Another edition of Red Headed Step Thoughts finds me full of news and short of wit...sorry about that, I'll do better tomorrow.
The 2010 UEFA Champions League Final will be broadcast not on FSC, not on FX (as originally scheduled) but on the mother ship itself, the FOX network. This will be the first UCL final to be on US broadcast television and means that every home with cable, satellite or digital rabbit ears in the US will be able to watch the final. Click to continue reading...

12 days to LABOR ARMAGEDDON!!!
The message coming from the Player's Union is simple. If no deal is completed by midnight on March 24th, there will likely be a strike. With First Kick schedule for March 25th in Seattle, the timing makes sense...yes I know how obvious that comment was, just roll with it. Click to continue reading...

One of the more notable additions to Major League Soccer this offseason was undoubtedly the signing of teen-standout Luis Gil.

What should have been seen as a coup for MLS -- and Real Salt Lake which ultimately ended up with his services --was instead viewed by many detractors as yet another example of the league's insistence on rigging the rules however it sees fit.

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Red Headed Step Thoughts on a Tuesday...the title alone should get me in trouble...
Stadia Magazine has included Crew Stadium among their ten notable stadiums from the past decade. Once you get over the amusement of seeing the Crew's home on the same page as the new Wembley, you quickly realize the magazines point. Click to continue reading...

The MLS Players Union offered up a big announcement today, and that announcement is: Nothing is going to happen. Yet. This is actually good news for MLS fans, most whom were anticipating a strike. Collective bargaining negotiations have reached an stalemate, with neither side willing to budge on key issues like free agency and [. Click to continue reading...

photo credit: eschipul

The Side: God has already blessed the Houston Dynamo (two MLS Cups in just four seasons), but God bless them again for having cheerleaders. They arouse soccer passion (and other things) in MLS fans. The Dynamo Girls have had much to cheer for lately too, as the Orange had a strong 2009 despite losing offensive maestro DeRo.

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INCESTUOUS UNIONS
BQ at Inside Minnesota Soccer reports that our friend Kartik Krishnaiyer has been hired by the NASL as their director of communications. Holy smokes. Huge congrats to him. Or as they say in Hindi - बधाई.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
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By Ollie Irish

"Man on? I thought you said 'Mandon'?"

Landon Donovan, who has impressed in his two games so far for Everton, has in return been more than impressed by how vocal footie fans are in England. After his new team's 2-0 win against Man City, the MLS star said:

"The atmosphere completely surpassed what I thought.

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With the draft upon us, we believe the official start of the MLS 2010 season is here. As we are getting ready to cover the new season we started to look back at our posts from the winter of last year as we were gearing up for the 2009 campaign. At the time, expansion was the hot topic, with a long list of cities vying for 2 2011 spots.

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With MLS and the Players Union keeping very quiet concerning the looming expiration of the CBA, we are left to pick through random quotes and 140 character Twitter messages in an attempt to figure out just what is happening. MLS fans are understandably concerned about the potential of a work stoppage and a bit jumpy as well. Click to continue reading...

I cannot go more than a day or two without reading another impassioned screed excoriating the owners in the on-going MLS labor negotiations in order to avert a "lockout." First of all, allow me to quickly crib from Dan's outstanding explaination of why a labor stoppage in MLS will not likely be a lockout. Click to continue reading...

It is a frigid and rainy day in Fort Lauderdale as Major League Soccer's top draft prospects prepare to play in the 2010 MLS Player Combine. It's a truly miserable day, but one the potential draftees will have to endure.

Before I get to our primer on the Combine, here are some tidbits MLS fans will be interested in:

New York Red Bulls fans wondering who will be scouting prospects and running the draft will be happy to hear that former technical director Jeff Agoos will not be part of that process.

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It is a frigid and rainy day in Fort Lauderdale as Major League Soccer's top draft prospects prepare to play in the 2010 MLS Player Combine. It's a truly miserable day, but one the potential draftees will have to endure.

Before I get to our primer on the Combine, here are some tidbits MLS fans will be interested in:

New York Red Bulls fans wondering who will be scouting prospects and running the draft will be happy to hear that former technical director Jeff Agoos will not be part of that process.

Click to continue reading...

The battle lines are being drawn. On the one side you have Major League Soccer players. On the other: MLS owners, led by commissioner Don Garber. The players appear to be led by Landon Donovan and Kasey Keller, who made the union's stance clear in a recent statement from FIFPro, which represents soccer players internationally.

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In what we view as a positive development, MLS has announced that MLS Cup 2010 will take place at a neutral site. Many MLS fans support changing the format to having the hire seed host, but we think otherwise. MLS Cup provides a big event that can accommodate plans months in advance. The retail summit, supporter's summit and all other sorts of League events can be scheduled well ahead of time.

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Sports Business Daily is reporting that MLS has sued tool manufacturer Black & Decker over an alleged "ambush marketing campaign" by B&D division DeWalt.  MLS fans know that competing tool company Makita is a long time MLS sponsor, and the suit alleges that DeWalt improperly used MLS logs and materials to "confuse" hispanic fans into believing that DeWalt is a sponsor of the League.

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Winters are often dark and lonely places for fans of Major League Soccer. While England is celebrating a full slate of traditional Boxing Day fixtures, most MLS fans are wondering what possible surprises- good and bad- our beloved American clubs will have in store for us in the off-season. Click to continue reading...

In what I hope I can make a weekly endeavor I'm going to start posting a links round-up. For those that follow me on twitter most of these won't be new, but hopefully I can provide greater context now.

So over the past week these are the stories from around MLS, Cascadia and the world of soccer that have fascinated me.

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Stadium news from our Cascadian brothers today, as both the Whitecaps and Timbers have some announcements and renderings concerning their stadiums.

Up to the North we find out that the temporary facility looks better than many of the permanent stadiums down here. The Empire Fields site will be used for all of 2010, and part of 2011 as BC place goes through its major rennovation.

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PGE Park renovation renderings. (Portland Timbers)

Details of PGE Park's $31million renovation for the Portland Timbers' move to Major League Soccer in 2011 was released Monday to The Oregonian. Renderings show exactly how they plan on making PGE a soccer facility for good.

The biggest transformation will be the stadium's east side.

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Construction at new KC Stadium. (photo via Kansas City Wizards)

That sound you hear coming from Kansas City, Kansas is the sound of progress. Cheesy indeed but good news either way for Wizards fans and fans of Major League Soccer in general.

The hard hats are out and the big yellow trucks are already moving dirt.

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So says L.E. Eisenmenger of the ever curious US Soccer Players website, in an interesting but rather speculative piece about the supposed lack of sophistication of MLS fans about the international soccer world, starting with the claim that "MLS fans may be unaware of international rivalries and even of the relationship between MLS and the National Team.

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By L.E. Eisenmenger - BOSTON, MA (Dec 17, 2009) USSoccerPlayers -- Connecting American soccer fans to both the United States National Team and Major League Soccer could be one of Soccer United Marketing's (SUM's) great challenges. International soccer fans might be disinterested in MLS and MLS fans may be unaware of international rivalries and even of the relationship between MLS and the National Team. Click to continue reading...

Just arrived at my desk a few minutes ago: A Massive Season: Sirk's Notebook Chronicles the 2008 Columbus Crew by Steve Sirk.
Without having a chance to read it in those few minutes, I can pass along a few reasons why MLS fans, particularly Crew fans, would be interested:
1. Click to continue reading...

As expected, the USSF announced today that the United States Men's National Team will take on fellow 2010 World Cup qualifiers Honduras at the Home Depot Center of January 23rd.
While the American roster for the match likely won't be known for a few more weeks, Honduras' squad for the game has already been released, with a few familiar faces for MLS fans preparing to make the trip. Click to continue reading...

Don Garber and the league need to resolve the CBA quickly. (Getty Images)

Let's face it folks, 2009 is just a couple weeks from finishing here. With that means 2010 and all its glory but even more important is the month ahead for MLS fans. Not only is it the SuperDraft month, a transfer window opening up, some international friendlies but the end of the current CBA.

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ESPN's coverage plans for the World Cup continue to get more detailed and exciting. Ruud Gullit, who is one of the most significant figures in Football over the past twenty five years, has been hired to provide commentary for the network.

Gullit is best remembered as World Player of the Year both with PSV and AC Milan, as well as being the manager who brought Chelsea its first domestic silverware in over twenty five years.

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Don't you just love this time of the year?
No, I don't mean Christmas. I do my level best to ignore that until around 6:30 on Christmas eve, at which time I suddenly recall that Princess EarthShakra will expect to find something with her name on it under the tree.
I really think this approach has worked out splendidly, although I admit she wasn't nearly as excited about that set of snow tires last year as I thought she'd be. Click to continue reading...

On the move for the next couple of days, so here is our quick take on a recent article about the sale of soccer merchandise in the United States and around the world. OregonLive presents an interesting article on Adidas marketing efforts for the 2010 World Cup. The article provides in depth analysis on the soccer apparel industry and efforts to sell sporting goods in the current market.

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More photos » by Tom Pennington - AP

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For all the grief that people, including myself, give Major League Soccer; it could be much worse. At least in MLS the team's that perform the best in the regular season qualify for a tournament.

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Danny Califf set to return to Major League Soccer. (Getty Images)

One way to be sure a new club is good is to get some solid defense and Peter Nowak is trying to do just that. According to Soccer365.com Philadelphia Union is set to make a deal for the MLS player rights to US National Team defender Danny Califf.

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Chivas USA have apparently settled on a new head coach, and according to multiple reports, it's a familiar name to MLS fans: Martin Vasquez. The official announcement is expected to be made at a 12 p.m. press conference tomorrow at the Home Depot Center. Former Los Angeles Galaxy and USMNT head coach Steve Sampson was the other finalist for the position. Click to continue reading...

Some quick hits on MLS Cup before we officially move to the off season.

MLS Cup overnight ratings are out. Overnights are tricky, because the final rating can change, but according to the presented figures, the broadcast reached 30% more viewers than the 2008 final on ABC.

The coverage of the match was outstanding in Salt Lake City and we think that the result was ultimately the best one for MLS.

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The 2009 MLS season is now in the books, and a final long on quantity (120 minutes plus penalties), but short on quality has crowned Real Salt Lake the champions. I'm sure the streets of Salt Lake City will be in full Rio Carnaval mode well into the middle of the day. Elsewhere, GMs around the league will roll into their offices and continue the process of building their teams so they can take RSL's place on the podium next year.

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Meet Bob. Bob is an American soccer fan, an avid supporter of the USMNT, and Liverpool FC on weekends, with a soft spot for Barcelona. Bob's seen it all, Champions League group stages, FA Cup replays, La Liga on Sundays. But Bob has never been able to "get into" MLS, for whatever reason. He exactly the sort of character MLS chairman Don Garber was talking about when he told Grant Wahl, "There are still far more soccer fans in this country than there are MLS fans. Click to continue reading...

Big Story

In many ways, the opposing sides in tonight's 2009 MLS Cup final (8:30 PM EST) are representative of the two faces of MLS.

Seattle's Qwest field will see Real Salt Lake, a team that stumbled into—and through—the playoffs with the lowest wage bill in the league and no designated player to speak of, a symbol of MLS' egalitarian, singe-entity structure; face the LA Galaxy, MLS' biggest spender with two of the league's biggest names, one of them the world's most famous person, an exorbitantly-paid designated player whom many in MLS credit for giving soccer a bigger profile in North America, for better or worse.

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The Galaxy weathered two power outages, a disallowed goal by Andrew Hainault, and a dominant Dynamo display in the second half to score two extra time goals.

Landon Donovan becomes the MLS all time leader in goals scored as he converted the penalty after Alan Gordon was brought down by Ricardo Clark in the box.

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Big Story
The American soccer blogosphere has been getting very hot and bothered in the past week, prompted by Jason Davis at Match Fit USA's tongue-in-cheek post questioning Columbus' suitability for remaining in MLS, following poor attendance in their last playoff game: a mere 10,109 showed up at Crew Stadium last week to see the defending champions crash out to Real Salt Lake.

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On May 26th, 2009 the whole world found out that this player would be available on a free transfer:

For those of you not familiar with him, Juninho Pernambucano is probably the world's best free kick taker. Give him a free kick within 35 yards and you're facing a very dangerous situation.

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Yes, MLS fans, despite all that is right with this league you still get your opportunity to bitch and moan. Qwest Field will be Field Turf for the Cup Final, as the temporary sod would have been unsafe for players. - MLS worked very closely with the Qwest Field and Sounders FC staff to analyze [...] Click to continue reading...