Major Link Soccer: Battery and Dynamo affiliation

MLS

Osvaldo Alonso and Lamar Neagle are a few of the Sounders to have passed through the Charleston Battery. Don't expect any Battery players to don the rave green next year though. The USL Pro side just announced an affiliation with the Houston Dynamo for 2015.

The rules of MLS trades are long and complicated. The Timbers used this to their advantage when they got rid of Donovan Ricketts, freeing up salary cap room, and earning some sweet, sweet, allocation dollars. Let Stumptown Footy take you through the Timbers' unconventional move, and hopefully you'll learn something new about MLS (not just that the Timbers can do something smart).

The New York Red Bulls may have lost one Designated Player this year, but it doesn't look like they'll lose a second. In an interview with the Australian Associated Press, Tim Cahill said he doesn't plan to retire anytime soon, and in fact he might be open to a new contract with the Red Bulls when his current one expires. The 35 year-old gave us a few other excellent quotes such as  "Physically, I feel great. Mentally, I'm always switched on," or "I think people will be quietly impressed with what I'm trying to do." "I'm great. Everyone loves me and I'm going to live forever," said Cahill in surprisingly the only quote I've made up in this link.

Some of you, like myself, may have stopped paying attention to Mauro Rosales in 2014. But if you're looking for a quick catch-up on the Argentine midfielder, the Goat Parade has you covered.

Does USL Pro experience give Orlando City SC an advantage that NYCFC never had? OCSC certainly think so. They get pre-existing fans, pre-existing players to choose from, and no expectations of immediate success. Not sure if I agree with everything in the article, but who cares what I think, make up your own damn mind.

A lot is at play in the forthcoming rivalry between the New York Red Bulls and New York City FC. It's a battle between two big soccer corporations (Red Bull and Etihad), a battle between two competing soccer ideals, and a battle to spread MLS through America's biggest city. This link brought to you by Michael Bay.

New York City FC have added another member to their coaching staff. Former Philadelphia Union Technical Director Rob Vartughian is expected to spend most of his time working with the goalkeepers, but should also do some scouting and general coaching.

It appears as if the Colorado Rapids are also about to undergo some changes. They've hired a new Director of Soccer (Claudio Lopez) and have parted ways with their Head Athletic Trainer:

Another huge shakeup at DSGP: can confirm #Rapids96 have fired Head Athletic Trainer Jaime Rojas. Massive front office turnover.

— Chris Bianchi (@Rapids_News) December 23, 2014

USA

If you had your hopes up for Diego Fagundez joining the USMNT, now would be a good time to take a seat. The midfielder is currently in Uruguay's U-20 camp, and could play in the South American Youth Championship, which would close the door on a USMNT future. He also recently stated that he hasn't received any contact from US Soccer about playing for them, and will hence try his luck elsewhere.

With all the news surrounding the Seattle Impact lately, you may have been curious about the Seattle area indoor soccer team, or perhaps just indoor soccer in general. The Seattle Times took a look at the numbers of indoor soccer, and turned up some interesting stuff. Did you know you can buy a team for about $5,000, and only have to pay each player about $300 per game? Perhaps you should sub in "indoor soccer team" for "yacht" on your Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa list this year.

Both Ndamukong Suh and Odell Beckham Jr. played soccer growing up, which nowadays isn't that strange for NFL players. In fact, the spread of soccer seems to be changing the NFL player landscape. According to scouts, players are getting better with footwork and better at reading movement on the field, which many chalk up to the beautiful game.

Former soccer prodigy Freddy Adu is again out of contract, this time after a stint with Serbian side FK Jagodina. Could NASL (specifically the Cosmos) be the right place for Adu to land?

The NCAA 2014 soccer season is over, which means that Top Drawer Soccer has a list of Best XI teams out. Jordan Morris and Cristian Roldan made the first team, Darwin Jones made the second team, and Sounders Academy product Seyi Adekoya made the freshman second team.

NASL teams have had academies for a while, but the rules surrounding those academies haven't ever been very strict. As NASL's academies start to become more uniform, they hope to play a big role in US youth soccer development.

World

Napoli won the Italian Super Cup yesterday in front of 14,000 fans. The game was won in penalties, with all regular time goals scored by Argentinians (two goals for Gonzalo Higuain and two for Carlos Tevez).

Sean Murdoch, a goalkeeper currently training with NYCFC, just proposed to his girlfriend with dance. I'd make a joke here, but I feel like he'll get made fun of enough for dance-proposing.