American Robbie Rogers Signs with Leeds United

BBC News and Sky News are reporting that American Robbie Rogers has signed a deal with Leeds United of England's Championship. The 24 year old winger has been capped 18 times by the United States National Team and most recently played for the Columbus Crew in MLS. This isn't Rogers' first signing with a European club. In 2006/2007, Rogers was at Heerenveen in Holland, but did not see any playing time with the first team.

Leeds United, once a dominate team in England's top flight, has been trying to rebound from financial troubles that ultimately saw the team fall to the third tier of club football in England. In recent seasons, Leeds United has shown a strong desire of earning promotion back into the Premier League and almost managed to make it into the promotion playoffs last season. The team is currently in the top half of The Championship table, and it appears that coach Simon Grayson is hoping that Rogers will improve Leeds' offense and help get the team into solid shot at promotion.

The contract with Rogers, who has been at Elland Road on trial, will not be complete until a work permit is secured. According to Greg Seltzer at No Short Corners, the deal between Rogers and Leeds is for two and a half years.

Pre-Match Video Clip from Roma v. Chievo Verona

After a rough start to the 2011/2012 Serie A Season, AS Roma is currently enjoying a 3 match winning streak (4 match unbeaten streak). This past Sunday, before the start of Roma's match with Chievo Verona, this video was aired in the Stadio Olimpico:

Today, Roma faces Fiorentina in the Coppa Italia. The last time Roma lost a match was to Fiorentina, 3-0, on December 4th. This Saturday, Roma heads to Sicily to play Catania.

[VIDEO] Celebrating a Sunderland Goal, With a Dog

Sometimes EPL matches are worth watching for the randomness that occurs in the stands, such as in yesterday's match between Sunderland and Queen Park Rangers in which, if you watched closely, you would see a Sunderland fan celebrating Nicklas Bendtner's goal by standing and hugging/jumping with his dog. I guess it was a service dog, but, hard to say, but how else could you get your dog down to a first row seat. Sunderland went on to beat QPR 3-2.

Defend Yourself from a Pitch Invader, Get a Red Card

During yesterday's Dutch League match between Ajax and AZ Alkmaar, an Ajax fan invaded the pitch and went running towards AZ's keeper, Esteban Alvarado, who managed to trip the 19 year old invader and then kicked him for good measure. The match's referee then awarded a red card to Alvarado, who is from Costa Rica, an act that resulted in AZ abandoning the match. Ajax had been leading the match thanks to a goal from Gregory van der Wiel, and, as of the moment, it is not clear whether the match will be awarded to Ajax or if it will be replayed.

While I don't condone Alvarado's decision to kick the young Ajax fan while he was down, I can understand the emotions and level of testosterone that was running through Alvarado, and when that fight or flight instinct kicks in, things happen.

American striker, Jozy Altidore, who currently plays for AZ, showed his support for Esteban via his Twitter account. For more reaction to the incident, be sure to check out this post by Greg Seltzer over at No Short Corners.

Bieber Believes in Chelsea?

If soccer becomes more popular with tween girls in the United States it won't be because of Alex Morgan, Hope Solo, or MLS, it'll be because of Justin Bieber using his fame to hang out with top international clubs - okay, that fits for when he hung out with Barcelona, considering the state of Chelsea fans they might argue my calling their club a "top international club." But I'll leave that debate for Chelsea fans to argue on twitter and in message boards, as for now, the young Mr. Selena Gomez spent some time hanging out at Stamford Bridge wit the likes of Frank Lampard and Fernando Torres, hmmm, wonder why John Terry wasn't allowed to hang out with the Bieber . . .

Speaking of Chelsea fans, this post is for you Messrs. Marcus Coleman & Johnathan Starling!

Naming Rights Deal for New Stadium done between Houston Dynamo & BBVA Compass

This afternoon the Houston Dynamo will officially announce a stadium rights naming deal with BBVA Compass, which means that come May 12, 2012, the Houston Dynamo will play their first home game at BBVA Compass Stadium in downtown Houston. Reports indicate that the deal between the Dynamo and BBVA Compass is for ten years at a cost of $20 million.

BBVA Compass is the United States branch of BBVA Grupo, an international bank with a focus on doing business in Latin countries such as Spain, Mexico, Portugal, Peru, Argentina, etc. In the United States, BBVA Compass is headquartered in Alabama and has 716 branches located throughout the Sunbelt, including Texas. BBVA is no stranger to supporting the beautiful game, it has been the named sponsor of the top flight league in Spain since 2008.

The official announcement, which will occur at 3:00 pm central time today, will be streamed live on the Houston Dynamo's website and Here.

United States 9 - 2 Germany: USA! USA! USA!

On Sunday December 4th, the United States finally managed to best Germany on the pitch with a 9-2 victory that will surely be remembered by American soccer historians for centuries to come. I kid, I kid. Actually, on Sunday a group from the US Navy managed to beat a group from the German Navy at that lovely little paradise in Africa known as Djibouti.

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Former Captain of Brazil Sócrates Passes Away

Today the football world, still morning the untimely death of Gary Speed, is now mourning former Brazil Captain Sócrates, who passed away as a result of an intestinal infection at the age of 57. Sócrates earned 60 caps with the Brazil national team between 1979 and 1986, and captained the team in the 1982 World Cup. In addition to his international play, Sócrates played professionally at Botafogo-SP, Corinthians, Flemngo, Santos, and Fiorentina.

Montreal Impact Draft Brian Ching in MLS Expansion Draft

The Houston Dynamo took a gamble this week by leaving striker Brian Ching unprotected for today's expansion draft, hoping that Ching's age and salary would prevent the Montreal Impact from drafting him. Additionally, Brian Ching made it clear that if he was drafted by Montreal, he would retire.

We'll soon find out if Brian Ching's threat to retire was a bluff, because he was the Montreal Impact's first pick in today's expansion draft.

During the short question and answer portion of the draft, Jesse Marsch of the Impact, made a comment about other teams being interested in Ching, which suggests the Impact have already looked into the prospect of trading Ching.

Galaxy's Triumvirate Wins Los Angeles its Third MLS Cup

On Sunday evening in a rainy Carson, California it seemed that all the stars had aligned for MLS, for AEG, for Don Garber, and for the Designated Player concept as David Beckham, Robbie Keane, and Landon Donovan teamed up to give the Los Angeles Galaxy the 2011 MLS Cup winning goal in the 72nd minute at the Home Depot Center.

Going into Sunday's Cup Final, featuring the Galaxy and the Houston Dynamo, all the focus was on the Galaxy, winner of the 2011 MLS Supporters Shield by picking up 67 points over the course of the 34 game regular season. After having lost the 2009 MLS Cup final to Real Salt Lake on penalty kicks, all the talk was about how it was the Galaxy's time to finally win the Cup again, having last won it in 2005. More pressure was added to the Galaxy by the fact that Beckham's contract is about to expire and winning the Cup would give a sheen of success to the Designated Player system and the so-called "Beckham Experiment."

The extended break between the Conference Finals and the MLS Cup Final seemed to give the advantage to the Galaxy, who also enjoyed home field advantage, by giving them time to get healthy and cooling the momentum of the Dynamo, who were riding a 9 match unbeaten streak into the Cup Final. However, the rainy weather and choppy pitch seemed to favor the Dynamo, a physical team that relies on set pieces and counters, over the Galaxy, a finesse team that relies on smooth passing and flow.

Each team dominated portions of the match, but it was clear that the Dynamo were suffering due to the absence of midfield Brad Davis. Without Davis' skill on deadballs and management of the midfield, Dynamo attacks tended to break down too easily and the team seemed to lose focus too easily. Meanwhile, the Galaxy, who only made one substitution during the course of the match, managed to keep their focus, keep their cool and finally found the one goal, the only goal needed to win the match and give the Galaxy franchise its third MLS Cup.

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Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving!