The 2012 MLS schedule has been released and like all fans I looked to see when the big teams would meet each other.

In looking over the schedule, the folks at Major League Soccer identified these as the 10 must-see matches of 2012. Do you agree with them? Unfortunately there are no New England Revolution matches on the list.

FC Dallas was an up-and-down team last season, getting off to a slow start (remember Brek Shea as a fullback) before surging in the summer then falling off a cliff in the fall. The team ended the season on a ...
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Well it's now official. Yesterday was the very last day of the Timbers training for the year. The guys are now officially on vacation until late January when they have to report to training. Just about two months worth of time off... I'm not even sure I would know what to do with that time off.

Anyway, I'm keeping it short this morning as the US-Slovenia game is going on right now.

Fabian Castillo should be a protected player for FC Dallas. (Getty Images)

Another expansion draft list for you on this Friday afternoon.

This one centers around the team I'm most familiar with, FC Dallas. I will keep this one fairly short as I find FCD to be one of the easier teams to put a list down on paper (or type out in this case).

The New York Red Bulls upset FC Dallas last night in Texas, giving them a home playoff game against the Los Angeles Galaxy on October 30. While the scoreline shows some of the quality play that the Red Bulls had during the game, but it doesn't speak to what's scary about a New York side with some confidence behind itself.

Photo: Earl Gardner

Union v Houston playoff watch

So, what time exactly will Sunday's game be kicking off? Marc Narducci reports, "If the Los Angeles Galaxy face the Colorado Rapids in the Western Conference semifinal, Sunday's Union game will start at 4. If the Galaxy play the New York Red Bulls or Columbus Crew, game time for the Union will be 5 p.

STARTERS
Huge congrats to Helsingborg who won the Swedish Allsvenskan championship on Sunday!
STORY OF THE DAY
Jonathan Wilson of the Guardian today looks at statistical analysis that shows the biggest clubs in English football have clearly pulled away from everyone else.

Any plans that FC Dallas fans might have had for David Ferreira to make his return in the postseason should be put on hold.

Ferreira, last year's MLS MVP, has been out since breaking his ankle in an April 23 victory at Vancouver. He has been working his way back to fitness but is unlikely to suit up for FCD during the postseason, according to FC Dallas coach Schellas Hyndman.

Por snedecor
Igual que los Cleveland Cavaliers apostaron por LeBron Raymond James por, entre otras cosas, ser de Ohio, puede que la condición de texano de Dane Brekken Shea pesara mucho para que fuera elegido en segunda posición del Draft 2008 por FC Dallas. Como King James, Brek Shea fue directo a la liga profesional sin pisar el campus: tenía 17 años cuando firmó con Adidas y la MLS un contrato garantizado por 3 temporadas, con un sueldo creciente que llegaría hasta los 100.

Zakuani, a casualty of precisely....what?

This is an exclusive offered to The Shin Guardian by the great collective of writers at The Blizzard.

This season, MLS has become a bloody place. Four of the league's most dynamic attacking players — Seattle's Steve Zakuani, Dallas's David Ferreira, Salt Lake's Javier Morales and DC's Branko Bošković — have suffered horrific injuries, totalling six broken bones, a dislocation and severe ligament damage between them, leading to a torrent of discussion about the physical nature of play in MLS.

Brek Shea sits atop the MVP race, can he hold on to it? (Getty Images)

With only a few weeks left in the season the awards race in Major League Soccer is pretty dang hot. The MVP race alone is very interesting this season. In my book if I had to vote today for the top three in the MVP race would be fairly simple but there are a few dark horse candidates to keep a watch on.

I really hope Javier gets back soon, Real Salt Lake is always more fun to watch them with him in the lineup. I wish him, Steve Zakuani and David Ferreira nothing but the best on their long roads to recovery here.

Exhibition matchTORONTO (1st) VS. DALLAS (2nd)
CONCACAF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE - GROUP C
　
BMO FIELD - WEDNESDAY 8PM ET
TV: GOLTV
　
THE KICKABOUT:
- Was TFC's recent upswing a carny trick or is their form closer to the performance put on in Chicago last Sunday?

Every week the New England Soccer Today crew will look beyond the standings to rank each of the 18 Major League Soccer (MLS) teams. This week Brian O'Connell and Sean Donahue contributed rankings. Comments are followed by the ranker's name and the rank they gave that team.

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This is the second part of the preview of the CONCACAF Champions League group stage, focusing on Groups C and D. Group C: UNAM, Tauro, FC Dallas, Toronto FC This is the only group with two Major League Soccer teams, but both teams reside in opposite ends of the league table. FC Dallas have recovered well from the injury to David Ferreira with Brek Shea becoming one of the revelations of the 2011 season, while Toronto FC's season has floundered since opening weekend.

Every week the New England Soccer Today crew will look beyond the standings to rank each of the 18 Major League Soccer (MLS) teams. This week Brian O'Connell and Sean Donahue contributed rankings. Comments are followed by the ranker's name and the rank they gave that team.

1.

Every week the New England Soccer Today crew will look beyond the standings to rank each of the 18 Major League Soccer (MLS) teams. This week Brian O'Connell and Sean Donahue contributed rankings. Comments are followed by the ranker's name and the rank they gave that team.

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DC United at FC Dallas: Dallas Heat Shows No Home Field Advantage
The extreme heat and humidity in Saturday night's contest was extremely evident on the faces of the players of both teams. FC Dallas was coming off a disappointing effort on the road at Real Salt Lake that we profiled earlier this week.

It's that time of year again. July heat is upon us and most MLS teams have played half (or slightly more than half) of their schedule. International friendlies and the all-star games versus Manchester United are looming, so now is the ideal time to look back on the first half of the season and pick some of the highlights and low-lights.

I'm fairly confident today will be one of those days where everyone is making their mid-season picks (either that or it will be an all week kind of things across the 'net). I've been knocking around the idea of getting mine posted for some time and today just felt like the right time. Nearly all teams have played half of their season (KC, RSL and SJ only ones that have played 16 games) and I think we know who was good in this first half of the season and who was not.

By ALAN LEDBETTER

Everyone had their doubts about FC Dallas after its star midfielder, David Ferreira, was injured early in the season. After another impressive win, FCD is proving to be the hottest team in MLS. Brek Shea has proved to be the spark in the offense that has replaced Ferreira as he has scored in four straight MLS games.

FC Dallas midfielder Eric Avila may soon be playing in Mexico.

Avila is on his way to Guadalajara to potentially seal a six-month loan to Primera Division side Atlas, FC Dallas announced on Friday. Should he join Atlas, he would be the second MLS player to go there this season after Chicago sold Gaston Puerari to Atlas a couple of weeks ago.

WASHINGTON -- The team that finally got over the hump earned their moment with the leader of the free world.

Clad in gray suits, the Colorado Rapids were honored in the East Room of the White House by President Barack Obama Tuesday afternoon for winning the 2010 MLS Cup a little more than seven months ago at BMO Field in Toronto.

Tomorrow's a big day for fans of soccer in Portland. Not only are the Portland Timbers heading to Dallas to seek their first road victory but also the United States is playing Mexico in the CONCACAF Gold Cup final. Both are happening at just about the same time though, so it's going to be a little tricky to keep track of both.

The Columbus Crew has turned to a few rookies to play key minutes, and after the club took some lumps early on, the youngsters are starting to come through.

Bernardo Anor, Justin Meram and Rich Balchan have all raised their levels of play, and their contributions (among others) in Columbus' win in Houston over the weekend, helped push the Crew all the way up to a tie for No.

After opening LiveSTRONG Sporting Park on Thursday night, Sporting KC heads back out onto the road for a game on Sunday against FC Dallas at Pizza Hut Park. Dallas comes into the game after defeating New England at home last weekend 1-0. The shutout was the 100th of Kevin Hartman's MLS career. Dallas has done well to recover from the loss of David Ferreira and is getting results to keep them in a good league position.

Major League Soccer with its partner AT&T have announced the All-Star ballot for 2011. There are some decent changes to the system, as now select media whittle the list down to 6 players from each team, and then fan voting will determine the First XI (not starting XI). Don Garber will pick two after that point, and then Hans Backe will fill out his gameday 18.

Just like last season, FC Dallas has embarked on an extended unbeaten run to shoot up the league standings.

The defending Western Conference champions haven't lost in nine games and find themselves second in both the Supporters' Shield standings and SBI MLS Power Rankings after another clean sheet victory and a sweet goal from Marvin Chavez.

When the New England Revolution head to Pizza Hut Park in Frisco, Texas on Saturday, the temperatures in the mid-90s might not be the hottest obstacle the struggling team has to overcome. 2010 MLS Cup finalists FC Dallas has turned its season around after a rocky start and at 5-0-3 in its last eight games is one of the most in-form teams in the league.

DC makes their first visit out west to the HDC tomorrow. (Getty Images)

Well, week 12 got off to a fizzle of some sorts last night between Chivas USA and Vancouver. Eric Hassli did what he does best, earn red cards while the two ended in a 1-1 draw. Aside from that I really have little to say on the game.

When reigning MLS MVP David Ferreira went down with a broken ankle, 2010 Western Conference champion FC Dallas figured to struggle while finding a way to replace the catalyst for the team's attack.

Instead, the Red Stripes found their groove.

FC Dallas went 4-0-3 in the month of May to easily capture SBI's Team of the Month honors.

Philadelphia midfielder Justin Mapp was named Major League Soccer's Player of the Week for Week 11. Mapp scored two goals in Philadelphia's 6-2 win over Toronto. Player of the Week Winners Week 10: Jeff Parke (Seattle Sounders FC) Week 9: Justin Braun (Chivas USA) Week 8: Joao Plata (Toronto FC) Week 7: Will Bruin (Houston Dynamo) Week 6: Landon Donovan (LA Galaxy) Week 5: Luke Rodgers (New York Red Bulls) Week 4: David Ferreira (FC.

The Seattle Sounders are at home at Qwest Field once again, and this time they'll be taking on one of the hottest teams in MLS in FC Dallas i a key Western Conference showdown.

Despite the loss of MLS MVP David Ferreira, Dallas has been riding a stingy defense and the goalkeeping of Kevin Hartman to a six match unbeaten streak.

On the same weekend in late April, both the Seattle Sounders and FC Dallas lost critical members of their offense to bonebreaking tackles. The Steve Zakuani loss got more attention outside of Dallas due to the cynicism of the tackle and the graphic injury, but Dallas lost the MLS MVP in David Ferreira.

RSL and FCD battle this weekend in a big profile match. (Getty Images)

Here we are, ten weeks into the 2011 MLS season. Hard to believe it but we're heading into summer here really quickly. May is nearly up and while teams are still cluttered in the standings, there are a couple games this week that could help those at the top break away.

The Los Angeles Galaxy may have had the biggest blowout of the week, and Chivas USA had the most surprising win of the week, but no team can top FC Dallas this week after the Red Stripes posted a pair of shutout victories to climb the Western Conference standings.

Led by the attacking forays of Fabian Castillo, the stout defending of George John, and the stellar goalkeeping of Kevin Hartman, FC Dallas beat both Toronto FC and the Philadelphia Union to improve to 5-3-2 on the season.

The Philly Soccer Page » Who's driving this thing?
As the Union return to Earth from their improbable early season success, questions abound as the defense tires and the offense continues to sputter. Despite an excellent start against Dallas, the Union netted another goose egg and looked mentally fragile as they folded like a card table once Brek Shea broke the deadlock.

As the Union return to Earth from their improbable early season success, questions abound as the defense tires and the offense continues to sputter. Despite an excellent start against Dallas, the Union netted another goose egg and looked mentally fragile as they folded like a card table once Brek Shea broke the deadlock.

My MLS rankings. I put way too much thought into these.
1. Real Salt Lake - An uninspiring draw for sure, but not damaging enough to knock them from the top perch.
2. LA Galaxy - You know things are going well when Juan Pablo Angel scores.
3. New York - Three of last four goals allowed have come on set pieces.

Welcome to The Weekly Five. Each week I address a topic by presenting a list of five examples that support, oppose or simply relate to the subject.
Goals are the true reason we watch soccer. Sure there's the the tackles, passes, red cards, the result, local rivalries and on-pitch battles, but it's when the ball hits the back of the net that our attention is most firmly glued to the screen.