The NASL announced today, they have extended their contract to league commissioner David Downs. The two year extension will take the Downs through the 2013 season. The press release states that Downs will continue to oversee the operations of the NASL's headquarters in Miami and serve as the league's final authority on all matters of [.

There is a great deal going on as the NASL season draws closer and closer. Teams have begun training, stretching and limbering muscles and building up fitness for the season that's only about five weeks away. Coaches and managers continue to add players to their rosters to find the right combination for success.

Tomorrow the US Men's National team will try to win their third straight game of 2012. The US will face Italy, its toughest opponent so far under head coach Jurgen Klinsmann, on European soil, a place where the US has struggled. Klinsmann's roster for the game is mainly players who play at the club level in Europe, but [.

Come join Minnesota supporters of the Men's National Team, along with readers of IMSoccer News, duNord Futbol, and members of Minneapolis and St. Paul American Outlaws and the Dark Clouds supporters group for a US National Team World Cup watch party. The US National Team plays Italy in a friendly from Stadio Luigi Ferraris [.

Juan Ramón Loubriel Stadium, home of the Puerto Rico Islanders of the NASL, is going under major renovations in a multi-phase plan. The stadium built in 1974 currently seats 12,000 but was in need of a facelift. The stadium which is located in Bayamón, Puerto Rico, was built for the Vaqueros de Bayamón baseball team [.

The US U-23 Men's National team took on the San Antonio Scorpions on Friday evening in Frisco, Tx. It was the first-ever game for the new NASL Scorpions team. Although the San Antonio franchise was dominated most of the match by the young U.S. Olympic hopefuls, they were not able to score on the well [.

Friday nights episode of the quirky IFC comedy hit Portlandia, featured the Timbers Army in one the shows sketches. The show starting Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen that takes place in and pokes fun at Portland, Oregon, managed to squeeze in a skit that included the Portland Timbers supporters group.

The US U-23 Men's National Team begin their final phase of preparation toward CONCACAF Olympic qualifying starting March 22nd, with some friendly matches against local club sides. The ten day training camp started with a match against FC Dallas Wednesday which ended in a 2-1 win with goals from Brek Shea and Ike Opara both [.

Jurgen Klinsmann announced Thursday the 21-man roster forSome notable exclusions from the list are Kyle Beckermen, Sacha Kljestan, Benny Feilhaber, DaMarcus Beasley, Tim Ream, Herculez Gomez, Edgar Castillo, and Ricardo Clark. Oguchi Onyewu hurt his knee last weekend playing for his club team and missed the squad.

The Minnesota Stars FC released their preseason schedule on Wednesday. With only a month from the start of their preseason training (March 6) to NASL opening day kickoff (April 7), the Stars have loaded their short preseason with games against the Chicago Fire in Chicago, Hastings College in Hastings, Neb.

NASL team news is now coming out of each of the 8 camps fast and furious. Gerry Whittmann, IMS go-to man for team news is unavailable this week so I've decided to try to give you a duNord Futbol like midweek update. Here go's... Atlanta Silverbacks The Silverbacks made a promise on February 15th to [.

MLS Reserve League Possibility of Integration into America's Lower Divisions, Continuing the Discussion Since IMS published it's 2 part series on Integrating MLS Reserve League into America's Lower Divisions (Part-1 & Part-2) there have been several interesting podcasts furthering the discussion. Friends to IMS, Uncle Ed (Serrano) and Pieter Brown from the Miami Ultras interview [.

Kassey Kallman, the Woodbury, Minn. native who plays for Florida State and advanced as far as the NCAA semifinals, has been called up again to the U.S. U-20 Women's National team. Kallman seems to have solidified her job as anchor of the back line as the key central defender. Kallman and her teammates just came off [.

The Minnesota Stars FC have canceled their first-ever combine scheduled to take place outside of Minnesota. That combine, scheduled for March 2-4 was to take place at Grande Sports World in Casa Grande, Ariz. where the team had hoped to discover talent from the western regions of the U.S. "This is a big first for [.

by Mark Brady The Sports Show at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts is a new show that covers a broad-spectrum of genres, sports and artists from Pele to Puckett and Andy Worhol to Alfred Stieglitz. The show, featuring Paul Pfieffer's The Saints and Douglas Gordon and Philippe Parreno's Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait, is gathered [.

"One, two or three touch play." This is not some abstract speculation. I've heard it; you have heard it. Commentators, and the technical directors [high level coaches] of our U.S soccer federation as well as the layman spectator on the sideline are all using these adages. It's also in print and online in the most [.

With less than 50 days until the 2012 NASL season opening kickoff, the Carolina RailHawks have been busy signing players, scooping up former Strikers' midfielder Brian Shriver, re-signing Cory Elenio from last year's side and adding two of their own U-23 players. The Strikers announced the signing of veteran Abe Thompson as a player-coach, along [.

Scorpions kick off inaugural season with first practice, groundbreaking ceremony for stadium and a scrimmage against the U.S. U-23 Olympic team. It was a big day for the NASL San Antonio Scorpions on Saturday as the team kicked off with their first-ever training session. Heavy rain forced the event indoors in the morning as the [.

Minnesota's Eric Miller, (Woodbury, Minn., – Creighton University) has been called into his second U.S. U-20 camp, this time to take place from Feb. 20-March 1 in Clermont, Fla. Head coach Tab Ramos is preparing the U-20s for the 2013 CONCACAF U-20 Championship, which will likely take place in early 2013.

Minnesota's 15-year-old Mukwelle Akale only played 5 minutes in a scrimmage against the Seattle Sounders last Thursday. But 5 minutes was long enough to allow him one of the best attacks on the Sounders of the scrimmage and long enough to see him clipped in the ankle. The injury will put him out of commission [.