By J Hutcherson - WASHINGTON, DC (Jan 19, 2012) US Soccer Players -- It's easy enough to pick on Major League Soccer and the CONCACAF Champions League. Not only are their flaws obvious, in most cases they can't fall back on obvious success. Not so for Europe, where the UEFA Champions League can overlook its faults while generating massive amounts of money for all involved, especially for those teams advancing to the knockout stage.

Thursday marked yet another MLS Super Draft, but it was one with huge significance throughout Revs Nation: the players selected would be the first under new head coach Jay Heaps. Massive amounts of excitement were attributed to the fact that the Revs had their highest pick in almost a decade at #3, and with several holes to fill, this year's Super Draft was of utmost importance.

The Carling Cup quarterfinals were full of entertainment and although four teams saw their chances of going to Wembley brought to an end, the remaining four shall offer plenty more in the semis.

For now, here is a look at five lessons learned, in no particular order, from the quarterfinals:

1.

If football disparity could be measured by economic indicators like the GINI co-efficient, then La Liga would score a .8. Or should we call it despair-ity. The fact is that there is no chance any club can compete with Barca and Real. The chasm has become a continental drift and every indication is that it will get worse.

Season Preview: Chievo Opening/Recap For a side that rarely spends massive amounts of money if any at all, Chievo managed a fantastic 11th place finish last season. Coach Stefano Pioli organized a side that was superb defensively, conceding the fourth lowest amount of goals of all the teams in Serie A- Only Lazio, Napoli, and Milan conceded fewer.

Empire Field during a better evening. Photo by Mufae

Forfeits are usually a term for CYO soccer when a team doesn't have the requisite ten players or there aren't enough oranges for halftime. Rarely does the terminology enter a debate in professional sports, where the money and resources are available to shift matches around based on inclement weather.

I was reading this article featured in the Daily Mail yesterday and immediately thought "what a load of bollocks!" (excuse my language). You expect to hear clubs having a moan about losing a big name player as we hear it all the time, but to hear it about the manager is something else.
Let me start by quoting exactly what was said by the Porto President Pinto da Costa has said:

"Villas-Boas was living with Mourinho's ghost.

The winter season can be quiet on the media front. Not this year.
The news from the World Cup has been bad, particularly on corruption at FIFA. However, Ben Buckley and the clubs have followed this up with a truck load of good, OK and other news. So soccer is staying there on the sporting pages, reminding families that it is an entertainment option for next season.

Manchester United young striker, Danny Welbeck, who went on loan last summer at Sunderland, admits that he already received insurance from Sir Alex Ferguson in getting decent chances in featuring for United on the upcoming season.

This rewards all came after Welbeck puts on consistently good performances with the Black Cats, and the striker also admitted that his loan spell simply gave him the experience needed to improve his quality and earned a chance at the Red Devils.

Arsenal fans are used to being disappointed transfer windows, as we always here about how massive amounts of money are building up in the "transfer fund" but find out that Wenger has bought a few 17 year-olds for the academy, but this year was supposed to be different... Wenger has (yet again) acknowledged that the [.

The Italian national team did play yesterday, pulling off a comfortable 1-0 win away against Slovenia- the first time Gli Azzurri had ever won away there. Cesare Prandelli's rebuilding continues along a smooth pace, with more answers than questions being delivered. The Italian newspapers can only talk about that one game for so long, for so many pages, however, and the subsequent result is massive, massive amounts of transfer talk.

By Pieter Brown - The 2011 edition of The El Nuevo Copa Latina kicked off Saturday, Feburuary 12th to all the pomp and circumstance it always has.. This tournament is a World Cup style tournament with 32 teams from Miami's multi-cultural communities.
Copa Latina is in their 19th year and has become the most successful adult Hispanic soccer tournament in the Unites States.

A massive game tonight and one which draws a number of contrasts between the two teams.

City are big, physical and expensively assembled. Arsenal smaller, lighter and put together in a much more prudent fashion. During his press conference yesterday Arsene was asked about how he felt about the way City had become a Premier League force and said:

I personally am a big fan of the way we do it, so I try to be successful with the way we do it.