After the usual pre season controversy and dilly dallying the SLeague finally got under way last night with a couple of games. Hougang United drew 1-1 with Tanjong Pagar at Hougang Stadium. Jordan Webb gave the home team the lead but Takaya Kawanabe pulled the Jaguars level a few minutes later. Just over 400 fans bothered turning up for the season opener.

A year ago, the Seattle Sounders opened their season on March 15. This year, they will essentially do so eight days earlier. On paper that might not seem like a huge difference.

But unlike last year when they opened against a LA Galaxy team that was in the same stage of its season, the Sounders' first opponent will be Santos Laguna, a Mexican Primera side that will have already played nine matches.

It's "Springtime for Winter" as Toronto FC today released the names of the 41 players (so far) who are taking part in the club's pre-season training camp. The major difference from past years on first glance is the absence of any professional trialists. Just a year ago, the likes of Javier Martina, Mikael Yourassowsky and King Osei Gyan (for you TFC trivia buffs) were training with The Reds in hopes of grabbing a contract but this year seems quite different.

Yesterday, Tweed Thornton and I had the opportunity to speak with Chicago Fire head coach Frank Klopas. It was an excellent chance to ask some questions that we had been wondering about and had been hearing from other Chicago Fire fans. It was also a chance to get to know the man who will be starting his first full season as head coach in March.

The big story of the day is of course our new coach, but I wanted to throw some notes about the schedule out first.
Teams we play at home only:
Columbus (season opener)
Chicago
KC
Montreal
Houston (season finale)
Teams we play on the road only:
Toronto
Philly
DC
NY
New England (no Jameson's night this year)
Teams we play at home twice and on the road once:
Portland
LA
Chivas
San Jose
Teams we play on the road twice and once at home:
Vancouver
Seattle
FSL
Dallas
So FSL has the edge in this year's Rocky Mountain Cup, which will be decided by August, the earliest ever.

Morelia - Tijuana 9pm ET - Azteca, Fox Deportes Mexico's Clausura season opener has Morelia hosting Tijuana. Morelia finished the Apertura season in 7th-place, knocking out 2nd-place Cruz Azul in the opening round of the playoffs. They exited against Santos Laguna in the semifinals. Recently promoted Tijuana missed the playoffs, finishing 15th.

The 2012 Philadelphia Union schedule was released on Thursday afternoon. After opening the season in Portland on Monday, March 12 at 9:30pm, the team will open at home against Colorado on Sunday, March 18 at 4pm.

The Union will finish the season hosting New York on Saturday, Oct. 27.

In the Eastern conference, the Union will play New York, DC, New England and Columbus at home twice and once on the road.

It sounds like we won't have to wait much longer for the 2012 MLS schedule to come out. It seems that the league has the schedule finalized and will be putting it out hopefully later this week. KC is set to have their home opener on March 17th, St. Patrick's Day, other than that, the schedule isn't really known.

The visit of Wolves over the last two seasons has produced two wins for the boys in red and white keeping clean sheets on both occasions. Although Wolves have some robust players McCarthy tries to get them to play football.

He is one of the few managers who I like listening to in post match interviews as he rarely complains about decisions and outcomes of games, choosing instead to inject some humour in his "call a spade a spade" approach to cross examination.

The post from yesterday regarding the youngest and oldest players to ever appear for Sporting KC was spawned by the fact that earlier this year, Soony Saad, on his debut became the youngest goal scorer in the Wizards history when he scored against the Portland Timbers on his 19th birthday. With that in mind, here are the youngest and oldest goal scorers in KC's history.

What better way to get psyched for the 2012 season opener in Carson...: Than to watch the best Chivas USA goals from 2011: In other Chivas USA-related news: *Wonder if it's three MLS clubs and out for former Chivas USA striker Maicon Santos? *Chivas USA has announced a new partnership

Today MLS announced the national television games for MLS First Kick the weekend of March 10th. Sporting KC isn't going to be on national television for their season opener, but the announcement does narrow the field for who Sporting KC could play on the first weekend. The national broadcasts kick off on Saturday on TSN in Canada as one of last year's expansion sides, Vancouver, take on this year's expansion side, Montreal in Vancouver.

The Philadelphia Union announced on Tuesday that the 2012 season opener will take place against Portland Timbers at Jeld-Wen Field on Monday, March 12.

Kickoff will be at 9:30pm EST and the match will be nationally broadcast on ESPN2, ESPN Deportes and ESPN3.

The Union recently announced that the home opener will take place on Sunday, March 18.

By Joel Greenwaldt
After being named the Week 3 MISL Player of the Week earlier this season, Baltimore Blast goalkeeper Sagu has been named the MISL Goalkeeper of the Month for November. Sagu was the clear cut favorite for the award after posting a 4-1 record in addition to a 9.

By Brandon Arendt
The early season match-ups continue when the newcomers, the Norfolk Sharx, travel to Milwaukee to take on the reigning Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL) Champions the Milwaukee Wave in the U.S. Cellular Arena on Saturday, November 19th at 7:00 P.M. Milwaukee will be looking to continue their winning ways against a Norfolk Sharx team that struggled in their first game, losing in devastating fashion 23-7.

By Joel Greenwaldt
The Blast begin a five game road trip this evening when they take on the Missouri Comets at 8:35pm. The game can be seen live at www.misllivesoccer.com. Baltimore will try to avoid an 0-2 start to the season against a Missouri team who is playing extremely well right now and sits at 3-0.

By Joel Greenwaldt
The Blast begin a five game road trip this evening when they take on the Missouri Comets at 8:35pm. The game can be seen at www.misllivesoccer.com. Baltimore will try to avoid an 0-2 start to the season against a Missouri team who is playing extremely well right now.

In a back-and-forth game, the team that scored last won.

Greg Howes' goal with 2 minutes, 17 seconds left snapped a tie and gave the Milwaukee Wave a 15-13 victory over the visiting Wichita Wings in their Major Indoor Soccer League season opener Sunday afternoon at U.S. Cellular Arena.

From the Comets
(Wichita, KS) The MISL season opener matched up two teams with a combined one year of operations between them. You would never know it this old rivalry was renewed with a passion. Brazilian Midfielder Geison proved to be the star of the game as he scored his 5th goal at the 4:29 mark of overtime to give the Comets a 16-14 victory.

Calen Carr -- Getty ImagesBy Charlie Corr
ESPNChicago.com
Former Chicago Fire and current Houston Dynamo forward Calen Carr has had his share of injury spells over the past several years. This year it was a concussion that he suffered during the Fire's preseason in February when the team was training in Ave Maria, Fla.

Setting: Sunday, October 30 at PPL Park in Chester; kickoff scheduled for 5:15 PM Eastern

Broadcast Information: ESPN2 and ESPN3.com (Rob Stone, Taylor Twellman), ESPN Deportes and ESPN Deportes Radio nationwide, with coverage beginning at 5:00 PM Eastern

Houston's Regular Season Record: 12-9-13, second in East

Houston's Last Match: W, 3-1 vs.

Fire's Dominic Oduro -- Getty ImagesBy Charlie Corr
ESPNChicago.com
The Houston Dynamo thought that Dominic Oduro was so much of a liability after missing a sitter in the season opener that they immediately cast him off to the Chicago Fire, trading him for Calen Carr.
Houston's misstep was Chicago's offensive answer, particularly in the final two thirds of the season, as Oduro received ESPN Chicago's vote for being the team's most valuable player in 2011.

Last night the Portland Timbers had an event at the Nines hotel in downtown Portland to celebrate the season ending as well as hand out a bunch of awards to the players and coaching staff. Pretty typical, really... Still, it's important to recognize a players achievement throughout and this was a fine way to do it.

Goals:
Bellamy 45+1'
Holt 60'
Like watching a replay of the season opener against Sunderland.
At Anfield? Check. Failure to convert multiple first half chances? Check. First-half goal? Check. Early second-half equalizer? Check. Increasingly frustrated and increasingly impatient?

The no. 25 ranked (NSCAA) Virginia men's team will be looking to rebound following their loss to Wake Forest last game:
UVA vs. Wake Forest | Video Highlights
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - The Virginia men's soccer team will take on Howard at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Klöckner Stadium in Charlottesville.

By JOSE M. ROMERO

Parking and seats on the SkyTrain were probably more difficult to come by than Vancouver Whitecaps' goals Thursday night in downtown Vancouver.

With the NHL Canucks playing nearby in their regular-season opener, the Whitecaps still drew a big crowd of 20,113 fans to their brand new home, B.

With the official release of the 2011-2012 MISL Season Schedule, Indoor Soccer News selected a few match-ups that are "Can't Miss Games" for any true Indoor Soccer Fan.

1. November 3 - Comets vs. Wings: First game of the MISL season as Missouri Comets travel to the Hartman Arena to take on the new Wichita Wings.

Weekend Bets: Villa, Arsenal and Wolves to prosper is a post from: Just Football

Just Football's resident betting expert Rob Hartnett returns with a look at value in the weekend's Premier League fixtures.

Fulham Vs Blackburn, Sunday 1600 Sky Sports

Super Sunday may be a bit of a misnomer for this televised fixture but perhaps the Sky schedulers know what they are doing.

The Serie A season is underway with a marquee matchup featuring contenders AC Milan and Lazio (Fox Soccer Channel).

Lazio, which is looking to stun the defending league champions at the San Siro, got off to a 2-0 lead, which included a goal from new forward and German veteran Miroslav Klose.

De Silvestri of Lazio vs Pato of Milan (Stadio Olimpico in Roma, 1 Feb 2009). (Photo by New Press/Getty Images)"

We've been persusing this weekend's list of televised matches and we're coming across a lot to recommend. So as we continue whittling down the list for Saturday and Sunday, here are two matches today that you might tune in for.

It was a black day for the sport of Ice Hockey today after a Russian passenger plane carrying the Lokomotiv Ice hockey team to their season opener crashed on take-off.

43 people were killed while the two survivors are in grave danger, among the dead were Legendary Slovak forward Pavol Demitra, Czech World Champions Jan Marek, Karl Rachunek and Josef Vajicek.

Kelmend Isaj (Monroe) started his college soccer career in the best way possible.

The forward came off the bench for the Edgewood College men's team in Friday night's season opener and scored on a 20-yard shot with his first touch. Isaj added another goal just before halftime and senior goalkeeper Kyle Koenig (Sheboygan South) made two saves as the Eagles blanked Lawrence 3-0 at Breese Stevens Field.

This was the kind of offense University of Wisconsin women's soccer coach Paula Wilkins was expecting from her team this season.

Cara Walls (Wauwatosa East) scored for the third straight match, fellow freshman forward Nikki Greenhalgh added the first goal of her career and senior forward Laurie Nosbusch (Mequon Homestead) netted her first of the season as the Badgers dropped previously unbeaten Dayton 3-1 on Friday night in Dayton, Ohio.

Jordan Alexander scored twice and Thomas Hoang added a goal and an assist as Fort Lewis defeated Montana State-Billings 3-0 at Dirks Field in the season opener for both teams.

After a scoreless opening frame, Alexander and Hoang worked some give-and-go magic early in the second stanza to give FLC a 1-0 lead.

University of Virginia, Men - The No. 11 Virginia men's soccer team dropped a 1-0 decision to No. 17 West Virginia Friday in the ACC/Big East Challenge in the regular season opener at the...
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The No. 19 University of Denver men's soccer team was edged 1-0 to No. 6 Creighton in the season opener at CIBER Field on Saturday night.

"I think Creighton is a legitimate national championship contender, and I think our guys came out here and battled them, playing our brand of soccer," head coach Bobby Muuss said.

The Air Force men's soccer team scored four second-half goals en route to a 5-2 victory over Houston Baptist in both teams' regular season opener Saturday evening at Sorrels Field.

Sophomore Brian Klazura had a goal and two assists while senior John Melcher and junior Kevin Durr each added one goal and one assist.

Arsenal's summer signing Gervinho has revealed that former Gunner Samir Nasri convinced him to seal a transfer from Lille to the Emirates by promising that they would be playing together at the club this season.

However, with Nasri recently completing a protracted move to Manchester City, Gervinho has urged the entire Arsenal squad to overcome the pain of losing such a key playmaker by responding collectively.

Match Review: Liverpool 3 Bolton 1

Liverpool rose to the top of the Premier League table yesterday with a comfortable victory over Bolton at Anfield. Goals from Jordan Henderson, Martin Skrtel and Charlie Adam put the Reds firmly in control of the match, so much in control indeed that when Ivan Klasnic scored an injury time consolation for the visitors, he barely celebrated.

The University of Wisconsin men's soccer team put together some nice passing sequences in their season opener Saturday night against Western Illinois.

When it came to the only goal of the night, though, style went out the window.

Junior right back Kyle McCrudden corralled a loose ball at the top of the 6-yard box after a free kick and scored his second career goal in the 68th minute to lift the Badgers to a 1-0 victory over the Leathernecks in front of 619 fans at the McClimon Complex.