Sometimes in my life as a professional freelancer, I get stretched in so many different directions that I must stop and take account of my sundry platforms and obligations. So, let’s see:

Sports Illustrated.com (SI.com) … I’m on it.

For MLSSoccer.com, a weekly tactics piece … Check.

Soccer Today, my weekly radio show / podcast along with NBA scribe and Manchester City diehard Mark Stein … Double check.

Various, non-soccer contracts with publishing houses for soul-stealing corporate, fluffy-wuffy content … Uh, yeah.

Blogging at Daily Soccer Fix …

Hello … Daily Soccer Fix … are you there …?

Alas, the answer today will be different than tomorrow.

Yes, this will be the final entry for Daily Soccer Fix, the little blog I started in 2008.

I launched the blog to bind all my various media properties, kind of a clearing house for the other work I did, and as a means to otherwise empty the notebook, to say about domestic soccer whatever I couldn't on other outlets.

Sports Blog Nation absorbed the blog in 2009 as part of a deal to help them build out their soccer empire. Dave Clark and his excellent Sounder At Heart blog was my first recruit. If I had quit that day, his blog by itself would have made my time at SBN as "soccer league manager" a stunning success.

I brought a few other bloggers on board before passing along the managerial car keys, while retaining the blog (but not the recruiting duties). From there, I penned entries as often as possible.

Now … well, it’s time to move on. I’ll keep writing for other outlets. Meanwhile, I need the extra minutes and hours to explore some other opportunities out there (some in soccer writing, some not), and to make some headway on a (soccer-related) book I hope to write.

Thanks for reading. My biggest regret, honestly, is relinquishing the interaction with all the awesome, regular commenters. It’s so great to read wonderful opinions and to get dialogue going with sharp folks who love the game and have smart, reasonable thoughts to share. You know who you are … and I thank you.

Cheers, all.

Steve

Something has always flummoxed me in sports. It’s the propensity of lesser informed fans and a few media blowhards to stand on high, reeking of tough-minded and righteous superiority, and label some professional athletes as "soft."

This is especially bothersome in American football. To call a professional football player (or college athlete, for that matter) "soft" is the very height of bird-brained nincompoopery. As my friend and former colleague Jean-Jacques Taylor (now at ESPN) used to say, "I’ve never met a professional football player who is soft, because they don’t exist."

If you’ve ever stood on the sideline of an NFL game, the brutal brew of speed and violence is nothing short of jaw-dropping. If you were to stand 40 yards from somebody, then both run as fast as you can to collide head-first, with as much violence and aggression as you could possibly muster, you’d have some inkling of what happens on every single play of NFL contests. You would, that is, after waking up in the hospital and completing a full debriefing from the assembly of surgeons and medical officials charged with putting you back together.

Repeat after me: there are no soft football players. Some players certainly are more comfortable with contact, and are better prepared from a physiological standpoint to deal with the violent contact. But since we’re all human, fallen and imperfect, we sometimes take shortcuts. And rather than saying all that, we fall back on clichés and banalities … such as this misguided chestnut about players being "soft."

How does this affect soccer? Glad you asked.

I keep seeing references to Camp Cupcake, a pejorative term referencing the U.S. national team’s ongoing camp in Carson, Calif. It’s a relatively new term, and I’d love to know who launched it. My guess: someone who knows their cupcakes. In other words, someone who couldn’t run a lap around their own house without stopping once or twice for a cool cup of water. And if they did manage to complete the small task, they would certainly reward themselves with a sugar- and butter-filled cupcake!

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Difficult as this might be to swallow, one of the next big stories coming out of U.S. Soccer won’t have anything to do with Jurgen Klinsmann.

I know, I know … it’s all about Klinsi right now. Heck, I’ve written as much.

But this lies right around the bend in U.S. Soccer newsiness: the critical selection of venues for World Cup qualifiers.

The math has changed on this one, kids.

As we know, things move fast in the development of our game domestically. Nothing has been more important over the last 10 years than facility development in the professional game. As I wrote last week in another post, just 10 years ago this country had one – just one! – facility built specifically for Major League Soccer. Now there are 14. (In that total, I am counting facilities in Portland, Vancouver and Montreal, where major renovations were done expressly for MLS clubs.)

Previously, any facility built for MLS could count on reaping appropriate rewards: an MLS All-Star game, an MLS Cup final, a U.S. national team match or some combo thereof.

It’s not as simple now. It's just math (with more stadiums competing for roughly the same number of marquee events), plus the way some things are evovling. For instance, the 2012 MLS Cup final might have gone to one of the showy new parks, Livestrong Sporting Park, or possibly to Red Bull Arena, weather issues notwithstanding. Houston’s new facility or possibly even PPL Park in Philadelphia might be in the cue for that carrot on the facility-development stick. But a procedural adjustment now says Major League’s Soccer's top MLS Cup finalist will host the final, a change I have long advocated. So, there’s one less "biggie" to hand out.

The point is: competition is fiercer than ever for available gems. Not everyone will get a cherry on their parfait. And that makes World Cup qualifiers quite important. Read on for more whys and wherefores (and for where I’d like to see the qualifiers assigned).

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Arlo White now has his boots in the booth for NBC Sports Networks, and his successor behind the microphone for Seattle Sounders FC has been revealed.

I’m sure Ross Fletcher will do a bang-up job, and I’m truly intrigued to observe how Kasey Keller makes the transition from player to TV analyst, especially considering he’s in the starting blocks at one of Major League Soccer’s more important and higher profile regional broadcast positions.

But I can’t help thinking the larger soccer broadcasting scene just went the wrong way. Not because Seattle hired the wrong personnel to replace (the somewhat irreplaceable) Arlo White. Rather, because they hired two men to replace one.

I’m not just blowing wind up White’s trousers here, although I do believe he does a wonderful job. And I'm sure he'll crush it at NBC. Rather, I’m talking about how much I loved White as a solo act in the booth.

Finding the right chemistry between a play-by-play voice and an analyst is such tricky math in soccer – and almost nobody in our country gets it right.

It’s really about the history of traditional American sports, in my opinion, and the wildly different pace compared to soccer. The two-man booth in other American sports made perfect sense because its history was rooted in football and baseball. What do you have in those sports? Down time. Lots and lots of down time.

So the play-by-play voice absolutely did need a helping hand, a complement for better booth balance. And the back-and-fourth could be conducted at a relatively smooth, conversational pace.

But soccer’s pace is so very different, with constant action that really doesn’t jibe with the two-man system, not the way it’s built in the United States, at any rate. So we get this rattle-prattle effect, with two men in the booth scatter shooting in a conversation that too frequently takes the focus away from the on-field action. I’ve written about this before, so I won’t go on about it.

Yes, it can has been done correctly. Mostly, however, the two-man booth becomes a distracting rattle-trap.

So the original (and bold) broadcast choices in the Sound were important, I thought. White was a one-man band who almost always nailed the right notes. Through efficiency of words and smart descriptive outlay, he provided the perfect blend of self-contained action-reaction. He showed that one man, well-prepped and well-chosen, could handle the job with a smart aplomb.

So I had this hope that more MLS clubs might follow. Alas, maybe we’re just not there yet.

Marc Stein and I had White on Soccer Today our weekly radio show/podcast last week. Click forward to hear what the former Sounders broadcaster had to say when I asked him about this matter. Not surprisingly, his answer was thoughtful and insightful.

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ALSO FILE UNDER: This thing might just go away in 5 or 6 years

As player acquisition tools evolve in Major League Soccer, January’s annual SuperDraft seems destined to shrink in relevance. Even this year the process already is shrinking, literally, reduced to just two rounds. That’s down from four rounds just two years ago.

The reduction in rounds is partially because more teams are participating now, 19 this go-round as expansion Montreal joins for Major League Soccer’s 17^th campaign. Just six years ago, only 12 teams were choosing from the litter.

But the diminishing draft is also about process evolution. Rosters now are increasingly stocked with signings from the teams’ youth academies. And clubs are filling more holes through the recently created re-entry draft (for players out-of-contract or those whose options have been declined by their current teams). And that’s not to mention the recently expanded Designated Player options. Why take a college kid, after all, when you can go pluck Robbie Keane from the English Premier League?

Check out my Mock Draft at SI.com. Yes, I'm just guessing, right along with all the other mock draft guessers. But let's not allow that to spoil the mock draft fun!

But the draft (it’s the "MLS SuperDraft" officially) still has its place. And based on last year’s proceedings, the top 6-8 players selected can have an immediate impact, either as a consistent starter or as one of the first names called off the bench.

It all goes down Thursday from the Kansas City, where Montreal, Vancouver, New England and Toronto (in that order) have the first four picks. (ESPN2, noon ET)

"This is still important tool," Chicago Fire coach Frank Klopas told me by phone earlier this week from Fort Lauderdale, where the annual MLS player combine was wrapping up. "Maybe two or three years down the road, as more teams get the opportunity to develop and sign more home-grown talent, maybe you’ll see more players getting signed that way. But for now, this is still important."

MLS commissioner Don Garber hasn’t minced words about it either, calling the draft and its place in things an "evolutionary process." Sure, seven of the Galaxy’s 11 starters during the successful MLS Cup final in November came originally from the draft. But it’s changing, and the commissioner hopes in 10-20 years that most roster spots will be filled through the teams’ developmental academies.

"In the early days of the league, almost every player came out of college or was an international star," Garber told MLSSoccer.com while in Florida. "Today there is really a nice mix of players that are coming out of the college ranks, they’re coming out of the Generation adidas program, they’re coming as youth internationals and all of those signings have an impact on what the draft looks like. But the draft is still an important part of our league’s structure.

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I love to see the MLS passion pouring in from these new ports of call. Devoted fans from Toronto, Portland, Vancouver, Seattle and, going a little further back, Salt Lake City, have done wonders to energize Major League Soccer, now going into its 17^th season.

And plenty of new fans from older markets are adding more air to the MLS baloon, too.

But we know that MLS isn’t perfect. Heck, neither is the NFL, the king-daddy of all U.S. sports, and it’s been around for almost 100 years in some form.

People see the dents and dings and understandably want better for Major League Soccer, so they raise a concerned voice. Others want it to be something completely different. (I’m not picking on new markets or new fans here; it’s just that they are less likely to notice the scarring from battles of earlier MLS days.)

As I’ve said before, my job as a journalist isn’t just to turn up news and spit out data. The more important element is layering in context and perspective.

So when fans begin pissing and moaning about how this or that is broken in MLS (or with the U.S. sides or in domestic soccer more generally), I often feel this reflexive need to tame the little brush fires of discontent with a cold-water bucket of historical perspective.

Here’s the deal: We’re right up against a 10-year anniversary that no one in MLS really celebrates. It’s one that we’d rather forget, in fact. "Just move along folks; nothing to see here."

I truly don’t believe people know just how close this thing came to shutting down 10 years ago.

We were this close to watching domestic soccer fold back in on itself. What remained might have resembled soccer here in the early 1990s, a desolate moonscape with the professional game reduced anew to outlier status. There would have been an indoor league and sprouts of pro soccer in USL markets. But who’s kidding who here? God bless the Rochester Rhinos and Richmond Kickers and such of USL, but David Beckham, Thierry Henry, Landon Donovan et al aren’t signing up for any of those markets. It’s really great AA and AAA baseball, so to speak, but it ain’t "The Show."

So we have MLS. Only, we almost didn’t have it.

Here, in a nutshell, is what Major League Soccer looked like 10 years ago:

The spiritual and cultural DNA of our country was changing right before our eyes in the weeks and months following 9/11. And who knew what would come of the economy?

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Looks like George John is getting the best of both worlds.

The FC Dallas center back will soon be playing at Upton Park as part of West Ham. But it won’t be as part of a full transfer as previously believed. Not just yet, at any rate.

I don’t have many details, but it looks like the first step here is a loan to West Ham through the end of February. Final details are being sorted now, from what I understand.

It makes sense for West Ham, which is bidding to get back into England’s top flight after last year’s relegation. Hammers defender James Tomkins is a transfer target for several EPL clubs, so Sam Allardyce’s club could use the cover that John would provide.

Nothing is set for Tomkins, but I would still expect John to get his opportunities along the back line under Allardyce.

What’s less clear is what might happen from there. From what I understand, this is just a loan deal for now. And it’s just through February. For now. The back end is open, apparently. So John might be coming back to FC Dallas Stadium for a fourth campaign. Or he might be staying in "East, East, East" London.

More details are surely to come. For now, just watch the TV listings for your next chance to see West Ham and their newest American signee.

When you break it down, what we love about sports are the memories they create.

You build stockpiles of those treasured days and nights. We all have our "Miracle On Ice" moments, even if all can’t rise to that level of cherish and intensity.

We fondly remember that special game at your high school. We recall the wonder moment of walking into a professional sporting event for the first time. We remember the moment our beloved team finally made the breakthrough.

Those reading this blog have their specific soccer memories. You remember your first MLS match – which friends were around you and who scored the mighty goal. You also remember the big goal you scored (or stopped) in youth soccer, no matter what level you happened to achieve.

I just bet you remember the moment you absolutely stopped breathing as Landon Donovan, bombing desperately forward with 40 yards of space and a nation full of hope in front of him, concocted that fabulous goal in the dying seconds against Algeria. Yeah, you remember.

Now, if you break down "memories" in some esoteric sense, it’s a beautifully blended mix of action and consequences, all set against a backdrop of romance.

Ah, romance. That’s the link that helps bind all these memories. And that’s why I love the FA Cup.

That’s why I spent a Saturday morning watching Macclesfied, a team I had never heard off three days ago, spending a few minutes to find it on the England map while the Silkmen took on EPL club Bolton. The ground at Moss Rose (capacity 6,000) was abuzz as their side fought off elimination. As I said on Twitter that morning (@SteveDavis90), I simply cannot resist a match televised live from a stadium smaller than most high school football grounds where I live.

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