Photo by Brad Smith/ISIphotos.com

Planning for summer friendlies is already in the works, and it appears that the New York Red Bulls will be welcoming one of the Premier League's top sides to Red Bull Arena for an exhibition.

According to the New York Post, the Red Bulls will play against Tottenham either July 31 or Aug.

PORTLAND, Ore. – The Portland Timbers and Vancouver Whitecaps FC announced today that their regular-season matchup on Oct. 20, at BC Place in Vancouver, B.C., has been changed to Sunday, Oct. 21, at 4 p.m. (Pacific) due to a conflict with the Canadian Football League (CFL) schedule.

After winning their respective groups, Ivory Coast and Ghana are on a crash course for a high-profile final at the African Cup of Nations, but there is still work to be done before the top two African nations do battle for the continent's top prize.

The Elephants, one of two sides to secure all nine points during the group stage, might have to go through both host countries to reach the final.

Kickoff from White Hart Lane at 7:00PM GMT/2:00PM EST

Liverpool's youngsters return to NextGen Series action today, with their quarterfinal matchup with Tottenham's U19s taking place in London. The brief break in senior squad action allows for attentions to turn to a competition that, on the whole, has been a terrific advertisement for youth football on the continent.

Video: FA Cup: Everton/Fulham

And so it was. In the English matchup of American titans Everton bested Fulhman 2-1, led by the efforts of a Man of the Match-worthy Landon Donovan, who assisted on both goals for his side. Clint Dempsey may have found success where Donovan never could, but in this match, at least, Donovan hushed his frequent teammate.

There's a whole slate of FA Cup 4th Round matches this weekend, kicked off by a match today that is especially interesting for viewers on this side of the pond. Everton hosts Fulham, which means it's also a faceoff of the two best American players of this generation: Landon Donovan vs. Clint Demspey.

More than any other matchup, the coming together of Barcelona and Madrid forces apart the usually shared preferences of the cultfootball brain trust. So today's match was one where both sides could come away feeling they'd won some important battles, if not the war.

The game was not 90 minutes of pure flowing football.

Despite the nonsense about some other matchup in the Copa del Rey right now can't quite remember the names of those rather insignificant teams at the moment the real story is not east, not west, but down. Way down in the third division. Mirandes, a humble little club in the north of Spain, knocked off their third yes, third La Liga opponent to get to the Copa del Rey.

So far the 2011-12 season's FA Cup campaign has been a high quality tournament. Just 32 teams remain in the competition and are all fighting the claim their spot in the Fifth Round of the cup. In this article I shall be talking about the up-and-coming matchup between Premiership side Queens Park Rangers and their league compatriots Chelsea.

Come on everybody, channel your inner Piers Morgan. Throw your hands up in the air, aim for the hills and run with abandon. Just don't forget to unlock your wrists, so that the sprint for the horizon seems that much more fueled by pure terror. And remember to shrill.

Wayne Rooney, his sidekick hair transplant and his nefarious Mancunian buddies traveled to the Emirates on Sunday.

Ahh. I've finished my exams. I can say it's been a very long week, and I'll be getting my grades back tomorrow. Fingers crossed, people.

But, beside talking about me, I want to point out that this was an immensely significant week for American soccer, and one that really gives us a glimpse into where it'll be going in the near future.

After a month's hiatus (due primarily to an extended internet-free trip to India see below), we're back with a TV guide to the weekend. As usual, we provide US TV listings with ET kickoffs, since that's where we reside. For our non-US readers, we've included a link to livesoccertv.com for each match.

Watching the Tide Roll In.
By Shane Badger
Rochester fans were treated to a wonderful display of tension, speed and accuracy Monday night as the Milwaukee Wave showed their skills against the Rochester Lancers.
After a ten-six loss at their last matchup the Lancer squad was ready to even the odds as they broke out to score first.

Photo by ISIphotos.com

The long-rumored friendly between the United States and Italy appears to have come to fruition.

The Italian soccer federation announced that the Azzurri will host the United States at Stadio Luigi Ferraris in Genoa on Feb. 29, the first FIFA international fixture date of the new year.

The big news today out of Denver is that Brady Quinn took half the snaps with the first team during practice. If the purpose of these snaps were to keep Quinn sharp in case of an injury to Tebow, than having him take snaps is understandable.

In matchup of undefeated teams, the Portland Trail Blazers topped the Denver Nuggets by a final score of 111-102. These two Western Conference sleepers played a fantastic game that featured a lot of back of forth action. Don't be surprised if the Blazers and Nuggets face each other in the 2012 NBA playoffs.

Fans of the New England Patriots can't be feeling too happy right now. Tom Brady, the Patriots franchise quarterback, has a shoulder injury that was serious enough to warrant a shoulder X-ray. Brady also sat out practice on Thursday.

The good news for the Patriots and their quarterback is that Brady's injury isn't considered serious.

Crystal Palace are one of two Championship sides that remain in the 2011/12 League Cup. Out of the two Championship sides, Crystal Palace remain to be the team that have performed at a lower level than their Championship counterpart and League Cup semi-final opposition Cardiff City.
In the Championship Cardiff are in 5th position with 38 points, whereas Palace currently reside in 8th position with 33 points.

By Shane Badger
For as long as man civilized man has existed the great terrible question has been asked: How do you stop a wall of water? The answer of course is deceptively simple; Build.
Build, is exactly what Coach Andracki has been doing in the two weeks since his Lancer squad was deluged by the Wave 25-9 in Milwaukee.

By "The Other 87 Minutes" / Senior Unemployed English Major Correspondents
To our mind, the only thing wrong with the Champions League is its outmoded method of determining the best of the final 16 teams through a two-legged, single-elimination knockout tournament.

With AC Milan in the runner-up pot, the odds of a high-profile matchup in the first knockout round of the UEFA Champions League were quite high. As it turns out, the draw did not disappoint.

Arsenal got paired with Milan during Friday's Champions League draw, setting the stage for an intriguing battle in the tournament's Round of 16.

The North American Soccer League announced today their 2012 opening weekend schedule. The season will kick off Saturday April 7th, with four games across North America. The opening weekend will be highlighted by a matchup between the reigning NASL Champion Minnesota Stars and 2011 NASL Regular Season Champion Carolina RailHawks at Mall of America Field [.

Well at least we'll be able to watch one Timber this off season as it looks like Rodney Wallace is off to represent Costa Rica once again. Both matches are international friendlies, but any national time he can get the better, in my opinion.

The first match will be against Cuba in Cuba... not many Americans can say they've been there.

Here we go again! Real Madrid vs FC Barcelona in El Clasico (Photo: AP Photo)

The biggest matchup in European football takes place this Saturday when FC Barcelona travel to the Bernebeau to take on Real Madrid in El Clasico.

Real Madrid v Barcelona is live on ESPN Deportes on Saturday, December 10 at 4PM ET.

In the qualification group stage process in the 2011/12 UEFA Champions League, the fight to qualify in Group B looks to be quite a difficult task for all teams concerned.
The Italian outfit Inter Milan have won Group B by a achieving a total of 10 points, with no other team being able to catch them.

Craque! Kelyn Rowe in full gallop with head up. The Bruin #10 looking to lead UCLA back to College Cup.

Westwood, CA Made another trip to Westwood to catch the NCAA 3rd round matchup between UCLA and Rutgers. Gary decided to tag along since watching UCLA meant seeing Kelyn Rowe parade his quality all over the field.

By JOHN BOSCHINI

It's the kind of stuff Hollywood was built on.

Last season, a staggering nine goals were produced in a snowy quarterfinal clash between then-No. 1 Louisville and No. 8 UCLA, as the Cardinals squeaked out a 5-4 victory on their way to a runner-up finish.

By JOEY SAMUEL

The field competing for CONCACAF's spots at the 2012 Summer Olympics is officially set.

Trinidad & Tobago and Cuba each recorded the results they needed Monday night to advance out of Caribbean qualifying and earn the final two spots in the 2012 CONCACAF Pre-Olympic Tournament.

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.

When last we checked on the Sounders Academy alumni in their first year of college soccer, we learned that three would be continuing their seasons into the NCAA Tournament along with a couple moving into the postseason in lower divisions. But a week later, only one remains.

NCAA Division I

After a bit of a slide (by their standards) in the second half of the season, the defending national champion Akron Zips - featuring Sounder DeAndre Yedlin at fullback - missed out on a bye in the NCAA Tournament and instead had to face Northwestern in the first round.

By AVI CREDITOR

CARSON, Calif. -- While the Houston Dynamo's Luiz Camargo and the Los Angeles Galaxy's Juninho will spend much of Sunday's MLS Cup Final matched up directly against each other, it won't be the first time the two Brazilians will have shared the field together.

MLS Cup Betting Insider There are just two teams left alive in the 2011 MLS season, and only one will be left standing after Houston and Los Angeles faceoff in the MLS Cup Final on Sunday night. Let's preview the unlikely matchup for the league's most important match. This game will be shown on ESPN [.

Croatia, or formerly known as Yugoslavia, have been quite a force in the history of the World Cup and the European Cup respectively. Although they have never quite made it to a final, they still remain to be a team of which other national sides fear. In the qualification group stages Croatia – nicknamed The Blazers – finished 2nd in Group F narrowly missing out on 1st position by a mere 2 points.

After their Manchester derby defeat put them five points behind archrivals City in the Premier League table, Manchester United responded with back-to-back league wins over Everton and Sunderland and four consecutive wins in all competitions prior to the current international break.

United must keep that positive momentum going coming out of the international break.

Boston College, Boston University, and Harvard University are among the 64 schools that earned bids for the 2011 NCAA Division 1 Women's Soccer Championship after the tournament brackets were released on Monday.

Up at the Heights, Boston College went 11-5-2, and finished fourth in the perennially competitive Atlantic Coast Conference.

Cue up the Nellie McKay, I'm almost out of here.

I love doing interviews with Seattle writers. They're all so naive and when they think they're asking hard questions, they're lobbing softballs. So you know, it's all good in the land of My Little Pony Sing Along Blogs. Anyway, I talked to Joshua Mayers and a bunch of other jackals yesterday, hopefully for the last time in a while so I can forget about what transpired this year.

Still no power, so here is a quick survey of how the local newsapers are covering their team's win or loss in Sunday's compelling Conference Final matchup. We'll start in Utah, where RSL continues to enjoy strong local coverage from both the Salt Lake Tribune and the Deseret News. The Trib sports section included a hard news report on the 3-1 defeat as well as an array of stories in the days leading up to the match.

Though the 2011 season for the senior team has come to a close, we're here to remind you that if you're a Sounder at heart, the season never truly ends. Our first graduated class of Academy players is making their mark as Freshmen across the college soccer landscape.

It's been a couple of weeks since the last update and the college season is winding down to the last few matches before conference tournaments and then the NCAA tournament culminating in the College Cup hosted in Hoover, Alabama.

The Edgewood College women's soccer team got a favorable bounce Sunday.

Now the Eagles have a seemingly favorable matchup in the semifinals of the Northern Athletics Conference tournament.

Sophomore midfielder Katie Pampuch (Oconomowoc) scored the lone goal after a deflected shot in the 14th minute as third-seeded Edgewood topped fifth-seeded Dominican (Ill.

The first leg of the four aggregate home-and-home MLS quarterfinal matches concluded today, and the biggest winner would have to be Real Salt Lake. The lower ranked teams hosted the first leg, and the favored road team won every matchup except one: Real Salt Lake defeated the Seattle Sounders 3-0 yesterday in Sandy, Utah, on the strength of two goals by Costa Rica star Alvaro Saborio.