I'm hearing now that today's announcement from Los Angeles is not regarding Landon Donovan's short-term loan to Everton. That remains on track, apparently, but there's just a bit more I dotting and T crossing to complete. Stay tuned.

So, what is Wednesday's hullabaloo all about?

Landon Donovan figures to be headed somewhere on loan this winter, and a new destination has emerged as a possibility.

English club Everton, home of U.S. national team goalkeeper Tim Howard, has its sights on landing Landon Donovan on loan, The Telegraph reported on Tuesday.

Christmas is only a week away and I have yet to start my shopping. I know, I'm bad news (and a bit of a procrastinator... just look at the time I posted this...) and I'm feeling a little guilty over my late start. So, to alleviate some of that guilt, I've decided to make a little list of gifts I would buy for certain Fire players.

Best Team Performance of Decade: 2002 World Cup vs Portugal

Without Claudio Reyna and Clint Mathis the US took the field against a Portuguese side making its first World Cup appearance in sixteen years.

There was once this Bobby Zamora, scorer of 70 goals in 119 appearances for Brighton & Hove Albion, a legend to this Seagulls fan some years ago:

Blessed with power, pace, some aerial ability and a calm finish, Zamora led the Albion up two divisions with successive championships at the start of the decade through his goalscoring exploits.

Landon Donovan figures to be headed somewhere on loan this winter, and a new destination has emerged as a possibility.

English club Everton, home of U.S. national team goalkeeper Tim Howard, has its sights on landing Landon Donovan on loan, The Telegraph reported on Tuesday.

The loan deal for Landon Donovan would be of the short-term variety, similar to what he did earlier this year with Bayern Munich.

It would be a good shop window for Donovan as he either seeks a foreign club or strengthen his bargaining position with MLS over an improved contract.

Everton have little money to spend so it's unlikely to become permanent, but Everton manager David Moyes, who has worked with the likes of Brian McBride at the club level in the past, at least respects Americans more than your average English coach (or knows a good, relatively inexpensive deal when he sees one).

Landon Donovan has once again attracted interest from the top European leagues including English Premier League side Everton. Several reports came out on Tuesday, December 8, 2009 that Everton manager David Moyes is interested in signing the USA international on a loan deal (similar to his spell at Bayern Munich last winter).

MLS star heading for Merseyside.

Get Everton Tickets at Fantastic Prices!

David Moyes hopes to strengthen his injury-plagued Everton squad in the January transfer window with a loan move for the USA forward, Landon Donovan.

The 27-year-old, an international team-mate of the Everton goalkeeper Tim Howard, has been earmarked by Moyes as a possible addition to his attack for next month and an initial approach has been made to Donovan's club, Los Angeles Galaxy, regarding a temporary switch to the Premier League.

Yesterday Landon Donovan signed a new four year deal with MLS, and simultaneously confirmed the rumors that he would soon be off to Everton on a loan deal:

"This is a very exciting day for me," Donovan said. "This has been a very ... I would say ... interesting decision for me.

Ridge Mahoney in MLS Confidential wrote this on Stuart Holden. The Houston Dynamo midfielder looked to be seriously considering moving to Europe to enhance his footballing future after brilliant performances in the season just past.
What should Stuart Holden do?by Ridge Mahoney, Friday, Dec 18, 2009 12:48 AM ET

If he goes for the money, Stuart Holden is already headed for Europe even if he hasn't signed a deal.

Photo: Getty Images

Was there ever any doubt the Redlands native would win the award announced today yet again? The Galaxy and U.S. National Team playmaker also won in 2003 and 2004.

From the U.S. Soccer press release:

The 27-year old, a former Young Male Athlete of the Year in 2000, played a large part in the USA's qualification for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, scoring three goals and providing nine assists during the Final Round of qualifying.

So if Freddy Adu comes home, where should he go? (Getty Images)

So it is a slow news day and I'm nearly thinking of taking the rest of the year off here. Still I wanted to post some extra thoughts on Freddy Adu and where in Major League Soccer he could go to. SBI posted some teams earlier and I wanted to add to it along with giving my thoughts on the teams already mentioned.

Who should the US face in their group?

Purely on a motivational level, the best seeded team that the USA could draw would be Italy. Again.

To go up against a team who has had its share of refereeing controversies and literally bad blood that have helped it win is huge motivation.

The Chicago Fire announced this morning that they have purchased the rights to Guatemalan midfielder Marco Pappo from CSD Municipal, the team that had loaned him to MLS for the past two seasons. He is now under contract with the Fire through the 2012 season.
"We are very excited to have such a young talent like Marco Pappa back with our club next season," said Fire Technical Director Frank Klopas.

It goes without saying that it's been a busy first three weeks of the offseason for Fire Technical Director Frank Klopas.

Parting ways with former head coach Denis Hamlett, seeing Chris Rolfe and Cuauhtemoc Blanco leave the team, and retaining Brian McBride, C.J. Brown and Marco Pappa for 2010 (and beyond in the case of Pappa) are only some of the moves that Klopas has made this offseason.

Depth.

You could call it "the" word of 2009 for the Chicago Fire. Whether it was Technical Director Frank Klopas, a coach, a player, or a regular staffer, you couldn't get out of Toyota Park without having to sit through yet another explanation of just how important - and strong - the depth of the team was.

Manchester United take on Aston Villa (12 p.m. Fox Sports Espanol) and Valencia takes on Real Madrid (3 p.m. ESPN Deportes and ESPN360.com) in two of the day's better games. The Barcelona derby is also today, with Messi, Ibrahmovic and co. taking on Espanyol (1 p.m. on GolTV).

On a complete side note, Fire forward Brian McBride was interviewed for SI.

I started watching soccer - seriously watching soccer - in the summer of 2002. I was 12 years old, living in Florida and already nutty about playing the game. But I had never paid any attention to the actual professional product on the field. I had heard of Zidane, Ronaldo and some of the bigger American names but I couldn't begin to tell anyone what club team they played for, let alone the what traits they possessed on the field.

The holiday season is in full force here as we have (gasp!) nine days until Christmas! Yikes. Anyways it seems like a perfect time to sit back and look at what each team and the league in general should be putting on their Christmas shopping lists this year.

Now I will admit some of this is purely for fun while the rest may be serious wishes that people out there probably want for their teams.

A few things from last week that all involve MLS Eastern Conference teams with unhappy fan bases:
DC United lifted some off season gloom by signing Cristian Castillo on loan from Mexican second division side Leon. DC's apparently been after Castillo for a while, and I think there's the potential for him to have moderate success in MLS.

I was reading a piece on the Kansas City Wizards 2009 season and this line jumped out at me.

When your top scorer only scores 11 goals, you most likely will have trouble.

Being a numbers person, that led me to look up MLS's top scorers for 2009(no, I don't have that stuff memorized).