One-time US international forward Eddie Johnson has been deemed surplus to requirements at Fulham FC and is one of several players being shopped around by the Premier League club as they hope to offload payroll during the upcoming transfer window.
The news should come as no surprise to those who have followed EJ's career since leaving Major League Soccer nearly 24 months ago.

Actually, yes, and the facts prove this. Dirk Kuyt is, for all intents and purposes, undroppable. And what have Liverpool gained this season as a result of Rafa Benitez's favouritism? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.
I'm sorry to belabour this point but favouritism is on the things that I despise the most in football.

Tony Tchani has been a beast for Virginia all season long.

It's been a couple weeks since my last update for the 2010 MLS SuperDraft. I hope later this week to possibly post the order of the draft. I was waiting until the season ended to do so because of RSL being in the final, they now own the final pick in the draft rather than the 11th or so pick that I previously thought they'd get when the playoffs began.

Both Stoke and Fulham have a double header on Gameweek 20, after missing out on Gameweek 17. Arsenal and Bolton are the other teams that gameweek who benefit from the revised fixture list.
The tricky part for a lot of players is that by now many have shaped their teams into something close to what they would like, making the dilemma not so much about who they should transfer in, rather who they will transfer out.

As if just to antagonise Chelsea fans, Fabregas was widely quoted yesterday as saying Chelsea would be merely an average side were it not for Didier Drogba.
Having watched his side's defence get pummelled by the Ivorian just over a week ago, you can perhaps understand Fabregas' comments.

Missouri State, Paul Paradise with mother and friend

Missouri State junior goalkeeper Alex Riggs and senior defender Johannes Demarzi were named to the NSCAA/Performance Subaru All-Midwest Region first team, it was announced today. Junior forward Paul Paradise was also named to the third team.

AP Photo

It's the fourth straight award for the Brazilian.

Domestically Marta led Women's Professional Soccer in scoring with 10 goals and 3 assists during the year, was named league MVP and led the Los Angeles Sol to the regular season title and a spot in the title game.

FIFA announced the two winners - that's Barcelona's Lionel Messi, above, with the men's award - today at the annual gala in Zurich, Switzerland

Has it really been 15 gameweeks already...Yes it has, and the Fantasy Premier League has already shown many tops and flops... Let's see who have been playing a great first half of the season.
TOPS
The number one goalkeeper is Stoke City's Sorensen with 71 points. Goalkeeper has been on fire the last three matches, and has saved 2 penalties and kept 2 clean sheets.

A lot of credit always goes to the goalscorers of Serie A, but not enough credit goes to the players that create the goals. Tomorrow is Milan-Sampdoria, and the two top assist-men face off at the San Siro: Antonio Cassano and Ronaldinho. Currently, Cassano leads the charts with 7, while Ronaldinho is just behind with 6.

In this monthly segment, we attempt to answer the question, "Who should we take to South Africa?" Rather than taking the standard approach (doing our best to guess who Bob will take to South Africa), we focus on who we think Bradley should take.

Despite an empty international schedule and the termination of the MLS season since the last edition of Bradley's Babes, there have been a number of developments both positive and negative on the National Team front.

This week's main report looks at the newly-crowned Ballon D'or winner, Leo Messi. The transcript can be found below, while vocabulary support can be found for the words in bold at the foot of the post.

Listen to the report here

Recently I was involved in a discussion with some friends over whether Brazilian star Kaka was a better player than his Real Madrid team mate Ronaldo.

If you are looking for a cheaper midfielder for the next month or so, Tamir Cohen is a central midfielder with Bolton who may be worth considering. He is involved in the double gameweek in GW20, and compared to cheapie favorite Bowyer, has a more favourable run. Boltons forthcoming fixture list reads:
- Man City (h)
- West Ham (h)
- Wigan (a)
- Burnley (a)
- Hull City (h) Arsenal (a)
- Sunderland (a)
- Arsenal (h)
- Burnley (h)
Some of these teams present rather leaky defenses, and (at time of writing) at £4.

The most consistent performer in the EPL
Far and away the most consistent fantasy performer this season, Cesc Fabregas is set for a spell on the sidelines after limping out of Arsenal's poor 1-1 draw today with newly promoted Burnley.
Arsenal's captain was forced off with a dodgy hamstring and will certainly miss the weekend match with Hull and possibly the Aston Villa fixture next week.

2009 Recap: Fans of the Wiz do not have much to be happy about right now. By the time the team hit the end of season's (golden) showers, they were third to last on the league table. Moreover, unlike many other struggling cellar dwellers, the Wiz are an aging bunch who do not seem to be able to build a consistent fan base.

Recently, Messi was crowned the World Player of the Year. Given the year Barcelona have had and the Argentinean's role in the team, it is well and truly deserved. This award though, made me take a look at the recent history of WPoY.

Here are some interesting facts,

2009 Winner – Messi

Age at the time of winning 22

Club at the time of winning Barcelona

Years at Club before winning WPoY 9

Transfer fee – Peanuts, I guess.

Why are you celebrating? You lack pace and are prone to senseless bookings
Cheap, cheap, and in great form. And well, cheap.
That was the story with Sunderland studs throughout most of the fall and the first few months of the Premier League season.
Darren Bent was a no-brainer from the start of the season (moving over from Tottenham with the price tag of a 4th choice striker), Michael Turner looked irresistible (moving over from Hull with a low price tag), and Andy Reid lost a bunch of weight.

photo credit: Crystian Cruz

Carlo Ancelotti feels like his Chelsea squad can handle being without Didier Drogba for any length of time and hold onto their place atop the Premier League table. I feel that he's out of his ever-loving mind unless he knows something that I don't.

Missouri State Bears, Johannes Demarzi

Missouri State senior defender Johannes Demarzi was named to the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA)/adidas men's Scholar All-America first team, it was recently announced.

Demarzi, who holds a 3.37 GPA in political science, recorded a Missouri Valley Conference-high 10 assists during the 2009 season.

Photo by ISIphotos.com

The Chicago Fire has made a deal to secure the services of one of its most important players, Guatamalan winger Marco Pappa.

The Fire exercised its option to buy Pappa's rights from Guatamalan side CSD Municipal, thus ending a two-year loan deal it had for Pappa and securing his services through the 2012 season.

Photo by ISIphotos.com

The Chicago Fire has made a deal to secure the services of one of its most important players, Guatamalan winger Marco Pappa.

The Fire exercised its option to buy Pappa's rights from Guatamalan side CSD Municipal, thus ending a two-year loan deal it had for Pappa and securing his services through the 2012 season.

The Chicago Fire announced this morning that they have purchased the rights to Guatemalan midfielder Marco Pappo from CSD Municipal, the team that had loaned him to MLS for the past two seasons. He is now under contract with the Fire through the 2012 season.
"We are very excited to have such a young talent like Marco Pappa back with our club next season," said Fire Technical Director Frank Klopas.

Just over a year ago it was announced that Marshall was acquired from Toronto by Seattle for allocation money (salary cap exempt monies). Generally TFC fans were giddy, they loved that they were going to cast aside a veteran centerback for free money. Yesterday, the Sounders announced that Marshall was named the team Defender of the Year as voted on by his teammates.

Barcelona's star Lionel Messi has capped his great week with two goals to lead the Catalan side to a 3-1 victory over Deportivo La Coruna. Several days ago he was named the Ballon d'Or winner after a stunning year during which he led Barca to three titles- Champions League, la Liga and Copa del Rey.

FIFA announced the finalists earlier today.

Three of the five women finalists play in MLS - the others are Kelly Smith (Boston Breakers) and Cristiane (Chicago Red Stars).

From the WPS press release:

Cristiane, BRA/Chicago Red Stars - The only player in WPS to notch a hat trick this season, her incredible long-range strike against FC Gold Pride in mid-July was one of the goals of the year this season in WPS.

2009 Recap: The Fire continued many traditions in 2009. They continued to stay toward the top of the East (11-7-12; 2nd place). They continued to spread the minutes around to different guys swimming in their deep talent pool. They also continued to play like the "blue collar" bunch that they are, which is fitting because Chicago is one of the most "blue collar" cities.

Has it really been 15 gameweeks already...Yes it has, and the Fantasy Premier League has already shown many tops and flops... Let's see who have been playing a great first half of the season.
TOPS
The number one goalkeeper is Stoke City's Sorensen with 71 points. Goalkeeper has been on fire the last three matches, and has saved 2 penalties and kept 2 clean sheets.

University of Rochester sophomore forward Ellen Coleman (Wauwatosa/Milwaukee DSHA) was a second-team selection on the NSCAA Division III women's All-American soccer team.

Coleman posted team highs for the Yellowjackets (13-4-3) with 11 goals, seven assists and 29 points and five game-winning goals.

As if just to antagonise Chelsea fans, Fabregas was widely quoted yesterday as saying Chelsea would be merely an average side were it not for Didier Drogba.
Having watched his side's defence get pummelled by the Ivorian just over a week ago, you can perhaps understand Fabregas' comments.

2009 Recap: Yes, I know that isn't the Rapids current logo. I yearn for the Rapids of old. Let's call them Colorado B.D. (Before the Dick). This year, the squad showed so much promise. In fact, it looked as if they couldn't miss the playoffs. However, shoddy play away from their home field resulted in them losing the playoff tiebreaker with Salt Lake and spending another season with no date to the Big Dance.

2009 Recap: Crew fans were spoiled by last season's MLS Double when GBS led their boys to both the Supporters Shield and the MLS Cup. Of course, they don't have much to cry about after this year either since their squad repeated as the top regular season team (which would be good enough to hoist the hardware in every other league in the world).

Missouri State Bears, Jordan Reppell (2011)

Missouri State senior midfielder Samantha Aguilar and junior defender Jordan Reppell were named to All-Great Lakes Region teams, the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) announced. Aguilar received second-team honors, while Reppell was named to the third team.

Missouri State Bears, Jordan Reppell (2011)

Missouri State senior midfielder Samantha Aguilar and junior defender Jordan Reppell were named to All-Great Lakes Region teams, the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) announced. Aguilar received second-team honors, while Reppell was named to the third team.

2009 Recap: Everyone expected United to be divided this year, so I suppose their hardcore supporters cannot be too upset with their 9-8-13 finish. Sure, they lost the tiebreaker with RSL for the final playoff spot, so there is certainly some sore feelings, but all in all one must accept the fact 2009 was actually a step forward for this once storied franchise.

2009 Recap: You know I love to call Dallas "The Former Burn", so I had to bring back the old school logo. After all, so many "old school" things were awesome about Dallas in 2009. Sure, they missed the playoffs again and their record was mediocre at best (11-13-6), but at least they finished with a flurry of wins and were arguably the best team in the league the last two months.

In the week that Ryan Giggs was named BBC Sports Personality of the Year, he has agreed another year long extension on his contract with United.

This season, only one player has more assists than him in the Premiership (Cesc Fabregas, 14 years younger) as Giggs goes on to prove he's still got what it takes to be a success at this club.

A couple more draft notes to pass along this evening. We've caught wind thanks to the league's MLS Insider's blog that three players have signed Generation adidas contracts and two college seniors have signed with the league for next month's SuperDraft as well.

Two of the three GA signings should be no surprise as they are Teal Bunbury of Akron and Dilly Duka of the U-20 National team fame.

University of Akron sophomore Teal Bunbury has opted to forego his final two years of college eligibility to sign a contract with Major League Soccer, according to a report by the Washington Post's Steven Goff. He is widely regarded as a potential top-5 pick in next month's 2010 MLS SuperDraft.
Bunbury, 19, started all 25 games for the top-ranked Zips last season, scoring a team-leading 17 goals to go with five assists.

Statistics can be made to say anything you want so here's one to mull over; at this stage of last season, Liverpool's second striker had scored four goals this year the total is six.
When Robbie Keane arrived at Anfield in the summer of 2008, with many lauding him as perhaps the final piece in the jigsaw, the promise was of him forming a devastating partnership with Fernando Torres that would fire Liverpool to the title.

According to Rafa Benitez, Javier Mascherano's red card was the catalyst for Liverpool's ignominious defeat to Portsmouth today. Well of course it was! It's not like Benitez is ever responsible for anything, is it? It's always something or someone else's fault. In reality though, Benitez is - as usual - the person most culpable for yet another capitulation.

2009 Recap: Yes, the Revs once again fell short of that elusive title. But, they also once again competed with the best MLS had to offer despite suffering severe injuries and incessant bad luck. My fave coach, Stevie Nicol, deserves props for getting NER (11-10-9) to the playoffs without Twellman and Ralston for most of the way.