Anticipation is building after January served up a nice set of appetizers for the season to come, both for MLS and the US National Team. We begin with Klinsmann's first go-round at Camp Cupcake, the annual January gathering of the "best of the rest" in the USMNT pool...

One-Nil to the USMNT

Results were slow to arrive early in Klinsmann's tenure as USA boss, but a pair of 1-0 wins (home to Venuzuela and on the road in Panama) sees him start 2012 with an unblemished record.

Phil Schoen was nice enough to give the Brotherly Game some of his time about a week and a half ago. The GolTV play-by-play announcer discussed plenty of topics with the Brotherly Game, some of which included the Philadelphia Union.

Interview with Phil Schoen of GolTV

Here are some highlights of the chat:

• Schoen's time with GolTV, along with his coverage of Colombian soccer, has enabled him to have a more advanced take on players from South and Central America.

For the full quote sheet, click here:
U.S. Men's National Team head coach JURGEN KLINSMANN On the game against Panama:
"I think we saw a very close game, a very tight game which we luckily won because Panama didn't finish off the chances that they had.

Why dither when footy is hither? Aight, so I'm a nerd and Greg is slicker than me with the hip hop lingo. Guess Black Thought hasn't seeped in after hundreds of hours of repeated listening. Back to my Shakespearean sonnets and fields of gillyflowers it is. - Klinsmann wanted a game in Central America for the expressed purpose of exposing some of his more untested young guns to the

The 2012-13 CONCACAF Champions League will drop the preliminary round, expand the group stage, and seed it by country North and Central America's Confederation announced on Thursday. "This new format will streamline the first phase of the competition," CONCACAF acting general secretary Ted Howard said.

Photo by Michael Janosz/ISIphotos.com

The next step in selecting the team that will be charged with qualifying the United States for the Olympics is underway, as United States Under-23 coach Caleb Porter holds his December training camp in Lakewood Ranch, Fla. A group of 30 players has been called in for the next week, where they'll aim to catch Porter's eye and build a foundation for the coming months.

FIFA Team of the XXth Century of CONCACAF Deportivo Saprissa S.A.D.(formerly known as C.D. Saprissa) is Central America's and Costa Rica's most successful soccer club. Twenty nine time Primera División de Costa Rica and CONCACAF Champions' Cup winners in 1993, 1995, and 2005, Saprissa is the only team from the region apart from Mexico's Necaxa [.

(All translation help from @barbcvphilly)

A Costa Rican news outlet, Teletica Deportes, is reporting that Deportivo Saprissa will play the Philadelphia Union in a summer friendly during the 2012 MLS season. Deportes says that the Union areed to play Saprissa as part of the two teams' transfer that ended with striker Josue Martinez joining Philadelpia.

Jay Heaps has a tough job. The former player turned coach is now in the process of righting the ship that's lost its way in New England. A lot has been made of the Revolution's choice to hire Heaps, whether it's support for someone who knows the organization or criticism at his lack of experience.
Molded by some of the best coaches in all of sports, he has some fantastic experiences to draw on.

Well into the playoff phase in Central America's domestic leagues, as two leagues approach the finals and a new champion has been crowned in Panama. Here's a summary of what happened over the past seven days: BELIZE ??? COSTA RICA Alajuelense and Herediano will meet in the final of the Invierno tournament.

The US National Team will play Venezuela and Panama in January. (Getty Images)

The usual pair of January friendlies for the US Men's National team have been announced today by the USSF. Jurgen Klinsmann will lead his team against Venezuela in Phoenix on January 21 and then again on January 25 against in Panama City against Panama.

A roundup of action from around Central America, as all of the leagues are now in playoff stage. BELIZE I have no idea what's happening in Belize. COSTA RICA Alajuelense scored an important victory in the Invierno playoffs with a 1-0 first leg victory at Saprissa. The Purple Monsters has to play almost 50 minutes with ten men after Jairo Arrieta was sent off in the 43rd minute.

Not much time for lots of prose, since I'm on my way to bed and will be out of town for a few days. But I did want to put out the results and upcoming schedules for the playoff action throughout Central America. BELIZE None COSTA RICA The Invierno playoffs start on Sunday with the first leg of the semifinals.

Panama clinched Central America's third and final berth for CONCACAF Olympic Qualifying with a 1-1 draw against Costa Rica. The two met Nov. 3 at Estadio Alejandro Morera Soto in Alajuela, Costa Rica. Panama won 3-2 on aggregate after a 2-1 win in the first leg at home in Panama City Oct. 26.
Honduras and El Salvador round out the group of qualifiers from Central America.

Panama and Costa Rica will go head-to-head twice over the next two weeks to determine which country will join the U.S. Under-23 Men's National Team in CONCACAF Olympic Qualifying. The aggregate winner joins El Salvador and Honduras as the third and final team from Central America in the qualifying tournament.

CONCACAF has announced that the draw for its 2012 Women's Olympic Qualifying tournament that will be held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, from Jan. 19-29, will be held on this coming Monday, October 24 at 2:00 PM ET. The draw will take place in Vancouver.
All matches of the tournament will be played at Vancouver's newly renovated BC Place Stadium with the top two teams qualifying for the 2012 Women's Olympic Football Tournament.

Photo: Daniel Gajdamowicz

Union

In this week's power rankings roundup, the Union fall two spots to fifth at MLS Soccer.com. At ESPN, they move up one spot to fifth. They drop one spot to fourth at the Seattle Times. At Goal.com, the Union fall two spots to eighth.

Sheanon Williams, profiled on the Union website, was named to Goal.

Photo: Nicolae Stoian

Union

In case you missed it, on Sunday we posted an extensive round up of match reports from the Philadelphia Union's 1–1 draw with Toronto FC and reaction to the clinching of a playoff berth. We also posted Eli Pearlman-Storch's match report and Nicolae Stoian's photo essay of the game.

Liverpool will wait until Mexican teenage striker Marco Bueno turns 18 next year before stepping up their bid to sign him.
The Reds entered the race to sign one of the stars of this summer's World Under-17 championships in July and brought the Pachuca player over for a ten-day trial in August.
But Bueno returned without penning a contract and made his first-team debut for the Mexican top flight club over the weekend.

1. As you know, I'm a huge supporter of MLS fan clubs (with a special affinity for Chicago's Section 8). Here's a great article from ESPN on the rise of the MLS fan clubs. I've also updated the fan club links on the main page.
2. Tell me if this sounds familiar, MLS based US defensive midfielder loses head, acts out, gets sent off and puts team in bad position.

Honduras booked a spot at the CONCACAF Olympic qualifying finals with a 5-0 win against Nicaragua earlier this week. The 5-0 win gave Honduras the edge on goal differential against Costa Rica.
With the win, Honduras joins El Salvador, Canada, Mexico and the United States in next year's qualifying tournament.

Six countries are set for the final round of CONCACAF Women's Olympic Qualifying, set to be held from Jan. 19-29 at BC Place in Vancouver, Canada.
The USA, Canada and Mexico get byes to the final tournament while Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Cuba qualified through the Caribbean region.

Make no mistake, a lot was riding on Tuesday's result. If the Seattle Sounders had failed to pull out a point, that would have meant they needed a result against Monterrey. No matter how weakened Monterrey may or may not be, there's just no way you want to go into a match with a Mexican team absolutely needing a result.

Nine points. Through three matches of CONCACAF Champions League group stage play, the Seattle Sounders remain perfect after beating Herediano in Costa Rica 2-1. Just think about that for a second.

When CCL play started, we knew the Sounders would have two of their first three matches in Mexico and Costa Rica.

Photo courtesy of Greg Carroccio and the Philadelphia Union

Union

The newest edition of the Philly Soccer Show, co-hosted by KYW's Greg Orlandini and PSP's Eli Pearlman-Storch, features an interview with Freddy Adu.

Ives Galarcep has an informative piece on Adu loaded with great quotes.

BY ADAM SERRANO

Many MLS teams are looking to make a deal before the end of the transfer period on August 14th and the Los Angeles Galaxy is one of them.

The MLS league leading Galaxy are on the cusp of starting play in the CONCACAF Champions League and may be looking to add depth at a number of positions.

World Cup draw preview: Brazil 2014 888 games, 204 nations, one winner

Qualifying is already underway with preliminaries in Asia and Central America

View the full story here: The Mirror

A news article on 2011-07-29 22:00:49 from: The Mirror

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

Tomorrow a high-ranking delegation of FIFA, CONCACAF, and UNCAF officials will arrive in Belize to mediate the ongoing conflict between the national government and the Football Federation of Belize. The delegation is composed on officials from Central America but wearing different hats. Rafael Salguero of Guatemala is on the FIFA Executive Committee, Ariel Alvarado of Guatemala represents the CONCACAF ExCo, and Rafael Tinoco is the UNCAF president.

FIFA World Cup 2014 Qualification
It might seem a world away, but for some countries, the 2014 World Cup has already finished.
Qualifiers for the finals in Brazil began in June, and these nations will be watching FIFA's big party on television having been eliminated:
Afghanistan
Anguilla
Aruba
British Virgin Islands
Cambodia
Chinese Taipei
East Timor
Macao
Mongolia
Pakistan
Sri Lanka
Turks and Caicos
And at the end of today, Montserrat look likely to join them, trailing Belize 5-2 from their home leg.

I'm going to change up this review from what Ryan Gates usually provides after each Timbers game. Honestly, it just doesn't fit my style to write like that. Instead, I'll be providing more broad based discussion on the game, how the team played, and how I feel that will translate into the Gold Cup Final on Saturday.

Union

Peter Nowak says of what to expect of the Union lineup over the next couple of games: "We will shuffle the deck. It's been a couple of months we've been playing 14 guys. It's time for the others to step up. Gabriel Farfan is coming back, Stefani (Miglioranzi) played the first half in Vancouver.

After everyone concluded their first game of the U-17 World Cup, here is how the six different confederations are doing ... CONCACAF, with five teams, is the only confederation with a winning record so far.
Africa (Burkina Faso, Congo Rwanda, Cote d'Ivoire): 1 win, 3 losses
Asia (Australia, Korea DPR, Japan, Uzbekistan): 2 wins, 2 losses
Europe (Czech Republic, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Netherlands): 3 wins, 3 losses
South America (Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Uruguay): 2 wins, 2 losses
North, Central America and Caribbean (USA, Canada, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama): 3 wins, 2 losses
Panama, in their first-ever FIFA World Cup, defeated African champion Burkina Faso in their opener yesterday

Photo: Paul Rudderow

Union

Power rankings roundup! At MLSsoccer.com, the Union moves into second place and do the same at ESPN, SBI, Goal.com.

Sheanon Williams is named to Goal.com's Best XI for Week 13. Danny Califf and Keon Daniel get honorable mentions.

Danny Mwanga says of playing in Vancouver, "The opening minutes on the road, in a tough place to play, are so important.

Union

Justin Mapp could be available to face RSL.

Kevin Kinkead has another excellent RSL scouting report on the Union website. In the head-to-head preview at Goal.com, the Philly guy sees a 2–1 win for the Union, the RSL guy a 1–0 win for the visitors. Philly Union Talk thinks three point are likely while Unholy Union expects a draw.

2011 All-Star Ballot

The 2011 All-Star ballot was released on Wednesday afternoon. For those on the ballot from the Union, hearty congratulations are in order for Danny Califf, Sebastien Le Toux, Justin Mapp, Faryd Mondragon, Danny Mwanga and Carlos Ruiz, all of whom made the cut.

"Made the cut?

Union

Dave Zeitlin tweets "Justin Mapp's groin injury is pretty minor. He might not play Saturday vs RSL but only as a precautionary measure".

If you haven't done so already, vote Mwanga for Goal of the Week. If you have already, vote again—you're allowed.

It's power rankings time!

Photo: Courtesy Philadelphia Union

Union

Who needs a happy thought for a Monday morning?

Click here to view the embedded video.

Peter Nowak on the Union's 1–1 draw with Colorado: "We were a little disappointed not to get three points. But you cannot be too greedy coming here.

The fallout from the ongoing corruption scandal at FIFA continues with the interim CONCACAF firing American whistle-blower Chuck Blazer only for the CONCACAF website to post an announcement saying the firing contravenes confederation rules. Meanwhile, efforts to postpone the election for the FIFA presidency are voted down with FIFA's senior vice-president calling England's FA "pirates.

Sporting KC will be well represented when the CONCACAF Gold Cup begins in June.

KC has four players who will play for their national teams in the tournament that determines the champion of North America, Central America and the Carribean.

Shavar Thomas will play for Jamaica, Roger Espinoza for Honduras, Craig Rocastle for Grenada and Stephane Auvray for Guadeloupe.

Union

There is more information about the rumored friendly with Real Madrid, first reported by the Washington Post last Thursday. Kerith Gabriel reports in the Daily News that negotiations are underway for a possible July 23 fixture at the Linc. The problem is that the Union are scheduled to play Seattle away on that date.