Major Link Soccer: Open Cup Begins, FC Dallas Success

Third Annual US Open Cup Pick 'Em

Follow the 100th US Open Cup closer than ever before!

Yesterday, the 100th season of the US Open Cup began. The long time shonen anime aficionado in me has somewhat more romanticized view of the whole "tournament" setup. (It's hard to deny that the Open Cup could use some more biceps and powerups). The first two preliminary round games were played last night, and the first team to move on was FC Hasental out of Southern California. Soon after, the Georgia Revolution advanced on PKs over the Colorado Rovers. And both, by virtue of taking the cup seriously, still have the opportunity to advance deep in the country's most venerable competition. And with that, the first round is set. Two rounds to go until our Sounders enter the fray, and they're totally going to go Spirit Gun all over the competition.

The Sounders may catch a bit of a break with Kansas City's roster for the game today. Matt Besler may still be out with a stoked tweeked ligament. Paulo Nagamura has been suspended for his conduct in their previous match. And there's no word yet on Kei Kamara's status. The remaining lineup is... pretty solid. It's all about looking for the silver linings, right? They'll just have to prepare for the atmosphere in the "home of American soccer" and destination of the 2013 MLS All-Star Game.

Real Salt Lake will be taking a moment of silence before today's match to commemorate the referee that died over the weekend.

Some guy named Alex Ferguson is calling it a career for Manchester United. How many trophies do you suppose line his mantlepiece? (you can find out through that link above) He has to have the biggest mantle in the history of mantles.

Don't look now, but FC Dallas is sitting right behind Philadelphia on the attendance charts. After lagging near the bottom of the league for nearly the existence of the club, recent success combined with more dollars in the sales department have pushed the original Texan club up into adequate territory. And with 4/5 of the season to go, it isn't far-fetched to think that number might climb. Here's hoping they can hit an average of 17,000 this year.

They have moved above DC United in the Attendance Standings (standings that unfortunately don't earn the Sounders any sort of shield or cup), where there is, as always, more stadium news. The solution this week is "Land Swap". One land swap, two land swaps, three land swaps, AH AH AH.

MLS just recently made domestic transfers do-able, but the system is dramatically different. Would it be better to match it up to the international system?

How can MLS take the next step and bring home a CONCACAF trophy? This article at MLSmajorleaguesoccer.comcompany has some ideas.

A pair of big-ish MLS deals went down yesterday. The Colorado Rapids picked up a new defender, but perhaps the more exciting news is that Juan Agudelo has been traded back to the east. The Revolution picked up the young striker for a tune and a dollar from Chivas

The latest supporters group to find itself in trouble is that of the Houston Dynamo, who were using their twitter handle to make some off-color remarks. Needless to say, Houston probably isn't the best destination for Robbie Rogers.

I end today with a challenge. Here's a wall of text over at Massive Report that I don't really understand the entirety of. If you can make it through this wall of text all the way to the end, you're a stronger individual than I.