Amobi Okugo has had a busy offseason, shuttling around the world playing for various US youth National team squads and MLS special tournament teams, but it appears to have all worked out for the midfielder. The 20-year-old is ranked eighth on ESPN on a list of under-21 US soccer players, and is one of three of those players on the list that are on the sports site's front page.

Photo by David Bernal/ISIphotos.com

BY ADAM SERRANO

David Beckham is not heading to Paris, but it is not a certainty that he will be returning to the Los Angeles Galaxy just yet, at least according to AEG President Tim Leiweke.

Word came from Paris early on Tuesday morning from officials of Paris St.

The hat tip here belongs to iron81 who found this article and made a fanshot. Normally I would just bump the fanshot to the front page and call it a day but the article actually takes from an original story that includes a hilarious video of Marco Pappa doing an awkward photo shoot as Santa Claus.

With our Elite Spy Units stationed across the globe, desperate ploys by players to get on Kickette's front page will never be missed. Nicely done, Libor Kozak of Lazio! Image: Paolo Bruno/Getty Images Europe. Thanks E!

Alex Ferguson's health records obtained by News of the World, inquiry told | Media | The Guardian.

Once in a while, a news article appears that makes you stop for a minute and think to yourself, what? Are you kidding me?

Today, on Twitter, it came to my attention that during The Leveson Inquiry, certain details regarding medical records of a previously unknown Premiership manager had been acquired and used to try to blackmail the mentioned manager into co-operating with revealing relevant team news to The News of The World newspaper, an English Sunday rag that recently got shut down for all kinds of skullduggery and dishonest business practice.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Move to the front page for the sake of discussion on this rather dull weekend. - Jeremiah

Very simple question: who will replace Kasey Keller as captain of the Sounders this season?

Some thought it might be Riley: it clearly won't now. I've included some likely possibilities, as well as an 'other' option.

Ryan Pore, Steve Purdy, and Eddie Johnson come on down! You are the next contestants on the Protected List! Check out previous entries here.

How it works:

• For each player we will post a front page article highlighting a specific players pros/cons and any stats (if available)
• Vote by posting a Yes (to Protect) or No (don't Protect) in the subject of a comment, then explain why in the message
• We (the editors) will keep track of all the yes/no votes for each player
• At the end of the whole roster we will total up the results and post the community's Protected list
• Your list will be compared to the list of each contributing editor
• The only player we will not be voting on is Darlington Nagbe as he is automatically protected based on his Generations Adidas Status.

Here we go again. This time it is Brian Umony, Peter Lowry, and Rodrigo Lopez. Don't forget to check out the rest of the Protected List articles here:

How it works:

• For each player we will post a front page article highlighting a specific players pros/cons and any stats (if available)
• Vote by posting a Yes (to Protect) or No (don't Protect) in the subject of a comment, then explain why in the message
• We (the editors) will keep track of all the yes/no votes for each player
• At the end of the whole roster we will total up the results and post the community's Protected list
• Your list will be compared to the list of each contributing editor
• The only player we will not be voting on is Darlington Nagbe as he is automatically protected based on his Generations Adidas Status.

Here we go again! Don't forget to check out the other players in the Community Protected List section.

How it works:

• For each player we will post a front page article highlighting a specific players pros/cons and any stats (if available)
• Vote by posting a Yes (to Protect) or No (don't Protect) in the subject of a comment, then explain why in the message
• We (the editors) will keep track of all the yes/no votes for each player
• At the end of the whole roster we will total up the results and post the community's Protected list
• Your list will be compared to the list of each contributing editor
• The only player we will not be voting on is Darlington Nagbe as he is automatically protected based on his Generations Adidas Status.

Time for a new one if we are to get through these before the release of the list. Going to start throwing these up every day now if possible and I have created a Section called Community Protected list. One point of clarification I want to make is that you can vote for as many as you want to keep but the top 11 will be kept based on votes received.

It is time for a new vote on our community protected list.

How it works:

• For each player we will post a front page article highlighting a specific players pros/cons and any stats (if available)
• Vote by posting a Yes (to Protect) or No (don't Protect) in the subject of a comment, then explain why in the message
• We (the editors) will keep track of all the yes/no votes for each player
• At the end of the whole roster we will total up the results and post the community's Protected list
• Your list will be compared to the list of each contributing editor
• The only player we will not be voting on is Darlington Nagbe as he is automatically protected based on his Generations Adidas Status.

With the Expansion draft less than a month away it is time to decide who we, the Stumptown Footy Community, would protect. The goal is to create the top 11 players whom you want to protect through a vote by comments. We will not be following the international player rules as it gets super complicated if you want the rules go here.

Why Hillsborough debate was also a victory for ALL football fans in battle to be treated like human beings and not criminals

I can lay no particular emotional claim to what happened at Hillsborough on April 15, 1989. None of the 96 who died were known to me personally.

Why Hillsborough debate was also a victory for ALL football fans in battle to be treated like human beings and not criminals

I can lay no particular emotional claim to what happened at Hillsborough on April 15, 1989. None of the 96 who died were known to me personally.

Why Hillsborough debate was also a victory for ALL football fans in battle to be treated like human beings and not criminals

I can lay no particular emotional claim to what happened at Hillsborough on April 15, 1989. None of the 96 who died were known to me personally.

A four zero thrashing of Blackburn Rovers has helped Mancini take the Tevez saga off the front page.

If you're reading this, congratulations—it means you can access the blog while many people, including Ed, are instead being redirected to the Offside front page. This is an unintended side effect of the our ongoing move to SBN's software and network as we take baby steps towards becoming the first blog to have their platform dropped on top of the current site instead of the more usual method of migrating to a new home.

The front page of Arsenal.com today is a picture of a thoughtful, if slightly pensive, and perhaps vaguely constipated, Arsene Wenger, with the headline "I could write a book on this summer". Heh, no shit. He said:

I think it would quite be an interesting one. Not because of me but because of all that happened, it was quite unbelievable.

Contact Ole for details

Thought I'd bring this back to the front page again since I recently got an email asking about the lack of HS stories.

The Facebook Page is still active. You are invited to post your game scores there as a source of current info.

[Editor's note: Quality fanpost, though it does leave out Harvey's impact a bit too much - he is mentioned. Front page'd]

Faryd Mondragon. Carlos Valdes. Brian Carroll. Carlos Ruiz.
These were the Union's four biggest offseason acquisitions. The first three have played almost every minute of every game, providing stability in the back.

Send in your pictures supporting National team, Local team, or any football to get your place in this space. The pictures will be posted in the front page as well as stays here for an week starting Friday.
This week's Fan of the Week: Roshan Lechharbo, Sagun Rai and Shabda Shrestha
Description: National Jersey and National Flag in the Everest Base Camp

Morning all,

members day takes place today. The fans get to watch the team train, there's a bit of a game, maybe some half-hearted crossbar challenge like last season and it's a nice PR exercise. At least it should be but this year's is dominated by two transfer sagas and a general feeling of malaise and frustration amongst fans.

To be fair, this was probably part of a conversation along the lines of "Would have been great to have you two years ago...four years ago, then":

Thierry Henry says Major League Soccer will not attract players from Europe while they are at the peak of their careers as long as teams are forced to operate under a salary cap.

Inside Left takes a look through the transfer list and has a go at putting together a team made up of players released from their clubs at the end (or during the course) of last season. GK Mark Howard (Aberdeen, now: unattached) Pretty obvious choice this one, given the lack of experienced goalies in [.

Well, almost. Yes, time to put away the bucket and spades, the After Sun, sombrero and sangria. Send mother up the stairs with the stepladder to fetch to scarves, rosettes and rattles down from yon attic. Polish the kids, straighten ... Continue reading →

The Philadelphia Union, specifically midfielder Justin Mapp, are included, today, in one of Cracked.com's "Top" list articles.

Mapp, along with a fallen Danny Mwanga and two DC United players, is shown playing a ball forward in the picture within the article "The 6 Weirdest Free Speech Issues Around The World" on Cracked.

Taking the correct angle in photography can lead to good photographs; taking incorrect angles in photography can lead to great photographs.

It's just too bad it wasn't Pato or Ganso so that we could have a rousing discussion on fauna.

Exceedingly popular boy, this Neymar.

Do you think they are proud of local product Rachel Buehler in San Diego? Check out the front page and the sports page of the North County Times (Buehler hails from Del Mar, Calif., which is north San Diego) after she scored the clinching goal in the USA's 2-0 victory over North Korea. It was just Buehler's second career goal in 60 career caps.

Celebrating his 25th birthday tomorrow, D.C. United forward Charlie Davies has much to be thankful for. Less than two years removed from a life-threatening car accident that almost derailed his professional career, the U.S. National Team striker is back to doing what he does best in Major League Soccer.

As if by divine intervention, my whining in the close of yesterday's post about Word Press being the spawn of Satan is met with immediate resolution our admin servers are suddenly back to their former glory, which means that we're close to normal service. Even if, as Noel pointed out to me earlier, the front page is having trouble of letting go of things that happened four days ago and our tags ("Christian Purslow is Worse Than Hitler" et al.

[Editor's Note: Happy to support Union supporters from across the pond. Front page'd]

Just dropping by (thanks for the heads up Scott!) to let you all know that us Union fans in the UK have our own Facebook page now. So if you're a fan in the UK & Northern Ireland or a British national living in the US please visit here: British Legion of Union Fans

We need you!

I recently purchased an iPad2 and one of the apps I was excited to get my hands on was the MLS app. The features I had read about, especially the matchday live streaming, were things I had been looking forward to using during the season to keep me up to date on the day to day of the league. Over the past week, I've been using the app to get me ready for the upcoming season.

Now, I mustn't mention the Old Firm game. I mustn't. This blog is about the little guys, the underdogs, the also-rans in Scottish football. Yer Albion Rovers, yer Stranraers, yer Annan Athletics, yer Heart of Midlothians. So I must not mention what feels like the 400th game this season between Scotland's playground bullies.

Fashion puts it stamp on just about every decade. From 60's suits to 70's flares, the puff-ball skirts, rolled-up jacket sleeves and torn jeans of the 80's, through to the beginnings of the anti-fashion trend in the '90's and finally on to the chav-and-Ugg's generation we have now. Football jerseys have moved with the times too, capturing the styles of the day.

Unlucky 13, as the case may be. The morning (or, more accurately, the late afternoon) after the day before finds Inside Left with a footballing hangover that both shames and irritates in equal measures. Humble pie is on the menu. Humble pie with an extra helping of humble.

(Summary is not available.)

Ah, an otherwise nondescript mid-week fixture is made more interesting by the fact that Aberdeen have, in recent seasons, gotten into the habit of poaching Motherwell's staff. A compliment, if you ask me, but quite possibly not the way in which tonight's visitors from North Lanarkshire see it. So, in the week when Motherwell put up as much resistance to the Huns as the French Army did during World War 2, can we expect a backlash?

Well, well, well. Going into this weekend's fixtures, I'd have been the last one to have predicted yet another managerial casualty. Hibs, about whom there's been plenty of paper talk pulled of a win and so kept Colin Calderwood's place in the Easter Road car park safe for another week. Clyde, well, they're fucked anyway but they've just appointed someone and besides, they pulled of a tremendous 3-3 against Elgin City.

Seem to be drowning in video posts at the moment.
But it would be difficult to let Ronaldo's retirement (the Ronaldo - very young children, ask your parents) go unmentioned.
He was quite ugly, he took a funny turn before the World Cup final, he called his son Ronald and he was the best player Bobby Robson ever worked with.

Guys, I just inform you & I suppose that many readers who are far away from Spain & Europe may appreciate to be informed of what´s "cooking" locally in Spanish Football. Below is the front page of todays Spanish Sports daily "Marca", a paper known for its over-zealous hype building & news scoops to marketing their imagined superiority over rival media.