14. D.C. UNITED
The most successful franchise in the early years of MLS has struggled mightily to find a better stadium situation than it currently has at RFK, and the ongoing frustrations in the nation's capital have caused United to consider perhaps moving to Baltimore. Out-of-town owner Will Chang may or may not be committed for the long haul, and the club is trying to start over from scratch on the field under coach Ben Olsen.

Photo courtesy of The Original Winger

In the latest edition of the Philly Soccer Show podcast, KYW's Greg Orlandini and PSP's Eli-Pearlman Storch are joined by Sports Illustrated's Grant Wahl.

In part one, Wahl talks about how the New York Red Bulls, the Union's regular season opponent on Thursday night, have underachieved, noting that Philadelphia survived some ups and downs to make the playoffs and possibly win the Eastern Conference.

By Andrew Villegas Paging Sports Illustrated's Grant Wahl, I have the topic and title for your next book: The Márquez Experiment. In a lot of ways, the Rafa Márquez experiment in NY was a more important experiment than the David Beckham experiment was for MLS. Márquez was supposed to bring in Mexicans — a huge [.

Grant Wahl had this idea about changing the MLS playoff structure. Okay, well he borrowed it from Brian Stratus and elaborated on it but overall not a bad plan. Just like the World Cup, each team will play a game against the other teams in its group. But (unlike the current system) there will be a big home-field advantage for the higher seeds to reward regular-season success.

If you listened to the most recent episode of Feuerstein's Fire, you will know that I was a bad U.S. soccer fan and watched the Costa Rica friendly via DVR the morning after the match. Watching the game after the fact made me realize how my sports viewing has changed just over the past year - it was quiet as I watched the match.

If you listened to the most recent episode of Feuerstein's Fire, you will know that I was a bad U.S. soccer fan and watched the Costa Rica friendly via DVR the morning after the match. Watching the game after the ...

KYW's Greg Orlandini and Philly Soccer Page writer Eli Pearlman-Storch have a special guest this week on the KYW Philly Soccer Show.

One of the top soccer writers in America, Grant Wahl, senior writer with Sports Illustrated and onetime FIFA presidential candidate joins the program to his insight into the game.

Saturday's game proved once again that a determined Spaniard always gets their revenge.

Grant Wahl tweeted before kick-off that Spain was resting so many starters that it was like going to see the Beatles with Ringo doing all the singing. Well, if Spain was a Ringo-only Beatles, the US was more like a full strength Rebecca Black.

Grant Wahl is the best-selling author of "The Beckham Experiment" and the head soccer writer for Sport Illustrated. Earlier this year he unsuccessfully ran to be nominated for the FIFA Presidency.
In part two of our conversation with Wahl he talks about that run for FIFA's top job, Sport Illustrated's growing soccer coverage in print and online, beer in Qatar, this summer's Gold Cup, early impact players for Brazil 2014, and the soccer's growth in the United States.

Earlier this year Grant Wahl made waves in global soccer by declaring himself a candidate for the FIFA presidency. Wahl was not nominated by any member nation's federation, but a light was shone upon Sepp Blatter's unopposed run for his fourth term as the leader of the world's game. In the end Qatar's Mohamed Bin Hammam stepped up to complete for FIFA's top job and Blatter squirms a bit more as the world questions just how beneficial his reign has been.

Here we go again with Serie A Weekly giving you a list of five stories to read this lunchtime that we have seen from around the web and enjoyed ourselves. Many of these will be about Italian football of course but there is always room for something different and those will be here too. Take a look at our recommendations, pass them on and be sure to leave a comment on these great articles.

"Many of them voiced the same message I heard in that Paris hotel lobby: 'We don't really like the status quo, but nominating you is impossible.' Nobody had the courage to do it. The prevailing mood was fear."Grant Wahl will not become FIFA President in 2011.The midnight deadline passed last night and it seems certain none of FIFA's 208 member associations have backed Grant's clean-hands campaign

Before we get to the morning's news, my apologies to anyone who follows the PSP on Twitter. On Monday night, I was updating our Events Calendar with the schedules for the Union, the Independence, the USMNT and USWNT, as well as various other local soccer events. What I didn't realize was that each event was being posted to Twitter.

By Sean McElroy Grant Wahl should become the next president of FIFA. Now, of course, we all know that Wahl will not win. FIFA is the epitome of a monopoly, and despite Wahl's good intent, it is all but clear that he will likely not even be nominated by a FIFA member nation, and even [...]

Grant Wahl is everywhere at the moment, from Bloomberg TV and CNN International, to BBC and international outlets of the soccer/football variety. He was also kind enough to give me some of his time to talk about his candidacy for the presidency of FIFA, a conversation that covered just how serious this thing is, how making himself the story fits with his role at SI, the various planks of his platform (including the two women he believes are qualified to be General Secretary), and the response to his bid from around the world.

In the tiny world of soccer journalism in the United States, there really aren't any journalists whose names elicit an instant, gut reaction from soccer fans. There is no Skip Bayless, Jay Mariotti, or Jason Whitlock, or even a Jerome Solomon, of US soccer journalism.
While a good number of US soccer fans dislike, possibly hate, Jamie Trecker, that reaction doesn't stem from a visceral gut response, no, it stems from the "circle the wagons" mentality of soccer fans, who, let's face it, are not used to the unvarnished, sometimes brutal, criticism that is a staple of sports columnists and sports talk radio hosts who populate mainstream sports media in the United States.

Photo: Daniel Gajdamowicz

Union

Peter Nowak is among the 25 on the Player Ballot for the 2011 class of the National Soccer Hall of Fame. Congratulations!

The Brotherly Game quotes a report from Monday in Guatemala-based Prensa Libre that says Carlos Ruiz was in discussion with the Union but terms could not be reached.

- Jason Davis
It's lunchtime in America (or was when I started this), and soccer fans everywhere are lining up to support Grant Wahl's newly announced candidacy for FIFA president. It's time for a new voice. An outsider. A guy whose name doesn't rhyme with "splatter" or "pin yuh mom.

-Chris Ballard
When I logged onto my Twitter account this morning I saw talk about an article written by Grant Wahl regarding the FIFA Presidency. Having an interest in the matter, I zipped over to Sports Illustrated's website to have a look. And I was outraged. Outraged, I tell you. Essentially, Wahl has thrown his hat into the ring for the presidential elections in June.

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Seriously though, why not Grant Wahl for FIFA President? It's not like the incumbent has some crazy, specialized qualifications that are essential to that job. Hell, most of us have zero idea what he did for work before he took this gig so it can't be that important. Plus with Grant in office he'll bring in a lady to end the FIFA ExCo sausage-hang.