The Seattle Sounders have played in three U.S. Open Cup title games and three MLS Cup playoff series, but the match against Santos Laguna in the CONCACAF Champions League on March 7 may be the biggest match in franchise history. Not to be too much of a shill, but if you're enough of a fan of this team to be reading this blog, you probably should plan on being at Century Link Field that day.

In what was his best win since taking over the reigns at Newcastle thirteen months ago from the talented and likable Chris Hughton, Alan Pardew orchestrated a famous victory for Newcastle United last night. Alan Pardew it was our best performance in my reign Pardew was simply delighted by both the result and the performance last night, in front of a sellout 52,299 crowd of mad [.

I haven't had a chance to ask David Beckham of late about his future plans now that he's finally an MLS champion, but my guess is that he's leaving the Los Angeles Galaxy.
I do think winning that title last night meant a lot to him. He's a competitive player. He wanted to win very badly.
Yet there's something beyond club glory that has always mattered more to Becks.

I haven't had a chance to ask David Beckham of late about his future plans now that he's finally an MLS champion, but my guess is that he's leaving the Los Angeles Galaxy.
I do think winning that title last night meant a lot to him. He's a competitive player. He wanted to win very badly.
Yet there's something beyond club glory that has always mattered more to Becks.

In case you guys didn't see it, yesterday was SB Nation's mock Expansion Draft. Some of you will also notice some, er, confusion on our part from the draft. Essentially Jake Gleeson was picked when I meant for him to be protected. What happened was I made a late addition and the SBN editors wouldn't allow such a late change.

Still no power, so here is a quick survey of how the local newsapers are covering their team's win or loss in Sunday's compelling Conference Final matchup. We'll start in Utah, where RSL continues to enjoy strong local coverage from both the Salt Lake Tribune and the Deseret News. The Trib sports section included a hard news report on the 3-1 defeat as well as an array of stories in the days leading up to the match.

Busy weekend in Major League Soccer with the regular season winding down and the playoffs just a few days away. The attendance story for the week is the juggernaut in Seattle, which saw more than 62,000 for Kasey Keller's sendoff match. Sales were buttressed by a multi-game package that included this game, but the total sales are extremely impressive.

Sounder at Heart has five pairs of tickets to give away to Tuesday's CONCACAF Champions League match against Monterrey. The Seattle Sounders have already secured advancement to the quarterfinals, but will win the group if they can get a point. If they win, the Sounders could potentially knock Monterrey out of the tournament.

Mike Woitalla of Soccer America reports on the continued attendance success by Major League Soccer.
The league remains on pace for its best attendance average ever. The 12 games in Week 29 games averaged 18,284 fans as Vancouver sold out its new home and two Wednesday night matches drew unusually big crowds.

Busy week in Major League Soccer with Champions League group stage matches, important jockeying for playoff position and the opening of Bell Pitch Downtown in Vancouver. Before we get to attendance, here are a couple of thoughts on the inagural match at the league's newest showpiece. First, it is unfortunate that the game was not part of a national telecast.

Busy weekend in Major League Soccer as the playoff picture is starting to crystallize with just about a month of the season remaining. Before we get into our weekly attendance review, here are a couple of other items of business note from the last couple of days. We'll start in Vancouver, where the Whitecaps wrapped up their Empire Field portion of the home schedule.

Mike Woitalla of Soccer America writes of the record season for Major League Soccer attendance-
Ten Week 26 games averaged 17,646 fans as MLS, with just more than a month left in the regular season, is on pace to break its season attendance record.
* Seattle drew the biggest crowd of the week when 35,940 watched it fall to Real Salt Lake.

photo courtesy of Jarred Donalson
I was actually surprised about tonight's attendance being announced as less than a sellout, it looked closer to a sellout than Wednesday night's game against Real Salt Lake. Instead, the announced attendance as about 1,000 below capacity at 17,493. After the last home game, KC's attendance was well enough off that it could have been 0 the rest of the season and it would top the 1999 season.

That wasn't supposed to happen. On a warm, beautiful sunny night in downtown Portland, Oregon, a certain team from California came into Jeld-Wen with perhaps a bit of overconfidence, eh? And finally, FINALLY, the Timbers put together a top notch performance for a full 90 minutes at home to defeat the L.

photo courtesy of Jarred Donalson
The Wizards had another sellout at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park tonight in their win over Real Salt Lake. That sellout tonight does a few things for Sporting KC's attendance this year. The first, is that KC could have an announced attendance of 0 for each game for the rest of the season and the first 8 games (average 8,400 if 0 the rest of the way) this year would out draw the average of the 1999 season of 8,183.

photo courtesy of Jarred Donalson
The attendance for tonight's game against Colorado was the first non-sellout at LiveSTRONG Sporting Park, an announced attendance of 15,209 for the game against the Rapids. Here is a look at the home attendance after four games through Sporting KC's history.

Tomorrow is the home opener for Sporting KC at Livestrong Sporting Park. Here are a few news bits before the game tomorrow.
First, Thad posted it on Twitter today, and Robb Heineman mentioned it on 980 today, Sporting KC will not have a surprise jersey sponsor on the jersey for the game tomorrow.

If the last two Portland Timbers losses have shown me anything, it's this: Yes, we are an expansion team.

After experiencing the euphoric feeling that came along with attending our first two home openers at JELD-WEN field, the Timbers have begun a slow and steady decline back to mediocrity (reality).

The U.S. men's national team takes on World Cup champions Spain today at Gillette Stadium (4:30pm, ESPN2) in a match that could be a sellout.

The Spaniards will be looking for a measure of revenge for their 2009 Confederations Cup semifinal loss to the United States. The Americans will be using the match as a final tune-up before the CONCACAF Gold Cup, which they kick off against Canada on Tuesday.

The Good 15,474- It might not have been a sellout, but the crowd at Empire Field for the first leg of the Nutrilite Canadian Championship final was still pretty impressive considering it was going head-to-head with a Vancouver Canucks playoff game. This was just the precursor to Saturday with great attendance numbers across the board.

If Newcastle had won yesterday against West Brom they would have finished 9th in the Premier League table. Alan Pardew - done quite well this season And when a team goes 3-0 up at home in front of a sellout 52,000 crowd, and it's the last game of the season, what are the odds of [...]

Article republished on businessofsoccer.com

As Philadelphia prepares for its sixth home match this weekend, the club can continue to anticipate setting records and steadily increasing its overall attendance throughout the remainder of its regular season. The average home attendance for 2011 has already surpassed that of the previous season with 18,044 supporters - less than five-hundred tickets short of a sold out crowd (anything over its maximum capacity of 18,500 at PPL Park).

Photo by ISIPhotos.com

For the second straight year, Manchester United will serve as the international opponent in the Major League All-Star Game, MLS announced on Monday morning.

The 2011 MLS All-Star Game is scheduled for July 27th at Red Bull Arena, with Manchester United serving as the headliner in a game that is guaranteed to be a sellout.

Mike Woitalla of Soccer America keeps us posted on the strong MLS attendance figures after week 2.
Cold weather was a factor as Week 2's attendance average was nearly 4,000 lower than the opening week's 21,046 average, but another huge crowd cheered on the Sounders, Real Salt Lake set a record, and Philadelphia had a sellout for its opener.

We're just two days away from the Philadelphia Union's home opener against Vancouver Whitecaps at PPL Park. As the excitement grows to a fever pitch, the Union continue to prepare to face the expansion side that thrashed Toronto FC last week by a 4-2 score. Will you be heading out to PPL Park this Saturday?

The 2011 Union schedule has been released and there are more than a few key dates you'll want to highlight on your calendar. Among them are April 9, when the Red Bulls come to town, followed the next Saturday by Seattle Sounders. The team will host LA Galaxy on May 11, New England on August 28 and DC United will be the visitors on September 29.