It meant so much to everyone. Fulham fans before the game seemed nervous. I don't know what the Rangers fans were thinking but they were loud and excitable. This was them back in the big time. "We hate it when our friends become successful" sang Morrissey. "And if they're Fulham, that makes it even worse.

We've done this thing before, how tap-ins are only tap-ins because someone had the nous to get into the right position (e.g. Gera v Hamburg).

Note the following, then. Dempsey initially shapes towards the far post, then holds his ground in the middle, possibly in expectation of a Murphy cross.

A nice enough evening stroll for the men in white. It wasn't especially pretty or effective, but a 7-1 aggregate win is emphatic enough.

The goals were all fairly routine and made us wonder why there weren't more of them. For 1-0 AJ slipped through, and calmly finished, for 2-0 Senderos sent Duff scampering clear, and he calmly finished, then Zamora scored at the far post to make it three, then Sidwell overcame a serious case of finishing yips to make it four.

If you saw the New England game, you saw a heart-stopping moment of defensive scrambling that resulted in not one, but two gol-line clearances in rapid succession. First AJ Delagarza, the Landon Donovan made determined, desperate plays that helped preserve the victory and clean sheet for the Los Angeles Galaxy.

Well things kind of went the way that many people kind of expected it today, plenty of people last night were predicting that Jalil Anibaba and AJ Soares would be off the board when KC picked at the 10 spot. Soares went to the Revolution at the 6 spot while Anibaba almost fell to the Wizards, but was grabbed by Chicago at the 9 spot.

So Thursday I watched the Nats practice for the Chile game. The lack of excitement around Southern California for this game is palpable, sadly enough. Beating Chile won't make us a world power, and losing to them won't kill the sport. But it's the first step of a long process, and I wanted to get a closer look.

"I'm weary now and I want to leave this town, I can't find a job I'm tired of hanging around."
(Jimmie Rodgers, "Whistle Train Blues")

With the season winding down and our safety practically assured, logic suggests that fringe players may get a run out. But, conversely, it seems that Hughes has finally settled on a starting XI that is achieving results.

Their Words My first experience with Manchester United was as a child watching their Treble victory in 1999 on VHS tape, and I am excited to now see them show off their talents here in Foxborough. New England Revolution defender AJ Soares, writing for The Boston Globe. Other Sources US survives amid changing landscape - from FoxSoccer.

Stevenage 1-0 Fulham | Shroot 80
Pre-Season Friendly | Broadhall Way | 786

Pre-season is well underway now and Boro secured their second successive victory with a 1-0 win over a Fulham XI this afternoon. A late strike from trialist Robin Shroot was enough to give Graham Westley's side the win after a solid performance in the Sunday showers.

When I woke up this morning I made sure to check the internet to confirm that last night's result was not a dream. We really did win. We really did get 3 points. For a few brief, placid days the Revs will occupy 7th place in the East. And I won't complain.

I'll admit, after our game against the Union I thought for sure that we'd hit rock bottom.

The most emotional goal we've ever seen?

Having decided not to renew his contract at Fulham Zoltan has come back to the club where he started his career in England," said Hodgson.

"The last time he played at West Bromwich Albion he was a very popular figure with everyone at the club, not least of all the fans.

Here's part #2. Again, the cast is: Rob is Rob Griffin; Rich is Rich; Jamie is JamieR; Dave is Chopper; Tim is me; Don is HatterDon; Nick is Nick Johnson; Colin is Colin Baker.

Enjoy.

After being just a point off bottom on New Year's Day, what do you think happened in the locker room or training field that saw our fortunes change in 2011?

LA's defense has been on top form this season. (Getty Images)

I am moving on in my look back at my preseason positional rankings. Yesterday we looked at the keepers, today we're diving into the folks in front of those keepers the defense.

Again these rankings are all about the starters and the depth behind them.

SBI Combine Spotlight: AJ Soares from Soccer By Ives on Vimeo.

Dave Clark asked me to put together a review of the action today for SAH since I was able to catch some of the games live. I also went back and re-watched the highlights and the game feed. You can see it all on the MLS site.

Overall, the games were pretty pedestrian. The pace was noticeably slower than in the MLS and it's clear that many of the players are having a hard time connecting up with their new teammates.

It's that time of year again, it's time for another MLS draft and tomorrow in Baltimore KC will get the rights to 3 players for the next season. KC has the 10th, 32nd, and 46th picks tomorrow. There's been tons of speculation on who is going to be taken in the draft by KC. It seems like every mock draft has a different person being taken in the number 10 spot.

The New England Revolution found itself on the outside of the playoff picture looking in last season. In an effort to avoid a repeat of that scenario, the Revs looked to shore up its defense by landing one of the top centerback prospects in the MLS SuperDraft, taking California's A.J. Soares with the sixth overall pick.

With the US national team kicking off their2011 schedule tomorrow night against Chile, LA Galaxy defender AJ DeLaGarza hopes to impress and be part of Bob Bradley's plans moving forward.

Here at CCN we haven't got too involved with the whole transfer window nonsense. Perhaps the recent good performances have dulled our hunger; perhaps the return of various players just make things look a bit better.

Before the window we'd have identified the following needs:

a defender of some sort.

Is this the Tottenham Hotspur we never beat, the team intending to go deep into the Champions' League, and which contains some of the most irresistible attacking players in the country? It must be.

This team could have lost 7-0 today. Fulham had to make do with four. Spurs made a gift of them all, but Fulham would point to tremendous pressure to force these mistakes, and faultless execution in taking advantage of them.

How sweet that must have felt for Damien Duff. For an hour his every touch was jeered by his old audience; then his winning goal shut them up. As we so often find ourselves saying, football, eh?

The highlight of the first half was my peanut butter sandwich. So substantial was it that it took 25 minutes to work through, by which time nothing at all had happened on the pitch.

After staying up unreasonably late to watch the replay of the New England Revolution vs. Houston Dynamo game, grumbling over the result all morning and then falling asleep at the keyboard the next night, I feel I can (groggily) offer this assessment of how far the Revolution have progressed from a poor 2010.

Crocker Lions, Senior Boys Fall 2010

A trio of boys, all part of the Crocker Lions squad that reached the Final 4 as freshman in 2008 (Catholic's first year as a boys program when New Covenant won the District and lost in the Quarterfinal to Crocker) will continue their careers for Missouri-based schools.

The Galaxy got some horribly devastating news on Sunday. At the tail end of their match at Chicago, Leonardo suffered a knee injury that at first looked like it could be bad.
After the match, Galaxy coach Bruce Arena revealed just how bad it was.
"I don't think Leonardo is going to do well.

How strange. As time ran out on this most odd season, the Arsenal fans got angry. It's hard to be sure what this was about, but perhaps there was a clue in last week's 'lap of appreciation' at the Emirates, during which the team was booed.

Booed for finishing fourth. What kind of fans are these people?

FC Dallas and the Seattle Sounders have a few things in common. Both are in the preliminary round of the CCL, both lost dynamic players to on pitch injuries and both get a few thousand fans to show up when they play in the suburbs. Tip your waiters, I'll be here all week. Big D Soccer gives us some insight into the upcoming Wednesday night match.

A tie on the road against the best team in the league should feel satisfactory. But facing a third-string goalkeeper, drawing a penalty and generally outplaying the Los Angeles Galaxy for much of the match, the Seattle Sounders 0-0 tie does not feel as satisfying as it probably should.

The big reason for that is probably Fredy Montero's failed penalty.

BY ADAM SERRANO

The LA Galaxy had to reach deep into its bench, but was able to continue its 11-game unbeaten streak with a 0-0 draw against the Seattle Sounders on Monday night.

Third-string goalkeeper Brian Perk performed admirably in his MLS debut, making two saves including the definitive play of the game on a Fredy Montero penalty kick in the 18th minute.

AJ Soares was on every MLS team's radar at the 2011 SuperDraft. He certainly appeared to fill an immediate need for the Union, as a versatile defender who can play on the outside or down the center. The Cal product has had a confident start to his MLS career and was tested on Wednesday against English Premier League champions Manchester United.

Here are the highlights.

You get freedom of the cottage for cup games and, for the sake of it, I got tickets right behind the goal in the Putney End. You can see me in red talking to Martin after AJ shot straight at the keeper in the first half.

Anyway, lessons have been learned about sitting too close: that shot, for instance, felt like a sitter from where we were.

Average position charts from ESPN. Things to note:

Looks like the team's going for a sort of old school imbalanced back four. This is not uncommon in football's history, and attacking full-backs are an important part of the game now. At Barcelona they have a system in which Dani Alves storms forward, whereas the left back is less progressive and Sergio Busquets drops back while Alves raids.

BY ADAM SERRANO

CARSON, Calif -- The Los Angeles Galaxy got off to a roaring start in the CONCACAF Champions League with a 2-0 victory over Club Motagua in their group A opener on Tuedsay night at Home Depot Center.

Adam Cristman and Landon Donovan tallied for the Galaxy, but Los Angeles was wasteful in front of next squandering several opportunties to extend their lead over the Honduran club.

It's another poor result against a poor club as NY baffingly draws the Fire in front of a sold-out crowd. Mark and Dave call for the madness to stop before chatting with rookie defender AJ Soares of New England. We finish up with your ideas for fixing the Red Bulls. Nine matches to go! CSRN MEDIA PLAYER

By Sean McElroy The Los Angeles Galaxy have a true abundance of riches. They have two of the best goalkeepers in MLS, Donovan Ricketts and Josh Suanders. They possess a back line of young, promising (and I might add, mostly American) players, notably Sean Franklin, Omar Gonzalez, and AJ DelaGarza, mixed in with the veteran [.

The New England Revolution couldn't hang onto a 3-0 lead or a 4-1 lead in front of 16,148 at PPL Park on Wednesday night, splitting the points with the Union. The Revolution's AJ Soares opened the scoring in the 9th minute, and it was 2-0 New England when Rajko Lekic converted a penalty kick in the 21st minute.

Photo: Paul Rudderow

As far as first starts go it was not what Zac MacMath would have wanted, but it was certainly not a contest he will forget anytime soon. The rookie goalkeeper will fondly remember the night the Union stormed back from 4-1 down in the second half to earn a gritty point.

he did not reveal to Ruiz that he was cup-tied before he had secured his signature from Twente on transfer deadline day. Ruiz is ineligible because he played for the Dutch side in the Champions League before they were eliminated earlier this season and dropped into the Europa League.

"He thought he could play but he couldn't.

There's an old coaching maxim that when you defend you try to make the pitch small so there's no room, and when you attack you try to make it big, so there's space to play in. Fulham admirably though they played at times tonight seem to have it the wrong way round, contstantly attacking a forest of defenders, while having to defend big spaces while undermanned.

Tweet my Goal! The funniest comments from Spurs 3-1 Shamrock Rovers and Thursday's Europa League action

Not a classic night in the Europa League, but an entertaining match at White Hart Lane made up for it... Tottenham 3-1 Shamrock Rovers: Pav and Gio end Irish dreams Stoke 2-1 Besiktas: Walters' Turkish delight Odense BK 0-2 Fulham: AJ grills BK Maribor 1-2 Birmingham: Wade in for Blues These were the funniest Tweets on the game from our @MirrorFootball feed :

View the full story here: The Mirror

A news article on 2011-09-29 22:26:17 from: The Mirror

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

There cannot be a true Galaxy fan alive today who does not love them some Brazilian. A Brazilian apparently named Vitor, specifically. Twice now I've seen game rosters with that name and tried to figure out if the Galaxy signed some new player. But when you see our magical little Brazilian elf on the field, there is no doubt it is Juninho.