First off, we're very sorry that we had to temporarily stop posting rumors. We'll spare you the boring details as you no doubt have had enough of them.

Skip to "And we're back!" below if you don't care to know what we've been up to while NOT posting rumors.

Suffice to say our friend in Salt Lake felt the need to get "all lawyered up", guess that's just how he rolls, "Why I'll sue! Click to continue reading...

Long time reader and now Guest Blogger, PocketKings, has proposed the question of the week.

Based on the upcoming schedule for the Western Conference teams, which team (because of their schedule) doesn't make the playoffs?

OR

What do you think the final standings (including points) will be in 4 weeks based on schedule?

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Who doesn't love a giant-killer game? Despite being at home, the Rapids were the dogs on Sunday and they knew it. They had to shut down Blanco and McBride, and they did it. That's going to (or at least should boost the confidence). It should also help that this was our first back-to-back win all year.

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Rock bottom. You know it is when Beckham is booed.

That's where the Los Angeles Galaxy sit with a lowly 26 points. The poor suckers lost to 2-0 to Kansas City on Saturday, a game that was also noteworthy for its 'goal of the year' candidate strike by Davy Arnaud.

I'll see if I can find it. Click to continue reading...

And your MLS leaders are...

(drumroll)

The Columbus Crew!

Who woulda thought?

Other than that, not a very noteworthy week in domestic soccer. For me, at least. It might've been thrilling for some of you. On to the scores and standings.

Sunday
Houston 2-1 Chicago (A: 22,554)

Saturday
NY Red Bulls 0-0 D. Click to continue reading...

While watching the US-Guatemala World Cup Qualifier this evening there were a few thoughts I wanted to share.

1. It's amazing what putting on the national team shirt does for a player like Brian Ching. When he's representing the Tang-colored Dynamo the guy plays a less than classy style of football. Click to continue reading...

Alpha Dog 1. (+2) Houston Dynamo (DDWWW) The Dynamo continue their second half of the season surge by tearing the Western Conference reins out of Salt Lake's hands in a 7-goal extravaganza. Jaqua's return has sparked the Houston offense, but there is a worrying lack of that sterling team defense that has delivered so often for the Dynamo in recent years. Click to continue reading...

I have a feeling a good number of our fans - perhaps especially those in Barra Brava? - know who Branden Steineckert is. For those of you that don't, you should know first that he is a United fan. He also happens to play drums in one of the most popular punk rock bands out there, Rancid. He also previously played in The Used, which is a massive rock band as well.

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Los Angeles is in turmoil. After a devastating last-second loss to last-place San Jose, the wheels are coming off.

What to do? Someone has to be made an example of...

So many stars. So much attention. Yet only a 6-8-5 record, a 6-game winless streak and a pedestrian fourth-place in the Western Conference to show for it. Click to continue reading...

Sadly, our Monday night didn't go aswell as hoped, as I'm sure you will have gathered from Rob's post.
This entry isn't so much about the game (though it is at the same time), it's about blogs for future games. After Sunday's date with FC Dallas, I will be going to Germany for three weeks.

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I've enclosed a link to an article from ESPN ad its been widely reported that MLS will add 2 more expansion teams in 2011 and it seems like the front runners are Montreal and Vancouver. I've written about this before and I stand by my opinion that I think it would be a really good idea to add teams in Montreal and Vancouver, assuming that MLS will have the same type of impact in those cities that its had in Toronto. Click to continue reading...

So, after beginning his career in a strange little federal district, Freddy Adu continues it in a strange little principality. From DC to Salt Lake to Lisbon to Monaco: one of the more unusual soccer career paths, even today. I'm a little puzzled as to why Adu's Benfica performance gets such bland reviews; 21 appearances, five goals and an established role as a super-sub seem like worthy accomplishments for a 19-year-old playing in Europe for the first time. Click to continue reading...

I heard Landon Donovan equalized against the Red Bulls in stoppage time with a pass.

Kinda crazy. But it was nice to see over 46,000 at the game.

The MLS All-Star extravaganza is in a couple days. Let's look at some standings after a bunch of ties. And yes, Salt Lake is still in first place:
WEST EAST
Salt Lake (6-6-6, 24 pts) New England (10-4-3, 33 pts)
LA Galaxy (6-6-5, 23 pts) Columbus (8-5-4, 28 pts)
Chivas USA (6-6-4, 22 pts) Chicago (7-5-4, 25 pts)
Colorado (6-8-3, 21 pts) D. Click to continue reading...

Man, what a week: Great league games, SuperLiga, the All-Star game, and the U-23 – Senior Team match on Wednesday. The Rapids in fourth place isn't quite as nice as I would like it to be going into the unofficial halfway point of the season, but at only three points back, it's about the comfiest fourth place there can be (three points back from Salt Lake: even more inspiring).

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Hold on, it's not that big a deal. According to 3rd Degree, the great FC Dallas blog, the Wizards have traded one of their international slots to Dallas in return for a 4th round draft pick in next year's SuperDraft.

So no, not a glamor trade of any kind. It's the second international slot the Wizards have traded away in the last two seasons. Click to continue reading...

Even with a fun title like that I must make this a bit quick. Week 16 wasn't the biggest week for any league games, though I'm sure fans in Salt Lake would disagree. But even with the lack of games going on there were a couple guys that stood out and shined above the others. Easily [...] Click to continue reading...

First off, I don't want to hear any complaining from San Jose fans about Connor's game tying goal. If we want to start talking about fouls, there were two or three goal preventing fouls by San Jose that weren't even called. The Connor Casey non-call was perfectly consistent with the rest of the calls by the ref throughout the game.

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So the best of Major League Soccer looks something like this, they say: Click to continue reading...

Dave Lifton of Booked for Dissent picked up where we left off. He compiled a list of the last original member of each MLS club. We'd gotten about halfway through but Dave did well to pick up where we left off.

My brain was starting to hurt from having to think about that, so thanks Dave for saving me some brain cells. Click to continue reading...

Who is going to be next, the fans wonder? Philadelphia is in, as is Seattle, but is Miami next? Or St. Louis? Maybe Sin City? Perhaps another team in New York? Atlanta, others wonder?

One of those wondering about Atlanta is Gruffgoat of Gruffgoat's Football Blog. He goes so far as to argue that the ATL should have two clubs, not just one. Click to continue reading...

Salt Lake Royals coach Jason Kreis WILL BE ENJOYING A COUPLE OF GAMES FROM THE GRANDSTAND... Click to continue reading...

Smithfield's own Sergio Flores is seeing success in USL-2 while playing with Baltimore based Crystal Palace USA.

After heading to South America to pursue a professional playing career in Bolivia - and Argentina? - Flores returned to his home state of Utah to take part in RSL's inaugural season in 2005. Click to continue reading...

Yes, it was an own goal, yes one of our players still haven't scored since Claudio Lopez against LA, but all that will matter in the end is that the scoreline says 1-0 with KC being on top. In a game that KC had the better of possession and the more dangerous of play, they could only manage 1 goal.

Winning the toss, KC made Salt Lake go into the sun in the first half, which helped to negate much of Salt Lake's offense in the first half. Click to continue reading...

The New England Revolution entered the match a perfect 8-0-0 when scoring the first goal and Adam Cristman put them on top in just the 8th minute. Salt Lake, however, came back thanks to an own goal by Jay Heaps and a second half strike by rookie Tino Nunez to get a 2-1 victory and remain unbeaten at home.

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The Revs extended their unbeaten run to 7 games on Wednesday, but didn't look very impressive in doing so. While New England is now only 3-2-2 at home, on the road they are an impressive 5-1-1.

On Saturday, the best road record in MLS will be tested against Salt Lake, who despite having a losing record overall, are unbeaten at home. Click to continue reading...

As a player, I am all about creativity, vision, and other attacking attributes that Christopher Sullivan likes to repeat ad nauseum. I have never understood why someone would want to to make it their job to stop all of that. I angered hundreds of teammates throughout my "career" refusing to defend. Click to continue reading...

In yesterday's post on creating a stronger second division as a haven for American talent, I proposed that the MLS reserve teams should play in USL-1 (reserve teams play in the second division in Spain), thus creating a 28-team league.

Here is what such a league would like:

Western Conference

Vancounver Whitecaps
Portland Timbers
USL-1 club replacing the Seattle Sounders
Austin Aztex
Minnesota Thunder
Kansas City Wizards II
L. Click to continue reading...

This is gonna be short, and not very sweet. Ya'll know I love me some numbers, so I'll just let them do the talking: Games at Rice-Eccles this year: 2 Aggregate score: 1-7 RSL shots on goal: 20 Quakes shots on goal: 6 Number of extra bounces on the turf during those two games: 96,734 Chance I am giving the [. Click to continue reading...

While the first team played in Salt Lake this past weekend, the Wizards Junior teams competed in the Kansas State Cup competition. Three of the Wizards four teams won the state cup title. The Wizards U-19 team had the easiest path, with only a three team group, the Juniors only had to win one match, which they did easily winning 9-0 over KC Comets Select. Click to continue reading...

Eric Avila, the UCSB midfielder who helped lead the Gauchos to the 2006 NCAA College Cup title, is close to signing a deal with Major League Soccer.

According to MLS sources, the skillful midfielder is set to forego his senior season of college and is considering a Generation adidas contract that would make him one of the most highly-coveted players in the 2008 MLS Draft.

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