After a week of vacation, I returned to my post here at the MLS Offside to find absolutely terrible news: MLS Rumors has closed. This website needed no introduction: MLS-Rumors.net was, bar none, the spiciest, edgiest, and, often, most accurate source for anything pertaining to Major League Soccer.

With Opta now getting advanced statistics for MLS, things are hopeful, but relatively inactive at this time. Sure, we get an occasional tweet from they or MLS_Analyst with stats. Many of these though are trivia, not analysis, and certainly not predictive.

Certainly this may be due to the nature of twitter.

Written by Harry

All I ask of you in my hour of need, after the unexpected defeat at the hands of Bolton, as I sit here distraught and frustrated, even angry at the events of this season, I ask that you address the faithful the hordes of fans that support and follow this club of ours as soon as is practical.

Continuing coverage of CandyGate (which conveniently involves both candy and an airport gate)! It appears that the candy was king size and that the Union players used them to trap Conor Casey in an airport supply closet. Then Pablo Mastroeni tweeted a picture of the candy, but took it down and claimed that Danny Califf hacked into his twitter account (although he later admitted this and Saturday's penalty were both terrible deceptions).

Yes after an extended break, the Hawke is back in the blogosphere.

Where to start? Well firstly, there has never been and there never will be a footballer at Arsenal who is even 0.1% of the size of the club itself.

Anybody who has believed for even one second that Cesc was not going to leave this Summer needs shooting, the club told Cesc this time last year to give us one more season and then if Barca stump up we won't stand in the way.

French football blog: Goals galore although not for les millionaires of PSG

For the new season, MirrorFootball is teaming up with some of the blogosphere's best new writers to bring you even more great football reads every single day. Thursday is Ligue 1 day, and here's French Football Weekly's Andrew Gibney with his take on events across the Channel.

Oh, hello there well-educated & reasonably financially secure connoisseur of le souccer bloug. I thank you for your readership, and also for your reading of my gifted brethren. However, I am afraid that, despite our best efforts, we have failed you. How? Why? In what way?

Allow me to explain.

If you scour the Arsenal blogosphere on a daily basis the name Critic will need no introduction. He's a passionate Desi Gooner like yours truly and has contributed the following piece. I hope you will find it a nice change from my usual analytical ramblings.

It has been a crazy transfer month, with even crazier rumors.

Dear Angry of Internetville,

Yes, we know you're frustrated.

It would have been good to have won the Carling Cup.

Knocking Manchester United out of the FA Cup would have been very satisfying.

It would have been excellent to have beaten Barcelona and progressed to the quarter finals of the Champions League.

AFC Wimbledon, the club whose establishment was regarded as "not in the wider interests of football" by the FA commission that approved Wimbledon FC's move away from South London, will be playing in the 72 next season. The blogosphere will explode with myriad AFC-themed pieces over the coming months and rightly so; as Dons supporters reminded us all upon the final whistle at Eastlands on

Few media outlets take the time to consider the particular way that FIFA makes things worse for women.
A few months ago, I reported on the slowly unfolding consequences of the decision of one xenophobic referee working in a youth tournament in Quebec (FIFA Makes its Islamophobia Official).

The Monday Profile was first conceived in Plymouth's Fortescue pub over a couple of post-Christmas 2009 ales. Given that this site's focus invariably falls on club-level and off-the-field issues and concerns, it was felt that a new column that honed in on individual players would allow us to get closer to the Football League's rank and file.

Zakuani joins the blogosphere

Via his twitter.

He wants comments. Give him comments.

Like a cat-fight between sellers at a farmer's market, everybody is entertained by handbags. In any context. At any time. And the soccer blogosphere is no different. While I have mocked via tongue-and-cheek the Archer disciples that rely on personal-attack laced rants, I realized that my traffic could increase exponentially by expanding to the "I hate my life and take it out on soccer" soccer fan demographic.

Football League blog: West Ham, Huddersfield and Swindon for a table-topping treble?

For the new season, MirrorFootball is teaming up with some of the blogosphere's best new writers to bring you even more great football reads every single day. Friday is Football League day, so please be upstanding for theseventytwo.

La Liga blog: Why there's still no end in sight for the strike ripping apart Spanish football

For the new season, MirrorFootball is teaming up with some of the blogosphere's best new writers to bring you even more great football reads every single day. Wednesday is La Liga day, and here's www.

South American football blog: Have Argentina finally found a formation to make most of Messi?

For the new season, MirrorFootball is teaming up with some of the blogosphere's best new writers to bring you even more great football reads every single day. Saturday is South America day, and here's Valderramarama's Ed Malyon with his take on the week's big issues in Argentina.

La Liga blog: Kaka and Pique back in style but Betis steal the headlines

MirrorFootball has teamed up with some of the blogosphere's best new writers to bring you even more great football reads every single day. Wednesday is La Liga day, and here's www.spanishfootball.

La Liga blog: Inside the miracle of Levante

MirrorFootball has teamed up with some of the blogosphere's best new writers to bring you even more great football reads every single day. Wednesday is La Liga day, and here's www.spanishfootball.info's David Cartlidge with his take on the week's big issues in Spain.

Football League blog: Leicester loan move is the perfect solution for Manchester City's Michael Johnson

For the new season, MirrorFootball is teaming up with some of the blogosphere's best new writers to bring you even more great football reads every single day. Friday is Football League day, so please be upstanding for theseventytwo.

Football League blog: How the plight of Billy Sharp brought out the best in football fans

For the new season, MirrorFootball is teaming up with some of the blogosphere's best new writers to bring you even more great football reads every single day. Friday is Football League day, so please be upstanding for theseventytwo.

[Editor's Note: This is another installment from Orion, to help us through the interlull. And to be clear, the Homey Train is still stubbornly cruising along, but without very many passengers at the moment.]

So I was staring at the screen, waiting for an idea to strike me from some abyss in my mind.

Why it's no surprise the likes of Arsenal and Newcastle are sniffing around Montpellier's stars

MirrorFootball is teaming up with some of the blogosphere's best new writers to bring you even more great football reads every single day. Thursday is Ligue 1 day, and here's French Football Weekly's Andrew Gibney with his take on events across the Channel.

For our latest guest contribution, we are pleased to present a match report from Yasser11, a keen supporter of the footballing blogosphere, but noteworthy in particular for his insatiable appetite for watching football in the flesh. Following trips to Stamford Bridge and Bedfont F. C.'s ground at The Orchard last week, Yasser made his way to The Valley last night.

Can Blackpool achieve the greatest shock of the 2010-2011 season by defeating Manchester United today at Bloomfield Road? On paper it seems practically impossible. But in reality, anything is possible especially for a club such as Blackpool which have become the media darlings of the blogosphere and have attracted tons of devotees in the United States and abroad.

So the first day of preseason is in the books, and unfortunately I was unable to make it. This blog doesn't pay the bills so I was at work while preseason was going on. But the rest of the KC soccer blogosphere was there today and there is plenty of information that you can look at. I doubt I'll be able to make it out to a practice before the team heads down to Arizona, but there is certainly plenty to look over.

Ever since the news Monday that the five US-based North American Soccer League teams won't be eligible to play in this year's Lamar Hunt US Open Cup competition, the blogosphere has been in an uproar. Those who haven't been hopping mad have been espousing conspiracy theories or suggesting Open Cup exclusion was either a way to push the sanctioning vote through (which happened, narrowly) or punishment for causing this whole mess in the first place.

Arsenal's victory over Barcelona yesterday was the stuff that dreams are made of. A bit of a rivalry has been developing between the clubs, and Arsenal has now tipped the scales in their favor. It was an epic performance against an equally brilliant challenger, and Arsenal deserve much more praise than anyone outside the Arsenal blogosphere are giving them.

Photo by dyobmit

One of constant complaints among football managers is that the media takes their words and twists them. The latest example of this comes from The Daily Telegraph whose headline today screams "Arsene Wenger: Arsenal can win quadruple." Except he never said that.

The blogosphere is afire with analysis of what First Kick can tell us. That, plus a great personal profile, some new signings, and a terrific new way to embarass NYRB, as if they need help doing so-it's CyberShotz!

Apologies for no post yesterday, but I was honestly struggling to find anything new or interesting to say that hasn't already been said a thousand times before. It's been a hard few weeks, even months for Arsenal fans. I think we all needed some time to cool down. It didn't really work too well for me as I usually go on twitter, get riled up, tweet something, and then drive myself crazy and probably drive a few others crazy with the responses I give.

Written by CarlitoII

Memories of singing, dancing and grinning from ear to ear at halftime on November 21st 2010 have been plaguing me and many other supporters ever since that fateful second half when twitchy switched it around and we contrived to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

The neutral host of MLS Cup will occur at least one more year, unless the Los Angeles Galaxy or Chivas USA winds up in the MLS Cup Final. Carson, CA's Home Depot Center will host the Final with the Galaxy being the presenting team (their colors will be used in Cup and Supporter Summit signage). The game will have a 6 PM Pacific start time and be shown on ESPN, ESPN Deportes and TSN getting broad national multi-lingual coverage.

From The Editors As our loyal readers know, the most important blog of our time went through some very visible growing pains right around the time the calendar flipped from 2010 to 2011. It's not always easy transitioning from a grassroots niche website to a global superpower in the blogosphere, or whatever it is that [.

Hello? Is this thing on? Is anyone still there?
After a week-or-so hiatus (okay, probably longer than a week but who's counting?), The Boys From White Hart Lane comes storming back into your blogosphere with the excited fervour usually reserved for a night at Faces. With Spurs action on the blink of late, save for a thoroughly underwhelming 0-0 draw with West Ham, traffic on this blog took a bit of a nose-dive but, after a meeting of minds at the top, it was decided that swift and resolute action needed to be taken.

Today is going to be a very slow news day on the blogosphere. The transfer rumours are only just gaining momentum and most expect Arsenal to either take second pickings behind the big spenders or to sign players who would not be targets for other top clubs.

Following on from yesterday's debate, I thought it would be interesting to have a benchmark at this point to refer back to at the end of the summer, or at the same time next season.

First a caveat - it's a starry age for the blogosphere and this award was voted for by the 7 or 8 people who most regularly post at The Two Unfortunates. So, if your blog or website didn't get a mention this time, it's not because we don't think you're great. Last year's winner BHaPPY continues to excel and it was particularly heartening to see the return of the mighty SmogBlog.

In the somewhat unfortunately titled "It's all crips and bloods in the footblogosphere," Richard Whittall examines how his experience with the soccersphere has become toxic over the last couple of months. Like most of Whittall's writing, there's some one-off remarks that make me want to tear my hair out, but this piece is mostly on point.

NEW La Liga blog! Where will Neymar fit in at Real? Where next for Diarra?

For the new season, MirrorFootball is teaming up with some of the blogosphere's best new writers to bring you even more great football reads every single day. We'll be slowly introducing you to them over the coming weeks so that by the time the first ball of the 2011-12 season is kicked in anger, you'll be firm friends.

NEW Serie A blog! Can Roma's Spanish revolution succeed in Italy?

For the new season, MirrorFootball is teaming up with some of the blogosphere's best new writers to bring you even more great football reads every single day. We'll be slowly introducing you to them over the coming weeks so that by the time the first ball of the 2011-12 season is kicked in anger, you'll be firm friends.