Major League Soccer welcomed yet another soccer specific stadium into the league this past Saturday, as the Houston Dynamo played their first game in brand new BBVA Compass Stadium after 16 months of waiting and seven straight road games to start the season. The Houston faithful opened the stadium with all the pomp and circumstance it deserved and Houston put the icing on the cake with a 1-0 victory over DC United.

Two great teams will play in Miami! Check out the press release: MIAMI (May 7, 2012) – The eyes of the soccer world will focus on South Florida again this summer when two of Europe's most storied clubs, England's Chelsea FC and Italy's AC Milan, face-off at Sun Life Stadium at 6:00 p.m. on Saturday, July 28 as part of the World Football Challenge.

Although the fans in The Fort have never wavered in their support for the Revolution, the early-season attendance figures at Gillette Stadium don't look promising. (Photo: Chris Aduama/aduama.com)

Although the Revolution may be playing inspired soccer this season, one thing that hasn't looked good in 2012 is the team's home attendance record.

Mike Woitalla of Soccer America writes of the continued success at the turnstiles of Major League Soccer, which is on track to shatter their average attendance record - the 2011 average of 17,872 set the record a year ago, and after the first three weeks, MLS clubs are averaging 20,861 fans per game.

Chelsea have announced two dates for their pre-season tour of the U.S. this summer. They will play Seattle Sounders in Seattle on Wednesday 18 July. A second game, against AC Milan at FedEx Field has also been announced for July 28th

Chelsea last played in Seattle in 2009, when they set an attendance record of 69,000 to see them play the Sounders.

MLS attendance has soared at the start of this 2012 season, with a leaguewide average of 21,107 fans per match.
This number has been bolstered by the Montreal Impact's first MLS home game- which drew 58,912 to the Olympic Stadium- setting an attendance record for pro soccer in the Canadian city.

The excitement is building for Fire fans across the globe as the first game of the 2012 MLS season is almost upon us. First Kick week is always fun in MLS, but that fun is diminished a bit when the first week is a bye week like the Fire experienced. Although the wait has seemed to be long and agonizing, we are almost there cf97 fans!

The Colombian influence in MLS continues to grow.

FC Dallas continued to do their part in maintaining the trend by signing 25-year-old Colombian striker Luis Perea, adding a complement up top to Blas Perez and giving FCD more firepower during a time which Brek Shea is off on U.

2,000 additional seats are being added to the Olympic Stadium in Montreal. With the sale of these additional seats the Impact will break the 30 year-old attendance record ,of 58,542, for a soccer match. Which, coincidentally, was also a between Montreal and Chicago.
According to the Impact front office over 46,000 seats have already been sold for the match.

When the Montreal Impact play their first home game as an MLS team on Saturday, a crowd of over 46,500 is expected to attend.

That is not enough for the Impact, as they want to break a record.

Set to play their home opener against the Chicago Fire on Saturday, Montreal has added 2,000 seats to Olympic Stadium in an effort to break the city's attendance record.

By Tony Edwards - San Jose, CA (Feb 28, 2012) US Soccer Players -- In Tuesday's edition, Tony looks at Major League Soccer's all-time statistical leaders, Nottingham Forest's league position, and an upcoming attendance record in Toronto. At the end of this coming MLS season, could Landon Donovan be the all-time MLS leader in any statistical categories?

The Montreal Impact announced on Friday that more than 25,000 tickets were already sold for the home opener at Olympic Stadium, March 17, against the Chicago Fire.

The Impact are hoping to create a new record for attendance at the Olympic Stadium with additional sales leading up to the home opener.

Paris' Stade de France is one of the world's most storied stadiums. Though it has only been used for 13 years, it has already hosted a FIFA World Cup and a Rugby World Cup-the only stadium to do so. On Friday, the Stade de France will welcome the U.S. Men's National Team for the first time.
The 81,338 seat venue was built in 1995 in preparation for the 1998 FIFA World Cup.

• Dynamo clinch second in East with 3-1 win over LA [MLS Soccer]
• Dynamo drop Galaxy 3-1 in regular-season finale [Houston Chronicle]
• Moffat bomb just what the doctor ordered [MLS Soccer]
• Sweet cross lifts Houston's Davis atop final assist table [MLS Soccer]
• Dynamo Finish in Second Place: 4 Things We Learned [Houston Press]
• Dynamo Notebook: Big win over LA carries extra benefit [MLS Soccer]
• A celebration at Robertson reminds us of the goal in the future [FS Houston]
• Kinnear's 100th win a milestone and momentum-builder [MLS Soccer]
• Dynamo entering playoffs with momentum [Houston Chronicle]
• Vote Moffat for AT&T Goal of the Week [Houston Dynamo]
• Dynamo have good, bad memories of Robertson Stadium [Houston Chronicle]

In Other News:

• Nicol out after 10 years as Revs coach [Boston Herald]
• Nicol's run ends with Revolution [Boston Globe]
• MLS Season 16 sets attendance record [Soccer America]

STARTERS
Kasey Keller will play his last regular season game in Seattle on Saturday night and they are expecting over 60,000! Wow! He is retiring from playing at the end of the season.
-They probably won't break their own attendance record set this past summer against Manchester United of over 67,000.

That the Seattle Sounders will set another MLS attendance record is not really news. In fact, they already have the single-season MLS attendance record. In the game against DC United, the Sounders broke their old record, which they set in 2010 when they broke the record they set in 2009. Sense a pattern?

As you walk into CenturyLink Field tonight take a moment to look around. No, there won't be 50,000 people there like many of us had hoped, but there should be at least 35,000. Another U.S. Open Cup attendance record is guaranteed to fall and the Seattle Sounders will have once again raised the bar.

This is Part II and the conclusion of Maura Gladys's take on the USWNT as the dust begins to settle in 2011.

What will the USWNT's Golden Moment breed?

For fans of the 2011 U.S. Women's National team, talk of destiny and fate that clouded heads has faded, the pain of losing has healed, and some distance and perspective has been gained on this summer's tournament.

photo courtesy of Jarred Donalson
With just 2 home game left in the season, Sporting KC has set a record for average attendance. No one could show up for the team's final two matches against Columbus and New York, and KC would still set an attendance record this season. KC's average if no one shows up the final two games of the season would be 15,589, topping the 15,573 that was set in the 2003 season.

Minnesota Gopher Women's Soccer will attempt to break their attendance record of 1751.
Support Gopher soccer. Admission is FREE!
-Sun Sep 18
Minnesota v Ohio State - 1 pm CT
Invite your friends and family to Elizabeth Lyle Robbie Stadium (MAP) to help them break their attendance record.

Mike Woitalla of Soccer America writes of the record season for Major League Soccer attendance-
Ten Week 26 games averaged 17,646 fans as MLS, with just more than a month left in the regular season, is on pace to break its season attendance record.
* Seattle drew the biggest crowd of the week when 35,940 watched it fall to Real Salt Lake.

There are no official numbers yet, but it sure seems like the Seattle Sounders are poised to break the U.S. Open Cup finals attendance record that they just set a year ago. What we know for sure is that about 11,000 tickets were sold during the presale when season-ticket holders were limiting to buying their seats.

10 years ago the US played Costa Rica at Arrowhead Stadium in KC. It was my first trip to see the team in person and a game that I will never forget. At that time, it was difficult to find US games on TV (many games were on pay-per-view if they were broadcast at all) and you had to scour the internet for hours just to find any news relating to the team.

Soccer America reports on the continued rise in attendance in college soccer here in the United States.

College soccer continues to ride a wave of increasing popularity, evidence of which were the record crowds enjoyed by both No. 1 Louisville and Akron, the team it lost to in the 2010 Men's College Cup final, on Saturday.

*Staff Writer Phil Collin has the Galaxy-Columbus Crew game preview. The game is live at 7:30 p.m. on Prime.

Watch:

Click here for $10 tickets to the game.

*In the wake of the ratings success of the World Cup final, Los Angeles-based Fox Soccer Channel has added to its schedule tonight's WPS game between Abby Wambach's magicJack and the Western New York Flash, which is based in the Hermosa Beach resident's home town of Rochester.

Seriously. While the majority of the story in the Kitsap Sun was concerned about how this game could move the needle on the other side of the Puget Sound, Waite said:

"Realistically for the good of soccer in the Puget Sound, this game should be played here," Pumas owner Robin Waite said.

Mike Woitalla of Soccer America reports again on how Major League Soccer looks to shatter the MLS season attendance record in 2011.
The New England Revolution drew its biggest crowd of the season by far for a loss to the Los Angeles Galaxy. The Northwest trio drew big crowds as usual in Week 11, the third straight week in which league-wide average attendance for the season increased.

There were nine home games this weekend in Major League Soccer. Six games had attendance figures below the current league average of 17,066 per game. The good, look no further than Seattle which broke its own single game attendance record with 36,593 on hand for the much hyped game with the Timbers.

Getting to know the newest Seattle Sounders player, Michael Tetteh

I've been meaning to write a bit of an introductory piece about Michael Tetteh, but honestly Joshua Mayers does as good of a job as I possibly could have. Tetteh's personal story is pretty impressive and really is worth learning about.