I realized that I may have goofed in writing the poll. I failed to include Amobi Okugo as an option at center back. I notice some poll respondents have indicated "other" for the backline configuration they would like to see for the Union. If you have other ideas for a defensive configuration, please leave them in the comments of this post.

The Philadelphia Union fell 1-0 to lowly, winless Toronto FC. Even salvaging a tie in this game would have been an embarrassment.

The Union's inability to score continues, with no end in sight. The offensive statistics make for pretty grim reading. The Union are at the bottom of the table in shots and shots on goal.

In the wake of the bizarre circumstances surrounding the Danny Califf trade, it is clear that the Unionare a team in crisis. I was previously willing to make excuses for a slow start that could be turned around in the latter half of the season. Given the lack of transparency with both the MLS and the Union, it's unclear where the source of the problems lies.

The Philadelphia Union has released its schedule for 2012. A downloadable file containing the entire schedule can be found here. With the addition of the Montreal Impact to the Eastern Conference this year, MLS has moved to a conference based schedule. Each team will play 34 games, but instead of the balance schedule we enjoyed last year, we will be seeing the following:

Due to the higher number of clubs in the Eastern Conference, each club will play a total of 25 conference matches.

Women's Professional Soccer is awaiting a decision from the US Soccer Federation regarding its future as a USSF sanctioned league. WPS now consists of five teams after the league terminated its relationship with magicJack and its controversial owner Dan Borislow. Borislow is currently engaged in litigation with WPS.

The Philadelphia Union unveiled new 2012 kits. It's not a pretty picture, folks. The story on the new kits can be found here. On the positive side, the dreaded C3PU kit is now a bad memory. However, we are faced with overly fussy versions of the original primary and secondary kits. They each contain one color too many as well as unnecessary and visually distracting embellishments.

Yesterday, during the l-o-n-g wait for the announcement of the MLS teams' protected lists, I tweeted that I expected the Philadelphia Union to protect the following players: Faryd Mondragon, Danny Califf, Carlos Valdes, Sheanon Williams, Gabriel Farfan, Sebastien LeToux, Brian Carroll, Roger Torres, Danny Mwanga, Michael Farfan, and Freddy Adu.

The Philadelphia Union played their Hurricane Irene rescheduled game against the New England Revolution on Wednesday night. The game was as wild as the recent weather. The Union came back from a 4-1 deficit at half time to get a draw. Despite the great come from behind effort, the Union really needed a win.

As we enter the second to last month of the MLS regular season, I would like to make a few observations. The Union's once secure hold on a playoff spot has become tenuous as of late. Despite the roster changes over the course of the season, many of the same problems that were apparent in May are still rearing their ugly heads:

1.

It has come to light in the last day that Everton and U.S. goalkeeper Tim Howard will not be available for the friendly with the Philadelphia Union. Accoding to the Union, they were only informed of this fact a few days ago after previous representations to the contrary. To be blunt, Everton probably has minimal marketing value in the U.

I recently completed a season ticket holder survey for the Philadelphia Union through a link I received via email. I had participated in all of the previous surveys I had received, believing that it is important to provide the Union with feedback from customers.

I had assumed, perhaps naively, that these surveys were blinded, i.

The Philadelphia Union announced yesterday that they have traded starting left back Jordan Harvey to the Vancouver Whitecaps for a box of smoked salmon, a scrimshaw whale's tooth and a First Nations' ceremonial eagle feather. In MLS's world of cryptic parlance and partial disclosure, this is also known as "allocation money.

I replayed the Philadelphia Union – Sporting Kansas City game from midweek as I got ready to leave for PPL Park tonight. I don't feel like there is a lot to say here. It was another disappointing result against a team we should have taken more points from. You really have to beat a last place team at home.

On Saturday night the Union suffered its second disturbing result in a row with a 1-0 loss to the Vancouver Whitecaps at Empire Field. This loss follows on the heels of a disappointing 1-1 tie at home to Real Salt Lake.

I have to say my reaction when I saw the lineup graphic on Saturday night was "Oh – My – God.

I attended my first Philadelphia Independence game of the season on hot and humid Labor Day weekend. Philly's Cheesesteaks fell to the Western New York Flash by a score of 2-1 at Leslie Quick Stadium at Widener University. The expansion Flash are on a roll in their first season in WPS. The Marta-led team has not lost any games and is leading the league.