Brian Carroll’s career has become synonymous with longevity in MLS. Thursday, the Union legend called time on that career.

The 36-year-old midfield announced his retirement Thursday, after 15 pro seasons that saw the slight but cerebral midfielder assemble a resume surpassed by few in MLS history.

Carroll has been with the Union since 2011, the longest tenured member of the club. He ranks second in club history in games played (165) and first in both starts (156) and minutes (13,819). Carroll hasn’t played this season, the first time he’s been limited to fewer than 21 games in a season since his rookie campaign, when he didn’t see the field with D.C. United.

In 15 seasons with the Union, D.C. and Columbus, Carroll is tied for fourth in games played in MLS history among field players at 370 (he can be passed by Seattle’s Chad Marshall Sunday). Carroll is sixth among field players in starts with 345, one behind Toronto’s Drew Moor. Add in goalies, and Carroll is tied for sixth in games and eighth in starts.

He’s also sixth among MLS players in all-time minutes played at 30,776. Staggeringly, Carroll has never been red carded in his MLS career despite playing so frequently in a combative position in the center of the park. He holds the honor of the most career minutes in MLS without a red card. (Second is Landon Donovan at 28,898, but the long-time Galaxy forward has 119 yellow cards to Carroll’s comparatively paltry 57.)

Carroll has nine MLS goals to his name to go with 17 assists. In seven Union seasons, Carroll scored five times (including a career-high two goals in 2013) to go with three assists.

Carroll made the playoffs nine straight seasons from 2003-2011, the latter with the Union, then contributed 23 starts to the Union’s 2016 playoff berth. Carroll started 20 career MLS playoff games, winning MLS Cup in 2004 with D.C. (and assisting on Alecko Eskandarian’s opening goal in the final) and in 2008 with the Crew. Carroll lifted the Supporters’ Shield four straight years from 2006-09.

Carroll, a second-round draft pick (11th overall) of D.C. in the 2003 SuperDraft out of Wake Forest, was capped eight times by the U.S. national team from 2005-10.

Carroll and two of his brothers – Jeff and Pat – played in MLS, the only set of three brothers to play in MLS, per the league’s Facts and Record Book. Brian and Jeff were teammates for two seasons in D.C.

Carroll was capped eight times by the U.S. from 2005-10. He won MLS Cup in 2004 with D.C. United and 2008 with Columbus and was a four-time winner of the Supporters Shield from 2006-09.

In catching up with Jack McInerney Friday (here's the link to the full story), the Philadelphia Union striker seemed at ease with his situation. Never one to come off as too emotionally high or low, McInerney expressed genuine gratitude for his opportunity with the men's national team, even if it didn't culminate in his international debut.

Jack McInerney regards his stint with the U.S. National Team as a
positive, even if he didn't appear in a match. (Associated Press)

From the outside, it may look like a disappointing result that he didn't get to don the Stars and Stripes in a match. But McInerney and Jurgen Klinsmann seem to have struck an understanding about the purpose of the camp for the 20-year-old, and it sounds like it was a success in that regard. (For further reading, it's worth checking out Kevin Kinkead's reaction from Hartford Tuesday night, which includes quotes from Chris Wondolowski, Stuart Holden and U.S. assistant coach Martin Vasquez.)

Here's a little more of what McInerney had to say:

On the difference between this and the youth camps he's attended:
It was pretty similar. Obviously being at that level, you just really can’t be in the same situation until your actually there. I think the biggest thing was adjusting to that, but everything starts to be pretty similar, with the style and things like that.
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Philadelphia Union (4-4-2)

MacMath 

Williams-Okugo-Soumare-Gaddis  

Cruz-Carroll-Kleberson-Daniel  

Le Toux-McInerney  

Bench: Konopka, Hoppenot, Albright, Torres, Wheeler, Farfan, Casey
Los Angeles Galaxy (4-4-2)  

Cudicini  

Meyer-DeLaGarza-Gonzalez-Dunivant  

Donovan-Juninho-Sarvas-Magee  

Villarreal-Keane 

Bench: Rowe, Leonardo, Franklin, Cochrane, Garcia, Jimenez, Rugg  

- The day is here at long last: The first start for Kleberson, the Union’s newest designated player. Interestingly, though, it’s not in the position most would’ve envisioned with he and Keon Daniel in the side. Looks as though one will operate wide on the left in the position vacated by Michael Farfan; I’d expect a fair amount of interchanging though.

- After starting one game in 14 months, Bakary Soumare makes it two in four days. The trade of Gabriel Farfan Tuesday made any other combinations – such as returning suspended Sheanon Williams to the center of defense – untenable with a sudden lack of fullback depth (given the injury to Michael Lahoud, the top candidate as a deputy there). Williams is back at right back though, Ray Gaddis moving to the left.

- There’s also a change up top that comes as no surprise. The combination of Sebastien Le Toux’s assist on the game-winning goal by Jack McInerney over the weekend against Chicago and the fixture back-up made it an easy choice for the Frenchman to replace Conor Casey. Casey still makes the bench with Antoine Hoppenot and Aaron Wheeler. Plenty of attacking options there.

- For the Galaxy, both Robbie Keane and Todd Dunivant passed their fitness tests. That means Keane will pair Jose Villarreal up top with Mike Magee doing a lot of interchanging up top.

So, the biggest news from the Union may have come later in the afternoon Tuesday with the trade of Gabriel Farfan to Chivas USA. But manager John Hackworth had plenty to say on a variety of topics in the afternoon. Here are a few quotes that didn't make the cut.


On the extra motivation for Los Angeles:
We’re trying to just manage this three-game stretch in eight days, so our focus has been trying to prepare and recover from Chicago in a short amount of time, but the reality is that they’ll be a little more juiced. I don’t know if it’ll be in the legs, but it’ll certainly be emotional because there’s definitely a little more of a spotlight on you for sure. You’re playing at home, all of those kinds of things. Probably for our team, there’s probably a little bit of a feeling that people don’t give us respect right now, and even when we go and we win games, it doesn’t seem like we’re getting enough credit for it. I think having an opportunity to play LA at home is a really good game to try and make a statement, so I think there will be a little more motivation there for sure.

On the depth of his team:
It’s something we’ve talked about all year is that there were going to be times in the season where we had stretches where whether it was injuries, suspensions, just the number of games coming in a short amount of time where guys were going to get a chance. That proved to be very true Saturday in Chicago, it’ll be that way tomorrow night and I’m sure it’ll be that way against Chicago again.
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It’s been an international transfer window book-ended by attention for MLS.

Days before the window opened, FIFA president Sepp Blatter made headlines by swiping at MLS’ progress, both in the world of soccer and the American mainstream.

“It is a question of time, I thought – we had the World Cup in 1994,” Blatter said Dec. 30. “But it is now 18 years in so it should have been done now. But they are still struggling. … There is no very strong professional league (in the U.S.). They have just the MLS but they have no professional leagues which are recognized by the American society.”

As with most of the hot air emanating from the Swiss exec, Blatter’s withering criticism didn’t make way for facts. The dealings in the transfer window didn’t seem to want to follow Blatter’s paradigm either. So a month on from Blatter’s blithering assertions, MLS has shown itself to be a chic marketplace for big European clubs to do their shopping. Read more »

You know you've scored a sweet goal when the face of American soccer dismisses it.

Jack McInerney's goal in first-half extra time of the Union's 2-1 win over the L.A. Galaxy caught the attention of Landon Donovan, who had this to say about the tally:

“It’s just lack of concentration. They were barely in our end in the first half and then, in one play, the guy scores a one-in-a-thousand goal, and that’s it. Sometimes that’s the way this game is. It seems like we’ve been on the end of that too many times this year. Maybe we’ve got to create our own luck a little bit more. I don’t know, it’s frustrating, but sometimes things go that way, it happens.”

 There ya go. Welcome to the big leagues, Jack Mac.