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Seattle
Following up their strong video work on DeAndre Yedlin's goodbye video, SoundersFC.com has this top ten Stories of 2014 countdown that is a pretty fun way to relive the highlights of the 2014 season.
How are you with a drum, horn, and/or set of cymbals? Do you like to play that instrument in Sounders gear, perhaps during corner kicks? That's right, I'm talking about Sound Wave. Open auditions for the group are Friday Feb. 13 and Saturday Feb. 14. So, either you'll be trying out on Friday the 13th or skipping out on your Valentine for an audition. Sound Wave certainly draws a wide range of response from the Sounders faithful, but you can't deny it would be a pretty fun gig.
Two former Seattle players got hitched, and journalists everywhere broke out their soccer puns with glee. Here's an odd one: "Two leading footballers just scored." I think I would have dug a little deeper into the writer's well there. Still, I'm sure Servando Carrasco appreciates being grouped with Alex Morgan in the "soccer star" category by most outlets.
Major League Soccer
It's still all about Frank Lampard. Will he ever play for NYC? Does this mean NYCFC is a failure, a joke? Is MLS now doomed? Is the world ending?
To that first question, Manuel Pellegrini can only "hope" that New York fans get their marquee player at some point in 2015, but he specifically did not rule anything out for Lampard at the end of the Premier League season. Hudson River Blue breaks down the double speak at the link.
This situation is not sitting well with New Yorkers, unsurprisingly. Twitter is a good place to experience some hatred, but even NYCFC's supporters' group the Third Rail has taken the step of making an official statement making it clear this is a serious breach of trust for fans.
Personnel decisions coming from the "mothership" club are not unprecedented in MLS, and unfortunately for Chivas RIP fans, the memories are fresh. Is Major League Soccer's shiny new major market club just another afterthought -- a money grab and farm team? Plenty of people are saying it, but here are two reasoned perspectives: Hudson River Blue, again, with what NYCFC needs to do to avoid the Chivas path. Chivas (and MLS) expert Alicia at the Goat Parade ticks off the similarities and differences between the two clubs and what we might glean from what we've seen so far.
Meanwhile, Lampard is scoring late game winners off the bench with his head in Manchester.
And MEANWHILE meanwhile, another English great in Steven Gerrard is officially leaving the EPL at the end of the season and heading to a foreign club. There is a credible source saying LA Galaxy have made a contract offer.
The Sounders are already one of the most valuable clubs in the western hemisphere, according to Forbes Mexico, but what will Orlando City SC need to make that top 30 list?
MLS released a list of 19 invitees to the upcoming Caribbean Combine. With so many new USL Pro affiliate clubs, these young raw talents may get some closer looks than in the past.
World
The Palestinian team is having the best season in their history, despite setbacks such as not being able to practice with their entire squad together in the same place at the same time, which seems like it would be a difficulty. A fascinating piece on what it's like to try to build success in a conflict zone.
The other PTFC (I'm talking about Scotland's Partick Thistle Football Club, obviously) has given away many pies that would have otherwise go to waste. Then someone wrote this story about that using just about every steak, pie, meat, etc. pun they could come up with, and it's pretty great.