Sometimes the question you ask leads to an unexpected answer. In my efforts to suss out the status of LWB Jared Karkas and LW Mike Fucito I made an unexpected discovery. Now some readers may have known this already, but the Sounders have a Senior Roster spot available. Why is this an unknown? Because the MLS [.

Seattle Sounders FC and our great Puget Sound are joining Major League Soccer. There are some unique rules and regulations that both make MLS uniquiely American, and yet in ways still keeps to its European roots. I intend this peice to be an introduction to the league, its unique rules, its teams and [.

Check out MatchTracker starting at 7AM ET to follow the USWNT's opening game of the Algarve Cup.  They start off against Denmark, in a match-up that could prove one of their more difficult of the tournament. "It's not a World Cup year or an Olympic year, so we can try different things and one thing we [.

They Think It's All Over... looks at the strange phenomenon that is the FA's ticket allocation for the FA Cup Final that prevents committed season-ticket holders from attending their club's big day.

Why do we love English football quite so much? We have a Premier League that is consistently contested by just four teams. We have the swanky stadiums but a fundamental lack of fans to fill them. In addition we have clubs being operated by billionaire owners who have little interest in football bar the money that can be squeezed out of it.

Watching the FA Cup semi-final on telly this year, now that the game has been taken away from venues like Villa Park and staged at Wembley instead, it was fairly obvious how the FA had fucked over fans with their allocation. A good ten to fifteen minutes after the restart the best seats in the house were pretty much completely empty.

Paraguay captain Paulo da Silva has been enticed to the sole-surviving Premier League representative of the north-east region of England to join Sunderland on a free transfer after his contract with Deportivo Toluca expired.
Following a previous arrival of Manchester United striker Fraizer Campbell in the shape of £3.

It's all gone pear shaped north of the border. And I mean, totally. Toronto FC is melting down. Montreal and Vancouver have been kicked out of USL. Bloggers are furiously trying to find the USL teams a home and curb stomp TFC management.
Richard Whittall has coped with the crisis by succumbing to complete, barking madness:

This might put me on the business end of a very detailed flaming post, but why doesn't MLS consider a radical move: a wholesale ideological change in direction away from purchasing "ready-made" talent, either overseas or within the league, and toward investment in superb managerial and coaching staff?

This blog post takes a brief look at how Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) and its teams have used Twitter. We'll look at the early days of Twitter integration and how it's evolved as a sports marketing tool. Then, we'll discuss a couple ideas for utilizing Twitter's new List feature. Keep in mind this is a very short post on a topic I could describe for days.

Sure, it was a loss. It doesn't feel good. About 100 people traveled, and they are hurt just a bit more maybe. It was a performance that could not be called a good loss. Seattle Sounders FC was outplayed in nearly every aspect of the match. If not for Leo Gonzalez and Kasey Keller this could have been a 5 to nil thrashing.

What is the meaning of this headline?! Well, I am here to make your life easier:

"Erik Solér (49) blir ny general manager og sportsdirektør i MLS-klubben New York Red Bulls."

Translation?

"Erik Soler loves pimping out like Tom Cruise, and says he is the General Manager and OG (original gangsta) Sports Director at the severely clubbed and beated down MLS team, New York Red Bulls"

And who is this man that is looking for a "klubben" this season?

So says Michelle, but Schelotto won't be a designated player. They're looking at using allocations to buy down his salary:

The good news for Schelotto fans: A new contract could be structured in a similar fashion to Schelotto's deals in 2007 and 2008, with the Crew using allocation money and other resources to "buy down" his salary and temper the hit to the Crew's salary budget.

Peter Wilt wrote an outstanding column on assembling and retaining a good team in Major League Soccer-

MLS' strict salary budgets, weighted lotteries, drafts and allocations have made it a very difficult league to stay near the top or the bottom of the standings for long stretches. Incompetent, lazy or ignorant decision making can certainly make the latter an exception to the rule, but staying on top requires the right combination of several factors including a little bit of luck.