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MLS Power Rankings Week Ten

by David on May 15, 2012

The Sounders lost their grip on the top spot because they slipped up at home, pure and simple. That was more than enough for Real Salt Lake to slide into the top spot, with the Quakes trailing close behind.

What do you think of the rankings from MLS?

1: Real Salt lake
Is RSL playing the joyful, free-flowing intricate soccer that we’ve grown to love them for over the past four years? Nope, not even close. But they’re grinding out results every time they take the pitch. Can’t argue with that — especially when they come on the road.

Lee Nguyen haunted his former team with two goals and one assist in an inspired performance as the New England Revolution rolled to a 4-1 win over Vancouver Whitecaps FC on Saturday night at Gillette Stadium.

Nguyen – waived by Vancouver in March – notched his first two MLS goals, including a spectacular long-distance rocket to round out the scoring, sandwiched around first-half strikes from Saer Sène and Shalrie Joseph. It was the Revolution’s best offensive output since scoring four times in a 4-4 draw with the Philadelphia Union last September.

Alessandro Nesta has confirmed that he is leaving AC Milan after this weekend’s game against Novara with Major League Soccer a likely destination for the 36-year-old defender.

Nesta, who began his career with Lazio, won two Champions League finals and two Serie A titles with Milan to go along with the Serie A title he won at Lazio and the World Cup winners medal he picked up in 2006.

With the glittering career that he has had, Nesta is not content to sit on bench and watch. He still has the desire to play every week.

D.C. United will play Serie A champions Juventus at RFK Stadium on Saturday July 28. Kickoff is set for 6pm (might be changed for TV). Buy DC United v Juventus Tickets

This game was originally planned as part of a doubleheader at FedEx Field, with the other game supposed to be AC Milan v Chelsea. But the Redskins could not pull that off, so the Juve game will go ahead at RFK now.

Last weekend Juventus capturing its 28th title in Serie A, and their first since the Calciopoli scandal in 2006. Juventus is Italy’s biggest and most famous club and this game is sure to sell out.

For the third consecutive year, Real Madrid will be conducting part of their 2012/13 pre-season preparations in the U.S., and that means for the third consecutive year that we will have a LA Galaxy v Real Madrid match. Buy LA Galaxy v Real Madrid Tickets

The defending MLS Cup champions will play the recently crowned La Liga champions on Thursday August 2nd at The Home Depot Center.

Interesting that they are playing at the Home Depot Center instead of the LA Coliseum or the Rose Bowl, where the two clubs have met the last two seasons.

The New England Revolution lost 2-1 to Real Salt Lake at Rio Tinto Stadium on Saturday night, but Jay Heaps will take a lot of positive aways from what was a good New England performance.

Blake Brettschneider scored a fantastic goal to put the Revs (3-6-0, 9 pts.) ahead in the 22nd minute, but the lead was short-lived as Saborio pulled RSL (7-3-1, 22 pts.) level with an opportunistic finish in the 33rd minute. Saborio scored what proved to be the game winner in the 55th minute, getting on the end of a Javier Morales free kick.

The 2012 Trophée des Champions, the French soccer Super Cup, is coming to the United States for the first time ever, pitting the French League 1 winner against Lyon at Red Bull Arena on Saturday, July 28 at 3 p.m. Buy Trophee Des Champions Tickets.

The match is the annual kickoff to the French soccer season, and the fourth consecutive year that the match will be contested outside of France, but the first time the match will be played in a country that is not French speaking.

Once again the U.S. and Canada is the post-season and pre-season destination of choice for the top European and South American teams. Teams that have announced that they will tour North America this summer are Liverpool, AS Roma, Chelsea, Valencia, AC Milan, PSG, Real Madrid, Aston Villa and Spurs.

AS Roma have announced that they will play games in Chicago and New York City but dates and opponents have not been announced.

The New England Revolution picked up a valuable three points tonight as they beat the Colorado Rapids 2-1 at a cold and empty Gillette Stadium

All the goals came in the first half where Colorado took the lead in the 21st minute when Matt Reis came for a near post corner by Martin Rivero and got nowhere near, leaving Castrillon with a simple header.

The goal did not stop New England who are finding lots of room between the Rapids defenders. So it was not a surprise when the Revs equalized six minutes later through Saer Sene.

I wondered why Liverpool‘s preseason tour was billed as a North American tour, when the only games announced were in the U.S. Well know we know.

While it has not been officially announced, Liverpool will play in Toronto on July 21st. The match will be played at the Rogers Centre and not BMO Field due to the interest in the game. Buy Liverpool v Toronto FC Tickets

According to the Toronto Star, the match between the 18-time English Premier League champions and TFC will be part of the 2012 World Football Challenge.