Yeah, I've been getting beat up a bit on Twitter and through email today about my team grades for this winter. Again, I'll revisit those later on to have a final grade.

Obviously this kind of news will impact it. The Portland Timbers announced on Friday that forward José Adolfo Valencia will undergo surgery to repair damaged cartilage in his left knee.

Late last night, once again Robb Heineman brought us news via Twitter. This time pertaining to the potential designated player that KC was looking to sign. And that news doesn't appear to be good news. Heineman says that "unless something dramatic happens in the next two days, we will not be announcing a DP in this window.

Time for another year of wishes for 2012. Here's a look of what I am wanting and wishing to see in 2012.
1. Silverware - Is anything else really that important? I want silverware, as Robb Heineman put it tonight on Twitter, #paintthewall. I want to add more stuff to the wall that shows our accomplishments.

The day after the Sporting KC season ended, Robb Heineman posted on Twitter that the team was making an offer on a Spanish designated player. Since then, people have been speculating who it is that KC is trying to sign. It especially picked up after Heineman posted yesterday that a deal was done and would be announced in January.

After returning from my lengthy vacation, it took me some time to get back into my usual rhythm regarding the Whitecaps. The game against Portland is the first game I've seen for about six solid weeks, and I can't say I saw any improvements in my Whitecaps.
Like usual I got home late and turned on the TV with the game already started.

Many times on this site, I've bemoaned that fact that American internationals face hurdles to return to MLS when their career in Europe has either stagnated or are failing to provide them with growth opportunities. This year there has been a change for the better with players like Charlie Davies, Benny Feilhaber, and Freddy Adu (!

Fabian Castillo would be one of the "young" DPs for next year. (Getty Images)

Yesterday was a fairly busy day for Major League Soccer. They had two clubs in the CONCACAF Champions League, both of whom did very well at home. They signed a former US National team striker in Eddie Johnson, to which club he'll end up with we will have to wait until tomorrow to find out.

Just sounds like a bad title, but regardless, this is a huge move for MLS. It shows that we are willing to become a feeder league for teams, it'll drive up player quality, and hopefully we'll see an improvement at the club level. What is it I'm talking about? MLS has announced they are dropping the DP costs to clubs into age brackets.

Today MLS announced a change to the designated player rule for the next season. The new rule is designed to try to get MLS teams to go after younger designated players. To do this, the league has made the cap hit for younger designated players lower. Players that are 20 or younger will now only take a cap hit of $150,000.

Boy, talk about a change up.

Yesterday Chivas USA was all set to get midfielder Freddy Adu as their first Designated Player but today their upper management had second thoughts about the deal and went against it. So in came the Philadelphia Union who have now signed Adu.

Fox Soccer was the first to report this deal.

Freddy Adu could be making his way back to MLS. (Getty Images)

With the transfer window set to close next week, clubs are racing, and I mean racing, to get deals done here. I've seen today that Seattle is hoping to get some deal done while Chivas USA is hoping to land a much bigger fish..er.

I knew this would be a busy week in terms of player movement but I think its safe to say it could be a real busy week. Anyways, I just wrote a little article about how the New England Revolution are set to sign their first DP, 22-year old Argentine forward Milton Caraglio.

I can't say whether or not this is a good pickup or not.

The rumors last week out of Brazil have turned out to be true, as Sporting KC's "major player announcement" was the announcement of the signing of midfielder, Jeferson as a designated player. Jeferson has been signed on loan from his current club, Vasco da Gama. Jeferson will be called upon to pull the strings in the midfield for Sporting KC, to help the team get back into more of their early season goal scoring form.

The signing of a third designated player ought to be an occasion that inspires the New York fanbase with confidence and appreciation for the club's management. However, in the wake of the humiliating 4-0 exit from the US Open Cup at Chicago Tuesday night, the mood in Metroland is anything but pleased.

Frank Rost joins the New York Red Bulls as their third DP. (Getty Images)

The New York Red Bull goalkeeper issue has been a well documented thing all season long. The Red Bulls announced today the signing of veteran goalkeeper Frank Rost. Rost comes to New York after playing in the German Bundesliga for nearly 20 years.

Mustapha Jarju. You got that name? Alright. Learn it because he's MLS's newest Designated Player today as Vancouver announced the signing of the 24-year old Gambian striker today.

Jarju joins Whitecaps FC after three successful seasons with Belgian club Royal Albert-Elisabeth Club (RAEC) de Mons.

Reinforcements could be on their way to Vancouver. The club is set to make a "major" announcement this morning. Yeah I know what you all are thinking with the word major in quotes but this one seems fairly straight forward here. Marc Weber of The Providence is reporting the club is set to sign a forward, possibly a Designated Player to go along with their current DP forward Eric Hassli.

The criticisms surrounding Aron Winter & Co's "re-building" of Toronto FC had recently started to reach alarming levels in some supporting circles. A lack of results and seemingly neutral development on the pitch coupled with relative quiet off the pitch started to make murmurs of displeasure turn into yells.

Kinder Surprise! You're moving to mid-Ohio!
When David Beckham made his much bally-hooed, sexy landing in Los Angeles a few years ago, many MLS observers thought it would open a floodgate of European stars heading to North America. As supporters of the league know, the deluge never quite happened.

Finally Whitecaps fans's prayers have been answered! Fans continuously asked for a designated player and a forward, and now they've got both in the form of Eric Hassli. But... are they really that happy? I'll admit it, when I saw that the Whitecaps signed Eric Hassli as their designated player, I was slightly disappointed.

The light of heaven shined upon us today and the Galaxy twitterverse burst forth with joy. We have been sent our Angel.

The Galaxy announced today that they have signed Juan Pablo Angel to a multi-year contract as the team's third DP (Becks and Landycakes being the other two). The big question now is whether our Angel can earn his wings.