Major Link Soccer: Monterrey regional champs again

Monterrey scored three late goals against Santos Laguna Wednesday to claim the club's third-straight CONCACAF Champions League title. Perhaps the fact that Santos won't make the Club World Cup will hasten the conversations about Herculez Gomez returning to MLS? (mlssoccer.com)

Vancouver Whitecaps FC and Montreal Impact will square off to see which club represents Canada in the next CCL. Vancouver made easy work of FC Edmonton, winning 2-0 Wednesday and finishing with a 5-2 aggregate win in the Amway Canadian Championship semi-finals. Montreal absolutely demolished Toronto in Quebec. Toronto entered the second leg up 2-0, but Les Impact left little doubt with a 6-0 thrashing that has to worry TFC fans. (mlssoccer.com)

News out of Toronto is that they are hoping to bring in more talent, with talk now about Gomez, former Manchester United star Park Ji-Sung, now with Queens Park Rangers, and Jermaine Pennant, currently with Stoke City. (mlssoccer.com)

In the European Champions League the mighty Barcelona, once considered the continent's unbeatable squad, was similarly dismissed, losing 3-0 at home to Bayern Munich, meaning the two-game aggregate was Munich 7, Barcelona 0. Wow. (soccerbyives.net)

From the files of "it's about time," two stories about the San Jose Earthquakes: First, Steven Lenhart was suspended for two games after a showing of thuggery last weekend that saw him step on a Chivas USA player's face and deliver a forearm shiver to the neck of a defender on a set piece. (Quake, Rattle, and Goal) For those of you who didn't see the game it got so bad coach Frank Yallop pulled him before he could inflict more damage. Let's hope the league and the referees keep a much closer watch on him from now on. Meanwhile, the Quakes are in a winless streak that one story says may be "karma" after all of their amazing come-from-behind wins in the past 12 months. (sports.yahoo.com)

Real Salt Lake got some bad news when coach Jason Kreis announced that striker Alvaro Saborio will be out "several weeks" with his quad injury. Not sure who scores the goals for that team with him down. Does anyone really believe Robbie Findlay can take up all that slack? (desertnews.com)

On the business side of MLS comes word that DC United may be involved in a land swap in the city in order to finally move-ahead on a long-hoped-for new stadium (Washington Business Journal). From Manchester, England, here's a look at what Man City's owners may get out of the rumored deal that would see them own MLS' next expansion franchise (Manchester Evening News). And down in Atlanta, two amazing renderings of ideas for a new stadium have been released - a stadium that Falcons' owner Arthur Blank has said he would like to put an MLS team in too (sports.yahoo.com).

Finally today, a really great and heart-warming story about the Portland Timbers and the amazing effort they put forth to give a little happiness to cancer-stricken 8-year-old boy. And good on the folks at Stumptown Footy for their game report on this special event. (Stumptown Footy)

- Scott Ayers