Following the disappointing collapse of their most recent lead on building a stadium of their own in Prince George's County, MLS Commissioner Don Garber has spoken out about the situation that D.C. United finds itself in, granting an exclusive interview to the Washington Post's Steven Goff. Here are a few excerpts from the interview.

How is this guy one of the best regarded soccer writers in America? He's sure as hell not a good interviewer:

SI.com: Without being too self-conscious about it, I wanted to ask you what you thought of my book, The Beckham Experiment?

I mean, honestly. And check out the picture Wahl posted on twitter:
Does Wahl not look creepy as fuck, and does Don Garber not look as though he's contemplating calling the police?

Just over a week ago, when the USA's two matches against Japan in Texas and Utah were changed to one match against Canada in Toronto, U.S. goalkeeper Nicole Barnhart realized that her passport was expired. Whoops! Yes, you need a passport to travel to Canada. In the words of Forrest Gump..."It's this whole other country.

Summer transfers bring to and take so much from a club, but none moreso than the potential transfer of Kolo Toure to Manchester City. In terms of squad development, if we get £15m+ for him and use that to buy an adequate replacement we will be no worse off, in fact, a case could be argued that we will be better positioned.

Say there's a violin prodigy. He's 10 years old, and he plays Mozart the way other kids play Halo. He gets accepted to the music school near his house, where he's immediately the best student. He works hard, and in a few years, the schools offers him a spot in its conservatory, which is a feeder for the local symphony.

This Saturday will once again see another North London derby. A fixture which is one of my favourite throughout the year and yet at the same time one that I dread the most. For the last 10 years, Arsenal have been the favourite to win the derby which means that anything less than this feels like a victory for Spurs.

By Gf60 There are no games in the season that fill me with more terror than the Spuds. It's 90 minutes of having a pulse rate way too high for an old fart, bitten fingernails, and nervous twitches...and that's when we're a few goals up. Yes it has been 10 years almost to the week since the scrawny [.

Arsenal are a rather special team, for many reasons. Manager Arsene Wenger has been in the job for more than a decade, which is an achievement in itself. In a day and age whereby managers come and go like candidates to be Sir Alan Sugar's apprentice, 10 years in the job deserves a gold medal. Secondly, [.

A tragedy that killed 96 LFC fans. In the aftermath, it bought an end to perimeter fencing, over crowded terraces, reformed policing practices, and improved medical services. The changes have bought safety and comfort to the English football fan even as other European nations struggle with regular breakdowns.

Went to see Singapore take on Thailand in this Under 14 competition and the Thais wiped the floor with the hosts. Singapore went into the game on a bit of a high after losing 2-1 to Iran with Hanafi scoring the goal. Cue the headlines the next day calling him the new Indra.
Having seen Indra later on that evening I think I could be the new Indra!

Maurício Murad, sociologist and professor from UFRJ (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro), shows that in the past 10 years, 42 football fans were killed in Brazil in fights around or inside stadiums. The source of his ranking are media and police reports made between 1999 and 2008. In the past 5 years, death rates increased to 5.

One of the defining characteristics of Rafael benitez's reign at Liverpool is the lack of young players making the step up from the reserves and becoming established in the first team. This season, I hope to see major progress made in this area, and progress *can* be made if Benitez changes his approach just a little.

As Chelsea face a long transfer ban for being naughty when buying young players, and other top clubs prepare to endure similar sanctions, let's look back 10 years to a simpler time.

Jermain Defoe decided to leave Charlton to sign for West Ham aged 16... because West Ham promised to buy his mum a fridge!

There have been some truly magical European nights at Anfield since I became a supporter over 10 years ago. Barcelona in 2001. Chelsea and Juventus in 2005. Chelsea in 2007. Arsenal and Inter Milan in 2008. Real Madrid in 2009. Debrecen in 2009 is surely not in this list. Though we won 1-0, thanks to Dirk Kuyt's [.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger believes Philippe Senderos is not "starting again" with the Gunners after spending some time on loan with A.C. Milan.

Speaking ahead of tonight's game which will see the Swiss International making his debut for Arsenal, the Frenchman said:

I don't believe he is starting his career with us again because we know how good he is but it is a new start let's say.

Rafa Benitez is ready to make Sami Hyypia captain for his final Liverpool appearance.
The Finnish centre-back is leaving Anfield this summer after 10 years with the club after agreeing a two-year deal with Bayer Leverkusen.
And Benitez, whose side host Spurs on Sunday, admits the Reds will be losing a legend when the 35-year-old leaves Merseyside.

Sami gets ready for emotional goodbye. Liverpool defender Sami Hyypia says he will be leaving behind a club that has improved dramatically in the last 10 years when he joins Bayer Leverkusen. The 35-year-old leaves Anfield this summer after a successful decade in which he has won numerous trophies, including the Champions .

Lyon lost their kung-fu grip on the Ligue 1 trophy some ways back and a new champion was always inevitable, but that doesn't make it less of a story. Bordeuax beat Caen 1-0 to take home the title and send their opponents tumbling down to Ligue 2. Their first title in 10 years and the [...]

Ray Wilkins seems a nice sort of bloke. He had a hugely successful career for club and country, and had spells playing abroad in France and Italy, away from the hustle and bustle of the English Leagues. He has since chiselled out a successful career as a coach at Chelsea.

So he is not the sort of person you would expect to go and criticise another European league.

David and Victoria Beckham and their family held a celebration at the Blue Bridge restaurant in Writtle village on June the 26th. The Beckhams were at the restaurant, the former Cock and Bell pub in Bridge Street, for a family celebration for the 60th birthday of Sandra, David's mother.
At going home time, David's car was clipped by a vehicle driven by one of his bodyguards.

Patrick Vieira pumped after scoring against Spurs in the 2001 FA Semi-finals

If you are a Gunners fan then this reported move by Vieira to Spurs is effectively a stab in the back. But at age 33, the stab is more like a pinprick.

The key factor is that Vieira himself has given assurances that he would be able to weather the wrath to Hary Redknapp.

There are some times when you can't help reverting from journalist to fan.

Meeting and talking to Pele at the opening of Home Depot Center in 2003 courtesy of AEG was one of them; interviewing Zinidene Zidane Saturday in El Segundo via a French language interpreter thanks to adidas was another.

We interrupt this fantasy football blog for an entirely unrelated thought...
I was caught off-guard this morning by an email from Microsoft and it has me really sort of stunned that people still talk about the Internet as a new thing. I was innocently scanning emails in my Hotmail account when I came across one that thanked me for 10 YEARS as a "customer" (hard to really consider myself as a customer of something that's free but I suppose they make money off of me so I guess I am).

I know it was only the first game of the season. I know it's a marathon not a sprint. I know we have to show consistency. I know all this but by fuck I am going to gloat, yes I am. Not for 10 years have we scored 6 in a league game (away I think), not for many-a-year have we entered a league season with so much uncertainty hanging over a team Wenger has had unwavering belief in.

'I have seen the future!' - Wenger sees a European Super League 'within 10 years'(Eddie Keogh/Reuters)Hello one and all and how are things on this fine Tuesday?

Fernando Torres has insisted he is looking forward to staying at Liverpool for a long time to come.
The Spanish striker has enjoyed two successful seasons with the Reds but speculation regularly resurfaces linking him with a return to his homeland.
However, Torres maintains that he is enjoying life at Anfield and does not plan to leave in the near future.

Joe Bennett was recently held back from going to the Under-20 World Cup with England by Gareth Southgate, a clear indication that he is in and around the first team squad and could find himself in the first team before too long.

Bennett is an very talented left full back who currently finds himself behind Andrew Taylor and Jon Grounds in the pecking order, but many think it is a matter of time before Bennett makes the breakthrough.

David "top red" Beckham has again been perpetuating the lie that his move away from Manchester United was completely out of his control. Whilst we'll never know all what happened behind the scenes, Beckham gave a good indication at the time to what the situation was, with his lacklustre performances, interviews with the press and blinding performance against Real Madrid in the Champions League.

The Spanish Football Federation is celebrating its 100th anniversary and to mark that, they held a group photo session with more than 400 past and and present members of the national team.

Also on hand was Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, who decided to test his skills with a penalty kick against Iker Casillas.

... on this week's The Good, the Bad and the Ugly Vocabulary support can be found for the words in bold at the foot of the post.

The Good

What more could you want from a game? Argentina met Peru, the latter team with no chance of qualifying and seen by many as a whipping boy ready to roll over for Argentina and allow Maradona's team the chance to get to the finals, and produced a thrilling, nerve-shredding qualifier.

AP Photo

For the sixth time in 10 years Redlands native Landon Donovan was named Honda Player of the year today in Los Angeles.

Donovan previously won the award in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2007, 2008 and this year beat out goalkeeper Tim Howard and striker Jozy Altidore to win the award yet again as the best player on the national team.

Hello to all of you reading this on a Sunday or Monday or maybe even 3 years time when you are caught reminiscing about this game making it 20 games unbeaten against Spurs.

Like the title says, 11 seconds, that is all it took for Spurs to crumble and fall to the knees (literally when Cesc went past half of the Spurs team for his goal).

Arsenal 3-0 Tottenham

For a football fan, there can be few things as satisfying as an epic goal bundle.

In order to achieve optimum conditions for bundles, several key elements need to be in place. Surprise is definitely one. Scoring against your old rivals is another.

For ranking methodology and other information about the series, see the original post. To read the about the No. 7-rated stadium, the Camp Nou in Barcelona, click here. To see all "soccer mecca" entries click here.
No. 6 Estadio Bernabeu, Madrid
Open since: 1947
Capacity: 80,000
Tenant(s): Real Madrid
World Cup hosts: 1982
We have now had two stadiums in Argentina (Bombonera at No.

This weeks piece from Neil Ashton in the NOTW suggests a problem at the club between Mark Hughes and Jim Cassell:

The simmering tensions between Mark Hughes and legendary academy director Jim Cassell erupted after his office was cleared without his knowledge.

Cassell, who has recently been promoted to work in Abu Dhabi, discovered files and paperwork from over 10 years' service had been dumped in a corridor at Manchester City's Platt Lane academy.

From Leo Messi to Wayne Rooney, via a ridiculous rabona, The Guardian selects some of the most sublime strikes from the past 10 years.

Paul Scholes plays for a personal milestone as Man U takes on Portsmouth. Scholes ranks fourth in all time appearances for his club. In the first five, Giggs and Neville, who are still playing, a testimony to the trio's staying power.

Congratulations to Scholes who has been in the thick of things of a team that is synonymous for millions with the Premiership.

Photo by ISIphotos.com

Don't let the headline fool you.

No, I'm not answering questions about Benjamin Linus, The Dharma Initiative or the Black Cloud Monster.

With Manchester United and Arsenal playing the most attractive football in the country, there are high expectations for the standard of football shown in our semi-final matches.

Paul Scholes has played down this idea though, claiming United aren't too concerned about the match being great entertainment, rather they are focussing on getting to another Champions League final.

Sami Hyypia has revealed a desire for regular first-team football was behind his decision to leave Liverpool after 10 years – but he has not ruled out a return to Anfield in a coaching capacity.
The veteran defender will join German club Bayer Leverkusen on a two-year deal when his current contract expires in the summer.