Photo: Paul Rudderow

Philadelphia Union

Tweet from SBI: "I'm told Philadelphia Union midfielder Michael Farfan will be heading to England for a training stint with Premier League side Sunderland." As of this writing, we are waiting for confirmation from the Union about this report.

BBC News and Sky News are reporting that American Robbie Rogers has signed a deal with Leeds United of England's Championship. The 24 year old winger has been capped 18 times by the United States National Team and most recently played for the Columbus Crew in MLS. This isn't Rogers' first signing with a European club.

The Columbus Crew were certainly a surprise team last season. After cutting ties with a number of veterans and going with a roster that looked lacking on almost every part of the pitch, head coach Robert Warzycha coaxed a great ...
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Philadelphia Union

Tweet from Freddy Adu: "Happy Holidays to everyone. Love the holiday season."

In Goal.com's survey of the Eastern Conference there is this review of the the Union's 2011 season in a sentence: "Another season of incremental growth for a young squad still in need of a couple of pieces to compete for MLS Cup.

Union

Ahead of last week's end of the season press conference, we posted a piece that looked at all of the different midfield lineups the Union fielded in 2011 (there were 26 of them). MLSsoccer.com published a piece yesterday with quotes from Nowak defending his use of so many different lineups and formations.

With his season over and his future in Columbus somewhat uncertain, Robbie Rogers has got to find some other sh*t to do with his time. Things like being a clothing mogul/male model with the Halsey line. Sure hope he doesn't get to beefing with Hansel; you never know what that guy will do.

The US National Team walked away from friendlies against Costa Rica and Belgium with two 1-0 losses, but with Jurgen Klinsmann still kicking the tires of the program he inherited, it is the individual performances that are of greatest importance for US fans as the red, white and blue builds toward qualification for the 2014 World Cup.

By Jon Levy Jurgen Klinsmann welcomes most of the important European-based pieces of his new national team as he looks to build on the Mexico draw in matches two and three of his USMNT regime. But before we get into the Costa Rica match, some news and notes are in order. Clint Dempsey did not [...]

I miss Kammarman. Bring back Kammarman!

Photo: Daniel Gajdamowicz

On the day when US Soccer officially entered the Jurgen Klinsmann era, it was fitting that within a 90 minute match, the quality of play on either side of halftime served to contrast a past system that lacked creativity with a new future of bright, attacking soccer.

Union

John Hackworth, again filling in on the sidelines for Peter Nowak, said after the game, "I think frustration and disappointment are the two biggest feelings we have right now. We feel we deserved three points in that game."

Sheanon Williams said, "We gave up a goal in the 85th minute when we had the chance to go up two and lock the game up.

When the Columbus Crew visited Colorado this past fall it was for a first-round playoff match that the Rapids won 1-0 on a Pablo Mastroeni goal.

While that win put the Rapids (8-6-10, 34 points) on the road to the MLS Cup title in 2010, the stakes are not much lower this Friday when the two teams meet at Dick's Sporting Goods Park.

By Dr. Raf Crowley Another close USMNT match against an inferior opponent; another litany of excuses from analysts, bloggers, and pundits alike. Yesterday, our own Andrew Villegas blamed our lackluster effort against Guadeloupe on fatigue. My friends, it isn't fatigue; it's the same thing I said the other day after our dismal performance against Panama.

By Andrew Villegas Americans playing in Europe have never had more luck, chances or playing time in Europe, perhaps, than they've had this past year. And they look it. They're tired and USMNT supporters hold their breath that every run by Clint Dempsey and every clearance by Steve Cherundulo will finally fully empty the tank [.

1. Bob Bradley will go with a 4-4-2. The forwards will be the same as the Spain game, but there will be big changes in the midfield and back line. Landon Donovan, Clint Dempsey, and Michael Bradley will replace Robbie Rogers, Sacha Kljestan, and Maurice Edu (meaning Jones gets the start).

by Dru Boyer The following is the third in a four part series comparing the 2011 Gold Cup rosters of the two "giants of CONCACAF". Midfielders The Yanks: Michael Bradley (Aston Villa), Maurice Edu (Rangers), Clint Dempsey (Fulham), Landon Donovan (L.A. Galaxy), Jermaine Jones (Blackburn), Sacha Kljestan (Anderlecht), Robbie Rogers (Columbus Crew), Freddy Adu (Rizespor, [.

Saturday's game proved once again that a determined Spaniard always gets their revenge.

Grant Wahl tweeted before kick-off that Spain was resting so many starters that it was like going to see the Beatles with Ringo doing all the singing. Well, if Spain was a Ringo-only Beatles, the US was more like a full strength Rebecca Black.

By Andrew Villegas MLS clubs are well represented on the rosters of the nations participating in this summer's Gold Cup (37 players total), and with good reason. National team managers are recognizing and tapping a growing pool of player talent in the United States' domestic league to fill their Gold Cup teams despite the league's reputation [.

Another National Team tournament, another confusing set of roster decisions from Bob Bradley.

Here is a look at six moves that could have been made to add depth and quality to the US team. Bradley's lineup features a number of his classic favorites who are either completely off of pace in their domestic leagues or serve no foreseeable purpose with this team.

Bob Bradley announced his roster selection for the Gold Cup today. Full squad is below. Notable exclusions include Timothy Chandler and Alejandro Bedoya. Apparently they wanted to give Chandler a rest, but otherwise would have selected him. Bedoya apparently got passed up for Robbie Rodgers.

With the Gold Cup drawing near, and Bob Bradley's roster announcement impending, most American soccer pundits are writing about who Bob Bradley will or should call up for the tournament. It's time for us to do the same...sort of.

As you know if you read these pages with any regularity, we here at Project 2010 are mildly obsessed with our little creation, the P2010 Index, an aggregation of the soccer media's ratings of US players in international matches (it's all explained here) .

By Andrew Villegas On Saturday, the Columbus Crew's supporters (the "Nordecke" for the unfamiliar) began chanting "Guillermo! Guillermo!" in the second half of their team's 0-0 draw with the New York Red Bulls, referring to the face of the Crew's off-season house cleaning castoffs the Argentine (and looking more and more indispensable) Guillermo Barros Schelotto.

It's only one match out of 34 for the 2011 season for D.C. United but what a match it was as the Black-and-Red thumped the visiting Columbus Crew 3-1 on the strength of two goals from Charlie Davies and a ...

Y'know if soccer won't get your girl to a game there's a good chance a shirtless Robbie Rogers will and there's no reason to be mad at that. That is until he steals my girl.

Last night was the unofficial start to the MLS season, as Real Salt Lake and Columbus faced off in their first leg of the CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinal. In a night that was below freezing and in front of a sparse crowd, the two teams grinded out a 0-0 draw that was defined by the referee as well as missed chances by Columbus.

Look for Chicago Fire winger Patrick Nyarko to have a big season in 2011. (Getty Images)

I've been tossing around different ideas in my head for weeks now for when it comes to previewing the new season ahead. I'm fairly certain I'll do my usual team-by-team breakdown but given the fact that there are now 18 clubs that task will certainly take a good amount of time for a busy guy like myself.