Last year in their first season as part of USSDA both Sounders Academy teams made the playoffs by winning their groups, with the U16s advancing on to finals week as one of the top 8 teams. As we noted a few weeks ago, this season has been a little rougher for the academy. The U18s needed to win their final match of the regular season against Vancouver and have the De Anza Force lose out to make second place in the group to earn a playoff spot.

It's awards time again. Leading up to a Euro 2012-induced hiatus for The Two Unfortunates, we'll be proclaiming our gongs for 2011-12 based on the opinions of our writers; watchers of football in all three divisions of the Football League. It's fitting to note then, that our Best Manager of a year ago was Paul Lambert, now poised to take the next possibly upward step in his coaching career, while Brighton and Hove Albion nabbed our Best Team award and Adel Taarabt won the Best Player Accolade.

RVP Won't Stay Unless Arsenal Sign Quality Players

Robin van Persie has reportedly told Arsenal that he will sign a new contract only if they can assure him that the team will end their trophy drought next year. (The Daily Star)

The 28-year-old striker was Arsenal's best player in the recently concluded season and scored a remarkable 37 goals for the Gunners in all competition.

Barcelona provided Pep Guardiola with the perfect sendoff by routing Athletic Bilbao 3-0 in the Copa del Rey final on Friday night, the club's 14th trophy in four seasons under its most successful coach.

Pedro Rodriguez scored in the third and 25th minutes, and Lionel Messi ended his record-setting season with his 73rd goal in the 20th minute.

In his last press conference as the manager of FC Barcelona, Guardiola said that he's happy and that he has the feeling that "with time people will say that these players played great football and that it was enjoyable"

Barcelona's victory over Athletic meant that Guardiola won his fourth title of the year, and 14th during his time as Barça's boss.

On Saturday, Junior Lone Star are on the road again, this time to face Pocono Snow FC in National Premier Soccer League (NPSL) play (7:00pm – East Stroudsburg University, East Stroudsburg, PA). Match coverage of the game starts just before kick-off with the Star's CoveritLive thread As the game unfolds, you can post your comments in the CoveritLive thread or on the team's Twitter feed.

Clint Dempsey says he wants to play in the Champions League before he retires and basically told any club wanting to sign him to put an offer on the table.

in an interview with Sports Illustrated, the best player the US has ever produced reiterated his desire to test himself against the game's best.

A polemic for you this Friday from regular contributor Phil Ascough. Phil is the author of Kissing The Badge – How Much Do You Know About 20 Years Of The Premier League? and The Armchair Olympian, both published by Bloomsbury. A shortened version of this article was published earlier this week by The Yorkshire Post.

Hello and welcome to the inaugural Arsenalinsider Awards. Well, that's probably how I would open proceedings if this were a glitzy bash packed with the good and the great from the world of the Arsenal and it was being screened live to an audience of millions.

Of course, in years to come this may well be the case but for now we will have to make do with the virtual platform provided here.

Robin van Persie may have picked up all the accolades but Arsenal goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny is fully aware that the impact of Thierry Henry's loan spell midway through the season played an instrumental role in reviving the Gunners' Premier League season.

In particular, Szczesny recalls Henry's last-gasp match winner in the 2-1 win over Sunderland on February 11.

Who is the best player to come through the Arsenal Youth Programme? Not signed as kids like Theo, Cesc and Kolo from other clubs but actually raised at THOF

We have seen some wonderful players come through in the last 20+ years (which is my time frame). On a quiet day why don't we have a little reminisce?

Who is the best player to come through the Arsenal Youth Programme? Not signed as kids like Theo, Cesc and Kolo from other clubs but actually raised at THOF

We have seen some wonderful players come through in the last 20+ years (which is my time frame). On a quiet day why don't we have a little reminisce?

By Andrew Crawford, writing from Shanghai

The dust has started to settle on the ugly coup that ousted Jean Tigana from the Shanghai Shenhua dug out last month- but that doesn't mean things have improved.

Shenhua's last game, another dull, uninspiring 0-0 draw against Shanghai Shenxin at the Hongkou was the fourth game in a row that the former have gone without scoring a goal.

With West Ham's promotion to the Premier League yesterday, the 2011/2012 Championship season finally came to an end. Despite having had three weeks to mull over Ipswich Town's year, I still haven't come to a conclusion on how I feel about it. It's been disappointing, that much is clear. But even the pessimistic of fans would be hard pressed to deny that we (when I say we I man Paul Jewell) have learnt a few lessons and the side HAS progressed form this time 12 months ago.

As we like to do, we reached out to our Vancouver Whitecaps blogger Benjamin Massey of 86 Forever. Here are our questions and his answers:

1 - Prior to the season many observers thought that the Whitecaps would be defined by their offense. It's been OK, but not great. What will it take to get better?

Cristiano Ronaldo had himself a banner year.

No, his season won't end atop the UEFA Champions League winners' podium, and his miss in the penalty kick shootout in the UCL semifinals certainly put a damper on his 2011-2012 resume, but after a season in which Ronaldo scored against every team in La Liga, tallied 46 goals in league play and 60 across all competitions and led Real Madrid to a record 100 points en route to their 32nd Spanish league title, his place as one of the world's greatest players is secure.

I honestly don't know this club anymore. I'd better get used to that fact.
Look, we're all aware this season's results were horrendous. The denizens of the Andromeda Galaxy are aware of that. The fact remains it was one season, the season after Hicks and Gillett nearly destroyed the club and Hodgson helped dig the hole deeper.

Their Words "At 17, you just want to train with the first team, then you get greedy, want to get in the team and win trophies, but of course I didn't think I'd still be playing at this age." Manchester United midfielder and Premier League Best Player in 20 Seasons award winner Ryan Giggs. Other Sources 2012 Meet The USASA: Eric Wynalda's Cal FC from Thousand Oaks, CA - from TheCup.

Manchester United midfielder Ryan Giggs has won the award for the Best Player in the English Premier League during its first 20 seasons. Giggs has been a consistent player during the EPL era which saw United won multiple titles as well as trophies in Europe. The Welshman had the following comments about winning the award.

By J Hutcherson - WASHINGTON, DC (May 15, 2012) US Soccer Players -- Shocked looks all around, but my pick for best player over the Premier League's 20 seasons didn't even make the Best XI. Congratulations to Ryan Giggs, but one has to wonder how there was no space for Dennis Bergkamp in either version of what the Premier League called a "Fantasy Team.

Sir Alex Ferguson has been named the best manager over the past 20 Premier League seasons whilst Ryan Giggs has been named the best player. Unsurprisingly.

Well done.

"Fergie and Giggs The Best" was originally published at The Republik of Mancunia.

There would be little value in doing an opinion poll on who has been our best player of the season. No doubt, a vast majority would opt for our captain, top goal scorer, and the PL's Player of the Season, Robin van Persie. But it all becomes a lot more difficult when we have to choose our second best player of the season.

There would be little value in doing an opinion poll on who has been our best player of the season. No doubt, a vast majority would opt for our captain, top goal scorer, and the PL's Player of the Season, Robin van Persie. But it all becomes a lot more difficult when we have to choose our second best player of the season.

So, it has begun already. The season is barely finished and the summer transfer madness has kicked in. I say madness because there's a lot of talk, a lot of hype, a lot of speculation and frankly, it should barely register on our Give-a-fuck-ometers because it's nothing anyone who has even a passing interest in football couldn't have predicted.

Sir Alex Ferguson has today confirmed that Paul Scholes will continue playing for United next season. It was always likely that he would agree to play for another season, as there would be little point in coming out for retirement for just a few months more football. Importantly, Scholes proved that he's still up to scratch and was arguably our best player since January.

Arsenal finished the league season today in 3rd place, which gives the team automatic qualification for next season's Champions League, which is great.
Some of this season's highlights:
1. Getting by Udinese in the Champions League Qualifier
2. Winning the Champions League group, including taking four points against Borussia Dortmund, who just completed the German League and Cup double
3.

Let us know who you think the best player for Newcastle was at Everton this afternoon in the 3-1 defeat, which was hardly representative of the great season the Magpies have just completed..

The European 2012 Championships are just around the corner, beginning in June, so what is always an enthralling and memourable
Tournament should feature plenty of Liverpool's players at this year's Tournament Euro 2012 Betting lets hope for good performances from the men from Liverpool in the Euro's.

Here's Napoli's Edinson Cavani looking very much like a drummer of a hipster band you'd probably spot at Coachella. The words on his cool shirt translates to : "All other t-shirts are to be washed!" So Edinson, what exactly happens if your entire drawer is stuffed with these exact shirts do you wash them all?

"There are three words that we go on" CJ Brown said on Wednesday night, moments after he became the seventh man to join the Ring of Fire. "Tradition, passion and honor."

Nobody exemplifies those words better than CJ. He might not have been the best player in Fire history, but not one person sweated more, pushed more, exemplified better the badge and those words it is supposed to represent than CJ in his 372 games for the club.

Sir Alex Ferguson has today confirmed that Javier Hernandez will not be representing Mexico in this summer's Olympics.

Last summer he won the Gold Cup with Mexico as the competition's top scorer and best player. The summer before he played in the World Cup and scored goals against Argentina and France.

Biglia Claims Arsenal and Real Madrid's Interest

Belgian Pro League club Anderlecht's defensive midfielder Lucas Biglia has claimed that he is being tracked by both Arsenal FC and Real Madrid. (Goal.

At one point the path to Western Conference victory was assumed to include FC Dallas. Their slow start puts the Toros in 6th, but their struggles are deeper than the 12 points in 10 played indicate. Similar to the Seattle Sounders, Dallas lost a player to injury last year. David Ferriera is still out after his ankle injury last year.

Barcelona's squad contains a number of talented individuals such as Andres Iniesta and Cesc Fabregas as well as the world's best player in recent years Lionel Messi; however, this season the Spanish league title went to a deserving club: Real Madrid.

There are several reasons as to why Los Blancos triumphed in La Liga following Barca's recent domination on both the domestic and European fronts.

Without a fuss in Sunday's 2-0 win over Swansea City, Wayne Rooney strolled off, looking resigned, and accepted his substitution. Manchester United were bringing on Dimitar Berbatov for the last 10 minutes of a game that had already been won and just as Rooney was coming off, he received a warm ovation.

I originally wrote about this on our Liverpool site, but wanted to expand on the story over here.

Liverpool chairman Tom Werner says that Fulham's USA star Clint Dempsey would be a great addition to Kenny Dalglish's Liverpool squad.

Dempsey is having a career year at Fulham, scoring 16 goals in the league for Fulham and obviously catching the eye of Liverpool's US ownership.

Let us know who you think Newcastle's best player was tonight at Stamford Bridge in Newcastle's magnificent 2-0 win against the Blues.

What Mourinho wants, he gets. Reports emerging suggest that Mourinho will try to force out sporting Director Zinedine Zidane for his alleged involvement in first team affairs.

Zidane who was referred to Madrid as an advisor to then incoming president Florentino Perez three years ago, has seen his roles change eventually being named as the Sporting director at the season.

Safe Hands: Meara Gets a Long Overdue Clean SheetIt was hardly the Red Bulls' prettiest game of the year, but the New York Red Bulls somehow managed to get through a full 90+ minutes with a makeshift back line and kept their first clean sheet of the year on Saturday - a 1-0 win over visiting New England Revolution.

Let us know who you think Newcastle's best player was at the DW Stadium this afternoon, in Newcastle's shocking 4-0 defeat.