And we're back with another installment of "Table Talk on Trial," wherein the MLS Table Talk column tries to prove to me that it's not too much work for too little reward and that it has something of value to contribute to the soccer blogosphere at large.
Want to see something freaky? Lop off the Galaxy at the top and United at the bottom and take a look at the rest of the table, points-wise, and tell me what you see.

While the content here at The Yanks Are Coming is nothing short of top-notch, we want you to know it's OK to venture elsewhere in the blogosphere. To spare you from reading hours and hours of worthless crap, we present you five of the best stories of the week from other sources. Excuse us while we pat ourselves on the back.

I'm an optimist, and always have been, but after Chelsea's victory yesterday all we can hope for now is a miracle if United are to win the title. The leaders do have some tricky games but their four point cushion at the top is enough to convince this optimist that this won't be United's record 19th.

I always enjoy reading the MLS power rankings of various other MLS blogs around the blogosphere. With 6 games in the bag (for most teams) there is a big gap between 2nd place and 3rd place in the single table. This is what it looks like.

1. LA Galaxy 5-0-1 16pts
2. NY Red Bulls 5-1-0 15pts

followed by Colorado Rapids and Houston Dynamo with 10 points each.

I've been a bit facepalm since I read the NASL press release stating they hired "renowned soccer journalist and blogger" Kartik Krishnaiyer to be their director of communications. My first reaction was, man, I hope he stops blogging and podcasting, and thankfully, that appears to be the case.
Personally, I've read very little of his work, but I wasn't all that impressed with what I did read.

Finally, after an eventful January, I've got some answers to the big questions for this year of African soccer. Was Angola 2010 a success or a failure? Yes. Will the World Cup in South Africa be a success or a failure? Yes.

Let me try to explain.

I was hoping this week I could write something about the games at the African Cup of Nations, or something for fans caught up in a wave of enthusiasm for the coming World Cup.

While the content here at The Yanks Are Coming is nothing short of top-notch, we want you to know it's OK to venture elsewhere in the blogosphere. To spare you from reading hours and hours of worthless crap, we present you five of the best... Read more

Because of our FA Cup defeat to Stoke, this has been a football-free weekend for Arsenal. So I thought I'd take my time to consider my thoughts about the Liverpool match, rather than rush into writing something whilst still in the euphoria of victory. To cut this rather long and bloated preamble a little bit shorter, I simply don't agree with a lot of what I've read in the blogosphere and in the papers: this was not a performance based on old-style footballing values.

While the content here at The Yanks Are Coming is nothing short of top-notch, we want you to know it's OK to venture elsewhere in the blogosphere. To spare you from reading hours and hours of worthless crap, we present you five of the best stories of the week from other sources. Excuse us while we pat ourselves on the back.

While the content here at The Yanks Are Coming is nothing short of top-notch, we want you to know it's OK to venture elsewhere in the blogosphere. To spare you from reading hours and hours of worthless crap, we present you five of the best stories of the week from other sources. Excuse us while we pat ourselves on the back.

Last week in the build-up to the English Premier League's most anticipated match of the season, there were many in the press and blogosphere that openly questioned Dimitar Berbatov's ability to replace Wayne Rooney as an effective lone striker. I, myself, wrote an article arguing that Rooney's ankle injury made the EPL Chelsea's title to lose, the crux of which was based on Berbatov's inability to fill the English star's boots.

Actually it seems everyone is saying it these days. The thoughts around the Greater Sounder Nation is that there is something wrong with the team, particularly the offense. Fingers have been pointed, around the blogosphere most of these are at Adrian Hanauer for not getting Talent upgrade until halfway through season, some have pointed at Sigi for not having the team ready when the season starter.

I saw this all over the blogosphere and of course on ESPN. Love it!

JM

Dear People who Call McInerney "Union Jack," Please stop. Occasionally while surfing the ever-tumultuous realm of the blogosphere dedicated to our beautiful U, I will see you. Yes, you- the guys and gals who refer to our brave, classy, potential-liscious young soon-to-be superstar Jack McInerney as "Union Jack.

Ref Watch Manchester City v Arsenal 24/10/2010 By DogFace I'd like, if you good people of the Arsenal blogosphere are willing, to drop in occasionally to bring to your attention some Arsenal news of the ‘Untold' variety. I warn you I'm an old cynic... but please bear with me as I mean well. [.

While the content here at The Yanks Are Coming is nothing short of top-notch, we want you to know it's OK to venture elsewhere in the blogosphere. To spare you from reading hours and hours of worthless crap, we present you five of the best... Read more

1) The 2010 adidas MLS Catalog was leaked this week, and it's chock full of sweet gear. And the cover features this photo of Frankie's goal from the '08 Cup.

On an unrelated note, if anyone wants to buy me that hat I'll be your best friend.

2) For all of you that are following the single entity/labor negotiations argument going on this off season, Fake Sigi has one of the best points of veiw on the whole thing including this piece on why MLS' single table is the bees knees.

The Guardian and many other outlets are reporting that Togo's request to rejoin the African Cup of Nations has been rejected by the Confederation of African Football (CAF). The team's bus was machine-gunned by terrorists on Friday; three people in their convey were murdered by the terrorists operating under the guise of acting as Angolese rebels.

For those that thought that Seattle was running a 4-4-2, it was Steve Zakuani that they found the most frustrating. Even if you thought that they ran the diamond midfield, Zakuani frustrated. Most of the frustration was centered on his lack of defensive efforts. Later the frustrations would focus on his lack of "finishing" skill.

The Guardian has been rattling off story after story on the Glazer debt, giving me an image of a press room chock full of Shakespearean monkeys rattling away feverishly at their keyboards. And, whilst some of them have gotten repetitive, quite a few of them have been good reads.

The blogosphere isn't far behind though, and there is some good material going around over there too.

While the content here at The Yanks Are Coming is nothing short of top-notch, we want you to know it's OK to venture elsewhere in the blogosphere. To spare you from reading hours and hours of worthless crap, we present you five of the best... Read more

There was really only one football story this weekend - the distressing attack on the Togo team by rebels in a disputed part of Angola. Nearly 72 hours have passed since the incident rocked African football. It took far less time for the world's press and the blogosphere to start weighing up the implications of the attack for the 2010 World Cup.

Arsene Wenger came out and apologized for the mistimed tackle by William Gallas. How many managers do that!? He also gave a very objective analysis of that particular incident and quite a few others from the two games with Bolton. But if you read reports covering the press conference, most of the headlines are saying "Angry Wenger" or "Wenger Hits Out" and things like that.

I see a good trend forming on the blogosphere: calling attention to goal decisions that would benefit from instant replay.
Keep 'em coming, I say.

This isn't the way I wanted to get back to blogging about WPS, not at all. I get sick to my stomach when I see this:
"WPS 2009 Regular Season Champions - WPS discontinues operations of Los Angeles Sol - Dispersal draft scheduled for next week."
There's a lot of shock and outrage in the blogosphere, from Dan's screed, to Bill's comment in Andy Meade's post (which is somewhat hopefully in itself).

While the content here at The Yanks Are Coming is nothing short of top-notch, we want you to know it's OK to venture elsewhere in the blogosphere. To spare you from reading hours and hours of worthless crap, we present you five of the best... Read more

Why Arsène's Arsenal are hated (even by its own fans): a long perspective By Brian Baker I was prompted to write this following the extraordinary convulsions in the Arsenal blogosphere after the defeat to Manchester United. Chicken Licken bloggers, one of whom claimed they could manage Arsenal better than Arsene, renewed their calls for Denilson's head, Arsene's [.

Well, it's that time again. We've lost to a title rival and it hurts like hell. It hurts so much that the internet is full of hundreds of experts who know all the answers. We have a mind numbing barrage of Wenger didn't buy so we are screwed posts asking for his head. I tried to look for an article that clearly showed what our problems are and which player would solve those issues.

While the content here at The Yanks Are Coming is nothing short of top-notch, we want you to know it's OK to venture elsewhere in the blogosphere. To spare you from reading hours and hours of worthless crap, we present you five of the best... Read more

While the content here at The Yanks Are Coming is nothing short of top-notch, we want you to know it's OK to venture elsewhere in the blogosphere. To spare you from reading hours and hours of worthless crap, we present you five of the best... Read more

I feel this season we have seen unprecedented complaints against our keepers. All three of them have come under scrutiny and have received widespread criticism. As regular readers will have noticed, I have defended our keepers time and again. The point I always made was that anyone who comes under that kind of pressure and who plays in a team with overall defending issues will make mistakes.

While the content here at The Yanks Are Coming is nothing short of top-notch, we want you to know it's OK to venture elsewhere in the blogosphere. To spare you from reading hours and hours of worthless crap, we present you five of the best stories of the week from other sources. Excuse us while we pat ourselves on the back.

Smith battling with a member of the Columbus Crew down in AZ.Some of this has been in the blogosphere before, but Ryan Smith, Igor Kostrov and Craig Rocastle have all signed contracts with the Wizards. Smith and Kostrov have all necessary paperwork and are immediately available for selection in League play.

Football bloggers. Does a more committed collective exist anywhere in football, across any cross-section of the game? Not only are they dyed in the wool supporters and students of the game themselves, but they also give up a large chunk of their own free time to create, debate, muse, argue, serve and inform a wide and varied audience of fellow football fanatics, all the while managing to balance the additional demands of running a website, creating regular content, handling the boring administrative nuts and bolts and just generally keeping informed.

I'm an optimist, and always have been, but after Chelsea's victory yesterday all we can hope for now is a miracle if United are to win the title. The leaders do have some tricky games but their four point cushion at the top is enough to convince this optimist that this won't be United's record 19th.

Was it greedy to want third place? Perhaps. In any case, when Redknapp's players came into the dressing room 2-1 up at Burnley and found out Arsenal were leading 3-0, there was probably a collective foot being taken off the pedal. End result? A meaningless 4-2 defeat. Annoying, yes, as it messed up accumulators up and down the land.

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Yes indeed I'm back... still settling into the new flat with the new wife though. I'll likely by back next week to the podcast and on the blogosphere in a few days.
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Hala Madrid!

Just the same old monotonous stories churned out day after day, one day Cesc is a hero, the next he is a Spanish mug, according to the gutter goon blogs that is.

Are certain sections of the Gooner blogosphere the most mind numbing, boring, life-less individuals this side of N5?

Seriously, get a life you deluded simpletons.

"What does it take to win the World Cup?" asked Henry D Fetter of The Atlantic a couple of days ago, in a post called "What It Takes To Win The World Cup."

Past results suggest that going through a period of dictatorial government is almost a sine qua non for a nation to be a champion.

As we close in the Brazil match, I think it's a fitting time to take a look forward to Brazil 2014. Many throughout the soccer media and blogosphere have put together lists of who could be on the plane, more interesting to me is what will the team look like. Who develops, who avoids injuries, who is on top form come 2014 is impossible to guess.