Featured image: Courtesy of Dan Morrison and bethlehemsteelsoccer.org

Against the expectation of many in the US, the United States Football Association's first international tour in Scandinavia in the summer of 1916 had been a great success. The cash-strapped USFA had come out of the trip in the black—the Swedish FA had paid for the tour thanks to the backing of a leading Swedish newspaper—and the team had performed well to garner a 3–1–2 record despite having been put together only days before departure to Europe without the benefit of tryouts.

Photo by Brad Smith/ISIphotos.com

For Charlie Davies, perhaps not securing a full transfer or loan extension was the best tactic to take this winter after all.

Davies has been included on Sochaux's first-team roster for the club's league game at Stade Rennes on Saturday, marking a major milestone for him and his quest to break back into the club's lineup.

The Development Academy Carolina Challenge Cup tournament is taking place from Friday through Monday. It is run in conjunction with the Charleston Battery's Carolina Challenge Cup, which features Major League Soccer's Chicago Fire, Columbus Crew and D.C. United.

Approximately 300 Development Academy players are competing in the 18-game tournament.

The Chicago Fire concluded Phase 2 of their preseason with split squad games today. A primarily first team lineup fell to the San Jose Earthquakes 2-0 thanks to goals from Steven Lenhart and Brad Ring. The second team defeated the Ventura County Fusion 2-1 on the backs of a penalty kick goal from Orr Barouch and a Pari Pantazopoulos header Barouch assisted on.

D.C. United Academy Update
U-18's and U-16's to compete in Academy Carolina Cup, Collin Martin called into U-20 MNT camp
Washington, D.C. (February 22, 2012) – D.C. United's U-18 and U-16 Academy teams are set to compete in the Development Academy Carolina Challenge Cup from February 24 – 27.

It's time yet again for another round of Hat Trick and QOTD info. With the Chicago Fire season drawing close (yet still seemingly an agonizingly long time away), Fire fans have the Carolina Challenge Cup (CCC) to look forward to this weekend. It will be a final tune-up of sorts for the Fire before they head into a fresh new MLS season.

BY DAVID GUBALA

The Chicago Fire entered their third and final phase of preseason on Tuesday when they traveled to Charleston, S.C. to partake in the annual Carolina Challenge Cup.

With less than a month until their season opener, the Fire still have plenty of unaswered questions about the squad.

U.S. head coach Pia Sundhage has named the 23 players that will travel to Japan for two of the biggest non-Olympic, non-World Cup matches the U.S. WNT has played in recent history, taking on Japan on April 1 in Sendai (6:30 a.m. ET) and Brazil on April 3 in Chiba (7 a.m.)
Both matches will be broadcast on ESPN2.

Japan vs Azerbaijan 2-0 Highlights Shinji Kagawa Goal Video Okazaki Kirin Challenge Cup 2012 Friendly Score is a post from Soccer Blogger. Follow Soccer Blogger on Twitter

Japan vs Azerbaijan 2-0 Highlights Shinji Kagawa Goal Video Okazaki Kirin Challenge Cup 2012 Friendly Score is a post from Soccer Blogger.

The 2012 Chicago Fire season is almost here. The 2012 Chicago Fire preseason starts on Wednesday if you count the players reporting for physicals as preseason. The team will start actually training in Ave Maria, Florida on January 20. Preseason scrimmages on the calendar include January 29 vs. D.

OADBY TOWN 2-1 AMPTHILL TOWN
Saturday 21st January 2012
FA Vase 4th Round
Greene King Park
After what feels like a long time since I saw Oadby in action this is to be the first of two consecutive Saturday home games for the Poachers. The last time I was down here for a games was on December 3rd when they hosted Tipton Town in the last round of this competition.

Featured image: Courtesy Dan Morrison and bethlehemsteelsoccer.org

The 1913-14 season saw the launch of the National Challenge Cup, the competition now known as the US Open Cup, by the recently founded United States Football Association. While the National Challenge Cup would quickly become the singular competition for the title of Champion of the United States, the American Cup tournament had been founded in 1885 by the American Football Association, the first soccer governing body in America.

Good morning/afternoon/evening from me. My name is Josh, I am a journalism student and I am blogging for the DC United offside now. Any questions can be directed in the comments or emailed. You can find my personal Twitter by tweeting to @jdrzewicki9. I would like to set up a Twitter for this blog, but I will get to that later.

DC United sign Hamdi Salihi as a designated player. Salihi, an Albanian, comes from Rapid Vienna where he scored 53 goals in 90 appearances for the Austrian club. The 28 year old has been wanted all over the world, with great offers coming from Scotland.

Salihi will wear the number 9 after Charlie Davies failed to make a reasonable impression on the United management.

DC United kicks off Sunday against the Chicago Fire in the Carolina Challenge Cup.

But the DC United Offside now has a Twitter account so you can get soccer and DC United news from me all of the time.

http://twitter.com/#!/DCUnitedOffside

Go to the link and follow. Tweet at us all you want.

It's Wednesday and DC United start their season in the Carolina Challenge Cup against the Chicago Fire this Saturday at 5 pm EST. There has been plenty of coverage by the United official website, mostly of their training. Two reasons I'm really excited for this really weekend, my first match as the blogger for the United Offside, and Liverpool FC playing for their first trophy in six years.

It's Thursday everyone. That's one more day closer to Saturday, when DC United kick off the Carolina Challenge Cup against the Chicago Fire. The MLS regular season kicks off in twelve days when United plays host to Sporting Kansas City. With my first season as a United blogger underway, please let me know what you guys would like to see.

After reading Soccer Men, a compelling look at the personalities associated with the sport, I was positive that the next book in line (Soccer in a Football World: The Story of America's Forgotten Game by David Wangerin) would be different, maybe not in a positive way. I was even more certain after a flip through its pages revealed a wealth of dates and names.

Chicago Fire take on D.C. United at 4:00 PM CST and yes, this game will be video streamed. The video link will be here during the match. This is the opener of the 2012 Carolina Challenge Cup. Games versus the Columbus Crew and Charleston Battery will follow on February 29 and March 3 respectively.

The old adage "it's better to be lucky than good" certainly played a major role in D.C. United's 1-0 victory over the Chicago Fire in the opening game of the Carolina Challenge Cup tonight in Charleston, South Carolina. Hamdi Salihi's ...

By CALEB SONNELAND

The 8th annual Carolina Challenge Cup is underway in Charleston, South Carolina.

DC United notched the only win of the weekend with a 1-0 result over the Chicago Fire while hosts Charleston Battery salvaged a late draw with the Columbus Crew last Saturday.

D.C. United returned to Charleston, SC to compete in the 2012 Carolina Challenge Cup this past weekend. United are the current defending champions of the preseason tournament having won the two previous cups.
Apperently a return trip to South Carolina was just what the team needed as the Black and Red picked up their first preseason win and new Designated Player, Hamdi Salihi, scored a beautiful goal in the match against the Chicago Fire.

Sorry I was gone all weekend. It was quite busy for me with midterms bearing down on me along with a Carling Cup final for Liverpool. But onto the important things.

United Started off the match under pressure. Dejan Jakovic brought down Patrick Nyarko in the box for a penalty in the 5′.

D.C. United Press Release:
D.C. United signs goalkeeper Andrew Dykstra 26-year-old a native of Woodbridge, Va.
Washington, D.C. (February 27, 2012) – D.C. United announced today that the club has signed goalkeeper Andrew Dykstra. The 26-year-old netminder joins the Black-and-Red having completed preseason camps in Florida and Arizona.

Today is an absolute smorgasbord for soccer fans. Especially for USMNT and Chicago Fire fans. One of the best things is that all these games are spread out enough for a day full of soccer action if you play your cards right. We encourage you to join us as we talk soccer throughout the day. We will try to keep things updated as they develop.

First half goals from Maicon Santos and Ryan Richter and a late goal from Hamdi Salihi helped D.C. United to a comfortable 3-1 win tonight over the host Charleston Battery in their second match of the Carolina Challenge Cup. With ...

Amid all the bluster about Englands match against the Netherlands last night (a match already being described by some as "That Thing That Happened At Wembley"), Mark Critchley thinks that he may have spotted the real reason why Stuart Pearce cannot succeed as the England manager.

To be English is to be afflicted.

DC United continue their strong performance at the Carolina Challenge Cup against the Charlseton Battery defeating the Battery 3-1 and winning the "Coffee Pot Cup." The Coffee Pot Cup is won by the team who wins this match each time they play. It's a great example of the MLS-USL rivalry that hardly exists anywhere else.

-Yesterday DaMarcus Beasley tweeted, "Would love to come back to the club that gave me my first chance! The Chicago Fire is like my family. #fireforlife". Many people took this tweet and ran with it. he was only responding to a fans question and that is it. I don't think that the Puebla winger is coming over any time soon.

Tomorrow at 4pm local time, the Fire take on DC United at the Carolina Challenge Cup. This match is going to be streamed at chicago-fire.com.To most of us Fire fans this will be the first time that we will get to see them play this year. I imagine both teams will probably try and limit subs and get as many of the starting XI the full 90.

-Last night the San Jose building commission voted 6-0 to deny an appeal against the construction of a soccer specific stadium. This means the earthquakes can finally get going on their $60 million dollar 18,000 seat stadium. Congrats. Finally San Jose can have a proper stadium to play at. This is good for the team, fans, and the MLS as a whole.

-Carolina Challenge Cup kicks off this weekend. Chicago will be facing DC United (Feb25), Columbus Crew (Feb29), and Charleston Battery (March3). All of these matches will have a streaming broadcast at chicago-fire.com.
-Today we got two UEFA Champions League matches. Yesterday I think I got pretty lucky with my predictions.

-Vancouver Whitecaps Won the Disney Cup last night over a reserve laden Toronto FC. A Vancouver goal in the tenth minute by Camilo was enough to secure the trophy for the Caps with a 1-0 win. Most of Toronto's first team were at home preparing for this week's CCL match.
-In Arizona a Galaxy squad, made up of mainly reserves, defeated New England in penalties 4-2 to win the Desert Diamond Cup.

Join the guys as they talk about DC United's performance in the Carolina Challenge Cup and where they'll stack up with the resto of the Eastern Conference. Mike, Chris, and Martin also make their 2012 year end predictions.

The season is less than a week away from kicking off for Sporting KC, but today a new player in on trial popped up on MLS's website in an article regarding the Crew's return from the Carolina Challenge Cup. The last game of the cup was canceled due to in climate weather, so the Crew didn't get a chance to look at some of their trialists.

DC United's match with the Columbus Crew was canceled due to rain. It would have been United's last match of the preseason against a Columbus Crew side that finished fourth in the Eastern Conference last year. It rounds up the Carolina Challenge Cup also. With two wins, United win the cup and look good starting out the year against the current Eastern Conference champs, Sporting Kansas City.

Japan just has the U.S. women's national team's number at the moment.

In their first meeting since the dramatic World Cup final that Japan won in penalty kicks, Japan topped the U.S. women 1-0 in the final group game of the Algarve Cup on Monday, preventing the Americans from a place in the championship game for the first time in 10 years and dealing them their first shutout in 58 matches.

That time of year when each paper has a riff on the same theme: "Hibs fans don't need reminding that it's been 110 years since their side won the Scottish Cup."
Well, no. We don't.
Yet everybody does remind us. Constantly.
The scraggy punchline of a 110 year joke. Mostly a joke that bludgeons you about the head with no attempt at subtlety.

Promotion, relegation and Wembley are very much on our minds for this week's Non-League Videos Of The Week, which feature matches from the Blue Square Premier, the Blue Square South, the FA Vase and the North West Counties Football League Challenge Cup. Things are tight at the bottom of the Blue Square Premier table.

Rachel Buehler plays Whitney Engen as Amy LePeilbet closes
The U.S. WNT held an intense and physical two-hour training today in the late morning as the team continues to acclimate to the time change in Japan in preparation for the April 1st match vs. Japan in Sendai (6:30 a.