In their quest for a fan base, Chivas USA has never met a promotion club officials didn't like (the Mexican-oriented club even had an Armenian night earlier this season) and tonight is Manhattan Beach Night.

Given the city's connections with soccer this makes a modicum of sense (former Galaxy coach Sigi Schmid, Galaxy playmaker Landon Donovan, U.

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This is one of those weekends that make you happy to be a soccer fan.

One of those weekends when the stars align and the European soccer schedules come together to give you a full menu of intense match-ups and can't-miss rivalries. It is Derby Weekend this weekend, with Milan, Liverpool and Barcelona treating us to the best their cities have to offer.

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Slowly but surely some of my repressed memories of being a soccer fan in the States are coming back to me. Almost a year ago, I wrote about the common "soccer is for fags" insults I remembered hearing in the 1980s. Then, all of a sudden last week, I remembered another insult that American jocks used [. Click to continue reading...

And that sound, my friends, is the sound of this season coming to an end. United's loss to LA featured just about everything a neutral or a non-soccer fan would want. It had goals, controversy, passion (if mostly aimed at the referee) and even an ejection. That said, it was a horrible advertisement for MLS. Click to continue reading...

Ah, the Home Depot Center - acres of athletic facilities, a number of sporting personalities, and one frazzled me, trying to get stuff for stories.

I ran from the Galaxy's practice field to try to catch Claudio Suarez before he left with his teammates on a bus to the airport. I waited by the front entrance of the complex as various Chivas USA players walked by from the practice field. Click to continue reading...

Hey y'all. SF from The Offside Rules in for Il Bruce as he traverses his way across the midwest. He's on his way back home from last night's US match in Chicago last night so let's start there. Then we'll hit some MLS stuff. Then that's it because frankly I feel too disconnected to the Mexican and Euro leagues right know to even bother; long-distance relationships (no matter how hot she is) kinda suck. Click to continue reading...

Its great to see the USA has collected all nine points possible in World Cup qualifying so far with a 3-0 win over Trinidad last night. What bothers me is not the quality of play (which my friend Bob Wagman describes well here), its that only 11,452 fans showed up to watch the match in Bridgeview, Illinois - and some were cheering for the Soca Warriors. Click to continue reading...

The Herald Sun is reporting PriceWaterhouseCoopers are doing an intensive audit for the Australia's 2018 World Cup bid. Hey aren't they the guys doing the Canberra A-League bid:)

And the FFA/Fed Govt want every State Govt has to be on board by Xmas. Aren't the ACT Govt already supporting the Canberra bid. Click to continue reading...

So I've been geeking out all week long on the new Red Bull Arena webcam. To most people watching a stadium being built is about as entertaining as watching paint dry but without getting a contact high from the fumes. But if you are a Gotham soccer fan watching this process feels like being introduced to your one true love a single, supple body part at a time. Click to continue reading...

I've been dreaming for the great one to journey to my hometown of Portland, Oregon, for many... well, two years now. Not as a member of my club the Timbers, not in the flesh, but in 24-frames per second. Moving pictures... in the hyper-reality of cinema... in the celluloid guise of the brilliant film Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait. Click to continue reading...

South American World Cup 2010 Qualifiers - Available Live in high speedSouth American World Cup 2010 Qualifying is available on quality video stream offered by JumpTV.  Visit the South American - World Cup Qualifier Page for all the details.  Enjoy World Cup Qualifiers. Nothing can be more painful to a soccer fan than to discover you can't [. Click to continue reading...

European World Cup 2010 Qualifiers - Available Live in high speed European World Cup 2010 Qualifying is available on quality video streams offered by SportFive. Enjoy World Cup Qualifiers. Nothing can be more painful to a soccer fan than to discover you can't watch your Country's World Cup Qualifying matches on TV. Click to continue reading...

Amidst all the brow-furrowing over Schalke's massacre in Madrid on Wednesday, it largely went unnoticed that German sides Hertha Berlin and Stuttgart were having some international success on Thursday.
Both clubs dispatched obscure Eastern European opponents to win the Intertoto Cup, alias the UEFA Cup qualifications, or, as they known in German soccer fan slang, the doner-kebab competition. Click to continue reading...

3 games, 3 goals, 9 points. If you are a New York soccer fan you've got to love the resurrection of Mike Magee. Five years ago he was a hot young prospect out of the Bradenton Academy, the future of the franchise. Yet only a year ago he was the injury-plagued ghost of Metro past. Not that my amateur analysis amounts to anything more than a barstool appraisal, but if the kid's hot streak retains it's momentum he may simultaneously fulfill the prophecy, exorcise a few demons and make himself a candidate for Comeback Player of the Year. Click to continue reading...

Good morning to ya. I'm sitting here reading my morning emails and an Outlook reminder has just popped up telling me to set the DVR to record the opening matches of CONCACAF Champions League, which begins tomorrow night. So when I get home tonight and grab the remote to set up the recording I will hear my missus say something to the effect of "another week, another tournament. Click to continue reading...

Everyone in Women's Professional Soccer is pulling for a US victory tomorrow both from a patriotic and a business perspective.

The prevailing thought is that a return to a world championship, if not world dominance, would provide a good kick start for WPS.

A gold medal for the US would certainly provide a boost for the League for all the obvious reasons, but i think it's also important to recognize that the League benefits if Brazil wins. Click to continue reading...

[With apologies to Jeff Foxworthy, not that he'd know what "soccer" is.]

• If your gym has seventy-five TVs, but none of them are showing the Olympic semifinal between Argentina and Brazil, you might be an American soccer fan
• If your official Olympic broadcaster relegates the matchup between these world superpowers of football to cable-only MSNBC instead of the primary NBC affiliate, you might be an American soccer fan
• If the primary channel of your official Olympic broadcaster is filling airtime with fricking Matt Lauer and Al Roker dorking around pretending to be fricking rhythmic gymnasts during that same semifinal, you might be an American soccer fan
• If the cable-only carrier of this game breaks in - during play - to show MOTHERFLIPPIN @*#$& SASSAFRASSIN ^@#*% RACKIN FRACKIN #!

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Trying to stay away from the computer this weekend, but it seems appropriate to pass along a couple of programming notes that have accumulated in my e-mail the past few days as I watch the Manchester United-Newcastle United game on Fox Soccer Channel.

Actually, this serves to remind me mostly that if you're a soccer fan in L.

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I would consider myself an avid US soccer fan. As we speak I am refreshing the US Soccer website to see Bob Bradley's roster for the next World Cup Qualifier. In my young age I've some very high highs for the US and some very low lows. Recently the US men's Olympic soccer matches have [...] Click to continue reading...

Nobody said being an American soccer fan was easy. Getting up at 5 AM to watch a prelim match... Click to continue reading...

It's not often you get to hear a different voice than mine in this space, but a soccer fan I know asked for the floor, and I thought he had a good take on the topic of the National Soccer Hall of Fame (something I've written about before). Dave Wasser is one of the good [...] Click to continue reading...

Admit it, you probably gave up on ever seeing the answers to the last SBI Q&A session. It's okay, I don't blame you.

More than month has passed since readers submitted the last bunch of questions, but after a very busy July, I was able to knock out at least half of the record-setting batch of questions.

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By DAVE HOLAK(photo by Alex Clark)
Unfortunately, I think MLS has fallen into the same marketing philosophy many businesses, big and small, fall into in regards to David Beckham ... make the big initial "grand opening" push and get the snowball running downhill, and once it starts rolling it will get bigger and bigger. Click to continue reading...

It was recently announced that MLS hopes to bring two more new teams to the league in 2011. Seattle is coming on next season and Philadelphia the following year. Now all the talk of expansion teams is in Canada. I do still think that St. Louis will probably get one and likely Vancouver could get the other.

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Dileep Premachandran points out that cricket is not the only sport that captures the imagination of the Indian public. In a phenomenon that is an inextricable part of the rise of the Indian middle class, soccer the global game, has caught on, creating a fanbase that is probably as knowledgeable and argumentative as any.

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Earlier this year, former Washington Bullet Gheorghe Muresan visited the D.C. United locker room. The Romanian is a big soccer fan and attends a few United games each year. The 7-foot, 7-inch Muresan is pictured below with Brazilians Luciano Emilio and Fred. The three serve as the subjects for our first Behind The Badge Caption Content.

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As you've probably seen, the Aztex U23s suffered a tough loss last night in Orlando, going down 3-1 to the Laredo Heat in the Southern Conference Final. You can read the gory details, if you don't already know them.

And so ends the inaugural season of the Austin Aztex. As I've commented elsewhere, I find it oddly difficult to feel too sad about the loss last night. Click to continue reading...

Running late today so just time to pass along a couple of items:

*Chivas USA goalkeeper Brad Guzan finds out next Friday whether he can complete his move to England's Aston Villa.

*Fed up with waiting for Lawndale's Kei Kamara to find the net on a regular basis, the San Jose Earthquakes have punted the Cal State Dominguez Hills product to the Houston Dynamo where he will hook up with equally productive (ahem) former Galaxy forward Nate Jaqua.

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This comes to us from a very credible source within US soccer journalism who wishes to be anonymous:

Obviously keep my name out of this but I'm hearing MLS is seeking investors for Miami. I'm not sure if this means Beckham/Fuller or they are looking for a backup plan. MLS I have heard thinks on reflection they rushed to pull the plug on the Fusion because of a non-soccer fan investor who owned that club (Horrowitz) who didn't know it would take time to build.

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I'd like to give a massive, Brooklyn-sized shout out to Greg Lalas for his recent two-part piece on SI.com's Outside The Box. Part 1 is the American Soccer Fan's Bill of Rights; some people may find it a bit "presumptive", there is a bit of truth in what he's saying.

Part 2 is the American Soccer Fan's of Responsibilities; rarely do I agree nearly 100% with anything anyone writes but I think I may have reached that point with this bang-on bit of educated editorial. Click to continue reading...

Nike bootcamp that is. Too many times I see unathletic people criticizing and questioning the plays professional players make, when they themselves couldn't even dream of playing at that kind of level. I don't want to turn into that kind of soccer fan, so I've signed up for Nike's Soccer Bootcamp. Click to continue reading...

Looking to plan a trip to see your favorite Premier League club next season? If you need a little help, Chris Harris, aka The Gaffer from EPL Talk, has everything you need to make your trip a success, whether it's near or far, with In Pursuit of Real Football: The Soccer Fan's Ultimate Travel [...] Click to continue reading...

For those of you wondering what the major announcement was that I teased you with earlier this week, here it is. EPL Talk has launched a free ebook entitled In Pursuit Of Real Football: The Soccer Fan's Ultimate Travel Guide To Attending EPL Matches In England. If you've always dreamed of going to England to experience [. Click to continue reading...

I just received the following in my inbox from RBNY's communications dept.

***MEDIA ADVISORY***

SECAUCUS, NJ (July 15, 2008) – Red Bull New York Designated Player and captain Claudio Reyna will hold a news conference on Wednesday, July 16 at 2 PM in the first floor Board Room at St. Click to continue reading...

While the eyes of your average European soccer fan were squarely focused on Euro 2008 recently, other things were, remarkably, going on elsewhere in the world.

We speak, of course, about the qualifying competition for World Cup 2010 and this May and June has proven to be a busy period for every continent except Europe, so let's catch up with what's been going on, starting with. Click to continue reading...