I know we are all ready to kick off Gold Cup, but after reading Sam Alipour's infuriating ESPN Magazine story on the "case" against former UC-Santa Barbara ace Eric Frimpong, I was immediately compelled to share it.I'd meant to read it yesterday, but forgot and now am ruing the lost exposure for his story due to the routine occurrence of lower weekend traffic.

Coleen Rooney brought her Chanel and her baby bump along for a spot of shopping in Wilmslow yesterday.

She's (smartly) gone for the comfort look in fact, those sweats look so comfy they're making us want to cuddle up with a chicken pie and a duvet.

The new baby Roo is due in October have you made your prediction for the birthday yet?

Image via AS.com

Valencia's David Villa and his wife Patricia were spotted in Madrid yesterday. After shopping in the city center, the pair lunched at Asador Frontón, a restaurant located near the Bernabeu.
On the menu? Salad, meat and water. "The two enjoyed iced coffee and a single scoop of ice cream for dessert.

This one hurts. Hurts more than any other match this year. Losing 1 point here because of a faux penalty call hurts worse than losing 2 points to LA Galaxy earlier in the year because of a faux penalty call. Maybe that's because it was to one of our fierce rivals who look to be making a push up the table now that Twellman is back, or maybe it's because we deserved much better here.

Coleen Rooney works the maxi-dress trend with a side of great handbag and a baby bump. She spent a little time at the Beauty FX salon before heading home in her BMW X6.

The lovely Coleen Rooney was spotted in Cheshire filling up the whip with petrol. Her sandals are courtesy of Tory Burch. Her dress is by Elizabeth & James. Her baby bump is courtesy of Wayne Rooney.

The 2009 MLS regular season saw overall average attendance drop to an average of 16,037. Down from last years 16,459. It did, though, see a new record for attendance set by the expansion Seattle Sounders FC, who averaged 30,897 over the course of the season. Here are the averages of all the teams in the league this year.

OK, we are now two games into pre season and we came down to earth with a bump last night.

We played against a school with three times the enrollment we have, a school that has had its best start to a season in their history, a team that was 3-0 and had scored 14 goals conceding none....we lost 4-0.

Thanks to Kenn Tomasch we can now be underwhelmed with USL attendance for the 2009 regular season. Remember that the Rowdies will be in a league with some or all (we hope) of these outfits in 2010.
Montreal Impact are by far the standouts in this group with an average attendance in excess of twelve thousand a game.

Over the years, I've talked about and wondered why coaches do the things they do. Sometimes, they seem like one-trick ponies, pulling the same stunt game after game. The only thing I can think is that it must work on other referees, or at least enough that it's become a habit. European commentary on American soccer aside, I'd hope that someone trying to coach a team at a high level would have a little more creativity.

As mentioned yesterday the playoff race has gotten pretty clear for me. Aside from two or three clubs I pretty much have a good understanding of who will be in the second season and who will not. The rankings sort of reflect that this week and there was some movement across the board.

First up I think LA has finished climbing the charts for now.

So let's start the discussion. Here are some of my initial thoughts from tonight:
1. The Onstad Bump: After the game, Alexi Lalas showed the smarts that made him the GM he was when he said that Onstad should have gotten a red card for that contact. "99 times out of 100, that's a straight red," ranted his Gingerness.

We still haven't got normal breathing patterns back after last night's classic, but Chelsea put on sale today, tickets for the home game against Barcelona which isn't due to be played until 6th May.
Today I received my season ticket renewal for next season and it is only the middle of April.

The Wizards took the lead, gave it up, then held on after going down 2 men to earn a 1-1 draw with league leading Chivas last night at Community America Ballpark. Both Kansas City and Chivas got up and down the field fairly quickly early on in the game, but neither team was able to get many good chances early on.

The Premier League has hit a road bump in its lawsuit against YouTube.

In the Premier League's claim, which was filed more than two years ago, it argued that YouTube was profiting from a knowing violation of its copyrights in the league and in footage of games in that league. Now, however, a US district judge has filed an opinion that the Premier League cannot claim statutory damages against YouTube for user-submitted video clips of non-live football matches, even if it proves that the site infringed its rights, because it failed to register its copyrights.

I'm back from my summer vacation!
We're a mere 289 days from the start of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
Not much time to get myself there.
I started this website about 2 and a half years ago with the idea of getting myself to the World Cup Final. That hasn't changed.
So the Big Push starts now.

Sylvie van der Vaart continues her reign as Football Barbie at the Pink Ribbon gala in Amsterdam. Image via Mokkels.
Dasha Zhukova's baby bump is out and proud. This will be Roman Abramovich's sixth child, her first.
Marco Borriello runs into his ex, Belen and gets into a fight with her new man.

It's back to earth with a bump this week for the Old Firm as League action resumes. The Second round of the Scottish Cup also takes place this weekend, so there's plenty to get our teeth into as we pick the four games you should follow.

I've also been meaning to put in my own take on the 2009 MLS regular season attendance numbers. Tom over at PI looks at the issue in terms of expansion teams versus older clubs, but I'm not sure that's a complete analysis. This won't be either, but here's a few brief points:
1) Outside Seattle, no team saw more than a 1% increase in attendance - except San Jose because of the Barcelona double header.

Someday you will be in Kansas
Towns the size of small anthills
The smell of cow shit
Someday in Kansas
You will grow lonely for a game
Of pickup
Past the railroad tracks
In the back of a park
On an uneven field
Long sticks for goal posts
Run
Move it with your left foot
Charge the ball in the air
In Southwest Kansas
You can play with
el Salvadorians, Mexicans, Puerto Ricans
Beers, loud music, open containers
A Kansas wind behind you
The greeting is the key:
A quick hand slap
and quickly
A solid fist bump
The quick hand slap
The solid fist bump
The quick hand slap
The solid fist bump

Jurgen Klinsmann - a Bayern Munich legend as a player...but not so much as a manager it would seem.

Klinsmann has been sacked as Bayern Coach after only eight months in charge. He leaves them sitting third in the league, and in their words, "in danger of missing out on a Champions League qualifying place.

We have a month to go to decide the title. But whereas Hoffenheim, Hamburg and Hertha faltered under the pressure of being league leaders, we find that Wolfsburg's biggest strength is having no "H" in their name. After a loss to Cottbus, they bounced backed emphatically this weekend and looked poised for their first title.

Image via AS.com

Valencia's David Villa and his wife Patricia were spotted in Madrid yesterday. After shopping in the city center, the pair lunched at Asador Frontón, a restaurant located near the Bernabeu.
On the menu? Salad, meat and water.

"The two enjoyed iced coffee and a single scoop of ice cream for dessert.

In a game that started at noon local time, the Los Angeles Sol's undefeated streak ended at home. Saint Louis midfielder Amanda Cinalli got the only goal of the game in the 11th minute, with Hope Solo needing four saves in the shutout. "The loss today is a small bump in our successful season," Sol coach Abner Rogers said.

The Red Bulls announced yesterday the signing of Maccabi Haifa's centerback and former MetroStar sixth round draft pick, Leo Krupnik. Krupnik is coming off of a championship season with the Israeli side, and looks to apply the knowledge he has gathered overseas to the side that never gave him a shot years ago.

Coleen Rooney works the maxi-dress trend with a side of great handbag (it's Jimmy Choo) and a baby bump. She spent a little time at the Beauty FX salon before heading home in her BMW X6.

The lovely Coleen Rooney was spotted in Cheshire filling up the whip with petrol. Her sandals are courtesy of Tory Burch. Her dress is by Elizabeth & James. Her baby bump is courtesy of Wayne Rooney.

Chelsea's Joe Cole and his wife Carly have gone public with the news that they're having a baby next year.

Carly is said to be 12 weeks pregnant.

We noticed last month that Carly had either embarked on a new pro-carb eating regime or that she may be sporting a baby bump looks like it's the latter.

Sylvie van der Vaart continues her reign as Football Barbie at the Pink Ribbon gala in Amsterdam. Image via Mokkels.
Dasha Zhukova's baby bump is out and proud. This will be Roman Abramovich's sixth child, her first.
Marco Borriello runs into his ex, Belen and gets into a fight with her new man.

Our struggling midfield really has it's work cut-out for them this week.

Week 17 Saturday, December 12, 2009
Stade de Gerland, Lyon
3:00 EST (21:00CET, 20:00GMT)

Sigh... I really don't feel like writing a post this week: feeling like an impeding storm is rolling-in at a time when our "levies" -the defense- are shattered to bits.

This week's nine matches averaged over 14,800, about 1,300 less than last year's seven matches.

The NBA and NHL playoffs continue. Boston, Dallas, Denver, Houston and LA have teams alive in the NBA, while the NHL still shows Anaheim, Boston, Chicago and DC(well kind of, the Capitols).

Sorry for disappearing! The end of the season is always crazy hectic. I've been dealing with a ton of makeups due to all the rain, end of season tournaments (Going to Wilmington NC this weekend - fun!), helping organize tryouts, setting up registration for the Fall, and more. Hope to get back onto the blog and Twitter in a week or two.

Yes, you read that correctly. Liverpool captain, Steven Gerrard, is definitely not known for his headers, but managed to put two into the back of the net against Croatia. It doesn't appear that any of the squad picked up injuries during the break, so we can all breathe a sigh of relief.

Goal videos after the bump.

Coleen Rooney brought her Chanel and her baby bump along for a spot of shopping in Wilmslow yesterday.

She's (smartly) gone for the comfort look in fact, those sweats look so comfy they're making us want to cuddle up with a chicken pie and a duvet.

The new baby Roo is due in October have you made your prediction for the birthday yet?

Chelsea's Joe Cole and his wife Carly have gone public with the news that they're having a baby next year.

Carly is said to be 12 weeks pregnant.

We noticed last month that Carly had either embarked on a new pro-carb eating regime or that she may be sporting a baby bump looks like it's the latter.

One thing that we have been able to rely upon in recent games - when we have not been playing well - has been the ability to get back into games when required, something that has preserved our unbeaten run.
Not tonight though. Through a combination of our own lacklustre play (comfortably our most poor of the season) plus an impressive Tottenham performance, our unbeaten run came to a shuddering halt tonight at White Hart Lane as Tottenham laid their claim to be a far more likely candidate for a potential Champions League spot.

Through the fog of turkey, wine and discarded wrapping paper the Scottish Football Blog brings you our SPL predictions for the Boxing Day fixture card.Celtic v HamiltonThe Celtic revival took an almighty bump at Tynecastle last Sunday. Once again they were the authors of their own downfall. If they can take their chances they should get back on track with a home win today.

Sorry for disappearing! The end of the season is always crazy hectic. I've been dealing with a ton of makeups due to all the rain, end of season tournaments (Going to Wilmington NC this weekend fun!), helping organize tryouts, setting up registration for the Fall, and more. Hope to get back onto the blog and Twitter in a week or two.