For many, there has been a belief that in order to get the most out of Charlie Adam he must be played as part of a three-man midfield, alongside players who will be able to cover for his shortcomings and in doing so allow him to do what he does best—break down tough opponents and create scoring opportunities.

Looks like Mr. Backe has some decisions to make come opening day in Dallas. With a surplus of forwards and central midfielders, it'll be interesting to see what formation and personnel makeup the starting XI. With so many options and possible configurations at his disposal, how will Backe manage his depth?

The Dynamo had another positive preseason match today, defeating San Jacinto College 4-0. Goals from Nathan Sturgis, Will Bruin, Adam Moffatt and trialist Jorge Escobar did the damage for Houston.

Houston Dynamo Press Release:

The Houston Dynamo continued their 2012 preseason with a 4-0 victory over San Jacinto College, Wednesday morning, at the Houston Amateur Sports Park.

It's been awhile since I trawled through the Guardian chalkboards for interesting items. I know, we all missed it.
I remain convinced that Liverpool changed tact in midfield during the interval. The key seemed to be Spearing, more willing to stay in his own half and shield the defense rather than pressing higher up the pitch and leaving gaps.

1. No, Roberto Mancini, you completely misheard Arsene Wenger. He said a pizza row would help you finish ahead of Manchester United, not Pizarro. 2. Chelsea's deal to send Belgian manboy Kevin De Bruyen back to Genk on-loan includes a break clause that says if the 20-year-old hasn't hit puberty by June then the deal [.

Liverpool 2: Agger 21′, Kuyt 88′
United 1: Park 40′

Liverpool progress past a Manchester side in a cup competition for the second time in four days, this time defeating United on the strength of a late Dirk Kuyt winner. After the nadir at Bolton, it's been a terrific week for Liverpool, first reaching the final of the League Cup with the aggregate win over City, and now fighting through a tense match that was dominated at times by the visitors to get the win in the dying moments.

Fitness continued to be the focus for the Portland Timbers as they neared the end of their first week of preseason training in 2012. The sun shone brightly on the turf and allowed some players to shed their extra layers. Again the players participated in an 8v8 half field scrimmage after warming up and doing a few drills, but the consistent theme throughout the session was keeping everyone constantly in motion.

When Eric Cantona of Manchester United did his amazing Kung-fu kick on an obnoxious Crystal Palace supporter seventeen years ago this month, I was there. By chance I was also an eye-witness thirty-five years earlier when United's goalkeeper Harry Gregg spectacularly whacked a spectator at Luton Town in April, 1960, knocking him to the ground.

Andrei Arshavin has been supported by manager Arsene Wenger after his lazy man-marking and tackling against Luis Antonio Valencia created Danny Welbeck's match-winning goal in Manchester United's 2-1 win at Arsenal last night.

Arshavin, who infamously replaced Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain to a negative reaction throughout the Emirates Stadium, has been on the receiving end of tremendous flak for lacking energy in such a massive fixture.

Surprised? No. Disappointed? Of course.

Watching that match was painful, and I'm sure most of you caught the match. I will describe the match in laconic detail, in order to spare us the pain:

First Half: We were dire. Really, really dire. We couldn't get out of own half for most of the half, as United, who weren't so hot themselves, probed for an opener.

Arsenal 1 (Van Persie 71) Man United 2 (Valencia 45, Welbeck 81)
(Premiership)

The bare facts make for grim reading. Defeat to United leaves us fifteen points behind them, and eighteen off the pace set by their city rivals. Our own neighbours remain ten points above us despite their loss earlier in the day, and that critical fourth spot is still an elusive five points away.

On the back of two games where Arsenal have lost after taking the lead, and with hardly any positive news on the injury front, a game against Manchester United is the last thing many would want. But that's the game on the fixture list and the Gunners will just have to do as best as they can with diminished resources and wavering confidence.

First the good.
In acquiring Danny Cruz, United looks to have settled the flank depth question, initially addressed by the drafting of Nick DeLeon as Pontius' backup. A regular starter for the MLS Cup finalists from Houston, Cruz provides excellent cover for Najar, who will likely be away for Olympic and possibly World Cup duty with Honduras and may even attract interest from abroad this summer.

The only one with the ball will be the one missing

Ahead of this Sunday's game against Manchester United, the latest injury news update does not help to reassure any nerves. We are already going through a bad run of 2 consecutive league losses at the moment ahead of the imminent arrival of the team that gave us a beating in August.

Forward-thinking Richards Can Add Attacking Edge To England - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

Castrol EDGE performance analysis shows that Manchester City's muscular full-back, Micah Richards, has rediscovered his best form this season, providing his star-studded City side with a potent and creative attacking threat.

Long rumored Trinidad & Tobago U-20 national and Port of Spain Defence Force FC player Cordell Cato is no longer rumor, nor trialist, but has in fact signed with Seattle Sounders FC. Cato continues the expansion of Seattle's international roster slots, forcing even more competition.

"Cordell provides us speed and versatility as he can play on the flank and up front," said Sigi Schmid, Sounders FC head coach via press release.

Osi for the Giants...

When the New York Giants take on the the San Francisco 49ers this Sunday, it will be a battle of the defensive ends that is a key to determining the outcome, positively or negatively, for both teams.

For the Giants, a return of a healthy Osi Umenyori to support Jason Tuck and Jason Pierre-Paul on the outside means that the Giants can consistently collapse the pocket from the flank, contain lateral runs, and basically wreak havoc.

Liverpool are thought to be lining up a raid on Celtic for their talented winger James Forrest.
The 20 year-old flyer made his debut for the Hoops at the end of the 2009/10 season, but has only truly established himself as a star in the making this season.
He has scored 5 goals in 22 Clydesdale Bank Premier League appearances this season, and great things are expected of the young Scot, who has so far earned 4 caps in his short career.

Following on from yesterday's post about space, watch this a few times (Messi scoring last night against Real Betis).

The Betis defence is mainly on the far side of the pitch. Barcelona who habitually station a man very wide on either flank move the ball quickly to the other side, stretching the play and making the pitch big.

You can't hear it yet, though the vertigo feeling has dramatically changed to falling. Falling isn't the right word, so I'll get literate on you. Falling of Biblical proportions. The 1st Chapter of Satanic Verses Falling. The longer this plays out, the lower the valuation. The Impact are in a tough situation with only one suitor.

Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish failed to come up with the winning formula at Anfield as his side were held to a goalless draw against Stoke.
An unfamiliar line-up to combat the visitors' obvious physical strengths initially appeared to cause more problems for the Reds than it did their opponents.

I've seen some hand-wringing and questions as to how Liverpool were lined up yesterday, especially in the second half.
I tried to explain the set-up and the reasons for it in yesterday's match review, but pictures always make things easier. Not a 1000 words easier, but easier nonetheless.

Will Thierry Henry start up front with RVP at Swansea on Sunday? Probably not I reckon, AW has stayed coy over his plans but if he didn't start him in the 1-0 win over Leeds in the FA Cup then he's hardly likely to in a Premier League game with three vital points at stake is he? But Henry did make a dramatic goal-scoring cameo in that game.

Thierry Henry's promising debut on his return to Arsenal pretty much hypnotized everyone including the Gunners' manager, Arsene Wenger, who can't seem to stop sending out his praises towards the veteran striker.

Scoring the London team's winning goal against Leeds United in the FA Cup apparently convinced Wenger that Henry is ready to play in the premier league, partnering Robin Van Persie up front.

In a way this was a fairy tale return for Thierry Henry. Wenger acknowledged as much in his post-match press conference when he said,

It was like a dream when he scored, it was the story you would tell a kid. It is not often like that in our game.

But one could as well say there was an air of predictability about the football and the result.

Manchester United's luck seems to switch around in the Derby as they get their revenge over Manchester City with a 3-2 victory in the third round of FA Cup with Wayne Rooney bagging two goals.

The Red Devils victory was however filled with a little bit of controversy as Man City were forced to play for pretty much the whole match with 10 men after Vincent Kompany received a pretty harsh straight red card.

A former trialist, a former Uruguay World Cup national team player and a Generation Adidas #1 pick headline the strongest positional set of Seattle Sounder FC. Sigi uses these men to be the playmakers on the outside, each in their own way. Two are used to chase long balls, only one is a traditional crosser and all tuck into take shots.

By "The Other 87 Minutes" / Senior Unemployed English Major Correspondents
As you might have heard, there's some kind of election-thing going on today (We hear it may be important or something). In honor of those brave Iowans who are secluding themselves in small rooms everywhere to argue about which, we bring you this, a squad made up of Republican candidates for the 2012 presidential nomination, past and present.

New Years Eve brought Queens Park Rangers to the Emirates for the final match of the 2011 calendar year, and van Persie's last chance to match or break Shearer's record.

Wenger rang in the changes to the starting line up from the disappointing draw versus Wolves on Tuesday, with Aaron Ramsey, Theo Walcott and a surprising Andrei Arshavin getting starts.

Even the return of Steven Gerrard cannot end Andy Carroll's barren run | Richard Williams

Liverpool's captain came on and lifted his team but the £35m striker from Newcastle could not capitalise against his old club When Steven Gerrard finally arrived to sort out the lamentable crossing that had hobbled Liverpool's efforts during the first hour, Andy Carroll began to look like a centre-forward once again.

The Boston Breakers have signed veteran U.S. National Team midfielder Heather O'Reilly, the club announced today. Terms of deal were not realesed.

O'Reilly, 26, is a three year WPS verteran having last played with Sky Blue FC. She usually features on the flank and has contributed four goals and 11 assists in her domestic career.

An interesting statement recently revealed by Milos Krasic's agent, Dejan Joksimovic, stating that the wantaway Juventus winger is being seriously monitored by Chelsea.

The agent also stated that his client most likely will leave his current club because he hasn't been featured in the plan of the Turin giant's new tactician, Antonio Conte.

In a match in which the build-up was impossible to ignore, Liverpool once again work themselves into a corner, failing to create anything dangerous in a match that they ultimately looked lucky to get a point from. It's always the same story with this iteration of Liverpool looking promising early, create a few clear-cut chances, and then piss it all away with dire football that isn't deserving of three points, let alone one.

To wrap things up with the "What I Want For Christmas" series, we'll begin with a bit of a tactical aside before prioritizing the shopping list...

(In case you missed the beginning of this discussion: Part I and Part II are available.)

Our likely man in the middle?

In all of this discussion, we've curiously ignored tactics for the most part.

Subdued Song turned the game

We came, we fought and we came away with zero. Yet there's still much to admire about this Arsenal side. We did not get thrashed by the team supposedly to be champions elect. Neither were we outplayed and hung on by the skin of our teeth.

Arsene Wenger fielded the same line-up as the one that took to the field on our 125th anniversary celebrations.

In many ways this game was a microcosm of many recent Arsenal seasons. There was much to admire. There were a lot of exciting moments, the club matched the leading club toe-to-toe for large parts and it would be hard to pick one side over the other. The defenders worked hard, certainly considering the free-scoring nature of the opposition.

In many ways this game was a microcosm of many recent Arsenal seasons. There was much to admire. There were a lot of exciting moments, the club matched the leading club toe-to-toe for large parts and it would be hard to pick one side over the other. The defenders worked hard, certainly considering the free-scoring nature of the opposition.

Andre Villas-Boas hailed his side's patience in coming from behind to defeat previously unbeaten Premier League leaders Manchester City 2-1 at Stamford Bridge.

A terribly shaky defensive start from the Blues allowed City's controversial striker Mario Balotelli to round Petr Cech and open the scoring for the visitors right after the first minute of play.

Featured image: Earl Gardner

Editor's note: At the end of the 2010 season, we posted a series of season reviews of every Philadelphia Union player. Over the next several weeks PSP continues with a review of the 2011 season.

Some players get passed over because teams don't think they have the size or the speed to make it at the next level.

With a remarkable strike from Robin van Persie, we're back in the top four, at least for the moment. It was a deserved victory, as we dominated the chances and could have won by a few more. The win gives us 29 points from 15 played, and puts us one ahead of Chelsea, who host Man City on Monday.