The All-American showdown went to Landon Donovan, Tim Howard and Everton.

Donovan came up with two assists to guide the Toffees to a 2-1, come-from-behind victory over Clint Dempsey's Fulham at Goodison Park in the fourth round of the FA Cup on Friday.

Donovan hit summer acquisition Denis Stracqualursi with a pinpoint left-footed cross from the right in the 27th minute, and the Argentine headed it past Fulham goalkeeper David Stockdale to pull Everton level at 1-1.

Can-Am Connection - not Nut-Can ConnectionPYRAMID TOURNAMENT
A day after getting all kinds of pun-related gifts, one of our faves was pulled out from under us like a rug covered in health supplements. The Nutrilife Canadian Championship, or as we so lovingly called it - "The NutCan" - is no more.

Ghana 1-0 Botswana by goalsarena2012

Ghana made a jittery start to their ACN campaign overcoming a plucky Botswana through John Mensah's 25th minute goal. The Black Stars then had to endure without Mensah who was sent off in the 66th minute for his foul on Jerome Ramatlhakwane.

Goran Stevanovic's squad were at full strength minus Kevin Prince Boateng with World Cup standouts Asamoah Gyan, Andrew Ayew, and Sulley Muntari present.

Here we go again.

The world's top rivalry takes center stage when Real Madrid hosts Barcelona in the first leg of the Copa del Rey quarterfinals (4 p.m., GOLTV/ESPN3.com), the first of two meetings in a week's time that will determine which club advances to the semifinals.

The Rapids had two picks in today's 4 round Supplemental Draft, in the 3rd and 4th rounds. In the 3rd round they picked Kohei Yamada, a Japanese midfielder who was an international invitee to this year's MLS Combine. He was considered one of the standouts of the first combine game but his play faded in the other two games.

Photo by Michael Janosz/ISIphotos.com

The next step in selecting the team that will be charged with qualifying the United States for the Olympics is underway, as United States Under-23 coach Caleb Porter holds his December training camp in Lakewood Ranch, Fla. A group of 30 players has been called in for the next week, where they'll aim to catch Porter's eye and build a foundation for the coming months.

The Montreal Impact came away from last week's expansion draft without a proven goalkeeper, but that void was filled in a major way on Monday after the Impact acquired Jamaican national team goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts from the Impact for allocation money.

Ricketts had been one of the best goalkeepers in the league before a broken arm sidelined him and paved the way for Josh Saunders to take the starting job away from Ricketts.

The season has started, and the honors keep rolling in for UW-Milwaukee's Sarah Hagen (Appleton North) and Marquette's Kerry McBride (Elm Grove/Milwaukee DSHA).

After claiming a bevy of preseason awards, the senior standouts earned more for their efforts during the first weekend of the season.

Featured image: Paul Rudderow

Union

The Union are surely feeling the effects of their performance over the last two games, earning only one point out of six. If they are in need of a boost, the news that the Union have acquired the full rights to Carlos Valdes, who was on loan from Independiente Sante Fe, just might do the trick.

How much have the EPL's promoted teams have spent so far? - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

When writing a piece for the Montreal Gazette concerning how much each promoted side had paid to assemble their roster, it was interesting to note the circumstances of each team. Queens Park Rangers, though ostensibly backed by the capacious pockets of Bernie Ecclestone and perhaps Lakshmi Mittal, have spent a miserly ₤1.

The 2011 MLS All-Star Game kicks off tonight, with the MLS All-Stars taking on English Premier League champions Manchester United at Red Bull Arena (8:30pm, ESPN).

The MLS All-Stars will be looking for a measure of revenge after last year's 5-2 MLS All-Star Game loss, though this year's squad is a stronger one than the 2010 edition.

Fredy Montero did it again.

The Colombian striker helped lead the red-hot Seattle Sounders to another victory, contributing to multiple goals in a 4-3 win against reigning MLS Cup champions Colorado.

If this sounds familiar it's because Montero was the star of the show last week, and just like last week, Montero has once again earned SBI MLS Player of the Week honors for his heroics.

Ryo Miyaichi the Japanese wunderkid embarks on the South East Asia tour

After weeks of the never ending tragicomedy spectacle of the media getting pretzel shaped over Samir Nasri and Cesc Fabregas, Arsene Wenger finally broke radio silence vowing to fight as hard as possible to keep both players at the club.

The long-rumored USA-Belgium friendly has yet to be announced by the U.S. Soccer Federation, but the Belgian FA isn't wasting time promoting the match, posting an announcement that the friendly is set for Sept. 6th in Brussels.

UPDATED- U.S. Soccer officials confirmed to Fox Soccer on Friday evening that the USA-Belgium friendly will take place and an announcement will take place next week.

With each loss and draw, the next game becomes that much more important. That means that this Saturday's game against a bottom-dwelling Sporting Kansas City is far more important than any the has come before it. At this point in the season, points are needed. Confidence needs to be regained. The team needs to figure out who they are and how they're going to get to the play-offs.

Well it was bound to happen at some point this week. It seems like everybody and their mother has an opinion on the controversial sending off of Thierry Henry late in the game last Sunday. I've linked a few of the articles here (for good reason) and it seems like most thought it was unfair. I tend to agree, but it's really not as clear as most people would probably want or expect it to be.

Turn your clocks back around the early 2000's and you'll find Major League Soccer on the verge of extinction. Teams folding, weak crowds and a marketing campaign that was clearly in disarray. Even on the backs of the United State's impressive 2002 World Cup run, MLS was a bit lost. Recently though, MLS has gone through a resurrection.

Javier Morales is the latest victim of MLS's rough play.
Chivas USA's Marcos Mondaini slid into Morales from behind and took out the RSL star. Mondaini broke Morales' ankle and the injury required surgery and will knock him out of action for at least four months, possibly the rest of the season.

Seeing the Seattle Mariners' struggles recently, the Seattle Sounders decided to change it up today, dropping this whole soccer thing and picking up bats and gloves. It turns out, many of those lovable faces we see on the pitch can actually play a little softball, including members of the walking wounded.

Manchester United standouts Ryan Giggs, Wayne Rooney and Chris Smalling talk about United's ability to grind out results and the attitude in the locker room for the team that is chasing the English Premier League title.

"It was a message to Arsenal and Chelsea," said Ryan Giggs, who was moved to left-back for the second half against West Ham but played like an auxiliary left‑winger.

Photo by ISIPhotos.com

The list of missing players was like a Who's-Who of New York Red Bulls standouts. Thierry Henry, Juan Agudelo, Rafa Marquez, Tim Ream, Dane Richards and goalkeepers Bouna Coundoul and Greg Sutton were all missing from the Red Bulls' lineup on Saturday, but that didn't stop New York from earning a tough road point against an Eastern Conference rival.

Here is the line-up for the Argentina Vs Venezuela (friendly) on Mar 16th in San Juan, Argentina. The coach, Sergio Batista, is going to experiment with an "all domestic" team from Argentina's 1st Division to see which standouts he can eventually include to the main all-star team which includes all the top international players (Messi, Tevez, Mascherano .

Here is the line-up for the Argentina Vs Venezuela (friendly) on Mar 16th in San Juan, Argentina. The coach, Sergio Batista, is going to experiment with an "all domestic" team from Argentina's 1st Division to see which standouts he can eventually include to the main all-star team which includes all the top international players (Messi, lavezzi, Mascherano .

Midfielders JC Banks (Milwaukee Riverside/UW-Green Bay) and David Prochazka (UW-Green Bay) won't be offered contracts by BK Häcken, the Swedish club announced Monday.

The former Phoenix standouts had been on trial with the top-level Allsvenskan club in Gothenburg for the past three weeks.

The Portland Timbers have already stockpiled an impressive collection of attacking talent, but John Spencer's squad isn't done adding weapons.

According to sources within MLS, Portland is set to bring Colombian striker Jorge Perlaza on trial and the Timbers are on the verge of signing the 25-year-old Colombian.

U.S. Under-20 national team striker Bobby Wood was one of the standouts of the recent U-20 camp, and his stellar form has helped earn him a place on the 1860 Munich first team.

Wood joins the first team just a week after 1860 Munich parted ways with another American striker, Kenny Cooper, who has signed with the Portland Timbers.

The Portland Timbers bolstered their attack at last week's MLS Draft with the selection of Akron striker Darlington Nagbe, and now the Timbers have officially added an ideal partner for Nagbe in former U.S. national team striker Kenny Cooper.

Portland announced the acquisition of Cooper on Monday, pending receipt of his international transfer certificate.

It was a warm, sunny day today at Ft Lauderdale Staddium when the U-20 USMNT played a scrimmage against our Strikers. It was all around an odd setting for a match such as this, but it was an interesting game none the less.
The U-20 came out with a full 25 man roster against a Strikers scrimmage team wearing all black Soccer Locker sponsored kit.