Union

Sacre Bleu! It’s official. Despite being fifth in goals with 14, fourth in assists with 11, fifth in shots with 90, first in shots on goal with 48, 20th in game-winning goals with three, and fifth in game-winning assists with four, Sebastien Le Toux is not one of the three MVP finalists. He is, however, one of the final three for the Fair Play Award, whatever that is. Danny Mawnga did make the final Rookie of the Year list. Mark Wednesday, November 3 on your calendar because that is the day the the winners of the Fair Play and the Rookie of the Year Awards will be announced.

The Inquirer reviews the Union’s first season. The team will close down training on November 12 with preseason training for 2011 to begin on January 20. Danny Califf says “everybody will be shattered” if the team doesn’t make the playoffs next year.

The Sons of Ben talk to Kyle Nakazawa.

Local

Two MLS players with local roots are among the final three for the Comeback Player of the Year Award, Chris Albright and Bobby Convey. The winner will be announced November 10.

The Inquirer profiles Chris Pawlowski, the La Salle midfielder who has gone from being diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma to playing 80 minutes per game.

An own goal resulted in a 2–1 loss for the No. 14 ranked Penn men’s team to Penn State on Wednesday night. The Penn women’s team topped Lehigh 2–1.

Villanova lost to St. John’s on the road Wednesday night 1-0.

Northeastern’s 3–1 win against Drexel last night was only the second home loss of the season for the Dragons.

MLS

The playoffs start tonight when Colorado host Columbus in the first leg of their meeting. In addition to William Hesmer, injured in Sunday’s match against the Union after a collision with Danny Califf, Columbus will be without Emelio Renteria, who was injured in a collision with Chris Seitz. (That’s what I call instant karma for Renteria’s bullshit telephone goal celebration.) You can watch the game on ESPN2 from 9pm. Who cares about the World Series with the Phillies out of it, anyway?

The English tabloid The Daily Mirror thinks Fabio Capello should be looking at Sounders’ Steve Zakuani, who is eligible to play for the Congo, England, the US and the Casa League.

More on the plans of the Cosmos in this interview with the club’s Director of Soccer, Terry Byrne. It’s amazing the amount of attention a team that has no league affiliation and no players can receive.

In further MLS hopefuls news, a few weeks ago we mentioned that Omaha has MLS aspirations. Yesterday we talked about Orlando. In the past we have talked about Arizona, Atlanta and Miami. We can now add Las Vegas to the ever-increasing list of MLS aspirants.

Manager David Moyes says he would be happy for Donovan to come back on loan to Everton.

US

Soccer America has a scouting report on the USWNT, who begin CONCACAF qualifiers for the 2011 Women’s World Cup today against Haiti in Cancun. Goal.com also previews the US schedule.

Elsewhere

The head of the Russian bid committee for the 2018 World Cup calls the English bid committee’s behavior “primitive.” The Guardian wonders will British media lose the 2018 World Cup bid for England.

The successor to the recently deceased Paul the Octopus, who is also named Paul, has been announced, and he is French. The original Paul was English. Great, now the French have eight ways to handle the ball. Sacre bleu!

(Cover photo: Daniel Gajdamowicz)