A few days ago I lamented the fact that MLS attendance had declined in 2008. While the idea of the league's attendance numbers stagnating concerned me, nothing could have disheartened me more than an article I read in this month's Sports Business Journal. According to the article, Americans didn't just avoid attending MLS games in person this year, [. Click to continue reading...

For the last couple of years, Gol TV has been thought of the third network of soccer in the United States, but over the last couple of months that appears to be changing. Gol TV has updated its network a lot in order to rival Setanta and FSC.
The biggest change for Gol TV has been the updating of their graphics. Click to continue reading...

A new week of CONCACAF Champions League play starts today. In United's group, Deportivo Saprissa hosts current Group A leaders CD Marathon. Group B leaders UNAM will take on the Houston Dynamo at 10 p.m. ET and this game can be seen live on Fox Soccer Channel.

Here is this week's TV schedule (all times EST): Tuesday, September 30Group B: Pumas UNAM vs. Click to continue reading...

How qaunt. It reminds me of the waiting room at the oil change place except it lacks a stack 18 month-old Time & SI magazines. They sure know how to treat thier guests in Honduras, don't they?

Hopefully D.C. United will rise above the less-than-lux treatment and provide MLS with at least one win in CONCACAF Champions League. Click to continue reading...

Ed here. I watched a good bit of the CONCACAFAFAFAFAFAFAF Champions League matches last night on FSC and Galavision. Why? Well, because the Cubs weren't on and Dirty Jobs was a repeat. And, well, it's soccer. So in some weird way, I feel compelled to watch - even if I'm completely convinced at this point that [. Click to continue reading...

Cruz Azul hosts Saprissa in what is probably the best game of this round tonight. The other Group A game is tomorrow night as DC travels to Honduras to face Marathon. I hope their defense learns how to stop a counterattack between now and then, otherwise the Green Monster is going to kill them...

Houston makes their debut in the group stage, traveling to Panama to face San Francisco. Click to continue reading...

The CONCACAF Champions League continues tonight with three group stage matches. In United's group, Saprissa travels to Mexico to take on Cruz Azul. The Costa Rican giant currently sits atop Group A, while Cruz Azul lost their first game 0-2 against CD Marathon (Honduras). Galavision will air this game live at 10 p.

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Adweek has a very interesting article about network and league sites that are getting into online streaming. In it, MLS gets a mention and rightfully so. Since day one of the league, they have always had an online media presence in some way or form. From being the first to stream games, to their partnership with YouTube (something the Premier League would probably never do in our lifetimes), Major League Soccer was always ahead of the curve.

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Well obviously, you do!

But ever wonder who else reads MLSR? So did we.

So once again we present you a partial picture. Last time we presented some demographics of what type of people read MLSR. This time we give you a geographic breakdown, and even more interesting, a partial list of firms who have been checking us out. Click to continue reading...

Thank goodness, club football is back. I have nothing against international football, I'll even blog about it when I have nothing else to talk about, but I do love me some club football.

All of the WCR Top 25 Clubs in the World are in action this weekend. The most anticipated matches are taking place on Saturday morning and coming out of England, where Manchester United takes on Liverpool and Robinho-riffic Manchester City hosts Robinho-less Chelsea. Click to continue reading...

A full slate of World Cup qualifying games around the world is scheduled today.

Right now, for instance, Carl Robinson of Toronto FC is leading Wales against Russia and the sensation of Euro 2008, Andrei Arshavin, on Fox Soccer Channel.

Televised games later today include the Netherlands against Macedonia at 11:30 a.

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Photo by ISIphotos.com

For the first time since the European Championships gripped us with its drama and great soccer, there will be TONS of international soccer to watch as World Cup qualifying kicks off around the world.

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We're bad. We're worldwide.

We have 50 World Cup qualifiers Saturday, plus a handful Friday and Sunday, as we welcome Europe to the mix and start the last group stage in Asia. We even have a crucial qualifier in Oceania as New Zealand visits New Caledonia. First challenge is figuring out where New Caledonia is.

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Here's a photo Chivas USA forward Ante Razov with former Miss USA Shandi Finnessey. In the future, when biographers look back on her life, this photo of her with Ante's despicably luxurious mane will mark the exact moment that she went from being "former Miss USA Shandi Finnessey" to "disgraced former beauty queen Shandi Finnessey". Click to continue reading...

OUR TEAMS

Everton (1-1-0, 10th in Premier League): Home vs. Portsmouth (10 a.m. ET Saturday, Setanta). Who did Portsmouth annoy to get a schedule that starts with Chelsea, Manchester United and Everton? In any case, Everton picked up Ecuadorian midfielder Segundo Castillo on loan from Red Star Belgrade, but the player they're really chasing is Victor Obinna, last seen with Nigeria at the Olympics.

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Now, in this clip D.C. united are asking "Will you be there?" That's the public line on the U.S. Open Cup final. But this one has a little more zing to it.

"Because, Frankly 11 Trophies is Not Enough."

That's the line a D.C. United insider says the club from the capital is taking internally in it's bid to lift the U. Click to continue reading...

Our beloved Serie A kicks off this weekend and it's preview time. After thinking that last season was a tough season to predict, this season it becomes even tougher. There are so many quality sides in the top flight this season that it is really hard to predict who will finish where this season.

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Saturday morning, 0930: I'm following Newcastle v Bolton on Setanta (HTPC); Spurs v Sunderland on FSC (cable); Liverpool v Boro on Sirius (radio); and Ebbsfleet Utd v Stevanage on BBC Radio Kent (laptop). This is after Charlton v Reading (on Setanta) at 0630. I wonder how much electricity I'm using to do this. Click to continue reading...

So I know the majority of my readers are American, but I still want to post this email I got from a UK marketing firm. They are raising awareness for youth sporting initiatives in Britain by allowing people to vote for the initiative they want to receive funding.

I'm writing on behalf of Norwich Union who are working to help local sporting initiatives across Britain.

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Looking to the week ahead, Wednesday has all the makings of a great "personal day"; England-Czech Republic on FSC at 3pm EST, D.C. United-New England Revolution at 7.30pm EST on Direct Kick, and Chivas USA-Houston at 9.00pm EST on Direct Kick all setting the table for the US-Guatelmala World Cup Qualifier on ESPN2 at 10. Click to continue reading...

So we survived the first day of the EPL season, yes? For those of you who missed it, The Gaffer held a liveblog over at EPL Talk for the first day of the season. I was a part of it for a while, until my son fell and we spent a nice afternoon at the [...] Click to continue reading...

With the English Premier League season starting this weekend, you might be asking yourself where a good place to catch an EPL game with a few other soccer fans might be. While I must admit that my living room sofa and a DirecTV setup that gets Setanta, FSC, and GolTV keeps me fairly satisfied, every now and then I like to catch a game with other footy fans at the different bars around the Triangle. Click to continue reading...

We are not yet at full strength in world club action, but we are well on our way as the top domestic league in the world begins this weekend when Arsenal hosts West Brom at Emirates Stadium. Between FSC and Setanta, all of the top English clubs will be on a television near you this weekend. In addition to the premier of the Premiership, the beginning of the Bundesliga season occurs this weekend, giving GolTV something other than South American action to broadcast. Click to continue reading...

An earlier post on this blog about FSC moving on DirecTV prompted a comment today: Tough1 // Aug 9, 2008 at 1:59 am Could this be a possible lead in for FSC HD? Channel 617 and 617 have been cleared. Maybe there is a football god. Well, don't go getting baptized yet. While HD is coming eventually, it's safe [. Click to continue reading...

The league season is almost here and the FA held the Community Shield Sunday with United winning another one over Portsmouth.

Here are some thoughts from the game:
• I can not believe that FSC stopped showing the game so Webster read the lineup. Why not just run them across the bottom. Click to continue reading...

What? You thought I forgot there was a little three decade-long grudge match tonight? Blogger please. I will not rest until I get a call from FSC's Mitch Peacock himself saying "you can stop now, we really don't have the bandwidth for an audience this size." Until then, I'm going to keep reminding you to do whatever you have to do to watch the game on FSC at 11pmEST. Click to continue reading...

In my ongoing, and possibly ill-fated quest to personally affect the viewership of this week's final USL showdown between Portland Timbers and Seattle Sounders on FSC this Thursday I'd like to big up the PDX players from Above The Clouds. They do Hypebeast-caliber custom designs for sneakers and trainers that are just about flawless. Click to continue reading...

As you know, tomorrow we face the Columbus Crew at 7 p.m. CT on ESPN 2 in our first MLS Primetime appearance of the season. We're 0-2-0 so far this season against Columbus but haven't lost a game since they gave us that nice 3-0 beat down here at CAB. If you recall, the defeated us 2-1 in Columbus earlier this year on FSC on early goals from Moffatt and Rogers. Click to continue reading...

Hello, hello. Sorry, sorry. A three week period including 2 trips to California and living in three different apartments in Portland had left me without cable, internet, and much will to live, but today, finally, I am now loaded with Digital Cable, DVR, MLS DirectKick, GolTV, FSC, ESPNDeportes, and a fire in my [. Click to continue reading...

To those who say "diving" is rampant in football:

Look, diving in football is a sub culture that is respected by almost no one. If you were to flick on FSC or Setanta to watch Newcastle vs. Chelsea on 5 May- you would notice that every time Drogba gets the ball, he is booed enormously - a legacy of his diving history. Click to continue reading...

This is a subject near and dear to my heart due to my history of being in the broadcast world over the last few years. I've been working on coming up with some sort of guide for people for when it comes to who they will probably be listening to on a broadcast of a [...] Click to continue reading...

Yes, tomorrow, Inter and Roma do battle yet again, this time in the Coppa Italia final at the Stadio Olimpico. This is the 4th year in a row that the final will be Roma-Inter, however this year because of the new format the final is only one leg, not two, and is played at a neutral venue. (Well it was supposed to be a neutral venue, but since Roma got to the final they are playing at home).

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In case you didn't see the story here or elsewhere, Dish Network has dropped WorldSportHD along with the other Voom channels. This effectively eliminates the only all-HD soccer network until GolTV, FSC and Setanta start going HD some time by 2011. Remember, FSC showing things in HD doesn't have as much to do with FSC as [. Click to continue reading...

Since mid August teams have been battling for the throphy with the crown on it and it came down to last day. Here are some random thoughts during the day.

• As a United fan it started really well as at church the priest was dressed in his best reds. Was that a good omen,we will all know later.

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With the English and the Italian seasons coming to close, FSC is going to be light on program over the next couple of months, but that does not really have to happen. In order to keep program fresh FSC should look to one of the ever growing leagues in the world, no not MLS, but the Russian Premier League. Click to continue reading...