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Major Link Soccer: Suarez wins award, ties game, sheds tears

Suarez and Liverpool struggle to contain their emotions after allowing Crystal Palace to earn a draw with 3 late goals.

By Randy Meeker

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Clive Rose

Seattle

Local broadcasts of Sounders games this season have been bringing in some pretty impressive numbers.

The match on Saturday even outperformed some pretty major sporting events.

Chad Marshall's performance against Philadelphia was so impressive that the folks at MLSsoccer.com put together a highlight video of his most important plays in the 2-1 win on Saturday night.

Marshall's performance earned him a spot on MLS Team of the Week.

The Reign's dominating start to the 2014 NWSL season, along with the team's 2-1 comeback win at the Washington Spirit on Saturday, has Beau Dure wondering who can stop them. Next up is the league's only other unbeaten team:

Former Sounder Mario Martinez was named to the preliminary World Cup roster for Honduras, along with several other current and former MLS players.

MLS

The league is reportedly "on the precipice" of a new TV deal with ESPN and Fox.

Orange County Commissioner Ted Edwards is seeking proof that a renovation of the Citrus Bowl could not have met the requirements of a MLS expansion franchise in Orlando, after Atlanta was granted an expansion team without a soccer specific stadium.

No Sounders were nominated for MLS Goal of the Week this time around, so Obafemi Martins won't get the chance to win the award for a third consecutive week. Philadelphia Union goalkeeper Zac MacMath was nominated for Save of the Week for his save of Osvaldo Alonso's penalty attempt.

Chivas USA definitely noticed the absence of Mauro Rosales from the lineup last weekend.

Vancouver Whitecaps defender Jay Demerit may retire at the end of the 2014 MLS season.

Sporting Kansas City players received their MLS Cup championship rings on Sunday, and they look pretty impressive.

That is, until you look at the inside of the ring, which includes a hashtag.

USL Pro

After drawing an average attendance of nearly 19,000 (which would currently be in the top 10 in MLS) through its first 2 games at the 20,311 capacity Hughes Stadium, Sacramento Republic FC is looking at expanding its new stadium, which is currently under construction. The planned capacity for the new stadium is 8,000, but Republic FC could expand that to 12,000.

England

Liverpool striker Luis Suarez was named as the 2014 Footballer of the Year by England's Football Writers Association yesterday, adding to his previous award from the players association.

That award will be little consolation to Suarez, after his side blew a 3-0 lead to settle for a draw against Crystal Palace.

Arlo White allowed the reaction of Liverpool players to play out without comment:

Crystal Palace manager Tony Pulis has surprised just about everybody, and is a candidate for Manager of the Year.

Manchester City midfielder Yaya Toure admitted that the Premier League title race between his club and brother Kolo Toure's Liverpool side has caused some strain in his family.

Chelsea could lose three-quarters of its back line this summer, with David Luiz possibly heading to Barcelona, and the contracts of John Terry and Ashley Cole expiring, with no new offers from the club.

Unlike last year's FA Cup winners, Wigan Athletic, Hull City comes into its FA Cup final matchup with Arsenal knowing it has secured a spot in 2014/15 Europa League and avoided relegation from the Premier League.

Denmark

It might be a while before anybody pulls off a better tifo than this one from Copenhagen supporters:

Germany

There was a pair of tearful farewells in the Bundesliga over the weekend. Marc-Andre ted Stegen played his last home game for Gladbach after spending 18 years with the club. Despite the emotions of leaving a club so close to his heart, ter Stegen has no doubts that moving to Barcelona is the right decision at this stage in his career. Borussia Dortmund striker Robert Lewandowski's final home game with Die Schwarzgelben was met with appreciative applause, despite the fact that he will play for rival Bayern Munich in just a few months' time.

Italy

Despite winning its 30th league title in the club's history, Juventus president Andrea Agnelli said that the club will not add a third star to its crest. Juventus feels strongly that it has 32 titles, rather than the 30 it is credited as a result of the 2006 Calciopoli Scandal. Agnelli did concede that once another Italian team earns a second star, Juventus will add the third star "to show the difference between us and them".

A Serie D match finished with a bizarre 19-5 scoreline, with both sides missing their managers and the losing side only able to field 9 players -- all of them coming from the club's youth academy.

Spain

With only 2 games remaining in the season (3 for Real Madrid), the race for the La Liga title is wide open and full of interesting story lines. If Real Madrid wins the title, it can win a treble, which is the one thing UEFA's most successful club has never accomplished. If Barcelona wins, it can regain some of its lost dignity after a year of scandal and tragedy. If Atlético wins, it will win its first league title in nearly two decades and break up Real and Barça's duopoly of the league title over the past 10 years.

Unfortunately, racism has again reared its ugly head, with Atlético supporters allegedly directing racist chants toward Levante's Papakouly Diop. UEFA wants Spanish authorities to take action.

US Soccer

Black and Red United asked Top Drawer Soccer's Travis Clark about what USMNT fans can expect from Gedeon Zelalem if he winds up switching from Germany to the United States.

Terrence Boyd and Juan Agudelo made their best cases for inclusion to the preliminary World Cup roster, with Boyd scoring his 5th goal in his past 3 games and Agudelo providing an assist and the game winning goal for Utrecht against Vitesse over the weekend.

USMNT and Molde winger Joshua Gatt will have to wait until next year to return to the pitch after having a second operation on his injured ACL.

The USWNT will play a couple of friendlies against France next month.

2014 FIFA World Cup

Kick TV's Jimmy Conrad is touring the countries whose national teams are set to face the United States in Group G, a.k.a. the "group of death". Here is his latest report from Portugal:

Other installments in the series can be found here. Conrad is already working on the next installment in Ghana:

ESPN is planning on making sure you don't forget how good it is at covering the World Cup this summer, in its last year before it hands FIFA broadcast rights over to Fox.

Soccer on TV

Serie A 10:00 AM Fiorentina vs. Sassuolo beIN Sports, beIN Sports en Español, beIN Play
Premier League 11:00 AM Premier League Live NBCSN
Premier League 11:45 AM Manchester United vs. Hull City NBCSN, Live Extra
Serie A 12:00 PM Napoli vs. Cagliari beIN Sports, beIN Sports en Español, beIN Play
Premier League 2:00 PM Premier League Goal Zone NBCSN
Film 4:00 PM Mysteries of the Rimet Trophy (followed by Barbosa: the Man Who Made Brazil Cry) ESPN

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