Major Soccer

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. -- This part of the country is a soccer player's paradise.Massachusetts is second only to California in the number of registered youths playing the game. That's over 120,000 kids and it doesn't include little town leagues peppering the state.The U.S. National team drew some of its best crowds in New Haven and there is speculation a professional outdoor team may surface in this area by 1992."Autumn in New England means only two things to me," said Blast forward David Vaudreuil, who grew up just 30 minutes away in Canton, Conn.

Major League Soccer finally is beginning to stir.This week, Alan Rothenberg is expected to be replaced as chairman and chief executive officer. The need for a hands-on leader will be cited for the switch, Rothenberg being viewed as having spread himself too thin between MLS, his law practice and the presidency of the U.S. Soccer Federation.The shake-up is said to be a mutually agreed-upon move.Coaches, too, are being named. There are two already in place -- Kansas City's Ron Newman and Tampa Bay's Thomas Rongen.

California Cougars Coach -- Bernie Lilavois Last season -- 7-23, 11 games behind Outlook -- The Cougars were a mess, beset by front-office turmoil and the most grueling travel schedule, which led to a 1-14 road record. They surrendered 482 goals, by far the most in the league, and will need to vastly improve their defense. Already, misfortune struck when F Vicente Figueroa, a former rookie of the year, tore his anterior cruciate ligament in the preseason. Sanaldo will handle the goalkeeping.

A soccer rivalry that has endured for decades in England will hit Baltimore this summer. Liverpool F.C. and the Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, two of Europe's most storied soccer teams and long-time foes in the English Premier League, will play an exhibition game at M&T Bank Stadium on July 28. The joint announcement was made Friday by the Ravens, Maryland Stadium Authority and Maryland Office of Sports Marketing. “It's unusual to get two Premier League teams playing a match in the United States.

IT'S HARD to develop a fan base when the league has only one superstar. It hard to market the league when the national headquarters was until recently in, of all places, Canton, Ohio. It's tough to draw media attention when the league doesn't have a national television contract. Welcome to the National Professional Soccer League, home of your Baltimore B-L-A-S-T! "I love the indoor game, and I still get a kick out of it," said Ed Hale, who became owner of the team for a second time in the spring of 1998.

Blast at Missouri Comets What: MISL championship Game 1 When: Thursday, 8:35 p.m. Site: Independence (Mo.) Events Center Video: mislnation.com Outlook: Surprise! Most people expected to see the two-time defending league champion Milwaukee Wave playing against the Blast for the Major Indoor Soccer League title, but the Comets upset Milwaukee in the semifinals. After dropping the first game in overtime last Thursday, Missouri came back to stun the Wave on Sunday in the second game, 9-8, and then advanced to the championship series with a 5-4 win in the deciding mini game.

Now that Major League Soccer has its first openly gay player , the league is launching a new effort to tackle anti-gay attitudes and encourage inclusion in its ranks. Through a partnership with the You Can Play Project, a nonprofit dedicated to fighting LGBT discrimination in sports, the MLS and MLS Players Union hope to build on existing anti-discrimination efforts to offer greater support for gay players and fans. "The diversity found in our League has always been a point of pride for us," MLS commissioner Don Garber said in a statement released today.

WASHINGTON - The grass on the practice field just off Oklahoma Avenue is richly green, English green. In fact, with a heavy sky dominating the gray, misty morning a couple of days before Major League Soccer begins its regular season, the unfolding scene looks more suited to a London suburb, where soccer is life, than the field just across the street from RFK Stadium. There is a soccer team on the field, and the sidelines have disappeared beneath the feet of a media contingent usually seen around here only for the Washington Redskins.

The Blast has the ideal primer for the upcoming Major Indoor Soccer League playoffs as the team closes out its regular season at 1st Mariner Arena on Saturday - a game against the two-time defending league champion Milwaukee Wave. The rivalry is far and away the best and most intense in the MISL, with all the other franchises too new to have developed any on the same level. And this game - set for 7:35 p.m. - has plenty on the line with the teams tied for first place in the league.