This morning, my personal site, the Kartik Report along with partner site Inside Minnesota Soccer was among those breaking the story that Crystal Palace Baltimore and Paul Daglish's Tampa Bay Rowdies were joining the new TOA "breakaway" league . Later it was reported at USL News, � and discussed at Match Fit USA among other places, today it was revealed that Miami FC purchased the trademark for the defunct North American Soccer League. Click to continue reading...

Colorado Caribous 1978 jersey. Can't wait to see this brought back!

"Party Like It's 1979″, says the usually stone cold sober Kenn Tomasch. "The future of American soccer appears to be the past of American soccer."

Kenn writes this because news broke today that the breakaway second-tier league made-up of nine former USL and new clubs may use the North American Soccer League name for itself, after Miami FC put in two trademark claims.

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The future of American soccer appears to be the past of American soccer.

It's being reported that the new breakaway league consisting of several former USL clubs has registered the name North American Soccer League, apparently with the intent of using it at launch next spring.

There are those of us old enough to remember the original NASL (if you're not, go here).

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The UEFA 2010 World Cup Qualifying Playoffs had their second legs on Wednesday, November 18, 2009. One of the match-ups was the Republic of Ireland v France that was 0-1 after the first leg. The Irish were the clear underdog with a 0-1 deficit after the first leg and having to travel to France for the second leg.

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Montreal inches closer to a MLS expansion bid.

By now we've all seen the lovely quote from MLS commissioner Don Garber yesterday about future league expansion.

"We've had productive conversations with Montreal to be our 19th team," said Garber.

With all the issues going on with the USL/TOA crap you have to think that Montreal owner Joey Saputo is trying to figure out the best way to get his club into the top-tier league instead of a new breakaway league.

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To defend against the breakaway, teams must be prepared to face an attacking opponent with fewer than optimal numbers. Sometimes, only the goalie is left in the sole line of defense against two or three opponents dashing towards the goal. Your team must practice defending with numbers down to better prepare for coming up against a breakaway. Click to continue reading...

The Major League Soccer Playoffs wrapped up its Conference Semifinal round on Sunday, November 8, 2009 as the Los Angeles Galaxy faced Chivas USA. The score was 2-2 on aggregate heading into the second leg. Here's a recap of the match along with video highlights.

Los Angeles Galaxy beats Chivas USA 1-0 (3-2 on aggregate) Video Highlights (to be added later)

1st Half

The Galaxy came out aggressive and had chances early.

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With all the money being thrown around this year The Yank has come up with the perfect solution to any� debt-plagued squad.� Quit spending money on a bunch of different players that only specialize in one� position and instead� focus on one really good player and then once he is under contract� clone him several times.

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Drury Panthers Record Setting Crowd, Ben Taylor set piece

#1 Drury Panthers 3 (1st OT)
#5 Bellarmine Knights 2
In a game whose tempo never faltered, but took the players and fans on wild mood swings, the #3 nationally ranked Drury Panthers justified the confidence of their Coach, and the team itself, in fighting off an extremely effective Bellarmine Knights squad that pushed them to the edge. Click to continue reading...

The Major League Soccer Playoffs continue on Thursday, November 5, 2009 with the second leg of the Columbus Crew and Real Salt Lake. RSL had a 1-0 lead on aggregate heading into this match. So, who won and advance to the Conference Finals? Here's a recap of the match along with video highlights.

Real Salt Lake beats the Columbus Crew 3-2 (4-2 on aggregate) Video Highlights (will be added later)

1st Half

Real Salt Lake nearly took the lead in the 10th minute as a through ball was sent for Andy Williams.

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Year end award nominees are coming out, and while no Wizards players are up the big awards, 3 Wizards are nominated for 2 awards.
Davy Arnaud and Claudio Lopez are both up twice for goal of the year. Arnaud's first blast against Toronto on the opening week of the season is one of his two nominated goals. Click to continue reading...

The north London derby of Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur in recent years has been one of the marquee matches in the English Premier League. Both clubs have looked strong in the 2009-10 season and Saturday's match took place at the Emirates. Here's a recap of the EPL matches from Saturday, October 31, 2009 along with video highlights.

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The dispute between several clubs in the USL's first division and the league's administrators has reached the end-game this week, and Triangle Offense is reporting that the breakaway Team Owners Association is submitting its application for recognition as a league to the US Soccer Federation.

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With talks at a stand-still between the Team Owners Association and Nurock Soccer Holdings, new owners of USL, the chances of a breakaway league led by numerous USL 1 clubs next year is looking more and more likely. Vancouver and Montreal became the latest teams to reportedly sever ties with USL this week, and are part of the group looking to start a new league.

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With talks at a stand-still between the Team Owners Association and Nurock Soccer Holdings, new owners of USL, the chances of a breakaway league led by numerous USL 1 clubs next year is looking more and more likely. Vancouver and Montreal became the latest teams to reportedly sever ties with USL this week, and are part of the group looking to start a new league.

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Goals from Fran Merida and Nicklas Bendtner saw Arsenal edge past Liverpool in an entertaining encounter in the Carling Cup.
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Arsene Wenger was reluctant to let Fran Merida go out on loan and the Spanish youngster repaid his manager's confidence by turning out a magical performance against Liverpool.

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Canadian Press are reporting that USL league owners, Alek Papadakis is saying that "The negotiations are finished," Papadakis told CKAC.� "We decided to continue our preparation for the season 2010 with the teams which wished to remain with us." Papadakis was refering to the ongoing talk with the Team Owners Association or TOA that have been organized for well over a year and have failed to pay renewel fees to the USL for the 2010 season.

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Canadian Press are reporting that USL league owner, Alek Papadakis is saying that "The negotiations are finished," Papadakis told CKAC.� "We decided to continue our preparation for the season 2010 with the teams which wished to remain with us." Papadakis was referring to the ongoing talk with the Team Owners Association or TOA that have been organized for well over a year and have failed to pay renewal fees to the USL for the 2010 season.

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Take a listen to Episode 24 of the world famous Soccerlens Podcast with ex-footballer Adrian Clarke and sports journalist Iain Spragg for half an hour of fascinating football discussion.

This week's chipper chat centres around Sir Alex Ferguson's ongoing run-in with the powers-that-be, the pro's and cons of Emile Heskey (more cons), and the possibility of a breakaway Atlantic League.

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The United States faced Costa Rica in the last match for both teams in the CONCACAF hexagonal stage. Costa Rica could clinch a spot with a win or Honduras loss while the USA have already qualified. The Americans will try to focus as after the car accident to striker Charlie Davies who remains in a hospital and likely out for next summer's World Cup.

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While the Aughts have been full of speculation/proposal about the Old Firm joining the EPL, the 90's was about the Old Firm joining what was dubbed as the Atlantic League. It was a joint proposal from the big clubs in the Netherlands, Scotland and Portugal. ESPN is reporting that there may be another attempt at this break away league, which would involve the aforementioned clubs along with Belgium and the Scandinavian clubs.

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There will never be promotion and relegation in Major League Soccer. At least not in the traditional, European sense.� The franchise fees are too high to risk what would be perceived by American audiences as a demotion to a minor league.� No, there will never be promotion and relegation in the MLS in the traditional sense.

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The drama continues. Following on the first installment, here's a quick update. This post doesn't present any new or breaking news, it's just a summary of events to date. Most links are to Brian Quarstad's estimable Inside Minnesota Soccer blog, which in more pleasant times focuses on the Minnesota Thunder, but which has been all over this whole story from the start, like white on rice. Click to continue reading...

Early this morning, David Fellerath posted an interesting interview with Carolina Railhawks President Brian Wellman on the Triangle Offense blog site.
I thought, first and foremost, it was excellent work by Fellerath to post a long interview with Wellman that goes beyond the simple front office speak usually seen from folks in such positions, and if you have interest in the USL and/or the Railhawks at all, it's worth a read. Click to continue reading...

Drury Lady Panthers 4
UMSL Tritons 1
Katie Pritchard (pictured) came off the bench to score two goals, one in each half, leading Drury to a 4-1 victory over Missouri-St. Louis in Great Lakes Valley Conference play Friday night at Harrison Stadium.

Drury took a 1-0 lead just six minute into the contest on sophomore Nicole Williams' team-leading eighth goal of the season and 18th of her career, coming off an assist by senior Mandi Little.

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� � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � Photo by ISIphotos.com

The U.S. Under-20 national team needed a positive result in its match against Cameroon to keep alive its hopes of reaching the second round of the Under-20 World Cup.

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The Italian Serie had a full set of midweek matches including AC Milan at Udinese and Internazionale (Inter Milan) v Napoli. Overall, AC Milan has struggled early in the season while Inter and Juventus look strong. Here's a recap of both of these matches along with video highlights.

Udinese upsets AC Milan 1-0 Video Highlights

AC Milan continued to struggle as they quickly conceded a goal in the 22nd minute by Antonio Di Natale.

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As we are all awaiting the future of our top professional leagues in MLS & the USL when the 2010 calendar starts this coming January there will be some questions before their respective seasons start. At the same time we are going to also await the future structure of the next edition of the US Open Cup.

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The announcement of Flavio Briatore's life ban from Formula One has, as one might expect, sent shockwaves through the sport. Motor racing, however might not be the only sport to undergo a degree of soul searching as the result of their sanction against the former head of the Renault team, because Briatore is also the owner of Championship club Queens Park Rangers, and his F1A ban has led to speculation that he will now have to stand down from the board of directors of the holding company which owns the club, QPR Holdings, because he would now fail the FA's "Fit & Proper Person" test for club directors.

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A lacklustre performance and a suitably poor result against one of the division's weaker teams. For the first hour especially we were utterly aimless, and from that there was no coming back.

The first goal was soft and most unlike our usually solid defence. A Delap-esque long throw-in was flicked on to Doyle who, somehow unmarked from three yards out, couldn't miss.

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In a battle of teams sitting at the bottom of the Eastern Conference the Wizards made the most of a huge Jorge Rojas mistake to score the only goal in a game where the winning team just made one less mistake than the loser.

A Josh Wolff goal that came off a Claudio Lopez breakaway rebound allowed the Wizards to come home with 6 points out of a possible 9 in this 3 game East coast swing.

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I was a little concerned coming into the last fixture. It wasn't because Burnley has already beaten United and Everton. It wasn't because Burnley aren't afraid to attack. I saw these things as healthy signs for Liverpool. � Liverpool usually do well against attacking sides.

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This week on MFUSA, Jason and Zach discuss FIRE BOB!, the USL-1 breakaway, young Americans coming home to MLS, and the USA-Honduras TV issues. Match Fit USA Soccer Show, part of the Champions...

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In a recent live blog which was hosted by Jeff Di Veronica of the Democrat and Chronicle in Rochester New York, Rhino's owner Rob Clark, who has been vocal with his displeasure of the Team Owners Associations issues with the USL, was asked how he was keeping all this chaos out of the manager's and� players' minds.

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In a recent live blog which was hosted by Jeff Di Veronica of the Democrat and Chronicle in Rochester New York, Rhino's owner Rob Clark, who has been vocal with his displeasure of the Team Owners Associations issues with the USL, was asked how he was keeping all this chaos out of the manager's and� players' minds.

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