Major League Soccer

D.C. United says it welcomes Maryland's interest in becoming the Major League Soccer team's new home but is still weighing its options - including remaining in Washington. The Major League Soccer team was responding yesterday to Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot's proposal that the state consider attracting the franchise from Washington. "D.C. United is most appreciative of the interest expressed by Comptroller Franchot. Certainly, there are many thousands of passionate D.C. United fans in Maryland," the club said in a statement e-mailed to The Sun. "We welcome conversations with any governmental agency in the area, including specifically the Maryland Stadium Authority, that can be helpful to D.C. United in getting a stadium built.

ORLANDO, Fla. -- The top American goal scorer in international play was perplexed yesterday, even as the United States made a successful 1998 debut.Eric Wynalda, who has 31 international goals, has been switched to midfield from forward by coach Steve Sampson. "And he said it's not subject to change," Wynalda said after the United States' 1-0 victory over Sweden in a friendly before 12,773 at the Florida Citrus Bowl. It was the first of about 15 preparation matches the team will play before the World Cup begins in June.

When Santino Quaranta left Archbishop Curley at age 16 and became Major League Soccer's youngest player ever at the time, he was hailed as one of America's next stars. Three injury-filled seasons and seven surgeries have slowed his development, but this year he's starting to fulfill some of that promise. His progress could be on display today, when Quaranta and the U.S. national team play Panama in the final of the CONCACAF Gold Cup at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. The showdown - part of the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Associations of Football Gold Cup tournament - decides bragging rights for soccer in the Western Hemisphere.

Nobody promised Kenny Cooper a rose garden when he left the Spirit and moved to Tampa, Fla., to assemble a National Professional Soccer League expansion team.Rose garden? He hasn't so much as smelled a rose.No longer is he the coach of the Terror. While remaining as a director and president, he has taken a leave of absence from coaching because of a "philosophical difference of opinion with the league relative to players."Three days after he started his leave of absence early last month, he developed pneumonia.

Time will tell, but over the weekend the man who may prove to be American professional soccer's Moses left office.Alan I. Rothenberg's transition from eight years as U.S. Soccer Federation president to owner of the Major League Soccer franchise in San Jose, Calif., was compressed in most places to a sentence or two.He deserves better.Because Rothenberg, 59, used his maximum two terms to revitalize at the pro level a game that, when he became its leader in August 1990, was at its nadir in the United States, toying with bankruptcy, devoid of leadership and run by amateurs.

Major League Soccer United signs two-year lease to stay at RFK D.C. Unitedwill play its home games for the 2012 and 2013 Major League Soccer seasons at RFK Stadium, which has been its field since the team's inception in 1996. In addition to the lease agreement, Events DC also announced Thursday a multimillion-dollar capital improvement project that will include improved concourse lighting and renovated restrooms at the stadium and new bleachers, upgraded sound system and renovated restrooms at the DC Armory.

MELBOURNE, Australia - Few will remember where they were when it happened. Few will appreciate the significance. But the breakthrough of U.S. men's soccer's might someday be seen in the vivid, dripping image of a 3-1 victory over Kuwait last night at the wet and windy Melbourne Cricket Ground. For the first time in their 76-year history of playing Olympic soccer, the United States men have advanced beyond pool play. The team earned a trip to Saturday's quarterfinals in Adelaide, where it will face Brazil, Japan or South Africa.

Colleges Terps' Cirovski, Mullins receive ACC men's soccer honors Maryland's Sasho Cirovski and junior Patrick Mullins were named the Atlantic Coast Conference men's soccer Coach and Offensive Player of the Year, respectively. Senior John Stertzer was named to the first team for the second straight season and seniors Taylor Kemp and London Woodberry , in addition to freshmen Mikey Ambrose and Schillo Tshuma , made the second team. Ambose and Tshuma also represented Maryland on the ACC All-Freshman Team.

Touting discipline and team chemistry, on and off the field, as elements that weighed heavily in his choices, U.S. national soccer team coach Steve Sampson yesterday named 20 of the 22 players he wants to represent the country in the World Cup next month in France.Having dropped a bombshell three weeks ago by cutting midfielder and captain John Harkes, Sampson's picks contained no other major surprises. He left two spots to be filled, probably from among two players awaiting American citizenship and one recovering from his second serious knee operation in two years.

HERNDON, Va. -- Late Wednesday morning, practice having just ended and his players in the showers, Bruce Arena sat in his second-floor D.C. United office returning calls.Still in sweats, he was one tired coach. With little probing, he admitted as much."It's been a long year, although one that's very special to me," said the 46-year-old. "But in some ways, oddly enough, it's old. Part of that is the fact that you're always running a program that's expected to win. It wears you down a little bit."