It is indeed a slow day around these parts. For some reason the cold has come into Dallas and I just feel like doing next to nothing. Thankfully there are others around that are actively doing their part to produce interesting items and this one by Kyle McCarthy got me thinking.

Basically McCarthy offers a suggestion on how the league should re-do their scouting system.

For those hoping your club would be good enough to make it through the long MLS season (plus a couple extra playoffs) and host a MLS Cup, your wait will have to continue. MLS Insider just broke the news that MLS Cup 2010 will be played at a neutral site.

It has been talked about for a couple months here and around other sites that the league may introduce a format where MLS Cup is played at the highest seed's venue.

The agreement is finally out. The U.S. Soccer Federation, United Soccer Leagues (USL) and the North American Soccer League (NASL) have come to an agreement on the formation and operation of a Division 2 professional soccer league for the 2010 season. The USSF will oversea the operation of the league.

+ MLS Insider Blog A great deal of videos, et cetera
+ MLS Combine Day Two sees prospects improve SBI
+ MLS Combine: Matchday Two SBI
+ 2010 MLS SuperDraft Goalkeeper Rankings at 3rd Degree (Buzz Carrick)
+ Revolutionsoccer.net's Coverage more updates at the site
+ Monday's Combine Report MLSDraft.

Got a few bits of info to pass along to you for Thursday's draft. First up I should have an updated/final Mock Draft later tonight or early tomorrow. A lot of news from the Combine has changed up the order quite a bit from things I've read, heard and spoken to folks around the league about. So stay tuned for that.

In the latest buzz that could go about bringing about a huge morale boost to the Liverpool side is that Marouane Chamakh has agreed to join the club. Reports suggest that the £25million deal will beat fellow bidders Inter Milan, Juventus, Arsenal and West Ham high and dry. The Reds are expecting the 25 year old [.

Want more positive news on a new CBA between the players and the league? John Wolyniec, the player-rep for the New York Red Bulls is said to be hopeful according to the New York Post.

After weeks without much progress being made, Wolyniec said concessions have been made on both sides and he termed his feeling as "hopeful.

The US Bid Committee has revealed it's list of 18 cities that be be included on the 2018/2022 World Cup bids.

The 18 cities are:

Atlanta, San Diego, Phoenix, Dallas, Seattle, Denver, Tampa Bay, Indianapolis, Baltimore, Nashville, Kansas City, Houston, Miami, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Washington D.

Both Vancouver and Portland may be a little over a year away from putting a Major League Soccer club on the field but both took a big step forward this past week in hiring technical directors.

Vancouver hired former DC United coach Tom Soehn while Portland announced their current head coach Gavin Wilkinson was getting the position.

Could it be the last time we see Stuart Holden on US soil for a while? Below is his New Year's Day interview on Good Morning America. Not much to see in this interview as far as his upcoming trial with Burnley goes.

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Schelotto looking to possibly stay with MLS. (Getty Images)

Some news this morning that should excite fans around the league, especially those in Columbus. Former league MVP Guillermo Barros Schelotto is said to be working on getting his green card.

From this news it sounds like GBS is serious about staying with Major League Soccer and the Columbus Crew.

One of the top priorities in Dallas this winter was signing some defensive help. Today the club has announced the signing of 29-year old Ghanian defender Aziz Ansah. He was most recently with Heartland FC in Nigeria. He has nine caps with the Ghana National Team and was named the Sportswriters Association of Ghana Best Footballer of 2003.

I was just passed this link from a reader which actually confirmed an email I got over the weekend regarding a possible trade by Toronto FC. Soccer America is reporting that Toronto FC is wanting to possibly trade up in this week's SuperDraft to get Canadian international and this year's Hermann trophy winner Teal Bunbury.

MLS Insider just posted this video with the new GM of the New York Red Bulls Eric Soler.

I'll admit after listening to this and after talking with several people over the weekend that are at the Combine I am beginning to change my stance with how I think New York will pick in this draft. I've been saying for a while now that I think Dilly Duka will go number two but it appears the Red Bulls and Soler are actually going to pick a bit smarter then that and take their chances to get Duka later in the first round.

Thanks to the MLS Insider for taking this footage yesterday while in Philadelphia. I must say this stadium has some serious potential to be one of the better ones in the league. What do you think?

MLS Insider: Inside the Union Stadium from mlsinsider on Vimeo.

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Alexi Lalas and John Harkes give us their take on the draft.

Agree with most of what these two said. Agree with Lalas' take on RSL too.

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Those Houston fans deserve a better stadium than Robertson Field. Their fans decided to rally for something better. Good for them.

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Goff had an update on the rumored Gibbs/Burpo - Thompson/Larentowicz trade with the Revs:

New England Revolution was preparing to trade midfielders Jeff Larentowicz and Wells Thompson to the Colorado Rapids for goalkeeper Preston Burpo and defender Cory Gibbs.

The deadline is only a few days away but it seems like the more that we hear about the CBA discussions between players and the league the more the two sides are coming together on the issues.

Today another player has come out and said that he is feeling optimistic about a new CBA. Seattle defender Jame Riley, who has at times been out spoken on the CBA and its issues is getting a better feeling on things, though like other players he isn't saying a whole lot just yet.

Something we've known for a while is Montreal will be in Major League Soccer sooner rather than later. When the league decided to explore Montreal back in the fall as an expansion candidate it only meant the city was that much closer to getting an expansion bid.

Now it appears that the city could be possibly a year away from putting a MLS club on the field.

Freddie Ljungberg speaks and I listen, simple as that. (Getty Images)

I won't lie to ya, anytime I see something Freddie Ljungberg says I believe it to be the truth. That is unless something morally tells me not to do so but 98% of the time I take his word for what it is. Today is no different.

We've heard for months now about the Houston Dynamo stadium being in downtown Houston next to the baseball stadium there but now are the Dynamo looking elsewhere for their stadium?

Thanks to DyanmoPlanet.com for posting this earlier this morning (via ABC13 in Houston). The club is now looking at another possible site near the Galleria in Houston.

The TV schedule for the 2010 World Cup has been released for viewers in the United States, and the most highly anticipated match of the opening round featuring England against the United States of America will be televised live on ABC on Saturday, June 12 beginning at 2pm ET.

For the complete TV schedule of all World Cup games, visit our sister site World Cup Buzz.

Some new items from around the Internet...
+ Pro Player Pipeline's 2010 MLS Draft Overall Rankings
Well done, Joe Mauceri and thank you!
+ Soccer By Ives with Version 2.0 of his 2010 MLS Mock Draft
+ Buzz Carrick's 2010 Midfielder Rankings

I'll admit at first I hated the idea of a MLS team in another big stadium but if this stadium up in Vancouver really gets re-done like this it won't be a terrible thing at all.

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It's that time of the year when all football lovers are going mad searching for all the latest transfer gossip. Who is going where and who is bidding for whom? As the transfer window opened with the start of the new decade, there has been a lot of buzz on the football ground. From the [...]

I'll admit, I don't want to dive into this whole CBA mess. The more I look at it the more my head hurts. I still believe and fully expect something to get done before the new season kicks off.

Today a few bloggers out there give their take and keep us all up to date. The best however maybe a summary from Jason Davis at Match Fit USA.

Swedish coach Hans Backe takes over a tall task of coaching the New York Red Bulls. (Getty Images)

After weeks of waiting for the New York Red Bulls to hire a coach today they have announced the hiring of 57-year-old Swedish coach Hans Backe. He most recently worked as head coach of English League two side Notts County, a job he quit after just seven weeks.

It's time for the MLS combine, when college seniors and Generation Adidas players showcase their wares for MLS coaches and general managers. While the players receive most of the attention, we thought we would take a look at the business side of the combine. Buzz Carrick, of the highly regarded 3rd Degree website, and a veteran of covering MLS combines, was kind enough of to answer a few questions for us about the business of the combine.

Finally all 16 Major League Soccer clubs have head coaches. After weeks of speculations the Chicago Fire are finally set to name a new coach.

The Chicago Sun-Times is reporting that the Fire and Mexican coach Carlos De Los Cobos have agreed to terms and De Los Cobos will be introduced as the Fire's head coach on Monday.

Next Tuesday the US World Cup bid committee will narrow down the list of cities that will be apart of their big to host either the 2018 or 2022 World Cup. The list will be cut down from 27 cities to 18. Note that I say cities and not stadiums as this part is to focus on hosting cities.

The cites left in the running are: Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Jacksonville, Los Angeles, Miami, Nashville, New York/NJ, Orlando, Oakland, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, St.

Buzz has a great draft preview up at ESPN (links to the three other posts are on the right hand side), and Pro Player Pipeline has comprehensive draft rankings. Good stuff.

The glow of the tube, the buzz of the crowd...Let's kick off with Landon Donovan's post-match debut TV hello to England.The ESPN Press Pass crew hosts Gabrielle Marcotti to weigh in on Donovan's actual playing debut.MLS Insider Shawn Francis has a word with new NYRB general manager Erik Soulpatch... erm, Soler.

Last weekend we had one of Indonesia's classic fixtures when Persib met Persija behind closed doors at the Jalak Harupat Stadium in Soreang. The game ended goalless but that didn't stop the Persija players going to and from the stadium in Armoured Personnel Carriers.
This Saturday sees another classic fixture when Persebaya host leaders Arema at 10 November Stadium in Surabaya.

The 2010 MLS SuperDraft may be less than 24 hours away now but that only means the deals are really starting to heat up. DC United and the new kids on the block Philadelphia Union have got the trade wheels going this evening with a big deal.

DC has sent the 7th pick in tomorrow's draft, allocation money and Brazilian midfielder Fred to Philadelphia for the top allocation order spot in order to sign keeper Troy Perkins.

Join us today!!

2010 MLS SuperDraft Live Blog

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For those who were wondering.

Check back today for the Live Blog of the draft.

Pick Original 1st Round Pick 2nd Round 1 PA Philadelphia 17 Philadelphia 2 NY NY Red Bulls 18 NY Red Bulls 3 SJ San Jose 19 San Jose 4 KC Kansas City 20 Kansas City 5 TOR Dallas (from Toronto) 21 Dallas (from Toronto) 6 DAL Dallas 22 Colorado (from Dallas) 7 DC Philadelphia (from DC United) 23 Colorado (from DC United) 8 COL Columbus (from Colorado) 24 Toronto (from Colorado) 9 NE New England 25 New England 10 CHV CD Chivas 26 Chicago (from CD Chivas) 11 SEA Seattle 27 Seattle 12 CLB Columbus 28 SJ (from RSL, Dallas,Columbus) 13 CHI Chicago 29 Chicago 14 HOU Houston 30 San Jose (from Houston) 15 LA Los Angeles 31 NY (from Los Angeles) 16 SL Salt Lake 32 Salt Lake Pick Original 3rd Round Pick 4th Round 33 PA Philadelphia 49 Philadelphia 34 NY NY Red Bulls 50 NY Red Bulls 35 SJ Chivas (from San Jose) 51 Chicago (from San Jose) 36 KC Kansas City 52 Kansas City 37 TOR San Jose (from Toronto) 53 Toronto 38 DAL Dallas 54 Dallas 39 DC Los Angeles (from DC United) 55 DC United 40 COL Colorado 56 Colorado 41 NE Kansas City (from New England) 57 New England 42 CHV CD Chivas 58 Chivas (from Toronto, Chivas) 43 SEA Houston (from Seattle) 59 Seattle 44 CLB Dallas (from Columbus) 60 Columbus 45 CHI Chicago 61 Columbus (from Chicago) 46 HOU Houston 62 Houston 47 LA Chivas (from Los Angeles) 63 Columbus (from Los Angeles) 48 SL New York (from Salt Lake) 64 Salt Lake

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The deals keep coming for the new club in town. FC Dallas has traded the sixth pick in today's draft to the Philadelphia Union for allocation.

That now gives Philadelphia the 1st, 6th, and 7th pick in today's draft. Big move for the expansion club here.

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Boy it's been a long, long day here at WVH. The 2010 MLS SuperDraft is over and now it is time to take a short break. I was going to do some draft recaps tonight but expect them for the morning (though I may knock them out tonight, depends on a few things).

In other words, I'm tired! Thanks to those who decided to stop by for the live blog of the draft today.

A good buddy of mine and now a new Son of Ben member Kevin Kinkead was kind enough to take some photos of yesterday's SuperDraft. I hope you enjoy them.

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