In the second preseason game of the season, KC once again took care of business, this time against their First Kick opponent DC United. What would be assumed to be the first team started the game again for Kansas City. It was the same lineup as KC put out against San Jose last weekend, with one exception.

Continuing their preseason tradition of a Community Shield match to raise funds for charity partners, the Seattle Sounders today announced that their opponent in the Feb. 29 7 PM match will be Jaguares de Chiapas of the Mexican Primera. In a new twist, the match will be free and seating on a first-come, first-serve basis, but the club will be accepting donations at the door.

Luis Suarez has been back in action for twenty-five minutes, and he's already lucky he hasn't been banned two or four or seventeen more times. In related news, the buildup to a match against Manchester United is always so very much fun...

* In amongst all the excitement over Kenny Dalglish reminding the world that the club never thought Suarez' ban was an entirely appropriate punishment, following Monday's match there was an even more ridiculous Suarez b-plot that popped up when Wayne Rooney hopped on Twitter to suggest that the Liverpool striker should be banned for his mis-timed kick to Scott Parker's midriff.

Afro aggro A match in the Belgian league descended into a bit of a girly catfight, complete with hair pulling, last pulling. Lierse and Standard each had a player sent-off, despite red-carded Standard defender Felipe being the victim of the hair attack. Boban Grncarov Lierse's Macedonian defender conceded a free-kick in the Liege [.

The transfer window might be over but that is not stopping a number of clubs from actively pursuing summer targets. After an amazing 7-1 victory over Blackburn on Saturday, Arsenal manager has immediately turned his attention back to weightier issues stating that his interest for Lille player Eden Hazard has not waned.

The Portland Timbers wasted no time in beating their first opponent in for their trip down to California as the Timbers came away a with a whipping 4-1 victory over LA. Those of you who were around for last season will remember a similar goal ratio during LA's visit to Portland (3-0).

The goals came from Bright Dike, Jorge Perlaza, James Marcelin and Futty Danso with Franck Songo'o apparently playing a rather large role in the first two goals and in setting up a number of other chances.

Now with a stunning 1-1 draw in the books against the Vancouver Whitecaps the Seattle Sounders announced five preseason scrimmages in their "Florida" phase of training. Florida in quotes because the key note match will be against Atlante FC behind closed doors in Cancun, Mexico on February 22nd at 4PM Pacific.

Big blow for AC Milan's title hopes as striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic has been suspended for three matches for his red card against Napoli, meaning he will miss the top-of-the-table clash with Serie A leaders Juventus.

Ibra was sent off midway through the second half of Sunday's 0-0 draw with Napoli at the San Siro after he slapped opponent Salvatore Aronica in an off-the-ball incident.

This post originally appeared on our Arsenal blog, but I thought it was worth covering here. There are some mind blowing quotes from Arsene Wenger in Tuesday's Daily Mirror.

Arsene Wenger is quoted as talking about how much he likes Lille's £30m-rated Eden Hazard, but he basically says that Hazard is too expensive for Arsenal.

When you're playing for Tunisia in extra time of an Africa Cup of Nations quarterfinal against Ghana, one thing you definitely don't want to do is make a point to elbow an opponent in the face. As Aymen Abdennour found out after shoving Andre Ayew and then elbowing him away from the ball in the 108th minute on Sunday (skip to the end of the video), this will earn a straight red card.

So, Monday morning, eh? After a win, eh? Tends to be quiet, eh?

That last one wasn't a question. It's true. After a win there's a lot less to talk about than after a defeat. This, my friends, is not a bad thing at all. Much as I love the chatting and the breaking up of the online discourse to tell people not to suggest such things about their opponent's mother and the like, a day when there's little to complain about (although I'm sure some will find a way), is no bad thing at all.

In the same way that a classroom descends into carnage when a teacher leaves the room for any extended period, the Tottenham dressing room has become a violent and confusing place while Harry Redknapp is away attending to his legal affairs. Yesterday, Spurs winger Danny Rose posted a video on his Twitter showcasing teammate Sandro's full range of high kicks and martial arts poses.

In our last poll, we asked whether the club needed to sign a striker, winger, attacking midfielder, or holding midfielder in the transfer window to shore up one of the areas of weakness that had become apparent over the course of the 2011-12 season. An overwhelming majority of nearly 70% said that what the club needed more than anything was a striker, while 17% said winger, 8% said attacking midfielder, and only 5% said holding midfielder.

Blackburn's Junior Hoilett does his best Scuba-Diving impression against Newcastle last night and not only does he get away scot free, his opponent Ryan Taylor is given a yellow card for venting his anger. It's time the FA stood up and banned this type of behaviour once and for all!

Now that the January transfer window is closed, clubs are gearing up to be ready for the rest of the season. For promoted clubs in particular, the Premiership adventure has entered the second - and possibly last - half of the season. Whether they will be able to continue their adventure is anyone's guess, but judging from the league table, Norwich and Swansea look to be in a good position to stay up.

Just a quick round-up this morning:

Terry will go to the Euros...

• Shambolic! RT @RobHarrisUK BREAKING: England captain Terry not to stand trial on charge of racially abusing opponent until after Euro 2012.

The skinny: John Terry's legal trial regarding his alleged racial abuse of Anton Ferdinand postponed to the week of July 9th.

By Chris Wright

During his side's 4-3 win over Nautico in the Campeonato fifth round, Sport midfielder Marcelinho Paraiba had one of his pearly whites knocked out when he collided with an opponent.

Marcelinho understandably lost sight of the tooth as it pinged from his gums and has since offered a $1,000 (£635) reward to the stadium's grounds staff for it's safe return, seeing as though a replacement denture will cost him nearly four times as much.

One of the least edifying spectacles in modern football is that of managers attempting to deflect criticism for a defeat by making spurious attacks on the opponents who beat them.

I like to think of myself as a connoisseur of this phenomenon, having watched our own otherwise distinguished coach, a certain Mr Arsène Wenger, pull the very same trick on numerous occasions.

One of the least edifying spectacles in modern football is that of managers attempting to deflect criticism for a defeat by making spurious attacks on the opponents who beat them.

I like to think of myself as a connoisseur of this phenomenon, having watched our own otherwise distinguished coach, a certain Mr Arsène Wenger, pull the very same trick on numerous occasions.

Everton - Manchester City 3pm - Fox Soccer Another opportunity to see the Americans at Everton against a top-tier opponent, in this case Premier League leaders Manchester City. Everton's 14th-place record has them winning four games away to three at home, making it tough to stress the Goodison Park advantage.

The race for the Bundesliga title is getting very interesting with each passing week as Bayern Muinch, Borussia Dortmund and Schalke all notched up wins to ensure that there was no let up in the league standings.

All three teams are level on 40 points with fourth place Borussia Mochengladabch only a point behind.

Crashing out in the FA Cup against their bitter rival, Liverpool, obviously left a bitter taste for Manchester United especially since they were not actually outplayed in the match but lose out due to a defensive error.

The club's manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, was the one who voived out his disappointment and disbeliefs with the Red Devils' failure in advancing from the competition especially since the tactician believes that his team played better than their opponent.

By Joel Greenwaldt
@JoelGreenwaldt (On Twitter)
At this point of the MISL season, it's safe to say that barring an unprecedented collapse by one or both teams, the Milwaukee Wave and Baltimore Blast will win their respective divisions. While it's no surprise that either of these teams will likely be the top seed in their respective semifinal playoff match ups, the biggest shocker may be that the race for the top spot in each division has virtually been secured this early in the season.

By Joel Greenwaldt
Baltimore Blast (11-4) vs. Norfolk SharX (3-13)
Game Time: 1/27/2012 7:35 PM
http://www.misllivesoccer.com/
Keys to victory for the Blast:

• Stick to the up-tempo pace: I think the Blast played one of their best games of the season last Friday in their 18-2 victory over the SharX.

Ricardo Clark got a little redemption but that's about it. (Getty Images)

It has been a long time coming for the US Men's National Team. A solid three-game winning streak.

Typically these sorts of things happen around the January friendly time. It certainly isn't the first time this has happened but with Jurgen Klinsmann in as boss, it is.

In a Major League Soccer press conference yesterday morning in Philadelphia, it was announced that the AT&T 2012 All-Star game has been awarded to the Philadelphia Union.

The Union will host the game at PPL Park on July 25th at 8 p.m.

Although the opponent for the MLS All-Stars will not be revealed until a later date, the league stated that the game would feature an international opponent for the ninth time in MLS history.

Despite the nonsense about some other matchup in the Copa del Rey right now can't quite remember the names of those rather insignificant teams at the moment the real story is not east, not west, but down. Way down in the third division. Mirandes, a humble little club in the north of Spain, knocked off their third yes, third La Liga opponent to get to the Copa del Rey.

Jon Levy The Yanks are coming off what's becoming the typical Jurgen Klinsmann USMNT performance when faced with less skilled competition. They possessed the crap out of ball, moved it well in their opponent's half, but failed to generate clear cut scoring chances against a well organized defense. But they did get a pinch of [.

When Sigi Schmid said Saturday, "there are a couple guys I'm concerned about a little bit that I don't think came back as fit as I would have liked," some alarm bells went off in with in the Seattle Sounders fanbase. The question asked concerned how the team needed to change training in light of the CONCACAF Champions League series against Santos Laguna that starts a week and a half prior to League play.

Less than two years after its construction was completed, PPL Park was awarded its first MLS All-Star game, the league announced on Wednesday.

The game has been scheduled for July 25th at 8:00pm ET and will be televised on ESPN2 and Galavision. An opponent has not been announced.

The soccer specific stadium, which has a capacity of 18,500, is the home grounds of the Philadelphia Union, who entered the league in 2010.

The Philadelphia Union will host the 2012 Major League Soccer All-Star Game, MLS announced in a ceremony at Philadelphia City Hall. The game will be played at PPL Park on July 25th at 8pm ET on ESPN2. An opponent has yet to be named, but it will be an international club as in previous years. "Philadelphia has a deep tradition of playing and supporting soccer, and the huge, enthusiastic fan base of the Philadelphia Union.

Philadelphia Union

Sebastien Le Toux tweeted this morning, "I spent a great week at BWFC. Great club with great people. Now back in Philly." We are waiting for confirmation on this from the Union on this and if this means there will be no transfer to Bolton.

Following the successful appeal to secure Tim Ream the UK work permit necessary to complete the defender's move to the Wanderers, Owen Coyle tells The Bolton News that he plans to "add one or two more to take us on to the second half of the season" before the close of the transfer window on January 31.

The US Women's National Team demolished their first two opponents in their quest to London. First up was a CONCACAF minnow who fell prey to the USWNT's elite squad in less than ten minutes. The Dominican Republic fell by the embarrassing score of 14-0.
Some raised questions of a mercy rule while others criticized the Americans for punishing such a weak squad into a pulp.

Following the announcement by the Philadelphia Union that a press conference has been scheduled for Tuesday at 11am to take place at City Hall in Center City Philadelphia, philly.com reports that the Union will host the 2012 MLS All-Star Game at PPL Park.

The press release from the Union says that team CEO Nick Sackiewicz, MLS Commissioner Don Garber, Chester Mayor John Linder and Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter are all scheduled to be in attendance.

By Chris Wright

In which, shortly before scoring the winning penalty in Man City's at-the-buzzer victory over Tottenham yesterday afternoon, Mario Balotelli for reasons unknown quite obviously rakes his studs down Scott Parker's Tibetan Fox face...

Not our Mario's finest moment.

Liverpool's 3-1 defeat over Bolton Wanderers, apparently gave more than just disappointment for the club's manager, Kenny Dalglish, as he was also infuriated with his player's poor performance and threatened to get rid of those who can't improve their performance.

Dalglish was so furious that he doesn't really want to give much credit for his opponent as he really felt that it was the Reds' poor performance which cause that defeat.

Leading the league table for quite sometime and even managed to build a pretty huge lead with their rivals, things gets really tight at the moment for Manchester City, but their players still have high confidence about their title chance at the end of season.

Adam Johnson is one of those who believes his team strength in maintaining their current position until the end of season since the winger thinks that it would be a big disappointment if his club can't do that.

After enjoying a great run of results against Manchester City in recent years, the last two league games haven't exactly gone our way and although Sunday's opponents have struggled a little in recent weeks, the Etihad will be a tough place to go and get a result.

There is a great belief in this current Spurs side however and Luka Modric is one player who is targeting an upset this time around.

So with Real Madrid and Barcelona scheduled to meet tomorrow at the Bernabeu for their first leg Copa Del Rey quarterfinal fixture, attention is already starting to get centred around the Messi Ronaldo debate.

Truth be said, although the debate is starting to get boring, it will be interesting to see how Ronaldo responds to his critics and the world player of the year.

BY ADAM SERRANO

It appears that injury bug has hit the U.S. January camp and that may render two key players for the senior team and Under-23 side doubtful for upcoming friendlies.

Under-23 right winger Josh Gatt was unavailable for training on Monday after suffering an apparent ankle injury on Sunday evening.