This Is American Soccer, US Soccer, MNT, WNT, and MLS - Tackling the subject of Soccer in the US, and worldwide.

A good week for MLS. Another pay-day (and some good will?) came with Adu’s transfer; American teams are playing well against their Mexican counterparts in Superliga, which apart from its poor English-language TV coverage has turned out to be a success (one way soccer can find a better home here in America is by embracing all these little international offshoots and creating year-round soccer); MLS even sold its TV rights for Scandinavia and a good portion of Eastern Europe (besides Russia), which means someone thinks somebody over there wants to watch (more than just Beckham? I hate how now Beckham makes me question the reason behind everything good that happens in terms of coverage, ratings, etc. Is it fair of me to think so? I’m not sure.)

The rest of this week’s top stories and best hits after the jump…

Before continuing with MLS news and notes, Jack Bell has a long sit-down with US MNT coach Bob Bradley. A little bit of everything here to sate the appetite of national team die-hards during this break from play. Or, if you are like me, this kind of thing just frustrates you, because its essentially a waste of space. Not a single revelation here. I’d much rather hear Jack write about something else, or at least his own thoughts and feelings in regards to Bradley’s answers. Gaurded answers and the obvious cliches from Bradley do me no good.

On the cultural front, a interesting piece comes from the Global Game who towards the end of this link discusses soccer in the context of Mexican migration with the author of a new book detailing stories of some new Americans.

Late Add: The best piece of the week comes Rob Hughes at the International Herald Tribune. An essay on the grooming, signing, and trading of young football stars. Well written, thoughtful, and fresh.

Back to MLS. Bloomberg, who could care less if Beckham plays or not, is the latest to get in on the Beckham impact to MLS finances. Is that the end of the conversation? Not for Chicago columnist Greg Couch. No doubt it couldn’t be worse timing, but it’s as if people have never seen an athlete sit out with an injury before… though all the price-hiked ticket holders can’t be helping those blinders.

As usual, Grant Wahl has the end all be all of the Freddy Adu interviews (it was reported Freddy sat in Maryland one day and took around 20 phone calls back to back. It helps Wahl’s piece greatly that he was the first.) Then again, Steve Goff got to go to Freddy’s house. Location, not just timing, has its advantages as well.

While the focus is often on who is transferring overseas, it should be noted some players are more than happy staying in the good ole’ US of A. A nice Q&A with Eddie Pope and a few quotes from Eddie Johnson on his non-transfer to Derby. Which should make SI Soccer Editor Brian Westfall happy, although his colleague has EJ all but gone.

Love him or hate him on the field, everyone should read EJ’s feature from the Wizards’ hometown paper. The kid has been through a lot and has more on his plate than most players. It was when I first learned of Eddie’s story a few years ago that I became a supporter of his. Maybe this piece will do the same for some others.

I don’t think there is any professional argument for players to stay in MLS at this point, but as American soccer grows, this argument is one to keep an eye on, because eventually, sure, it would be great if they would all stay (and have it be beneficial for their skills even if not their wallets or egos). With the likes of Clint Dempsey looking like he’ll have stiff competition for minutes this year from several new Fulham signings, the stay-or-go argument is only going to get louder.

The other side of this comes with the example of Brazil’s 17-year-old Alexander Pato, who was sent to AC Milan from Internacional for $30 million. Is there a Brazil tax for players, or will MLS players begin to garner higher transfer fees? Freddy brought $2 million (though his contract status did effect that relatively low price); a Pato-esque transfer could pay for an entire new team in MLS.