Judah Levine writes that Danny Mwanga is only 5 goals away from breaking the MLS rookie record of 11 set by Damani Ralph in 2003.

New England Revolution manager Steve Nicol thinks 3 DPs will lead to an absence of parity in MLS.

Stephenson

Khari Stephenson is returning to MLS after spending five years plying his trade in Sweden. The big defender is joining San Jose and could be ready to play this weekend. Stephenson was an anchor for Kansas City during his last MLS stint, which ended in 2005.

Geovanni is has joined the San Jose Earthquakes. If he’s actually planning to play hard, expect goals like this one:

Clint Mathis was honored at halftime of the LA/NY game this weekend. He is retiring at the age of 33. This sucks, because after noticing that Mathis rarely spent more than one year anywhere I just decided it would be awesome to nickname him Fat Samurai. Oh well, save it for the reunion tour. Mathis scored a great goal against South Korea in WC2002:

Jimmy Conway, who played for Manchester City and Fulham before joining the Portland Timbers in 1978, will be honored in Oregon today. Conway started the men’s soccer program at Oregon State.

Better than Heskey

Independence star Lianne Sanderson has called it quits on her international career. The striker says she believes her exclusion from the English national team is personal, not a matter of ability. “I have no divine right to be in the team or on the bench, but how can you fly me from America to Spain and then put me in the stand?” Sanderson asked. Sanderson found herself left off the squad against Spain only a week after she scored at Austria. She is still only 22, so a future coaching change could see her re-emerge on the international scene.

DiMartino

New Independence player Tina DiMartino is the Goal.com WPS Player of the Week.

WorldSoccerReader has a WPS Week 18 review worth reviewing.

NPR reports that sponsoring the World Cup had a huge payoff. Companies that significantly invested in footy’s biggest event came away big winners.

French captain Patrice Evra and four other players (including Nicolas Anelka and Franck Ribery) face a disciplinary hearing today in front of the French Football Federation, whose acronym doesn’t sound like a silent fart for nothin’.

Metalist Kharkiv and Karpaty Lviv were fined and had points deducted by the Ukrainian Football Federation for match-fixing in 2008.

The horse? His name used to be Lenin. Now it is Oil Money.

Russian Supreme Ruler Tsar Bond Villain Prime Minister Vladimir Putin vowed to waive visa restrictions for participants if the country wins the right to host the 2018 or 2022 World Cup. Russia’s campaign to land the Cup includes a vow to build many new stadiums from the ground up.