...is it 2009 that Major League Soccer (MLS) keeps saying they'll re-work the collective bargaining agreement with the MLS Players' Union? 2010? Does it matter? It's like Jon from the DC United Offside said in his post about DC-draftee Andrew Jacobson bypassing MLS to sign with France's Lorient: "Eddie Pope, take notice. Click to continue reading...

The Columbus Dispatch's Shawn Mithcell takes the Columbus Crew's quest for Maciej Zurawski to the "real" newspaper today, providing impressive detail on where things stand.� The apparent pivot point in this deal shows in the following: "How much Celtic is asking for the transfer and how much Zurawski is asking to be paid has not been [. Click to continue reading...

Don Garber, sign us up! All signs are pointing to us getting the $45 million now...� Sons of Ben - I want to hear from you on this - any info on Thursday's event? NOTHING IS CERTAIN. But unfortunately, my hopes are now� officially up. Click to continue reading...

Tucked in a bunch of other player movement items, Goff effectively buries the lead...at least so far as Colorado Rapids fans are concerned. Citing a "source with knowledge of a possible trade" Goff reports now-former DC United midfielder Christian Gomez's move to the Colorado Rapids only waits on the blessing. Click to continue reading...

1. Newcastle's defense certainly couldn't - they almost looked like they needed Oguchi Onyewu who played pretty poorly on loan with them about a year ago. 2. Not even his own teammates can stop him - and as you saw, Nicklas Bendtner tried. What many people forget is that Adebayor was not a high-profile signing. Click to continue reading...

I have written witty comments to comments others have left down below as well as typing out something for the relegation/promotion debate posted on Nutmegged.� None of these appear to have gotten through.� Why, you ask?� I suspect it's because my connection to the larger Web-world eats balls - often and eagerly, judging by the [. Click to continue reading...

Steve Goff at the Washington Post has thrown this little teaser in his early evening round-up. It apparently is with an option to buy. Haven't seen it anywhere else yet. Not even in the Italian press. Szetela originally turned down an August offer from Brescia to sign for Racing Santander. With his Santander first-team hopes pretty [. Click to continue reading...

It feels like a slow news day, so I may as well get something off my chest. Since reading Goal.com's short, early primer for the February 6 game between U.S. and Mexico - a game I'm rather excited about, by the way - I have been hiding subversive feelings in the hopes that they would go [...] Click to continue reading...

In spite of the fact that the entire country seems under the thumb of a brutal winter, the Columbus Dispatch's blog caught a sunbreak over Columbus: Guillermo Barros Schelotto reported for duty as scheduled. Now, if they can only bag Polish forward Maciej Zurawski - and he plays half as well as advertised (I've never seen [. Click to continue reading...

From the Deseret News (LINK): "'I'm just not going to offer any predictions, but I can say one thing, we're going to be a better team,' said [Real Salt Lake head coach Jason] Kreis, following the second day of training camp on Monday. 'We're going to be a fitter team, we're going to be a mentally [.. Click to continue reading...

File this under things I shouldn't mention, but I don't always read all the items to which I link thoroughly.� Shocking, I know.� And it's possible you may have noticed this....hopefully, not though. Personal issues notwithstanding, I finally read the announcement on the upcoming CONCACAF Champions League closely enough to catch an interesting detail: "The CONCACAF Champions [. Click to continue reading...

JONATHAN WOODGATE: The former Real Madrid central defender has been stuck in the mediocrity of Middlesbrough. After a transfer bidding war between Newcastle and Tottenham, the Spurs have come out on top - addressing a big issue within their line-up. Michael Dawson can't be trusted and who knows when Ledley King is ever going to [. Click to continue reading...

Note this is NSWF as it shows 'um...a man's undercarriage' This video was floating around my soccer team's emails today.� What happens when a streaker is going about his business at a game, and comes in contact with the team's mascot? You'll just have to watch to find out. Apologies if you've seen this before, but I thought [. Click to continue reading...

Today's Matches (first batch of Round Three match-ups): Ghana� 2,� Morocco 0 Starpower took over as both Michael Essien and Sulley Ali Muntari scored to dispatch of Morocco, who will be kicking themselves for the loss to Guinea. Both goals were scored in the first half and booked the host nation in the second round with a perfect 3-0-0 [. Click to continue reading...

Time to check around the league, to make sure the movement has generally been normal and regular. - May as well start with the problem: the blockage keeping Taylor Twellman from leaving the New England Revolution for England's Preston North End. And, here I was, all set to bang out a "Free Taylor" post, only [. Click to continue reading...

Once again, the official site gets beat to the punch: Goal.com just posted the schedule for the brand-spankin' CONCACAF Champions League. I have to say, it's a bit burlier than I thought it'd be: the tourney kicks off August 2008, but the final doesn't come until the end of April 2009. Fortunately, at [. Click to continue reading...

(Please, I urge everyone to read to the end of this article, it might affect you some day) I don't speak for anyone that writes here on The Offside, for any other sports bloggers, or bloggers in general, but I do speak for myself. I'm not a journalist. I'm a blogger. Those two things are [...] Click to continue reading...

The quote says everything. It's "not a yes or not a no", but there still is hope that the decision will be passed down by the original January 31st deadline. Instead of provoking a bid for a bad day, instead of re-summarizing the article, read on for yourself. Click to continue reading...

FA CUP FIFTH ROUND DRAW (to be played Feb 16/17) Bristol Rovers vs. Southampton Cardiff vs. Wolverhampton Sheffield United vs. Middlesbrough Liverpool vs. Barnsley Manchester United vs. Arsenal Preston North End vs. Portsmouth Coventry vs. West Bromwich Albion Chelsea vs. Huddersfield Clearly the big match-up here is Manchester United drawing Arsenal in a battle that looks stacked in United's favor. Click to continue reading...

Bradley is now up to 15 total for the season and 11 in the league. Now I'm just baffled. This is amazing. I understand Heerenveen is a team that scores a LOT of goals all the while conceding a lot too...but Bradley has now scored 5 goals in his last 4 appearances, and 8 in [...] Click to continue reading...