CarlosT will be posting a story or two here and Sunday morning I may be able to finish my write-up on Vagenas and Ianni. I may not make my old deadline, but I will do what I can.

If you aren't going to the Supporters Summit you will be able to watch the Summit Proper at MLSNet.com (1PM EST/10AM PST) in its live stream tomorrow.

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The friendly between the US Men's National Team and Slovakia, being played in Bratislava, Slovakia will be broadcast live on Fox Soccer Channel and Galavision beginning at 9:00 am.

After earning a place in the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the U.S. Men's National Team sets its sights on raising the bar for the World Cup in South Africa, which is now a mere seven months away.

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Friday is here and we are faced with the somewhat surprising reality that the first team eliminated from this year's MLS playoffs is the defending MLS Cup champion Columbus Crew. You can complain all you want about the playoff format, and the fact that Real Salt Lake barely edged its way into the playoffs, but RSL played great soccer when it mattered most, while the Crew bumbled and stumbled to the finish line and ultimately paid for its inconsistency.

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Friday is here and we are faced with the somewhat surprising reality that the first team eliminated from this year's MLS playoffs is the defending MLS Cup champion Columbus Crew. You can complain all you want about the playoff format, and the fact that Real Salt Lake barely edged its way into the playoffs, but RSL played great soccer when it mattered most, while the Crew bumbled and stumbled to the finish line and ultimately paid for its inconsistency.

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DC United begins searching for its sixth head coach in 15 years as head coach Tommy Soehn fell on his sword yesterday after a second straight season in which DC United did not make the playoffs, and failed in other domestic and international competitions as well. Click to continue reading...

Think for a moment about the organisation of tournaments such as the UEFA Champions League or the European Championships. How do you decide how many teams are eligible for entry into each competition, when those teams should enter the competition or what about the fixtures of those competitions?

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It's crunch time in Serie A, as clubs must play three games in the span of 8 days this week, and even more over the next eleven days if they are playing in international competitions.

It's a Bad Month to Be a Milan Fan: Not only is rival Inter atop the Serie A standings, Milan lost yesterday to Udinese for its second defeat on the year.

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Our latest contributor to COS, Mr Rant, can get a little carried away so if there are any small children reading this, we apologise.

I'm sure they just hate English football.

They're talking about bringing in the 6-5 rule. They blame the amount of
foreigners in the English game on the national teams poor showing at recent
international competitions.

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DCUnited.com

By TRAVIS CLARK

It was supposed to be a chance at redemption for D.C. United. A new crack at the CONCACAF Champions League, a competition that saw them post a dismal 0-5-1. But whatever optimism that D.C. coming into the preliminary was quickly diffused by a stubborn LA Firpo opponent that held a reserve-heavy United in check Tuesday night.

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DCUnited.com

By TRAVIS CLARK

It was supposed to be a chance at redemption for D.C. United. A new crack at the CONCACAF Champions League, a competition that saw them post a dismal 0-5-1. But whatever optimism that D.C. coming into the preliminary was quickly diffused by a stubborn LA Firpo opponent that held a reserve-heavy United in check Tuesday night.

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47 days and two different international competitions separate the meetings between the United States and Honduras at Soldier Field in Chicago.
What separated the teams on the field was a Carlos Bocanegra diving header to give the U.S. a 2-1 come-from-behind victory in World Cup qualifying to close out the first half of the final round. Click to continue reading...

It was supposed to be a butt whippin, it was supposed to be like that supermodel that bitched Terrell Owens on the new NBC show, Superstars. The FIFA Confederations Cup semifinal between Spain and the USA would set US Soccer back 20 years. Everyone who watches football thought that La Furia Roja would embarrass the Stars & Stripes (including myself). Click to continue reading...

Here at World Club Rankings, as those of you who follow regularly are aware, we aren't too concerned with the international competitions. We don't have anything against them, we just like to focus on what we know best, which is club football. When the club football ends, though, what do we do to fill the days? Click to continue reading...

Maybe soccer games can never truly live up to their hype. The whirring factory of the sport won't let that happen. Before a game with weeks of buildup can settle in our memory, we have more championships to follow, transfer rumors to process, and international competitions to prepare for. The momentum of the sport turns with the globe.

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Maybe soccer games can never truly live up to their hype. The whirring factory of the sport won't let that happen. Before a game with weeks of buildup can settle in our memory, we have more championships to follow, transfer rumors to process, and international competitions to prepare for. The momentum of the sport turns with the globe.

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Earlier this month Iquique, Chile played host to the 2009 Sudamericano Sub 17 and the finest youngsters on the continent turned up to showcase their talents. Despite the hosts bowing out in the first round group stage the tournament's momentum carried through to a pulsating clasico final which saw Brazil beat Argentina after a marathon penalty shootout. Click to continue reading...

So there is a very credible rumor that has been ciculating for days that due to availability at the Community America Ballpark (CAB), the temporary home of the Wizards, one of the Superliga games against a Mexican team will be played in Saint Louis instead of KC. If this turns out to be true, Wizards fans, like myself, who show up at all home games, regardless of the weather (and if you were at the San Jose game you know what I'm talking about) will be denied an international match at home.

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A few weeks ago Fox made what is considered in soccer circles as the biggest splash of the past decade. According to many they changed the landscape of soccer coverage in the United States when they were able to obtain the rights to the UEFA Champions League. This was huge news as Europe's most important club competition became synonymous with the Worldwide Leader In Sports for well over a decade.

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It was a match between football titans, two giants in the history of the beautiful game and one of the most high-profile sporting rivalries of the past century. Between themselves Brazil and Italy represented 9 World Cup titles combined: as the two most succesful national teams in history faced off at the Emirates Stadium Tuesday, [. Click to continue reading...

It was a match between football titans, two giants in the history of the beautiful game and one of the most high-profile sporting rivalries of the past century. Between themselves Brazil and Italy represented 9 World Cup titles combined: as the two most succesful national teams in history faced off at the Emirates Stadium Tuesday, [. Click to continue reading...

The mother of all games, or as Lippi and Falcao tagged it, the 'Derby of the World'. As yet another week of international friendlies begins, fans everywhere will be eagerly anticipating some of the highest quality international football action in the year. I mean just think about it: Argentina vs. France and Spain vs. Click to continue reading...

The mother of all games, or as Lippi and Falcao tagged it, the 'Derby of the World'. As yet another week of international friendlies begins, fans everywhere will be eagerly anticipating some of the highest quality international football action in the year. I mean just think about it: Argentina vs. France and Spain vs. Click to continue reading...

For the fourth time in FIFA Futsal World Cup history, Brazil conquered the gold medal on home turf Sunday morning. It was a match which all pundits anticipated to be a clash of the titans, with reigning World & European champions Spain providing a very worthy opponent for the Auriverde. It the end, only a [. Click to continue reading...

After their disappointing and controversial loss in the semi-finals, Italy grabbed the bronze medal in the FIFA Futsal World Cup Third Place final against Russia Saturday. It was hard-fought match full of spectacular plays, in which the Azzurri obtained their 2-1 win thanks to a last-minute goal by Saad Assis. Click to continue reading...

As far as Spain vs. Italy goes, sure isn't a good year for Italian fans. First, there was the UEFA Futsal Euro 2007 final (lost 3-1)... then this Summer's Euro 2008 quarter-finals story we all know. Now, for the FIFA Futsal World Cup 2008 Semi-Finals and for the third time in less than a year, [...] Click to continue reading...

Bad day for Italy's U-21 team. The Azzurrini could not do better than a 0-0 goal-less draw at Ancona Saturday, making their road towards the Euro 2009 final tournament a little bit harder. Casiraghi's boys now need either a win or a draw (with goals) on Wednesday, as they travel to Tel-Aviv to face a [. Click to continue reading...

You know the Rugby Six nations Championship? The one involving the England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales rugby national teams and taking place every year? Well, the French Football Federation (FFF) and Club France 2010 (the management company taking care of all things Les Bleus till the 2010 World Cup) have had this crazy [. Click to continue reading...

MLS is easily second-guessed. Fans of other leagues often wonder why MLS doesn't do things the same way as "the rest of the world" (usually, that means "Europe").

I've been working on a way to address all the issues at once. That's not going to happen. So consider this the first part of an indefinite series in which we're going to look at the issues from all angles.

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Pathetic. Yes, yes, there were injuries, some real, some worryingly drawn out, some perhaps emphasized in order to justify the team selection and thus cover the coaching staff's asses, but . . . this is a team built for international competitions, right? I suppose you could say that Tommy faced the conundrum of roster rotation and which competition to place the highest value on and made his Click to continue reading...

I was wrong when I suggested earlier that DCU would probably be taking the CCL seriously, since they had rested Emilio and Fred for the Dallas match. Instead we sent out an even weaker team tonight, that included the reappearance of Zach Wells! Goff says it's because Crayton had a sore knee, I'm not so sure. Click to continue reading...

It'll be Israel for the Azzurrini. Pierluigi Casiraghi's Italy U-21 team discovered their playoff phase opponent this Friday, after the Euro 2009 Under 21 Draw that gifted us clashes like Germany vs. France and Wales vs. England. The home-and-away matches will be played on October 11/12 and 14/15 (with match venues, dates and kick-off times to [. Click to continue reading...

Mission accomplished for Italy's U21 team. In order to qualify for the Euro 2009 knock-out round, a win or a draw against Croatia was necessary for Casiraghi's boys Tuesday, a task which the Azzurrini completed with brio. In truth, the final scoreline doesn't really reflect how this match played out, because of over 83 minutes [. Click to continue reading...

By definition, the Nelly Award goes to the player who is new to the team this year and has made the most significant positive impact. The award's namesake Ryan Nelsen emerged as a star defender in the MLS shortly after joining the team, and served as United's captain during the 2004 championship run. Click to continue reading...

Following the latest barrage of criticism over the league's failure to acknowledge FIFA international dates, the Toronto Sun reported today that Major League Soccer is ready to admit that it has a scheduling problem and will take the first steps towards correcting it. Later this month, the league's competition committee will meet to discuss how MLS can do better to prepare a schedule that is not in direct conflict with the rest of the world. Click to continue reading...

18 years... Super Mario's wait was a long one, but it was worth it: not even a month after receiving his official Italian citizenship papers, Balotelli has already conquered Italian hearts. His goal vs. Greece's U-21 team today was magnificent, but alas was not enough for the Azzurrini to get an automatic bye to the [. Click to continue reading...