The January friendlies are usually for the hardest of die hards. Being held outside of a FIFA sanctioned window means that player pool is reduced for both sides, and tonight's game isn't against the highest profile of opponents. Venezuela is decent, currently ranked 31st and slightly ahead of the United States by ESPN's Soccer Power Index.

Happy Wednesday to you. Several things on the docket today. The first thing that caught my eye was this week was Vancouver's acquiring of Etienne Barbara's rights. Barbara was a fantastic player for much of the 2011 NASL season. His 20 goals and many assists earned him Golden Boot honors for North America's second tier.

The MLS SuperDraft was held on Thursday and broadcast live on ESPN2. After two hours of televised coverage, the feed switched to ESPN3.com. Adrian Healey manned the desk while Alexi Lalas and Taylor Twellman handled much of the commentary heavy lifting and despite some hiccups, the broadcast was generally well done.

In 2011, the MLS schedule was released in February. MLS fans eager for league news got a surprising gift on Thursday when the league released the entire 2012 schedule more than one month earlier than last year. For business junkies, the most interesting part of the release is probably the announcement of nationally telecast games.

David Beckham's MLS fans will be delighted by the news that he will not leave for PSG. They have many more years to look forward to new tattoos being added to his various body parts and then orifices. Oh! yes, and a few sublime deliveries. Forgot about that.

Kermit the Frog didn't give us the entire truth. While it might not be easy being green it seems even a touch more difficult being Forever Orange. Houston might be one of the more unlovable clubs in the league stretching back to 2006 with their origins birthed to the detriment of the city of San Jose and its an original MLS franchise.

One of the biggest soccer business stories of 2011 was Major League Soccer's move from Fox Soccer to the newly named NBC Sports Network for broadcast of its second tier television package. Fox was a long standing partner of the league and now, buried in this biography of NBC Sports chief Mark Lazarus from the New York Times, comes the news that the league took less money from NBC than was being offered by Fox.

Because of MLS' relative newness to the sports scene, MLS fans have more "ownership" in the league's success. Unlike fans of the NFL, MLB and other mainstream sports, fans of Major League Soccer have real concern about their league and its place on the sports landscape. Fans work hard to bring friends to games, introduce family to the sport and cheer for MLS teams in international competitions.

What do most MLS fans and Snoop Dogg have in common? They both probably don't care at tall about the 2011 MLS Re- Entry Draft, which will take place tomorrow. Added in the 2010 Collective Bargaining Agreement between the players' union and the league as a way to ensure job security, the Draft is now it its second year.

MLS Cup was this past Sunday, November 20, 2011. This post will describe how we used The Grid to help organize our MLS Cup social media plan. My goal in sharing this is to paint a picture and share a tool that I find effective, rather than delve into details about the campaign, so this is very top-level.

Noted American philosopher and novelist Ayn Rand has graciously cleared her hectic social schedule to answer a few questions about the MLS cup, David Beckham, and also her philosophy of "objectivism." Please note that while I am a fan of MLS and respect Mr. Beckham's sporting endeavors, I do not intend for this post to serve as an implicit or explicit endorsement of Ayn Rand's philosophy.

Undoubtedly, expansion is an exciting time for MLS fans, as it allows them to see and experience a "new" market, a new potential rival, and the possibility of the next great soccer city. With the success of recent expansion clubs ...
Visit http://www.majorleaguesoccertalk.com for the rest of the story.

Ladies, gentlemen, we have now entered the last 24 hours of the 2011 MLS Season. It's been a good one, perhaps one of the best, and, as we prepare for the final in LA, I'm sure we all have our bets on which team will take the cup. But first, let's catch up on the results of MLS's annual awards.

Photo by Howard C. Smith/ISIphotos.com

The United States-France friendly is sure to capture the attention of American soccer viewers, but it's a big day around the soccer world as a whole, with 2012 European championship playoffs, World Cup qualifiers and other friendlies taking center stage.

Jonathan Tannenwald, who I like, laid out a few reasons why an unbalanced schedule is a bad idea:

1. A balanced schedule exposes every bad market in MLS to every good market in MLS.
2. Every fan in MLS should have the opportunity to travel to every venue in the league every year if he or she wants to.

- Jason Davis
I don't know whether to laugh or cry over the news that MLS sent out surveys looking for information on the strength of Baltimore as an MLS market. On the surface, which is the way 99.9% of the interested parties are viewing it, it looks like a clear sign that United is not long for DC.

Happy Halloween MLS fans. The past weekend saw the first round of the playoffs provide a number of story lines. After the Wild Card match-ups we were left with an impressive slate of matches and drama delivered. Goals were scored in each match and a few surprises came through in the form of shoving, ball throwing antics.

Photo by Howard C. Smith/ISIphotos.com

By THOMAS FLOYD

And then there were eight.

With the new, much-discussed wild-card round now a thing of the past, MLS fans are back to the traditional eight-team bracket they've seen in the postseason since the league's inception.

While many MLS fans are caught up in the excitement of the playoffs, there are plenty of fans who have seen their teams already eliminated and who are already thinking toward the future.

High on the lists of things to think about is the 2012 MLS Draft, which is about ten weeks away.

Jermaine Jones squares off against Fabian Johnson and Danny Williams this weekend
This weekend's fixture list has lined up a few meetings between fellow U.S. internationals, including the all-important playoff variety.
Saturday, Oct. 29
Jermaine Jones vs. Fabian Johnson and Danny Williams (Schalke-Hoffenheim): A big match for both sides as only two points separate them in the table, Schalke sitting in third place and Hoffenheim five below.

PLAYOFFS ARE HERE
As we all know. Anything goes in the playoffs and anything can happen. and often anything WILL happen. so here we are the bloggers unite and bring you yet another session of fantastic insights, witty comments and often some absolute bull S**t. but here we go again!

Over the offseason, we will be trying different ideas/articles to see what is well received and what is not in effort to try to make HTIOT even better heading into year 2. One idea we have is to have a random links post on anything soccer related that we find interesting enough to post. Ideally, we would like to have one person assigned to one day each week.

Now that the Whitecaps have finished their season and were unable to reach the playoffs, it's time to follow the journey to the final of the MLS Cup. El Jimador has announced their "Your rules your shot" competition, in which 10 lucky winners will get a chance to win a VIP trip to the MLS Cup!
The competition consists in creating a creative rule which all MLS fans should follow.

First week of the off season... well for Timbers fans anyway. Many of you might be dreading the weeks that come as they're considerably less packed with soccer and, as a result less news from yours truly. But fear not! We here at Stumptown Footy HQ have plenty of stuff to cover over the off season.

For all of Don Garber's finer points, he sure doesn't know much about subtlety. Take expansion rumors. Does the Commish juice up the mystery, pointing fans in every which way, and keeping us guessing. Nope. He goes out and says "If we can build the stadium, we will have the 20th team in New York City.

Crikey! That's quite the title right? Well it has to be. Today's TTB is dedicated to an event which is just about to happen. We won't hear much of it in the lead up or probably even after, but it's coming. Essentially it's the US bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup.

The reason why I dedicated today's news round up to it is because there's a fantastic article below which I think every MLS fan should read.

No, this is not just an excuse to make up for my blatant lack of articles. I promise. Oh, come on, I've been busy.

Look, I promise an article by the weekend, okay?

Here's some junk I liked to tide you over:

- MLS fans have taken a big liking to the FIFA 12 Creation Center, as can be seen in the creation of regional "national teams" throughout America.

'MLS Fans Should Be Thanking Seattle' - That's The Ginge Speaking, Not Me

You wanna know why winning a third straight U.S. Open Cup matters? Because it's that much harder to ignore. Zach Woosley over at Dynamo Theory has never been confused for a Sounders fan, but today he wrote what is probably on a lot of people's minds: There are no excuses for sandbagging other tournaments.

A report out of Toronto indicates that MLS fans had better get their overcoats ready for First Kick 2012. Duane Rollins reports that Toronto FC executives told a fan gathering that they expect the MLS season to begin Saturday, March ...
Visit http://www.majorleaguesoccertalk.com for the rest of the story.

Of all the topics upon which MLS fans love to bicker, nothing can touch the Playoffs. Some of us hate the dependence on conferences, some of us hate the amount of clubs that are admitted in, and some of us hate them all together. Me? I like the idea of a playoff, and I think the current model is okay, but just okay.

The online soccer community is abuzz with recent statements from Commissioner Garber (courtesy of Steve Davis), that MLS has raised its expansion fee for a 20th team to $100 million for the New York market. According to Davis' article, the league remains focused on New York for team 20, but has not set a timetable for that expansion.

Tuesday's CONCACAF Champions League match between the LA Galaxy and Monarcas Morelia was yet another example of the diabolical state of officiating in this tournament and from CONCACAF referees in general. Multiple replay angles proved without a shadow of a doubt that Robbie Keane was onside when the ball was headed forward toward the Morelia goal and it wasn't even close.

Last night was a rough night for MLS in the CONCACAF Champion's League. Both the LA Galaxy and the Colorado Rapids both fell to Mexican opposition in almost embarrassing fashion.
The Galaxy went up 1-0 over a dominating Morelia side who responded with two unanswered goals. The match was rife with controversy though.

Click here to view the embedded video.

GOOD WEEK

Joe Le Taxi: Joey Cole has eschewed the opportunity to take advantage of his new colleague's language skillz... in favour of learning French himself. The Cockney boy, who has just begun a season long loan to Ligue 1 side Lille, told how his new team-mates speak great English, but he 'doesn't want to rely on them'.

The charitable efforts of professional sports leagues and teams are typically overlooked by their fans, yet they are an important component of the community outreach programs in which almost all leagues are involved. In addition to providing a way to give back to the community, local charitable efforts often provide teams with an outstanding opportunity to connect with fans and potential fans.

Veljko Paunovic's Macedonian ancestry isn't enough to make him switch national teams, according to the versatile attacking midfielder. The 34-year-old's form has brought attention from both MLS fans and media internationally, with three goals since joining the Union in mid-June.

Paunovic responded to the Brotherly Game's question of what he thought about Macedonian media tracking him as a potential international (first reported by the Brotherly Game).

Yesterday we discussed some of the great success enjoyed in year two of the revamped MLSSoccer.com. Page views are up and the site has become a hub for soccer news seeking web surfers. Today, the site launched a great project chronicling North American Soccer. Check here for a link.

We thought it worth taking a look at how far the site has come.

Photo credit: Daily Harrison
Good afternoon! It's another beautiful day here in Red Bulls Land and it's do-or-die time for our favorite team. Yes - today RBNY finds itself tied for 5th place in the Eastern Conference with non other than DC United. Also, a couple of teams that were way behind the Red Bulls (Houston & KC), are now ahead in the Eastern Conference standings.

Next week, the CONCACAF Champions League group stage gets under way with 5 MLS teams having qualified. In light of that, I thought a few readers might like a bit of an explanation about what the whole thing is all about.

By now, most MLS fans have at least an inkling of what the CONCACAF Champions League is.

Next week, the CONCACAF Champions League group stage gets under way with 5 MLS teams having qualified. In light of that, I thought a few readers might like a bit of an explanation about what the whole thing is all about.

By now, most MLS fans have at least an inkling of what the CONCACAF Champions League is.