MLS has signed another US youth international, this time it's Sal Zizzo. Zizzo is a 23 year old midfielder who had signed with Hannover 96 in Germany after a very successful U-20 World Cup in 2007. Zizzo made 8 appearances for Hannover and during his time at the club he was also loaned out to Fortuna Dusseldorf.

Kansas City Wizards forward Zoltan Hercegfalvi suffered a torn right ACL in the club's 2-1 victory over AC St. Louis in an exhibition game over the weekend. He will have surgery later this week and is expected to be out 5-8 months, according to Down The Byline.
"It's a heartbreaker because we were bringing [him] along in a certain way," said Wizards head coach Peter Vermes.

Dempsey reacts after scoring for the US against Ghana in 2006 World Cup/AP Photo As I am sure all fans of football in America are now aware, Clint Dempsey, the most recognizable and successful United States outfield player in Europe has suffered a potentially devestating injury in today's Fulham loss to Blackburn.

Believe it or not, the Rapids actually won on Saturday night! They took a Rob Green-level own goal from San Jose keeper Jon Busch and made it stand up for the 1-0 win. While the scoreline makes it seem like a pretty even game, the rapids were clearly the better team on the field. Its just, yet again, the Rapids couldn't finish.

My lunch was interrupted yesterday by a sad piece of news scrolling at the bottom of the screen on the four letter sports network. New England Patriot running back mainstay Kevin Faulk had torn his ACL and would have to miss the rest of the season. The news quickly sparked a few minutes of debate at my table.

Pro Soccer Weekly is proud to present an EXCLUSIVE interview with Flavio Ferri, Vice President for the USL PDL franchise the Long Island Rough Riders. Flavio is a former player with the Rough Riders and had a very successful career in the USL. In recent years he was worked with the President of the Rough Riders, Peter Zaratin, to provide a solid foundation for the franchise in the PDL.

(Managed to take a breather while my house's upgrading work still in progress, how could I possibly miss the "Uniform Derby" between SAFFC and Home Utd?)
Anyway, it was the first time in months since I last saw the Protectors in action.
Since then things have been improved for the MHA-linked club by offloaded some mis-fitted players in the transfer window, while making some shrew recruitments that totally transformed Home United into a force to be reckon with.

The NSC Stars tied the Vancouver Whitecaps on Sunday evening in Burnaby, BC with a score of 1-1. Simone Bracalello put the Stars ahead in the 28th minute and Martin Nash drew the game even for Vancouver in the 67th minute. Vancouver dominated most of the second half. Minnesota allowed Vancouver to posses but stayed organized defensively to pull another point from another away game.

The FA have said that's the national team's malaise isn't their fault. The coach says the players aren't fit and it's not his fault. So Indonesia's shameful showing on the international arena is nobody's fault. It has just happened.
Football is a simple game. Pass and move, pass and move. That's it.

Lindsay Tarpley is staying in the Midwest, but will head a few hours south.

The Madison native and U.S. national team regular was traded by the Chicago Red Stars to Saint Louis Athletica for goalkeeper Jillian Loyden before today's Women's Professional Soccer draft in Philadelphia.

Lindsay Tarpley is staying in the Midwest, but will head a few hours south.

The Madison native and U.S. national team regular was traded by the Chicago Red Stars to Saint Louis Athletica for goalkeeper Jillian Loyden before today's Women's Professional Soccer draft in Philadelphia.

photo credit: *Micky

The U.S. national team hasn't been too lucky recently. Many of their critical star players have suffered tremendously bad injuries in the last half of a year. And unfortunately one more huge player might be added to the list.

For a squad that has already lost a key offensive player off of the pitch with an devasting injury and an important center back to a serious knee ligament tear, the last thing anyone on the U.

Sriwijaya expect to have some support tonight in the hostile atmosphere of Jalan Besar Stadium as they take on SAFFC in that ACL qualifier.
They are expecting fans from Palembang, Batam and Jakarta to converge on the city state as Rahmad Darmawan's men look to enter the ACL proper for the second consecutive year.

------------------"Hang on there Punxsutawney Preki!"
At the beginning of every February, people eagerly watch on as a ginger coloured rodent appears after a long winter of hibernating and doing very little. His rare post-slumber appearance is said to signal whether better days are ahead or if long, dark, miserable suffering will continue.

The Rapids had a few more roster announcements today:

• While trialist Andy Lorei traveled with the team to England, on Wednesday morning the Rapids were joined by another trialist: Jure Travner, a defender currently with Watford FC.
• Scott Palguta has Achilles tendinitis and is rehabbing at Dick's Sporting Goods Park.

Con Stamacostas talks about the Nearpost's worst nightmare. Big Bad overpaid Mr D. Heart, Fury, Sydney FC, ACL and a Victory rant..from a Sydney fan. Socceroos' news and which returning Socceroo will be the first to Coach Australia?
Download.
or play right from your computer....

SBS Commentator Scott McIntyre proposes that Asian Champions League is so important to Melbourne Victory in terms of prestige, and financial rewards that they should play a Youth team in the Grand Final in Melbourne on Saturday. Even I don't write such tripe, well okay sometimes but only once a week!

Wellington lost 4-2 to Sydney in the A-League semi final in front of 13,000 fans at the SFS.
As many have suspected Wellington's finals were played at home the last two weeks, and despite their equalizer to make it 1-1 and a dubious hand of payne goal for Sydney to ease back into the lead, the Nix were never in this.

One of the aims of this blog is to expand its coverage beyond the S.League into the continental level, which I'm glad to say that I managed to fulfil that task as an obscure blogger.
Just as people tend to see the glamour side of these continental tournaments (i.e.:the Asian Champions League and the second-tier AFC Cup), I thought it would be an eye-opener to take a look behind the scene of running the events, which is an arduous task for those who were involved.

Should Nicky really go, why Brett Holman divides the Nearpost, the A-League at the World Cup, yes 13 of the 31 have played in the A-League, we've got the news and views Socceroos and Adelaide United's round of 16 epic clash.
Paddy and Eamonn are joined by Liam Cosgrove, a man who is off to South Africa, and has been to the last THREE World Cups!

I'd talked previously about how today's game didn't mean much to either side, if the Wizards won it was because Manchester United wasn't playing with all their stars. If United won, it was because, well, they're Manchester United. That said, KC put on a very good performance today out at Arrowhead Stadium, as they took down the Premier League club 2-1.

The Roar have had their best pre-season despite a loss to Wellington in NZ and Everton at home. Do thye have what it takes or will Ange have to walk by year's end?
No. 1 Keeper Michael Theoklitos (5 star?)
Coaches must bring players with them. Michael is Ange's coup. A-League teams are built on defence and defences are built on goalkeepers.

Earlier today, the Star posted a quick note from practice today that probably scared a lot of Wizards fans. Apparently at practice today, Wizards forward/midfielder, Ryan Smith, was carted off the field with an apparent knee injury. The Wizards have addressed the injury tonight on their website, and Wizards fans can step off the ledge.

My lunch was interrupted yesterday by a sad piece of news scrolling at the bottom of the screen on the four letter sports network. New England Patriot running back mainstay Kevin Faulk had torn his ACL and would have to miss the rest of the season. The news quickly sparked a few minutes of debate at my table.

AIR TARPLEY
The U.S. midfielder is back in U.S. WNT camp for the first time since she tore her ACL at the end of the first WPS season and as you can see, she's looking pretty good.

Just 15 players trained this morning as the rest got the morning off, which after a long training camp, is a nice treat for the legs and the mind.

The Football Association of Singapore's much trumpeted Strategic Plan has taken another kicking with news that the city state would rather keep foreign teams in its 12 team SLeague than enter the Asian Football Confederation's Champions League.
The already uncompetitive league, where 25% of the teams, three foreign and Young Lions, would get no tangible reward, Asian club football, were they to win the league prefers to keep inviting the likes of Beijing Guoan and Albirex Niigata reasoning that different styles of football keeps things interesting.

Boston Breakers forward Lindsay Tarpley (Madison) returned to the U.S. women's national team for the first time in 15 months, playing the second half of the Americans' 1-1 draw with China in a friendly Wednesday night in Chester, Penn.

It was the 120th career cap for the 27-year-old Tarpley, who tore the ACL in her right knee in August 2009 during a training session with the Chicago Red Stars.

Not sticking out in the land of Stumptown coffee....

TSG: "You know, you put a flannel shirt on Rooney and he's going to fit right in up in P-town."

Kyle: "Guy ooks just like a freaking lumberback too."

Kyle Martino and I had a chance to chat over coffee this morning. For those new to TSG, we reached out Kyle when he was back at ESPN because we're a big fan of his play-by-play.

As expected in today's expansion draft the Rapids lost Anthony Wallace as he was selected by Portland. What wasn't expected is what happened next. The Rapids sent allocation money to Portland and got Wallace back. Great move by the club. We're not exactly known for going out and spending allocation money to sign big international players, so this is just as good of a use of the money.

Welcome back to the State of the States. The inescapable US soccer news over the past couple of weeks has been the bid for the 2022 World Cup and the corresponding fallout from the failure of that bid. Regardless of allegations of FIFA venality and corruption or USSF's faults, the bid's failure is a blow to the advancement of soccer in the States.

Once again we will see a number of teams from the region competing in both the AFC Champions League and the AFC Cup.

Indonesia – Arema (ACL), Sriwijaya (ACL Play Off), Persipura (AFC)

Thailand – Muang Thong United (ACL Play Off), Chonburi (AFC)

Singapore – Tampines Rovers (AFC)

Vietnam – Ha Noi (AFC), Song Lam Nghe An

Nobody from Malaysia!

During his time here, Josh Wolff was a bit of a polarizing figure for the team. It seemed most people either liked him or hated him, there was very little middle ground. He found the net plenty for KC (43 of his 75 career league goals came for KC, 46 of his 85 in all competitions came in blue), but those that didn't like him pointed to his lack of movement on the field and what seemed to be laziness many times on his part.

Now the A-League Club Owners, and on Branko Culina's case a Manager want to scrap the midweek games.
But the fans don't. The TV viewing figures are comparable to weekend Fox games and indeed the midweek games regularly come in the Fox Sports top viewed shows of the week.
And we the fans, well in my straw poll anyway, we love them.

The hero's journey often is a quest for identity. Part affirmation, part reconceptualization, we must struggle to define ourselves from cradle to grave. In the latest Pusky series, I revealed little but the question remains: what makes this site special? I recall this site's infancy, when I planned on covering every inch of the bodies of the US men's national team.

The hero's journey often is a quest for identity. Part affirmation, part reconceptualization, we must struggle to define ourselves from cradle to grave. In the latest Pusky series, I revealed little but the question remains: what makes this site special? I recall this site's infancy, when I planned on covering every inch of the bodies of the US men's national team.