I love playing sports for a long list of reasons, but I especially love sports because they help define who we are:

• Sports give you confidence.
• Sports give you strength.
• Sports give you a voice (hence, the nickname Loudy Foudy). :)
• Sports teach teamwork and leadership.

Since it's the time of year when no one is in the mood to do anything other than sloth out, we've decided to have a look back at the year that was before asking our lovely readers to help us declare a football power couple of 2011.

As you're painfully aware, we love our footy stars.

A wonderful day to remember and thank everyone that cares about you, makes you better, helps you out.

A happy Thanksgiving to you. A few motion pics here that just seemed appropriate for the day and sentiment.

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Below is a list of just some great groups that many others are already thankful for.

As the Montreal Impact look to build for their 2012 season they made two Seattle Sounders related moves during the expansion draft to help their team. First they selected James Riley only to later ship him to Chivas USA for two players - Justin Braun and Gerson Mayen. After the expansion draft the Impact announced that they also traded for Tyson Wahl.

Welcome to Offbeat Wednesday, where we invite both chicas and chicos to enjoy a pedicure on us as you experience the wacky and gossipy side of your footballers. Work it, Diego Forlanites!

Sylvie van der Vaart is fabulous isn't she? Sure, her husband isn't exactly in the English media's good books but as his homies would say, "het Nederlandse volk van je houden, Rafael!

FYI: You have two days left to get your MLS W.O.R.K.S. Breast Cancer Awareness Auction bids in, folks. And to me, several of these items remain in "quite the steal" range for game worns and autographed jerseys from some fine players.- Greg Seltzer

Someone in this pile is wearing Tim Ream's genitalia like a hat. How nice. Image: Mike Stobe/Getty Images North America.

It's taken several hours of screaming, sulking, bribery and threats to stop our resident photoshopper from producing an anatomically correct illustration of the above caption.

Union supporter Tim Carr sent us this story about how his trip to PPL Park before the Toronto game, where he was volunteering in support of Breast Cancer and Ovarian Cancer Awareness Day as well as to see the game, took an unexpected turn. Along the way, he was helped by some great Philly sports fans.

The Philly Soccer Page " Match preview: Union vs Toronto FC

Radio: I can do play by play and commentary at the same time. Adam Caan is a Swiss announcer with a respected neutral call, while Adam Kahn is an excitable German with a penchant for stretched metaphor.

Toronto and NJPC | Union Dues

Seattle was a resounding success and the Union are now sitting top of the table once more.

The playoffs are looming and the last few regular season games are here. It has been a while since we looked at promotional efforts around the league, so we thought the stretch drive presented a good opportunity to look at ticket sales efforts for the end of the season and start of post season. We'll start in Chicago where the Fire are running a "pink" themed promotion as part of Breast Cancer Awareness month.

Train with Lionel Messi? Sir Bobby Robson's Foundation and Breakthrough Breast Cancer auction

Sir Bobby's Breakthrough Auction, which The Mail on Sunday is proud to support, will raise funds in memory of the late, great England manager Sir Bobby Robson.

View the full story here: The Mail

A news article on 2011-10-08 22:00:45 from: The Mail

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

Cancer is one of the biggest killers in the World with no definite cure except early detection and a will to beat that illness, now you can help Kick Breast Cancer into Touch while also filling your kit bag with some of the most innovative equipment needed to become a better athlete.

Revs "Pink" Auction Begins Tomorrow

Remember how last weekend's match was the annual Breast Cancer Awareness game? Well, like I said then, all that stuff is going up for auction tomorrow morning. There's a considerably wider array of merchandise available this time around compared to the last auction, so check it out!

From the NFL to MLS to the Mexican Primera, sports team and leagues are observing Breast Cancer Awareness Month during October. The Dynamo Girls of the Houston Dynamo are no exception. (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) {return;} js = d.createElement(s); js.

New England Revolution sported pink throughout their 2-1 defeat to Seattle Sounders in support of Breast Cancer Awareness. We think Diego Fagundez looked particularly pretty, don't you? Image: Elsa/Getty Images.

Would it help if we said that we really want to make an MLS results round-up a regular part of our website?

Popular Mexican Primera side Pumas de la UNAM have launched a special edition Breast Cancer Awareness jersey for its extensive fanbase. (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) {return;} js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.

The New England Revolution begin a three-match home stand on Saturday, October 1st against the Seattle Sounders. In addition, this weekend's clash is also the Revs' annual Breast Cancer Awareness game. Through partnerships with Making Strides for Breast Cancer, We Got Soccer and Adidas, New England will outfit players, staff and officials in a slew of pink accessories while raffling and/or auctioning game-worn or game-used gear.

John Lackey might be the worst player in all of baseball. Now, he might be the worst human in all of baseball. According to reports, the pitcher for the Boston Red Sox has decided to divorce his wife. The problem is that John Lackey's wife is in the middle of fighting breast cancer and just underwent a double mastectomy a few months back.

A unique ball and auction in memory of former England manager Sir Bobby Robson and brest cancer campaigner Sally Balch are being held this October.
The event aims to raise a fantastic £250,000 for Breakthrough Breast Cancer and the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation.
Please see below press release:

Cancer charities team up to present unique online auction
Breakthrough Breast Cancer and the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation join forces to offer money can't buy prizes.

Image via fashion.blog.nl.

On a day when the footballing world throws itself into a tizzy over transfers, loan deals, medicals, and airport sightings, we would like to take this opportunity to break some news of our own: Sylvie van der Vaart has a new hair 'do, y'all!

Sylvie was spotted with the new "long bob", as she's calling it, at a party for her friend and stylist Danie Bles in The Netherlands yesterday.

The Beautiful Game series explores how soccer makes a difference around the globe.

Been a very emotional week here at TSG and we are tardy in following up on our The Beautiful Game series.

Good news this month....the super touching Freddy Fund is about to break ground on their field that story.

STARTERS
The NSC Minnesota Star will host Breast Cancer Awareness Night at their home game on Sat Aug 27 v Montreal and will be wearing, auctioning & selling one-off pink Admiral kits. Please give them your support.
dN
This will be the 20th season of the English Premier League.

PUMA has launched the 2011 edition of their anti-breast cancer initiative Project Pink. You can find out more about it at the PUMA Project Pink and PUMA Women's Professional Soccer websites. Here are PUMA athletes and USA Wpmen's National Team Players Tasha Kai and Leslie Osbourne along with The Vampire Diaries star Nina Dobrev kicking [.

"Vampire Diaries" actress Nina Dobrev is joining sports brand Puma in kicking off its second year of "Project Pink." Puma's year-round effort was launched in 2010 in response to a group of female soccer athletes who were looking to support breast cancer awareness and research.

Some of you may not realize this but I'm a big backer of breast cancer awareness. I've had family members affected by this disease and even lost my mother-in-law last year to it. So when I see companies like Puma supporting it I have no problem giving them a little hype when they do good work on it.

The University of Virginia beat rivals Maryland 3-0 Saturday at the SoccerPlex in Boyds, MD. as part of the 15th Annual Kicks Against Breast Cancer Tournament.
For more information about the tournament and a list of teams go to: Kicks Against Breast Cancer

The league announced today that Seattle Sounders' Fredy Montero was named MLS W.O.R.K.S. Humanitarian of the Month in March for his work in the offseason raising money to help the flood victims in his native Colombia. Not honored, but equally deserving, are all of you who donated.

He's the second consecutive Sounder to win the award after James Riley won it in October for his efforts against breast cancer.

Sportlifestyle brand PUMA kicked off the 2011 women's soccer season during a launch event Thursday night, while celebrating a momentous year for the sport, a new season for Women's Professional Soccer (WPS), and the debut of the PUMA Women's Soccer Training Collection.

With the FIFA Women's World Cup on the horizon, PUMA pulled out all the stops to showcase its longstanding commitment to women's soccer, the best female players on the planet, and the millions of young rising stars throughout the world.

There are plenty of intriguing FA Cup matches scheduled for today including the tricky clash between Everton and Chelsea, where both teams will be tested, as well as Birmingham City against Championship side Coventry City and last but not least, Southampton against Manchester United.

Thank goodness, John Terry isn't your teammate Rafael...

Wait...hold on....

Okay, Miss TSG is not around the corner.

Let it be said right here that Rafael Van Der Vaart is the sidekick to his beautiful wife Sylvie.

Sylvie, a model by trade, at 32 has a few pretty notable "accomplishments" affixed to her kit:

• First, being number one on nearly every WAG list on the Internet.