I posed some statements to the other writers of Stumptown Footy and asked them to buy or sell the statement with a brief explanation. Here are our answers:

Kris Boyd will score 10+ goals this season. Andrew:

Sell. I've held this opinion close to my chest. I want to believe that Boyd is going to be the goalscorer the Timbers organization has cast their lot in, but to me there are still just a few too many questions.

MISL Press Release: Wichita's Perez Named Player of the Week Scored game-winning goal in Wings' overtime victory against Lancers TAMPA, Fla. – The Major Indoor Soccer League announced on...
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The season is just over a month away and the roster is almost completely set. Of course there is still the possibility of adding a few more pieces or dropping a few of the newer players. For the most part the Timbers have the core of their starting line-up signed. With all the changes to the roster will John Spencer go away from the 4-4-2 formation or will he go with a different formation?

First week's training has finally concluded. It was a good week and I hope you guys enjoyed our coverage of it. We really tried to get to as many trainings as possible and, I believe, we only missed one so we were able to cover most bases. Heading into next week we'll try something similar, but I'm not sure if we'll be able to keep up the same pace.

Jurgen Klinsman, Jermaine Jones and Ricardo Clark. The first a German, and famous at that. The second a mix of American and German, currently playing his club ball with Schalke 04 in der fatherland. The third born in America, a defensive midfielder in the 2nd Bundesliga for Eintracht Frankfurt. Could it be some hidden understanding from this shared German-ness that pushed Klinsman to pick Clark off the bench, and for Jones to find the late substitute with a perfectly dipped cross?

Now that the Timbers have a compliment of 30 players total we can sort of assume that the team is going to settle down a bit and look towards building for their starting 11 in March. I know, I know the hot rumor is that a third DP will be coming soon as a true #9 striker. But even without him we can sort of piece together how the squad will look in this upcoming season as compared to last year.

It's always nice to know that people read your work, and when they do they take it to heart. Clearly, Pablo Hernández has a good understanding of English and reads The Offside, because just days after I called him rubbish and whatnot, he put on a blinder of a performance against Levante in the Copa del Rey.

While the final score was not what the Comets were looking for, the game was still a success. Over 8,200 tickets sold and a bunch of fans got to see a traditional back and forth Comets-Wings rivalry game. Throw in a fun reunion game, retro jersey's auctioned off for charity and the presentation of the Turnpike Trophy to the Comets, it all added up to a fun evening.

Here's play by play for tonight's game.
<a href="http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php/option=com_mobile/task=viewaltcast/altcast_code=fd839b1465" >Comets v Wings PBP</a>

"...And let's not forget brent richards who could help on MF wings sooner than later. Very good day. More news next week #rctid"

VIA MP's Twitter and now I can't wait!!!!

Tottenham Hotspur tonight moved level on points with second placed Manchester United after a performance of patience and high quality.

Everton turned up at The Lane as many teams now do, to sit deep and try and frustrate Spurs. It's to the credit of Harry Redknapp and his team that they didn't get frustrated and saw the opposition off to seal the points.

Thursday's SuperDraft will be here before we know it. I'll be fairly busy with the day job over the next day and a half but I did want to get this up today. With one final day of the Combine, teams are hoping to fill as many holes in this draft as they possibly can. Some teams will only get one shot at it (FC Dallas) while others have a few chances to add depth (Toronto).

Take a quick look at the scores from around the MISL this past weekend:
Silver Knights 6 - 21 Blast
Comets 7 - 11 Wave
Lancers 5 - 8 Blast
Comets 13 - 10 Wings
*Comets take home first annual Turnpike Trophy
Revolucion 14 - 13 Bolts

Bolts 6 - 13 Sockers

Piasa 5 - 15 Lightning
Piasa 3 - 12 Waza
Sockers 10 - 3 Monsoon

The Missouri Comets wrapped up the Turnpike Trophy last night in Wichita taking out the Wings 13-10 to take the season series with a game remaining. KC now has 4 wins to Wichita's 1. Missouri opened the game quickly, as Brian Harris blasted a 3 point goal only 2 minutes into the game to give the Comets the lead.

The beast from the North East

Prologue: Salvador, up in northern Brazil, is so unlike Rio and Sao Paulo, the rest of the country refers to Bahiaians rudely as "slow". As I trudged through the late afternoon sun looking for the Newcastle Man Utd game, it struck me that the heat may have something to do with it.

News started to leak out last night on through Thad, and today it was officially announced that the Missouri Comets have added to their roster by signing former Sporting KC midfielder, Craig Rocastle. Rocastle had been waived by Sporting at the end of this past season after two years with the club. Rocastle should be available for Friday's match up against Milwaukee and then in Wichita to take on the Wings on Saturday.

Here's your play by play for the game tonight between the Comets and the Wings.

This announcement should add a lot more motivation to both franchises, players and coaches in Wichita and Missouri:

Wings and Comets Announce Rival Series

Currently, the Comets have a head start towards winning the trophy first as they are leading the season series 2-0.

Now we just want to see a picture of the so called Turnpike Trophy.

Garrincha, the little bird

Translated by Gordon Fleetwood with help from his friend Jorge

Garrincha é o nome de um passarinho alegre, cor de terra

[Garrincha is the name of a little bird, color of the earth]

Que quem apelidou Manoel Francisco dos Santos "Mané Garrincha", conhecia tanto o rapaz quanto o passarinho.

Peruse the Sunderland fan forums and you'll find quite a few optimistic fans. Despite our brilliant form of late, following our defeat against Stoke, Sunderland's win against Blackburn and the appointment of Martin O'Neill, a few of the Sunderland fans genuinely think they will win this match and that "Spurs ain't all that" and "we've just been built up by sky and the media into thinking we're something we're not".

Peter Nowak and the Philadelphia Union introduced their first summer signing today. Josue Martinez is a 21-year old Costa Rican international who fits the Nowak mold as someone who can slot in at multiple positions. ""He's a very humble guy. He has a different qualities with his speed, and can play as a central striker or on the wing," Nowak said.

Image: jutarnji.hr.

We love taking nervous boys under our (pterodactyl-like) wings and er... offering consolation. This is exactly what we were planning when we saw this photo of Yoann Gourcuff arriving in Croatia for Lyon's crunch Champions League tie vs. Dinamo Zagreb. With the benefit of hindsight, we needn't have bothered.

Late Dempsey Winner Leaves Liverpool Deflated

Bellamy already laughing? Fearless! Lol... (Now is it me or is this picture a lot worse what with being a role model, compared to a petulant sticking up of the finger? Yeah, i said it. Why didn't the papers use this as their main match report picture?

The Syracuse Silver Knights rode into Wichita with a 3-4 record on Friday night. The Knights started things off quickly scoring in the first twelve seconds of the game, but that would prove to be half of their team's points as the Wings came back with twelve unanswered points. After Syracuse finally got a break with their second goal, Jamar Beasley answered with back-to-back goals.

By Cliff Fox
The Syracuse Silver Knights rode into Wichita with a 3-4 record on Friday night. The Knights started things off quickly scoring in the first twelve seconds of the game, but that would prove to be half of their teams points as the Wings answered with twelve unanswered points, and after Syracuse finally got a break with their second goal, Jamar Beasley answered with back to back goals.

It is that time of the year to start speculating on exactly what the Portland Timbers' roster needs are for the next year. For starters we need to take a look at the most used formations by John Spencer and the Timbers and then fill in what the Timbers still have on the roster.

Formation(s):

The Timbers employed a 4-4-2 for almost the first half of the season.

And with that, our official season-in-crisis reaches new heights. A paltry first place in our Champions League group and the top striker on the planet. Worst start in 58 years and we're even with Spurs and they're having they're best start in 47.*

Anyway, first a picture, then on to the match report:

* I read that somewhere.

And with that, our official season-in-crisis reaches new heights. A paltry first place in our Champions League group and the top striker on the planet. Worst start in 58 years and we're even with Spurs and they're having they're best start in 47.*

Anyway, first a picture, then on to the match report:

* I read that somewhere.

The best team won. Simple as that.

It was a tough game. Dortmund are a top class side. Klopp set his team up to defend and play on the break. It worked for large parts of the game as the visitors limited Arsenal to just 3 shots on target. But such was the Gunners' quality in the final third that two of those went in.

By Joel Greenwaldt
The Blast begin a five game road trip this evening when they take on the Missouri Comets at 8:35pm. The game can be seen live at www.misllivesoccer.com. Baltimore will try to avoid an 0-2 start to the season against a Missouri team who is playing extremely well right now and sits at 3-0.

By Joel Greenwaldt
The Blast begin a five game road trip this evening when they take on the Missouri Comets at 8:35pm. The game can be seen at www.misllivesoccer.com. Baltimore will try to avoid an 0-2 start to the season against a Missouri team who is playing extremely well right now.

1. Michael Bradley, Maurice Edu, Jermaine Jones, and Kyle Beckerman will hold down the Sorry. Forgot who was coaching. Jurgen Klinsmann (obviously influenced by our latest P2010 Index) cools it on Beckerman and gives the nod to Edu and Bradley in central midfield. The back line will look a bit of a throwback, with Cherundolo,Onyewu, and Bocanegra all starting Timmy Chandler will hold down left back.

1. Michael Bradley, Maurice Edu, Jermaine Jones, and Kyle Beckerman will hold down the Sorry. Forgot who was coaching. Jurgen Klinsmann (obviously influenced by our latest P2010 Index) cools it on Beckerman and gives the nod to Edu and Bradley in central midfield.

Coach Kim Roentved talks about the victory and the Wings Coach LeBaron Hollimon discusses the game and being an expansion team. Bryan Perez played for the Comets last and is now with the Wings Ryan Junge had two goals in his second game as a Comet Junge played great defense in addition to scoring and was the man of the match.

Missouri Comets defeated the Wings for the second straight night last Friday. Full photo gallery here Comets celebrating goal...

Photo: Nicolae Stoian

Soccer's tactical development over the past two decades unfurls, ironically, as a seemingly endless battle for the part of the field furthest from the goals. When Inter Milan wanted championships, they imported Jose Mourinho to teach the team how to play defense further up the pitch.

Europa League. Central Stadium. 5pm kick off. ITV4.

Spurs travel to Tatarstan to take on Rubin Kazan for this away Europa League game. Last month, a young/2nd string Spurs side claimed a narrow 1-0 victory over Kazan at The Lane. That win has put Europa progress firmly in the Lilywhites sights.

Photo: Nicolae Stoian

When asked on MLSsoccer.com's Extratime podcast what he thought when Peter Nowak introduced the five man backline to the team, Danny Califf said, "To be honest, you know, I was a bit surprised. Most of the time, come playoff time, it's not the time to be experimenting and trying out new things and new personnel and things like that.

Photo: Nicolae Stoian

There is no other way to look at it: it is halftime, and the Union are down one goal.

The Tweets

Carlos Valdes: "We have one more game. This is not over yet...DOOP"

Sebastien Le Toux: "Thanks for the great support tonight! You are the best! We still have 90 minutes to beat them.

It is time for a new vote on our community protected list.

How it works:

• For each player we will post a front page article highlighting a specific players pros/cons and any stats (if available)
• Vote by posting a Yes (to Protect) or No (don't Protect) in the subject of a comment, then explain why in the message
• We (the editors) will keep track of all the yes/no votes for each player
• At the end of the whole roster we will total up the results and post the community's Protected list
• Your list will be compared to the list of each contributing editor
• The only player we will not be voting on is Darlington Nagbe as he is automatically protected based on his Generations Adidas Status.