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.

Last season a small tweetmeme of #TheTrialist started after Seattle Sounders FC reported non-drafted, non-contracted players as "trialist" in their reports of pre-season scrimmages. There were occasions when "Trialist 1" passed to "Trialist 4." Due to Major League Soccer's various player acquisition methods this was done to reduce the chances of said player being claimed prior to Seattle claiming the player as their own.

MLS teams gather in Kansas City to draft from their selection of college seniors, Generation Adidas players and a few pre-signed internationals. You can watch live on ESPN2/3 or MLSSoccer.com at 9 AM or just follow along here. MLSSoccer.com's final mock draft (their third) has Puget Sound native Kelyn Rowe going as high as third or as low as 14th.

Serie A leaders Juventus lost their hold on top of the table after settling for a barren draw with Udinese at the Stadio Friuli last night. The draws sees Milan pip Juve to top spot although both clubs remain level on 34 points.

There was some good news for Claudio Ranieri and Inter Milan as his side were big winners on the night beating Lecce 4-1 at the San Siro to move up to to 5th place.

On Saturday, Arsenal conceded another ridiculous goal. Thankfully, It didn't affect the outcome but brought back painful memories of other howlers in the recent past. Now the easy option is to blame Mertesacker and move on. There is no denying the fact that the German should have shown greater strength and could have passed the ball towards Santos or headed it back to Szczesny if he so intended.

By Chris Wright

Just stumbled across this ethereal snapshot this very morn and felt it was worth passing on, in which we see Chelsea full-back Albert Ferrer meeting Milan's Andriy Shevchenko in a clearing as the San Siro is slowly engulfed by ghostly fog and flare smoke during a Champions League group tie in 1999.

Chelsea 3-5 Arsenal

We've waited a long, long time for that. To my mind, we've not had a result as fine, and as cathartic, since sinking Barcelona in February. (We did beat Utd 1-0 at home, but that was sandwiched between a thoroughly miserable run of form so I'm not going to include that).

Opportunities like this will continue to be wasted as long as teams insist on their players wearing dark shorts. Don't say we didn't warn you. Image: REUTERS/Andrew Winning.

Think of this as a snapshot of European football, rather than any kind of coherent, informative 'results' round-up.

By Chris Wright

The photo above lit a bit of a fire under Arsenal fans yesterday when, after the club held an open training session, several papers published it along with captions reading somewhere along the lines of 'Cesc is a mardy arse who hates Arsenal and obviously wishes he was fondling dolphins with Barcelona 4,500 miles away in Miami' the argument being that it was little more than a single, isolated snapshot of Fab merely looking glum while getting drenched to the bone in torrential rain rather than a glimpse into his very soul.

By Chris Wright

One for the 'shaven, heavily-tattooed gibbon' fetishists now lord alone knows they're criminally under-catered for with a snapshot taken from a charity game in Slovakia in which dancer/choreographer Jan Durovcik snuck in and stripped Martin Skrtel down to his undercrackers in the name of entertainment.

All season long, in order to knock off the top team in the best domestic league in the world out of the top spot in the rankings, somebody was going to knock that club out of the Champions League. It took until the final match of the season, but that finally happened as FC Barcelona played its game and manhandled Manchester United 3-1 in a match that wasn't even that close.

All season long, in order to knock off the top team in the best domestic league in the world out of the top spot in the rankings, somebody was going to knock that club out of the Champions League. It took until the final match of the season, but that finally happened as FC Barcelona played its game and manhandled Manchester United 3-1 in a match that wasn't even that close.

What if one split second sent your life in two completely different
directions?

48 hours on and the postmortem into the club's untimely demise continues apace. Writing in today's Telegraph, Henry Winter states West Ham's shambles of a season has soiled the name of a once-respected club.

In an exclusive diary for Liverpoolfc.tv, two teenage trialists relive their experiences during a week at Liverpool Football Club.
How did they feel pulling on the famous red shirt for the first time? How would supporters back in South Korea react to the news that they were on Merseyside? And did they get to rub shoulders with some of our star names?

Another contender for snapshot of the year deserves the treatment. Have at it, my friends.

Did you hear about the Brazilian that went duck hunting?

RSL were good. They sold their joint out on a weeknight for a competition that's only just registered on the lay MLS fan's radar. They got a fantastic result away in Mexico. They went toe to toe with an opponent of superior quality over two legs. And that quality told in one moment that undid RSL. A late flurry couldn't find them the solitary goal they needed to take the next step on the world stage.

RSL were good. They sold their joint out on a weeknight for a competition that's only just registered on the lay MLS fan's radar. They got a fantastic result away in Mexico. They went toe to toe with an opponent of superior quality over two legs. And that quality told in one moment that undid RSL. A late flurry couldn't find them the solitary goal they needed to take the next step on the world stage.

On opening day of the season at least one MLS Cup contender doesn't yet know who will be their starting keeper. Sigi Schmid and Bruce Arena though have a great advantage in that not only do they know who their keeper is going to be, they also have two of the better ones in the league.

While Donovan Ricketts has frustrated fans at Qwest Field with fake injuries, time wasting and his reluctance to take goal kicks.

Booker Prize winner: Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee John Peel Festive 50 Number 1: Cuban Boys: Cognoscenti Vs Intelligentsia Poet Laureate: Andrew Motion President of Libya: Muammar al-Gaddafi In his first dedicated piece for the two unfortunates, Michael Wood of the beautifully designed and written Bradford City website Boy From Brazil, treats us to a snapshot of his Bantams-supporting life over the

On the way to my soccer game I snapped this quick pictureI have to say, the Whitecaps have impressed me. I'm not really talking about on the field results (most recently a 2-2 draw with the U-18 USA mens national team), I'm talking more about the promotion campaign which has been taking place the past few days.

Sorry to be way, way, way late with this, folks, but I'm back in travelling mode and will be for the next eight weeks. During that time, the posts will be as timely as I'm able to make them and that'll depend on where I am and how my luck is with wi-fi. At the moment, I'm in Mexico City, so wi-fi hasn't been an issue, but my time as a tourist has taken away from my dedication to this particular post.

Sorry to be way, way, way late with this, folks, but I'm back in travelling mode and will be for the next eight weeks. During that time, the posts will be as timely as I'm able to make them and that'll depend on where I am and how my luck is with wi-fi. At the moment, I'm in Mexico City, so wi-fi hasn't been an issue, but my time as a tourist has taken away from my dedication to this particular post.

Last night saw a very young USMNT roster leaving even some diehards saying "The Who?". In fact, 23 year-old Alejandro Bedoya was the player with the most caps for the US with a total of 6 and 23 year-old Dax McCarty wore the captain's arm band. Many other players earned their 1st or 2nd cap by playing including the Chicago Fire's own Sean Johnson.

It's map time again, brought to us by Bill Turianski of Bill's Sports Maps.

This time it's Mexican football's first tier, the Primera División, and it's a map of all 18 teams competing in the 2010-11 season. The map includes profiles of each team - stadium photos, team uniforms and emblems, and a quick snapshot of details like foundation date and titles won.