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- Robbie Keane was named MLS player of the week, unsurprisingly after a two goal/one assist performance. This is his second Player of the Week award of the year. Keane managed his first MLS hat trick back in May, but was unfortunate enough to do it in a week when Marco di Vaio also notched a hat trick. With two player of the week awards in August, there's a strong chance he'll also win Player of the Month.
- The roster for the US U-17 MNT residency program in Bradenton, Florida has been announced. LA Galaxy academy prospect forward Haji Wright was named to the fall semester roster. Top Drawer Soccer ranks him a four star prospect, twelfth on the IMG Academy top 120, and fourth in the region and at his position. He has spent time with the US U-15 program.
- AP has done their due diligence reporting on Landon Donovan's rejuvenation back in National Team camp for a Qualifier for the first time in over a year. The quotes we've seen since he returned from sabbatical are all there, that he's enjoying himself again, etc. The real test is how he performs Friday, but his Gold Cup run and August MLS play were close to immaculate.
- MLS is seriously considering a reduced, 28 match schedule effective 2015 Steve Davis reports. The hope is to be better equipped to deal with international breaks. MLS is planning on taking a two week break for the World Cup next year, and doing that while scheduling 34 matches and avoiding the dead of winter is difficult.
In a 20 team league (once New York City FC joins in 2015), that would mean playing each team in your conference twice and the other conference once. It would reduce the number of home matches, and Jurgen Klinsmann has already called MLS' season too short (a true double round robin with 20 teams is 38 games). However, as the schedule now is built around avoiding the coldest months, reducing the schedule was always more likely than expanding it into December or February.