Lets start off Monday's edition of Major Link Soccer with a local flavor.

The North Sound SeaWolves FC have moved from their Everett home to new digs in Edmonds. The club plans to make it official this week. As you may know, the SeaWolves play in the PDL North Division. This is the same division that is home to PDL champs Kitsap Pumas and formerly the Tacoma Tide -- now Seattle Sounders FC U23 -- just to name a few.

The second half onslaught was exhilarating but not quite enough to regain the two points that another freakish goal had taken away.

Arsene did rotate some of the players. Djourou came in for Coquelin, Rosicky for Ramsey, and Benayoun for Walcott. It was a strong team and one that should have secured the win with relative ease.

The second half onslaught was exhilarating but not quite enough to regain the two points that another freakish goal had taken away.

Arsene did rotate some of the players. Djourou came in for Coquelin, Rosicky for Ramsey, and Benayoun for Walcott. It was a strong team and one that should have secured the win with relative ease.

In March 2010, we produced a post on a peculiar bias in the decision making of Jon Moss, a then Football League Referee - "Doing A Little Deal Down The Moss" (http://footballisfixed.blogspot.com/2010/03/doing-little-deal-down-moss.html).
The post is reproduced in part below.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
"Yesterday, Jonathan Moss, a bog-standard referee from the wrong side of the Pennines, gave a fallacious penalty (the infringement occurred outside the penalty area) that allowed West Bromwich Albion to defeat Blackpool by 3 goals to 2.

Now this could be YET ANOTHER attempt by the press to destabilise Chelsea or it could have some substance in it. However, please bear in mind that only a few days ago, Drogba stated he wouldn't be leaving the club in January.
According to The Sun, Didier Drogba is "furious" at not being offered a new two year contract by the club.

Now this could be YET ANOTHER attempt by the press to destabilise Chelsea or it could have some substance in it. However, please bear in mind that only a few days ago, Drogba stated he wouldn't be leaving the club in January.
According to The Sun, Didier Drogba is "furious" at not being offered a new two year contract by the club.

Everybody who comments, be it in print or on the radio or on television, makes mistakes. It doesn't matter who you are or how much you know or just what the subject is: Sooner or later you will slip up. And so I don't want to seem to be going after some poor talking head, some exceptionally easy target, just for the sake of it.

Bolton sit just the wrong side of the relegation line and their fans are really not up for this game. After reading almost 20 pages of various Bolton forums, I couldn't find one fan who was seriously suggesting they could actually win this game.
The have some very thin striking options after Sturridge and Elmander left at the end of last season, compounded by some defensive injuries and suspensions forcing them into playing Zat Knight.

We bought Bryan Ruiz from FC Twente for 10 million, or whatever it was. There's an element of food-chaining here, isn't there? We bought their best player; they didn't buy ours. Which ought to imply that we're a better team, particularly as Ruiz promising though he may be is not yet in Fulham's best XI.

If someone asked you about Carlo Ancelotti and his managerial style you would think of his time here in his first season winning the double, his time at AC Milan and the relationships he built with "his players".
Renowned for getting the maximum out of ageing players, Ancelotti was always one to stand up for the old guard and defend them to the hilt especially when he was here for two seasons.

By Alan Duffy

Arsenal 1-1 Fulham Premier League 26th November 2011

Arsenal looked a little stale against fellow Londoners Fulham on Saturday, with the hangover from their midweek Champions League exertions stifling their usual flowing, inventive game.

I can understand protecting Charlie Davies if you've got a rumor of trade interest that you think might enable you to significantly improve the team1. I can even plunge past the mystifying decision to protect a well-past-it Simms if a pay-cut or trade are on the horizon.

But Korb and Woolard?

Both of Liverpool's goals against Chelsea were fantastic, strikes which have an excellent chance of showing up on various best-of-season lists. The first showed the benefits of pressing from the front and quick pass and move football, the second direct football at its finest: a cross-field diagonal opening up acres of space for an attacking full-back bombing forward.

Striker Andy Carroll was the fall-guy for Liverpool after missing a first-half sitter in the goalless draw at home to Swansea.
For the second successive home match against a newly-promoted team Kenny Dalglish's side failed to convert their chances.
Carroll's was the miss everyone will remember, although there were enough opportunities created afterwards to have prevented a third home draw in a row.

By AVI CREDITOR

The New York Red Bulls have seen what their low-seeded predecessors have accomplished, and despite falling short of regular-season expectations, the club is hoping to continue the MLS trend of recent years.

"I was thinking a little about that record," Red Bulls manager Hans Backe said.

I think in the past few years we seen funny goals more than what any of us seen in his entire life, thanks to the internet and YouTube that would allow a teenage in Bolivia watch a funny goal from the second division scored at New Zealand.
Yet, I don't think I ever seen an own goal like this one, I am sure the player wished that he would never played that day, or football at all.

Serie A champions Milan continued their dismal form in league play after falling 2-0 to rivals Juventus. Milan's coach Massimiliano Allegri did not offer excuses when he referred to the defeat in Turin as the worst performance of the season by his players. As for Juve, this was by far the club's most significant win of the season and Antonio Conte's biggest triumph as a coach.

It's been said that tying a game is like kissing your sister. If so, this season's New York Red Bulls may be only an extreme, but they sure have been incestuous. With a record of 8-7-15, the Red Bulls have successfully tied half of their 2011 season, thus representing a horrible trend that's only growing in MLS: ties.

The Importance of Juan Mata - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

Juan Mata's £23.5million transfer seemed to happen on a breeze. With the perpetual summer transfer saga of Luka Modric, hype was outwardly reserved. However, now with the foliage on the floor and the Premier League blooming, Mata's importance to the Chelsea team has been keenly signified.

Stoke boss Tony Pulis has admitted Liverpool should have been awarded a penalty in their win over the Reds.
Liverpool boss Kenny Dalglish was left fuming with a number of decisions that went against his side at the Britannia Stadium and is considering making a formal complaint to manager of the Professional Game Match Officials Board Mike Riley about the standard of refereeing.

Klinsmann, looking on with great interest...

That's it.

TSG goes diving again into the USMNT...

A mere three matches in the books for the Herr to the throne; time to pass judgments and make ridiculous prognostications on how the US will fare in 2014 and who will be there.

Truth be told, the most recently concluded USMNT September camps did give US fans a very visible look-in on what to expect going forward with the team, not least of which is a measured and educational approach by the headman.

In doing research for a story on Chicago Fire goals this season, I came across a couple of irregularities on the assist credits for some tallies. The initial press release after a game might have done something like given a second assist credit to Marco Pappa on Cory Gibbs' header vs. San Jose when he really didn't do that much to set up Baggio Husidic's ball into the box.

At times, there's a certain stubbornness when it comes to clubs parting ways with an established coach. The quick exit that we see so regularly - especially in Europe - might happen often enough to be the standard, but there are examples of teams that seem unable to tell when it's time for a change.

photo courtesy of Jarred Donalson
A record MLS crowd came out tonight at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park to see Sporting KC blow a late lead again to lose 3-2 to FC Dallas (more on that tomorrow). But the record 20,018 attendance got an exciting game, unfortunately it ended well for the wrong side.

Look who's back. the reunion is earlier than expected

And we thought we could get a few months to move on, pretend he never existed, and then came Thursday and the Champions League Draw.

Lets step back and take a look at the last few days and two very positive and exciting pieces of news.

Johan Djourou's defensive error gifted Pablo Mouche the equaliser as Boca Juniors fought back from two goals down to secure a 2-2 draw against Arsenal in the Emirates Cup.

The hosts looked comfortable after Robin Van Persie opened the scoring on 29 minutes before half-time substitute Aaron Ramseydoubled their advantage with his first touch two minutes after the break.

We are now nearly five years removed from discussions about the Scottish Premier League expanding with an SPL2 division, sparking a war of words with Scottish Football League officials keen on retaining their say in how Scottish football would operate going forward. Since then, that plan collected a bit of dust that was kicked up regularly as calls were made for some sort of reorganization to the game in order to see the clubs be more competitive and more of them stable financially.

Millions of Argentinian fans can breathe a sigh of relief today after their team's sensational performance against CostaRica. May be beating CostaRica should never be considered sensational, but then considering their last two performance this was nothing short of sensational. It's not only the Argentinian fans who are relieved, but also the Barcelona ones.

By Chris Wright

As far as unwinding during the off-season is concerned, Arsene Wenger has his water-slides and Gerard Pique has his semi-automatic weaponry...

"Afinando la puntería con un AK-47!! Working on my aim!!"

Note to self: never get on the wrong side of Pique.

By Chris Wright

As far as unwinding during the off-season is concerned, Arsene Wenger has his water-slides and Gerard Pique has his semi-automatic weaponry...

"Afinando la puntería con un AK-47!! Working on my aim!!"

Note to self: never get on the wrong side of Pique.

We're just a few short weeks from the transfer window opening up and we're already knee deep in designated player (DP) rumors. It seems like the Seattle Sounders have become the go-to source for rumors and players looking to negotiate a higher salary.
While the rumors swirl around the Sounders other teams are already utilizing their open DP spots to bring in help to their struggling sides.

Do Real Madrid really need him? Is he good enough for Real Madrid? Well Maradonna certainly thinks so. He actually says that Madrid should thank the Diego family for providing Madrid (even though the wrong side of Madrid) with a gifted forward. Even if Real Madrid sign him, then where would he fit in?

Violent tackles and serious fouls have taken center stage during the early weeks of the 2011 Major League Soccer season, and Ridge Mahoney of Soccer America writes of the task facing the MLS Disciplinary Committee.
The case of Marcos Mondaini sidelining Javier Morales with a vicious tackle has prompted comparisons to the Brian Mullan-Steve Zakuani incident, and though the circumstances are different there are important issues to be weighed.

Last weekend Arsenal beat the soon-to-be Champions Man United. They worked hard, played well, raised their game and deserved the three points from that game.

Yesterday, Arsenal lost 3-1 to Stoke City. They were careless, complacent, slipshod and deserved absolutely nothing from the game.

And it sums this Arsenal team in a nutshell.

The dust from round three hadn't really settled yet and then the fourth round of the 2011 Allsvenskan was also just a piece of history. The first game was on Tuesday night when GAIS hosted Djurgården. GAIS is, as of this round, a serious contender for the Lennart Johansson trophy given their form and potential.

I'm going to keep this mercifully brief, or at least I'll try. Why brief? Well, I could pretty much point you to a couple dozen match reaction posts from last year that would sound almost word for word what I'm going to say here. Defenders who didn't appear to speak the same language? Check. Lots of possession but no idea what to do with it?

I'm going to keep this mercifully brief, or at least I'll try. Why brief? Well, I could pretty much point you to a couple dozen match reaction posts from last year that would sound almost word for word what I'm going to say here. Defenders who didn't appear to speak the same language? Check. Lots of possession but no idea what to do with it?

22 years later, there are still families and survivors coming to terms with the unspeakable tragedy they've suffered. There are still many who don't understand the actual causes of the disaster, in part thanks to a major newspaper which continues to traffic in lies. And there are many still fighting for justice and the truth.

Fresh from capturing Luis Suarez from Dutch giants Ajax, Liverpool are reportedly preparing a moves to sign two more of the club's top talents. Anfield director of football Damien Comolli is keen on bringing in highly rated defender Jan Vertonghen whilst continuing to pursue Danish teenager Christian Eriksen.

Newcastle United manager, Alan Pardew has revealed that injured midfielder, Dan Gosling will make a return to training in around three weeks, some time after Newcastle United's game with Manchester United on 19th April. A short cameo appearence against some vagrants from the wrong side of the North East apart, the 20 year old has [.