This week, two big events will take place in Fort Lauderdale.  The first is the Annual General Meeting of the newly formed North American Soccer League, which begins on January 7tth. With the controversial decision by the United States Soccer Federation last week to not sanction the startup league (which is largely formed by existing teams), the meetings are almost certain to yield some headline news.

The controversial decision has led to interesting reads like this from Set Piece Analysts Richard Farley. Whether you agree with his premise or not, the USSF has without question opened the door for criticism and inspection due to their seemingly ineffectual four month handling of the situation in USL.

The second big event is the MLS College Draft Combine which begins Friday and run through next Tuesday at Fort Lauderdale’s Lockhart Stadium.  Here is a list of the players that will be attending the combine.

Here at MLS Talk we will have extensive coverage of both events. Additionally, our sister site EPL Talk will be covering the visit of Soccernomics co-author Simon Kuper to the area (Kuper has authored several other books about the beautiful game) and will be joining this week in our team coverage of Landon Donovan’s time in Liverpool with the help of our UK based correspondents and writers.