Major Link Soccer: Assault with a spicy kebab and other drabble

Seattle

The injury report is out for the Sounders and FC Dallas. No real exciting news on the Sounders front. Dylan Remick is expected to be unavailable because of a sprained ankle and Leo Gonzalez is still a mystery. Dallas is throwing a healthier lineup out, although George John (Shoreline native) is questionable with a right knee injury. Dallas will also be missing midfielder Je-Vaughn Watson who is suspended for a red card in his previous match.

After Remick went down with an injury on Saturday, coach Sigi Schmid slotted Brad Evans into the spot, and even though Evans considers himself a classic midfielder, it is a position he might find himself in again on Wednesday. For Evans' World Cup aspirations, it might bode well to take some reps in the spot Jurgen Klinsman is most comfortable seeing him in.

Need another tactical look at the Sounders win over Philadelphia? Here you go!

MLS

Four wins in a row will leave you as the top team in MLS, according to the latest power rankings. The Sounders sit at No. 1 and Real Salt Lake held strong at No. 2.

The San Jose Earthquakes thought they had a gem when Yannick Djalo joined the squad. The talented Portuguese winger has shown glimpses of what he can do on the field, but those glimpses have been highly limited as of late by muscle strains. It's happened enough in this early season, that Quakes coach Matt Watson is a bit concerned.

"Obviously, he's got issues that we need to get resolved," Watson said. "There's a little pattern developing in terms of, he recovers from an injury pretty quickly, and then can't get through the game or can only get through a couple minutes. We've got to figure that one out, so we can get him on the field and get him to finish games."

David Beckham's waterfront proposal keeps running into issues, and now Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez proposing the group build a MLS stadium on the downtown waterfront -- not the PortMiami. The PortMiami location has drawn a lot of heat from big players in Miami, including Royal Caribbean Cruises.

The Chicago Fire are the latest team to secure a USL Pro affiliate and theirs will be located down in St. Louis. St. Louis is, and has been, a hot bed for soccer in the Midwest, and Hot Time in Old Town has all the relevant takes for Fire fans.

U.S. Soccer

The NASL secured an expansion into Oklahoma City for 2015. OKC are one of three expansion teams, including Virginia Cavalary and Jacksonville Armada, to hop into the league and will play inside the 6,500 seat Yukon Millers Stadium.

The Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup is still going strong for its 101st year. Ever wonder who the last non-MLS team to win the whole thing was? Click here for trivia points only your nerdiest of soccer buddies will ask you.

Mexico

Ever interested in Club Tijuana? Here is a great longform on the history of the club and the people from San Diego it attracts.

Europe

Everyone knows Liverpool really (insert favorite term for an unpleasant bowel movement) the bed against Crystal Palace over the weekend. The loss made the Tottenham Hotspur's official Twitter account so excited, it quickly tweeted a whole load of tweets that are no longer on the timeline, but featured messages like "brutal but very funny" and a video of Luis Suarez crying. Of course, the club didn't mean any harm/actually do it knowingly.

We are currently looking into a security issue where our official Vine account has been compromised.

— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) May 5, 2014

Yeah, sure.

Borussia Dortmund midfielder Kevin Grosskreutz faces charges of assault by flying kebab. According to the Cologne police department, a fan alleges Grosskreuitz threw a spicy kebab in his face, causing his eyes to burn.

Reports are swirling that Nike has pulled back from a rather large $1 billion deal to provide clothing for Manchester United. Now, it looks it looks like Adidas is coming in with an AMOUNT per year deal to provide kits for one of the largest brands in the world.

Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho will manage the Rest of the World team at Soccer Aid, an event to raise money for UNICEF. It is a friendly match that pits England versus the Rest of the World, featuring celebrities and ex-players on both sides of the ball. This is the fifth Soccer Aid event.

Manchester City is in a bit of a hot spot with UEFA for failing the financial fair play rules. Paris St-Germain is also in a bit of a bind, and it is believed the two squads are facing fines close to 50 million and a restriction on Champions League squad size. Under FFP rules, clubs aren't allowed to lose more than 37 million over the previous two seasons. Man City barely missed the mark, coming in with combined losses of 149 million.

The Football Association is meeting on Wednesday to take a big look at ways to better the English national team's fortunes in world play. One of the big hot topics is the introduction of B teams into competitive leagues. Germany, Spain and France all play with B teams in competitive leagues.

Nottingham striker Dexter Blackstock has been fined and hit with a three-month ban after he admitted to betting on games. Blackstock is currently sidelined with a knee injury and isn't expected to play until October.

It seems to happen more and more that political situations infringe upon the soccer fans attending the games, and that is exactly the case in Turkey. Supporters are just as passionate about their teams and the game they play, but a new e-ticketing system has triggered a boycott amongst fans who see it as the latest attempt for the government to suppress dissent.

After almost two decades at Inter Milan, Javier Zanetti confirmed that he will retire at the end of the season, but not from the soccer world completely. He will be the sporting director of the club after the season ends.

Fulham had a rough year, and according to previous owner Mohamed Al Fayed, they wouldn't be relegated if the current owner hadn't taken down the statue of Michael Jackson last fall. Fayed spoke at the National Football Museum in Manchester where the large tribute to the late singer is for some reason going.

Games to watch