Major Link Soccer: Ljungberg un-retires, FA diversity

Seattle

Seattle's skies were sunny Sunday afternoon, until clouds rolled in and goals started raining from the sky. At the end of the night, the Seattle Reign put five (and a shutout) on the Portland Thorns making Seattle soccer 3-3 in the last three contests against that town from slightly farther south. One can't blame the defending champs for turning towards the one thing they've still got on the Emerald City, though it may be a touch hypocritical...

Y'all remember how annoying Sounders fans were in '10 when they tried to mask disappointment at results by bragging about attendance? Yeah.

— Aaron Campeau (@AaronCampeau) July 28, 2014

This article at Goal.com considers the historic season the Sounders are having as an application to be one of the top clubs throughout the new era of MLS. They draw comparisons to the takeover perpetrated by Manchester United and Arsenal after the 1992 season, when the EPL took  step forward.

Freddie Ljungberg sighting! The formerly retired Freddie is joining an Indian league team to try and help grow the sport in that country. (this may be the last time I link Bleacher Report.)

DeAndre Yedlin has been playing a lot of FIFA against various opponents since the World Cup. But has he met his match at Geekwire?

MLS

The Portland Timbers won last night, and suddenly Vancouver has more draws than Portland does! But they're already called "Van City", so Portland Timbers will retain their nickname for the time being.

Liverpool players, in Boston for a friendly with AC Roma (they lost 1-0), must have decided that they were getting paid far too much to play a children's game: they went ahead and got real jobs at a local subway.

Why... What... RT "@JamesPearceEcho: Jordan Henderson and Daniel Sturridge doing a shift in a Boston Subway pic.twitter.com/L66fh6F83A"

— LorenzoCalcio (@LorenzoCalcio) July 25, 2014

The Philadelphia Union have signed Algerian keeper Rais M'Bolhi, which makes so much sense after spending two big picks at the position in recent years. THIS is why they can't have nice things, and also how you get ants.

The Tampa Bay area currently has three major league teams, and now the Tampa Bay Times looks at their chances of bringing MLS in even when the league will be active in Orlando an hour away.

The league will be consulting NCAA during the All-Star "break" on how to potentially format their new soccer system,which has been rumored for over a week now.

WORLD

FIFA is sticking to their guns when it comes to allowing Russia to host the World Cup in 2018. Like with Brazil, FIFA wants to "achieve positive change". The only "positive change" I've seen out of their last host country so far is that they galvanized the people and helped them unify for their own well being. I suppose though that if a similar thing happens in Russia, it might be... progress?

As with the vast majority of positions of power in the world, the Football Association is disproportionately white and male. There's a push to change that to better represent the population of England.

The political unrest in Ukraine is having a dramatic effect on the start of their soccer season, moving games hundreds of miles away.