United States National Team player Chris Wondolowski has signed a new deal with the San Jose Earthquakes. "I'm grateful to the organization for giving me a new contract for a second straight year and look forward to helping the Earthquakes get back to the MLS Cup Playoffs," Wondolowski said. "I think we have a great team heading into this season and I know I'm looking forward to that home opener on March 10th against New.

For those of you not lucky enough to have season tickets this year then you'll probably be relying on nabbing a few of these single game tickets. Luckily, you now have plenty of time to request February 28th off from work and get in line nice and early to ensure that you're able to attend at least a few games.

The Montreal Impact announced on Friday that more than 25,000 tickets were already sold for the home opener at Olympic Stadium, March 17, against the Chicago Fire.

The Impact are hoping to create a new record for attendance at the Olympic Stadium with additional sales leading up to the home opener.

Scott Kessler, Jeremy Sharpe, and the Sons of Ben are at it again.

Gentlemen, it is time to put down the razors, grab the grooming scissors, mirrors, assorted mustaches waxes, choose the style that is right for you, and let testosterone do the rest, all to raise money for Help Kick Hunger, to benefit The Bernardine Center in Chester, PA.

It seems the Philadelphia Independence will once again take to the pitch at PPL Park for their upcoming season. Philly Soccer News reported yesterday that the Independence could play up to four home games in 2012 at PPL, including its home opener on April 15th. During the WPS playoffs last season, PPL Park hosted the Independence's semifinal match against disbanded squad magicJack, drawing 5,410 fans, the teams largest crowd in 2011.

Over the last year or so, we have discussed MLS' efforts to measure the value of its television exposure through various local and national broadcasts. Through the website criticalmention.com, MLS tries to alert media to the "value" of its presence on various television programs. Since a few weeks have passed since we last checked in on this metric, we thought providing a snapshot of this metric of MLS media exposure.

The draft is over, training camps are opening up and the season is less than two months away. It has been a while since we looked at promotional efforts around the league, so we thought the early preseason presented a good opportunity to look at ticket sales efforts as teams gear up for the start of the 2012 campaign.

The 2012 Chicago Fire season is almost here. The 2012 Chicago Fire preseason starts on Wednesday if you count the players reporting for physicals as preseason. The team will start actually training in Ave Maria, Florida on January 20. Preseason scrimmages on the calendar include January 29 vs. D.

This Friday the Portland Timbers will officially convene back here in Portland to begin their training for the 2012 season. With the SuperDraft behind us and a few weeks left open in the international transfer window there's a lot expected to go on, but the beginning of the training is probably the most exciting for the simple fact that it means.

Richmond Kickers News Release:
RICHMOND, VA – (Wednesday, January 11, 2012) – The Richmond Kickers are pleased to announce the 2012 professional schedule, opening their 20th Anniversary season against longtime rival Charleston Battery on Saturday, April 7 at 5:00 p.m. As one of the three longest tenured professional soccer clubs in the United States, the Kickers will celebrate 20 years alongside the Battery and the Charlotte Eagles in 2012.

Today MLS released the 2012 MLS schedule with the new unbalanced format. The full schedule is at the end of the post, but here are some thoughts and information on the schedule.
KC opens the season on the 10th of March against DC, it's the 7th time in KC's history that they've opened against DC.

The Revolution won't have to wait long to start collecting frequent-flier miles thanks to a travel-heavy start to the 2012 regular season that will put them on the road for four of its first five games.

New England will pack its bags for where else - California, where they're scheduled to kick off their 2012 campaign on Mar.

Start Marking Your Calendar: The MLS Schedule is Out!Major League Soccer seems to finally be getting the hang of this scheduling thing. The 2012 schedule was released today, more than a month earlier than last year's version. For Red Bulls fans, there are some big changes to keep in mind. First, the schedule is once again unbalanced, with Red Bulls playing each Western Conference team only once, while they will face Eastern Conference foes either two or three times, depending on the opponent.

The 2012 Philadelphia Union schedule was released on Thursday afternoon. After opening the season in Portland on Monday, March 12 at 9:30pm, the team will open at home against Colorado on Sunday, March 18 at 4pm.

The Union will finish the season hosting New York on Saturday, Oct. 27.

In the Eastern conference, the Union will play New York, DC, New England and Columbus at home twice and once on the road.

The Philadelphia Union will welcome the Colorado Rapids to Chester, PA to open PPL Park for the 2012 MLS regular season, a great deviation from what many people have been speculating about the season's schedule on Facebook and Twitter.

A source with knowledge of the Union's 2012 regular season schedule tells the Brotherly Game that the Union will host the Rapids on March 18, which will be Philadelphia's 2012 MLS First Kick home game.

Photo: Earl Gardner

Philadelphia Union

MLS is scheduled to release the 2012 schedule today at 2pm. We'll post the Union schedule as soon as it is available.

Who will the Union play in their home opener? After using some logic based on what schedule details are already known (the Union open the season at Portland on March 12, play in Chicago on March 24, play in Toronto on May 26 and September 15 while playing host to Toronto on July 7), The Goalkeeper writes, "I would not be surprised if it is against the New York Red Bulls, the Houston Dynamo or David Beckham's Los Angeles Galaxy.

It sounds like we won't have to wait much longer for the 2012 MLS schedule to come out. It seems that the league has the schedule finalized and will be putting it out hopefully later this week. KC is set to have their home opener on March 17th, St. Patrick's Day, other than that, the schedule isn't really known.

Trevor James, an assistant coach for the Portland Timbers during the 2011 season has officially departed from the team's technical staff today. Those of you who were with us during this past pre-season will remember that he had spent the previous 5 years as an assistant coach and director with the LA Galaxy, which means he brought a lot of experience from one of MLS's best teams to the Timbers, unfortunately for us.

The Chicago Fire opened Red Bull Arena in 2010. In 2011, the Men in Red had the 'honor' of opening Jeld-Wen Field in April and Livestrong Sporting Park in June. In the three away games, Chicago was outscored 5-2 and had two losses and one draw. I'm not a big fan of the Fire opening stadiums because the opposition brings their top game for the special event.

Article by Nicholas Murray
MISL Weekly Round-Up
The Milwaukee Wave continue to roll, Baltimore's return home from the road is a surprisingly tough one, and defensive players providing offensive firepower are in the spotlight in this week's MISL Round-Up.
WAVE STILL ROLLING ALONG


Trailing the Rochester Lancers by seven points midway through the first quarter of Saturday night's game at U.

So the offseason has calmed down just a little bit, and while there will be the occasional rumor that pops up, there is unlikely to be a ton of movement until the draft in January and preseason beginning. Until then and with less than 100 days until the home opener on March 17th, what can you do? Well here's a list of some things that I've put together that you could look to do during the rest of the MLS offseason.

As we have done every year since starting this site, we think it is time to take a look at holiday ticket promotions around Major League Soccer. This year we will run similar posts over the next couple of weeks to cover the efforts of multiple teams to sell tickets over the holidays. We'll start with Colorado, where the Rapids are offering a Holiday 5 Pack which includes 5 of the most sought after matches, including the home opener, July 4th and the Galaxy visit combined with a free gift from adidas.

The Portland Timbers officially revealed their third kit that honors the legacy of the club from previous eras. It also appears that the team could finally be ready to announce some upcoming player signings in preparation for their home opener in March. The Timbers did learn that it will be the Philadelphia Union that will be visiting the Rose City to play the Timbers on March 12 on ESPN2.

So you guys have already seen the new third kit. Personally, I'm very impressed not only with the design (which we already had an idea of anyways) but with the way they went about making the kit. But more on that a little bit below...

First some pictures! You guys have already seen all the pictures from the official Timbers site and the store I'm sure, but I've gone ahead and took some of my own.

The Philadelphia Union announced on Tuesday that the 2012 season opener will take place against Portland Timbers at Jeld-Wen Field on Monday, March 12.

Kickoff will be at 9:30pm EST and the match will be nationally broadcast on ESPN2, ESPN Deportes and ESPN3.

The Union recently announced that the home opener will take place on Sunday, March 18.

The Portland Timbers just issued a press release concerning the Timbers home opener.

TIMBERS FEATURED NATIONALLY ON ESPN2, TO FACE PHILADELPHIA IN SEASON OPENER
Club to open 2012 MLS season March 12 in marquee match at JELD-WEN Field

PORTLAND, Ore.

The Syracuse Silver Knights rode into Wichita with a 3-4 record on Friday night. The Knights started things off quickly scoring in the first twelve seconds of the game, but that would prove to be half of their team's points as the Wings came back with twelve unanswered points. After Syracuse finally got a break with their second goal, Jamar Beasley answered with back-to-back goals.

The Revolution unveiled their new kits for the 2012-2013 seasons tonight at the Gillette Stadium Pro Shop. The jerseys feature a deliberate lack of silver and a return to the inclusion of red as well as the new addition of the flag of New England displayed prominently and proudly on the back of the jerseys just under the collar.

By Cliff Fox
The Syracuse Silver Knights rode into Wichita with a 3-4 record on Friday night. The Knights started things off quickly scoring in the first twelve seconds of the game, but that would prove to be half of their teams points as the Wings answered with twelve unanswered points, and after Syracuse finally got a break with their second goal, Jamar Beasley answered with back to back goals.

By Jimmy LaRoue

To look at the Major Indoor Soccer League standings, the Norfolk SharX's struggles are clear–they're not scoring much, they're giving up the most goals, and most important of all, they're the only team yet to enter the win column.

The SharX have more going against them after just 837 fans were at Norfolk Scope for last night's 16-2 home loss, dropping the team to 0-5.

Photo of Taylor Twellman at Union's 2011 home opener by Earl Gardner.

Philadelphia Union

Deportivo Saprissa president Juan Carlos Rojas has confirmed in an interview with a Costa Rican radio station that the Union has been in contact with the club about Josue Martinez, saying "I would not go into much detail but there has been interest from Philadelphia [in Martinez].

At last! What every Red Bulls fan has been waiting for, and just in time for the Holidays! Yep, the new home kit is out and it's pretty nice, if I do say so myself. It almost replicates the design of last year's stunning away kit, except the 2012 home version has a v-neck and also sports a subtle pinstripe stitch.

Photo: Nicolae Stoian

NBC Philadelphia has a segment on the danger of brain trauma posed by too frequent heading following the release of a study at the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) annual meeting.

You can read more about this story here.

Philadelphia Union

With the announcement on Tuesday that the Union will play its 2012 home opener on Sunday, March 18, the Goalkeeper writes, "I also would not be surprised if the Union's home opener is nationally televised.

Two small pieces of news before we get on with the Player Of The Year discussion:
*Steve Nicol turned down the Rapids interview request. There was some talk about him being uncomfortable with the environment here, but all along I thought getting Nicol out of Boston, where he's been for 13 years, would be a long shot.

The Philadelphia Union announced on Tuesday that its home opener will take place at PPL Park on Sunday, March 18.

The time and opponent will be announced at a later date.

The 2012 MLS season will officially commence on the weekend of March 10. Six games will take place on Saturday, March 10 at Colorado Rapids, D.

The first chance for Revolution fans to see the Jay Heaps-led Revolution at Gillette Stadium in 2012 will arrive on Saturday, Mar. 24, according to an MLS release detailing each club's home opening date. New England's opponent for its home opener has not yet been announced.

With First Kick scheduled for the weekend of March 10th the earliest opening weekend in league history - it appears that the Revolution will once again commence the new season on the road and remain there through the first two weeks of the season.

MLS has released the dates of each team's home opener for the 2012 season, and all but one team will play its first home match by Week 3.

The Houston Dynamo are the only team that will have to wait a while for their home opener next year, as they'll be on the road until their new soccer-specific stadium opens in Week 10 on May 12.

Well this is quite early from what we're used to, but apparently the MLS HQ has decided to release the home opening dates for all clubs ahead of the 2012 season. Essentially what we have here is a list of when each team is playing their home opener for the 2012 season.

The Portland Timbers, as the title suggests, opens up Jeld-Wen Field on March 12th, 2012 although against which other team is not yet known.

By Charlie Corr
ESPNChicago.com
The Chicago Fire will play in their earliest regular-season home opener when they kick off their 2012 Major League Soccer campaign.
The Fire and other MLS teams announced their 2012 home dates on Tuesday, and Chicago hosts a match at Toyota Park on March 24.

I was driving around just this weekend thinking about how much I miss going to Toyota Park for Chicago Fire soccer. Now we all have a target date for when the action will return: Saturday, March 24, 2012. We don't know the time or the opponent just yet but hey let the countdown begin to the beginning of the Chicago Fire's 15th season.