Sometimes items from Soccer America can be a total miss but check out today's MLS Confidential on the Galaxy. For anyone out there that couldn't get how the LA Galaxy was able to squeeze in Edson Buddle to their salary cap, check this article out.

By bringing back Edson Buddle into the fold, even if he costs slightly more than the $178,488 salary he earned in 2010 before leaving for Germany, the Galaxy probably hasn't crunched its salary cap to any great extent, because of player departures as well as amassing allocation money.

Monday MLS Breakdown: Application Of Home Grown Player Rule - Goal.com

The most complete look at the current state of the HGP rule and the exceptions to the rule that have been granting. Yes, Brent Richards was an exception, but there have been a few others.

There's also a nugget that now seems to incentivize a club operating an amateur PDL team in order to main their connections to former U18 players who are then at colleges.

It's January, as you might've noticed; and if you hadn't I would suggest those New Year's resolutions about not drinking anything that really ought to be kept on a shelf in the shed aren't going all that well. For the rest of you, you know the score. It's the beginning of the year and that can mean only one thing: the always-good-for-a-laugh-don't-believe-everything-you hear-better-off-not-opening-any-tabloid-newspapers-or-football-websites-for-a-month-pick-any-name-out-of-a-hat.

The ever diligent folks at Canadian Soccer News managed to get their hands on a leaked copy of Toronto FC's schedule. While that is all fine and good, there's a nice little nugget in there even if you only care about the Seattle Sounders' 2012 schedule: TFC will not be playing on First Kick weekend.

In and of themselves, David could not be more different than Henry.
One a neo-con toff (in more ways than one) and one a neo-con con.
On Sunday, Henry was cuffed by the law of the realm, as a serving police officer not only repeatedly fined Henry but also mocked him in so doing.
This does not augur well for Henry's January appearance in a court of law on charges of tax evasion.

Most of us have been quietly, and painfully, waiting for the day when Barcelona shows up at Cobham with a few million euro and trudges back to Catalonia with a monster of a holding midfielder named Oriol Romeu in its pocket. As it happens, that's probably not going to happen. Not unless Chelsea loses its mind in the near future that is.

So it's 8pm. And I'm still going strongish. Big kicks this hour to all my mates at the Hibs Club for the support - financial and alcoholic - they've given this venture. More than just a club and going strong since 1955.
This suggestion came in from @thecoldend in the last hour.
Does Scottish football need a pyramid system?

Typically, the weekend's press contained many rumours linking Newcastle United to various players, some of which I provide a summary of in this article. Amidst the rants of Llambias and the mutterings of discontent or otherwise about the stadium renaming, there was also a healthy serving of transfer speculation on the weekend.

The following was inspired by Lalo's latest comment. He makes good points about leadership, and poses questions about the work on this blog. What follows is not intended as a full response, but I preferred to post here instead of in the comments.

On the statement: "Leadership is doing the right thing".

The World Cup is going back to Brazil, which means we're surely due for an unforgettable atmosphere, but it also means we're going to be subject to Pele's ramblings on the entire universe for the next three years. Not that he ever needed an excuse, , but as the tournament's ambassador, he's just not going away.

Professional Scousers Part 2: The Flip Side

In our recent interview with a ‘professional Scouser', we explored the extremities of what is known as the best fan base in the world, and in doing so unearthed that we also play host to some of the most small-minded, hostile and bigoted individuals that any faithful has to offer.

The mustache finally speaks

The virtual owner of Arsenal is at long last wheeled out and gets caught up on the summer and the past three years. But if you were looking for nuggets (a ghastly pun on the NBA team of which he's an owner) of insight you would be sorely disappointed. For an owner of so many sports teams, Stan Kroenke is just a depressing, clueless figurehead.

Sudoku: A cheap way to help improve Arsenal's lack of concentration

That is the adage. On the ropes, manager a drink short of delirium tremens, disgruntled fans baying for the management's blood. No matter. Mother Nature has the cure. Play Arsenal and everything will be right as rain.

Ignore Rudy and the Barca v. Madrid love-in. Check out that little nugget in the bottom left corner of the cover. That's what we need to be concerned with.

Juan on Juan

While today's front of Marca focused on this small matter of a Spanish Super Cup, rightfully so, there was some information on a potential bid from Chelsea for Valencia winger Juan Mata.

What we learned this week... The definitive and most ridiculous Premier League preview you will ever read

As a special treat, we have a guide to how each club will fare this season, while Joey Barton acts like a nugget on Twitter (again) as Alex McLeish endears himself to Villa fans

View the full story here: Goal

A news article on 2011-08-12 07:28:00 from: Goal

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

Doing some reporting for SI.com's U.S.-Mexico preview piece that should go up some time today, I spoke by phone to a couple of American players Monday from Philadelphia. There's definitely a newness around it all, a fresh slate for some, a curiosity among the established hands – and maybe even a little nervous energy that might serve the U.

Well here's an interesting subplot to the Union's 1-1 draw in Chicago, and particularly ahead of Saturday's home match against Houston: despite a report posted today on Major League Soccer's official website citing officials of Mexican side Veracruz that an acquisition of Carlos Ruiz's rights from MLS has gone through, Philadelphia Union CEO and Operating Partner Nick Sakiewicz told Union play-by-play announcer JP Dellacamera that this is not the case.

If you were gone for the weekend, you probably missed another Balotelli nugget, his failed backheel goal for Manchester City in their friendly in Los Angeles: [read more]

Melbourne Heart of the Australian A-League have completed what Fox Soccer calls "a masterstroke" by signing Brazilian playmaker Fred. Many Union fans will remember Fred as that guy who made a lot of money and didn't live up to the hype before Carlos Ruiz arrived.

Four students from the Cortiva Institute School of Massage Therapy and Lengthy Names won an essay contest to provide massage therapy to the Philadelphia Union.

We believe that Michael Bradley will be joining Aston Villa on permanent basis, but in this video from US Soccer he reflects, along with Jermaine Jones and Tim Howard, on the special challenges facing a player on loan.

There's an interesting nugget towards the end as Bradley and Jones, who both came from the Bundesliga, confess to being off the pace of the game in England to begin with.

I am still trying to round out full reports for MLSS on these two (and other) items, but why not go ahead and crank up the ol' transfer Nugget-a-tron 3000 for season?I was told last week that Bursaspor are trying to land Jozy Altidore from Villarreal on a permanent deal. This finally hit the Turkish tabloids, so I figured it was safe to reveal as much.

I am still trying to round out full reports for MLSS on these two (and other) items, but why not go ahead and crank up the ol' transfer Nugget-a-tron 3000 for season?I was told last week that Bursaspor are trying to land Jozy Altidore from Villarreal on a permanent deal. This finally hit the Turkish tabloids, so I figured it was safe to reveal as much.

Revenge is at hand.

Who: Birmingham City
What: Premier League, Round 34
When: 19 April, 8pm local time (3pm EST)
Where: Stamford Bridge (42,449)
How: Fox Soccer Channel (DirecTV 619, Dish 149)

Why: Because, quite frankly, we should've battered them back in November.

This graph allows you to gauge one aspect of teams' offensive production with the help of the Reep ratio (aka the goals to shots ratio). Across the four leagues covered here, the average is currently .108 (or about 1 goal in 9.25 shots). With a median of .091, 50% of teams need at least 11 shots to score 1 goal, while the other 50% need less than 11 shots to score.

This graph allows you to gauge one aspect of teams' offensive production with the help of the Reep ratio (aka the goals to shots ratio). Across the four leagues covered here, the average is currently .108 (or about 1 goal in 9.25 shots). With a median of .091, 50% of teams need at least 11 shots to score 1 goal, while the other 50% need less than 11 shots to score.

The massive match-fixing trial in Bochum, seemingly begun 'round the turn of the 20th century, has been plugging along nicely, dropping the odd nugget for us the ponder. Yesterday they questioned a leader in the betting industry, someone who works in unison with the acronyms to track manipulation.

Houston Moving East, Previously Reported Roster Rules Finalized

The big news of the day in MLS is probably not all that big: The Houston Dynamo will move to the Eastern Conference for the 2011 season. With balanced schedules, this really is not a big deal and in all likelihood, they'll be back in the West for 2012 when the Montreal Impact join the league and the schedules are unbalanced.

TSG takes a pass at covering the MLS draft. Given the little information available on the players, with the minimal "staff" (and I use that word lightly since we have no real staff), TSG focuses on a little more in-depth pieces on more far-reaching material.

Only a little from TSG.