Darren Huckerby is out of contract - last I heard he was joining the East Anglian crew at TFC. He's still pretty quick(ish).

The Huckerby thing was a rumour about three months ago. Now we have Wheelchair Robert and all of our left-sided midfield problems are allegedly solved.

In reverse DP news, Reading apparently offered $8 million for Jozy Altidore and MLS told them to go screw. Bidding starts at $10M.

huckerby to the MLS sounds quite probable. san jose have apparently expressed an interest but say toronto are ahead of them in the queue. he could probably get himself a deal with a championship club here but says he has no interesting in lining up against norwich. he still has a year left in him at least

Jefe, Ives reported this back in February..
It's odd that his price is going down- or maybe it's just a German discount..

Probably MLS' usual trick of not letting the left hand know what the right hand's doing.

On the subject of whether Beckham can still draw crowds: the Galaxy and the Whitecaps played in Edmonton last night in front of 37,000 people.

The Galaxy, of course, put everything into the friendly, putting as much into it as they would a normal MLS game. And duly lost, 2-1.

I wonder how many they would have gotten had the Oilers still been in the playoffs.

Of course, the Whitecaps will be adding another MLS scalp to their belts on Canada Day.

Not with Djekanovic in net, they won't.

Is he going to start? I know he played last night, but thought that Dooly was going to be the number 1.

BTW, I like the 'Caps new kits, unusually restrained for Umbro:

CONCACAF got around to announcing the obvious, the format for the Champions League starting in September. The US gets 4 representatives, which will be defined as: MLS Cup winner, Supporters Shield winner, MLS Cup runner up, and the US Open Cup Champion. Chivas USA gets in this time as the team with the next most points in MLS, as New England were both USOC winners and MLS Cup losers.

We'll have to start a separate thread on this soon, but what's intresting about the concacaf thing is that there doesn't seem to be any seeding in the Preliminary Round. Which means that after TFC trounce Vancouver and Montreal (yes, I'm in a good mood today), they could be playing anyone from the Puerto Rico Islanders or Hankook Verdes (Belize) to Pumas UNAM. A little luck and we could be through to the tournament proper.

Which seems a little odd to me.

Hubris.

So sad. And yet so welcome.

BTW, its either Pumas or UNAM, but if you use both together; you're a gringo.

Last I checked, I *am* a gringo. But thanks for the correction.

I just forked out for my Canada Day tickets and I have an extra, Urs - want to come?

You very much ARE a gringo, but I also know that you welcome tips to make it less obvious.

I would love it (in a Keeganesque sense), but very unfortunately have other commitments on that day. I'm working on trying to remember the names of the players on a club that I haven't seen play for 25 years.

Another time, Urs.

Speaking of missing important games: goldstone, I am very sorry to say that due to a really irritating wedding, it's looking quite unlikely that I'll be in Chicago on the 12th of July.

A pisser. I will still try to show you all hospitality if you come up in October.