The offseason is now kicking into gear as training camp is open and the Seattle Sounders' first cuts should be announced shortly. In this week's episode of Nos Audietis, we discuss the Sounders' new partnership with the Tacoma Tide and their subsequent rebranding as Sounders U-23. The team will play in the PDL and give Sounders Academy products an opportunity to stay close to come during the offseason.

With a little over a month until the season kicks off, Chris and Ted examine the Tim Ream transfer to Bolton and review a crazy off season in MLS. In the second segment, they discuss how much we should really care about the All-Star game. Finally, they reveal some exciting news about the upcoming season!

During a session with the media at the 2011 All Star Game in, Don Garber responded to a question from the Philadelphia media about the possibility of an All Star Game in the City of Brotherly Love. The Commissioner suggested that Philly would soon host the event and now it is official that the 2012 version of the event will go forward at PPL Park.

It has been announced that the Philadelphia Union would be hosting the 2012 MLS All-Star game at PPL Park. Philadelphia is an ideal location and few could argue they do not deserve to host such an event. They have a lively crowd who are passionate, knowledgeable and they have a facility which rivals every stadium in MLS save perhaps for LiveStrong Park.

Who should MLS face off against this summer in the All-Star Game? (Getty Images)

Today we learned that Philadelphia and PPL Park would be home to this year's summer friendly for Major League Soccer known as the All Star Game.

But what we don't know is who the MLS All Stars will be facing off against come July.

Photo by ISIphotos.com

With every passing year, the format for the MLS All-Star Game seems to continue to be a point of contention among fans and media, but even with that, the 2012 version won't be providing any drastic changes.

While officially awarding this year's game to Philadelphia, the league announced that it will maintain its unique MLS vs.

Photo: Paul Rudderow

It's official, PPL Park will be the site of the 2012 MLS All-Star Game on July 25.

The opponent, "a renowned international club," will be announced at a later date.

MLS Commissioner Don Garber, Philadelphia Union CEO Nick Sackiewicz, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter and Chester Mayor John Linder were on hand at the press conference at Philadelphia's City Hall on Tuesday morning for the announcement.

Rumors are running around tonight that LIVESTRONG Sporting Park will not be hosting MLS' all star game this year. Word out of Philadelphia is that the Union will be hosting the All Star game, at PPL Park. The game should be confirmed tomorrow in a press conference that Don Garber will be attending.

It has been a crazy day for me here. Busy at work. Busy at life. But I wanted to get to this bit of news before the day really gets away from me.

The Union and MLS have scheduled a press conference in Philadelphia for Tuesday, where Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter and MLS commissioner are expected to announce that PPL Park will be host this summer's 2012 MLS All-Star Game.

Following the announcement by the Philadelphia Union that a press conference has been scheduled for Tuesday at 11am to take place at City Hall in Center City Philadelphia, philly.com reports that the Union will host the 2012 MLS All-Star Game at PPL Park.

The press release from the Union says that team CEO Nick Sackiewicz, MLS Commissioner Don Garber, Chester Mayor John Linder and Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter are all scheduled to be in attendance.

Fans of the Philadelphia Union have had plenty to chear about in the club's brief two-year MLS existence. From the opening of PPL Park in 2010, to the team's MLS playoff debut in 2011. Now Union fans are ready to have a new experience to celebrate in 2012, the hosting of an MLS All-Star Game.

As the Brotherly Game reported on Twitter Saturday night, it appears that Philadelphia will be the host of the 2012 MLS All Star Game.

Philadelphia Union executive Rick Jacobs told a crowd of fans at the Sons of Ben Help Kick Hunger event that there would be an announcement at 11 am at City Hall with MLS there as well.

The beat (no pun intended) goes on for the Independence, announcing the signing of former US Women's National Team standout, Lori Chalupny earlier today. Chalupny comes to Philadelphia from the Atlanta Beat, where she played in 17 games and scored two goals. "Lori is a world class midfielder. She has great vision, is a fantastic engine and can play both the percentage and million dollar pass," Philadelphia head coach Paul Riley told the official Independence website today.

Photo courtesy of Jarred Donalson
Reports out of Philadelphia today are that the bidding to host the 2012 all star game is down to the final two. Union blog, The Brotherly Game is reporting that PPL Park and LIVESTRONG Sporting Park are the two finalists, beating out BC Place of Vancouver and Saputo Stadium in Montreal.

Happy birthday, Seba! The Flyin' Frenchman is 28 today. Did you know he's the only remaining member of the '09 expansion draft class?

The Brotherly Game says an anonymous league source claims the 2012 MLS All-Star game will be in Philly or Kansas City. Yesterday, Broad Street Hooligans announced that a source within the Union had illegally discovered that the 2012 MLS All-Star game would be in Philly.

PPL Park could soon show itself off to the North American soccer community, as the Philadelphia Union's game day home is one of two finalists for the 2012 MLS All Star Game. A league source informs the Brotherly Game that PPL Park and Sporting Kansas City's Livestrong Park are the last of a group of stadiums, which included the Vancouver Whitecaps' BC Place and the Montreal Impact's Saputo Stadium, but "nothing [is] firm" yet.

If you haven't heard already there's some heartbreaking news out of Dallas this morning: FC Dallas announcer & former player Bobby Rhine passed away yesterday after suffering a heart attack. He was 35 years-old.
My introduction to MLS was a Dallas Burn – Tampa Bay Mutiny match at the Cotton Bowl during my college years in 1998.

It's been a historic season for Derek Jeter. The New York Yankees shortstop played in his 2,402nd game on Sunday all with the Yankees. That mark is a new all-time record for the Yankees franchise. Jeter broke a tie with Mickey Mantle.

"I take pride in coming and doing my job," said Jeter.

MLS fans curious to see how the league's new deal with the Peacock would increase the visibility of the league got a glimpse of NBC's promotional power during the recent Sunday Night Football broadcast. The 20 second spot ran during the Cowboys/Chargers game and teased fans with the upcoming 2012 NBC MLS broadcasts.

Photo Credit: Drew HallowellIf there were two people that made the Major League Soccer needle move for non-soccer fans and the casual ones, it was David Beckham and the child-prodigy, Freddy Adu. Problem is... over the years both have been incredibly disappointing, and dare we say, busts.
Until now.

That's right, folks; to go along with the laundry list of accomplishments the Metro Bulls have attained in their illustrious history, you can add 2011 Emirates Cup Champions to it. Now while it's no La Manga, it ranks right up there with the Mickey Mouse Cup of 2010. Hey, this is about the only Red Bulls news I can get excited about nowadays, so get off my back.

I'm sure I'm not alone in being fed-up from a fortnight of friendly fixtures, looking forward to a return to league competition as the Bulls visit Rio Tinto tomorrow night. I am, though, still quite giddy over the sight of Henry lifting the Emirates Cup on the pitch at Ashburton Grove this past Sunday.

Ex Miami Fusion captain and current Fort Lauderdale Strikers Assistant coach Jim Rooney was our guest last night on Miami Ultras Alive.
Rooney was gracious enough to answer our questions about his Fusion days, including a number of anecdotes concerning Ray Hudson's underwear and a his own sports bra (In tribute to Brandi Chastain's World Cup goal) inspired celebration during the MLS All Star game.

MLS: Friendlies against foreign teams still don't work - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

Major League Soccer is not doing American soccer any favors by having its all-stars play against top foreign teams year after year. The entertainment value is never as high as expected, and it inevitably just leads to more discussion about how far behind the rest of the world Americans are.

The Red Bulls returned to the Big Apple today, following their surprising 1-1 draw against Arsenal on Sunday, which was enough to earn them a first place finish in the Emirates Cup and some attractive silverware (come to think of it those do look a bit like bull horns). The club posted a wrap-up video today, with some post-match comments from the likes of Hans Backe, Tim Ream and Thierry Henry.

Before we get to the attendance wrap-up, here are some bonus business items from the press Q&A Commissioner Garber did with the print/online media at the All-Star Game.

1. Still trying to put a second team in New York, but Cosmos are not the only option. Believes the Wilpons would make excellent soccer owners and noted that Citi Field had hosted a WFC match the night before the ASG.

The Philadelphia Union were able to take the last two weeks at a leisurely pace. They showed well in a couple of friendlies, Faryd Mondragon was the only player to see action in the All Star Game, and the U eased past a struggling New England Revolution. One loss later - just the 5th of the season after 20 games played - they are still top of the table with at least one game in hand over much of the league and the squad remains in the Eastern Conference driver's seat.

Okay, here's an in-depth look at the All-Star Game, and what it means in the grand scheme of things for MLS. As I explain in great detail, the product of a significant amount of work and research on my part, the All-Star Game provides Major League Soccer with a oh crap, they fired Bob Bradley
Okay, the lull between the Gold Cup and World Cup qualifying provides Gulati, Flynn and the federation with a chance to make a detailed, measured search for a coach who truly addresses the needs of our team.

It's been a while since Kansas City has had a mid-week off from a game. While Omar Bravo and Matt Besler had the All Star game the rest of the team probably didn't know exactly what to do with themselves with the week off. Coming out of the week KC plays the New England Revolution tomorrow at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park, continuing their long home stand.

UZ, of SB Nation's Colorado Rapids blog Burgundy Wave, and I exchanged five questions a piece ahead of today's Philadelphia Union-Rapids game at PPL Park.

tbG: Colorado absolutely dominated the New York Red Bulls, winning 4-1 on the back of a hat trick. That leads me to the following question: what got into Nyassi?

Philadelphia battles Colorado to kick off Week 20. (Getty Images)

It is shaping up to be a fairly busy day here between the weekend slate, the USMNT coaching announcement and a few other things I have going on here myself (hopefully more on that later).

Anyways, I wanted to share my weekend picks for MLS as the league turns to their second half of the season now that the All-Star Game is over and done with.

The Houston Dynamo used to be a team bordering on dynasty. They had a couple titles, many more playoff appearances, several good players and a coach that was once mentioned as a potential future US National Team coach. When the Seattle Sounders play them Saturday only one of those things will be true.

On the road tonight, so we thought we would revisit our interview with Justin McCord of FC Dallas. On Monday, we'll back with our usual Monday After post including a look at the business ramifications of Bob Bradley's departure and some more tidbits from Don Garber's media Q&A at the All-Star Game.

Philadelphia looks to stay on top in the Eastern Conference. (Getty Images)

Well that was fun now wasn't it? The MLS All-Star Game is over and done with for another year. We can now move on to things that are a bit more important like another CCL match tonight for a MLS club, this time FC Dallas.

Here's photo of Russell Simmons and Maxwell in one of the skyboxes at the All Star game and it pretty much sums up the scene in the suite level last night at Red Bull Arena: moneyed people much more famous than you or I with Blackberries and wine glasses at the ready. Oh and models. Lots of models.

MLS just played its All Star Game, which as we all know was Manchester United against an MLS All-Star 11 who had never played meaningful minutes together prior to Tuesday's training session. That was always bound to not end well, and it ended in predictable fashion, 4-0 to United (following a 5-2 loss last season).

Photo: Daniel Gajdamowicz

Union

The Faryd Mondragon/David Beckham connection continues after the MLS All-Stars 4–0 defeat to Manchester United. In Soccer America's player ratings for Wednesday night's All-Star Game, Mondragon's "6″ is the highest rating received, with only Beckham and Jamison Olave sharing that number.

Philadelphia is one of the front runners to host a future MLS All-Star Game, MLS Commissioner Don Garber told reporters last night.

When asked about the chances of the city hosting the league's mid-season game, Garber responded, "Yeah they will be. Not quite how soon, but they will be in the mix.

For the second year in a row the MLS All Stars fell to Manchester United in the mid-season all star game. Again it wasn't much of a game as United won 4-0, bringing the aggregate score to 9-2 over the two years. But honestly in the end it was a team that had practiced with each other a grand total of two times before the game going up against a team that has been consistently playing together, many of them for years.

Tonight, for the seventh consecutive year, a group of the best players in Major League Soccer will take on a foreign opponent that has accepted the invitation to take part in the league's annual All-Star Game. The MLS All-Stars have lost their last two games, but they won the previous four; all six games, as well as tonight's matchup with Manchester United, have taken place against competition from the British Isles.