Beau Dure has been on a twitter campaign to root out precisely why D.C. United fans didn't show up at the Washington Freedom half of league doubleheaders at RFK last year. He's upped the ante with an article on the Huffington Post that carries the headline "My challenge to D.C. United Fans."
Dure's challenge is a bit unclear.

-Robb Heineman answers some questions for Greg Seltzer of Soccer365 regarding the new stadium and what it means for our club.
-Greg Cotton did an interview with KMOX out of St. Louis Sunday regarding the stadium and other topics.
-Matt Besler checks in at MLS Insider Blog with his pre-season postcard.

I see today that Beau Dure is leaving USA Today to start his own website and spend more time with his family. He's one of the best people in soccer journalism and I wish him all the best.

STARTERS
MLS Cup 2010 in Toronto at BMO Field on Sun Nov 21. See you there!
-Daniel Girard of the Toronto Sun reports that the new grass has been laid at BMO Field, and the MLS Cup Final game will follow in November.
The voice of the Seattle Sounders Arlo White gives us a great story about his first day on the job.

Beau Dure writes of college soccer's continuing influence on Major League Soccer and the US national team.
College soccer is to American soccer what newspapers are to today's media. Fewer people are paying attention to it, top talent is being drained, and critics are lined up to shovel on the dirt.

For those of you interesed in reading good soccer related material I suggested reading Soccernomics a few weeks ago (Sam also previously recommended it in a post a while back). Since soccer related books seem to be popping up with some frequency, mostly due to World Cup excitement, I've been searching for US and MLS related material to share and I've found a few good ones.

A nice video that I was made aware of by USA Today writer Beau Dure on his twitter account.

Every professional sports league has a moment early in its existence when its survival is on the line, and its future murky: a new league is always going to lose money getting off the ground, and serious road bumps have been navigated by every league that still survives.

At that point, like in a financial crisis, its future depends almost as much on the perception of its future as its actual pragmatic prospects: because if those who invest their money into its survival (owners, sponsors, fans) believe it's a doomed enterprise, it pretty much is doomed as a consequence of that loss in confidence.

The guy's just delusional:

Increasingly, the go-to guy in all of this is FAKE SIGI who links today to, among other things, comments from Peter Wilt, an excellent piece by Beau Dure and some intersting stuff on Pitch invasion.
(And despite the deranged mewlings from North of the Ice Curtain, no, FS isn't me.

STARTERS
Stuart Holden is now a member of Bolton Wanderers. He talks to the team's official website here.
dN
The headline contained in this next link is pure Pro-Ruud Gullit Propaganda: Gullit blames self for Galaxy flop
Ronald Blum of the Associated Press talks to Ruud Gullit about his time as a coach in MLS at the LA Galaxy, and he is pretty good at pointing the finger at everyone else.

STARTERS
El D! LD! Lando! Landycakes! Landon Frickin Donovan! Call him what you want, he scored his first Everton goal today as they beat Sunderland 2-0!! Nicely done! See it here (scroll down.)
dN
We read today that over 30% of all World Cup tickets are still unsold.

Nothing juicy to report on transfers yet, maybe later on...#1 - In case you hadn't heard as I slept, MLS and the players have extended the CBA deadline to February 12th. Me thinks an agreement is not far off.#2 - Speaking of the business of American soccer, USA Today ace Beau Dure is set to come out with a new book - Long-Range Goals: The Success Story of Major League Soccer.

MLS COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AGREEMENT
I must admit that I did not think these two sides would let this drag on so long and cause this much tension coming up to the start of the season.
With thousands of fans all set to travel for opening weekend away games, the MLS players would be making a HUUUUUUUUUUGE mistake going on strike.

CIENFUEGOS VERSION OF THIS POST:
Details on CBA still being hashed out. They'll be on Major League Soccer Soccer soon, if not already. Montreal's a lot better bet to play next year than DC United. Half the league or more doesn't have one Designated Player, so we'll let the other half have more.

In the last few years, I've spoken with Frank Dell'apa, Ray Hudson, Grant Wahl, Ives Galarcep, Jack Bell, Bruce McGuire, Jeff Carlisle, Buzz Carrick, Mitch Peacock, Robert Abramowitz, Beau Dure, and others, but it's been a while since I sat down with one of the flashlight bearers in this little wilderness to get their story.

Beau Dure has been on a twitter campaign to root out precisely why D.C. United fans didn't show up at the Washington Freedom half of league doubleheaders at RFK last year. He's upped the ante with an article on the Huffington Post that carries the headline "My challenge to D.C. United Fans."
Dure's challenge is a bit unclear.

What with the World Cup no one wanted to attend going on, Brian Phillips of Run of Play becoming some kind of soccer blogging overlord (who could have guessed that would happen when he spent 2009 blogging almost exclusively about a video game? Now he's linked to by MGoBlog, and yes, I'm jealous), Duane Rollins calling me a know-nothing blogger without using my name over the Athletica piece I still have to revise, Beau Dure hosting virtual watch parties that I didn't get invited to (Dan Loney and Steve Sirk, but not me?

I should label every entry from here on in: WARNING: this post written by someone who thought Cameroon would get to the Final.
Still, it's nice to have a straightforward, easy to understand group. Holland is through as your Group E winner (barring something absolutely ridiculous against Cameroon).

A few weeks ago I wrote a review of Beau Dure's "Long Range Goals". Both Dure's book and Gary Hopkins' "Star Spangles Soccer" cover the growth and expansion of Major League Soccer but Hopkins expands his reach to include the growth of the game in America as a whole. While Dure focused on Major League Soccer's history, Hopkins reels in the development and future growth of the American game in economic, social, and athletic terms.

So you'll remember in my self-loathing post from almost two months ago that I made an off-the-cuff remark about Brooks Peck (of Dirty Tackle fame) doing something sexist. The full context of the statement is below:

*Fine Time to Take a Breather*
What with the World Cup no one wanted to attend going on, Brian Phillips of Run of Play becoming some kind of soccer blogging overlord (who could have guessed that would happen when he spent 2009 blogging almost exclusively about a video game?

What with the World Cup no one wanted to attend going on, Brian Phillips of Run of Play becoming some kind of soccer blogging overlord (who could have guessed that would happen when he spent 2009 blogging almost exclusively about a video game? Now he's linked to by MGoBlog, and yes, I'm jealous), Duane Rollins calling me a know-nothing blogger without using my name over the Athletica piece I still have to revise, Beau Dure hosting virtual watch parties that I didn't get invited to (Dan Loney and Steve Sirk, but not me?

If Beau Dure had waited until today to release "Long Range Goals," the last sentence would read "On August 30, 2010, it was announced that Adidas renewed their sponsorship with Major League Soccer, in a deal that will run through 2018 and is worth two hundred million - that's right, two hundred god-damned million American god-damned dollars.

Finding a book that covers the business of soccer is a little like finding The Amish Guide to Electronics. Not many writers understand both aspects of the subject. We need a person who understands business and soccer. Beau Dure does a pretty good job of grasping the game and the business in Long Range Goals: The Success Story of Major League Soccer.

And the goalscoring race goes to the final game after all. Didn't see a Wondolowski hat trick coming.
Now...were the San Jose Earthquakes stupid to win tonight? It depends on how you believe the playoffs are going to shake out. Jason Kreis thinks the Quakes should have taken a dive.
Boy, it's still weird to see a USA Today MLS article not by Beau Dure.

I'm sorry, there's just no way to spin it anymore. With the apparent folding of the Washington Freedom and FC Gold Pride (the latter only the league champions, with The World's Best PlayerTM), Women's Professional Soccer is down to just six teams, none west of Chicago.

They can say they'll play with six teams in 2011, and they very well might.