Black and Red United give DC winger Andy Najar five-stars for his performance on Saturday. Hard to argue.

MLSTalk praises Peter Nowak as the Arsene Wenger of MLS. I am totally confused about the comparison. Both successful yet flawed coaches? Both European?

Former Union netminder Brad Knighton helped his Carolina Railhawks to their 10th straight win, earning his 5th shutout of the year in the process.

Another Union alum, Brian Perk, earned a shutout in his first MLS start over the weekend. And he saved a pk. Very nice, Perky.

A wild game between RSL and New England included the Next Great MLS Reffing Controversy.

Highlights (July 2, July 4) from all the MLS action this weekend (except the Rapids/Dynamo match which suuuuuuuuuuuucked).

And in case you haven’t seen it yet, Darlington Nagbe just gave Eric Hassli a run for his money for goal of the year. This is flat-out punishingly awesome.

SI.com’s Steve Davis believes US Soccer has reached a plateau. A big, white, shiny plateau.

A fantastic article written by Herculez Gomez for The Shin Guardian.

“Instead, FIFA has given every impression of wishing to sweep all allegations of misconduct under the carpet and dismissing anyone bringing allegations to them with an approach bordering on contempt.” The British government believes FIFA is avoiding any serious investigation into itself, but that isn’t enough to make anyone look up a word that means, “bordering on contempt.”

FIFA is busy with other issues. It ruled that Syria and Yemen are unfit sites to host a WC qualifying match, and sent Sepp Blatter to Zimbabwe to hang out with Robert Mugabe and talk about fixing corruption. I mean, you really can’t make this stuff up. Priceless quote from the tyrannical and murderous and corrupt Mugabe’s Sports Minister David Coltart: “Hopefully FIFA will stick by the (Zimbabwe) government’s determination to deal with corruption,” Coltart told The Associated Press. “We expect them to endorse that there has been criminality and prosecution must follow.”

Moments after Fenerbahce defeated Sivasspor to win the Turkish league title, their President and over 40 other people were arrested in connection with a giant match-fixing scandal.

Despite being the best team in the world and mystifying the tactical genius known to us mere mortals as Bob Bradley, Mexico lost to Chile 2-1 in the Copa America.

Chinese Real Estate firm Dalian Wanda is investing over $75 million to develop Chinese soccer over the next three years. Hey, start with a good coach.

A full listing of every EPL team’s preseason schedule.

Photo: Paul Rudderow