Photo by Brad Smith/ISIphotos.com

Planning for summer friendlies is already in the works, and it appears that the New York Red Bulls will be welcoming one of the Premier League's top sides to Red Bull Arena for an exhibition.

According to the New York Post, the Red Bulls will play against Tottenham either July 31 or Aug.

I hate to start these things on a down note, but today I feel I have too. As most know, Wednesday in Port Said Egypt a riot broke out at a Egyptian Premier League match. At the least 74 people lost their lives midweek and hundreds were injured after a match between Al-Masry and Al-Ahly.

Former USMNT boss and current Egyptian National Team coach Bob Bradley watched the events unfold on TV as he was getting ready to attend another match that day.

Soler Swag for days

After what can only be described as a highly disappointing season in 2011, the Red Bulls, and more importantly their front office, certainly had their work cut out for them. A roster filled with so much talent but woefully underachieved had to be revamped somehow. And it was Erik Soler's job to fit together the right pieces to assert New York as a top team once again.

By DAVE MARTINEZ

As the New York Red Bulls opened their preseason camp two weeks ago, coach Hans Backe surveyed the landscape of his young goalkeeping ranks and assessed the need for an established veteran to take a leadership role.

Despite being heavily rumored to be grasping that role, Venezuelan netminder Renny Vega will not be the one manning the posts at Red Bull Arena this season.

Any number of products try and connect with soccer fans through official partnerships, event activation and commercial spots. Typically, soccer related marketing is part of a much larger general interest campaign. Based in the Pacific Northwest, Sports energy drink Golazo bucks that trend by focusing on the game of soccer.

Wilman Conde is back in MLS with the Red Bulls. (Getty Images)

This news had been around for some time. The New York Red Bulls and the Chicago Fire finally made it official today though. Wilman Conde is finally going to the Big Apple.

The fun part about this deal however is that it is really a few years too late.

The Chicago Fire Soccer Club announced Monday the club has traded the MLS right of first refusal on defender Wilman Conde to the New York Red Bulls in exchange for allocation money. If this kind of deal doesn't make sense to you, be sure to give this story a read. More after the break.

New York has agreed to personal terms with the out-of-contract Conde and he will be added to the Red Bull's roster pending receipt of his International Transfer Certificate.

With the January camp behind us we take a look at the 21 players on the roster and give you our winners, losers, and those that maintained the status quo.

Forwards

Agudelo, Juan
Agudelo injured his right ankle during a scrimmage on Jan 13 and is expected to miss 3-4 weeks.

Toronto FC appears determined to fix its defensive problems, and it has turned to an Ecuadorian international to help it do so.

On the day it signed Richard Eckersley to a permanent deal, Toronto announced it acquired defender Geovanny Caicedo. The 30-year-old, who has earned eight caps for Ecuador since making his debut in 2009, last played for LDU Quito.

What we would like to do is to in the longer-term to have a residency academy, bring in some players from the local area and foreign players into that academy,'' Soler told the Post. "We would like to bring him and give him education, both school education and soccer education and build the project from there.

Saw this photo over at Stadium Porn. Good gravy this one looks nice. The inside may not have the bells and whistles that LIVESTRONG Sporting Park or Red Bull Arena have but I do believe this one will go right in line with the rest of the new(ish) stadiums in MLS.

Well done Houston.

The worst kept secret managed to be confirmed ahead of its own public announcement. The Philadelphia Union will host the 2012 MLS All Star Game on July 25 according to multiple reports at Philadelphia's City Hall today.

Jonathan Tannenwald of Philly.com's soccer blog, the Goalkeeper, is reporting that the event has a start of 8 pm, with ESPN2 as the English telecast of the game in America.

Bolton Wanderers are set to unveil the signing of defender Tim Ream after the US international was granted a work permit yesterday.

Ream has been impressive for both the United States national team and club side Red Bull New York, and will replace the departed Gary Cahill at the Reebok.

The 24-year old had been training with the Premier League outfit since the end of the Major League Soccer season, and boss Owen Coyle didn't hide his interest in the defender.

Tim Ream has seen his last days in MLS. (Getty Images)

Add Tim Ream to the list of Americans on the move this winter. According to reports, the New York Red Bull defender has received his work permit, clearing the way for a permeant move to Bolton.

Ream would leave the New York Red Bulls on a transfer worth £2.

Fans of the Philadelphia Union have had plenty to chear about in the club's brief two-year MLS existence. From the opening of PPL Park in 2010, to the team's MLS playoff debut in 2011. Now Union fans are ready to have a new experience to celebrate in 2012, the hosting of an MLS All-Star Game.

Don't forget today is the last day to pre-order the 2012 edition of the Sounder At Heart official Scarf. There's one problem, today is the last day you can pre-order the scarfs. Time is up at Noon, which is a half hour from now.

With training camps starting to fire up across Major League Soccer, that means more news is going to start rolling in and that means the official return of Major Link Soccer.

Photo by David Bernal/ISIphotos.com

As a new season approaches for the New York Red Bulls, it is still very uncertain who will be standing between the goalposts for a team looking to surpass its results from 2011.

According to multiple reports, manager Hans Backe definitively said that German goalkeeper Frank Rost would not be returning to the club, weeks after sporting director Erik Soler said there was a "good possibility" of Rost coming back.

Difficult as this might be to swallow, one of the next big stories coming out of U.S. Soccer won't anything to do with Jurgen Klinsmann.

I know, I know ... it's all about Klinsi right now. Heck, I've written as much.

But here's what's right around the bend in U.

Former Barcelona defender and current New York Red Bulls player Rafael Marquez has hit the streets for Red Bull literally. The Mexican international took to the streets of Mexico City to show off his accuracy and football talent as he performed trick shots throughout the capital.

Check out the video below, and leave your thoughts in the comments section.

We aren't even done with the SuperDraft this week and already some rumors are flying around about this year's MLS All-Star game. No word yet on who the club MLS will be playing, but one has to figure it won't be a three-peat of Manchester United.

No, the talk today is all about the location of the game.

It's been a week of news for America's soccer league, but, as fate would have it, most of it has taken place in the UK. With Henry making waves, Donovan about to face off against Dempsey, and Ream possibly about to make a move, the Combine has been more than overshadowed by MLS's action in Britain.

Over the last couple of years, MLS has made a long string of significant decisions aimed at advancing the league and improving the quality of soccer on the field. These have included the Designated Player rule in all of its iterations, the Generation Adidas program and recently, the mandating of team specific academies tasked with developing young players and retaining young talent in the league.

Photo: Paul Rudderow

With the release of the Union's 2012 regular season schedule, I, along with my colleagues at the PSP, am buzzing about the prospects of the new season. Just 66 more days (stupid leap year) until the Union take the pitch in Portland to get Year Three underway. In the meantime, now that MLS has thrown out last year's balanced schedule (take that purists) we have plenty to talk about with respect to the construction of the 2012 Union schedule.

Twice to Montreal? That's handy.
Taking time from their busy schedule of designing dodgy new kits with blasphemous monochromatic badges, only being rumoured to actually sign players and wetting themselves over the possibility of David Beckham's extended stay with LA Galaxy, TFC today released the official 2012 schedule via Major League Soccer.

The Revolution won't have to wait long to start collecting frequent-flier miles thanks to a travel-heavy start to the 2012 regular season that will put them on the road for four of its first five games.

New England will pack its bags for where else - California, where they're scheduled to kick off their 2012 campaign on Mar.

Good afternoon! It's birthday time here at The Viper's Nest. Today, I'd like to wish a very Happy, Chuffed & Over The Moon Birthday to the one and only Matt Conroy (aka Who Shot Sam) of The Viper's Nest fame, of Talking Bull fame and of Once A Metro fame. Besides being a brilliant man (a Harvard educated bloke, no less), Matt's one of the greatest guys I know.

With 2011 closing out here in the next couple weeks, all eyes on MLS are pointing towards the SuperDraft and, with that, we have a couple mock drafts that have Portland selecting defender Matt Hedges as their pick. My personal favorite mocki draft so far is WVHooligan.com's where Drew picked Hedges for Portland:

Portland was hurt by their defense one time too many in their expansion season.

After such a see-saw season by the New York Red Bulls, the 2012 off-season has begun with some training stints overseas with Tim Ream and Juan Agudelo visiting a few clubs in Europe. Back at Red Bull Arena, General Manager ...
Visit http://www.majorleaguesoccertalk.com for the rest of the story.

The Chicago Fire opened Red Bull Arena in 2010. In 2011, the Men in Red had the 'honor' of opening Jeld-Wen Field in April and Livestrong Sporting Park in June. In the three away games, Chicago was outscored 5-2 and had two losses and one draw. I'm not a big fan of the Fire opening stadiums because the opposition brings their top game for the special event.

Time to start the annual end of the year process of lists. Over the next couple of weeks we'll review end of the year of posts and some of the top business stories of the year. We thought it makes sense to start by looking back a year to the end of 2010 at some of the top business stories from that year.

One of the enduring traditions around Academy events is the staff game played by the Technical Advisors and Scouts. Always organized by Manny Schellsheidt, these kickarounds are a nice way for the staff to get a run after an exhausting schedule throughout the week. It's also a good reminder for those who get to watch how much talent and experience is being contributed to the scouting efforts.

While I usually need no excuse to head into NYC and down a few pints, this past Satuday I had best excuse of the year. That's right! If it's December, it means it's time to celebrate the great You Suck Corrales' birthday. A few of us got together at The Dublin House, on Manhattan's upper west side, to drink up in honor of the greatest Red Bulls fan ever.

Sports Business Journal conducted its annual sports facilities survey and Red Bull Arena was voted the clear Number 1 among soccer specific stadiums. The Harrison, New Jersey garnered just over 23% of the vote, beating out LiveStrong Sporting Park and the Home Depot Center. PPL Park finished fourth with almost 10% of the vote.

"Keep D.C. United" is a fan founded and volunteer driven movement with aim at keeping DC United in the Washington, DC area. For 16 years, United has been housed at the certainly historic, but ultimately decrepit RFK Stadium. The fans have certainly formed a bond with the stadium that moves, quite literally, with them.

This photo of Zentralstadion (Central Stadium) in Leipzig, Germany, was taken in December 2005, a little over a year following the opening of the stadium. It was built within the site of the huge original Zentralstadion, built in the 1950s, one of Europe's largest venues holding over 100,000 spectators.

By JOHN BOSCHINI

There's still a week to go until the brackets for the 2011 NCAA Tournament are revealed but several teams have already seen their postseason hopes extinguished.

Only four teams remain in the Big East Tournament as Connecticut, Louisville, St.

Get Used to It: They're StayingIt was bound to happen. It might even have happened if the Red Bulls had found a way to progress beyond the Los Angeles Galaxy on Thursday and make it all the way to MLS Cup. What am I talking about? The boatload of scathing editorials asking for Hans Backe and Erik Solér's heads on a plate as a result of the Red Bulls' failures this season.

In the emotionally-charged sequel to last weekend's showdown at Red Bull Area, Mike Magee and Landon Donovan each scored as Los Angeles beat New York 2-1 during the second leg of the Western Conference semis and advanced to the Conference Finals 3-1 on aggregate.

Although Red Bulls' target man Luke Rodgers opened the scoring with a 4th minute strike to immediately level the series at 1-1, Magee, the former Red Bull who had pointed words for his former employers prior to the match, replied before halftime when he took hold of a David Beckham cornerand banged it through to relcaim the L.

The Supporters Shield-winning LA Galaxy will try to move a step closer to the MLS Cup Final with a win (or draw) at Home Depot Center against the New York Red Bulls tonight (11pm, ESPN2) in their Western Conference semifinal second leg.

The Red Bulls have other plans, trying to continue a surprising run from last team in the playoffs to MLS Cup Final.

03.11.2011 - Con gol de Ander Herrera ('37), Athletic Bilbao venció (0-1) al Salzburgo en el Red Bull Arena (Austria) y, luego de empatar (2-2) en la ida, clasificó a los 16vos de final de la Europa League a dos fechas de culminar la fase de grupos y extiende la racha invicta a 9 partidos.