Photo: Michael Long

This time last year, the Philadelphia Independence were entering the end of preseason training. Now, players from the 2011 team—as well as new players who were announced or rumored to be joining the club before the 2012 WPS season was cancelled—are spread all over Europe and the US.

The last remaining head coaching vacancy in Major League Soccer sits in Colorado, where the Rapids are expected to make a decision on their replacement for Gary Smith this week.

Four candidates have emerged as Colorado's leading contenders. Denis Hamlett, Oscar Pareja, Tom Soehn and Richie Williams are the four men sources have told SBi are the finalists for the job.

The Chicago Fire announced that Mike Matkovich and Leo Percovich will return to the club as Frank Klopas' assistant coaches for the 2012 season. Matkovich rejoins the Fire as an assistant coach, having previously served in the role for the club from 2009-10. The fact that Klopas is bringing Matkovich back on suggests that there was some kind of rift between Matkovich and former Fire head coach Carlos de los Cobos.

Yesterday, Tweed Thornton and I had the opportunity to speak with Chicago Fire head coach Frank Klopas. It was an excellent chance to ask some questions that we had been wondering about and had been hearing from other Chicago Fire fans. It was also a chance to get to know the man who will be starting his first full season as head coach in March.

Philadelphia Union have figured out the formula to the MLS amateur draft:

Be patient, wait for other teams to screw up, and draft the best player available. When in doubt late, take a guy who played for Reading United.

The Union did it again this year, so let's talk about it with the proverbial Five Observations About .

Former Portland Timbers stalwart defender Cameron Knowles has been hired by the his old club as an assistant coach to replace Trevor James who left in December. Knowles joins the coaching staff lead by head coach John Spencer and assistant coaches Mike Toshack and Minnesotan, Amos Magee . Knowles, an Auckland, New Zealand native, attended [.

Greg Schiano has been taking on challenges his whole life, and where his recent task of rebuilding the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the NFL is daunting, the former Rutgers University coach is up for the task.
Stephen F. Holder of the Tampa Bay Times writes of the man who continues to rise to the occasion.

It's a "pazzo" day of celebration for Milan, after their 4-0 thrashing of Arsenal in the Champions League last night! Milan simply dominated all 90 minutes of last night's match with a sleek passing game, although Arsenal surprisingly held the 53% share of ball possession.

Eleven Singapore players will not only carry the hope of the nation, but also with one aim to prove a point.
The point to prove that, despite their physical disabilities, they are still able to enjoy the beautiful game like their able-bodied peers when they are set to take on teams from Iran, Australia and others that included the host nation, United Arab Emirates in the first Dream Asia Cerebral Palsy (CP) Tournament organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).

The Timbers started off today's practice after their day off by wishing a happy birthday to Diego Chara who turns 26 today. After that it was down to business, as new fitness coach John Ireland continued to change up the Timbers warm up routines. After the Timbers completed some running and ball control drills, practice was closed to the press.

'Coach told us today that all we're going to play against XXXXXX is defense'.

Why would you ever tell your players that? It just means you're trying to lose by less, which gains you... what? I've never understood soccer coaches who drop 5-6-7 kids back on defense or directly shadow strikers to try to stem the bleeding.

Heading into a big matchup Friday night against Chivas USA, I am back with some hat trick goodies. The customary QOTD will appear at the end like usual. I should have a 3 questions exchange up by Friday, as well as a gamethread for Friday night. And yes, I will be lurking on the gamethread (unfortunately had to miss the thread during the Seattle game but I will be along for the ride Friday night).

One of my must do tasks as I start my day off is to catch up on the news from the BBC Sport website and to my surprise this morning, I read that Gary Neville, ex Man Utd and England defender, had accepted a four year contract from The FA to be one of manager Roy Hodgson's assistant coaches.