Europe's premier footballing competition the Champions League resumes today with fixtures that could mark the end of the journey for 16 teams. All teams will be left with one group match after this round of fixtures however, many will not want to take any chances on their qualification to the next round.

Today's post starts in New England, where the Revs announced some rearranging of roles in the front office. Mike Burns and Brian Bilello are remaining with the club, but with new titles and new responsibilities. Bilello has been named President of the Club, with responsibilities on both the player and business sides.

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. Weeks after the club parted ways with Steve Nicol, the Revolution announced more changes as Chief Operating Officer Brian Bilello and Vice President of Player Personnel Michael Burns were promoted to President and General Manager, respectively.

The promotions, which are effective immediately, give the organization greater transparency, not to mention accountability, to the club's organizational structure something that was direly needed of under the helm of former president Sunil Gulati, who will now assume the role of special advisor to the Kraft Group and the Kraft Family.

The New England Revolution announced this morning that they have re-organized their management structure in an effort to facilitate an upswing in club fortunes after two dismal seasons. Basically, it looks as though the Revs have heard some of the criticisms levied at them about the opacity of their front office chain of command - or at least they came to realize on their own that it's muddy, confusing, and ineffectual.

The US Youth Program....at a crossroads...

About our next author:

In a painstakingly researched piece, USC master's candidate Ryan McCormack authors this treatise on the current moment in time for US Youth Soccer. Ryan grew up playing soccer in California's Coast Premier League and served as a youth coach for three seasons and is presently with the Arizona Hammers in a leadership capacity.

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.

Klinsmann & Vasquez: Back together again

My concern with Klinsmann is exactly the one lots of commentators have already cited he's not really a tactician, and it was Jogi Löw who did all that heavy lifting with the German National Team. And Martin Vasquez, who went from being an assistant at MLS's Chivas club to being Klinsmann's assistant at Bayern (and came back for a short tenure as Chivas's head coach), isn't really a tactician either but he seems to impress folks since he got the Youth Development Director position with Real Salt Lake post-Chivas.

Summer has delivered a collective beating to the confidence of US Soccer fans. Mexico dominated the Gold Cup final, some of the big national team names are in transfer limbo, and MLS sides have received some severe drubbings at the hands of European opposition going through the pre-season motions.

Sunil Gulati finally landed his man. It took nearly five years and multiple conversations before Jurgen Klinsmann agreed to take the helm of US Soccer. What can we expect from the Klinsmann era? To get a glimpse of what to expect all you need to do is look at what transpired in Germany after Klinsmann took over the national team on July 26, 2004.

I've held off on making comment about the dismissal of Bob Bradley and the selection of Jürgen Klinsmann to the head of the US national team until today's introduction to the media in New York City. I wanted to hear from Gulati, but more so from Klinsmann, about the reasons for this change and the overarching vision for the US national programs in the coming years.

Time for some quick hits on business stories circulating the world of American soccer scene. We'll start with USWNT goalie Hope Solo, who has reportedly inked a mult-year deal with Gatorade to join their stable of spokesman/atheletes. According to the Sports Business Journal, the deal is estimated to fall in the low six-figure (per year) range.

Okay, here's an in-depth look at the All-Star Game, and what it means in the grand scheme of things for MLS. As I explain in great detail, the product of a significant amount of work and research on my part, the All-Star Game provides Major League Soccer with a oh crap, they fired Bob Bradley
Okay, the lull between the Gold Cup and World Cup qualifying provides Gulati, Flynn and the federation with a chance to make a detailed, measured search for a coach who truly addresses the needs of our team.

It is not uncommon to make a coaching change following a World Cup - in looking at the past 2010 FIFA World Cup, the only two managers who had also managed in the previous 2006 FIFA World Cup were that tournament's two finalists - Marcello Lippi (Italy) and Raymond Domanech (France).
Both Lippi and Domanech saw their teams slump badly in the following tournament, not being able to move on from the group stages.

It's a bit weird to be writing about Jurgen Klinsmann getting the head coaching job at US Soccer so long after I thought it should happen.
I thought he should come in after Bruce Arena's tenure, and I thought Arena stayed overlong. When Bradley got the job instead of Klinsmann, well, I thought it was a mistake.

Photo by Giftraum

The U.S. Soccer Federation confirmed today what many had expected - Jürgen Klinsmann will be the next manager of the men's national team.

After reportedly twice trying to hire the German for the job in the past five years, Sunil Gulati has his man. The federation will hold a press conference in New York on Monday and his first match as head man will be against Mexico on August 10.

So ... five year's after the fact Sunil Gulati finally found a way to wrangle in his fair-haired boy, Jürgen Klinsmann to the U.S. soccer fold.Call it a (possibly) good day for U.S. Soccer and an (assuredly) great day for umlauts.However you want to look at it, in the Baker's Boy, the U.S. has a bit of the best of both worlds: a legit German legend with both a World Cup and European Championship

Jürgen Klinsmann has been named head coach of the U.S. Men's National Team today, making him the 35th coach in the history of the program.

"We are excited to have Jürgen as the head coach of our Men's National Team," said Sunil Gulati. "He is a highly accomplished player and coach with the experience and knowledge to advance the program.

I went to lunch yesterday and, by the time I had finished with my blackened fish sandwich, the domestic soccer world was standing on its head.

I have a strong suspicion that we'll know who the new U.S. coach is by midday. So, I'll save the bulk of any comments / commentary until then.

Congratulations!

Whether you'd like to believe it or not, this is your triumph. I believe Bob was relieved of his duties in large part due to your collective voices.

Like the last point in my optimistic piece, 5 positive influences on US Soccer in 2010, suggested, I had never witnessed such a strong and sustained outcry for the head of our national team coach.

If you are a Fire and USMNT fan, it has been quite the busy time. We had the Gold Cup in June for the USMNT, and the Fire have been busy themselves lately what with the Pardo and Grazzini signings, Ristic leaving, and a Gargan/Robinson swap, just to name a few. When everyone thought things couldn't get more interesting, the plot thickened as the U.

Not long ago, someone with a long history with US Soccer was talking to me about Bob Bradley, and about what I thought about him continuing as coach of the men's team.
I answered honestly that I thought it had been a mistake to retain him, but that I didn't see it as an error that U.S. Soccer would rectify.

Where were you when the news dropped that U.S. soccer fired Bob Bradley?

A day after the Manchester United blitz of the MLS All Stars, the U.S. Soccer Federation announced the immediate termination of head coach Bob Bradley. According to the federation's press release, the firing happened during a meeting in Carson City.

Gulati's probably going to put the kibosh on this in the next few days, but fuck it, I never get tired reading stories about how people hate Bob Bradley.

These folks are so fed up with Bradley's conservative player selection and tactics that they consider lobbying for his sacking to be a worthwhile pastime.

The gossip mill isn't even fully revved up yet but the NY Times Goal blog is already speculating as to who could replace Bob Bradley as USMNT boss. Amazing. Apparently we are shunning the traditional full week of post-Gold Cup "should he stay or should he go?" chatter before we move on to "____ is the leading candidate" talk.

It was a tough day to be an American soccer fan. Saturday's 4-2 loss to regional rivals Mexico after holding an early, 2-0 is one of those games that we hold onto for awhile. Processing what went right, what went wrong, and what to do about it all is a question for the players, the coach, Sunil Gulati, and the Big Soccer message boards.

Just a week ago, the football world was up in arms over the various scandals and accusations surrounding FIFA and CONCACAF. Sepp Blatter's re-election went through despite attempts by the English FA to delay the vote, sponsors were being threatened with boycotts if they continued to be complicit in FIFA's corruption.

This is the USA-Spain post-mortem, with a little US Soccer/FIFA nonsense thrown in. Jason and Jared take stock of the warmup, talk about the reaction to it, consider Sunil Gulati's actions in the FIFA presidential voting and more. What! CSRN MEDIA PLAYER

Stop me if you've heard this before...the Houston Dynamo have no creativity in the midfield and forwards that simply cannot consistently finish chances. I've said that, or something similar, far too many times this season but the sad fact is that game in, game out it's the truth for Houston. It's not like they aren't getting chances on goal, they just can't do anything with them.

And some quick thoughts as we roll into our Spain and Gold Cup coverage:

Adu: A lifeline to chasing the dream...again.

• A small, abstract positive if Freddy Adu has a positive Gold Cup? Perhaps a little bit more showcasing for Adu to move to a better team more in the limelight or against better competition.

• Honestly, what's left? Sunil Gulati out Monday saying that CONCACAF won't influence how the US votes in the upcoming FIFA presidential election.

Gulati played the game all wrong. (Photo credit: The Villager newspaper)

Our sentiments? Big deal. Why not just vote with CONCACAF? What is gained now?

US Soccer may not have a game Wednesday, but it will still have a voice.

On the site we will have a few words from Sunil Gulati that I recorded in conversation with him a few Saturdays ago at the Home Depot Center after the Chile game.

Upcoming...

TSG was privileged to be allowed to listen to Gulati discuss everything from red jerseys to the CONCACAF changes in a closed door fan session before the match.

Per Kenn, whose own take on NASL's woes is required reading - if Kenn were mineral water, he'd be Eau Snap - stop me if you've heard that one - various NASL supporters have sent a letter telling Sunil Gulati, in so many words, to go play in Traffic.
Also by way of Kenn, this is what NASL and USSF are wrangling over - the standards the Fed has set for a second division league.

A group of soccer supporters representing the Miami Ultras, FC Tampa Bay Ralph's Mob, NSC Minnesota Stars Dark Clouds , Puerto Rico Islanders Foreign Legion, Carolina Railhawks Jailhawks, Atlanta Silverbacks Westside 109 and the Montréal Impact Ultras Montréal Supporters sent a letter to US Soccer today.

Having had their moments of shock, anger and venting on message boards and blogs, soccer fans who are certain the new North American Soccer League is the way forward are now taking their message directly to the head man at US Soccer, Sunil Gulati. In response to USSF's revoking of sanctioning for the NASL for the 2011 season, they've sent Gulati a letter, which you can read in its entirety here or with my snarky comments after the jump.

As supporters of competing teams we often disagree with one another. That's part of the fun of supporting your NASL team, to hate the other and their fans. There are times however that we must come together. This is one of those times.
USSF has removed the Division 2 sanctioning for our league, the NASL.

After a summer World Cup that saw the United States kick, claw, scratch, sidefoot and ultimately submit, focus for US Soccer migrated ever so briefly from it's players to the front office so to speak.

The populace...

With a new four-year preparatory cycle virtually beginning instantaneously, the denouement of an on-field campaign wrecked by Asamoah Gyan saw Sunil Gulati and US Soccer navigate, or meander if you prefer, through three events that didn't necessarily have the desired outcomes: the rehiring, or hiring, of a men's national team coach, drastic CONCACAF qualifying changes and a massive and aspirational attempt to bring the World Cup back to US soil.

In what is a clear sign that somebody within U.S. Soccer is still buying what former USWNT head coach Tony DiCicco selling, Sunil Gulati announced appointed April Heinrichs as the Technical Director and Jill Ellis as the Development Director for the U.S. Women's National Teams.
In an interview with National Soccer Examiner DiCicco rightfully called out U.

The new year is upon us and with the turning over of the calender comes many traditions like resolutions and eating black-eyed peas. People also like to make predictions or bets, if you will, concerning things they feel might occur over the coming year. I figured it might be fun to discuss some bets I think it would be worth placing on the game of soccer in 2011.