Leo decided to include some surprises in our starting lineup for the Ukraine friendly. Have a look.

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• I was disappointed to see how many empty seats there were at Hull City's KC Stadium. I know this was only a friendly, but come on. These players are the future of England's national team, and the already small stadium wasn't even half-full to watch them.

• I liked the 4-3-3 employed by Pearce. Click to continue reading...

Not much to say about this one, Hillcrest Road has a small write up, including the starting lineup for the reserves. Creighton's website has a little bit more, including the time of the Wizards lone goal, in the 86th minute by Ivan Trujillo from Creighton alum, Michael Kraus. Unfortunately that's about all the info you can get from the two write ups on the game. Click to continue reading...

Manchester City striker Valeri Bojinov has been cursed with yet another horrific injury that will rule him out for the next six months. The Bulgarian international has only just recovered from damaging his knee ligaments 12 months ago and he was set to start the first match on the Premiership's opening round of matches. Click to continue reading...

The Chicago Fire and D.C. United rekindle one of the most heated rivalries in MLS tonight as D.C. travels to Toyota Park to face Cuauhtemoc Blanco for the first time since his U.S. Open Cup dust-up against D.C. last month.

The match marks the debut of newly-acquired Fire forward Brian McBride, who will make his first appearance since leaving Fulham and signing with MLS.

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Gerry McDonnell returned from his holidays on Thursday evening drunk, overweight and sporting a god-awful beard. He missed preseason, but we have no hesitation in sticking him straight in the starting lineup for the opening weekend of the Premier League. Let's hope his 're-entry' into society goes better than Joey Barton's rehabilitation (or lack thereof). Click to continue reading...

Unless something drastic changes, there is quite a bit of talent and experience that will be absent for Chivas USA against the Galaxy on Thursday.

Now, that doesn't mean that the club will field a reserve team or anything but there are concerns over certain aspects of Chivas USA's potential lineup. Click to continue reading...

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The task is simple, but far from easy. Avoid defeat against Nigeria and the U.S. men's Olympic team advances to the quarterfinals of the tournament. Secure a victory against Nigeria and the Americans advance AND avoid facing Argentina in the quarters.

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When Jaime Moreno scored what seemed like his 100th career goal against the Red Bulls on Sunday you got the distinct feeling that the season was ready to slip away for the New York squad.

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The Olympics are set to kick off for the U.S. men's national team on Thursday morning against Japan, which means that in less than two days we will know who head coach Peter Nowak has chosen to start.

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I considered making the hour drive to RFK on Sunday morning to see the DC Reserves in action, but decided to play an impromptu game of tennis for the first time in 8 years against by brother-in-law. The good news: I still got it. The bad news: The Reserves lost.

But just in reading the summary of the match, there are several juicy tidbits that could have an impact on the first team:

1. Click to continue reading...

God, that felt good. The losing streak ends at four, and it's back to winning ways in the league as United holds serve at home against KC. Missing a big chunk of the starting lineup to suspension and injury, I suppose any sort of win would have been acceptable tonight. Still, there was something vaguely unsatisfying about the 2-0 victory, but we'll get to that. Click to continue reading...

It is with great joy that TFC fans reminisce about FC Dallas' last (and only) visit to BMO Field. The 4-0 thrashing with which we sent them back to Texas on Fathers' Day 2007 was (and is to date) the greatest margin of victory in TFC history. With the way things have been going of late however, I'm sure John Carver and the boys would be happy with any sort of win tomorrow.

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Greetings from RFK Stadium, home of D.C. United. The stadium is old but comfy for the home side usually, but they've struggled recently at home.

Will Daniel is in town for this match again. If you don't recall a story from earlier this year, check it out here. Daniel first met Jimmy Conrad back in 1997 when Conrad was a member of UCLA's NCAA Final 4 team. Click to continue reading...

D.C. United gets back into it tonight when the Kansas City Wizards visit RFK Stadium at 7:30 p.m. United and the Wizards are two of four Eastern Conference teams currently tied for fourth place with 22 points each, so tonight's game serves as an opportunity to provide a little separation in the muddied standings.

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D.C. United newest player, Ivan Guerrero joined United today for his first training session. With several injuries still holding players out and Gonzalo Martinez unavailable due to last game's red card, the left-sided player may very well be in the starting lineup tomorrow evening against the Wizards.

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We bring you this brief interruption to the MSR with the news that DC United has acquired Ivan Guerrero from the Earthquakes. The best endorsement of Guerrero has to be this one (http://blog.washingtonpost.com/soccerinsider/2008/07/greetings_from_rfk_1.html) from Bryan Namoff: "He took us apart in the playoffs [with Chicago].

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As hinted to in earlier posts, it's almost time for my second annual Premiership preview.

Beginning this Friday, August 1, I'll be covering two teams a day for 10 days, starting with the club I believe will finish dead last this year and working my way up in order to the eventual league champion. Click to continue reading...

I'm going to mix things up with this one. Simplicity and quick thoughts from this weekend.

San Jose Earthquakes 1 New York Red Bulls 1: Francisco Lima and Darren Huckerby are continuing to prove they are making easy work in transiting to MLS. However Huckerby's thirteenth minute goal has to bail out San Jose after Eric Denton's unique own goal four minute in.

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Bobby Boswell had a stunning start to his MLS career. He went undrafted but immediately won a place in D.C. United's starting lineup, which was short on defenders after losing Ryan Nelsen to England. The next year, he was the MLS defender of the year. The next year, he was in and out of the lineup at D.

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Good evening folks. I'm coming to you from BMO Field and we're less than two hours from kick-off of the 2008 MLS All-Star game between MLS and West Ham United.

The fans haven't been let in yet but I can see them stacked outside the gates. A sell-out crowd is expected tonight and it will be interesting to see how Toronto fans embrace an MLS All-Star team that may have no Canadians in the starting lineup.

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Kickoff is just around the corner and Tom Soehn has named his starting lineup. With a few tired players after a bunch of games during the last month, the coaching staff has decided to rest a few key players. Here's the eleven that will take the field to start against Houston:

Zach Wells; Bryan Namoff, Pat Carroll, Devon McTavish, Marc Burch; Craig Thompson, Clyde Simms, Fred, Ryan Cordeiro; Luciano Emilio, Francis Doe.

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Good morning all. The end of a very busy and news-filled week is upon us and as we wind down toward Saturday's MLS schedule (and David Beckham's return to the New York area), it is time to catch up on some news and notes from the soccer world.

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Fantasy Soccer Bootroom is a weekly column devoted to the ins and outs of fantasy soccer, especially the game played on www.mfls.com, and the RevMFLS division. Last week I talked about how it isn't always a bad thing to take a zero from a player in your starting lineup when his team is on bye or [... Click to continue reading...

As the All-Star rosters are now official, its time to put together the group of eleven that didn't make but had a damn good reason for making it. I've stated my opinion on some that got snubbed but figured that it would be best to put out a full starting lineup of guys that didn't [...] Click to continue reading...