Shotgunning: Today's Top Stories, Slammed

All the news that's fit to drink.

And because you'd rather have a beer than be reading all the time... we've taken the day's top news and given it the Reader's Digest-treatment so you can get to that post-work pint quicker.

* Grant Wahl says FIFA needs to get it's own "Red Zone Channel" like the NFL. The American Throwball league has a show that pops in and out of games around the country on game days featuring all the big plays, stops, and scores. Wahl proposes the soccer governing body do the same.

"There no reason this channel shouldn't happen. Call it whatever you'd like -- World Cup Goal Zone, World Cup Real-Time, FIFA Matchday Live -- but there are plenty of incentives for fans, as well as FIFA and its member nations. The fans get a fun, addictive, all-in-one service that currently doesn't exist (and would be of far higher quality than pirate online livestreams). Meanwhile, FIFA and its confederations would receive income that could be shared with their member nations." 

* Jason Davis at Match Fit USA calls for calm over Jurgen Klinnsmann's slow-growth revolution of the USMNT and cautions the inclusion of "Latin flavor" just for the sake of it.

"Jurgen Klinsmann wants to impose a new style on the USMNT. He'll go about his task by looking for players capable of executing his plan. If he wants to win, he can't afford to worry about hitching the new style directly to his other aim - integrating more of America's Latino flavor into the team. He can do both, but he should be careful that he doesn't send the message that the style can only come with Latin flavor. American soccer is already rife with stereotype and generalization. If Klinsmann falls victim to them or even appears to, it will only reinforce beliefs that will hold back the sport here in the years and decades to come. That will only make Claudio Reyna's job harder, handicapping a program already facing an uphill road to success. 

Let's go for that attractive style Klinsmann wants to play, and let's do so with all the abandon for which the American people - be they Latino, black, white, or other - are known. But let's keep in mind that style, as Edward Gibbons once said, is the image of character. American soccer's character should be inclusion, inclusion, inclusion; inclusion to the degree that the word no longer applies because there simply is no bias, and therefore, no need to label the role of any particular group of people as "included" as if some other group is being excluded. 

Let our style truly reflect our character, be the product of it. If not the one we have, the one to which we aspire."

* Charlie Davies bagged a hat-trick, Teal Bunbury got a brace, Real Salt Lake ended Seattle's streak, the Revolution beat FC Dallas, Toronto FC win for the first time on the road, and the Union continue to sputter... that and more in this week's MLS highlights.

* Major League Soccer also released the results of Facebook-fan voting on the 24 best players under the age of 24 in our domestic league and FC Dallas' Brek Shea took top honors. Juan Agudelo, Freddy Adu, Teal Bunbury, and Steve Zakunai round out the top five. A panel of nine "experts" will start revealing their choices for the best young players in MLS starting on Thursday.

* American soccer fans with a love of Euro-mornings already knew this, but the rest of the country is finally waking up (pun intended) to the idea of "breakfast beers", including the Wall Street Journal which recommends a few to try out.

"Athletes and moms, you might say, deserve a tall cold one for breakfast—but mere mortals? Few sneer at a weekend-morning mimosa or Bloody Mary, yet it's unlikely that cheap bubbly or a handful of celery stalks add much to a plate of eggs. In other words: boring. Beer, nourishment aside, is a livelier companion. In fact, paired with morning foods such as oatmeal or granola, unexpected flavors emerge like green tea and chocolate milk."

* In Dallas? Get to the "Bobby Rhine Memorial Kickaround" to benefit the FC Dallas Foundation at Rhine's family. Hosted by Street Soccer Dallas, Freddy Fund, and Good Football.

* In Austin? Check out the fantastic soccer documentary, "Pelada" at Draft House on West Anderson at 7pm. Proceeds of the showing go to benefit the "Multicultural Refugee Coalition Soccer Team". FBM will be there.

* Lastly, the former "American Soccer Show" hosts Jason Davis and Jared DuBois are still podcasting in between leaving the old show and beginning their new show somewhere else (who knows?!?!). Listen to this week's episode here.


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