Cover Photo by Daniel Gajdamowicz

Union

Goal.com calls the Union’s handling of Chris Seitz the “worst ongoing saga” of the year and notes, “As Seitz made his way to FC Dallas for free in the second stage of the Re-Entry Process, Nowak probably couldn’t have helped but wonder what he could have done with the sum of allocation money – reportedly between $175,000 and $200,000 – used to secure Seitz’s services from Real Salt Lake last year.”

Corey Hertzog

Amobi Okugo has been added to the USMNT U-20 January training camp roster.

Philly Union Talk ponders whether the Union should DP or not DP and has a poll so you can voice your opinion.

The Union figures twice in this list of the Best Quotes of the Year.

MLS

Two college players with local connections are among the group of nine named to the 2011 Generation adidas class: Corey Hertzog (Penn State) hails from Reading, Zarek Valentin (Akron) from Lancaster. Five of the players are from the NCAA championship winners Akron.

Most of the mock drafts that are popping up everywhere seem to project the Union taking Hertzog, as exampled by this one by SBI, which also projects Valentin going to DC United.

Zarek Valentin

US Soccer Players looks at the realities of loaning MLS players to English clubs in the offseason.

More on the Dwayne De Rosario affair: his representatives claim TFC gave him permission to train with Celtic. Meanwhile, TFC fans may be getting fed up with De Rosario.

US

ESPN is busy looking backward and forward. First, here’s a look back at the USMNT 2010 campaign, but you’ll need a subscription to ESPN Insider to read it in full. Happily, this list of the best quotes from the world of soccer in 2010 can be viewed by all. And here’s a look forward with a list of topics to follow in 2011 that includes professional and national team story lines.

Elsewhere

Not to be outdone by ESPN, SI’s Grant Wahl recounts the world’s game in 2010 through his own globe trotting.

The Spanish players’ union attempt to get the courts to alter La Liga’s schedule has failed.

Add another voice to the choir in support of a winter World Cup in 2022. The president of the Asian Football Confederation, Qatari Mohamed bin Hammam, has voiced his support. (For today’s fun fact, I checked to see what the time difference is between Qatar and Philadelphia and, in the winter, it seems Qatar is eight hours ahead. So, a game at 2:30pm in Qatar would be on at 6:30am in Philly.)

Following Malaysia’s 3–0 defeat of Indonesia in the ASEAN Cup on Sunday, “Malaysiacheatlaser” topped Twitter’s global “trending Topics” chart as Indonesian’s complained that Malaysian fans had used lasers to distract the Indonesian goalie.