The Philadelphia Union confirmed on Tuesday afternoon that Sebastien Le Toux has been traded to Vancouver.

In return, the club receives an undisclosed amount of allocation money.

Union head coach Peter Nowak said in the announcement, "While this decision wasn't easy, we are confident that the allocation money we receive will provide the flexibility for us to compile the best possible roster for 2012 and beyond.

Benfica have loaned out midfielder/right back Ruben Amorim to Braga for the next year and a half. Amorim who had a falling out with Benfica coach Jorge Jesus, recently signed a contract extension with the club until 2013 but the club felt it was in their best interest to loan Amorim to Braga never the less.

It's almost impossible to have escaped the saga of the Chris Paul trade(s) in the NBA but just in case you have, here are a couple of need-to-know facts.

• Ownership of the New Orleans Hornets (Chris Paul's now former team) was sold to the NBA back in December 2010
• Every owner in the NBA owns 1/29th of the Hornets but does not have any direct say in day-to-day operations
• NBA commissioner David Stern had given full authority to Hornets General Manager Dell Demps to make whatever player moves he felt were in the team's best interest
• The Hornets best player and NBA superstar Chris Paul was under contract for only one more season
• Chris Paul recently told the Hornets he didn't want to sign with them after this season and would like to be traded
• Rather than see the Hornets get nothing when Paul walks this summer, GM Demps worked out a three-way trade less than two weeks ago that would have shipped Paul to the Los Angeles Lakers and had a couple of players from the Lakers and the Houston Rockets come to the Hornets.

Sending young players out on loan to build experience is standard practice at top Premier League clubs, and Liverpool is no exception. However, Reserve team coach Rodolfo Borrell is worried that some loan moves can be counter-productive, and he argues that this has been the case for promising young striker Nathan Eccleston.

There has been much talk recently about the futures of Nicolas Anelka and Didier Drogba, both of whom will see their contracts expire in the summer. Former Chelsea and AC Milan manager Carlo Ancelotti, for one, has talked up both players as potential targets for Milan, saying he could see them "fitting in very well" at the Italian club.

Two weeks without club football? Check. The potential for the club's most important players to pick up injuries? Check. All the time in the world to stew over a bad performance leading into the break? Check. A fully functioning liver? That might depend on how many Liverpool players go to sleep Tuesday night without having picked up an injury between now and then.

Shocking move by the Colorado Rockies who fired coach Gary Smith. What makes this decision such a head scratcher is that Smith led the Rapids to their first MLS Cup less than a year ago.

Managing director Jeff Plush said Monday that he decided not to renew Smith's contract, which ended after the season.

Gary Smith is now out as head coach of the Colorado Rapids. (Getty Images)

You could see the writing on the wall with this for several weeks. Gary Smith was not happy and neither were the folks above him with the Colorado Rapids.

Today, they made it official as the club announced they would be parting ways with the only head coach in their club history to guide them to a MLS Cup.

This post may or may not serve our hidden flogging-your-computer-with-gratuitous-Pique-pics agenda. Image taken 19.09.2011 at the Joan Mas concert.

Kickettes, before we begin, it's in your best interest to take this news with a grain of salt and shot of tequila.

Patron Silver chilled is our ace in the hole, just in case you're in the market for a more specific suggestion.

As last season moved along, a fairly strong consensus formed: Lucas Leiva was the most underrated player on the squad, and quite possibly the most underrated player in the league. Opinion, though, can shift, and by the end of the season he was the consensus player of the year for his club, a starter in midfield for his country, and had won over many of his former critics as the top tackler across Europe's five biggest leagues.

United States National Team and Chivas USA defender Jimmy Conrad announced his retirement on Thursday. The 34-year-old had been attempting to return to the club after recovering from multiple concussions. "I spoke to people that are close to me, like my family, but mainly it was the doctors and coaches who helped me come to this conclusion," Conrad said in a press statement.

With the Premier League start beginning, it's time for previews. Take it away, Amy Lawrence:
Gervinho might prove to be another classic Arsène Wenger bargain, an athletic and pacy ball player raring to step up a level, spirited over from France for a fee that doesn't make a certain manager with a well-documented devotion to cautious housekeeping choke as if he was asked to fix the Greek economy before breakfast.

Somewhere out there, someone is upset over this news. Quite frankly I and probably most of the die-hard LA Galaxy fans are not. Landon Donovan announced over the weekend that he will skip the MLS All-Star Game this week against Manchester United due to a nagging calf injury that has been bothering him lately.

I've been getting frustrated with the coverage of the Samir Nasri contract situation over the last week or so, particularly around the vitriol directed at him for his stance in negotiating his new contract and/or move to another club. I don't doubt for a second that he has been somewhat ruthless in his approach, but I've not seen anything that he's said or done that has left me thinking 'ooo, that's a bit off'.

Gaston Puerari -- Getty ImagesThe Chicago Fire transferred Uruguayan forward Gaston Puerari to Club Atlas, the team announced Wednesday.
"Club Atlas was very keen on Gaston, and we made the decision to accept the offer based on the best interest of building our club," Fire interim head coach and technical director Frank Klopas said in a statement.

Photo by Tracy Allen/ISIphotos.com

With all of the Chicago Fire's recent forward acquisitions, there couldn't be room for everybody in Frank Klopas' stable of strikers, and Gaston Puerari is the odd man out.

The Fire sold Puerari, a Uruguayan forward acquired in the offseason, to Mexican club Atlas on Wednesday for an undisclosed transfer fee.

So..it looks like we've made no further progress in regards to our bid for Phil Jones.

Soccernet is reporting that while we've agreed to personal terms with the player AND met the buyout clause in his contract, the most important thing hasn't been resolved. And that would be the actual transfer fee to convince Blackburn to sell him to us.

I think Cesc Fabregas' time at Arsenal is nearing it's end. He has been a great servant since joining the club at age 16, but it may now be time to collect the fat check from Barcelona, allow Cesc to go where he wants, and use the money to move forward and improve the team as a whole. Sources say that Arsenal are looking for a fee of 35-40 million pounds for the captain, and if Barcelona, or any other club, meet that asking price, does anyone NOT think it would be in our best interest to take that kind of cash?

I think Cesc Fabregas' time at Arsenal is nearing it's end. He has been a great servant since joining the club at age 16, but it may now be time to collect the fat check from Barcelona, allow Cesc to go where he wants, and use the money to move forward and improve the team as a whole. Sources say that Arsenal are looking for a fee of 35-40 million pounds for the captain, and if Barcelona, or any other club, meet that asking price, does anyone NOT think it would be in our best interest to take that kind of cash?

I think Cesc Fabregas' time at Arsenal is nearing it's end. He has been a great servant since joining the club at age 16, but it may now be time to collect the fat check from Barcelona, allow Cesc to go where he wants, and use the money to move forward and improve the team as a whole. Sources say that Arsenal are looking for a fee of 35-40 million pounds for the captain, and if Barcelona, or any other club, meet that asking price, does anyone NOT think it would be in our best interest to take that kind of cash?

I think Cesc Fabregas' time at Arsenal is nearing it's end. He has been a great servant since joining the club at age 16, but it may now be time to collect the fat check from Barcelona, allow Cesc to go where he wants, and use the money to move forward and improve the team as a whole. Sources say that Arsenal are looking for a fee of 35-40 million pounds for the captain, and if Barcelona, or any other club, meet that asking price, does anyone NOT think it would be in our best interest to take that kind of cash?

I think Cesc Fabregas' time at Arsenal is nearing it's end. He has been a great servant since joining the club at age 16, but it may now be time to collect the fat check from Barcelona, allow Cesc to go where he wants, and use the money to move forward and improve the team as a whole. Sources say that Arsenal are looking for a fee of 35-40 million pounds for the captain, and if Barcelona, or any other club, meet that asking price, does anyone NOT think it would be in our best interest to take that kind of cash?

I think Cesc Fabregas' time at Arsenal is nearing it's end. He has been a great servant since joining the club at age 16, but it may now be time to collect the fat check from Barcelona, allow Cesc to go where he wants, and use the money to move forward and improve the team as a whole. Sources say that Arsenal are looking for a fee of 35-40 million pounds for the captain, and if Barcelona, or any other club, meet that asking price, does anyone NOT think it would be in our best interest to take that kind of cash?

I think Cesc Fabregas' time at Arsenal is nearing it's end. He has been a great servant since joining the club at age 16, but it may now be time to collect the fat check from Barcelona, allow Cesc to go where he wants, and use the money to move forward and improve the team as a whole. Sources say that Arsenal are looking for a fee of 35-40 million pounds for the captain, and if Barcelona, or any other club, meet that asking price, does anyone NOT think it would be in our best interest to take that kind of cash?

No matter how we felt about Carlo Ancelotti or previous managers one thing remains and that's Roman Abramovich and the fact he is committed to Chelsea. We have to remember where exactly we would be without him at the club and I know there are a fair few Chelsea fans out there that do feel disgruntled at his running of the club and some of his methods.

If you aren't entirely – or even vaguely – familiar with Mr. Matias Silvestre, it be in your best interest to spend some time browsing through here. Image Credit: Maurizio Lagana/Getty Images Europe.

I have a new piece in Slate on parity in soccer, which of course means the lack of parity in soccer, which means the fact that Real Madrid and Barcelona have combined to win 51 La Liga titles compared to 28 for all the other clubs in Spain, and Blackburn is still the only club outside the Functional Big Three ever to win a Premier League title, and even a plucky underdog like Leyton Orient, after bravely winning an FA Cup draw against Arsenal at home, can expect to be roto-rooted into oblivion by Nicklas Bendtner at the Emirates.

Shalrie Joseph is one of the best players in MLS. Without question.

He is a ball winner, an organizer, a stopper, a physical presence, a goal scorer, and a vocal presence in the heart of the attack. It would not be a stretch that there are many occasions when Joseph does it all.

All, except for one crucially important thing: setting a good example.

- Jason Davis
The reaction to David Beckham's training stint with Tottenham being extended a further two weeks while his Galaxy teammates gear up for the MLS season was about as surprising as a Dema Kovalenko horror tackle. We knew it was coming, it was just a matter of when.
Sure enough, when the West Coast finally joined the conversation sometime after noon East Coast time, bile exploded in Becks' specific direction.

- Jason Davis
Charlie Davies just made it a bit harder for D.C. United to say no to a loan deal. Davies scored and provided an assist to Joseph Ngwenya in United's 5-1 victory over the Canadian U-20s in Fort Lauderdale. Even considering the competition, United can't ask much more of Davies than to spark the offense when given the chance during his week-long evaluation period.

The delay of the Brisbane-Fury match means that if CCM beat Melbourne Heart tonight, then Gold Coast on Wednesday 9 Feb, Central Coast will still have a chance of winning the A-League table - if Brisbane loose to Gold Coast. Central Coast's final game is the day after the Brisbane's last match.
It is possible that the Fury match may be delayed further.

Several Americans wound up making last-minute moves yesterday all loan deals as the winter transfer window came to a close. Here's a recap of all the action (and in some cases, lack of action):

As reported before, Michael Bradley and Freddy Adu both made moves, which were officially announced yesterday.

Ah the rumor mill. Such a crazy addictive hobby. And it's always a load of rubbish.

The thing that will stir it up more than anything is a massive purchase. Due to the particularities of January and the desperation of clubs, there tend to be more ridiculous purchases than during the summer.

Liverpool chairman Tom Werner has expressed his disappointment at having to sack Roy Hodgson but felt it was in the club's best interest to let him go.
Hodgson's contract was terminated earlier this month after the Reds found themselves languishing near the bottom of the Premier League, struggling to even make the European places.

The British media are going crazy with the prospect of David Beckham returning to the Premier League, even if it is just for a twelve week loan period. But nobody seems to be asking whether the LA Galaxy should let Beckham go out on loan again.

In the last two January transfer windows, Beckham had signed with AC Milan to keep himself fit, and also keep himself in the frame for England.