Major League Soccer has tried to do a lot of things right, but one of the challenges that league faces is what to do about teams who become desperately short-handed when a league match is played on the same day as a World Cup qualifying matches. There's always less of a draw if Donovan (USA), Beckham (England) and Blanco (Mexico) are going to be ...

After a month-long hiatus, we're back ... and shocked to discover that Spaniards are now ruling the world.  First the Spanish national team dominates Germany in the Euro 2008 championship to win the country's first European title in 44 years.Then Rafael Nadal survives an incredible 5-set match against Roger Federer to capture ...

We wanted to take this week to expand upon Landon Donovan's incredible first month of the season (one of the best in recent memory by MLS standards) and how he has lifted our fantasy team to the top of its league, but that's the other guy's column. Our job in helping you find your way through Survivor Pro is much more ...

We hate to break this to you, but it's time that someone said something: You're not as smart as you think you are. Come to think of it, neither are we.What are we talking about? Picking winners from MLS games, of course!In case you have not heard, the stakes have been raised for all of you playing Survivor Pro. Just try not to go all Gordon Gecko ...

We've decided that it would be best not to dwell on last week's results and just look ahead to this week's upcoming matches. We'd like to blame the unusual weekend weather -- 44 degrees in Kansas City on Saturday, 89 degrees in Carson, Calif. on Sunday -- but there's no excuses. We can't even blame it on the rain (yeah, yeah). There are seven ...

The MLS season is only two weeks old, but there is a bit of a trend developing. Have you noticed it yet? It has nothing to do with the Kansas City Wizards' fast start, Cuauhtemoc Blanco's brilliance or Jon Busch's return to prominence between the posts. Take one look at the schedule so far this season and it will instantly jump out at you:The home ...

The first weekend of the MLS season is officially in the books and it's safe to say that it has not exactly turned out the way some may have expected. If you were fortunate enough to make it through the first five matches with one predicted victory intact for Survivor Pro, consider it an accomplishment. Here's what we saw in some of the ...

The short answer to the above question is: something, but not everything. After one weekend of MLS action, you've had a chance to ingest and digest quite a lot of soccer information and we're here to help you sort through it all. However, we're also here to remind you that the MLS season is a very long one, and one performance (either by a team ...

Cocky. That's what we were. We committed the cardinal Survivor sin last week: Never pick a team that is playing in a rivalry match. So, in taking FC Dallas to win last week -- yep, you guessed it -- the ''Survivor Experts'' have now been eliminated from their own game. But that's not going to stop us from advising you on some picks throughout the ...