MLS NEWS & NOTES

MLS will conduct a waiver draft on Monday. Players waived by their respective teams in order to meet the March 1st deadline will be available.

Goalkeeper Jon Busch has been waived by the Columbus Crew. Apparently 4 teams have shown interest in selecting him on Monday. Could Toronto be one of them?

Former Indoor player Zoran Savic has been hired as an assistant coach to Preki for CD Chivas USA.

The Colorado Rapids have signed Costa Rican midfielder Yherland McDonald. McDonald will count as a Youth International.

Darren Currie, a 32 year old English midfielder from Ipswich Town, is being auditioned by the L.A Galaxy. LA's Canadian head coach Frank Yallop, had a long career with Ipswich before moving to the Tampa Bay Mutiny of MLS in 1996.

The Washington Post is reporting that DC United will have Danish defender Jamil Fearrington from FC Copenhagen in training camp next week. Fearrington is an American citizen and will not count as an international if signed. DC United will also have Welton Silva, yet another Brazilian forward in camp. This is not the original MLS "Welton" (I believe his last name was De Melo) who did well for New England and L.A during the leagues formative years. English midfielder Kasali Yinka Casal and Guy Roland Kpene of the Ivory Coast are also being looked at by DCU.

It will be very interesting to find out which MLS team was seriously courting Robbie Fowler, as Soccer America Magazine has suggested the team most interested wasn't the New England Revolution, as many believed. The only other teams I would suggest have made any noise about signing a DP this year, were Chicago and Dallas. New York was apparently after Agustin Delgado so it most likely wasn't them.

FC Dallas signed 21 year old Colombian midfielder Juan Carlos Toja. Toja was previously on loan to River Plate in Argentina, from Independiente Santa Fe in Colombia.

The Chicago Tribune, is reporting that goalkeeper Zach Thorton has been traded to the Colorado Rapids.

Mexican legend Hugo Sanchez (he played for the Dallas Burn of MLS in 1996), won his first game as head coach of Mexico. A crowd of 63,328 witnessed Mexico defeat Venezuela 3-1 in San Diego. Its safe to assume that SUM, a branch of MLS that controls the Mexican National team property in the United States, made some money on that game.

An American company, Chestnut Hill Ventures of Boston, has bought into League One side Millwall in England. I wonder if former Millwall and MLS player, Toronto born John Kerr Jr., was involved in any way. Kerr is currently coaching the Harvard Men's soccer program.

The New England Revolution have released international training camp invitees Jorge Ramirez of Peru, as well as Takuya Yamada & Takashi Hirano both of Japan.

Canada has submitted a bid to host the 2011 Women's World Cup. Canadian fans will remember that Canada was in line to host the 2007 event, yet the SARS epidemic in Asia caused the 2003 tournament to be held in the United States instead, with China granted the 2007 tourny. If the games are indeed awarded to Canada, it will surely help Vancouver in their attempts at securing funding for a proposed downtown stadium.