Kick Off: RBNY's recent stretch has club's Estonian fuming

New York Red Bulls midfielder Joel Lindpere sums up exactly what it feels like at the club after Sunday's 1-1 draw with the Chicago Fire at Toyota Park: “It’s not fun anymore.” RBNY have one win in their last 10 matches.

Seattle Sounders defender Tyson Wahl won’t be sharing the same sentiment after scoring his first career goal in six pro seasons during his team’s 2-1 win over New England, the club’s third straight victory. He received a good ribbing from his teammates for his goal celebration (watch it here) and manager Sigi Schmid is clearly not expecting another goal for quite some time, saying, “he'll come up with a better one next time. He has five or six years to plan that out.”

Teammate Roger Levesque can give Wahl a few pointers including the work it takes to put together a goal-scoring celebration. For example, it turns out Levesque’s scuba diving celebration that went national last Thursday involved many practice dives from the edge of his sofa at home.

While the Sounders continue their rise up the league standings, now sitting in second place in the West, the Philadelphia Union seem to have “found a team,” according to manager Peter Nowak. In this video, the Polish head coach — sporting Bimbo shirt collars — also addresses his management of forward Danny Mwanga, a player he does not want to burn out. (VIDEO)

While everyone is talking about the Union this weekend and their move into first place at the top of the Eastern Conference, the Columbus Crew have crept up right behind them in second place after their 4-1 win over Colorado on Sunday.

Here’s a report from the match which includes news about Crew ‘keeper William Hesmer, who has “pretty bad whiplash” after the Conor Casey red card foul. Columbus manager Robert Warzycha also confirmed his team does not practice giving up early goals and a new reporter makes note of Andrés Mendoza’s “quirky pregnant man goal celebration.”

If you’re the defending MLS Cup champion Rapids, losing 4-1 is not the way you want to head to Washington, D.C., to meet US President Barack Obama, who will receive the champs in the Rose Garden in between two budget meetings today. Catch all the coverage from the Rapids’ visit with the Commander-In-Chief today on MLSsoccer.com.

Today is a big day in Los Angeles as the league-leading Galaxy expect to find out the full extent of the injury to goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts’ arm. His injury and a red card to back-up Josh Saunders saw Mike Magee man the nets for more an entire half in one of the highlights of the weekend.

It’s a big week in Toronto with two matches against the Vancouver Whitecaps. The midweek match will count toward league play, while the match on Saturday will be for the Nutrilite Canadian Championship. The message from TFC manager Aron Winter is the same on a weekly basis: “The [transfer] window is going to be open and I’m going to get some players.”

You never want to hear this about your team: “Guys thought they could just kind of go through the motions.” That’s what goalkeeper Joe Cannon accused his teammates of in the Vancouver Whitecaps’ 2-1 loss in Kansas City over the weekend.

The complaint coming out of D.C. United camp surrounds the team’s lack of savvy. Rarely do you see a manager address this aspect, but after the Houston Dynamo netted an 89th-minute equalizer at RFK, Ben Olsen was open about discussing “the gamesmanship when we are up in games, has a long way to go, and it’s something we’ve got to work on.”

The FIFA Women’s World Cup kicked off on Sunday and it will feature two televised matches this morning with the highlight being Mexico vs. England, kicking off at noon ET on ESPN and Galavisión.

The FIFA Under-17 World Cup, which is being played in Mexico, has one more match to be played before the group stage is wrapped up. Australia vs. Denmark, postponed on Sunday because of lightning, will be staged later today.

Meanwhile, the USA Under-17 squad received arguably the toughest possible draw in the Round of 16, landing steamrollers Germany, who have scored 11 goals and conceded just one thus far.

Here’s a video feature you’re sure to enjoy: the top 10 goals scored during the 2011 CONCACAF Gold Cup. Relive all the great moments. (VIDEO)

Some small consolation for US fans: Although he didn’t necessarily crown the Americans as the best team in CONCACAF, New York Red Bulls and Mexican national team captain Rafa Márquez did state his belief that Mexico still have a lot of work to do before they can be considered the regional giants. (SPANISH)

So where do you stand on the controversy surrounding the CONCACAF postgame awards celebration on Saturday? US goalkeeper Tim Howard filed his complaint that “the entire postgame ceremony was in Spanish: "You can bet your [butt] if we were in Mexico City, it wouldn't be all in English.”

The 4-2 Gold Cup victory by Mexico led one major international soccer columnist to pose a question: "When will the United States better assimilate the countless gifted Hispanics growing up on its own soil?" He also made the following statement: “Mexico, though, is a true soccer nation.”

While US fans will be able to eventually get over the 4-2 Gold Cup final loss to Mexico, it’s going to be a long road back for fans of Argentine giants River Plate, who today are grappling with the reality of the Argentine second division after suffering relegation. Judging by this video, the supporters aren’t taking it that well. (VIDEO)

Want to know just how serious relegation is for River Plate? The players, several of which were crying after the match, were surrounded by a circle of yellow-jacketed security guards to keep them safe from fans. (VIDEO)

The sadness extends all the way to Seattle, where Sounders FC Argentine Mauro Rosales, despite featuring in a 2-1 win by his club over New England on Sunday, says “I can’t complete my happiness with this game because it’s a very bad feeling.”

No time to mourn for NFL star and former Sporting Kansas City trialist Chad Ochocinco, who will take to his later offseason endeavor: alligator wrestling.

MLSsoccer.com Must-Reads:

Revs feel “robbed again,” say ref call helped lift Seattle

Sigi Schmid hails Mauro Rosales as Seattle’s “best player”

Crew’s Hemser says Casey’s tackle was “incredibly dangerous”