STARTERS
USA will play a friendly against Canada on Sun Jun 3 at BMO Field in Toronto. 6pm CT on the new NBC Sports.
dN
RUMOR: Sat May 26 USA v Scotland - Friendly - EverBank Field, Jacksonville FL - all other info TBD
DISASTER IN EGYPT
Alex Labidou of Goal.

Chasing The Big Leagues Southampton and the challengers (English Championship) is a post from: Just Football

Tales from Tier Two is a series on Just Football in partnership with @tiertwofooty, in which we assess the promotion chances of the clubs in tier two of Europe's major leagues at the midway point of 2011/12.

By Alan Duffy

Sometimes the world isn't fair. And for League Two Morecambe on Saturday, the world was very very unfair.

After getting the scoreline back to 2-1 in their home clash with Torquay, play-off hopefuls Morecambe pushed for a late equaliser.

Championship side Leeds United have accepted a bid from Norwich City for their club captain Jonny Howson.
The midfielder, who is out of contract in the summer, is a product of the Leeds academy and has made 225 for the club. The Leeds skipper is currently on the sidelines through injury, but it is thought he will open contract talks with the Canaries this week.

Stay cool, it may feel like deja vu but you're not in the Matrix. It's just this French invention of adding to the venerable Coupe de France a modern nemesis called Coupe de la Ligue, and programming them at the same period.

This cup is the least respected of the two and many presidents already said it should be abandoned, but it has at least two advantages : First, it is the shortest route to a title, meaning it's an opportunity to salvage your season when you've missed the top spot of the championship (thinking of anyone?

There are only four days left until the 2012 MLS SuperDraft gets underway. It will be televised on ESPN 2 and 3 at 9a or Noon if you happen to be on the East Coast. The next few days will be crucial for draft hopefuls as it's a time when their stock can rise or take a trip to the garbage pit.

In a interesting turn the Guardian over in the UK, decided to let the supporter groups for all 19 MLS sides do the heavy lifting when it comes to this years SuperDraft.

We'll see more Portland and Seattle in 2012 but less Houston and Dallas. (Getty Images)

I feel like I am back, at least for the most part. The last month or so I've taken a slight back seat around here to enjoy the holidays, be with family, friends and others but most importantly to take some time for myself.

It is the week of the MLS Combine, which means it is time for one final mock draft before things get real interesting here.

I debated long and hard over the New Year weekend on whether or not to post this before the Combine or wait for the Combine to take place. What I decided to do was just to post this now and then have one final mock draft after the Combine.

Well, what an incredibly frustrating ninety minutes that was. Upbeat start, good goal, cavalier flicks, lucky equaliser, chances, chances, CHANCES, saves, saves, more ruddy saves and Wolves rode their luck to a first point against Arsenal in the Premier League era. You couldn't fault the team's effort, apart from a slight easing off in the first half, and I agree with Arsene when he says that we would have won this game 19 times out of 20.

Jordi Gomez claims Wigan will welcome Liverpool to the DW Stadium on Wednesday confident in their ability to pull off another shock result.
The Latics impressed many observers on Saturday evening as they stunned Chelsea with a dramatic late show on home soil.
Gomez's goal two minutes from the end of that contest saw Wigan take what could be a priceless point from the title-chasing Blues.

Their Words One of the greatest strengths of the Timbers is the rich history of the club. With this third kit, we are paying homage to the teams and players that inspired our city to become Soccer City, USA. Portland Timbers president Merritt Paulson. Other Sources U.S. hopefuls get one last chance in January to impress Klinsmann - from SI.

This team is rapidly becoming one of the most technically gifted youth teams the club has ever seen. Under the spotlights at Moss Lane on a cold rainy night, United's young hopefuls made light work of a determined Torquay United side that set up, at times, with 7 men at the back. Goals from van [...]

Manchester City secured a place in the semi-finals of the Carling Cup as Sergio Aguero punished Arsenal on the break to give Roberto Mancini's side a 1-0 win at Emirates Stadium.

Arsenal, protecting an unbeaten home record against City that stretched for 36 years and encompassed 28 games, were the superior side in a contest between two much-changed teams, but after being denied by some superb goalkeeping from Costel Pantilimon were undone by a ruthless finish from Aguero after 83 minutes.

Liverpool today announced they are backing the 2011 Soccer Prince - the X-Factor-style television program which aims to unearth football's next biggest star.
The Reds are the only Barclays Premier League team to support the initiative and are offering a one-year development program under their guidance to the winner.

6 games, 6 wins. 20 goals scored, 1 conceded. That was the month of October for Real, very probably the best European team right now.

They beat Lyon in Bernabeu 4-0 two weeks ago, and we haven't changed that much since then: Lisandro is still missing, as are Grenier and Pied.

Bayern home games have a fascination of their own. For the past couple of seasons I developed the habit of watching the first half of a FC Barcelona game to cap off a hectic and unpredictable day of Bundesliga action. I did it less for the uncertainty of the result, but the uncertainty of how many goals Barca could score before the break.

• Niklas Wildhagen recalled his traumatic experience, when Otto Rehagel left Bremen for Bayern. (Regista)
• Jonny Eyres looked at how Bundesliga promotion hopefuls Fortuna Düsseldorf slowly worked their way back up the divisions. (http://inbedwithmaradona.com/journal/2011/10/13/soldiers-ofthis-is-fortuna-dusseldorf.

Jeremy Vuolo and AC Oulu look to finish their season strong as they take on promotion hopefuls PK-35 while Daniel Stevens and Kyle Luetkehans hope to put PS Kemi Kings over the top against KooTeePee.

Nemanja Vidic could make only his second Premier League start of the season on Saturday when Manchester United look to snap a three-game winless run against bitter rivals Liverpool at Anfield.

The 29-year-old has not kicked a ball for the champions since limping out of the opening-day win at West Brom.

As the regular season winds down I'm going to be posting a weekly summary of the some of the data and predictions we're generating, which should give you some context going into each week of games.

Previous Week

This one comes a day late thanks to the focus on the US Open Cup final yesterday, but the upside of that is that the game between the New York Red Bulls and the Los Angeles Galaxy last night will factor into the results.

When the bards sing of deeds gone by or poets write in remembrance, memory is always airbrushed. As an eager, fresh-faced boy desperate to fill my mind's expanse of blankness, I noticed, interested, the holes in Manchester United's rich history. The period for instance that some call the 1970s, is one afforded only a cursory sentence or two in all the unofficial accounts I read, seemingly, football hadn't happened between around the time George Best lifted the European Cup and the day Ron Atkinson cleaned out his office.

Michael Regan/Getty Images(Bleacher Report) This Past January Manchester City made a move that many people believed would be one of the best they had made since their overhaul began. Their move was the £27 million signing of VfL Wolfsburg star Edin Dzeko.
Dzeko had torn up the Bundesliga for the past three seasons with Wolfsburg scoring 85 goals in only 135 league appearances.

The Major League Soccer season is winding down to its final weeks, meaning each weekend is becoming more and more important with relation to the playoff race, and teams are facing more important matches every weekend.

Tonight is no different, with a bunch of playoff hopefuls take the field in vital matches they need to help boost their post-season chances.

So our friends at Barca sent this cool video as part of the club's new campaign to foster "healthy eating habits". In it, Lionel Messi appears as a cross between the a 14-year-old version of himself and Tin Tin the detective. "I know that if I train and eat well, I will win the Ballon d'Or," he drawls lazily, clearly unaware they would be using this footage again 10 years later.

Brighton boss Gus Poyet admits his side will need to play the "perfect" game if they are to beat Liverpool in the Carling Cup.
Championship hopefuls Brighton welcome Liverpool to the Amex Stadium in their third round tie on Wednesday night.
The Seagulls have already knocked out Liverpool's Premier League rivals Sunderland in the previous round, but Poyet believes his side will need a little luck if they are to send Kenny Dalglish's troops packing.

The air was a little crisp in Chicago on Sunday and that means that fall is just around the corner. With fall comes college soccer and in fact exhibition games are already underway. Regular season games kick-off on August 26th. The NCAA Pre-season rankings were released earlier this month. The Chicago Fire are looking primed to grab some top talent with a top five pick in the draft.

Pro soccer tryouts attract 75 Bolts hopefuls The Orange County Register

Last year was pretty clear cut in the Conference North, Alfreton were pretty much definitely going up despite having a ridiculous backlog of games, the play-off places were fairly clear early on and Redditch were dropping like a stone from around February time, but this season it looks set to be a bit closer at both ends of the table and closer still in the middle.

Hey, remember these? A rough patch of buying one house and selling another sort of cut into my scouting report time, so you had to watch this last month or so of games unscouted. Unless you were getting reports from that Arlo guy, I guess. And for a while there the Sounders were winning every game I wasn't scouting, which was a welcome but slightly concerning trend until that egg in Houston last week.

The Missouri Comets will have announced the Galaxy Girls Finals LIVE! event to select the finalists for their professional dance team - The Galaxy Girls.
This event showcases the finalists for the 2011-2012 Galaxy Girls in front of a live audience at the Power & Light District's "KC Live!

Germany forward Miroslav Klose has signed a two-year contract with UEFA Europa League hopefuls S.S. Lazio on his 33rd birthday after the expiry of his FC Bayern München deal.

When the Home Grown Hopefuls series debuted here at the Brotherly Game, its purpose was to introduce some of the young players in the Union Academy to the average fan in the hopes that one day, one of those players would become a Union Home Grown signing. During the time since HGH's inception, no player has separated himself from the rest of the pack quite like Jimmy McLaughlin.

Barcelona have won more doubles than anyone in Europe - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

Barcelona rose from a very controversial semifinal against Real Madrid to a very fine performance in the final against Manchester United. A performance that has quietened the outcry of Mourinho-hopefuls against Barca's theatrics in the Bernabeu with a little help from FIFA again.

Union

There is more information about the rumored friendly with Real Madrid, first reported by the Washington Post last Thursday. Kerith Gabriel reports in the Daily News that negotiations are underway for a possible July 23 fixture at the Linc. The problem is that the Union are scheduled to play Seattle away on that date.

Manchester United are on the verge of a 19th league title after their showdown against Chelsea ended in a 2-1 victory for the home side. The relegation battle at the other end took another twist as West Ham could only manage a 1-1 stalemate with Blackburn, as Wigan and Blackpool also drew. Wolves were the big movers on Sunday as Mick McCarthy's men dragged themselves out of the relegation zone with an emphatic Black Country derby success over West Brom.

The boys are back on the regular schedule, and while the news cycle is shorter than usual, there's still a lot to talk about. First up is the Javier Morales injury and the problem MLS has on its hands. There's thoughts on LA and New York's epic showdown in segment two, plus a review of the debut of Soccer Night in America.

Starting off, a half-hearted nod of the head to Man United and an outstretched hand from me in spite of obvious danger to my personal hygiene. Winners of any football competition deserve the victory in the end, the League more so than most, and United were the least bad team this season. The Sun is shining on Fergie and the perch, he should retire now and take over Wrigley's while the going is good.

Liverpool midfielder Jonjo Shelvey is providing the kind of example other youngsters at the club should follow, according to academy technical director Pep Segura.
The 19-year-old has been at the club less than 12 months, having joined from Charlton early last summer, but has already made 18 first team appearances - a tally which would have been greater had a knee operation not sidelined him for two months.

Did you hear what happened at the Emirates??! Image: Getty Image/Daylife

They think it's all over.

Well, it bloody isn't and you lot would do well to sit back down and brace yourselves for next weekend. Kickettes, this could be messy...

EPL

'Come to Aaron'.

Inter Milan, who are third in Serie A and five points behind league leaders AC Milan, travel to the Ennio Tardini stadium to face Parma on Saturday.

AC Milan, meanwhile, will be without Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic for Saturday's match against strugglers Sampdoria.

Ibrahimovic, who is the team's joint top scorer with 14 goals alongside Alexandre Pato, will start a three-match ban this weekend.