The Rapids played their first friendly of the preseason today against the Ventura County Fusion at Oxnard College in California. The game was a scoreless draw and with no coverage its hard to draw much of anything from the result, but here are the starting lineups for each half (* denotes trialist):
1st Half:
Cascio - Amarikwa - AkpanThompson - Nane - LaBauexFreeman - Marshall - Palguta - Zapata*Ceus
2nd Half:
Angulo* - Archer* - ArmstrongThompson - Nane - Guido*Huazo* - Marshall - Palguta - AbabioJoyce
Obviously this was a game for some of the reserves to try to make their mark in competing for a starting spot.

As I mentioned in my earlier Hat Trick post, we will have a gamethread on HTIOT going for the USMNT match tonight. The US will look to carry over the momentum from their win at the death vs. Venezuela into tonight's match. I am pretty excited to see how the USA will look tonight against an up-and-coming Panama side.

The U-23 back line had its guts ripped out yesterday in a 4-0 win to the Nats. Goals came from Chris Wondolowski, Benny Feilhaber, Teal Bunbury and Graham Zusi. SKC represent. Here were your starting lineups. Currently hunting around for a highlight vid. Will update as it comes. - Will Parchman

Landon Donovan and Brad Friedel's highly-anticipated match-up is finally here.

The two Americans are both in their respective team's starting lineups, as is Tim Howard, for Tottenham's home game against Everton (2:45 p.m., Fox Soccer Channel). Donovan will look to help the Toffees upset the Spurs in his third game back while also attempting to silence one his most recent critics in Friedel in the process.

Mario Balotelli's latest indiscretion is no laughing matter | Richard Williams

Colourful and crazy as ever, the Manchester City striker is in hot water again after his red card at Anfield A great game for English football," Charlie Adam said afterwards. Not, however, a great game of English football, at least in the sense of one typifying national characteristics.

Old reliable: Underrated Todd Dunivant, as Dane Richards and the New York Red Bulls would testify, has been among the chief reasons for the Galaxy's smothering defense this season (Photo by Getty Images).

The telecast from a sold-out Home Depot Center in Carson is set to start at 6 p.

While the U.S. senior national team was busy getting a result in Slovenia, the U.S. Under-23 side training in Germany played to a draw and lost in a pair of friendlies against Bayer Leverkusen reserve and youth sides.

A few days after topping VfL Bochum's reserve team and drawing against Azerbaijan's U-21 side, the U-23s jumped out to a lead on a team comprised of Leverkusen's reserves and U-23s but settled for a 1-1 draw.

Cherundolo is one of three players on the U.S. roster who is the captain of his club team
Here's all the news and notes you need to get prepped for the USA's first match against France since 1979, and the first ever in the famed Stade de France. A few to get you started ..

Photo: Nicolae Stoian

After the Philadelphia Union gave away the lead to draw with Houston at PPL Park on August 6, we posted an article that, among other topics, looking at the consistency question. The question wasn't so much consistency on the field—little did we know that the Union were in the beginnings of an eight game winless streak.

Photo: Nicolae Stoian

Philadelphia Union manager Peter Nowak can prove Sunday just how good a manager he really is.

It will happen when the starting lineup is announced.

Outsiders may think Nowak's a potential coach of the year, but those who follow the Union closely know he's been a better executive than a chooser of starting lineups.

Tomorrow night the Rapids play their final group stage game of the Champions League in Torreon, Mexico against Santos Laguna. With a win Colorado will clinch 2nd place in the group and a spot in the quarterfinals. With an extremely unlikely 4 goal win they will win the group. A draw or loss does not eliminate them, but it leaves their fate in the hands of Real Espana and Isidro Metapan who play on Thursday.

Gillette Stadium Before The Gates Opened

New England Revolution and the Columbus Crew met in the Revs last home game of what has been a miserable season. New England comes into this match with a record of 5-15-12 while Columbus is 12-12-8.

While the Revs are playing for pride, a win for Columbus puts them in the playoffs.

Here is all the news and notes to get you ready for USA-Ecuador. Allow us to select some highlights ...

• Tim Howard and Carlos Bocanegra are the only two players to have started all four matches since head coach Jurgen Klinsmann began. Brek Shea has started three and entered as a sub once (against Mexico), while Agudelo has come on as a substitute in all four.

Join us here at HTIOT tonight at 10PM CST for our first USMNT game thread. I will be posting starting lineups and subs once they become available. It should be a pretty interesting game. I have read a few things that Jurgen may be moving Landon Donovan from his usual position to try him in a different capacity.

Faroe Islands v. Italy
2/9/2011 • 20:45 CET • Tórsvøllur, Torshavn (FRO)
Referee: Tamás Bognar (HUN)

Never underestimate that Viking spirit, but never forget the four stars you wear, either.

Starting Lineups:

Italy:

4-3-1-2: Buffon; Maggio, Ranocchia, Chiellini, Criscito; Thiago Motta, Pirlo, De Rossi, Montolivo; Cassano, Rossi.

Photo: Nicolae Stoian

The question of consistent selection with the Union starting lineups has vexed the team's supporters from the start of the season. Except for the defensive starters. The defensive starters have been comfortingly predictable, apart from three occasions involving illness or suspension—one of which happened to overlap with a transfer that came out of nowhere and resulted in a new back four.

They won't be smiling tonight... we hope.

Starting Lineups
Bolton Wanderers: Bogdan, Riley, Wheater, Knight, Alonso, Eagles, Petrov, M Davies, Pratley, Tuncay, Blake
Macclesfield Town: Veiga, Tremarco, Kay, Brown, Chalmers, Draper, Sinclair, Diagne, Brisley, Wedgbury, Hewitt

Klasnic has a go at goal. Will we see him strike again today?

Starting Lineups
Bolton Wanderers: Jaaskelainen, Steinsson, Cahill, Knight, Robinson, Eagles, Muamba, Reo-Coker, Petrov, K Davies, Klasnic
Manchester City: Hart, Richards, Kompany, Lescott, Milner, Dzeko, Kolarov, Aguero, Barry, Silva, Y Toure

Photo: Daniel Gajdamowicz

On the day when US Soccer officially entered the Jurgen Klinsmann era, it was fitting that within a 90 minute match, the quality of play on either side of halftime served to contrast a past system that lacked creativity with a new future of bright, attacking soccer.

I love the MLS All-Star format and don't think they should change – and I definitely don't believe the league should acquiesce to a fresh round of reactionary East v. West sentiment.

But, I certainly think some tweaking of the event is in order. Nothing says, "tweak" like a 4-0 ass-whuppin, especially one that comes one year after a 5-2 ass-whuppin.

MLS just played its All Star Game, which as we all know was Manchester United against an MLS All-Star 11 who had never played meaningful minutes together prior to Tuesday's training session. That was always bound to not end well, and it ended in predictable fashion, 4-0 to United (following a 5-2 loss last season).

Coming up with projected starting lineups for tonight's CONCACAF Champions League qualifier between the Seattle Sounders and Panama's San Francisco FC was no easy task. Dave and I ended up using what has become a pretty standard starting XI with one significant change: Mike Fucito starting alongside Fredy Montero.

A three-match road trip for the Philadelphia Union (7-4-6) continues tonight in Santa Clara, California, with the club taking on Chris Wondolowski and the San Jose Earthquakes (5-6-6). Philadelphia looks to keep pace with the New York Red Bulls in the Eastern Conference, while San Jose looks to continue their recent turnaround in the hopes of returning to the postseason.

The New York Red Bulls will be fielding one of their strongest starting lineups in some time when they take on Toronto FC at Red Bull Arena tonight.

Thierry Henry and Luke Rodgers are in the starting lineup together again after having missed playing time with injuries and illness.

For the 16th consecutive season and the second against Seattle the Galaxy are at home for Independence Day. How many of you have attended every game?

The Galaxy boast a 10-game unbeaten streak, the Sounders have four wins in 11 days and something has to give between two teams separated by just four points in the MLS standings who meet each other again July 12 or 13 in the Pacific Northwest in the U.

In their first stop on a three-match road trip, the Philadelphia Union (7-4-5) are in our nation's capitol to take on regional rival DC United (4-5-6). The Union look to gain a valuable road result and stay on top of the Eastern Conference, while DC attempts to create a little bit of separation between themselves and the clubs in the bottom half of the conference.

You'll have to forgive us. This has been a busy week and I didn't get around to updating the Seattle Sounders stats in this. This is really just a best guess as far as starting lineups go and I wouldn't be surprised if we ended up being more accurate on our Kitsap Pumas projections (thanks David Falk of GoalWA.

The U-17 USMNT started off their World Cup with a bang Sunday, easily handling the Czech Republic en route to a comfortable 3-0 victory. Although the senior US team has never won in Mexico, the U-17 team braved the heat in Torreon, Mexico to net their first win of the WC. Alejandro Guido, Esteban Rodriguez, and Alfred Koroma all netted for the US.

USA 0 - 4 Spain

Maybe the big discussion from Saturday's clinic inside Gillette Stadium shouldn't be about starting lineups and the wisdom of U.S. coach Bob Bradley deploying a "B team" in a match that bumps up against an important tournament -- although there is certainly a hardy debate there.

In case you haven't noticed, projecting the starting lineups for the Seattle Sounders this year has been ... well ... tough. Rarely has the same group of 11 been rolled out in consecutive matches, and it seems unlikely that we're going to get that this week. Against Sporting Kansas City, we're projecting Erik Friberg to start on the right with Servando Carrasco in the middle, but who knows?

The weekend's action saw three American center backs in their teams' starting lineups, with Michael Parkhurst the only one to come away victorious in Nordsjaelland's win over Silkeborg.

The Philly Soccer Page » Who's driving this thing?
As the Union return to Earth from their improbable early season success, questions abound as the defense tires and the offense continues to sputter. Despite an excellent start against Dallas, the Union netted another goose egg and looked mentally fragile as they folded like a card table once Brek Shea broke the deadlock.

As you can see, we have not exactly been hitting it out of the ballpark with our projected starting lineups. A lot of that is out of our control as injuries and players returning from injury have made it pretty tough. Still, we soldier on and keep giving it our best shot. This week, the Seattle Sounders host Toronto FC with two big absences: Steve Zakuani and O'Brian White.

It's time for the first leg of the CONCACAF Champions League final. Monterrey of Mexico will host Real Salt Lake of the USA. Who will be the newest winner of CONCACAF's highest club competition? Follow along below! Monterrey - Real Salt Lake 1900 Kickoff time in Arizona time (GMT -7). Commentary after the jump.

By ALAN LEDBETTER

When I said that New York would have a good match up against San Jose, I was not expecting Luke Rodgers to be the main beneficiary. Rodgers notched two goals and an assist in NewYork's beating of San Jose causing many fantasy implications.

When the starting lineups for the game were announced, the many Juan Agudelo fantasy owners were left scratching their heads.

Tomorrow night, the Philadelphia Union will begin their participation in the 2011 edition of the US Open Cup. The Union will have to win three games to earn a spot in the tournament proper, which they would enter at the Round of 16 along with 7 other MLS clubs.

The Union's first game will be at the Maryland Soccerplex against DC United.

When the Chicago Fire and the Colorado Rapids lined up for the National Anthem, it looked like a tale of two cities. Chicago's starting XI mirrored something close to their best squad while Colorado's... well it just did not. Spectators at Shea Stadium in Peoria had to wonder if smoke was preventing them from seeing the full Colorado bench.

Looking Back at the 2007 U20 FIFA World Cup
Vein of Form recently lashed out at the development (or lack thereof) of the youth players in the US Soccer system. There is a serious cause for concern when you look at the current squad and see very few young, exciting and talented players working their way into the squad.

Andrew Hauptman kept referring to Manchester United vs. Chicago Fire as an 'expectation' last week because the Fire couldn't officially announce anything. Well today you could say that the expectation has been met and on Saturday, July 23rd at 7:00 PM, Manchester United will take Soldier Field to play against the Chicago Fire.

USA lineup and tactics:

Bob Bradley chose a 4-5-1/4-3-3 shape with a trio of central midfielders and attacking outside mids/wingers to support a lone center forward. The back 4 consisted of Jonathan Spector on the right, Oguchi Onyewu and Jay DeMerit in the middle, and Carlos Bocanegra on the left.