It only took 15 years for the brain-trust at MLS to figure out that the Pacific Northwest is the pulse of soccer in North America. As I stated in a previous article, Portland, Vancouver and Seattle are putting an excitement into the MLS that it's never really experienced before.

It wasn't Freddie Adu, Landon Donovan, David Beckham or Thierry Henry that infused a surge of electricity throughout Major League Soccer—it's been done by rabid fans in the rainiest and grayest part of the country.

The question is, what does the MLS do from here?

Try as they might, Los Angeles and New York are not the answer to increasing revenue and fan attendance. Those are big-market cities, but the interest in both cities pales in comparison to interest in other sports.

So, for those interested, here is a primer for how MLS can continue to increase interest throughout North America and the world.

First, move the moribund franchises.

Sorry Chicago, Chivas and New England, but you've got to move. You've had your chance, and failed miserably. It's embarrassing for all involved to continually watch empty stadiums with the lonely echo of one guy blowing a vezuvela in the background.

Get into cities that will appreciate a professional soccer team. With Montreal and (probably) New York slated for the next franchises, there are probably a few cities that would do well with an MLS team to call their own.

Sacramento is the first one that comes to mind. With the Kings probably leaving town, the city is left with zero professional teams. They've got a huge Latino population and a natural rivalry with San Jose.

San Diego is another southern California possibility. They also have a massive Latino population and a natural rivalry with the Dodgers.

On the other side of the country, Miami and, yes, New Orleans would be ideal MLS candidates for a team.

Yes, Miami failed badly with their first MLS franchise, the Miami Fusion. But, MLS has come a long way since then. A diversified and international community makes it perfect for a soccer team.

New Orleans has no baseball team and, really, little competition during the MLS season. Again, they've got an international community and a very rabid fan base.

Next, start bringing in better players. This will only happen one way—with money! MLS stadiums are starting to fill up and TV ratings are improving.

Below is an average player salary for each team in MLS, as reported by the Associate Press, via AOL Sporting News. (New York and Los Angeles are higher due to the salaries of Thierry Henry and David Beckham, respectively.)

New York Red Bulls—$446,570

Los Angeles Galaxy—$428,265

Chicago Fire—$154,669

Toronto FC—$142,081

Real Salt Lake—$135,306

Philadelphia Union—$131,876

Vancouver Whitecaps—$123,133

Seattle Sounders—$119,504

Houston Dynamo—$118,484

New England Revolution—$118,367

Sporting Kansas City—$115,206

D.C. United—$114,639

FC Dallas—$113,627

Columbus Crew—$111,996

Colorado Rapids—$105,769

San Jose Earthquakes—$100,399

Chivas USA—$99,673

Portland Timbers—$94,734

Here are some highlights of the new MLS rules and regulations for the 2011 season.

Now, those of you following European football are probably wondering what the heck all of this means. What is a salary cap? What is a maximum budget charge per player?

It's sanity, that's what it is. It's a way for teams to play on level playing fields and ensure a highly competitive league.

It just needs to increase.

With the increased stadiums, television ratings and buzz that's heading MLS's way, they need to start allowing teams to spend. Keep the current structure in place, just increase the salary cap by about $3.5 million.

Will that extra money attract Steven Gerrard or Lionel Messi? Absolutely not.

But it will attract many first-division players from Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Columbia and, outside of England, most of the European countries.

The simple fact is that the overall level of play in the MLS needs to go up, and teams need money to start to field entire teams of quality (not just a few players). If the quality of league play goes up, American players will be so inclined to stick around, rather than ply their trade in Europe.

I don't know about the strategy of signing up star players beyond their prime (see Thierry Henry and David Beckham). Yes, it gives the league some credibility and, I'll be honest, seeing Henry playing in the flesh was completely awesome. But, they cost too damn much. And, it perhaps gives the league the image of a retirement home for aging soccer players (not the kind of image it should promote).

MLS teams are starting to make money and they need to re-invest in their product. This should be aimed at increasing the overall play of MLS clubs, and that can't be accomplished by splashing all your salaries on one or two players. The teams must be 11 or 12 deep.

I'd love to see MLS teams entered in the Copa Libertadores—it would offer players a chance to compete with other extremely good clubs from the likes of Brazil, Mexico and Argentina.

In fact, this is a must for MLS.

It would also be a massive attraction for players that might otherwise stay in Europe, but resigned to play for middle-level clubs. Let's face it, Fulham or Sevilla are never going to make the Champions League, but players on those clubs might be stars in the MLS and have an opportunity to compete in the Copa Libertadores. It's an incentive.

I really am starting to wonder if we won't see a shift in the next five years to more and more competition in North and South America from Europe.

With the Brazilian economy shifting, it might be possible for the Brazilian clubs to keep more and more of their stars (such as Ganso and Neymar) while increasing the attraction of the domestic leagues.

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The New England Revolution cannot win at Rio Tinto Stadium in Utah.

Entering the Independence Day match against Real Salt Lake, they had been outscored 11-0 in that stadium.

At the start of Monday night's match, it looked as if they would be able to finally come away with a victory. However, after the Revolution went up two goals in the first 16 minutes and led 3-2 late in the match, Real Salt Lake battled back to end the night with a 3-3 draw, leaving the winless streak in Utah intact.

In fairness, the game was full of controversy, including calls by referees that awarded penalty kicks to each team on horrible calls.

Despite giving penalty cards out like invitations to a black tie affair, the worst call of the night came in the third minute when referee Yader Reyes pulled a straight red card and sent off Real Salt Lake defender and team captain Nat Borchers for the night after a challenge in the box.

Replays showed that Borchers played the ball that went over the end line off of the Revolution player. The play should have resulted in a simple goal kick.

To say that Reyes missed the call would be an understatement. He was trailing by more than half the field and surely did not have a good view of the play as it unfolded. The referee's assistant on that end of the field offered no help, and the Revolution kicked home the penalty shot.

They struck again a few minutes later to go up 2-0 and looked as if they would run away with the match.

After a 24th-minute goal by Will Johnson, Real Salt Lake forward Alvaro Saborio converted a penalty kick of his own that was a result of a bad call against the Revolution. A hand ball in the box was called on a routine cross from the end line.

Shortly thereafter, the Revolution again scored after Shalrie Joseph got on the end of a set piece and bounced in a goal off the post to give New England the lead.

While the first five goals came off of set pieces, the equalizing goal was the best of the night. After getting the game back to even strength following a second yellow card by Revolution defender Ryan Cochrane, Real Salt Lake used timely passing and a great ball through to find Fabian Espindola one-on-one with the goalkeeper. 

Espindola slotted the ball around the keeper and inside the post to earn a draw and a point for his team.

Both teams left the stadium with a point towards the overall standings while also feeling like it should have been three.

Chris Johstoneaux is a contributor to Bleacher Report who usually covers the NBA and Major League Soccer. If you liked this article, please take a moment to leave me a comment and follow me on Twitter @JazzRSLExaminer.

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Seattle, meet Brian Perk.

Sure, he isn't the Big Cat from Montego Bay known as Donovan Ricketts or the trusty backup known as Josh Saunders, but he's a goalkeeper nonetheless.

The Fourth of July was Perk's coming-out party, and he made the most of his debut appearance by making a number of stops and even saving a Fredy Montero penalty as the Los Angeles Galaxy and the Seattle Sounders played to a scoreless draw at the Home Depot Center on Monday night.

It seems as if he learned his lessons from the U.S. Open Cup match with the Los Angeles Blues and stepped his game up when the team needed him most. You talk about continuity and consistency, and you talk about this humble third-stringer who probably might be a legit first-string keeper one of these days.

“I think the final score is a fair result," said manager Bruce Arena to reporters. "That was a game that was pretty even. I would have liked the chance to make a couple of other substitutions in the second half, but obviously we had to make changes to the center backs that’s difficult. The first change to A.J. [DeLaGarza] was going to have us hampered in the second half. The issue with Omar [Gonzalez], that was difficult.

"Having said that, I think [Brian] Perk did very well for his first game in the league. I think the adjustments our team made losing two center backs was pretty good, but certainly the best chance out of the run of play was [Juan Pablo] Angel’s and obviously the chance in the game was the penalty kick. Having said all that, I think it was a fair result at the end of the game. I give Perk a lot of credit in his first game. I don’t think he was tested a whole lot, but a penalty kick is as much as a test as you are ever going to face. A lot of credit to Brian.”

Perk made stop after stop after stop. You know, I thought this was going to be the night in which Seattle got their first-ever victory over the Galaxy in league play. Turns out, they may have to wait until the playoffs for their next opportunity, and by that point, it's either Ricketts or Saunders filling in.

Well, to be honest, the Sounders do have a chance to rectify their misfortunes with reprising their efforts in the U.S. Open Cup from last year on July 12, but that too isn't a guarantee with the performance delivered by Perk.

On the flip side, the Galaxy are going to be sweating on the health of Omar Gonzalez and A.J. DeLaGarza, who came down with injuries, forcing Bryan Jordan and Gregg Berhalter into the mix. Already Los Angeles are thin in their backline and they are going to likely be a bit thinner heading into Saturday's match with the Chicago Fire at the Home Depot Center.

“0-0 is not the best result for your team, I mean, I think three points is what we deserved, but we didn’t give up a goal and that’s a credit to our back line. We don’t concede many goals," Perk admitted. "Whether it’s me, (Josh) Saunders or (Donovan) Ricketts, it seems like we’re always giving zero or one goal. When Omar (Gonzalez) went down I was thinking, maybe we should take the draw, 0-0 is not the worst result with both our center backs down.”

And this was not a good night for the finishers. Juan Pablo Angel and especially Chad Barrett were simply awful. Easy chances, all wasted. Not even David Beckham getting minutes off the bench could prevent Los Angeles from being consigned to a four-to-one point split. The only fireworks that came out were the ones in the sky, and they were long after the match was over.

“It was a weird game," team captain Landon Donovan admitted. "It’s not often that you start a game with one of your DP’s on the bench, your third string goalie and within a half hour you have to take off one of your center backs. It was a weird game, but given all of that, I was really proud of the adjustments that we made, the effort was good, we just weren’t sharp. All in all I think that we’re actually pretty proud of the performance we put in given everything that happened tonight.”

“I’ve been out for three weeks; haven’t been able to do anything for three weeks," Beckham said. "So, it’s good to be able to be back out there again, of course.  Obviously I’ve got a week until the next game so it’s going to be a good week. I didn’t expect to play in this game. I’ve had an epidural and a cortisone injection last week and seemed to react well and took the pain away. Obviously the fracture is still there, but the pain’s died down a bit.”

There is a good possibility that Mr. Beckham will be coming off the bench again—maybe earning more minutes, but not starting—against the Fire. Still, the night belonged to Perk. Hands down.

"We have three great goalkeepers," Arena concluded. "Perk we’ve had for about a year and we could see as he got some reserve games his confidence grew, he got the experience that he needed. I think tonight he looked like a guy that’s played. He’s an experienced player at the youth level. He’s played in international competition. We didn’t throw a player into the game that’s going to run around like his head is chopped off.

"I think the game he got last week in Open Cup was good for him and obviously, playing tonight at home makes it a little easier for him. All I can say he’s a keeper we can put in there and be successful.”

At least the Punjab uniforms looked nice.

And as previously mentioned, the LA Galaxy take on the Chicago Fire at the Home Depot Center on Saturday, July 9. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. PT and will be televised by Fox Soccer Channel.

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When the MLS got picked up by ESPN in 2006, I was very excited. There is hardly an argument that any US media outlet does sports broadcasting better than the Bristol based studios. If someone was to get soccer right in this country it would be the brilliant producers there.

I do not recall who was playing in the first game. I don't really recall anything about the game. However, I do remember the awful bickering between commentators Tommy Smyth and Eric  Wynalda. The two fought over everything and agreed on nothing. It distracted from play and was downright annoying.

ESPN solved the problem by moving Smyth to only international and European league games. They decided to stick with the American commentating American games. This solved the problem in the box during the game, but in the studio before, after and at halftime, an issue still existed...Alexi Lalas.

Lalas is the man who is expected to introduce us to the games, let us know changes that need to be made at half and break it down in hindsight analysis after the final whistle is blown. He does all of this, but with a sense of arrogant jealousy that makes him seem villainous and ultimately untrustworthy.

Lalas played central defense for the US national team from 1991-98. In that time he had 96 caps and was one of the most consistent players on the squad. Much of the explosion in popularity the sport has had in this country had the groundwork laid by his generation. However, he is often not credited with this and makes it known during his commentating today.

The MLS is in its 15th season of play and is still fighting to be considered a legitimate professional league amongst its peers. Even the biggest MLS fan will not argue the quality of the game here is the same as the top leagues in Europe, but the commentator should not be blatantly pointing it out.

Lalas is notorious for being one of the harshest critics of MLS players, officials and organizations. He seems bent on attempting to tear down the league and point out that he had just as much quality out there when he was playing as there is now.

Honestly, he is relatively right. If you take away the "designated players," who have come about from the increase in money since Lalas' days, you have a bunch of college graduates all trying to get a contract that will be enough so they don't have to work a second job.

But as a commentator his editorial position must be concerned with game play only and be respectful to the promotion of the league and US soccer.

The only thing worse than listening to him on the MLS is him on the US national team. Landon Donovan, Tim Howard and Clint Dempsey are beloved players in this country and abroad. Nearly everyone who understands the game would say they are quality athletes who are great in their own right. That is everyone except Alexi Lalas.

I think he respects them as players and does recognize their contribution to the game in this country, but he also subtly gives off a resentment to the amount of notoriety they have received with at least the same the same (or even less) on field success.

Listening to Alexi Lalas is like reading an article on this Web site. It is highly editorialized, overly critical and often completely unnecessary (just like this article!). But Bleacher Report writers are not professional, not paid and not the voice for an entire league.

I really want to know how people feel about this. Am I correct and we all want his painfully red hair off our TVs? Or am I just being unreasonable and expecting much more than what the league can offer?

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Bruce Arena's Los Angeles Galaxy, with Landon Donovan returning to the fold, returns to action tonight as they take on Sigi Schmid's Seattle Sounders on Independence Day at the Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif.

Keep it here on Bleacher Report for continuing coverage of world football and the 2011 Major League Soccer season.

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Independence Day is the USA’s birthday and a great opportunity to celebrate being an American.

Not all the best American soccer players play in MLS, and not all the best players in MLS are American. So in honor of this great nation, here is a starting XI of the best American players in MLS so far in the 2011 season.

The list features one goalie, three defenders, five midfielders and two forwards. To be eligible for this list, the player has to be eligible to play for the United States Men’s National Team.

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Real Salt Lake will continue its tradition of doing things its own way when it retires the jersey number of head coach Jason Kreis following an Independence Day match against the New England Revolution.

Unlike other sports in the United States, in soccer it is not common to retire jersey numbers for specific players.

While many soccer purists do not agree with the move based largely on worldwide traditions, Real Salt Lake General Manager Garth Lagerwey argues soccer in the United States is different from other places in the world. 

Following the announcement several months ago, Lagerwey responded to critics in an article found on the league website:

"We live in America. We play in an American soccer league... We have playoffs. We don’t have relegation. We retire numbers. I can’t imagine anything less controversial. America is a great place. I like living in the United States. I don’t need to live in Europe. I’m not envious of the Europeans.”

Much of the controversy comes because many believe that soccer numbers are more of a symbol rather than belonging to specific players. This stems from tradition that numbers were given out based on position rather than players choosing them.

The number nine has long been associated with an attacking player who scores goals and is one of the more prestigious numbers to wear.

Following a great high school career and playing at Duke University, Kreis began his professional career with the Raleigh Flyers and the New Orleans Riverboat Gamblers. In 1995 he signed a contract with the Dallas Burn of the newly formed Major League Soccer.

Jason Kreis went on to have a great career in Dallas where he was a five-time All-Star, the first American-born league MVP and became one of the most feared goals scorers in the league.

Kreis was the first player to score the first franchise goal for two teams in the league when he scored the inaugural goal for both the Dallas Burn, and then later for Real Salt Lake after being selected as the franchise's first player.

In 2005, while playing for Real Salt Lake, he became the first player in MLS history to score 100 goals, and ended his career with 108 total goals scored.

At that time he was the all-time leader in goals scored, but now sits fifth on that list.

In the early part of the 2007 season, Kreis made the transition to coach and left the field for the sideline.

As a head coach, his success has continued and he led the team to the playoffs in 2008 and to the MLS Cup Championship in 2009.

He also has led his team further into the CONCACAF Champions League tournament than any other team in MLS history. Unfortunately, they lost at home in the final in April 2009.

While the always humble Kreis is honored to receive this award, he stated that he feels it is "a little much," and added, "I just don’t know whether I really deserve something like that.”

Even though a jersey retirement is a bit out of the norm, for the influence Kreis has had on the league and on the young Real Salt Lake franchise, it is a fitting honor that is well deserved.

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Losers of five of their last six games, with a tie to New York as the lone bright spot, the Portland Timbers are nursing a losing streak that is in danger of turning into a hemorrhaging gusher.

For the second week in a row, they just played badly, against Sporting Kansas City. Giving up two easy goals in the first twenty minutes before losing 2-1. The lone bright spot was a goal by Darlington Nagbe in the 44th minute that might go down as the goal of the year. Absolutely brilliant strike in the top-left shelf after he juggled it twice on his right foot. That goal alone had Portland stadium rocking, after many of the crowd had actually started to boo the Timbers.

Portland is unimaginative right now. They're playing scared on defense. They're not making creative or hard runs. They're not running at the defense.

John Spencer, trying to infuse some life into the club, benched both Kenny Cooper and Jeremy Hall in favor of Eddie Johnson and Steve Purdy, respectively.

With Seattle coming to down next weekend, this was a game the Timbers had to win to gain some kind of momentum going into their biggest match of the year. Instead, there seems to be a pall over the club and fans, as if they've accepted their fate.

I was afraid of this kind of letdown after the Colorado and New York games. The boys played their hearts out, only to lose to Colorado and tie to New York in the closing seconds of injury time. Those kinds of losses don't go away quickly or easily.

The Timbers defense' is so bad right now, I don't think they can stop anyone. They were continually confused on Kansas City's run, not communicating, stand flat-footed, and not marking tightly. Aurelien Collin, the right back for Kansas City, continually ran up the wing and found blankets of space for devastating crosses. Three or four times Kansas City could have easily scored. 

This defense has now given up eight goals in their last three games.

In the midfield, I would shake things up a bit. They should bench Diego Chara, as he doesn't contribute anything. Put Captain Jack Jewsbury in a defensive midfielding position. Perhaps he continue infuse some leadership in the defense. Move Kalif Alhassan to an attacking midfield position and have Sal Zizzo and Nagbe on the wings.

I'd almost given up on Nagbe until last night's strike—simply amazing. The word out of the Timbers' camp is that Nagbe has tons of talent, he just hasn't been showcasing it in games.

I can't be too hard on the strikers. First, someone needs to explain to Spencer that Cooper is not a post-up player. Yes, he's 6'3", 210 lbs., but he plays much better facing the goal.

Go and watch some tape of his days at FC Dallas to see how he played. Jorge Perlaza has speed to burn, and he's making good runs, but he's a counter-attacking player, and the other players need to start looking for him immediately upon a turnover. He almost looks lost in a half court offense.

But let's face it, the service has been awful and who else do the Timbers have to replace Cooper and Perlaza? Johnson looked very average and Ryan Pore just looks overmatched in MLS. I don't know, maybe you do give Pore a starting shot to see what he can do. He does make sneaky little runs that the Timbers are sorely missing right now.

The losing streak will be forgotten if the Timbers can get by Seattle. It's the game everyone cares about. I have no idea how Spencer infuses confidence into this team? How does he get them back to playing like they did against New York and Colorado?

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How would you like to win an all expenses paid trip for two to Philadelphia to watch Real Madrid play the Philadelphia Union in a friendly at Lincoln Financial Field?

This story offers further evidence that acquiring a Major League Soccer (MLS) franchise has had a huge impact on the city that loves you back. Not only does the Philadelphia Union consistently sell out its 18,000-plus seat stadium for home games, but they have also done a brilliant job of bringing some of the top international clubs to town for friendlies.

During last year’s expansion season, the club hosted Celtic FC, Manchester United and Chivas de Guadalajara. This season’s list of high-profile internationals includes Everton and Real Madrid.

Well, it appears that someone at the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation (GPTMC) knows a little something, something about the world wide appeal of Real Madrid. You see the GPTMC has chosen that match to entice out of town fans with a chance to visit Philly and see Real Madrid's only East Coast appearance, all expenses paid.

Here’s the deal. The Grand Prize winner will receive:

Two VIP tickets to Philadelphia Union vs. Real Madrid at Lincoln Financial Field on Saturday, July 23 at 9 p.m.

Two nights’ accommodations for two at the Sofitel Philadelphia Hotel in downtown Philadelphia; check-in Friday, July 22 and check-out Sunday, July 24.

Round trip transportation for two along Amtrak’s Northeast corridor.

Two Philadelphia Union authentic game jerseys.

A $100 gift card to Starr Restaurants to be used at any of Stephen Starr’s 15 restaurants in Philadelphia including Parc, Barclay Prime, Dandelion, Frankford Hall, etc.

In addition to the grand prize, there will also be Four First Prize winners who will receive: Two tickets to that Union vs. Real Madrid at Lincoln Financial Field on Saturday, July 23 at 9 p.m.

The contest can be found here: http://www.visitphilly.com/union and what makes this contest even more enticing is that Real Madrid has already announced that their 25-man travel roster for this game will include a list of international superstars such as attacker Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal), Midfielders Xabi Alonso (Spain) and Kaká (Brazil), defender Sergio Ramos (Spain), goalkeeper Iker Casillas (Spain), as well as many other stars from FIFA’s top European club of the 20th century.

By the way, get-away contest aside, this match should offer a stiff challenge for the Union who currently sit atop the MLS Eastern Conference table, two points clear of Columbus Crew and New York Red Bull.

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It seems inevitable, at this point.  With Donovan Ricketts out with a broken arm, and Josh Saunders serving a red-card suspension, surely the Seattle Sounders are the easy favorites to take three points from the LA Galaxy for the first time in nearly two years.  The Sounders will play at the Home Depot Center this coming Independence Day, enjoying a three game winning streak, and a recent upswing in offensive production that's so hot it burns.  But, going against a team that's undeniably had their number these past few years, can the Sounders really pull it off?  Here is why the answer is a resounding no.

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