For those who don't subscribe to the Rapids' Undercurrent Blog you will have missed this gem. Yes, Zinedine Zidane just happened to stop by the adidas ESP camp going on here in Denver and actually played with the All*Star team of the annual event.
This kind of blows my mind. Every summer the adidas ESP event is a premier invite only camp that works with the best of the American youth soccer field.

Even the strongest Scottish ogres injure hamstrings sometimes
Wayne Rooney is doubtful for United's match Saturday against Aston Villa with a hamstring problem. He did not feature today in the Champions League against Wolfsburg.
And while United have a massive defensive injury crisis, I think the loss of Rooney for a game or two is not the end of the world.

Two main points learned from this match: 1) Houston is really good. 2) The DC defense isn't.
Can you imagine how great this team would be if Dwayne De Rosario was still on the roster? This is already an all-star midfield, with Stuart Holden, Brad Davis, and Ricardo Clark all playing the best of their careers.

'The Beckham Experiment,' the highly-anticipated book by Sports Illustrated senior writer Grant Wahl hit bookstores this week. It provides an in-depth look at David Beckham's two-year stint with the LA Galaxy, recapping a tumultuous period for the player, his team and Major League Soccer.

How did the Beckham experiment fare?

A week that we could have seen a lot of change really didn't take place. Week number 19 is in the books as we all know but not a whole lot of movement to speak of this week. Columbus was a big jumper with their nice come from behind win at home over rivals Toronto.

Colorado was also able to move up as they downed New York 4-0 at home.

Here's a little something for MLS fans to chew on while they await Wednesday's All-Star match in the thin air of Rio Tinto: I'm in Utah for tomorrow's All-Star game, and I'm hearing that big hitters in the league are talking about ways to get more teams on board with the Designated Player initiative.

Indonesia will now host Manchester United on 20 July at Bung Karno Stadium and not 24 July as originally planned.
And it appears Indonesia will be represented by an All Star XI, not the national team.

As we await the latest on Ricardo Clark's situation (last updated yesterday about 4:05 p.m.), let's bring put the focus back on today's MLS All-Star Game. I called up Dynamo defender Geoff Cameron yesterday for today's Chron feature on today's...

Here is the Major League Soccer single table at the all star break. It isn't uncommon to see Houston on the top along with FC Dallas and San Jose near the bottom.

This table doesn't take into effect any of the games that will be taking place today. Ten teams will be seeing action later today while there is only one game tomorrow.

Looks like the locker-room issue in Chicago surrounding defender Bakary Soumare and manager Denis Hamlett is resolved today. Reports from France say the Fire have sold the All-Star defender to French club Boulogne for a little over $2 million.

For a club struggling for consistent play at home, losing their best defender in this manner is going to be a bigger blow than some people will be willing to admit.

Sometimes a league gets their All-Star selection process right, now matter how hard the fans try to screw it up, in this case MLS has it right. We in Seattle though, are probably getting it wrong. Currently eight Sounders are in line for the fan vote XI. Eight of eleven for a team that is in [...]

Kevin Souter was this week's winner of the poll for who should be interviewed this week. Wednesday after practice Thad was able to talk to Souter. Souter talks about getting back onto the field and the injury that hampered him from getting a chance to get onto the field sooner this year. He talked about his connection to LA in that his first appearance ever was against LA as was his first start this year.

Freddie Ljungberg and Seattle are inching their way to the top. (Photo via Prost Amerika Soccer/Point Taken Photos)

Ah it was good to have a full day of soccer on Saturday (and parts of Sunday). Plenty of items to discuss today with the All-Star roster being anounced this afternoon. Until then it is time to wade through the week that was week 17 in Major League Soccer.

Soon to be free agent centre-back Mario Yepes who played with Serie A side Chievo this last term was revealed last year as a target of Juan Carlos Osorio, but as he was not available he sprung for colombian Gabriel Cichero and Mexican Diego Jimenez. Those players are now released and Osorio is faced with a great challenge as he fights to keep his job as the red bull are in poor form.

After perhaps the most entertaining weekend of MLS play this season, the focus shifts to Salt Lake City ahead of Wednesday's All-Star Game. Kyle McCarthy takes us through a couple of issues surrounding the buildup to the match before recapping all that was in Week 19.
Claudio Lopez's Sweet Strike

Bakary Soumare and the Chicago Fire have officially parted ways as of this afternoon, with the Eastern Conference club confirming the transfer of the All-Star defender to French club US Boulogne (full name: Union Sportive de Boulogne-sur-Mer Côte d'Opale) in a press release. Several reports put the transfer fee for the Mali international at €1.

Editor's Note: Chicago Red Stars President and CEO Peter Wilt returns for his third weekly column on Pitch Invasion, pulling no punches as he grades the first season of the league his own team plays in.

Sunday's Women's Professional Soccer All-Star victory over Swedish powerhouse Umea ended WPS' first season and that makes this a good time to reflect on the inaugural year and analyze WPS' progress.

The MLS playoffs don't begin for another three weeks but tonight will offer us an elimination game with some playoff-like drama.

FC Dallas visits San Jose tonight (10pm, Direct Kick) in a match both teams need to win in order to maintain any realistic chance in the MLS playoff race.

It was a difficult year for the Bay Area boot squad, but an easy choice on who to ask for some answers. Sorting through the Earthquakes rubble for us is ESPN & Center Line Soccer all-star Jeff Carlisle.NSC: What went wrong?JC: Just about everything. Players like Francisco Lima and Scott Sealy werent adequately replaced at the start of the season.

Excellent US soccer journalist, Andrea Canales has a great interview with the Seattle Sounders FC star in which he reveals the reason he decided to come to MLS. Here is an excerpt:

The 21-year-old Colombian striker, on loan from Deportivo Cali, has been an early revelation for the Sounders, scoring three goals in his first two games.

MLS announced Wednesday that Valencia Everton will be the club to take on the Major League Soccer All Stars in this years midseason classic. And of course, that would mean the return of Metro hero, turned National Team anchor, Timmy Howard!

Howard is arguably the most successful Major League Soccer export, not only keeping Everton as one of the top teams overall for the Premiership for two years running, but more recently, single handedly eliminating the Red Devils of Manchester from the FA Cup semifinals with a thrilling penalty kick face off.

Local reports last week said that up to 65% of the tickets for the forthcoming Manchester United friendly against an Indonesian All Star XI have already been sold.
While tickets don't go on general sale until June 1st, sponsors have been snapping up large numbers.
Not content with having the general public select the squad by texting their favourite players to a dedicated number, I haven't seen any updates or numbers on this released, now it appears the coach will also be selected in a similar manner.

Freddie Ljungberg has again committed his future to Seattle Sounders ahead of the big game against Chelsea. "I am so happy here in Seattle and that is why I want to stay for the years that I am here," he said. "Of course it is nice that the big clubs want me to go back (to Europe) again but it feels nice here in America.

As always LD is an All-Star but this year there seems to be a real presence about him and his performances on the international stage have a lot of people thinking he won't be in MLS much longer. Great player!

JM

Quick stuff this morning, as the dogs bark and the sun makes its way through the green leaves and into the blue (for now) sky.

The Phillies lost to the Cubbies yesterday ... so that means their new winning streak begins now! The Red Sox lost another game ... and some more ground to the Yankees.

Davy at All-Star training.
Davy Arnaud is getting props for his hard work and determination on the way to making his 1st MLS All-Star team for tonight's contest against Everton FC of the EPL. The game is at 8:30 p.m. CT on ESPN2, and we're hosting a Budweiser watch party at Fox and Hound in OP.

Dominic Kinnear is excited for tonight, are you? (photo via MLS)

It is that time once again, the MLS All-Stars take on a club from the other side of the pond. Feel the excitement? Yeah I honestly don't. Just like every year I get less and less excited about this game, mostly because of the set up of the league taking on a club in preseason mode.

Monday's announcement that FC Dallas' longest-tenured player, Drew Moor, had been shipped off to Colorado was jarring to say the least. Now the Dallas native is not one of the top defenders in the league and has never been an all-star, but Moor's veteran leadership and respect he commanded from his teammates will be hard if not impossible to replace.

Last night on the Jimmy Conrad Show, Robb Heineman spoke candidly about the Wizards stadium complex out in Kansas. There's some good information about the complex and some vague details of the amenities at the stadium as well. During the discussion, Heineman states that they are hopeful to have the stadium open just after the All Star break during the 2011 season.

"The Damned United" is a movie that has been much talked about in the soccer community but hardly marketed within the soccer community, which will surly be their most interested group in a soccer hungry nation as the United States.

The film profiling the legendary Brian Clough will be opening tonight October, 23 at the Uptown Theaters with multiple play times and will continue through Thursday October, 29.

For the second straight season, the Columbus Crew's Chad Marshall was selected as the league's best defender. Marshall was named as the MLS 2009 Defender of the Year Thursday, joining Carlos Bocanegra and Robin Fraser as the award's only two-time winners.

2009 has been a tremendous success for Marshall, named in July as an All-Star, and earning five caps with the U.

Briefing: Agent Marshall (aka "Rad Chad") has emerged as a rising new member of the MNT, even though he has participated in some missions since 2005. His fantastic performances of late with the Crew, an Ohio outfit, has catapulted him back into the Mission 2010 debate.

MARKHAM - With only one week now before Pistolas FC hit the field, a sense of excitement and nervousness has set in, as pressure already begins to build and fill leading up to match one.
After many offseason roster changes and signings, no one feels more pressure than the newbies joining the team.

The MLS All-Stars will be taking on Everton at Rio Tinto Stadium in July in this year's All-Star Game. In the picture above, both Yakubu and Tim Cahill show their joy in finding out that they get to go to Salt Lake City this summer...

Eight games into the season, the Red Bulls have found themselves at the bottom of the MLS standings, beating out only FC Dallas for the leagues worst record. With only one regular season win to hang their hats on, and a simmering fan base calling for their coaches head, it wouldn't be beyond the realm of reality to perceive this coming four game home stand as the teams first official "must win" series of games.

image via Chivas USA

This week's guest on the Jared Montz Soccer Podcast is Chivas USA's in form goalie Zach Thornton. Zach is an MLS league vet who had a couple of down years, but is now proving again why when you look behind you and see him in between the posts you know your team has a great shot of winning.

image via Chivas USA

This week's guest on the Jared Montz Soccer Podcast is Chivas USA's in form goalie Zach Thornton. Zach is an MLS league vet who had a couple of down years, but is now proving again why when you look behind you and see him in between the posts you know your team has a great shot of winning.

Conrad in last year's All-Star game.
We talked about All-Star voting a little earlier...but just a reminder. You can vote up to ten times per day (and, in theory, ten times per computer per day). We encourage you to let the voting page know just how much you love your Wizards. Help Kevin, Lance, Jimmy, Aaron, Matt, Michael, Herculez, Jack, Santiago, Davy, Josh and Claudio get on the field to take on Everton in July.

how i can get batter in soccer skills? if anyone knows about it please help me out i really need help. im an all star player don't listen to these other people "juggle the ball and take penalty kicks" that doesn't help you i suck at jugling but try to take the ball away from me in a game its all about [.

Holy cow...MLSnet came out with a story today that if the All-Star First XI were chosen right now, eight members would be from Seattle Sounders FC. Now their fans have been great so far, but that is a crazy high number! No mention of our friend Josh Wolff who is tied for the League-lead in goals or perrenial All-Star Jimmy Conrad or former Argentina international Claudio Lopez.