Looks like we have some catching up to do. The Seattle Sounders have sold about 14,000 tickets for the March 7 CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinal against Santos Laguna. With a month left before the game, that's a perfectly respectable total, but it's also about 25,000 fewer than Toronto FC has sold for their quarterfinal against the LA Galaxy the same day.

Zambia came from behind twice to draw 2-2 with Libya in their African Nations Cup Group A clash at a rain drenched Bata.

It was clear for all to see this pitch was unplayable, however with severe pressure put on the referee from tournament organisers to let the game go ahead the official backed down on what right for the player's well being and let the game go ahead.

Torrential rain during the first Galaxy practice drove a small knot of reporters into the drier depths of Home Depot Center this morning. That meant no wifi access, so I was unable to tweet live, but here's what we learned today: *The big question is who will replace Omar Gonzalez

Incredible week in Serie A as Inter Milan win the derby for the first time in two years, thanks in part to a goal from the prince Diego Milito. An abandoned game in Sicily where rain was a winner. Catania-Roma was suspended with twenty-five minutes remaining. While Lecce, Parma and Cesena struggling at the bottom of the league all managed to pick up wins and those crucial 3 points.

This is likely to end up on some end of the year Best Of lists for football photos and the like, along with someone in the Bundesliga making a nice tackle and John Terry barking orders in the rain soaked evening.

Afghan boys play football in sunset in Mazar-i-Shraif on January 10, 2012.

One of the most pleasing moments to see in our game is a goal being scored from a dead ball situation, or primarily, a free kick. Over the course of history there have been numerous occasions where a player will simply make your jaw drop in striking a perfect shot past a flailing goalkeeper's hands from 20-35 yards out.

Image: FINDLAY KEMBER/AFP/Getty Images.

Remember kids. Smoking is bad. It rots your lungs, prematurely ages your skin and due to recently implemented non-smoking legislation, can cause hair frizzing as you stand outside in the rain.

Now, John Terry might have made our hair curl in the past with his nefarious lady-bothering activities, and even caused the odd bout of breathlessness when his shorts get clingy, but so far he hasn't aged us.

Manchester City returned to their winning ways after thumping Liverpool by 3-0 at the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday night. Goals from Sergio Aguero, Vincent Kompany and James Milner sealed the victory for the Citizens in a rain soaked night in ...
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It was chucking it down with rain as the teams took the field at Anfield, with Newcastle United wearing their first choice kit of Puma's version of black and white stripes. Three ex-united players were in the Liverpool team: Bellamy, Enrique, and of course, Andy Carroll. There was also some bloke called Jordan Henderson, who, [.

"April is the cruellest month", said the poet T. S. Eliot in The Waste Land. I can only say that he was very, very wrong. The title of the cruelest month can go easily to January, when the winter break and the rain sets in, and most loathsome and reprehensible of all, the transfer season, a hellish month as dark, dreary, and unenlightening as a typical Robert Smith song (sorry, Elaine) kicks off.

There are a lot of Liverpool fans talking about the need to purchase a striker in January, to bring some rain upon a very sun scorched and drought ridden chance conversion rate. In fact, 15 games into the season, Liverpool ...
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Once again the College Cup is upon us. While this game has little to do with MLS as a whole, it's nice to see the current top crop of NCAA soccer prospects, especially since many of them are probably looking at MLS as an entry to playing professionally. A few are probably already signed up for Generation Adidas as well.

It looks like our continued overhaul may get started a little early. A host of outlets, including BBC Sport, are reporting that Nicolas Anelka could agree a move to Shanghai Shenhua within the next week.

A sight not to be seen again

As you are well aware, Anelka will not be hanging around Cobham for much longer.

Don't think you're getting away from our MLS Cup fracas that easy. #1 - I was not there. This guy was. He has some thoughts. It did in fact rain in LA. That did happen. #2 - There has been some rearranging of the deck furniture at ESPN. John Harkes was told his contract was not being renewed. Into the void steps Taylor Twellman.

By Clemente Lisi – Carson, CA (Nov 20, 2011) US Soccer Players – The joke in the press box at the Home Depot Center on Sunday night was that it had been the fault of the large contingent of English journalists credentialed for MLS Cup (there to see David Beckham) who brought the rain with them to Southern California.

The rain falling in Los Angeles on Sunday afternoon must have given Bruce Arena and his players an ominous feeling. Arena and the LA Galaxy were planning a parade, and... Read more »

This is it, the finale to the 2011 season, the game in which the Galaxy underline a three-year climb from worst to first in MLS with a championship or fall to the Houston Dynasty, um, Dynamo, and retool once again.

The rain that has lashed the South bay all day appears to be easing up, but they're not going to need to water the field beforehand (and they just canceled the pre-game concert with Young the Giant due to the weather, too).

Almost game time...

TSG's MLS Cup Final Preview, right here.

Still several hours away from tip off.

Toe-to-toe they go for the big price, Houston's Dynamo and the Los Angeles Galaxy for the season ultimate prize, the Supporter's Shield MLS Cup.

Rain is all over the forecast and you have to believe despite squirmy Calen Carr's ability to squirt through a backline that is favors Los Angeles.

If that video doesn't get you excited for a Galaxy season finale that is not about merely winning a championship, but as Staff Writer Phil Collin rightfully observes leaving a legacy then nothing will.

The game is perhaps the most important for MLS and soccer in general in Los Angeles and across the country I argue today in a rare front page column.

Malaysia limped past Myanmar 1-0, Indonesia huffed and puffed before defeating Vietnam 2-0 (Patrick Wanggai, Titus Bonai) so the SEA Games Final in Jakarta tomorrow night is a rerun of last year's AFF Cup Final between Indonesia and Malaysia.
Expect another sell out crowd at the Bung Karno as the ticket prices and rain are doing nothing to dampen Indonesian's enthusiasm for, finally, following a winning team.

Brazil beat Gabon 2-0 in a friendly to-night on a soggy Libreville pith with goals from Sandro and Hernanes. Let's hope the Gabon pitches hold up better to rain in February when the co-host the African Nations Cup with Equatorial Guinea.

Brought to you by brazil jersey at Bizrate.com//adserve.

African Cup of Nations 2012: New Ghana Home Kit is a post from: Just Football

On Monday, at a lavish launch party at the Design Museum in London, PUMA unveiled the 2012 football kits for their 10 partnered African National football teams. Of course Just Football was there doing its bit to represent African football and we were lucky enough to mingle, sit down and chat with some of the top players on the continent.

Sporting KC moved one step closer to a potential trip to LA and MLS Cup last night when they took out the Colorado Rapids at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park, winning 2-0 on the night and 4-0 on aggregate. The shutout was the team's fourth straight, the most in a row since the team's run to the championship in 2000.

Game Time!

It's come down to this for the New York Red Bulls. No cushy, concrete confines of Red Bull Arena.

On the road, in Frisco, in the rain.

Hans Backe's team is typically winners there in their last 4 (3 wins), but Dallas was missing some hands on deck.

Dallas will try to shake the slump and as we learned in today's column by Jeff Carlisle "momentum" going into the playoffs means little.

The weather might be the MVP of the 2011 baseball playoffs. It seems like every series has been affected by rain and the World Series is no different. Baseball was forced to postpone Game 6 and play it on Thursday night.

If the Texas Rangers win on Thursday, they will be the World Series champions.

By Chris Wright

Porto tonked Nacional Madeira 5-0 at a rain-sodden Dragao last night, with Hulk notching a superb chipped effort to round-out the scoring and send his side back to the top of the league though the real talking point was the debut of the Brazilian's eye-catching new dye-job, a shade of a yellow referred to as 'First Piss of the Morning' on the Dulux colour chart.

I hate to be the gloomy, rain-on-the-parade sort, you will excuse me if I blame it on living in a part of my country which is known for, historically, gloomy weather and raining on parades ...

I've missed out on Beckham mania. He started his football career when I had already left England so I was spared the hysteria and bullshit that accompanies people who are thought of as celebrities.
Now though it seems that I'm about to get my fair share with reports suggesting LA Galaxy will play a friendly in Jakarta at the end of November.

I've missed out on Beckham mania. He started his football career when I had already left England so I was spared the hysteria and bullshit that accompanies people who are thought of as celebrities.
Now though it seems that I'm about to get my fair share with reports suggesting LA Galaxy will play a friendly in Jakarta at the end of November.

The difference between MLS and most other major American sports leagues is that two teams with losing records can play a low scoring game in the rain and have it be one of the most exciting games of the year. ...
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By Chris Wright

A few photos of Stoke training in the rain at the club's Clayton Woods complex ahead of their Europa League tie with Maccabi Tel Aviv at the Britannia tomorrow evening...

"Have you seen Crouchie's legs?

When the referee blew the final whistle last night, I breathed a big sigh of relief. It was a miserable game from start to finish: a game where there were very few positive moments from a Swedish perspective. Lets start with the good stuff though. Somewhere around ten minutes in Sebastian Larsson makes a run into the middle, puts his arms up and yells for Källström to give him the ball on the run, Källström does just that and after beating the offside trap Larsson thumps the ball on a half-volley into the ground and then watches it bounce past the oncoming Finnish keeper.

By Chris Wright

Did someone's Dad have another flutter on a red card?

England secured themselves a ball in Sepp Blatter's Polkraine 2012 perspex fishbowl with a 2-2 draw against Montenegro in rain-drenched Podgorica last night, finishing top of Group G with an unbeaten record and everything in the garden looking rosy including the shiny red card shown to Wayne Rooney who, with England 2-1 up, hoofed Miodrag Dzudovic across the calves after being dispossessed and duly left his side a man down for the last 20 minutes.

By Chris Wright

With both sides coming off the back of their first league victories last time out, it was Norwich that kept their momentum going at Carrow Road last night overcoming a fairly knackered-looking Sunderland to register their first home win of the campaign in front of an impressively large crowd for a rain-soaked Monday night.

By Chris Wright

With both sides coming off the back of their first league victories last time out, it was Norwich that kept their momentum going at Carrow Road last night overcoming a fairly knackered-looking Sunderland to register their first home win of the campaign in front of an impressively large crowd for a rain-soaked Monday night.

By Chris Wright

The rain in Russia falls mainly in the Metallurg Stadion, especially if this photo from Krylya's surprise 1-0 win over Dinamo Moscow on Saturday evening is anything to go by...

Sodden.

Photo via @JamesAppell

It doesn't rain but it pours! Jack Wilshere will be out of action for Arsenal until possibly next year as his ankle injury has not responded to treatment. He will have an op on Monday.

He told followers of his Twitter account: "The bone is not responding. I will have surgery on my right ankle on Monday.

As you can probably tell, I've been grabbing a semi-breather since returning from wacky Brussels with a chest cold mandated by the Belgian FA repeatedly having us stand in the rain. It's better now and I promise to stop slacking soon. At least, I made away with some of their finest sweets. That shop is crazy, it's like browsing for nosh at a ritzy museum.

"The Monday After" will be pushed to tomorrow as the power is still being restored in my area after Tropical Storm Irene dumped 6-10″ of rain in the Greater Hartford area.

Wee Folk in the Rain (courtesy DCUnited.com) Nice gallery of rain shots up over on United's site (though apparently it didn't rain from '97 to '07). First glance at this particular shot had me thinking Photoshop because the ball looked so huge. Then I realized who the players were...
So no match = no reaction post, though I would have hit significant delays with youth soccer conflicts and the mid-afternoon reschedule anyway.