Photo by David Bernal/ISIphotos.com

Joel Lindpere might not be a Designated Player like Thierry Henry or Rafa Marquez, but he arguably means the most out of anybody to the potential success of the New York Red Bulls. That makes the club's announcement Tuesday that he isn't going anywhere anytime soon all the more notable.

Freddy Adu spoke to Arch Bell of ESPN.com and, in a column published Monday, expressed an interest in returning to Europe immediately.

The money quote from Adu is here: "It would be an amazing opportunity to be able to stay here at Rayo [Vallecano]."

"I definitely miss playing in Europe," Adu continued, "I always said that when I went back to MLS, I wanted stability, and that I wouldn't go back until I could play for a top-five league.

I wanted to toss out my predictions for the playoffs (insert obligatory Jim Mora reference here). Also, I'd like to see what other people think and what their predictions are. Since I pretty much don't follow any other teams except for the Fire, I don't know a whole lot about these teams outside of the basics, so a lot of my predictions are based off intuition.

With no national availability for the Colorado - Columbus wildcard game, Major League Soccer is making it freely available online at 10pm ET. La Liga on ESPN Deportes: Espanyol - Real Betis at 2pm. On GolTV: Atletico Madrid - Bilbao at 4pm. Serie A on Fox Soccer Plus: Palermo - Lecce at 2:30pm.

By Jason Davis - WASHINGTON, DC (Oct 26, 2011) US Soccer Players -- A scan of Major League Soccer's wildcard qualifiers reveals a collection of teams with significant problems. Over the course of the season, by virtue of inconsistency, injury, or simply not being good enough to challenge the League's best, New York, FC Dallas, Columbus and Colorado mostly bumbled their way into the playoffs.

Coping without a key player is nothing new for the New York Red Bulls, but they'll have to find a way to do so again in order to maintain hopes of a deep playoff run.

Manager Hans Backe confirmed to reporters that Luke Rodgers won't be available for Wednesday night's wildcard playoff game at FC Dallas as he deals with a knee injury.

With their win over LA tonight, the Houston Dynamo finalized the playoff seedings. With that we have a better idea now of who the Wizards will face in the conference semifinals. Of the four wild card teams, Dallas is the 7th seed, Colorado 8th, Columbus 9th, and New York 10th. KC will play the highest of the remaining wildcard teams after the wild card round.

By DAVE GUBALA

BRIDGEVIEW, Ill.-- When the Chicago Fire and Columbus Crew squared off on Saturday night it was the Crew that had everything to play for and the Fire just playing out the string. You wouldn't have known it based on how both teams came out though, as the Fire completed a strong finish to the 2011 season with another victory while the Crew stumbled their way into the post-season.

Angel's Goal Sealed the Deal the Last Time Philly Played a League Game at RBAI exchanged three questions with Scott Kessler, editor of Philadelphia Union SBNation blog The Brotherly Game, in advance of tonight's big game at Red Bull Arena. You can find my responses to his queries by clicking here.

Week 29 filled all but one playoff slot, with the order in the Eastern Conference still to be determined. After a multi-goal stoppage time finish to the DC - Chicago game, New York, Portland, Chicago, and DC remain in contention for the final wildcard slot. Portland 0 - Houston 2 Home field counted for very little for the timbers on Friday, shutout by Houston.

James Grossi covers MLS with a focus on the Eastern Conference for TSG

The Preamble

MVP candidate Dominic Oduro has le....wait Dominic Oduro! Yes, MVP candidate Dominic Oduro has led the Fire to the cusp of the playoffs....

A cursory glance at the MLS standings could give the impression that there is an imbalance of power between the Western and Eastern Conferences.

Real Salt Lake could be a wild card team this post season. (Getty Images)

It seems as each season goes in Major League Soccer, the wild card positions in the playoffs seem to be the ones with the most to gain and the least to lose.

Just taking a gander at the teams who have won a MLS Cup over the last couple of seasons and it was easy to figure out why the wildcard spots are so valuable these days.

I bet many of the managers in English Premier League would like to have one wildcard in their possession when the season begins. Unfortunately they don't, but the players of fantasy premier league get, not only one but two wildcards to use. One you can use any time of the season and the other during gameweeks 20 to 23.

Tomorrow is the first of two games against Cascadian rivals the Vancouver Whitecaps. Each team has been playing each other consistently since 2001 and both were elevated to MLS together this year. Unfortunately for both sides it appears that the Cascadia Cup trophy is the last piece of silverware within grasp for each team.

As the Seattle Sounders travel later today to Commerce City, CO to take on the Colorado Rapids this has been set-up as a battle between the annually good and the suddenly Cup Champions. The Rapids did not just sit on their hands during the off-season, but traded a few players away, acquired several Seattle players through various mechanisms and even added a fringe EPL player in Caleb Folan.

Big gameweek for Fantasy Premier League managers. A massive double gameweek. The January wildcard could be thrown around and managers could potentially field a squad of 11 double gameweek players without taking a transfer points hit... Tempting! Aston Villa, Fulham, ... Continue reading →

US Soccer fans what hath thou wrought?
First the NFL employs a playoff ad campaign that mimics the viral video of fans celebrating Landon Donovan's goal against Algeria during the group stage of the 2010 World Cup finals. Now, now . . . somebody gives the same treatment to Nick Folk's game winning 32 yard field goal from this past weekend's wildcard game that saw the New York Jets defeat the Indianapolis Colts.