On Thursday, November 5, I was a panelist at Football Partnership's Tweet Blowing the Whistle on Social Media, a discussion about soccer and social media. The panelists also included Greg Lalas (Goal.com), Chris Schlosser (MLSnet.com) and Chris Toy (Studs-Up.com). For more about the panelists, check out the blog I posted the day after the event.

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Bayern Munich forward Miroslav Klose is being told to stay home.
His kids have swine flu, so the team is putting the 31 year old on quarantine.
Is that virus still around? Glad I missed it (knocks on wood).
To the links:

• Sir Alex gets two-game sideline ban.

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A little something flaring up at Toyota Park

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If you need any more evidence of why continued stadium development is the most important element in professional soccer's domestic development, go watch Saturday's match from Chicago.

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Elizabeth Lambert. Plays of the University of New Mexico.
She's brutal. Worse than Cantona or Gattuso or Materazzi or anyone you can think of.
Check out the highlights from SportsCenter.
Then check out some links:

• MLS Defender of the Year: Chad Marshall.

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Dieter, Dietmar . . . close enough.

Dietmar Beiersdorfer, the new sporting director for worldwide Red Bull soccer operations, has descended upon New York and has brought with him a cloud of speculation. Is he here to hire a new GM? Perhaps weigh in on the coaching situation?

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Bruce Arena ... did he get out-coached?

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Alternate headline: Where Galaxy-Chivas USA, Captain Ramius and bids for good journalism converge

There's a great moment in Hunt for Red October that always resonates in my life.

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The playoff numbers look like this...

5 year comparison Conference Semifinals 1st Leg  Avg +/- Home Teams  2005  12,147 NA  Chicago  NY  Colorado  Los Angeles  2006  9,533  -21.52%  Chicago  NY  Colorado  Chivas USA  2007  14,245  49. Click to continue reading...

Taken from the game guide pdfs on MLSnet. They appear each week, and also in the playoffs. For the non-playoff teams who played each other last week (NY-TOR, KC-DC), I've added in the stats myself.
I'll say it again: MLS should really promote these stats as they are very detailed and interesting and just get buried in the game guides. Click to continue reading...

I turned in my media vote for MLS awards this morning. Some of the choices were tough – and I'm lucky to have had a head start in considering all the awards.

I was on a small panel that voted weekly for MLSnet's Awards Tracker, where myself and a few guys smarter than me gave fans a sneak-peak at who might be worth considering.

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The last weekend of the Major League Soccer season is about to get underway and six teams are still alive for two remaining playoff spots.

Tonight's five matches will go a long way in determining which two teams will join the Columbus Crew and Chicago Fire in the Eastern Conference bracket of the MLS playoffs.

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The last weekend of the Major League Soccer season is about to get underway and six teams are still alive for two remaining playoff spots.

Tonight's five matches will go a long way in determining which two teams will join the Columbus Crew and Chicago Fire in the Eastern Conference bracket of the MLS playoffs.

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After not winning any Champions League games last year, United has won three in a row to give itself a chance to advance to the quarterfinal round of the tournament. It will be a difficult task though - United must try to get a win in Mexico, a feat never accomplished by an MLS team.

And Toluca will not make it easy.

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United wins!

D.C. keeps its playoff hopes alive with a 1-0 victory over the best team in MLS. Luciano Emilio scored the lone goal in the first half and on-loan Steve Cronin secured his first shutout for the Black-and-Red.

We're working on all of the possible playoff scenarios and will have more info for you soon, but we do know there are seven teams all vying for the the final three playoff spots (five teams have secured a spot in the post-season already).

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The next-to-last weekend of MLS action sees the teams broken down into three groups:
1. In the playoffs, still alive for Supporters Shield
2. Not yet in the playoffs
3. Out of the playoffs
Every contending team has two games left except Chivas USA, which has three.
We'll update this glance as the day goes on, pressbox wi-fi permitting (wi-fi or not, check Twitter updates). Click to continue reading...

So TFC's mlsnet site features an interview with starting keeper Stefan Frei. We learn important tidbits of information like how Frei doesn't "...like spiders at all. Spiders, snakes and sharks." Right. Opposing clubs take note. Oh, there's also some stuff in there about how moving away from home made him homesick. Click to continue reading...

Should I like the rich guy for wearing semi-normal clothes?
Or hate it because it's awful.
Hate it.
Don't hate the links:

• Avram Grant to Portsmouth. Name drops N.Y. [Goal!]
  
• FC Dallas 2, at San Jose Earthquakes 1. [MLSnet.com]
  
• Norwich goalkeeper goes AWOL.

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It's a lovely fall day here at Fullback World Headquarters, so let's take a few moments to enjoy the crisp, cool air...the leaves going to gold and scarlet...the bright sun and billowing white clouds...and some American Footie news! Deuce's Bum... Click to continue reading...

Two goals each from Christian Gomez and Boyzzz Khumalo helped United easily dispatch of San Juan Jabloteh this evening at RFK Stadium. The win was United's third in a row in CONCACAF Champions League play and puts the team in great position to advance with just one game remaining in Group B play.

Fans should turn their attention to the TV tomorrow night when CD Marathon (Honduras) hosts CD Toluca (Mexico) on Galavision at 10pm ET.

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After dropping a 2-1 decision to the San Jose Earthquakes, United will be looking to get back to the win column with a Champions League match against San Juan Jabloteh. The Trinidad & Tobago side finds itself at the bottom of Group B without any points. A win over Jabloteh and a Marathon loss to Toluca tomorrow would give United a berth in the quarterfinal stage of the tournament.

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Last week, I discussed the decline in beat reporting on American sports, which is hitting the less popular sports leagues such as Major League Soccer particularly hard. My particular example came from the city I know best, Chicago, where we've seen the major daily here cut its beat reporter for the Fire this year and replace him with an enthusiastic but inexperienced blogger, whose work rarely makes the print edition.

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Steve Davis, who writes frequently at MLSnet.com and ESPN Soccernet, posted a wonderfully insightful piece on the trials and tribulations of the Dallas Burn/FC Dallas franchise on his blog the other day. You can read the whole piece here, but here are a few highlights:

Five years ago in August the Dallas Burn became FC Dallas.

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In a recent interview with MLSnet.com (espanol version folks), Jorge Rojas spoke about his desire to remain with the Red Bulls after the end of this season, when his contract officially expires. Calling it his first priority, the Vinotinto veteran wants to be part of the New York franchises new beginning, after suffering two seasons on the rubber pitch of Giants Stadium.

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CONCACAF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
Some teams enter Round 4 this week in do-or-die mode! The big teams in desperate need are Houston, DC and Saprissa. Another loss for them and it will be very tough to come back. Then you have teams like Columbus that owe Cruz Azul some serious pay back for a 5-0 asskicking down in Mexico City. Click to continue reading...

In a battle of teams sitting at the bottom of the Eastern Conference the Wizards made the most of a huge Jorge Rojas mistake to score the only goal in a game where the winning team just made one less mistake than the loser.

A Josh Wolff goal that came off a Claudio Lopez breakaway rebound allowed the Wizards to come home with 6 points out of a possible 9 in this 3 game East coast swing.

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The MLS individual awards race is heating up! Even though we shouldn't give this things out until after the playoffs. Remember all those Houston Dynamo players we had on the Best XI last year? And all those DC United players we had the year before that?
Kristian Dyer nominates Schelotto, Thornton, Keller, Joseph, Montero and Donovan as the MVP frontrunners - Landon's his pick at the moment, with which I agree. Click to continue reading...

D.C. United and FC Dallas meet tonight in a crucial match as both teams try to keep their MLS Cup Playoff hopes alive at Pizza Hut Park. Kickoff is set for 8:00 p.m. ET and you can follow the action live on Comcast SporstNet.

United will look to build upon last week's impressive road performance in Chicago, where the Black-and-Red snapped a four-game winless run with a 1-0 victory over the Fire at Toyota Park. Click to continue reading...

From Kyle J McCarthy

MLSNet Preview

Brad Knighton to get the start

Revs are lucky to have Knighton as backup. I thought he played well at the beginning of the season. Reis is a champ, but i've felt like he's been on the decline. Glad Knighton is getting some more caps.

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It's tough to feel anything but disappointment in the result, but the one positive tonight was the team's supporters - La Barra Brava, Screaming Eagles, La Norte and everyone else at the stadium absolutely brought it. The last ten minutes of the game was one of the most electric atmospheres I've seen at RFK.

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You know what, there are some really interesting tidbits in this MLSnet preview. Whoever did it deserved more pub than "MLSnet staff." (Hopefully it wasn't the same guy who put a pick of Jhon Kennedy Hurtado up on the home page for this game; Kennedy was red-carded in the semifinal.)
Is anyone else the tiniest bit suspicious about the "We hate each other. Click to continue reading...

United hosts Toluca tonight in Group B play of the CONCACAF Champions League. After a 3-1 loss at Marathon, the Black-and-Red will be looking for a good result at home. D.C. has faced Toluca once before, in the final of the 1998 Champions Cup, when United defeated the Mexican side 1-0 to become the first MLS team to win the regional crown.

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After downing El Salvador's Firpo in PKs in the preliminary round of the 2009-10 CONCACAF Champions League, United entered into Group B along Toluca of Mexico, San Juan Jabloteh of Trinidad & Tobago and Marathon of Honduras.

Following a disappointing road loss at Toronto FC, United traveled to San Pedro Sula, Honduras to face CD Marathon.

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Gary Smith isn't ruling out going into the transfer market to replace the unfortunate Colin Clark but don't hold your breath. At this stage in the season, the head coach doesn't want to upset the balance of the squad he already has and, as assistant Steve Guppy also said recently, it's not as if you can just go out there and pick up another Colin Clark. Click to continue reading...

When looking on paper one would thick that Red Bull New York's Juan Carlos Osorio or FC Dallas's Schellas Hyndman might have won the sack race. Ah, but the sack race does not play out on paper but in board rooms. Here's the press release from Kansas City/MLSNet:

The Kansas City Wizards announced Monday that the team has dismissed Head Coach Curt Onalfo.

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Tonight, D.C. United takes on Western Conference leaders (and overall points leader - 32 pts.), Houston Dynamo. United currently sits in third place in the East but only two points back of the top spot. The first meeting between the teams came back on April 4, when United defeated Houston 1-0 at RFK.

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The Colorado Rapids ended up sealing a comfortable 4-0 victory against the unfortunate New York Red Bulls last night. I'll stick my neck out and say this wasn't the best performance by the Rapids and that the final scoreline flattered them. That sounds a little negative when you think of a 4-0 result but, a couple of decisons going the other way, and the outcome could have been very different. Click to continue reading...