Photo: Paul Rudderow

Chicago Fire defender Dan Gargan has made news on the field as an automatic starter at for his club, but he keeps drawing notice off the field for his artwork too.

Gargan drew notice earlier this season with the terrific video he put together looking at Chicago's preseason preparation for the MLS season.

Photo: Paul Rudderow

Bobby Convey scored his first goal in a Kansas City uniform Saturday, but his team still fell short in the end.

Convey made a nice run into the box in the first half against Chicago, picked up a pass from Roger Espinosa, and right-footed a slow ball into the net for his 31st goal in MLS.

Here's a look at some stats from last night's game against Chicago.
Bobby Convey scored his first goal for Sporting KC last night.
Convey's goal was the 50th goal that KC has scored against the Fire.
Kei Kamara recorded his 12th assist for KC on Convey's goal, that ties him with Paul Wright for 19th for the most assists in league play.

Sporting KC played a decent 45 minutes in the first half against Chicago, but fell apart in the second half, as the Chicago Fire beat KC 2-1 to send Kansas City to their 3rd straight loss. Early on it was the Fire that really controlled the play, keep the ball deep in KC's end and looking very threatening, especially on corner kicks, but the Fire couldn't find an opener.

Photo courtesy of Seattle Sounders

Jeff Parke wasn't too thrilled about getting unexpectedly benched in April. So when the Seattle Sounders center back earned his way back into Seattle's starting lineup, he didn't waste the opportunity.

Parke manned the center this week for Seattle as the Western Conference club posted consecutive shutouts this week against Los Angeles and Philadelphia, with the two clubs posting just two combined shots on goal against Seattle.

Photo: Paul Rudderow

Temple alum J.T. Noone resigned with his hometown Harrisburg City Islanders and celebrated Friday with a game-winning goal.

Noone buried a penalty kick in the 51st minute to lead Harrisburg to a 2-1 win Friday over the Charleston Battery. Noone, who spent half a season with Philadelphia Union, recorded four assists last season in 21 games for Harrisburg.

Here are some stats for KC's two games in the Pacific Northwest.
Bobby Convey's start against Portland was his 175th in all competitions in his MLS career.
Roger Espinoza made his 75th career MLS start against Portland.
The loss to Portland was Kansas City's 200th loss in team history, the team is 201-200-100 in league play.

Photo: Paul Rudderow

This past weekend's match between the top team in each conference featured a Philadelphian playing yet another new position.

Now in his first season with Kansas City, Bobby Convey is being deployed at left wing in a 4-3-3, the only new starter for the league's best and only undefeated team.

Photo courtesy of Montreal Impact

Philadelphia-area players turned the tides in Saturday's two biggest games in Major League Soccer, as Andrew Wenger scored a game-winner and Bobby Convey created one with a beautiful assist.

Wenger's goal came in a nationally televised (in Canada) match between Toronto and Montreal, giving the Impact their first-ever MLS win by a 2-1 score.

The game was called the biggest matchup of the early season by ESPN's Adrian Healey in the pregame. While this may have been an overstatement, yesterday's match featured two teams that during the preseason many had as the best in ...
Visit http://www.majorleaguesoccertalk.com for the rest of the story.

Photo:

It might seem odd for two Philly guys to be happy about playing for a soccer team in Charleston, S.C., but if there's anything Ryan Richter and Tony Donatelli should keep in mind, it's recent history.

Richter, a LaSalle alum who played for Philadelphia Union last season, and Donatelli, a Temple grad who moves from minor league Rochester, both signed with the Charleston Battery of the USL last week.

Photo:

Two right backs from the Philadelphia area faced off on Saturday, but only one came out a winner.

Chicago right back Dan Gargan started and went the full 90 for Chicago in the club's 1-0 over Philadelphia, being a key part of the Chicago attack that consistently came down the right flank.

Photo: Daniel Gajdamowicz

Philly locals faced off on opposite sides of the field and determined the course of a match for the first time in Philadelphia Union history.

Not that it was a good thing for any of them.

Colorado midfielder and Chestnut Hill Academy alum Jeff Larentowicz drew a red card in the 58th minute of Colorado's 2-1 win over Philadelphia, turning Sunday's Union home opener into a wide open affair as the Rapids went a man down.

Photo courtesy of US Soccer

You've all read the weekly Americans Abroad roundups on various sites, ranging from Sports Illustrated and Yanks Abroad to MLSSoccer.com.

Well, PSP is now going to start doing the same with players from the Philadelphia area.

Of course, what's a Philadelphian?

Continuing our trip West, we look at teams that the Colorado Rapids will be battling for a playoff spot in 2012.

FC Dallas: Pizza Hut Park is home to one of my two enigmas for the coming season. The defense looks better with George John's return, but there are questions on whether Dallas is closer to the 2010 team that went to the MLS Cup finals, or a squad likely to scrape by into the playoffs.

Continuing our look at the coming MLS season we finish with the teams in the East and move West in our preview.

Sporting Kansas City: The squad struggled to score in the preseason, but all other signs are looking up for KC. The team doesn't have to start a season homeless on the road.

Team: San Jose Earthquakes Coach: Frank Yallop Last Season: 8-12-14, 7th Western Conference, 14th Overall Hashtag: #SJEarthquakes Although it is an overused phrase, this year is a critical year for the San Jose ‘Quakes. The team is at a crossroads and this season ...
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Philadelphia Union

Sky Sports reports that Bolton manager Owen Coyle "claims no decision has been taken as yet regarding a permanent deal" for Sebastien Le Toux.

Jonathan Tannenwald tweets, "A Union source says the team 'would not use Tim Ream as a benchmark' in any negotiations over Le Toux regarding transfer fee.

If Sporting Kansas City's season had a title, it would be "Night and Day". A tough start to the season, no doubt spurred on by the never-ending road trip, saw the team open Livestrong Park and use its great atmosphere ...
Visit http://www.majorleaguesoccertalk.com for the rest of the story.

Photo: Courtesy US Soccer

Philly Soccer Page

Today marks the return of one series and the start of another. First, fresh on the heels of our series of raves, we begin our series of season reviews of every Philadelphia Union player who saw more than ten minutes of action in 2011 (sorry Morgan!

Sporting Kansas City continued their busy start to the offseason, making another trade. This time, the team brought in left sided midfielder/back, Bobby Convey from the San Jose Earthquakes. In return, Sporting KC is sending an international roster spot to the Quakes. A bit of a surprising move for KC sending the international spot to San Jose, as KC will now go from 9 international spots to 7, the other spot KC is losing is because it's expiring from the Adam Cristman trade with DC.

Bobby Convey is headed to KC. (Getty Images)

You have to like what some clubs are doing right now. This week has been a big week of trades as clubs get ready for the First Stage of the Re-Entry Draft next week. Today another trade came down the pipe and while others haven't been as big this one certainly has the makings of being pretty huge.

Philadelphia Union declined contract options for midfielder Stefani Miglioranzi and goalkeeper Chase Harrison, leaving each out of contract and available for election in Major League Soccer's Re-Entry Draft.

Miglioranzi, 34, is one of two remaining Union originals selected in the Expansion Draft in November 2009, along with Sebastien Le Toux.

Slim soccer news pickings from the Thanksgiving holiday. Checkout our Thanksgiving Day news roundup for extensive coverage of reaction to the Expansion Draft and more.

Union

Union Dues says Justin Mapp "has won himself into the 'Do Not Boo' list" and looks forward "to welcoming Mapp and his new team to PPL for the first time.

Ever read those posts on SI.com, Fox Soccer, or ESPN.com with the "five thoughts about ..." and then, well, lo and behold, they offer you five random thoughts about a topic?

Yeah, I always thought they were mailing it in too, too rushed or whatever to come up with a lede, coherent structure for the column, etc.

By Andrew Villegas The problem with the MLS expansion draft candy dish is that you have to wade through a hundred stale Tootsie Rolls (some of which cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, go figure) to get to that proverbial Snickers bar. This is the worst kept secret in American soccer. Teams stack the unprotected [.

Photo courtesy of MLSsoccer.com

The call

Peter Nowak: "Did you guys see the replay [of the free kick goal that was ruled offside] or not yet? I saw it, the frame. The ball is off Séba's foot already by two or three yards...All I can say is that we live in a country where you can criticize everybody, including the President and the federal government.

Ahead of the MLS All-Star Game, Bobby Convey spoke with MLS Reserves. Convey was selected to the All-Star roster for the second consecutive year. He's been consistently effective for the San Jose Earthquakes as both a left back and a midfielder. San Jose has only lost twice in its last 13 matches and Convey's efforts have played a huge role in that.

Writing an article like this is comes with a bit of a disclaimer... Mainly because four out of five of these things I have on good authority that MLS is already to seeking to improve upon. Naturally, we all have our own lists of things MLS can do better so feel free to list them in the comments section below.

It's a new year, so it's time to look ahead. What can you expect from PSP in 2011? Well, we don't know. 2010 was our first full year. We were new to this. But what we did last year might give you a clue for this year.

So take a look at the best of our stuff from 2010.If you're new to this site, this is basically an intro to what we can do, posts that stand the test of time.