NORFOLK SHARX STILL HUNGRY FOR FIRST WIN Drop home match to Missouri 15-4
Norfolk, Virginia – The Norfolk SharX looked threatening in the first half of Saturday night's game against Missouri at Norfolk Scope Arena but were only able to capitalize once for two points during the first two periods.

Join us for El Clasico at Hooters in Downtown Los Angeles, December 3, 2011

Join Barcaloco and FC Barcelona Penya Los Angeles for Real Madrid vs FC Barcelona in El Clasico on December 3, 2011 at Hooters in Downtown Los Angeles. Kickoff is at 1pm PST.

Hooters as agreed to be the official new headquarters for our Penya viewing parties!

If there is one thing that we know at Dexy's Den, it's that we love a nice cold beer.. Chang Beer that is. What makes it even better is their new on-pack promotion for two lucky winners to win the once in a lifetime chance to Live The Life of a premier league footballer for a whole weekend.

This week US Soccer fans saw something new. They saw a team in the red, white and blue attempt to possess the ball, pass the ball, and play out of trouble. They saw players chosen on the hope (if not much prior proof) that they can play a fluid, attack minded game of soccer.

They saw glaring imperfections, certainly.

Keller Serves Up Beers and Stories to Seattle Fans at the Atlantic Crossing

It was a beautiful night in Seattle last Wednesday and the beers were flowing at Atlantic Crossing for the Kasey Keller-Arlo White meet and greet. Arlo and Kasey make a great pair on the microphone with a lot of interesting banter covering the Sounders games, EPL and Kaseys' stories from his successful career overseas and of course the topic all of Seattle is interested in his retirement and what will happen next for Keller.

COLUMBUS, OH - The Revolution knew that they were in for a physical game against the top of the east Crew, and a physical game is just what they got. Benny Feilhaber's goal just before the half was encouraging, but not enough to keep the Revs on pace to defend the lead and take the 3 points back home to Foxborogh.

After each match the contributors to New England Soccer Today will rate the performances of the United States National Team players who made an appearance on a 1 to 10 scale (1 horrendous, 5 average, 10 perfection). This week Sean Donahue contributed ratings for the USA's 1-1 draw with Mexico.

Team of Destiny.

It didn't matter who won the 2011 Women's World Cup final, the winner already had a title. Japan was the Team of Destiny that brought joy to their nation after a devastating tragedy. The US overcame odds leading up to and then throughout the tournament to improbably reach the finals.

Join espnW on July 17 in Times Square for a 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup Final viewing party. The big game between the U.S. WNT and Japan will be shown live Sunday on the ABC SuperSign in Times Square. There will be giveaways and activities as U.S. fans will be showing up in numbers! The even will be sponsored by espnW's founding partners Nike and Gatorade.

It was over 22,000 strong at Red Bull Arena and a good amount of visiting supporters for DC United as both sides were ready to contest the second leg of this derby and you can tell it had some added flavor with Dax McCarty & Dwayne DeRosario on opposite sides.

For DeRosario you can tell he was looking for some revenge against his former side for only a few months, and he got it in the second half with some good play with Josh Wolff in the 61st minute.

The time has come for us to pontificate on mid-season grades and awards for the New England Revolution. Not that anyone really wants to; this season has, for lack of a better word, sucked. Nevertheless, we'll begin today with an awards breakdown.

MVP: Shalrie Joseph

Could it have been anyone else?

Believe it or not this week marks the midpoint of the Rapids season. 17 games down, 17 to go (plus the CONCACAF Champion's League). Time for a midseason review then!
Goalkeeping: Matt Pickens has been his normal solid self. In fact he's come up big numerous times. He's had two iffy games but has been my Man of the Match 5 times.

Join espnW tomorrow, June 28th in Times Square for a 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup viewing party. Team USA vs. North Korea match will be shown live on the ABC SuperSign in Times Square. In addition, there will be giveaways and activities (including a PK simulator!) from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m., sponsored by espnW's founding partners Nike and Gatorade.

The first of the two semifinals - U.S.-Panama - is still on-going as I write this, but CONCACAF officials have just announced that all 90,000 tickets have been sold at the Pasadena venue.

I'm guessing most of those buyers are not expecting a Panama-Honduras final, although the U.S. is currently tied 0-0 with about 25 minutes to go in the second half with the Central American nation it lost to earlier in the tournament.

LFC's community team was out in force at Liverpool One this weekend as part of National Family Week.
Chavasse Park was full of free entertainment, games, activities and giveaways - and a team of staff from LFC were there throughout guiding willing participants around a football obstacle course.
More than 500 children (and many parents!

It was to be the biggest game of the year for the Strikers this past Saturday but Mother Nature decided it was not going to happen. The Tailgate was a success! Tons of fans arrived at Lockhart Stadium early to witness the wonderful giveaways and booths offering a myriad of products and gadgets.
The visiting Supporters group Ralph's Mob was greeted in their section by a little surprise that was snuck into the Stadium courtesy of South Florida United (The United Supporters Groups consisting of the Miami Ultras, Flight 19, CSE and others)
Following are pictures of the events prior and during our wait for the match:
Miami Ultras Alive
If you didn't get a chance be sure to check out Miami Ultras Alive part 6.

Stevie Nicol was all smiles in the post-match press conference tonight, and why not? Three points, no matter how earned, are always the desired haul at home and the New England Revolution managed to get that.

The general consensus, though, is that it came following a worse performance than last week's draw against Colorado.

LeBron has teamed up with Sprite for the Spark Parks Project a multi-year commitment to build and restore play environments where teens, families and neighbors can get outside and be active. The initiative kicked off with LeBron's driving force and 21 refreshed basketball courts around the country.

Here's what you could've won...

I did start this morning off by trying to write a match report about the weekend's visit of Blackpool. Then, after reading it back, I realised I wasn't writing a match report at all, I was actually just carving expletives into the back of the living room door with a steak knife.

The New England Revolution hosted Sporting Kansas City at Gillette Stadium Saturday night and managed to break their recent losing streak in a 3-2 victory that was, predictably, not without controversy. The win marked a momentous occasion in Revolution history, as heralded newcomer Benny Feilhaber took the pitch with his new teammates wearing Revs jerseys branded with United Healthcare logos, representing New England's new (and first-ever) jersey sponsor.

Perhaps no Seattle Sounders player is more polarizing than Brad Evans. Sure, there are those that differ in their opinions on lots of players, but with Evans it's almost always "love him" or "hate him." Maybe it's because he's neither a purely offensive or defensive player. Maybe it's because his coach obviously likes him a lot.

State Farm has teamed up with the NBA to launch a new website, Score with a Song. This cool site features an interactive instant win game, exclusive video interviews with LeBron James, Blake Griffin, Chris Paul, Dwight Howard and other All-Star players, and a sweepstakes where entrants will get the chance to win a VIP trip to Las Vegas to meet NBA greats.

Reina
Carragher Skrtel Agger
Kelly Gerrard Lucas Maxi Johnson
Meireles
Kuyt
Goals:
Meireles 69'
"Down Goes Frazier! Down Goes Frazier! Down Goes Frazier!" Yet again, David beats Goliath. And it couldn't have been sweeter.
So much for not seeing three at the back for a second-straight match.

Three straight games without a goal for the Wanderers going into the match with Wolves. The prospect of four straight scoreless matches looming overhead as the team's offense was misfiring on all cylinders.

Wednesday night welcomed Bolton new boy Daniel Sturridge as well as old favorite Lee Chung-Yong into the lineup.

Considering Bob Bradley was exploring the shallow end of the player pool (or was it the kiddie pool?), the disjointed defense, inability to connect the passing dots, and generally ugly, frenetic play was to be expected from out-of-season fringe players without experience together trying to prove themselves to the boss.

More photos » Kevork Djansezian - Getty Images

Getty thinks this player's name is "Diskerud Mixx". Nice work.

Browse more photos »

I was fortunate enough to have access to ESPN3, so I could watch the US C-team take on the Chilean B-team while listening to the dulcet tones of John Harkes rather than hearing it in a language I barely understand on Telefutura.