Brian Nielsen Playing Soccer: A Rare SightThe bulk of the New York Red Bulls squad gathered today at Montclair State University for the first training session of the 2012 season. It was a chance for new arrivals such as Ryan Meara and Jonathan Borrajo to meet their new teammates (well most of them anyway) and begin the process of building up fitness.

Holgersson: Defensive Help on the Way?"Quiet" doesn't begin to describe the New York Red Bulls media profile since the 2011 season ended. The only addition to date has been young homegrown signing Connor Lade, while a whopping ten players have departed, according to the club's official "Transaction Central" page.

A couple days after seemingly every news outlet in Sweden announced the signing, the Seattle Sounders made it official: Adam Johansson has joined the team on a multi-year deal. Johansson has played most of his professional career with Swedish power IFK Goteburg and has seen semi-regular time with the Swedish national team since making his international debut in 2009 against the United States and playing in three World Cup qualifiers that year.

USWNT Coach Pia Sundhage has said she wants to coach the Swedish national team when her contract with the U.S. expires in 2012. It would be a big loss for the U.S., but understandable as Sweden is Sundhage's home.

Sundhage told Swedish news agency TT on Sunday she would gladly say "yes, thank you!

As a Swede watching Swedish players and the Swedish national team, it's hard to view the whole game of football without taking sides. This can be about the value and treatment of certain players at certain clubs and it can also be about the way the national team plays and should play. To some degree its my job on this blog to give my opinion, yet before I do so I should always try stop first and give my thoughts some time to really develop and go below the surface-level emotions.

The Swedish Football Association and Umbro have launched the 2011 away kit of the Swedish national team. The Sweden 2011/12 away kit wil be worn by team captain Zlatan Ibrahimović and the rest of the Blågult (The Blue-Yellow) for their EURO 2012 away qualifiers and international friendlies over the next year.

It's taken me a little while to come up with a good way to re-start this blog about the Swedish national team. I'll start by introducing myself. I am half-Swedish, half-American and live in Germany at the moment. Its hard not to take an interest in football while living in [read more]