The New England Revolution thought that they had secured a prized piece to their attacking puzzle by announcing the signing of Colombian forward Jose "Pepe" Moreno on loan from Once Caldas last week. While that still may wind up being the case, there's something a bit awkward and unusual going on.

Photo by Rick Osentoski/ISIphotos.com

With Thursday night's official announcement that the U.S. men's national team will be taking on Canada in a pre-World Cup qualifying friendly at BMO Field in Toronto on June 3, another piece to the team's 2012 puzzle is in place.

Ecks-iting news!Well that was surprisingly fast! After hearing about the "99% certainty" of Richard Eckersley's return to Toronto FC since late November, it took less than a day after his "Ecks'ual release" from Burnley to finalize a permanent move to Toronto.
　
The Reds officially announced the deal just hours prior to their big media day event, no doubt steering the news of the day onto the English defender.

The Serie B seesaw has tipped and the slow descent to the end of the 2011/12 season has begun. Most onlookers had Torino pegged as certain for automatic promotion if not the title after ten wins, two draws and a solitary defeat cemented their position at the summit of the table. The superstitious amongst us might gape at the beginning of their demise, after the thirteenth game, and puzzle over.

The 2012 MLS Draft is set to kick off in a few hours as teams from across the league look to add those missing pieces to the puzzle.

The 2012 draft class is a strong one, with depth at a variety of positions, such as centerback and attacking midfielder. There are quality prospects available that have teams trying to trade up into the top four, where the likes of Luis Silva, Kelyn Rowe, Enzo Martinez and Sam Garza have drawn considerable interest.

Happy New Year! Dave and Mark are back to try and piece together the RBNY roster puzzle. Who's coming? Who's going? Who's staying? We're then joining by Red Bulls beat writer Brian Lewis who has a very shrewd premonition of a roster prediction. Then the SR boys answer a great bunch of tweets and emails.

While Santos Laguna is busy trying to climb out of a one-goal deficit in the Mexican Apertura final, the club has an eye on sustaining its success during the Clausura campaign as well. A piece of that puzzle involves Herculez Gomez.

Cash-strapped Estudiantes Tecos has sold Gomez to Santos Laguna, putting the U.

If only Bob Bradley knew...

Onward...

With Estudiantes Tecos about to wrap up there season and facing a budget-balancing puzzle, the US's prodigal poacher south of the border is headed north out of town.

TSG has confirmed that the 2010 World Cup vet will join Club Santos Laguna (where former US coach Bob Bradley was said to be in talks about their head role before taking the Egypt job) after the conclusion of Mexican Apertura playoff final series Sunday.

Bobby Convey is headed to KC. (Getty Images)

You have to like what some clubs are doing right now. This week has been a big week of trades as clubs get ready for the First Stage of the Re-Entry Draft next week. Today another trade came down the pipe and while others haven't been as big this one certainly has the makings of being pretty huge.

By Chris Wright

You may remember not-so-very long ago when Pies broke the huge news that Michael Owen was a closet 1,000-piece equine jigsaw junkie. No? How could you possibly let an earth-shaking story like that slip from your memory?

Very well, let's move on.

Seems like L'il Micky's Manchester United teammates have now cottoned on to his penchant for the puzzle, taking a tell-all magazine clipping and blu-tacking it up in Owen's segment of the dressing room wall at Carrington, along with a rather hurtful sticker that read 'ZZZZ!

Come on now, Revs, don't go getting me all excited and optimistic again! Fool me once.. or.. err... 4 times.. shame on you, but fool me a 5th time... you get where I'm going. Needless to say, I was quite shocked to hear on Saturday night that won, against FC Dallas no less. Unfortunately, I was unable to watch the game until last night, so forgive my delay in getting this piece up.

It's not the indecent amounts of cash swilling around the game, or that we're all now at Sky's beck and call. Not obscene ticket prices, not even the player's loyalty to the one thing that truly matters, their bank account. No, I've discovered what's crucifying football 5-0 victories. Absolutely fatal.

Main Entry: ambiguity
Part of Speech: noun
Definition: uncertainty of meaning
Synonyms: double meaning, doubt, enigma, obscurity, puzzle, uncertainty, unclearness, vagueness, Felix Magath

Well, not yet, but his cryptic character should have long earned him an entry in a thesaurus.

By Walter Broeckx, one of The Untold refs Well we had our first game and you have seen the model we are currently using. Perfection is difficult to reach, and when I was reviewing the review I found some part of the puzzle might be a bit too much to put in one article. I [...]

Freddy Adu could be making his way back to MLS. (Getty Images)

With the transfer window set to close next week, clubs are racing, and I mean racing, to get deals done here. I've seen today that Seattle is hoping to get some deal done while Chivas USA is hoping to land a much bigger fish..er.

Writing a blog about football means having to admit that you are wrong more often than not. In this latest instance, it was my idea about whom Hamren was going to select for the friendly against the Ukraine tomorrow. I was wrong about Mellberg (vacation), Ibrahimovic (vacation), Martin Olsson (who knows why?

Why are so many clubs queuing up to sign bad boy Barton?

He is a football riddle, wrapped in a business mystery, inside a ­personality enigma. The biggest puzzle about Joey Barton, though, is why a player who has so often been a sporting pariah and apparently shouldn't be touched with a barge pole, is wanted by so many Premier League clubs?

Lovel Palmer is headed West to play for Portland. (Getty Images)

The deals keep on coming in MLS. Today, the Portland Timbers acquired defender/midfielder Lovel Palmer, defender Mike Chabala and an international roster slot through the remainder of the 2011 season from the Houston Dynamo in exchange for midfielder Adam Moffat and allocation money.

With the good name of British journalism currently hanging in the balance, by which I mean "everyone is realising that it's as wantonly venal as we always suspected", Twohundredpercent leaps to its aid with its inaugural and probably last Puzzle Page.

Can you match the intercepted telephone statement to the player?

Logo from optasports.com

I tend to consider tactics and Major League Soccer like an unabridged dictionary in a fourth grade classroom. While the study and employment of tactics within MLS happens, there is less tactical sophistication in MLS than in the more established leagues of the world.

The final week of the 2010-11 season brings us one, and only one, major question: Who will be the third relegated side? Up to six clubs have struggled for months, only to arrive to the very last date of the calendar with still 90 minutes of guaranteed suffering. Intrigued to know the answer to the puzzle?

Real Salt Lake can make history.
With a series win over Monterrey in the CONCACAF Champions League final, Real Salt Lake would become the first MLS team to compete in the FIFA Club World Cup, and would be the first MLS team to win a CONCACAF title since the tournament went to a home-and-away format in 2002.

Former Fire forward Calen Carr -- ISI PhotosBRIDGEVIEW, Ill. -- The Chicago Fire added some new pieces to the puzzle on Wednesday with the acquisition of forward Dominic Oduro and Colombian defender Yamith Cuesta.
The Fire sent a 2012 MLS Supplemental Draft selection to Chivas USA for Cuesta's rights.

AC Milan vs. Tottenham
Preview
Kevin McCarra: Tottenham must attack
Phil Minshull: Ibrahimovic and Robinho prove me wrong
Paolo Bandini: Europe remains a puzzle for Zlatan Ibrahimovic
Valencia vs. Schalke 04
Preview

AC Milan vs. Tottenham
Preview
Kevin McCarra: Tottenham must attack
Phil Minshull: Ibrahimovic and Robinho prove me wrong
Paolo Bandini: Europe remains a puzzle for Zlatan Ibrahimovic
Valencia vs. Schalke 04
Preview

- Jason Davis
It's MLS schedule day. After what seems like an interminable wait, we'll finally know when everybody plays everybody else. While being careful to point out that it will likely have some give to it for TV concerns, the announcement of the schedule is the last piece of the 2011 puzzle.

I think Posh said it best in Spice World, "When you know exactly what is supposed to be happening, would somebody please let me know?"

Beckham today extended his training stint with Tottenham until the end of February, instead of joining the Galaxy now for pre-season training. Ever inclined to see the bright side, I hope that Tottenham simply have a very good training program and he wants to be more prepared to play for the Galaxy.

The Tampa Bay Rays needed to reload after losing a plethora of free agents including Carl Crawford, Rafael Soriano and Carlos Pena. The Rays successful added pieces back to their puzzle by signing a pair of aging stars in Manny Ramirez and Johnny Damon. Tampa Bay will count on Ramirez and Damon to produce in order to make it to the postseason for the second straight year.

Adrian Hanauer really sounded like someone who just won the lottery. You know that one birthday where it seemed like every present you opened was exactly what you wanted? Where you started actually getting embarrassed that people actually listened to you this time? That's the best way I could describe my conversation with the Sounders' general manager and part owner.