In talking with players and coaches from defending champion Real Salt Lake, second-year club Seattle and expansion team Philadelphia, it's funny how often the words "New England" and "Houston" came up.
The Revolution and Dynamo were paired up back-to-back MLS Cup finals with rosters that were tweaked, not overhauled, as the years went on.

In talking with players and coaches from defending champion Real Salt Lake, second-year club Seattle and expansion team Philadelphia, it's funny how often the words "New England" and "Houston" came up.
The Revolution and Dynamo were paired up back-to-back MLS Cup finals with rosters that were tweaked, not overhauled, as the years went on.

Let's recap yesterday's MLS developments:
- Players are set to strike, says Toronto defender Nick Garcia. But that's one person, and many of the commenters on this CBC story were hoping Garcia would be a one-man picket line.
- But it turned out to be more than Garcia. Mr. A. Nonymous told a reporter (not me, and I can't acknowledge anonymous sources) that the players had indeed backed a strike by a very large margin.

With the countdown clock at two weeks before the season is supposed to start, here are a few questions that the players and the league could consider answering to give fans a better idea of where they stand.
For the league:
- MLS has been losing players over the years to mediocre Scandinavian clubs, and its teams are not competitive in the CONCACAF Champions League.

Brandi Chastain knows the meaning of the word "retirement." She just doesn't use it.
"The idea of retiring -- it's just not a word that's in my vocabulary," Chastain said in a phone interview a week or so after she was released by FC Gold Pride.
Birdie! Brandi Chastain celebrates a putt at Pebble Beach.

Full statement (yes, this is all) from the MLSPU:
The Major League Soccer Players Union (the "Union") today announced that the collective bargaining agreement between the Union and Major League Soccer ("MLS") will not be extended past the February 25 deadline previously set by the Union and MLS.

What's going on in the MLS labor talks, other than the fact that none were held, or at least publicly acknowledged, on Wednesday?
Don't ask the league. MLS has little to say.
Don't ask the players, who've said all they want to say at the moment.
And don't ask the agents.

What's going on in the MLS labor talks, other than the fact that none were held, or at least publicly acknowledged, on Wednesday?
Don't ask the league. MLS has little to say.
Don't ask the players, who've said all they want to say at the moment.
And don't ask the agents.

How much confidence does MLS have in its business plan? And how much confidence does it have in itself? Those are two underlying questions as the league barrels into a potential work stoppage this week.
This isn't the typical American league labor situation in which the league (MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL) exists in a vacuum and, with rare exception, offers players better contract terms than they could get elsewhere in the world.

Here's something that doesn't happen often on the soccer beat: I'm on the phone with WPS Commissioner Tonya Antonucci, and I get an alert that MLS has a somewhat major development. Fortunately, she understood when I stammered through my next question or two.
We'll look at the ramifications of both bits of news now, and by coin flip, we'll go with WPS losing the Los Angeles Sol, at least for the 2010 season:
-- What it means for WPS as a whole: Not much, really.

The headlines from England are bleak:
- Crystal Palace is in administration, costing the club 10 points in the Championship race to drop them from an outside shot at the Premier League to a struggle against relegation.
- At Portsmouth, we're not surprised to see the club struggling to pay players.

Landon Donovan. Tony Sanneh. Gregg Berhalter. And now Clint Mathis.
Bruce Arena's Los Angeles Galaxy are looking more and more like his 2002 World Cup team.
"We're trying to get (Brad) Friedel, too," Arena said. "But he's not available right now."
The impetus for Real Salt Lake moving Mathis: He wants to move his growing family near his wife's family in Orange County, Calif.

Maybe one day someone will write a version of Love Actually that centers on the MLS SuperDraft instead of Heathrow.
I know, I know -- good luck pitching that in Hollywood. But Draft Day brings about a few good stories with some overlap.
FATHER AND SON
Alex Bunbury, a veteran of several pro leagues and a Kansas City Wizards alumnus, is a proud father.

More than 100 people on the call, U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati said with some amazement.
That was the interest in the goings-on between the USL, NASL and the shotgun marriage that will comprise the USA's second division next year.
That league would include a "USL" conference with Austin, Minnesota, Portland, Puerto Rico, Rochester and Tampa Bay.

FIFPro, the international players union, issued a statement Tuesday on the MLS collective bargaining negotiations, claiming that the league violated FIFA regulataions in several respects:
- Guaranteed contracts: "Player contracts are routinely terminated by the league during their term, as almost 80% of players in MLS do not have guaranteed contracts.