So you guys might have seen the Fanpost here already, but I figured a full blown post was in order considering the weight of this rumor. According to Colombian site FutbolRed.com, the 20 year old Colombian national team player is apparently just waiting on a visa before he can be officially announced and brought into the team.

As we enter the 2012 season, there are many questions surrounding the Union, but one of the biggest is what to make of our young striker, Danny Mwanga.

After a fantastic rookie year, Mwanga seemed to regress in 2011. He started fewer games and scored fewer goals than he did his rookie year, and his appearances were inconsistent: during some games he looked like an absolute world-beater, while more often he was anonymous.

They're baaaaaaaack!
After a unexpected layoff our Free Beer Movement scarves are back in stock! Our friends at Ruffneck Scarves are again our supplier and the case landed on the front porch of FBM HQ this afternoon.
Our scarves are 100% acrylic and Ruffneck Scarves is all USA (Seattle, WA)!

This is what looks to be just any half-football/half-other sports (heavily football, they say) pitch in any neighborhood in the world, lacking all of the requisite quality for anything but a casual game. It is remarkable only in its unremarkability.

And then it got an umbrella.

The last few weeks have been pretty brutal for Seattle Sounders fans. Finally, it appears as if some good news is on the way. Multiple sources have confirmed that Mauro Rosales' extension has essentially been finalized and that it could be announced very soon. The contract is expected to pay Rosales somewhere in the neighborhood of Alvaro Fernandez and Fredy Montero, but it is unclear whether or not he will count as a Designated Player.

CARSON, Calif -- I really do like Bruce Arena.

I mean, I like and appreciate him the way I like and appreciate a really mean dog in my neighborhood. I respect that dog. And over time, I think that dog has come to respect me. Why? Becuase I know what I'm doing around dogs. And I don't take any shit from that dog.

Of all the moments in the surreal, simultaneously compelling and slightly sickening Manchester City vs. Manchester United game today, there is one that will probably stay rooted in our imaginations for at least a little while: Balotelli's cheeky question: "Why Always Me?" after his first goal. Like the most conversation-worthy and striking moments in football, this one is fascinating because it seems at once funny and irritating, appropriate and trangressive.

It's North London Derby time! This Sunday, Arsenal take the short trip across the neighborhood to the home of bitter rivals, Tottenham Hotspur. This derby always ends up being one of the most entertaining ties ...

Club Atlético Vélez Sársfield is an Argentine sports club best known for its football team, based in the Liniers neighborhood of western Buenos Aires. Its eight national title came when the club won the Argentine Primera División during the La Torneo Clausura 2011. On Sunday, Vélez Sársfield launched their Topper 2011/12 away kit.

Club Atlético Vélez Sársfield is an Argentine sports club best known for its football team, based in the Liniers neighborhood of western Buenos Aires. Its eight national title came when the club won the Argentine Primera División during the La Torneo Clausura 2011. On Thursday, Vélez Sársfield launched their Topper 2011/12 home kit.

Lots of talk around the Premier League of players moving, players staying, and Big Sam geting the old band back together on this day that the 2011/2012 fixtures are released. We've got a bit of all of this in today's news update.
One of Allardyce's transfer targets after securing the signatures of Kevin Nolan and Abdoulaye Faye for his West Ham reunion tour was our own Ricardo Gardner who has been nothing but a loyal servant to Bolton Wanderers FC.

Above is the trailer for A Better Life, a hotly-tipped new film about an LA gardener who's a single dad trying to improve his station in life and keep his son out of the Southland's gang scene. Not that I'm a Latino gardener living in SoCal but as father to a young son living in a f***ed up neighborhood --while I was away for work last week there were 2 shootings within blocks of our home-- I can relate to this on some level.

So..it looks like we've made no further progress in regards to our bid for Phil Jones.

Soccernet is reporting that while we've agreed to personal terms with the player AND met the buyout clause in his contract, the most important thing hasn't been resolved. And that would be the actual transfer fee to convince Blackburn to sell him to us.

Michael Wells, Lafayette Part (2008)"You don't belong here!"
It was a surprising turn in the argument.
We were standing on the sidelines. I was in a heated discussion with an AYSO parent/volunteer who played in our league. (We were arguing about field 'security' - the subject of a forthcoming post in this series.

All Boys was formed by a group of youths in the Floresta neighborhood on the west side of Buenos Aires. Like many clubs of the era the boys chose to adopt an English name, going with the simple All Boys. The full name is Club Atlético All Boys (All Boys Athletic Club) and El Albo, as the team are known, do indeed play a number of other sports including basketball, volleyball, and rugby.

Chicago Fire Juniors Player Shot, Killed

Kabiru Adewunmi was a sophomore at Amundsen High School. He won a spot on the Chicago Fire Juniors North and moved to the city less than one year ago. According to his coach, Kabiru was an intelligent, good-natured teen with an easy smile and was already catching the eye of college recruiters.

In Major League Soccer, the quality of marketing can be extremely hit or miss. While some teams have stepped up and done things right, many are still lagging behind and failing to properly represent their product, and the league's product as a whole, to their local market.
We've seen some tremendous work from the new kids Portland and Vancouver (at least until their rather unnecessary and trashy campaign) and now one of the old kids in the neighborhood has released an excellent marketing video that can't help but get you excited, even if you're a New York or Philadelphia fan.

Our series on alternative Union supporters groups continues with the IllegitimateS. Members of the IllegitimateS are mainly located in section 133 in the northeast corner of PPL Park, the section of the park otherwise reserved for away supporters. And that's the point—the IllegitimateS exist to ensure that away supporters never get away with taking over the Corner and out-chanting the Union faithful.