Whose Name You Should Get on the Back of Your Jersey. In my dream world by season's end Agudelo will have MLS bricking because a handful of European clubs are bidding on his services. The spurts we've seen of him - particularly at the international level with the US - reveal a raw talent that with a mix of coaching and guidance (read: Thierry Henry) could emerge as the new face of United States soccer.

The Henry / Agudelo duo has the potential to lead RBNY to MLS Cup and for the good of the league all fans should want to see this fulfilled.

Jason Kreis is a leader of men. It is crazy that the manager is the star of a franchise featuring Kyle Beckerman, Fabian Espindola and Javier Morales. People like to compare him to Jose Mourinho but Kreis hasn't won near enough...yet. I do like this whole mythology being built around him though. He drills his players hard, makes them believe they can achieve great things and allows them to sort it out on the pitch while he conducts from the sideline. I think he needs to upgrade his wardrobe a bit but that is another discussion.

He has one MLS Cup but need 3 or 4 more. Serious. He needs to lead RLS not out of a CONCACAF Champions League group but to a final. Then, he needs to win the CONCACAF Champions League. RLS are an exciting team that could very well be in contention for a Supporter's Shield and make a run at the cup final. But I will watch them every chance I get because of Kreis. I want to see a genuine managing prodigy grow into someone that eventually takes a job overseas. That experiences success in a more popular league and then takes control of the US National Team.

MLS expansion is working but shouldn't get out of hand. I don't want a league already struggling to prove its quality top to bottom becoming more diluted. The choices of cities have been astute in recent years. Toronto has fabulous fans that will become even more rabid once the product on the pitch improves. Seattle has blown away all expectations. They have the support and a squad that is pushing to be amongst the elite in the league. Philadelphia looked very much like an expansion team last season but the city is soccer mad and will support a winner.

This year we get the Portland Timbers - a city with a rich soccer tradition - and a roster that includes Kenny Cooper, Jack Jewsbury, Troy Perkins and the promising Darlington Nagbe. Essentially, a team of guys that have historically been good MLS players that could not cut it in Europe and are now hoping they gel in time to make some kind of impact in 2011.

Also, Vancouver Whitecaps are added and let's be honest, will not be very good. In fact, they may set a new standard for bad. Jay DeMerit is somehow an impact signing. I liked John Thorington when he was with Chicago Fire but he is not someone that can do it alone. And he is going to be expected to do so at times.

There you have it. Plenty to be optimistic about going into this MLS season. You can't claim this site is down on MLS in 2011.