Five-a-side: What's hot around MLS

MLS Five-a-side:The skinny on five things that matter this week in Major League Soccer:

1. When good acquisitions go bad: Ah, the dreamy days of December-March, the time of grand designs in terms of personnel speculation around MLS. Teams pile on the talent, and forwards bring particular energy to the exercise for fans and officials alike. Visions abound of 15- and 20-goal scorers guiding clubs to splashy accomplishment.

Hope may continue to spring in Spring, but June and July are when dreams frequently, necessarily, die.

At Houston, D.C. United, Kansas City and Chicago, officials might already be looking to replace new forwards who haven't lived up to expectations -- even if the ink is barely dry on those press releases heralding their arrival.

Franco Niell's days at RFK seem to be over. The feisty Argentinean was imported to provide some depth and perhaps even start alongside Luciano Emilio. But he had no goals (and just three shots, in fact) in seven appearances and was waived Thursday by United.

Niell's failure to produce has been mitigated lately by Emilio's re-emergence as a scoring force. The man who led MLS last year with 20 goals recently snuffed out a seven-game scoreless drought; now he's scored seven goals in United's last five games.

Brian Ching's recent hot streak has similarly softened disappointment and uproar over Franco Caraccio's lack of production for Houston. The young Argentinean striker has just one appearance for Dominic Kinnear's team in the last month, a 70th-minute appearance as a sub. His last start came May 22 in Houston's loss at San Jose.

The former Argentina under-20 international was a starter to begin 2008. But two goals in eight starts (and two other appearances as a sub) is probably not the kind of production Kinnear and GM Oliver Luck expected.

Kansas City has double trouble in Colombian Ivan Trujillo and Argentinean Claudio Lopez, who have combined for just four goals. Lopez has three of them, but his flagging production may be bigger cause for concern; as the Wizards' DP, more was surely expected. As it is, Kansas City has just 10 goals in 12 matches, just a little better than expansion San Jose, which has the league's worst offense statistically.

Tomasz Frankowski was talked up in Chicago. But he has just two goals and one assist and hasn't started since April. If Brian McBride comes aboard, the veteran Polish striker could move even further down the pecking order.

Then there's the case of Carlos Ruiz in Los Angeles, who isn't new to the league, of course, but is new-ish to the Galaxy shirt. He'll find it tough to get off the Galaxy bench as long as Edson Buddle and Landon Donovan remain healthy. Could Ruiz move to another team, which would be his third in a year?

Not likely. As Los Angeles' second (or third) Designated Player, Ruiz counts just $350,000 against the salary cap. If he were to move to another club, his amount against the cap would rise (unless he was the second DP at that club, too.) Either way, there really aren't any teams out there swimming in open salary cap space, so the Galaxy have few options.

2. The first problem, the biggest problem: Every new manager has good ideas about what a team needs, about how to point players in a more positive direction, etc. If they didn't have good ideas, they probably couldn't convince owners and GMs to hire them.

But practical application is another thing. Managers stand or fall on their ability (or inability) to select the right players and then get them to execute. And a big part of that is determined by dealings with any locker room problems. It establishes a big part of the coaching foundation.

Schellas Hyndman, apparently, has his first issue, one that cropped up less than a week into his tenure at Pizza Hut Park. Young Brazilian forward Ricardinho isn't happy with his playing time and made that clear in public statements. Hyndman, a noted disciplinarian in his 24 years at SMU, had a simple response.

"I'm not here to make everybody happy," he said. "All I've ever said to them is that there will be early and clear communication."

To that end, he's trying to help Ricardinho, who has no goals and two assists in 15 appearances over the last two seasons (including four starts). Hyndman speaks Portuguese and hopes that can help him reach the player. He said he needs time to understand what's going on with the 19-year-old attacker.

Hyndman wants to dig a little deeper, to understand if the player has personal issues pressing him, or other off-the-field concerns. But Hyndman seems clear on one thing: while developing relationships with players is part of his job, so is demanding execution.

He indicated that Ricardinho, on loan from Brazil's Paranaense, has yet to respond to certain practice field initiatives.

"His attitude has to be right," Hyndman said. "To put him on the field right now is not the best thing for the team. And that's got to be my No. 1 priority."

3. Getting the stadium formula right: In terms of big-picture, overall MLS facility development, Houston may have stumbled upon the formula that addresses several geographic conundrums.

The Dynamo unveiled plans this week for a proposed soccer complex and Dynamo training facility in the Southeast section of town, outside the main loop. This would be independent of a Dynamo soccer stadium; plans for that slog fourth slowly.

MLS officials are learning through facility other development that stadiums near city cores might have an advantage over suburban venues in terms of attracting audiences and building broader fan bases. But land is cheaper in suburbs and exurbs, of course, so facility development is more feasible in those areas -- especially if the proposed facility is a comprehensive complex that includes huge tracts for training facilities, auxiliary fields and such.

So, is the answer being unwrapped slowly in Houston? There, if plans continue to move forward, the team would construct a training complex, including auxiliary fields, outside the main loop. Meanwhile, team administrators and Houston city officials continue to explore options for a stadium closer to the city. (The Dynamo currently plays at on the University of Houston campus, which sits in the shadow of downtown, not too far from the site of a proposed stadium.)

Houston's proposed soccer complex includes 18 soccer fields to be built in stages.

Sure, it's nice when stadiums and comprehensive training facilities are adjacent, as they are at the MLS-developed facilities in Carson, Calif., Commerce City, Colo., and Frisco, Texas. But those venues are all beyond the main city cores. Plus, teams all over the world practice and play at separate venues, with training facilities situated in outlying areas, where land is more available. So the model certainly can work.

4. The most dazzling twosomes: Landon Donovan and Edson Buddle currently top the MLS scoring chart. Both, of course, wear the Herbalife-stripped Galaxy jersey. This raises the exciting possibility that the league's top two goal scorers will come from the same side.

But that's not as rare as it might sound. In fact, this would be the third time it has happened.

The prodigious 2001 Miami team was the last to put stick two big scorers on top of the league scoring totem pole: Alex Pineda Chacon (19 goals) and Diego Serna (15) were Nos. 1 and 2 that year.

D.C. United's Jaime Moreno (16) and Raul Diaz Arce (15) set the league goal-scoring standard in 1997. Like that 2001 Miami Fusion bunch, the 1997 United gang finished first in the conference standings. (A sign of things to come for the Galaxy?)

Donovan and Buddle certainly have an opportunity to be the league's top tandem. They have combined for 20 goals and still have more than half the season remaining. Considering David Beckham's sublime service, could they be the first to reach 40 goals? Diaz Arce and (who would have thought?) Steve Rammel combined for 37 in 1996, the highest tally yet for a twosome. A couple of pairs have reached 36 goals, including a potentially prodigal son: Stern John (26) and McBride (10) reached that total in 1998.

5. It's a good time for soccer and TV: ESPN's coverage of Euro 2008 has been greeted with numbers that will, at the least, make TV execs say, "Hmmmm."

Sixteen matches on ESPN2 were watched by an average of 506,000 households, according to ESPN, which amounts to an increase of more than 60 percent over the same time period one year earlier for the network.

ESPN2's most-watched match was seen in 831,000 homes and by 1.01 million viewers, the June 14 contest featuring Sweden vs. Spain.

Through six matches (including the quarterfinals) ESPN had averaged a healthy 0.9 rating, or about 835,000 homes. That's was almost double the viewership from the same time period in 2007 for the network.

Plus, praise has been effusive for ESPN commentator Andy Gray, who cut his teeth with Sky Sports.

(Soccer fans, meanwhile, have been appreciative simply for the opportunity to see every match without any tricky logistical gymnastics. Personal side-note: It was just eight years ago that myself and a bunch of buddies traipsed nightly to our local Irish bar during Euro 2000, watching an overmatched TV project match replays that the bar owner had taped at his house during the day from an expensive subscription package.)

Now comes Sunday's high-profile MLS appearance on ABC, a D.C. United-L.A. Galaxy match that has already sold about 33,000 tickets. It will serve as a lead-in for the Euro 2008 final on ABC.

Five hours of soccer coverage on ABC? That's a big day for soccer.