by Andrew Crawford

Having even the remotest interest in Shanghai Shenhua should probably come with a health warning. When I die a decade prematurely, blame it on the side from the Hongkou stadium for weakening my heart and badly damaging my sanity. Shenhua is a dangerous interest to have. Believe me, its lots of fun but if you can, enjoy it in moderation.

2012: Rise of the Chinese Football Empire? is a post from: Just Football

Following the arrival of Nicolas Anelka and Jean Tigana at Shanghai Shenhua, the Chinese Super League (CSL) has received more attention in a month than it has previously done in almost a decade.

The CSL itself is coming up to its ninth year as China's top league since it superseded the Jia-A League in 2003.

By Andrew Crawford, writing from Shanghai. Andrew has written for The Independent and When Saturday Comes, while also maintaining Wild East Football the only English site covering Chinese football, and he'll be featuring "Letters from Shanghai" on AFR to help track the growth of the league, as well as the stars playing there.

photo courtesy of Tom Leiss Sunday brought an end to the Fall 2011 Commonwealth Soccer League season with the league's semifinals and championship being held at Patriot Park in Spotsylvania, Va.
CSL is the Fredericksburg area's only sanctioned adult soccer league.The day also included action involving teams from the Fredericksburg-based youth soccer club FSCI Phoenix as part of Commonwealth SoccerFest.

The Commonwealth Soccer League Fall 2011 season will come to an end this Sunday, November 13th, at Patriot Park in Spotsylvania, Va., during the Commonwealth SoccerFest. CSL, the Fredericksburg area's only sanctioned adult soccer league, and the youth soccer club FSCI Phoenix will be working together for a day of soccer and fundraising to close out the Fall 2011 season.

Yeah, my power's been out. Curse you, October blizzard.

Remember when I said attendance was good this year? I was wrong. It was great. Record shattering, in fact. Enough to surpass the NBA and NHL, in fact. Seriously. After sixteen years, we have beaten not only our own record set in 1996, but those of other leagues against whom we're compared.

Below is an outstanding article by Bela Dziengeliewski about the challenges that the US Soccer Development Academy is presenting to their participants, which limits their opportunities to be recruited by college soccer programs.