–         Kenny Cooper to 1860 Munich: A club with a history of signing Americans, but a club nonetheless in financial peril, currently. But at least he is out of Dallas!

–          Our friend, Jamie Trecker has a provocative piece on the USMNT’s summer at FOX Sports.com. This piece is worth a read and consideration even for those who seem to think Trecker’s views are off base. You can listen to Trecker articulate some of the same views on episode 101 of the MLS Talk Podcast

–        For the first time since late May, Houston will have it’s full squad available for selection. Thanks to MLS’ practice of playing right through international breaks, and tournaments, the Dynamo, the elite team in the league with the league’s elite coach has been playing short handed for over two months.

–        The MLS All Star game earned a .3 rating on ESPN- it was fourth most watched MLS game this year on the network behind three games involving Seattle.

–          Red Bull New York did well to get two away goals in a 2-2 draw at W Connection on Thursday. This puts the New Jersey club in a good position to advance in the CONCACAF Champions League. The three other MLS/USL clubs all have tougher roads ahead of them, but of course with TFC playing Puerto Rico, at least one of those two clubs will advance.

–          Jason Kreis has been suspended again by MLS, and fined $3,000 to boot.  For those of us who watched this incident live last Friday night, it was simply humorous. A strange sequence of events led to a questionable PK call for FC Dallas which Nicky Rimando saved, and then a red card for Clint Mathis for verbal abuse which was then withdrawn in favor of ejecting Kreis.  MLS standard of officiating continues to be poor (although unlike my argument about the level of play, which I believe has dropped since 2000 in the league, the standard of officiating has actually believe it or not improved slightly) and the continued fines and suspensions for Kreis indicate an unwillingness of MLS to admit such.

–          I’ll be doing color for USL Live’s broadcast of Miami FC-Montreal Impact tonight. Our good friend Bruce McGuire of the intergalactic juggernaut DuNord will be doing color for Minnesota-Portland also on USL Live.  Both games begin at 8ET.