US Soccer announced the final four winners of their Best of 2010 awards this morning, including "Best Blog." MFUSA did not win, nor did we finish in the money.
Really, just getting nominated is an honor and a victory, and that's not me just blowing smoke. We just passed our second anniversary, so every bit of recognition we get is somewhat amazing.

So unless you read soccer blogs or use Twitter, you might not know by now that Fake Sigi is...Matt Rolf. Ta da. I never had strong feelings with regard to Sig's identity, although having very lightly followed the Twitter thread between his nibs, Brooks Peck, and Duane, I can understand where his critics are coming from.

30.09.2010 - Calígula - La ANFP de Chile terminó su relación comercial con Brooks apenas finalizado el Mundial de Sudáfrica (2010) y firmó nuevo contrato con Puma (hasta 2015) que presenta las nuevas camisetas de su selección para el debut, el próximo17 de noviembre (fecha FIFA), en un amistoso con su par de Uruguay en el Estadio Nacional de Santiago (probablemente muy cercanas a los diseños de la foto).

Last week we reviewed the Honduras jerseys, and I thought the Joma jerseys were a departure from the usual big three sports manufacturers. But Joma is still a soccer manufacturer, and makes kit for multiple teams around the world.

Brooks Sports on the other hand is not. Brooks focus is running gear, and they make soccer jerseys for just two teams.

In Brazil they are inventing different ways to perform the paradinha, literally "the little stop", an unexpected pause just before a penalty is struck that throws goalkeepers out of position with dramatic results. Street style soccer showboating. The paradinha has a long tradition in Brazil first brought to prominence by Pele and continued down the years in the Brazilian league.

It may be comparing apples and oranges, but I think the Columbus Crew may have just one-upped Fulham in honoring Brian McBride. How? This:

Mamma mia!

Brooks Peck from DirtyTackle says this monstrosity statue resembles Max Headroom more than McGod, but I think it's more Bill S.

You see? I wasn't playing earlier when I said I would prove that LD doesn't mind stupid questions. I asked a couple of them (and a few good questions from fans selected from MLS fans on Twitter and Facebook) the other night and no equipment was damaged. Hell, he even laughed at a few of them.

As I wrote here, the Chilean World Cup shirt is sponsored by Brooks. The shirt has been officially presented to the public. According to this site, Brooks Sports, Inc. was founded in 1914 by Morris Goldenberg and is a company that produces high performance shoes, soccer and running apparel. Brooks originally produced bathing shoes in 1917 before moving into sports by producing baseball cleats in 1920 and football boots in the 1930s.

Paolo Bandini (is that your real name?) wrote a fantastic article about Balotelli for the Guardian today, one that made me forgive Mourinho for whoopin' my side (even though Mourinho had a post-game spat with his my man Xavi), and then Brooks Pecks dug up some real juice on the feud between Materazzi and Balotelli (as tattletaled by Invisoboy himself aka Zlatan Ibrahimovic).

This summer's hottest footy fashions Team: Chile Maker: Brooks Prem personalisation: Gonzalo Jara. Verdict: Woohoo! We have finished on a high in Group H with a bit of variety. Brooks' most famous client was QPR. They currently have Sri Lanka on their books, but are mostly associated with running. It does look like a running shirt, but after the [.

Rarely do I agree with the NY Post but this time they got it right

In the USA, the World Cup is always almost the only portal to the sport for the non soccer fan.

There are hundreds of thousands who come alive every four years and take to the forums, some to understand this other world phenomenon.

Our name to remember posts usually focus on young football talent who we expect to make it big. Kids are who already on the books at famous clubs, like Edgardo "Gato" Obregon for example. But today we're looking at a 25 year old Dutch striker Johan Voskamp, who plays for Sparta Rotterdam in the Eerste Divisie, the second tier of Dutch football.

The U.S. U-20's struggles in Peru continued on Wednesday, with Thomas Rongen's side losing again, this time 2-0 to Colombia.

Several young MLSers earned playing time, including Cesar Zamora, Bryan De La Fuente, Francisco Navas Cobo and Conor Shanosky, as the U-20s conceded two second half goals in the span of three minutes.

Between the holidays and the European league breaks, it's been a slow few weeks in the news department, so let's change that with a bit of news of our own...

Alright everybody, it's time to share a little secret with all of you: Yahoo! has bought this very website from us and in the very near future it will be moving to their platform.

La Roja of the Chile national soccer team are World Cup bound for the first time since the 1998 tournament. They're grouped with Spain, Switzerland and Honduras for the first round of the World Cup and may very well be able to advance to the Round of 16 with talent like Humberto Suazo (Real Zaragoza) and Mark [.

After the Glasgow Rangers were officially deemed the champions of the Scottish Premier League, there were joyous celebrations to follow among Rangers' supporters. The players joined in as well, and so did Rangers' mascot, Broxi Bear. As Mr. Bear was pumping up the crowd, Rangers striker Kyle Lafferty had so much energy/testosterone running through him that decided to go ahead and tackle the mascot.

First, sorry for what are becoming all-too routine pauses on A More Splendid Life; my own less than splendid life has this sorry habit of getting in the way. So, some fun announcements.
Second, one of the reasons it has been a bit quiet around here is because Brooks at Dirty Tackle has lost his mind and let me post up various bits and bobs on his esteemed site over the next five weeks for the World Cup.

Los Angeles' best Sunday league right back in Cape Town
Though I am back in the United States - after a great 2 weeks in South Africa (chronicled here and elsewhere on the blog) - my mate Brooks is still out on the road - traveling the world this summer in search of soccer, scuba, and sweetness.

Letztens kam in einem Kommentar die Frage auf, welche Sportartikelhersteller denn welche Teams bei der WM mit Trikots und Ausgehklamotten ausrüstet. In diesem Moment war ich hoffnungslos überfragt und habe mir vorgenommen, mal genauer auf die Kleidung der WM-Teilnehmer zu schauen. Der Spitzenreiter unter den Ausrüstern ist dabei Adidas.

So you'll remember in my self-loathing post from almost two months ago that I made an off-the-cuff remark about Brooks Peck (of Dirty Tackle fame) doing something sexist. The full context of the statement is below:

*Fine Time to Take a Breather*
What with the World Cup no one wanted to attend going on, Brian Phillips of Run of Play becoming some kind of soccer blogging overlord (who could have guessed that would happen when he spent 2009 blogging almost exclusively about a video game?

Some footballers dream in money, others in trophy and even more like Brooks from Dirty Tackle. One thing, however, is universally true: those dreams change. By the year, by the month and by the day.

And always the juiciest when that change is contradictory.
La Liga Loca has unearthed a quote muttered last fall from Real Madrid's latest footballing phenom, Mesut Ozil.

Apparently, not only am I a ruthless ideologue who unleashes personal attacks at will from behind a shield of anonymity, I was also too soft on Brooks Peck in my apology for saying he "always finds time to be sexist". From the alternate universe of the ONTD blog on LiveJournal, "cancan_cadenza" writes sexism?

The U.S. men's Under-20 national team's opening match in the Cuadrangular Internacional is one the team will be in a hurry to forget.

Paraguay thrashed the United States, 5-0, on Monday in Arequipa, Peru. Oscar Ruiz netted a hat-trick for Paraguay.

The current U.S. squad playing in Peru is playing without several key players who have begun their college seasons, along with pros who were not released by their clubs.

The U.S. U-20s' struggles in Peru continued on Wednesday, with Thomas Rongen's side losing again, this time 2-0 to Colombia.

Several young MLSers earned playing time, including Cesar Zamora, Bryan De La Fuente, Francisco Navas Cobo and Conor Shanosky, as the U-20s conceded two second half goals in the span of three minutes.

Let's throw the curtain aside for a moment, shall we? Though the business of blogging isn't of interest to everyone (that old axiom about sausage comes to mind), enough of you might care that a discussion of some recent developments seems appropriate.
Soccer blogging is a fool's game, plain and simple.

Brooks Condrad, meet Bill Buckner. The Atlanta Braves would have beat the San Francisco Giants on Sunday if it wasn't for their second baseman, Brooks Conrad, who had thee errors. Yes, three errors. Due to Brooks Conrad, the Giants were able to beat the Braves by a final count of 3-2.

Brooks Conrad most costly error was in the ninth inning when a Buster Posey liner went through his legs.

A segunda rodada do grupo A da Copa do Caribe 2010, foi realizada no dia 04/10/2010, na cidade de Bayamon-PUR, no Estadio Juan Ramón Loubriel e jogaram as seleções das Ilhas Cayman (181º no ranking da FIFA) e a seleção de Anguilla (203º no ranking da FIFA).
Antes desse jogo, as 2 seleções nunca haviam se enfrentado na história.