With the Portland Timbers starting their 2012 season next week, I wanted to take some time to highlight Major League Soccer before the Timbers home opener. In this entry, we take a look at the Eastern Conference of MLS and how things should shake out. Before we begin looking at that, there are a few major changes relating to the schedule and playoffs that have a dramatic affect on each club. There is also a new team playing in the Eastern Conference as the Montreal Impact officially joins MLS with the 2012 regular season.

The balanced schedule played in 2011 has been scrapped for a conference based format

because of the odd number of teams and to dramatically lessen the impacts of travel on teams. Portland will only play the Eastern Conference teams one time each, with five matches at home and the others away; the locations will alternate with the 2013 schedule so that Eastern teams that visit Portland in 2012 will host the Timbers in 2013. For 2012, the Timbers host

Philadelphia

, Sporting Kansas City,

Columbus

,

Chicago

and D.C. United, and they will travel to New England,

Montreal

,

Houston

,

Toronto

and

New York

. Also, the MLS playoffs have been structured

so that each conference qualifies five teams

instead of the previous format that gave playoff berths to each conference's top three teams plus four wild cards that could be from either group.

Part 1: Park and Intangibles

Part 2: Eastern Conference Rivals

Part 3: Western Conference Rivals

Part 4: Coaching, Front Office & Broadcast Team

Part 5: Goalkeepers

Part 6: Defenders

Part 7: Midfielders

Part 8: Forwards

Section 2: Eastern Conference Rivals

All roster information is current as of March 6, 2012.

The

finished out of the playoffs in 2011, but they were one of the hottest teams finishing up the campaign. The team struggled with health and goals for most of the season, but they played well down the stretch and had a shot at the playoffs going into the final weeks of the season.

The slow start and problems led the Fire to sack manager Carlos de los Cabos on May 30, replacing him with Fire legend Frank Klopas on an interim basis

. With the on the pitch performance, Klopas was given the job permanently.

Chicago

didn't adjust their roster that significantly, bringing in young forward Frederico Puppo and former

Vancouver

goalkeeper Jay Nolly to back up incumbent Sean Johnson. The Fire offense revolves around midfielder Marco Pappa and forwards Orr Barouch and Dominic Oduro, while the team drafted defenders Austin Berry and Hunter Jumper to reinforce the defense.

The

qualified for the 2011 playoffs as a wild card, but to say they faded down the stretch would be an understatement. After a solid start,

Columbus

had issues with their roster and exited the Wild Card round rather quickly. The offseason saw the Crew say goodbye to their leading scorer from 2011, forward Andres Mendoza, in addition to midfielder Robbie Rogers and forward Jeff Cunningham. Their next two top scorers, forwards Emilio Renteria and Eddie Gaven return for 2012 in addition to goalkeeper William Hesmer who took over the job last season and had a solid season. The Crew has tagged hopes upon young forwards Ethan Finley and Ben Speas to help supplement their offense.

turned the corner from a disastrous 2010 season to being in the playoff hunt in the final weeks of the 2011 season. Goalkeeper Bill Hamid was forced into duty, and he responded with a decent season, and hopes are high he can continue his improved form. The offense for United improved when they acquired Dewayne De Rosario from

New York

, as the Canadian international was playing for his third different MLS club with the acquisition. While they said goodbye to forward Charlie Davies, they brought on defender Robbie Russell from

Real

Salt

Lake

, midfielder Danny Cruz from

Houston

and signed free agent Maicon Santos. If their defense improves and Hamid can remain in form, D.C. should be in the hunt for one of the top five spots for the playoffs.

The

advanced to the MLS Cup, where they lost to

Los Angeles

. While the Dynamo weren't the most dynamic offense about, they did enough to win close matches and saw a young goalkeeper in Tally Hall develop into an MLS All-Star. The offseason got off to an explosive start when the Dynamo left one of their top scorers and most popular players, forward Brian Ching, exposed in the 2012 MLS Expansion Draft. Ching said repeatedly he would rather retire than play in

Montreal

, but the Impact selected him anyway. However, the story had a happy ending for

Houston

as Ching returned to the club in a trade in February. The Dynamo return leading assists man midfielder Brad Davis and late season acquisition Adam Moffat, plus all everything player Geoff Cameron has recovered from injury. The team also begins play in their new stadium when the Timbers visit in May and I'd expect

Houston

to be one of the top teams in the East again this year.

The

join the fray in 2012 as Major League Soccer's 19

th

franchise, and longtime USL Timbers fans will remember the Impact – Timbers rivalry as feisty despite the teams only meeting occasionally. Coach Jesse Marsch takes the helm for the Impact, who has been extremely busy after their initial selections at the 2012 Expansion Draft with trades and signings. The Impact selected Sporting Kansas City midfielder Seth Sinovic during the draft only to trade him back to

Kansas City

, then traded Ching back to

Houston

. The most interesting deal for them was the February 12 trade of Team

USA

member Eddie Johnson, who resigned with MLS after playing in

Europe

for a few years.

Montreal

selected Johnson in an allocation draft, and the Impact traded Johnson to

Seattle

for forward Mike Fucito and midfielder Lamar Neagle. The Impact have some interesting players, from midfielder Davy Arnaud (Sporting KC), midfielder Sanna Nyassi (Colorado), goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts (Los Angeles), and forward Justin Braun (Chivas USA), but they would need a monumental performance from this group to make the playoffs in 2012.

The

ended up tied with

Vancouver

for least points earned in 2011, costing longtime coach Steve Nicol his job in the offseason.

The club hired former player Jay Heaps as their coach

, and he has been busy trying to establish a tougher attitude and a winning culture for a team that had success in the past but has fallen upon hard times. Heaps bolstered their roster through the Re-Entry draft by selecting Danleigh Borman, Nate Jaqua and Clyde Simms, and then selected midfielder Kelyn Rowe and defender Tyler Polak in the 2012 Super Draft. Leading scorer Shalrie Joseph returns with a new designated player contract, along with midfielder Benny Feilhaber, but the goalkeeping situation remains in flux with veteran Matt Reis, who struggled to stay healthy, and young keeper Bobby Shuttleworth.

New England

might not make the playoffs, but they should be better than the 2011 version.

The

were team volatile in 2011, making as much news for their player conduct as they did for their on the pitch play.

New York

qualified for the playoffs and advanced to the semifinals before being eliminated by

Los Angeles

. The team decided not to resign goalkeeper Frank Rost, while defender Tim Ream was transferred to English Premiership side

Bolton

, but they will still have forwards Thierry Henry and Luke Rodgers to score goals or annoy opposition.

New York

is also hoping for a return to form from former Portland Timber Kenny Cooper, who led

Portland

in scoring in 2011 but didn't fit the culture of Coach John Spencer.

New York

will need to find a solid backline and hope that goalkeepers Ryan Meara or Jeremy Vuolo are ready for the big time quickly in order to qualify for the playoffs.

The

ended up in the top three spots within the Eastern Conference, courtesy of stingy defense and timely goals. Unfortunately,

Houston

bounced them out in the conference semifinals. The Union chose to waive goalkeeper Faryd Mondragon, ensuring that young keeper Zac MacMath would be their opening day starter, and traded 2011 leading scorer Sebastien LeToux to

Vancouver

. Forward Danny Mwanga returns for his third season in Philly, and hopes are high that Costa Rican forward Josue Martinez and Colombian forward Lionard Pijoy can replace LeToux's scoring.

Philadelphia

will remain a solid club simply because they play team defense so well, but their fortunes will depend upon if they get enough scoring.

used their new branding and the momentum of opening

LiveStrong Sporting Park

in June to qualify as the top seed in the 2011 playoffs from the East. Sporting retains two of their top scorers from 2011, forwards Kei Kamara and Teal Bunbury, and key playmaker Graham Zusi, but they lost forward Omar Bravo who transferred to Cruz Azul in

Mexico

. Sporting also brought on former

San Jose

midfielder Bobby Convey to replace the loss of Arnaud in the Expansion Draft. Goalkeeper Jimmy Nielsen was also a pleasant surprise in net for SKC, and despite the loss of Bravo, Sporting should be a top club in the East.

floated towards the bottom of the standings in 2011, but Coach Aron Winter retained his job.

Toronto

dealt with a multitude of injuries and then traded De Rosario to D.C. after acquiring him from

New York

midseason. Toronto FC has an interesting mix of forwards in Joao Plata and Danny Koevermans, while German midfielder Torstan Frings returns with Canadian national Julian de Guzman to provide support in the middle.

Toronto

also watched young goalkeeper Stefan Frei become their number one keeper, in no small part to new Timbers goalkeeper coach Mike Toshack.

The East has five playoff spots available and is generally regarded as the weaker of the two conferences, but there are talented clubs abound. I would expect Houston and Sporting Kansas City to duke it out for the top spot, while

Philadelphia

,

Chicago

and

Columbus

fight it out amongst the chasing clubs. D.C. United could find themselves in the playoff hunt if DeRosario performs to his capacity, while

New York

has the talent but plenty of question marks in their first team to answer before they can be considered playoff worthy.