After 120 minutes of play, a few things are expected on the pitch from players competing at a high level; fatigue, sweat, determination and things of that nature. But watching the a bouncing ball amongst thye walking wounded out there (and I am not just speaking of David Beckham), I have one message to the rest of the league:

Now you know the hell that is artificial turf.

Apparently the Bulls and Jazz are playing an exhibition game in England sometime and decided to take in Chelsea-Liverpool over the weekend.
Of course, they brought some cheerleaders.

Nice soccer team ya got there.
Be a shame if something happened to it. Like, God forbid, your playoff hopes go for an evening cruise on the Stugots with a couple of fat guys in see-through socks.
Or soaking wet young Senegalese guys
Toronto FC showed up at the Meadowlands last night pretty confident.

Lots of questions heading into Sunday's tilt with Los Toros Rojos, and not just on our side of the ball. To wit... The Bulls are coming off a mid-week loss, but the bigger impact may not be the loss, it may be that they played a man down for 88...

Is the warmer weather bringing in more soccer fans? We'll have to see what happens as the summer rolls in, but it was a good week for attendance, with nothing under 10,000 reporter. I know that this column sometimes focuses too much on how many people are going to games, but it's an easy standard of measurement.

What a freakin' crazy match. DCU jumps out to a 4-0 lead within the first half hour, but then lazily(?) lets the Bulls back in it? Matches like this I think help to make our starting XI all the more clear in some situations, and cloudy in others. The argument of Jakovic versus Janicki may have ended tonight.

So what is the best way to reward a player for a great game?

Cut him!

Alec Dufty, after being named Man of the Match right here on TORB, has been waived to make room for Alfredo Pacheco. Though he was still with the team as of yesterday, his days with the Bulls are numbered.

Last week more ties, MLS needs less ties. 4-0-5 last week.
Sunday Columbus is at LA, Columbus always plays well in LA, Columbus wins
Saturday:
Toronto over Chicago
New England over Colorado
Red Bulls over Houston
Seattle over Dallas
Real Salt Lake over Kansas city
Chivas over DC United on FSC
DC had two ties last week, should have won both games, so I have to say DC had the bad week, last week.

Look. This season hasn't been easy on anyone. But tonight, you can relive some of the past while cheering for your nations future.

ESPN will be broadcasting a huge showdown between the US and a surging Costa Rica at Estadio Saprissa. You want to know how hardcore this game is? Look no further than United States Legend, Eric Wynalda, who gave his take of the game on Facebook:

USA vs Costa Rica tonight at 7pm (west coast).

SBI reports the jobs of Juan Carlos Osorio, Jeff Agoos and Erik Stover are safe. For now.

And by the way - this does prove, once again, that my readers are the smartest folks in the world. Though voting was tight, in the end, 32% of you felt nothing would result out of this summit, and you were right on point.

Hey there Soccer Fans. I'm the new kid on the block and since my first day on the job is just two days after USSoccer defeated T&T I've got some thoughts.

My original thinking was that the US squad had too much power for the Soca Warriors. Well, I was wrong. The "power" for the Americans came from Ricardo Clark.

div align="justify"span style="font-family:verdana;"The Anfield backroom staff will make the ultimate decision on whether on-loan keeper Peter Gulacsi plays for Hereford against Hartlepool tomorrow.br /br /It is a crucial match for both League One sides who are striving to avoid relegation from the 3rd tier of English football.

April 18th will be the first day Jon Conway is eligible to play. The Bulls are now heading into their forth game of the season, with very little to pat themselves on the back for. And though you can't blame Danny Cepero for the teams current form, it won't help him when the former starter returns.

This was to be the season that Sengkang Punggol would change once and for all the perceptions about them. No longer the whipping boys of the SLeague, the Dolphins hoped that by recruiting Jorg Steinebrunner as coach and investing big on new players the side from Hougang Stadium would climb the table.

Here are the game highlights, including the Rojas red card. Check it out.

Meanwhile, SBI reports Carlos Johnson's injury may be more serious than anticipated. He has a broken foot, which will mean some hefty time off. Jeremy Hall will be seeing some serious minutes in the coming weeks.

Lately, life has only afforded me the time to concentrate solely on the play of MLS teams, in particular, the Bulls. So taking a couple of hours out of my life to watch two of the best teams in the world go head to head was certainly a thrill and a privilege. But watching the game, it also became very apparent how far behind the MLS game is to the world class level of soccer on display.

Ives is reporting two players have been dropped from guaranteed to non-guaranteed status. Lewis at the Post is saying it is only one. And, from my side, all I am hearing is one name.

Khano Smith.

So let's just work with that for now (though we know SBI has a way of being correct 99.

Two University of South Florida underclass women are getting a shot at cracking the Canadian National Team lineup in a series of three friendly matches with the USA.
In the second match of the series on Sunday, Gina Pacheco was a late substitute for the Canadians. Pacheco, who has seen time with the Canadian U20 squad, earned her first cap for the national team in the 1-0 loss to the Americans.

Check out this profile on USF Senior Zak Boggs. He is set to play his final season with the Bulls this fall, has already graduated with a 4.0 GPA, and is currently in graduate school. In this day and age of collegiate sports scandals, it is nice to see a true student athlete.

The F365 Transfer Blog: Friday August 7

08.10: Morning everyone. Couple of things from last night to let you know about before we get on to the real business of bulls**t pedalling - Sebastian Bassong has completed his move from Newcastle to Spurs for about £8million, while Newcastle have also accepted a bid from Hull for their other good defender, Habib Beye.

Northampton Town have signed Liverpool youngster Robbie Threlfall on an initial one-month lean deal.
The 20-year-old full-back is a regular for the Reds' reserve side, while he has twice tasted FA Youth Cup success during his time at Anfield.
He spent much of the 2007/08 season on loan at Hereford, while he took in similar spells with the Bulls and Stockport County last term.

When: Tonight 7:30pm
Where: USF Soccer Stadium
After you catch the UT women take on North Georgia downtown, hop on the Interstate and head up to the north side of town for the second part of Friday's college doubleheader. This will be USF's season opener after finishing their preseason schedule 2-0-0.

In an article by Greg Auman for the St Petersburg Times, Zak Boggs is looking to be USF's first Rhodes Scholar. If selected for the study program at Oxford University in England, Zak would be in the company of such folk as Bill Clinton, Kris Kristofferson (I kid you not), and Richard Danzig (no, not the rock band leader).

Despite taking a first-half lead over the NSCAA 10th ranked Florida Gators, the USF women wilted under a barrage of Gator shots and succumbed 2-1.
The Bulls (1-1-0) were out shot by UF 19-6 and it required senior goalkeeper Mallori Lofton-Malachi to make eight saves to keep the Gator scoreline to a pair.

I started this whole blogging idea because I was ticked off that the newspapers, radio, and television media largely can't be bothered to give soccer the time of day, never mind decent coverage. In fact, in the not so distant past, I ranted about the St Petersburg Times giving the US National Team the shaft.

The USF men's team went to Fort Myers Saturday night and came back with a narrow 1-0 victory over Florida Gulf Coast University(1-1-0) in front of 515 supporters. The Bulls (2-0-0) were outshot by the Eagles 10-8 in a very defensive match, but USF was able to get the lone goal of the game in the eighty-seventh minute.

When: Today, Noon
Where: USF Soccer Stadium
South Florida will host LSU today and both schools enter the match with identical 1-1-1 records and both are short on goals scored. The Tigers have scored three on the season and the Bulls have netted just two.
Good goalkeeping from senior Mallori Lofton-Malachi has kept the Bulls season on track.

When: Tonight, 7:30pm
Where: USF Soccer Stadium
The Bulls (2-0-0) will host Valparaiso tonight and look to stay perfect in the early stage of this season. South Florida move from eleventh to eighth in the new NSCAA Division I poll released today.
South Florida has notched a couple of close wins over instate rivals UCF and Florida Gulf Coast University to start their 2009 season.

On Tuesday night the USF men played a scoreless 90 minutes of regulation time against the visiting Valparaiso University, out shooting the Crusaders 14-7. The crowd of 881 at the USF Soccer Stadium settled in for overtime, but the Bulls (3-0-0) made quick work of Valpo in the extra time. Bernardo Anor [right] scored off a Javed Mohammed free kick less than a minute into the first overtime.

When: Tonight, 8pm
Where: Virginia Tech Soccer Stadium, Blacksburg, VA
The Bulls (3-0-0) take their undefeated record on the road tonight to be tested by Virginia Tech (1-1-1). South Florida lost on its only previous trip to Blacksburg, but the NSCAA eighth ranked Bulls are hoping to defend that ranking and come away with a win.

Jeff Attinella posted his third consecutive shutout in the Bulls net to boost South Florida to a 4-0-0 record in a game where both schools could only muster seven shots apiece. Attinella now has a stingy 0.25 GAA for the season.
USF capitalized on one of those shots, just a minute into the second half.

When: Today, 1pm
Where: UCF Soccer Complex, Orlando
The Bulls (2-2-1) found their scoring touch in a big way on Friday night, exploding for six goals against Austin Peay. They will need some of that goal scoring ability to handle UCF on the road. The Knights (4-1-1) upset number four ranked FSU at home on Thursday night in overtime and have not been scored on in the last three matches.

Two USF players, one current and one former, have received accolades for last week's performances.
South Florida's junior goalkeeper, Jeff Attinella, was named the Big East Conference goalkeeper of the week based on his two shutouts last week. The 1-0 wins against Valparaiso and Virginia Tech have paced the Bulls to a perfect 4-0-0 start.

When: Today, 4pm
Where: Stetson Soccer Complex, Deland, FL
After dropping their Big East Conference opener 2-1 to Marquette on Thursday, the Bulls (2-4-1) face a non-conference opponent in Stetson this afternoon. This will be South Florida's final non-conference match. These schools drew 1-1 last season in Tampa.

The latest player to go down: midfielder Bojan Stepanovic, out four to six weeks - essentially the season then - with "a dislocated patella in his right knee" suffered Wednesday in the game against that other Chivas.

Didn't he just get here?

And I bet Preki was thrilled this happened in a friendly.

The Crowd=The Passion

Goats v Bulls ,

My name is Simon a 30 something Brit now living here in sunny California ,

I was born in Swindon England where I lived pretty much all my life ,

My team is my home town club Swindon Town F.C. , an unfashionable

Small team from Wiltshire , for 30 years I followed my Robins from the lows of

The old division 4 to the dizzy high of the premiership only to fall from

Grace to the foot of England's professional leagues ,

On arrival to the states I was keen to check out the local "soccer" for my personal

Views about football and my ultra mentality I could not follow nor shout for galaxy ,

For their golden boy becks and his one time links to Manchester Utd , but for now I shall

Save those views for another time ,

Chivas USA came to my attention and now for the last year the goats have substituted my Robins ,

For my footballing fix.

If defense wins championships, then the South Florida men (7-1-1) looked like champions on Saturday night. Cincinnati (7-4-0) was scoring two goals a game on average before they met USF's defense. It wasn't easy, but thanks to seven saves, including stopping a late penalty kick, Jeff Attinella [left] recorded his fourth shutout of the year.

Members of both the South Florida men and women's teams were recognized today for their outstanding defensive performances last week.
Bulls senior goalkeeper, Mallori Lofton-Malachi and defender Angelique Waller [above] were named to the weekly Big East Conference Honor Roll for their play in two shutouts over the weekend.

South Florida (5-5-3) lost a close match to Providence College (7-5-2) in a Big East Conference game at home on Friday night. A thirty-six minute goal by the Friars and the Bulls inability to convert any of its ten shots on the night led to their five match unbeaten streak coming to an end.
The final home game of the season for the South Florida women in this Sunday at Noon against Connecticut.

Since Mr. Erik Soler is now the Sporting Director and General Manager Supreme, but is admittedly ignorant to the rules and nature of MLS, I figured I could start the good man off with a 5 point orientation plan before the start of the season. I mean, if it isn't me, then whom? Jeff Agoos?