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LATROBE, Pa. -- Pittsburgh Steelers rookie cornerback Artie Burns insists theres no pressure on him to step in immediately and try to win the starting job.Burns, the teams first-round pick, is part of a young, revamped Steelers secondary looking to improve after ranking 30th in the league in passing yards allowed last season. But he has been hampered by a nagging thigh injury in training camp, which will likely cause him to miss Fridays preseason opener against the Detroit Lions at Heinz Field.It doesnt matter if I start at all, Burns said. If its going to come, its going to come. I just have to be patient, work hard and when its there, I have to make sure I take my opportunity, go out there and dont look back.The Steelers selected him No. 25 overall in April, the first time the team took a cornerback in the opening round since Chad Scott in 1997. Burns, a former Miami standout, led the ACC with six interceptions last season.Steelers defensive backs coach Carnell Lake expects Burns to contribute to the defense at some point this season.When you draft a first-rounder you have high expectations, and its no different for Artie, Lake said. Its up to Artie, ultimately, but well do everything we can to get him ready.Burns has frequently lined up opposite star wide receiver Antonio Brown during spring practices and again at training camp. He has struggled at times against the two-time All-Pro, but Lake thinks Burns will benefit with Brown as a training partner.I think its great for Arties development, Lake said. You can lose confidence quickly and it may hurt your game initially, but for Artie, he seems to enjoy the competition. Hes taken some lumps that probably any rookie would against (Brown), but I like the way he approaches it.Brown said Burns has the tools to be a great cornerback if he works at it.It starts in practice and the film room, Brown said. Hes not scared to compete and thats one thing I love about him. Thats the attitude and approach you have to have if you want to help us win.Another rookie defensive back, second-round pick Sean Davis, has impressed early in training camp, though he left Wednesdays practice early and had an icepack on his left knee.Davis, a former Maryland standout with position flexibility, has rotated at safety in addition to first-team slot cornerback after Senquenz Golson, the teams 2015 second-round pick, suffered a midfoot, or Lisfranc, injury that required surgery.Coach Mike Tomlin is impressed with Davis conditioning.Hes one of the few rookies Ive seen that really looks like hes come prepared from a conditioning standpoint, Tomlin said. I think thats the first place that allows him to grow and take extra reps, which accelerates the learning curve.Davis also hopes to accelerate the learning curve by spending additional time with Lake.When Davis isnt taking snaps at safety or slot cornerback, hes behind the play, standing next to Lake, picking up pointers from the five-time Pro Bowler.Coach Lake is literally the best coach I ever had, Davis said. Even when we dont have meetings, Im in coach Lakes ear.Hes been there and done that, and hes teaching me, not only how the book does it, but the little things and techniques he knows from experience.Lake doesnt mind the additional on-field coaching sessions.Its always a good thing when they want to learn and have questions, Lake said. Id rather have him there, talking about a particular play. Its good for his development.That will only help an evolving secondary looking for big contributions from Burns and Davis.Theyre coming along and progressing well, Lake said. 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Last in the game, Di Vaio and Romero got into a shoving match with several Houston players. Romero appeared to elbow and kick Houston defender Kofi Sarkodie.Whilst our governing bodies continually tinker with formats, a common perception which holds true right across the North American sporting landscape: All-Star Games are meaningless and are bereft of substance or relevancy. Time now for a serious rethink. What occurred at Sporting Park Wednesday night was so much more than a lopsided game. When MLS announced Sporting KC would host this seasons All Star Game in early January we didnt even know who the opponent would be. With what we know now it is not an exaggeration to state we are in the initial throes of a tipping point for Major League Soccer, one whose origins are traced back to January 2007. David Beckham was the game changer then and injected an accelerated pathway of unprecedented growth both on and off the pitch for a league which came into being as a requirement of FIFA awarding the 1994 World Cup Finals to the U.S. He may have left the MLS pitch but Beckhams legacy on the league can only be truly measured following the full passage of time. The 2013 All-Star Game may have come and gone but the events and news which started as soon as MLS entire stakeholder group began arriving in Kansas last Sunday and on through to well after they had all departed will ripple and flow through MLS forever more. It all got going Tuesday afternoon when one of the leagues charter franchises - the Columbus Crew - was sold for a record price. According to Forbes that figure now sits at $68 million. The original price paid for the Crew back in 1995 by one of MLS founding investors Lamar Hunt was a mere $5 million. Even if you throw in the approximate $30 million cost of constructing Crew Stadium, the original soccer-specific stadium built in the MLS era, that sale price represents a greater than six-fold Return on Investment. Not a shabby return no matter what metric you deploy or measure it against. No irony was lost in the fact that the news came with Kansas City as the backdrop, another of the charter franchises which was owned and operated by Lamar Hunt and the Hunt Sports Group. Though news of the sale may not have budged the mainstream needle, that collective shoulder shrug was surely replaced with wide-eyed amazement following the news which came during the interval of Wednesdays so-termed showpiece event. Ordinarily at the MLS Cup or the All-Star Game, Don Garbers halftime broadcast appearance is bereft of substance – a mere photo opportunity sans the baby kissing. Not anymore. Garbers main purpose during his appearance on ESPN Wednesday night - an appearance that was ultimately broadcast in well over 100 countries - was to advise a waiting world of Agenda Item Number One from that days Board of Governors meeting. Expansion. The needle moving type. One which will result in 24 teams taking to MLS pitches across North America for the start of the 2020 season. Major League Soccer on a scale not rationally believable when you consider just a short decade ago contraction was on everyones minds as both Florida-based franchises were sacrificed for the common long term good. Contraction bought the number of franchises at the time to just 10. The same number there was when MLS kicked off in 1996. The decision to contract was one the league had fretted anxiously over. It was not exactly the best message to be sending as at this exact time MLS was desperately short of hard cash, splashing about blindly in their search for broadcast and partnership deals. Whispers the league was on its last throes got louder after having already racked up over $250 million in debt and losses over these inttervening years.dddddddddddd That contraction now has a very legitimate chance of coming full circle. Flavio Augusto da Silva, the Brazilian owner of Orlando Soccer Club wants to bring Major League Soccer back to Florida. Orlando, who currently play in USL Pro, were invited to make a presentation during Wednesday mornings Board of Governors meeting. Adding fuel to the Florida fire is a widely held belief David Beckham will finally exercise his option to purchase an MLS franchise and will call Miami home. This was the destination Barcelona had in mind for the 2011 expansion. Ultimately that cycle resulted in the Whitecaps and Portland winning out. The Bolivian telecommunications billionaire Marcelo Claure who originally partnered with Barcelona and whose empire is headquartered in Miami is Beckhams dance partner. With the league fully aware of the immense values stemming from localized football rivalries and if we take their 2011 expansion business model into account, one can safely presume two of those four franchises will be located in the snowbird state. Considering the aggregate values returned to the league by the three Canadian clubs the migration and emigration of Canadians to Florida is likely not a point lost on the increasingly efficient league accountants based in Manhattan. Where, then, will the remaining two franchises be located? Well, forget speculating for now. Having already made a career legacy out of it - the master of flushing MLS prospects out of that very same woodwork goal posts and crossbars are made of - Don Garber must be grinning like a Cheshire Cat at the prospects line-up which will over time line up two-abreast outside his office door. They say bad news occurs in groups of three. Well this week for MLS the opposite has occurred. The third piece of good news stems from a random sighting, at a random US airport, by a random MLS Seattle supporter. The subject of that sighting, however, was anything but random. As the football world held its collective breath and obsessively fixated over a certain Tottenham Hotspur player unbeknown to all, it was another Spurs player quietly slipped away from training camp. Destination: Heathrow Airport. ESPN broke the news late Friday evening that Clint Dempsey - the U.S. captain still very much in the prime of his career - would be signing with the Sounders. Its not so much MLS Prodigal Son returning to a league he left back in 2007, but more a case - as we are now in the midst of a World Cup cycle – of one of the greatest footballers to emerge from the U.S. being convinced that MLS is on a football journey he very much wants to be part of after successfully exporting himself to one of world footballs best leagues. Seattle is reported to be paying Dempsey more than Beckhams base salary over a four-year term, with a total outlay running north of $40 million once the transfer fee has been factored in. This is MLS were talking about… a league where you could have purchased all 10 franchises for $50 million back in 1996. According to many, the Seattle Sounders unimaginable and unquantifiable success in large part is down to the fact the Emerald City is deemed the counter-culture capital of America. By 2020 MLS will be the counter-culture capital of world football. Over to you, FIFA. You can reach and follow Noel Butler at: Noel.Butler@BellMedia.ca @TheSoccerNoel Tune into TSN 690 Monday evening at 6:00pm et - when we will speak with ESPNs Doug McIntyre about Clint Dempseys return to Major League Soccer. Also available at TSN.ca/Montreal ' ' '