The Week in Review: April 25-29, 2011

Quite possibly this has been one of the darkest weeks in MLS in a long time.  David Ferreira is gone for a while, Steve Zakuani’s situation is even worse, the league handed out the longest suspension in its history, Seattle is suffering even more with O’Brian White’s surgery, and RSL suffered a gut-punch defeat.  All of this overshadowed a good weekend of action and threatens to overshadow what is a good slate of games this weekend.

Fortunately not all is dark and gloomy in American soccer; here are some of the more up-beat stories not covered this week:

• Big news from London where it was made official: the Red Bulls will be participating in the 2011 Emirates Cup this summer.  Joining them will be hosts Arsenal, Paris Saint-Germain, and Boca Juniors.  The Red Bulls will face PSG on July 30th and Arsenal the next day.  That is an incredible schedule.
• Congratulations to Clint Dempsey whose two goals this week moved him up to #1 on the Fulham all-time EPL scoring list, passing fellow American Brian McBride.  Dempsey has 33 goals for his Fulham career but he noted after the game that his goals secured enough points for Fulham to stay in the EPL next season.
• Congratulations to another American abroad.  Stuart Holden won the Bolton Wanderers’ Supporters’ Association player of the year award despite missing part of the season due to injury.
• When DC United visits Houston tonight, there will be a special ceremony honoring former Dynamo keeper and current DCU coach/player Pat Onstad for his illustrious career in Texas.  He played in 136 games for the Dynamo and was a fan favorite, although he is unlikely to start.
• Twitter has been awash with the social media battle between Teal Bunbury and Juan Agudelo.  I do not want to bias anyone, so check out their “feud”.
• New England seems to be revving up (sorry couldn’t resist) at the right time.  First they pick up Benny Feilhaber and now their injured offseason signing may be match fit.  Ousmane Dabo played 76 minutes in New England’s 3-2 win over DC United in the U.S. Open Cup this week, and although Steve Nicol didn’t have a timetable for him to crack the starting XI, the midfielder looked good in his debut.

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