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.

The offseason is now kicking into gear as training camp is open and the Seattle Sounders' first cuts should be announced shortly. In this week's episode of Nos Audietis, we discuss the Sounders' new partnership with the Tacoma Tide and their subsequent rebranding as Sounders U-23. The team will play in the PDL and give Sounders Academy products an opportunity to stay close to come during the offseason.

Photo: Nicolae Stoian

All-Stars, Le Toux rumors, and a new signing for the Philadelphia Independence are all part of this week's KYW Philly Soccer Show.

In part one, KYW's Greg Orlandini and Philly Soccer Page writer Eli Pearlman-Storch kick of this week's edition of the pod by talking about the MLS All-Star game, which will be held at PPL Park, in Chester, Pa.

In a Major League Soccer press conference yesterday morning in Philadelphia, it was announced that the AT&T 2012 All-Star game has been awarded to the Philadelphia Union.

The Union will host the game at PPL Park on July 25th at 8 p.m.

Although the opponent for the MLS All-Stars will not be revealed until a later date, the league stated that the game would feature an international opponent for the ninth time in MLS history.

Photo: Nicolae Stoian

Philadelphia Union got the MLS All-Star game for PPL Park.

So why aren't you excited?

Why was there a collective yawn in response to Tuesday's announcement when there could have been rapturous joy?

Was it because word had leaked out early and killed the surprise factor?

Some amazing PSP original work from the past few days: Earl Gardner's sweet photo essay from the SOB Help Kick Hunger event, info on the MLS All-Star game, Ed's fantastic piece on the last All-Star game in Philly, Dan's take on the possibility of selling Le Toux, and Eli's examination of the U's post-Seba strike force.

Less than a year after hosting it's first playoff game, PPL Park will be showcased on July 25th as the venue for the 2012 MLS All Star Game. Major League Soccer Commissioner Don Garber officially announced the event at City ...
Visit http://www.majorleaguesoccertalk.com for the rest of the story.

Featured image: Bobby Moore, Gerry Francis and Pele before the Team America vs. England game at JFK

The news that PPL Park will be host the 2012 MLS All-Star Game means that Philadelphia will be the host of a major pro sport All-Star event for the first time since the NBA came to town in 2002.

It has been announced that the Philadelphia Union would be hosting the 2012 MLS All-Star game at PPL Park. Philadelphia is an ideal location and few could argue they do not deserve to host such an event. They have a lively crowd who are passionate, knowledgeable and they have a facility which rivals every stadium in MLS save perhaps for LiveStrong Park.

Major League Soccer Commissioner Don Garber officially announced today that the 2012 AT&T MLS All-Star Game will be hosted by Philadelphia at PPL Park.

"That's why Philadelphia is the best sports city in the USA," Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter said, "top notch fans, top notch stadium.

Less than two years after its construction was completed, PPL Park was awarded its first MLS All-Star game, the league announced on Wednesday.

The game has been scheduled for July 25th at 8:00pm ET and will be televised on ESPN2 and Galavision. An opponent has not been announced.

The soccer specific stadium, which has a capacity of 18,500, is the home grounds of the Philadelphia Union, who entered the league in 2010.

Photo by ISIphotos.com

With every passing year, the format for the MLS All-Star Game seems to continue to be a point of contention among fans and media, but even with that, the 2012 version won't be providing any drastic changes.

While officially awarding this year's game to Philadelphia, the league announced that it will maintain its unique MLS vs.

Photo by Howard C. Smith/ISIphotos.com

Major League Soccer made official Tuesday what was reported on Monday, awarding the 2012 MLS All-Star Game to PPL Park at an announcement at Philadelphia's City Hall Tuesday morning.

The game will take place Wednesday, July 25, at 8 p.

Photo: Paul Rudderow

It's official, PPL Park will be the site of the 2012 MLS All-Star Game on July 25.

The opponent, "a renowned international club," will be announced at a later date.

MLS Commissioner Don Garber, Philadelphia Union CEO Nick Sackiewicz, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter and Chester Mayor John Linder were on hand at the press conference at Philadelphia's City Hall on Tuesday morning for the announcement.

The worst kept secret managed to be confirmed ahead of its own public announcement. The Philadelphia Union will host the 2012 MLS All Star Game on July 25 according to multiple reports at Philadelphia's City Hall today.

Jonathan Tannenwald of Philly.com's soccer blog, the Goalkeeper, is reporting that the event has a start of 8 pm, with ESPN2 as the English telecast of the game in America.

Philadelphia Union

Sebastien Le Toux tweeted this morning, "I spent a great week at BWFC. Great club with great people. Now back in Philly." We are waiting for confirmation on this from the Union on this and if this means there will be no transfer to Bolton.

Following the successful appeal to secure Tim Ream the UK work permit necessary to complete the defender's move to the Wanderers, Owen Coyle tells The Bolton News that he plans to "add one or two more to take us on to the second half of the season" before the close of the transfer window on January 31.

Rumors are running around tonight that LIVESTRONG Sporting Park will not be hosting MLS' all star game this year. Word out of Philadelphia is that the Union will be hosting the All Star game, at PPL Park. The game should be confirmed tomorrow in a press conference that Don Garber will be attending.

It has been a crazy day for me here. Busy at work. Busy at life. But I wanted to get to this bit of news before the day really gets away from me.

The Union and MLS have scheduled a press conference in Philadelphia for Tuesday, where Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter and MLS commissioner are expected to announce that PPL Park will be host this summer's 2012 MLS All-Star Game.

Following the announcement by the Philadelphia Union that a press conference has been scheduled for Tuesday at 11am to take place at City Hall in Center City Philadelphia, philly.com reports that the Union will host the 2012 MLS All-Star Game at PPL Park.

The press release from the Union says that team CEO Nick Sackiewicz, MLS Commissioner Don Garber, Chester Mayor John Linder and Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter are all scheduled to be in attendance.

Fans of the Philadelphia Union have had plenty to chear about in the club's brief two-year MLS existence. From the opening of PPL Park in 2010, to the team's MLS playoff debut in 2011. Now Union fans are ready to have a new experience to celebrate in 2012, the hosting of an MLS All-Star Game.

As the Brotherly Game reported on Twitter Saturday night, it appears that Philadelphia will be the host of the 2012 MLS All Star Game.

Philadelphia Union executive Rick Jacobs told a crowd of fans at the Sons of Ben Help Kick Hunger event that there would be an announcement at 11 am at City Hall with MLS there as well.

Difficult as this might be to swallow, one of the next big stories coming out of U.S. Soccer won't anything to do with Jurgen Klinsmann.

I know, I know ... it's all about Klinsi right now. Heck, I've written as much.

But here's what's right around the bend in U.

Happy birthday, Seba! The Flyin' Frenchman is 28 today. Did you know he's the only remaining member of the '09 expansion draft class?

The Brotherly Game says an anonymous league source claims the 2012 MLS All-Star game will be in Philly or Kansas City. Yesterday, Broad Street Hooligans announced that a source within the Union had illegally discovered that the 2012 MLS All-Star game would be in Philly.

We aren't even done with the SuperDraft this week and already some rumors are flying around about this year's MLS All-Star game. No word yet on who the club MLS will be playing, but one has to figure it won't be a three-peat of Manchester United.

No, the talk today is all about the location of the game.

PPL Park could soon show itself off to the North American soccer community, as the Philadelphia Union's game day home is one of two finalists for the 2012 MLS All Star Game. A league source informs the Brotherly Game that PPL Park and Sporting Kansas City's Livestrong Park are the last of a group of stadiums, which included the Vancouver Whitecaps' BC Place and the Montreal Impact's Saputo Stadium, but "nothing [is] firm" yet.

Photo: Daniel Gajdamowicz

Philadelphia Union

Broad Street Hooligans says they have "a few connections who work down at PPL" and that these connections "may have accidentally overheard their bosses super-secret text messages" to the effect that Philadelphia will host the 2012 MLS All-Star Game.

Major League Soccer released their full 2012 schedule today which will feature 89 nationally televised games on the ESPN family and NBC family of networks. Univision will be the Spanish-language broadcast partner for MLS.
The season and First Kick will be on Saturday, March 10th and feature five matches.

Photo by Bill Barrett/ISIphotos.com

Omar Bravo's time in MLS is up.

Sporting Kansas City and top-flight Mexican club Cruz Azul agreed to a deal that will see the Designated Player return to his native country after one season in MLS. No terms of the deal were disclosed.

So Kasey Keller is retiring after this season

He is one of the greatest keepers we've ever seen, there is no doubt about that. But instead of showing of his complete awesome-ness in goal, I wanted to find a video of a goal he gave up to Mexico sometime in the 90′s. I remember seeing the goal on TV when it happened, but I don't remember exactly what year or competition it was in.

Mike Ammann, owner/founder of 247GK, will be hosting an online auction to benefit the Malia Crushes Cancer Fund. Ammann has gathered an amazing collection of autographed sports memorabilia and other impressive items to be auctioned online at http://www.247gk.com/ from October 19th - 26th.

Now in its 16th season, Major League Soccer is continuing to show growth and stability as a major American sports league. The current season features two new teams (Portland Timbers and Vancouver FC), a revamped playoff format, and more sponsorship dollars coming in than ever before. Last week, Visa extended its partnership with the league, and will continue to have exclusive promotional rights at events like the MLS All-Star Game and MLS Cup.

Since I started with Major League Soccer in the spring, we've been working to bring value to our fans, while shining a spotlight on the MLS fan experience, through our social media outlets Facebook.com/MLS, Twitter.com/MLS, YouTube.com/MLS and Foursquare.com/MLS. We also launched a new fans section on the league site at MLSsoccer.

To help you through your Thursday workday, we've got a few entertaining soccer vids from MLS, WPS and around the world. Enjoy
To start you off, check out this goal-fest from the 2000 MLS All-Star game from back when it was an East vs. West. Some fun goals here:
Keeping it going, here are five of the most.

Cesc Fabregas is returning to Barcelona. Really.

The long-awaited transfer of Fabregas from Arsenal to Barcelona is on the verge of completion, according to various reports in both England and Spain, although the signing is not official as of yet.

Fabregas and Samir Nasri were left off the roster for Arsenal's Premier League opener this weekend against Newcastle, lending more credence to the reports that both players are set to sign elsewhere.

The big news in the MLS today is this morning's announcement that they have struck a new 3-year TV deal with NBC. The deal is worth a reported $10M per year and will put at least 45 games per year onto a combination of NBC and NBC Sports (currently known as Versus but being re-branded in January 2012).

The big news in the MLS today is this morning's announcement that they have struck a new 3-year TV deal with NBC. The deal is worth a reported $10M per year and will put at least 45 games per year onto a combination of NBC and NBC Sports (currently known as Versus but being re-branded in January 2012).

The big news in the MLS today is this morning's announcement that they have struck a new 3-year TV deal with NBC. The deal is worth a reported $10M per year and will put at least 45 games per year onto a combination of NBC and NBC Sports (currently known as Versus but being re-branded in January 2012).

Photo by ISIphotos.com

Javier "Chicharito" Hernandez won't be participating in the United States' friendly with Mexico next week, but his trio of offensive teammates that did most of the damage in Mexico's Gold Cup final victory most certainly will.

Giovani Dos Santos, Andres Guardado and Pablo Barrera will all represent El Tri in Philadelphia next week, along with New York Red Bulls centerback Rafa Marquez and four of the five players who were suspended from the Gold Cup for testing positive for banned substance clenbuterol.

When Sporting Kansas City signed Omar Bravo to be a Designated Player last year, it was with months like this past July in mind.

Bravo was the definition of a difference maker, playing key roles in several of Sporting KC's matches as the streaking squad lengthened its unbeaten streak to 13 matches.

Ex Miami Fusion captain and current Fort Lauderdale Strikers Assistant coach Jim Rooney was our guest last night on Miami Ultras Alive.
Rooney was gracious enough to answer our questions about his Fusion days, including a number of anecdotes concerning Ray Hudson's underwear and a his own sports bra (In tribute to Brandi Chastain's World Cup goal) inspired celebration during the MLS All Star game.