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The New York Red Bulls this week find themselves at a crossroads with an important game against the Chicago Fire in primetime on Thursday evening. Just around the corner in June, tougher competition than those in their first few games this season awaits New York.

It would be cliche, and perhaps misplaced hyperbole, to compare this season's New York Red Bulls to A Tale of Two Cities. But while this past week hasn't provided the worst possible results, the early success this team has enjoyed has turned a draw and a loss into gut-wrenching disappointments.

Either it's very early in the regular season, or the regular season doesn't mean anything at all. Whatever the reason, the most hardened cynics of Major League Soccer and the New York Red Bulls take the team's early success with a grain of salt.

Among the New York faithful, however, there is reason to be optimistic, if not celebratory. A minor misstep in Columbus during opening weekend was quickly brushed aside by a series of wins throughout April that propelled the Red Bulls to the top of the Eastern Conference, the top of the entire league, and an impressive ten-point lead over perennial rivals DC United, who occupy the cellar of the conference with expansion Toronto FC after three straight losses to open the season.

In a significant improvement over last year, the New York Red Bulls showed a lot of heart and determination in their season opener against the Columbus Crew. If only the score reflected their efforts. For the third straight year, New York opened the season with a draw, this time a goalless result at Crew Stadium on Saturday night.

The New England Revolution travel to Chicago on Saturday to kick off their 2007 campaign.

Preki was hoping a change of scenery would help turn his team's fortunes around. Instead, it was more of the same for Chivas USA, which suffered a 2-0 loss to Tauro FC in the first leg of their CONCACAF Champions League preliminary round series at Estadio Rod Carew just outside of Panama City.

For better or worse, U.S. and Mexican teams will be heavily favored heading into the preliminary round of the CONCACAF Champions League.

Trinidad & Tobago champions Joe Public FC upset Eastern Conference leaders New England Revolution with a 2-1 victory in the first leg of their CONCACAF Champions League preliminary round tie Tuesday evening at Marvin Lee Stadium in Tunapuna, Trinidad.

Edwin Aguilar struck for a brace, lifting Tauro FC to a 2-0 win against Chivas USA on Tuesday night at Estadio Rod Carew just outside of Panama City.

The Olympics are over, and World Cup qualifiers are over until September, so now is the time to get all the best players onto your team, and then worry about matchups with your goalkeeper and coach.

The Chicago Fire have hired Dave Greeley, a long-time sports marketing executive, to serve as president of the team.

The Chicago Fire (10-6-5 35 pts.) fell to los Tiburones Rojos de Veracruz Sunday 3-1 in an international exhibition match played in Veracruz, Mexico.

Their most famous player, Cuauhtemoc Blanco, was absent, but the Chicago Fire took advantage of the skills of another veteran star, Brian McBride, to help secure a 1-0 win Thursday against the L.A. Galaxy.

The Chicago Fire acquired conditional 2009 and 2011 MLS SuperDraft picks Friday in exchange for the rights to 21-year old forward Will Johnson.

John Thorrington scored the game's only goal, once again popping up to knock off the Los Angeles Galaxy, as the Chicago Fire claimed a hard-fought 1-0 victory Thursday night at The Home Depot Center.

After a decisive victory over Real Salt Lake Saturday (Aug. 23) at Crew Stadium, the Crew prepares to travel to Frisco, Texas, to face FC Dallas this Saturday, Aug. 30.

The pen is said to be mightier than the sword, but the mightiest implement of them all may be the keyboard on Shawn Mitchell's laptop computer.

It was a topsy-turvy week for the Columbus Crew -- and the remainder of the season promises to provide many scoreboard watching opportunities in what has become a very interesting Eastern Conference.

Scoring three goals was nice, as was the most emphatic victory in more than two months, but the way the Columbus Crew got their 3-0 win against Real Salt Lake was just as pleasing to winning coach Sigi Schmid.

Guillermo Barros Schelotto had a goal and an assist in the first half and later added his league-best 14th assist to lead the Columbus Crew to a 3-0 win against Real Salt Lake on Saturday in Crew Stadium.

With injuries to so many important players this year, D.C. United's front office has had to make several midseason acquisitions in order to turn around their season.

Find out what the print and blog worlds are saying about all things D.C. United in the newest edition of the D.C. United Newsstand.

D.C. United players will be making appearances in the community this week. Jaime Moreno will be on hand to help out with the DMB Sports Camp on Wednesday, August 27 while Ben Olsen, James Thorpe, Quavas Kirk, Pat Carroll, Jeff Carroll, Domenic Mediate and Craig Thompson will visit and play with kids at the Children's National Medical Center on Thursday, August 28.

Find out what the print and blog worlds are saying about all things D.C. United in the newest edition of the D.C. United Newsstand.

Following a difficult loss to New England in midweek, D.C. United got their season back on track with a dominating 3-0 victory against the Colorado Rapids at RFK Stadium. Joe Vide got his first goal of the season shortly before halftime, and insurance goals were added by Santino Quaranta and Quavas Kirk as Louis Crayton kept the Rapids off the scoresheet.

Before an August 3 match at Toronto FC, FC Dallas defender Adrian Serioux had never before played right back. Not in his formative years growing up in the Toronto area, in England or while a member of the 2006 MLS Cup champion Houston Dynamo.

For the second successive match, FC Dallas held a lead at halftime that they failed to hold onto. But unlike last weekend's 2-1 loss to Columbus, Saturday's 1-1 draw with the Kansas City Wizards was a more acceptable result.

Jimmy Conrad's goal two minutes into stoppage time gave the Kansas City Wizards a last-gasp 1-1 draw against 10-man FC Dallas on Saturday evening at CommunityAmerica Ballpark.

When August began, it was hard not to look at FC Dallas' run of three consecutive road matches to start the month and wonder how the Hoops would fare.

In his four seasons in MLS, FC Dallas defender Drew Moor has shown his versatility. The Dallas native has played both as a fullback and a center back, whether in a three-back alignment or in a back four.

After rolling through a three-game homestand in which they won all of their matches, the Red Bulls hit the road for two straight matches.

Red Bull New York begins today providing regular updates on the progress of Red Bull Arena -- Built by Makita.

A John Wolyniec hat trick propelled the New York Red Bulls Reserves past the D.C. United Reserves, 5-2, at Montclair State University Tuesday afternoon. With the win, the Red Bulls moved to 2-4-0 (6 pts.) while United dropped to 4-4-1 (13 pts.) in the MLS Reserve League.

Look below the surface, beyond the highlights and box score and you'll find Juan Pietravallo's contribution to the New York Red Bulls.

Three Sundays ago, Juan Carlos Osorio issued a stern edict to his team -- win or else. That was before a critical match against D.C. United with the Red Bulls in the basement of the Eastern Conference and entrenched in a five-match winless streak.

Toronto FC's players returned to the city on Wednesday after spending time near Collingwood at a retreat. The team had a full training session on Tuesday morning as part of preparations for Saturday's game at Chivas USA.

TFC Academy Under 16s return to action in the Canadian Soccer League Reserve Division tonight. The Reds take on Toronto Croatia Reserves at the Ontario Soccer Centre. Kick off is 7:00 p.m.

Toronto FC headed north on Tuesday to train near Collingwood as part of a two day retreat. Coach John Carver has taken the players away as they prepare to face Chivas USA on Saturday (kick off 10:30 p.m. live on Rogers Sportnet).

Carlos Ruiz arrived in Toronto on Tuesday morning, and joined his new team near Collingwood for his first training session.

Carlos Ruiz will meet up with his new team for the first time on Tuesday. The Guatemalan striker is scheduled to arrive in Toronto later today.

Preki was hoping a change of scenery would help turn his team's fortunes around. Instead, it was more of the same for Chivas USA, which suffered a 2-0 loss to Tauro FC in the first leg of their CONCACAF Champions League preliminary round series at Estadio Rod Carew just outside of Panama City.

Edwin Aguilar struck for a brace, lifting Tauro FC to a 2-0 win against Chivas USA on Tuesday night at Estadio Rod Carew just outside of Panama City.

This Saturday night at The Home Depot Center, Chivas USA will square off against Guatemala captain Carlos 'El Pescado' Ruiz and Honduras captain and former Chivas USA player Amado 'El Lobo' Guevara of Toronto FC in a crucial match, as the Red-and-White look to start moving up in the standings.

Chivas USA is within 24 hours of making its international debut against Tauro F.C., with the match kicking off at 5:00 p.m. PT, broadcast live on Galavision and tape-delayed, at 7:00 p.m. PT, on Fox Soccer Channel.

Chivas USA players and Coaching Staff traveled early Sunday morning to Panama City, where they will face Tauro F.C. on Tuesday at 5:00 p.m. PT (Live on Galavision, 7:00 p.m. tape delayed on FSC) as part of the CONCACAF Champions League's Preliminary Round.

The choice of 'wildcatter orange' as the primary color of the Houston Dynamo surely raised some eyebrows back in 2006. But in the team's third season, the orange has become a rallying cry - literally.

With the Chicago Fire, including Mexican star Cuauhtemoc Blanco, due in town this weekend, HoustonDynamo.com had a chance to sit down with Isaac Terrazas, a veteran of Mexico's 1998 World Cup team, for a look at Blanco's impact on MLS.

The Houston Dynamo's four-match MLS winning streak ended abruptly on Sunday afternoon at Giants Stadium.

The Houston Dynamo ran circles around Chivas USA earlier this week at home and took care of a severely depleted opponent to record their fourth consecutive league win.

Two teams that have been on hot streaks recently come together for an interconference matchup as the Houston Dynamo travel to Giants Stadium to take on the New York Red Bulls.

The LA Galaxy will look to snap their nine-game winless streak and get back to their winning ways on Saturday when they travel East to take on the New England Revolution at Gillette Stadium.

Missing a number of key attacking components, the Los Angeles Galaxy fell 1-0 to the Chicago Fire on Thursday in a match where they rarely looked dangerous.

The Bruce Arena era for the Los Angeles Galaxy began in much the same fashion as the last couple of months have gone for the club.

The LA Galaxy signed U.S. National Team midfielder Eddie Lewis Thursday. The Galaxy held the top spot in the MLS Allocation Table and have used that position to acquire Lewis.

Change continues to run through the Los Angeles Galaxy, but it looks like this might be the fix the team has been searching for over the past two years.

After suffering back-to-back losses on the road, Real Salt Lake (7-8-6, 27 pts.; 2nd in Western Conference) will have plenty of motivation upon its return to Rice-Eccles Stadium this Friday, August 29, when the Utah side will welcome the Colorado Rapids (7-11-3, T-4th in West) in the second of three installments of the 2008 Rocky Mountain Cup series.

Real Salt Lake have acquired 21-year old FW Will Johnson from the Chicago Fire in exchange for conditional SuperDraft picks in 2009 and 2011. Johnson fills Real Salt Lake's last remaining spot on its 28-man roster as a Senior roster addition.

It's back to the drawing board for Real Salt Lake after a second consecutive road loss. The Columbus Crew took a 2-0 lead in the opening 25 minutes and never looked back for a 3-0 win that avenged a 2-0 loss to RSL in Rice-Eccles Stadium on July 12.

Guillermo Barros Schelotto had a goal and an assist in the first half and later added his league-best 14th assist to lead the Columbus Crew to a 3-0 win against Real Salt Lake on Saturday in Crew Stadium.

Out of all the things that have defined Real Salt Lake in their rise as a contender this season, the club's improved defensive prowess has been its most notable trademark.

losing effort maybe not the only lesson for american soccer at the olympics In the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, China came home with 59 medals (28 gold), good enough for 3rd place in the medal count behind Russia and the United States, the latter of which had 91 (36 gold) and dominated the games [...]

The Charleston Battery defeated the Seattle Sounders on penalty kicks Tuesday to advance to the Open Cup Finals against D.C. United, who beat the New England Revolution 2-1 in their half of the semi-finals. TIAS traveled to Battery’s Blackbaud Stadium to take in the historic victory along with a crowd greatly thinned by rain. Photos [...]

nbc is banking on olympic soccer — michael cohen is hedging that bet When we hear people talking about hiring staffs in American soccer, be it for front offices or broadcast booths, they talk about the need to hire soccer people. Well, you can’t say NBC didn’t do that for the Olympics. Almost a month ago I [...]

Looking at Giants Stadium at less than even half capacity, well, just the idea that it can sell-out is a grand testament to American sports and marketing. Of course the 80,000 seats are but a drop in the tri-state population bucket and it routinely fills up. Just not for soccer. “I thought there would be more [...]

a local breath before the global exhale and the emulsifying late-summer light I love. —- A nightly program for New York City teenagers started by MLK coach Martin Jacobson in 1999, Summer of Soccer aims to give the city’s kids a place to play. Simple just like the beautiful game it promotes, the loose-knit summer sessions run from July [...]