Preseason is heating up around the league, so we thought it would be worth checking to see if local papers are taking notice. We'll start in Salt Lake City, where the always excellent Michael Lewis offers up this detailed piece on the roster makeover for RSL. The piece includes interviews and a look at some of the team's injury problems for the coming year.

During a session with the media at the 2011 All Star Game in, Don Garber responded to a question from the Philadelphia media about the possibility of an All Star Game in the City of Brotherly Love. The Commissioner suggested that Philly would soon host the event and now it is official that the 2012 version of the event will go forward at PPL Park.

I love to see the MLS passion pouring in from these new ports of call. Devoted fans from Toronto, Portland, Vancouver, Seattle and, going a little further back, Salt Lake City, have done wonders to energize Major League Soccer, now going into its 17th season.

And plenty of new fans from older markets are adding more air to the MLS baloon, too.

Robbie Keane's 68th minute goal ensured LA Galaxy would be in this years MLS Cup Final as the Galaxy beat Real Salt Lake City 3-1 last night. Galaxy will meet Houston Dynamo in the Final after they beat Kansas City 2-0 in the earlier game on Sunday.

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The 2011 Seattle Sounders season is officially in the books. I should feel sad. I certainly did on Wednesday when the Sounders came just a Tony Beltran head away from an epic comeback (more highlights and photos for those that want to relive the battle). Yet, just a day later, I'm feeling pretty darn good about things.

LA Galaxy advanced to the Western Conference Finals last night with a 2-1 win at home to New York Red Bulls and 3-1 on aggregate.

Luke Rodgers fired the Red Bulls into a five minute lead before Mike Magee scorer of that all important go‎al in the first leg equalised before Landon Donovan's spot-kick made sure the Galaxy were in next Sundays Final where they will play Real Salt Lake City who accounted for the Colorado Rapids in the other semi-finals.

What in Hristo Stoichkov is going on around here? So the Fire walk in to Salt Lake City and punk the uh Royals (?) at their once impenetrable fortress. Against their first choice eleven even. That happened without the midfield's security blanket Sebastian Grazzini. Wait a second do we actually have a good squad now that can win anywhere?

Last week the Chicago Fire announced a new academy partnership with Indiana United. There are a couple of goals in this relationship and what we as fans can expect to see come out of this arrangement. For starters, you have the obvious idea of opening up a new metropolitan area for Chicago Fire player development.

The full roster of players has now arrived in Belgium. All 20 players trained this morning but not before a late dash to the field by Kyle Beckerman! Kyle arrived on the overnight flight and went straight from the airport to the training pitch. A set of gear was waiting for him, and once he dug his boots out of his suitcase he was good to go.

After a very long delay in Philadelphia Union games thanks to Hurricane Irene (seriously, the last Union match was August 20), our boys in blue and gold are back as the Philadelphia Union (8-6-10) are making the trip to Sandy, Utah for a date with Real Salt Lake (11-7-6). Kickoff at Rio Tinto Stadium is scheduled for 9:06:30 PM ET.

Setting: Saturday, September 3 at Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy, Utah; kickoff scheduled for 9:06:30 PM Eastern

Broadcast Information: The Comcast Network (JP Dellacamera, Taylor Twellman) with coverage beginning at 8:30 PM Eastern with Union Pre-Game Live / ESPN 700 KALL-AM (Bill Riley, Brian Kamler) and Juan 106.

All of at the PSP hope that all of you, yours and all of your stuff made it through Hurricane Irene safe and sound.

Union

RSL's Kyle Beckerman will not join the US team for the Costa Rica friendly on Friday but will stay in Salt Lake City for Saturday's match against the Union.

With the rescheduled New England game meaning the Union will play three games in seven days—Real Salt Lake (A), New England (H) and Portland (H)—Chris Vito writes in the Delco Times that it is time for the Union to get some points.

Good morning on an already sobering day for soccer that saw Chelsea's Didier Drogba sustain a sickening concussion this morning (he looked unconscious before he hit the ground judging by the way his head grotesquely bounced off the turf) in a nonetheless entertaining televised game against Norwich City that was sadly also marred by a harsh penalty and an even harsher red card to the Canary's goalkeeper that in my opinion meant the outcome was decided by the ref rather than the players.

Each manager came into the match fearing his team was worn-out. Salt Lake was playing their third match in 8 days and had suffered a loss on Wednesday night in Kansas City. New York traveled to London and played games on Saturday and Sunday before making the trek back across the pond to Salt Lake City.

Before we get to the attendance wrap-up, here are some bonus business items from the press Q&A Commissioner Garber did with the print/online media at the All-Star Game.

1. Still trying to put a second team in New York, but Cosmos are not the only option. Believes the Wilpons would make excellent soccer owners and noted that Citi Field had hosted a WFC match the night before the ASG.

My delayed video blog detailing TFC's latest road loss in Salt Lake City & I tee up the next two games vs Vancouver
Rating: 5.0/5 (1 vote cast)

Charlie "Diver" Davies in a familiar pose - spending more time on the ground than his feet - in an April game against the Galaxy (Photo by Getty Images).

MLS announced today that the D.C. United striker was fined $1,000 for "putting the game into disrepute" in the 83rd minute of the contest against Real Salt Lake last weekend with a dive that earned him a penalty kick.

Two rounds were played within one week as the US Open Cup continues to get more exciting. The teams in the lower levels of US soccer are fighting hard to make an impression against their MLS opponents. Round Three of the US Open Cup begins Tuesday night, June 28th.

Even though the match in Madison, Wisconsin started on time recently between the 56ers and the Chicago Fire's PDL side, the heavy rain and lightning storm found a way to postpone the match from the 21st to Wednesday the 22nd.

After a 1-1 draw on the road against the Colorado Rapids, the Philadelphia Union (6-3-3) are back home to take on Real Salt Lake (6-3-2) in a battle of the two teams with the fewest amount of goals conceded thus far in the 2011 MLS Season. Kickoff at PPL Park in Chester, PA is scheduled for 4:06:30 PM.

Setting: Saturday, June 11 at PPL Park in Chester; kickoff scheduled for 4:06:30 PM Eastern

Broadcast Information: 6abc HD (J.P. Dellacamera, Taylor Twellman, Bob Rigby), with coverage beginning at 3:30 PM Eastern with a pre-game show and heading into Action News at 6 PM Eastern / KMYU (David James, Kenny Kutler), KALL-AM ESPN 700, Juan 106.

Full slate of games from a weekend that included both National Teams in action and Major League Soccer games starting in mid-week. Before we get to attendance, here are a couple of other business stories from the last couple of days. We'll start in WPS, where the league has announced a partnership with A3 Sports Consulting.

What a week it has been at FIFA H.Q. Could the den of thieves finally be about to be gutted and the old guard sent packing, bribes and all?
By Sunday afternoon, the final stretch of campaigning for the Presidency had become an ugly fire-fight between incumbent Sepp Blatter and the challenger Mohamed Bin-Hammam, with the Swiss apparently emerging from the conflagration the winner after his rival withdrew.

• Honestly, what's left? Sunil Gulati out Monday saying that CONCACAF won't influence how the US votes in the upcoming FIFA presidential election.

Gulati played the game all wrong. (Photo credit: The Villager newspaper)

Our sentiments? Big deal. Why not just vote with CONCACAF? What is gained now?

While Utah's MLS side didn't find the back of the net over the weekend, one of the state's homegrown talents bagged himself a hat trick at Red Bull Arena.
MLS
Justin Braun (Salt Lake City) -- Tallied his first three goals of the season for Chivas USA in an impressive performance against the Red Bulls in New Jersey.

Every week, the New England Soccer Today crew will look beyond the standings to rank each of the 18 Major League Soccer (MLS) teams. This week Brian O'Connell and Sean Donahue contributed rankings. Comments are followed by the ranker's name and the rank they gave that team.

1 – New York Red Bulls (4-1-3, 15 points) – A draw to L.

STARTERS
Milan won Serie A. Congrats to them.
dN
8th seeded Chivas has knocked out #1 seed Tigres out of the Mexican playoffs!
dN
Where oh where has Oguchi gone? Onyewu has not been playing at all lately for his club Twente, and did not even dress as they won the Netherlands KNVB Beker aka League Cup.

The best way to be wrong is to enjoy it, and since Friday night's game between the Timbers and the Union looks to be one of the most important of the early season, I am pleasantly surprised at this improbable turn of events.
LA-New York? Strictly MLS 1.0. The league isn't even hyping this match up as sadistically as it did last year, and let's face it, that match won't make or ruin either team this year.

Real Salt Lake announced that tickets for the decisive match versus Monterrey for the CONCACAF Champions League have completely sold out. It will be a packed house at Río Tinto on Wednesday and an intense atmosphere, which is nothing more than what the final of the Champions League deserves. Meanwhile, Monterrey have arrived in Salt Lake City with their full squad, including the suspended De Nigris and Zavala and the injured Luís Pérez.

If you compare this week's rankings to last week's rankings (and you don't really have to since I sort of do that myself below), you'll see that things are kind of stagnant at the moment. That's typical for this time of the season, though things should start moving around again once Super Bonus Points are awarded for the Copa Libertadores, but that's getting ahead of ourselves.

If you compare this week's rankings to last week's rankings (and you don't really have to since I sort of do that myself below), you'll see that things are kind of stagnant at the moment. That's typical for this time of the season, though things should start moving around again once Super Bonus Points are awarded for the Copa Libertadores, but that's getting ahead of ourselves.

Jason Kreis and Real Salt Lake take on Monterrey in the CONCACAF Champions League final. I was on a conference call today about the match. The calls take a long time and to give everyone a fair shot, reporters are only allowed a question or two. It takes even longer to write up the quotes, and just as I was finishing, MLS sent out a quote sheet.

Also file under: Things I wish were different

The CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinals begin tonight, and I have just one itty-bitty question for you loyal Daily Soccer Fix readers: Do you even know what this heavily acronym-ed beast, this CONCACAF Champions League thingy, is in the first place?

Previously in our series on the other supporters groups we talked two groups immediately located on either side of the River End and one within the River End. Today we talk to Benjamin Bedard of the Bridge Crew, a group located in the opposite end of PPL Park in sections 120 and 121. Location is everything when it comes to what is or is not generally acceptable in how fans can demonstrate their support for the Union.

Time for our first February look at how MLS teams are selling tickets in anticipation of the 2011 season. This is also our last look at these efforts prior to the official release of the schedule. We'll start in Columbus and Salt Lake City to see how the remaining Champions League teams are selling their home games in the competition.

I have no idea how you could be a Salt Lake City-area soccer fan and NOT buy tickets to see this team. If the fact that they're pretty good isn't enough, this advert by TOR favorite T. Issac Halasima makes them look like straight up superheros; surely this is Eurosnob kryptonite.

Over the last year or so, we have discussed MLS' efforts to measure the value of its television exposure through various local and national broadcasts. Through the website criticalmention.com, MLS tries to alert media to the "value" of its presence on various television programs. Since a few weeks have passed since we last checked in on this metric, we thought providing a snapshot of this metric of MLS media exposure.

USA international striker Robbie Findley (25) has been granted a work permit for his move to English Championship side Nottingham Forest after impressing on trial.

However Findley who has left Real Salt Lake City has now to secure a Visa from American Authorities for the move to go ahead.

(Photos by Jose M. Romero)

By JOSE M. ROMERO

PHOENIX -- In the desert between Phoenix and Tucson lies a place that is right now developing potential MLS players for Real Salt Lake, and for the immediate future, developing college soccer prospects.