CFC Azul added two more midfielders to its roster with commitments from Sam Groves (left) and Kevin Lewis (Photo: USLsoccer.com graphic).

CFC Azul added two more players in advance of their inaugural season on Tuesday, with midfielders Kevin Lewis and Sam Groves in the fold for 2012.

Both players are University of Hartford products, with Lewis coming off his junior year and Groves a recent graduate (2011) of the school.

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.

File photo: Nicolae Stoian

Philadelphia Union

On Thursday night, the Union held a town hall meeting with invited season ticket holders among the top 100 loyalty reward accounts. The discussion featured Nick Sakiewicz, Dave Rowan and Bob Rigby. Based on information from season ticket holders who were in attendance, as well as tweets from Union fan extraordinaire BarbCV from the event, here are some of the topics that were discussed:

• The Union is very sound financially with a very healthy coffer for improving existing player contracts and new player acquisition.

Kobe Bryant had a busy night yesterday. Not only did he break Michael Jordan's All-Star game scoring record, he helped lead the Western Conference to a 152-149 victory over the Eastern Conference. And on top of that, he suffered a broken nose.

Kobe Bryant broke his nose after a hard foul by Dwyane Wade.

One of the uncertainties of the MLS season should be cleared up on Wednesday.

According to the Philadelphia Daily News, MLS will announce the opponent for the 2012 MLS All-Star Game at a press conference tomorrow. The MLS All-Stars have taken on a club from the United Kingdom in each of the last seven seasons, with Manchester United being the opponent the last two years.

On Tuesday, Adidas and Major League Soccer announced that the MLS All-Star game in Philadelphia on July 25th will mark the debut of Adidas's new team tracking system, "micoach."

As described in an official MLS press release, the system "provides coaches with real time performance metrics on the field of play including player position, power output, speed, distance covered, intensity of play, acceleration and GPS heat mapping.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

It is Valentine's Day, so no new post tonight while we attend to other matters. Back in the Summer of 2010, we interviewed Rocky Harris of the Houston Dynamo about the team's marketing and promotional efforts. What a difference a couple of years makes. Back then there was no stadium, the All-Star Game against ManU was on the horizon and Superliga was still a big deal.

Manu Ginobili is hurt again. If you have the do-everything guard for the San Antonio Spurs on your fantasy basketball team, you won't like this news. Ginobili suffered a strained oblique in Saturday's game against the Los Angeles Clippers and the initials reports don't sound very encouraging.

Gregg Popovich, head coach of the Spurs, said that Ginobili could be out for a while.

The Philadelphia have reached out to fans to announce that only 352 pairs of season tickets remain available for 2012. The outreach effort is aimed at selling full 18 game seats for all Union home matches. The packages do not include the All-Star Game but does entitle purchasers to have "priority access" to tickets for the event.

In one of the highest scoring basketball games you'll ever see, the Western Conference topped the Eastern Conference in the 2012 NBA All-Star Game on Sunday night by a final score of 152-149. After the West got out to an 88-69 halftime lead, it looked like they were going to coast to a victory. However, the East made a run and forced the West to sweat down the stretch.

Kobe Bryant has always wanted to be just like Michael Jordan. On Sunday during the 2012 NBA All-Star Game, Kobe Bryant surpassed Michael Jordan. With his 27 points, Kobe Bryant now has 271 career points in All-Star games. Jordan previously held the record at 262 points.

On his way to passing Jordan in the record books, Kobe also passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Oscar Robertson who had 251 points and 246 points, respectively.

Last week we took a look at the status of expansion on the eve of the 2012 season. Today, with the start of the NBC/MLS relationship just days away, we thought it worth taking a quick snapshot of the American soccer broadcast relationships. In August MLS and NBC announced a three year television rights agreement that will put Major League Soccer on the Peacock and its affiliated sports channel from 2012-2014.

With the 2012 season around the corner, the New England Soccer Today staff submitted our picks for the upcoming year. Click here to see how we fared last season.

Which team will win the MLS Cup and why?

Brian O'Connell: It's hard to argue against an L.

The Philadelphia Union announced today that they will host Aston Villa at PPL Park on Wednesday, July 18 at 7:30pm, confirming an earlier announcement on the Premiership club's website.

Tickets for the event are included in full season ticket packages at no additional cost.

"Card-carrying season ticket holders will have the game loaded on their season ticket card and those with printed tickets will have tickets for this match mailed to them by mid-June," said the announcement.

Get ready to see a smarter Major League Soccer.

MLS and adidas announced the 2012 AT&T MLS All-Star Game on July 25 in Philadelphia will be the world's first "smart soccer match" and will feature the new micoach professional soccer team tracking system, the next step in player performance analysis technology.

Just a quickie update here.

Representatives from MLS, AT&T and the Philadelphia Union are set to come together tomorrow for an announcement on details for the 2012 MLS All Star Game. The advisory give states the group "will discuss the competitive aspects of the 2012 AT&T MLS All-Star Game – the most compelling event of its kind in North America.

Photo: Earl Gardner

Philadelphia Union

The Union issued a press release on Tuesday in which they said team and league officials will be holding a press conference today at 11:30 to discuss "the competitive aspects of the 2012 AT&T MLS All-Star Game," which seems like a fancy way of saying the All-Star Game opponent will be announced.

The English Premier League will once again play a part in a Major League Soccer All-Star Game, but for the first time in three years the visiting team won't be Manchester United.

Yesterday, FOX Soccer confirmed the Brotherly Game's two week old report that Chelsea will come to PPL Park for the 2012 MLS All-Star Game.

Photo: Earl Gardner

Philadelphia Union

Kerith Gabriel reports at the Daily News that Roger Torres will be out "for 8 to 10 weeks."

Peter Nowak says of the injury, "It doesn't look good. His knee went completely to the side. I knew from the beginning there was something wrong.

Photo: Paul Rudderow

On the latest edition of the KYW Philly Soccer Show, Columbus Crew head coach Robert Warzycha is the guest.

In part one, KYW's Greg Orlandini and PSP's Eli Pearlman-Storch chat with the Crew coach about how he is getting his team ready for the Union. He also touches on his relationship with Union coach Peter Nowak, whom he played with on the Polish National Team.

Somehow I missed this on Friday when I was home, not doing work and being a lazy bum.

Chicago Fire front office dudes Brendan Hannan and Jeff Crandall dared Chicago Fire forward Dominic Oduro to a race. Oduro bet his entire pay check on beating Hannan and Crandall, and as expected the self-proclaimed fastest man in the league wins.

The MLS has another chance to show its pedigree and monitor its progress when the division's best take on English Premier League powerhouses Chelsea in the All-Star game on July 25.
This free bet site backs the west London outfit as favourites to show their class and win the fixture at PPL Park, however the hosts will look to take inspiration from their 1-0 victory over the Stamford Bridge club six years ago, and win oncemore.

That's Welsh for Friendly News and we got a big piece of news today. On July 24th Swansea City of the EPL will be facing the Rapids in a friendly at the Dick. Game time is 7pm and tickets go on sale to season ticket holders on Tuesday. The general public will be able to buy tickets starting on Sat.

The 8th Annual Southwest All-Star game will be played June 21st at the Greenwood Stadium Field at the Cooper Soccer Complex. The Women's game will be at 5:30 pm followed by Men's game at app. 7:30 pm. Admission is $5.00.

The teams are invited high school seniors who graduated in May 2012 and have recently completed their high school careers.