Some final news and notes from my day in New York City this week when I met with U.S. coach Bob Bradley and U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati:

• Gulati said the U.S. is working on scheduling an international friendly in November. The FIFA international date that month is Wednesday, November 17, four days before the MLS Cup final in Toronto, so I would expect a game featuring mostly European-based U.S. players that would take place in Europe.

• Gulati told me that he has not mandated that Bradley make any changes in his coaching staff. “It’s not the way we operate to mandate things,” Gulati said. “The national-team coach is in charge. We talk about some of those things, but we’d never mandate that the coach do anything regarding staffing or games or anything else.” Bradley’s assistants are Mike Sorber, Jesse Marsch, Zak Abdel and Pierre Barrieu.

When I asked Bradley in our one-on-one session if he planned to make any changes to his staff, this is what he had to say: “Every year when I coached club teams, at the end of the year I would say to the staff, ‘Everybody needs to take a little time, assess where you are in terms of your career, your profession, your family, ask yourself some hard questions, and then we need to talk.’ Following the World Cup we talked about those things, but having said that, conversations needed to wait until we knew what was going on.”

• Gulati also addressed the changes that CONCACAF has proposed (but not yet had approved) for the qualifying tournament for World Cup 2014. Instead of having a final 10-game round-robin tournament involving six teams (aka the Hexagonal), the confederation is proposing two groups of four, in which the winners would qualify automatically and the second-place teams would have a playoff for the other automatic bid. (The fourth-place team would then have a playoff against a team from another confederation, probably South America’s CONMEBOL.) The main news out of the new format would be that the U.S. might not face archrival Mexico even once in qualifying for Brazil 2014. I’m going to poke around more on this issue with CONCACAF and report back to you on it soon.

WHAT TO WATCH

Lots of international games on the docket Friday. Here are the best games available for viewing in the U.S. this weekend:

FRIDAY

• Sweden-Hungary (Euro 2012 Qualifying), 2 p.m. ET, ESPN3.com

• Belgium-Germany (Euro 2012 Qualifying), 2:45 p.m. ET, ESPN3.com

• England-Bulgaria (Euro 2012 Qualifying), 3 p.m. ET, FSC

• France-Belarus (Euro 2012 Qualifying), 3 p.m. ET, ESPN3.com

SATURDAY

• Philadelphia-Kansas City (MLS), 3:30 p.m. ET, MLS Direct Kick

• Chicago-Los Angeles (MLS), 4 p.m. ET, TeleFutura

• D.C. United-Columbus (MLS), 7:30 p.m. ET, FSC

• New England-Seattle (MLS), 7:30 p.m. ET, MLS Direct Kick

• México-Ecuador (Friendly), 8:30 p.m. ET, Univisión

• Dallas-Toronto (MLS), 8:30 p.m. ET, MLS Direct Kick

• Salt Lake-New York (MLS), 9 p.m. ET, MLS Direct Kick

• Colorado-Chivas USA (MLS), 9 p.m. ET, MLS Direct Kick

SUNDAY

• Flamengo-Santos (Brazil), 5:30 p.m. ET, GolTV

• Chivas de Guadalajara-Tecos (México), 7 p.m. ET, Telemundo

• Houston-San Jose (MLS), 8:30 p.m. ET, MLS Direct Kick

So Usain Bolt thinks he could play for Manchester United?

That’s what the world’s most famous sprinter says in his new book, at least. And while most people’s first reaction might be to laugh hysterically, I say why not find out? I’ve always had a fascination with multisport professional athletes, whether they have been good in both sports (Bo Jackson, Deion Sanders, Jim Thorpe, Jim Brown) or crashed-and-burned in their second one (Michael Jordan, Renaldo Nehemiah, Tony Meola).

Either way, it’s fun to watch. Plus, you never know what might happen. Steve Nash, it turns out, has been a very good soccer player whenever he has trained with the New York Red Bulls. So here’s my idea: Some MLS team should give Bolt a tryout, see what he brings to the table and let him back up his big talk. He might even surprise everyone like another Jamaican who (until recently) was known as all-speed and no-skill: New York midfielder Dane Richards.

ON THE TRAIN TO NEW YORK CITY—I’m heading up to Gotham for Tuesday’s presentation of U.S. soccer coach Bob Bradley, whose contract has been extended by U.S. Soccer through the end of 2014. But for now I wanted to give you a sense of how rare it is for a country to be led in four straight World Cups by just two coaches who both stick around for more than one Cup.

In fact, if Bradley sticks around through the end of his contract and guides the U.S. to World Cup ’14, it will be only the sixth time in history that such a situation has taken place. Here is how the list would look*:

(* If Fabio Capello is still the England coach in 2014, he and Sven-Göran Eriksson would qualify for the list as well.)

UNITED STATES: Bruce Arena (2002, ‘06) and Bob Bradley (2010, ‘14)

GERMANY: Franz Beckenbauer (1986, ’90) and Berti Vogts (1994, ’98)

ARGENTINA: César Luis Menotti (1978, ’82) and Carlos Bilardo (1986, ’90)

ITALY: Ferruccio Valcareggi (1970, ’74) and Enzo Bearzot (1978, ’82, ’86)

WEST GERMANY: Sepp Herberger (1954, ’58, ’62) and Helmut Schoen (1966, ’70, ’74, ’78)

ENGLAND: Walter Winterbottom (1950, ’54, ’58, ’62) and Sir Alf Ramsey (1966, ’70)

In every other example, of course, you’ll note that those countries won at least one World Cup during those stretches. Where do you think Arena and Bradley stack up to the others? Do you like the extended continuity of U.S. coaches or are you bothered by it?

Bob Bradley has a new four-year contract to coach the U.S. men’s soccer team.

We’ll learn more at noon ET on Tuesday when Bradley and U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati conduct a teleconference in New York City, but here are my three quick thoughts on U.S. Soccer’s decision to extend Bradley’s contract:

• This is something of a surprise. It was always possible that Bradley would return for another World Cup cycle after leading the U.S. to a second-round performance in the recent World Cup in South Africa. But the consensus among U.S. players (including Landon Donovan) and among insiders connected to the team was that Bradley would probably get a nice handshake for meeting (but not exceeding) pre-World Cup expectations and then move on to another coaching gig. The U.S. hasn’t had a foreign coach since 1995, and it seemed as though Gulati might finally land the California-based German Juergen Klinsmann. If Gulati did meet with Klinsmann, as recent reports had indicated, it sounds like Klinsmann either wasn’t interested or (as in 2006) wanted more control than U.S. Soccer was willing to give him.

• There may be conditions attached to Bradley’s staff choices. I’ll be curious to see if Bradley ends up keeping all of his assistants. There was a sense that things got stale toward the end of Bruce Arena’s eight years as the U.S. coach, and Gulati may want there to be some fresh eyes on Bradley’s staff. The last time a U.S. coach was retained after a World Cup was a different situation: Arena had reached the 2002 quarterfinals and was being celebrated as some sort of motivational genius. Though the U.S. did win Group C ahead of England in 2010, Bradley went out in the second round, a 2-1 loss to Ghana that was a winnable game for the United States. Keep in mind, too, that Gulati waited 65 days after the U.S.’s World Cup exit to give Bradley an extension. (By contrast, he waited a couple hours to offer an extension to U.S. women’s coach Pia Sundhage—even getting down on one knee to do so at a team party in Beijing—after her team had won the Olympic gold medal.)

• Gulati is committed to the idea that coaches with knowledge of American soccer have a built-in advantage coaching American soccer players. Bradley and Klinsmann (who has lived in California for more than a decade) appear to have been the only two serious candidates. Gulati has spoken at length over the years about his belief that American soccer players are different from their overseas counterparts and respond better to coaches with knowledge of the American system. Not every U.S. fan will agree with that, and it’s true that anyone who follows U.S. soccer has to be curious about what would happen if one of the world’s most famous soccer coaches—say, Guus Hiddink or José Mourinho—took over the U.S. national team. But that won’t be happening anytime soon now. Gulati has chosen Bradley. Do you think he made the right call?

10 Thoughts From The Planet Fútbol Weekend:

• Here we go again. ESPN.com reported on Friday night that U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati has met with Juergen Klinsmann to discuss the U.S. men’s coaching job currently held by Bob Bradley. If it seems like I’ve been writing for 12 years about Gulati trying to land Klinsmann, that’s because I have been. Back in 1998 Gulati tried to sign him up for MLS, just as he tried to hire Klinsmann in 2006 for the U.S. job. Is the third time the charm? Or is Klinsmann forever set to be Gulati’s white whale? Pure speculation on my part, but I think Gulati will finally get his man.

• Seattle’s Fredy Montero is in the driver’s seat for MLS MVP. The 23-year-old Colombian scored both of Seattle’s goals in a big 2-1 win over Chicago, including the game-winner in added time. Montero is on fire in MLS with 10 goals and 9 assists, and he’s only getting better as the season goes on (as opposed to Los Angeles MVP candidates Edson Buddle and Landon Donovan).

• Is AC Milan on the way back? What a week it was for the Rossoneri. The club acquired Zlatan Ibrahimovic from Barcelona, saw rivals Juventus (loss) and Roma (home tie) stumble in Week One and saw Alexandre Pato and Ronaldinho look frisky in a 4-0 season-opening win over Lecce. I’m not sure if new target Robinho is an ideal fit, but we may see. Plus Milan drew into the glamour group of Champions League with Real Madrid and Ajax, which (while a challenge) will be Must See TV.

• Germany: The most fun league in Europe? I’m digging the Bundesliga this year for a lot of reasons, not least that it’s a gas to watch. No victories are ever guaranteed, as we learned from Bayern Munich’s 2-0 loss to newly promoted Kaiserslautern. No lead is ever safe, as we learned from Steve McClaren’s Wolfsburg gagging away a 3-0 lead to lose 4-3 to Mainz. And no scoreline is ever impossible, as we learned from Borussia Moenchengladbach’s 6-3 win (with U.S. midfielder Michael Bradley) at Bayer Leverkusen. The stadiums are packed and the soccer’s good. Thumbs up for the Bundesliga.

• Can New York close the gap? Thierry Henry got his first MLS goal and New York beat San Jose 2-0, narrowing the gap to four points behind Columbus, which tied Dallas 0-0. Remember when New York coach Hans Backe said his team couldn’t catch Columbus? I’m starting to think he was pulling a Lou Holtz.

• It’s only one week, but Real Madrid fans have to be somewhat concerned after their team tied Mallorca 0-0 in José Mourinho’s first game in La Liga, while Barcelona looked like a team in midseason form in a 3-0 beatdown of Racing Santander (goals: Lionel Messi, Andrés Iniesta, David Villa). To make matters worse, Real Madrid will miss Cristiano Ronaldo for three weeks after he picked up an ankle injury.

• The end of an era? Houston and New England, which met in the MLS Cup final in 2006 and ’07, both suffered losses on Saturday to put their playoff hopes in bigtime jeopardy. And they weren’t just losses, they were ugly. New England coughed up an early lead to lose 2-1 at home to expansion Philadelphia, while Houston was down 3-0 and a man (ejected Lovel Palmer) just 23 minutes into their loss at Colorado.

• Adidas extends with MLS. The athletic apparel giant is extending its deal with MLS by four years to 2018 for more than $200 million, according to the Sports Business Journal. It’s a coup for MLS and may allow it to revive the reserve league that has been shuttered for two years. One request, Adidas: Can we get some more variation in uniform designs and stay away from the cookie cutters? Now I’ll be curious to see if Nike extends its deal with U.S. Soccer, which currently runs through 2014.

• The transfer window is closing at the end of day Tuesday. Might we see some more moves for U.S. players? DaMarcus Beasley is on his way to join Steve Cherundolo at Hanover in Germany. Jay DeMerit is currently out of contract. Jozy Altidore appears to be staying at Spain’s Villarreal. Clarence Goodson might yet depart Norway’s Start. And Benny Feilhaber may or may not leave Denmark’s Aarhus, which got relegated at the end of last season.

• Welcome back, Wayne Rooney and Fernando Torres. You knew that Rooney and Torres had to snap out of their scoring funks at some point, and they both did over the weekend in victories for their teams. Liverpool softened the blow of losing Javier Mascherano to Barcelona by acquiring Raul Meirelles, the heavily-tatted Portuguese hard man.

WHAT TO WATCH

• Atlético Madrid-Sporting Gijón, 1 p.m. ET, GolTV

• Bologna-Inter Milan (Italy), 2:30 p.m. ET, FSC

What stood out for you over the weekend?

U.S. national team coach Bob Bradley met with U.S. Soccer honchos on Thursday to discuss Bradley’s future. (His contract runs through the end of December.) No decision appears to have been made, however, which means “Bradley Saga 2010” is now on Day 62 since the end of the U.S.’s World Cup run.

If you read my latest Planet Fútbol column on Wednesday you saw that my task this week was to examine the history of coaches who led the same national team at consecutive World Cups. Is there something to the idea that national-team programs can get stale if the same coach sticks around for two World Cup cycles?

The recent history isn’t exactly glowing: The two coaches who led the same teams at World Cups ’06 and ’10—Italy’s Marcello Lippi and France’s Raymond Domenech—both flopped in South Africa, and the U.S.’s lone repeater (Bruce Arena) went out in the first round in Germany ’06. From 1994 on, only one of the 12 coaches who repeated has done better the second time around (Norway’s Egil Olsen in ’98).

The results of my survey: Of the 49 coaches who have repeated in the history of the World Cup, 24 fared worse the second time, 13 fared better and 12 went out in the same round. (I failed to include Sweden’s Lars Lagerbäck in my previous analysis and have now added him.)

But as some readers pointed out, simply measuring results by “better” or “worse” the second time around was probably unfair to some coaches. Argentina’s Carlos Bilardo won World Cup ’86 and reached the final in ’90, so it’s hard to call him a failure. So I decided to run the numbers again on World Cup “second acts,” only now I measured how a coach’s second act compared to the average finish of that country in the history of the World Cup. (If you went out in the first round you got 1 point, 2 for going out in the second round, and so on, until the World Cup winner got 6 points.)

If a coach finished within .25 points of that country’s average in his second term, I considered that to be the “same” performance, not “better” or “worse.”

The results of this survey were a bit more favorable to second-term World Cup coaches. Of the 49 repeaters with the same country, 22 fared worse than the national norm, 18 fared better and 9 fared the same. (Recent results were still pretty poor, though: Only 2 of the 12 repeaters from 1994 on have fared better than their national norm: Norway’s Olsen and Romania’s Anghel Iordanescu in ’98.)

Of course, this way of measuring success has its own caveats. If Bradley were to return for 2014 and have the U.S. go out in the second round again, he would be considered to have performed better than the U.S. World Cup average finish (1.778 per my method above). Would U.S. fans consider that to be a satisfactory finish? Should I just get a life and stop analyzing this stuff? (On second thought, don’t answer that.)

WHAT TO WATCH THIS WEEKEND

Not a complete listing, but here’s the best of the games on TV in America this weekend:

FRIDAY

• Kaiserslautern-Bayern Munich (Germany), 2:30 p.m. ET, GolTV

• Inter Milan-Atlético Madrid (UEFA Super Cup), 2:45 p.m. ET, FSC

SATURDAY

• Blackburn Rovers-Arsenal (England), 7:30 a.m. ET, ESPN2

• Chelsea-Stoke City (England), 10 a.m. ET, FSC-Plus

• Schalke-Hanover (Germany), noon ET, ESPN Deportes, ESPN3.com

• Manchester United-West Ham (England), 12:30 p.m. ET, FSC

• Columbus-Dallas (MLS), 4 p.m. ET, TeleFutura

• Internacional-Botafogo (Brazil), 5:30 p.m. ET, GolTV

• Toronto-Salt Lake (MLS), 7 p.m. ET, MLS Direct Kick

• Chivas de Guadalajara-Pumas (Mexico), 8 p.m. ET, Telemundo

• Seattle-Chicago (MLS), 10:30 p.m. ET, MLS Direct Kick

SUNDAY

• Bolton Wanderers-Birmingham City (England), 8:30 a.m. ET, FSC-Plus

• Aston Villa-Everton (England), 11 a.m. ET, FSC

• Racing Santander-Barcelona (Spain), 1 p.m. ET, ESPN Deportes, ESPN3.com

• AC Milan-Lecce (Italy), 2:30 p.m. ET, FSC

• Mallorca-Real Madrid (Spain), 3 p.m. ET, GolTV

• Bordeaux-Marseille (France), 3 p.m. ET, FSC-Plus

• América-Necaxa (Mexico), 5 p.m. ET, Univisión

• Chivas USA-D.C. United (MLS), 10 p.m., ESPN2

The UEFA Champions League draw took place on Thursday, filling eight groups with four teams each. Here’s how it broke down:

GROUP A: Inter Milan, Werder Bremen, Tottenham Hotspur, Twente

You know it’s a tough group when the two lower-seeded teams finished fourth in the Premiership and won the Dutch league.

My Prediction to Advance: Inter Milan, Werder Bremen.

GROUP B: Lyon, Benfica, Schalke, Hapoel Tel-Aviv

One of the weakest groups. Good chance for U.S. fans to see Schalke’s Jermaine Jones.

My Prediction to Advance: Benfica, Schalke.

GROUP C: Manchester United, Valencia, Glasgow Rangers, Bursaspor

Nice bit of luck in this draw for United—and, for that matter, Rangers.

My Prediction to Advance: Manchester United, Glasgow Rangers.

GROUP D: Barcelona, Panathinaikos, Copenhagen, Rubin Kazan

Barça will look for revenge for last year’s loss to Rubin. Don’t underestimate the Greek team.

My Prediction to Advance: Barcelona, Panathinaikos.

GROUP E: Bayern Munich, Roma, Basel, Cluj

Big drop-off between the top two and bottom two here, though I’ll always have a soft spot for Cluj.

My Prediction to Advance: Bayern Munich, Roma.

GROUP F: Chelsea, Marseille, Spartak Moscow, Zilina

Look for an emotional return to Marseille for Didier Drogba.

My Prediction to Advance: Chelsea, Marseille.

GROUP G: AC Milan, Real Madrid, Ajax, Auxerre

The glamour group. If Ajax can hold onto its best players before the transfer-window ends, I like its chances to ace out Milan.

My Prediction to Advance: Real Madrid, Ajax.

GROUP H: Arsenal, Shakhtar Donetsk, Braga, Partizan

Eduardo returns to the Emirates. Braga has a great stadium and a sleeper team that eliminated Sevilla.

My Prediction to Advance: Arsenal, Braga.

What are your thoughts on the draw?

MLS teams have fared well thus far in the CONCACAF Champions League group stages, but winning on Mexican soil will be a much tougher test for Guillermo Barros Schelotto and the Crew. (Victor Decolongon/Getty Images)

The streak is at 41 games and counting.

Forty-one times have MLS teams or the U.S. men’s national team played competitive games in Mexico—and 41 times have they have left without winning.

MLS teams are 0-15-2 in Mexico, while the U.S. is 0-23-1. But tonight brings yet another chance to end the epic futility when Columbus visits Santos Laguna in a CONCACAF Champions League group-stage game (10 p.m. ET, Fox Soccer Channel). It’s one of at least four chances MLS teams will have this year to finally get a W south of the border, including MLS champ Salt Lake’s game tomorrow night at Cruz Azul (8 p.m. ET, FSC).

Truth be told, I’m not feeling good about Columbus’s chances tonight, considering coach Robert Warzycha left Guillermo Barros Schelotto and Chad Marshall at home to rest his best offensive and defensive players before Saturday’s MLS game against Dallas. Salt Lake did send its full team, but Cruz Azul will be highly motivated after losing its group-stage opener at Toronto last week.

One of these days you’d have to think an MLS team would win a competitive game in Mexico, if only because soccer throws up more surprising results against the run of play than just about any other sport. You can debate the importance of CONCACAF Champions League in the grand scheme of things—look in the stands; they’re never filled—but 0-for-41 in Mexico is a black mark that MLS and U.S. Soccer need to fix.

Fast.

(One piece of trivia: While MLS teams and the U.S. national team have never won in Mexico, I did track down in the record books that New York Hungaria—an amateur team—won on the road at Mexico’s CD Oro 3-2 on March 18, 1963 in the second year the CONCACAF Champions Cup was ever held. Which means that at one point U.S. club teams actually had a winning record in Mexico. They have failed to win ever since. If anyone has some information about New York Hungaria or its victory in Mexico, please let me know.)

How long do you think the streak will go before MLS or the U.S. finally wins a game in Mexico?

WHAT TO WATCH (Today’s Best Games on TV)

• Anderlecht-Partizan Belgrade (UEFA Champions League), 2:45 p.m. ET, Fox Soccer Channel

• Sampdoria-Werder Bremen (UEFA Champions League), 2:45 p.m. ET, Fox Soccer Plus

• Arabe Unido-Toronto (CONCACAF Champions League), 8 p.m. ET, Fox Soccer Channel

• Santos Laguna-Columbus (CONCACAF Champions League), 10 p.m. ET, Fox Soccer Channel

Ten thoughts from the Planet Fútbol weekend:

• Has competitive balance in the Premier League gone out the window? Crazy but true: The three 6-0 scorelines over the weekend—Chelsea over Wigan, Arsenal over Blackpool and Newcastle over Aston Villa—made it four in the season’s first two weeks (Chelsea beat West Brom 6-0 in Week One). Six-nil has happened only 20 times in the 19-year history of the Premiership, and yet it’s the most common scoreline of the season so far. Granted, nobody could have expected newly promoted Newcastle to blow out Villa so badly, but the other three make you wonder if the difference between the haves and have-nots has crossed a threshold in England. One of these days the Premier League will have to establish a salary cap. It doesn’t have to be microscopic a la MLS, but it could promote the salary-cap-induced balance that has been so beneficial to the NFL.

• U.S. coach Bob Bradley said he’d definitely be interested in the vacant Aston Villa job in a BBC Radio interview (starts at 26:15). That’s hardly surprising in itself—it would be news if he wasn’t interested—but what sticks out to me is Bradley’s willingness to campaign for the job on U.K. radio. Bradley is a private guy by nature, and this interview continues his pattern of revealing more to foreign interviewers than he does to the U.S. media. Talks between Bradley and U.S. Soccer are set to continue (his contract runs through the end of December), but remember: Just because U.S. Soccer will speak to Bradley doesn’t mean that the USSF is planning to offer a contract extension.

• Best goal of the week in MLS: New York’s Rafael Márquez opened up his MLS account with a blistering shot from distance. Fellow signing Thierry Henry has yet to score a league goal, but New York fans won’t complain after a 4-1 road win in a tough place to play.

• Who would have predicted that Dallas would be the hottest team in MLS with an 11-game league unbeaten streak after Saturday’s 1-0 win over Chivas USA? Despite a chronic lack of home support at Pizza Hut Park, Schellas Hyndman’s team is streaking at the right time, and 20-year-old Brek Shea (five goals) is looking like a national team prospect. Dallas’s game at East-leading Columbus on Saturday will tell us more about how good this team really is.

• U.S. midfielder Sacha Kljestan didn’t dress for Anderlecht’s mid-week Champions League game, but Kljestan responded in the best way possible over the weekend, scoring a goal in a 3-0 Belgian league victory over Lokeren. So far this move is looking to be a good one for Kljestan as he tries to revive his U.S. career.

• As is often the case, the most fun I had watching soccer all weekend was when Barcelona was on my TV screen. Pep Guardiola brought out most of his big guns for the vuelta leg of the Spanish Supercopa, and Lionel Messi delivered with a hat trick to turn Sevilla’s 3-1 first-leg win into a 5-3 Barça triumph on aggregate.

• U.S. forward Charlie Davies didn’t dress for Sochaux’s 0-0 tie with Lille on Sunday. It certainly makes sense that Sochaux and Davies don’t want to have any setbacks in his recovery after his severe auto accident last October, but it’s also a reminder that Davies wasn’t close to being ready to participate in the World Cup in June.

• The MLS game of the week was in Houston, where the Dynamo won a wild 4-3 game against Chicago. Brian Ching’s hat trick shows that the big Hawaiian is rounding into form again, while Chicago continued to play much better when new signing Nery Castillo isn’t on the field. All three of the Fire’s goals came after Castillo had been subbed off at halftime for Calen Carr (who scored one of them himself).

• The Bay Area’s Gold Pride clinched WPS’s best regular-season record with a 3-2 win over Chicago on Sunday. FIFA World Player of the Year Marta scored twice to bring her league-leading total to 15, and now we’ll get to find out: Is WPS’s unique four-team playoff system (in which the regular-season champ automatically hosts the final) a good thing or a bad thing for the top seed? Gold Pride will have 15 days off between their last regular-season game and the final—and will hope not to repeat what happened to last year’s top seed, Los Angeles, which lost in the final.

• One league that seems to have more buzz this year (to me, at least) is the German Bundesliga. It’s only one game into the season, but first-week results would suggest there’s more competitive balance than in, say, the Premier League. Werder Bremen fell 4-1 to Hoffenheim, while Mainz upset Stuttgart 2-0.

WHAT TO WATCH

• Manchester City-Liverpool (England), 3 p.m. ET, ESPN2

What was your take on the weekend that was?

Chicago's All-Star winger Marco Pappa is one of the biggest bargains in the league. (Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

The MLS Players Union released its updated list of salaries for every MLS player on Thursday, providing the first clear look at the earnings of newly-added stars like New York’s Thierry Henry and Rafael Márquez, who instantly became the league’s second- and third-highest-paid players. When I posted the link on my Twitter page, a lot of my non-U.S. readers were startled that so much detailed salary information was available, considering it’s unheard of in the world’s other leagues. This is sensitive information, after all, and you certainly don’t see most people (me included) publicizing their salaries for the world to see.

Why would the MLS Players Union release this information? Because the transparency helps the collective, allowing players on the lower end of the pay scale to negotiate higher salaries than they would otherwise. And in MLS the lower end of the scale, as we know, can be awfully low. Still, the minimum salary for a senior player has risen to $40,000, which is better than it used to be.

I fed the latest MLS salary numbers into my spreadsheet and came up with some useful stats. Keep in mind, the salaries below reflect a player’s guaranteed annual income over 12 months. Let’s dive in:

AVERAGE MLS SALARY: $173,491

MEDIAN MLS SALARY: $92,375 (Carlos Mendes, New York)

MINIMUM SALARY: $40,000 (90 of 411 players)

TOP 10 MLS SALARIES *

(* Does not include San Jose’s recent signing of Geovanni, which came after the Players Union salary survey was taken.)

1. David Beckham, Los Angeles: $6,500,000
2. Thierry Henry, New York: $5,600,000
3. Rafael Márquez, New York: $5,554,000
4. Landon Donovan, Los Angeles: $2,127,778
5. Juan Pablo Ángel, New York: $1,918,000
6. Nery Castillo, Chicago: $1,788,060
7. Julian de Guzman, Toronto: $1,717,546
8. Freddie Ljungberg, Chicago: $1,314,000
9. Mista, Toronto: $987,337
10. Branko Boskovič, D.C. United: $516,200

MLS SALARIES BY TEAM *

(* Does not include signings after August 12.)

Anyone who’s concerned about the growing separation between MLS’s large- and small-market teams will take pause in the team-by-team spending figures below. While 12 teams are clumped together, four teams (New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Toronto) have distanced themselves from the rest of the league with their signings of so-called Designated Players, whose salaries are not governed by the salary cap. (Each team can now have up to three DPs.)

1. New York: $15,666,639
2. Los Angeles: $10,978,593
3. Chicago: $5,559,103
4. Toronto: $5,214,381
5. Seattle: $3,118,103
6. New England: $2,983,032
7. Dallas: $2,924,318
8. Kansas City: $2,905,107
9. Philadelphia: $2,886,399
10. D.C. United: $2,881,530
11. Columbus: $2,808,203
12. Colorado: $2,710,113
13. Salt Lake: $2,645,721
14. Houston: $2,565,875
15. San Jose: $2,518,590
16. Chivas USA: $2,477,548

MOST OVERPAID MLS PLAYERS

Considering MLS’s microscopic per-team salary cap (DPs excepted), it’s not surprising that there are far more underpaid players than overpaid players in the league. For my purposes, nobody earning under $100,000 could be considered overpaid, and in my Overpaid list I did not include rookies, Generation Adidas players, recently signed players (like Nery Castillo) or players who have missed a lot of time due to injuries. Injuries are part of the game, as David Beckham ($6.5 million) and Taylor Twellman ($459,500) would tell you. But there are a few players who would have to be considered overpaid:

Sunil Chhetri, Kansas City ($110,008)

(Indian national-teamer got plenty of attention but wasn’t good enough to play in a single MLS game before being loaned back to Indian team through January’s Asian Cup.)

Freddie Ljungberg, Chicago ($1,314,000)

(Swedish winger earned his salary last year but went south fast before being dumped by Seattle.)

Fred, Philadelphia ($282,000)

Brazilian has just 2 goals and 1 assist in 18 games.

Julian de Guzman, Toronto ($1,717,546)

Hasn’t played nearly as well as his Spanish-league pedigree would suggest.

Darío Sala, Dallas ($178,125)

Making way too much for an MLS keeper who lost his job.

Danny Allsopp, D.C. United ($217,500)

Aussie has scored only twice all season for woeful United.

Carl Robinson, New York ($315,000)

Hasn’t produced in either Toronto or New York.

Josh Wolff, Kansas City ($220,004)

Just 1 goal in 17 games.

MOST UNDERPAID MLS PLAYERS

Sebastian Le Toux, Philadelphia ($122,000)

(League MVP candidate has 9 goals and 9 assists.)

Tim Ream, New York ($40,000)

(U.S. national team prospect is solid on the ball for a central defender, paid far less than many other rookies.)

Marco Pappa, Chicago ($108,000)

(All-Star left winger, just 22, has 7 goals and 4 assists.)

Edson Buddle, Los Angeles ($188,448)

(League MVP favorite leads MLS with 13 goals.)

Guillermo Barros Schelotto, Columbus ($241,250)

(Ageless Argentine wonder—5 goals and 7 assists—is chronically underpaid.)

Osvaldo Alonso, Seattle ($68,737)

(Midfield ball vacuum makes more than he could have in native Cuba—but not by much.)

Chris Wondolowski, San Jose ($48,000)

(Sixth-year forward is having career year with team-leading 7 goals.)

Justin Braun, Chivas USA ($67,500)

(Leads team with 7 goals and 3 assists.)

Andy Najar, D.C. United ($58,995)

(17-year-old rookie may have MLS’s biggest upside; leads team with 3 goals.)

Álvaro Saborío, Salt Lake ($128,125)

(Great pickup for the league champs: he leads the team with 8 league goals.)

Michael Stephens, Los Angeles ($42,500)

(Promising rookie has 7 assists.)

Geoff Cameron, Houston ($40,000)

(League-minimum salary for 2009 MLS Best XI player? Cameron clearly looking to play out contract and leave on free transfer.)

Steven Lenhart, Columbus ($42,333)

(Megahustler has 4 goals this season.)

Kevin Hartman, Dallas ($80,000)

(One of league’s best-ever keepers has been solid since winning starting role.)

Omar Cummings, Colorado ($80,250)

(Not quite as good as in 2009, but he still has 5 goals.)

Fredy Montero, Seattle ($180,000)

(23-year-old has entered MVP race with 8 goals and 9 assists.)

Javier Morales, Salt Lake ($252,500)

(Playmaker does a bit of everything for RSL, has 6 goals and 6 assists.)

Zack Schilawski, New England ($42,500)

(Rookie has 5 goals, including a hat-trick.)

Robbie Findley, Salt Lake ($87,316)

(World Cup participant has 5 goals, nearing end of contract.)

Dan Gargan, Toronto ($40,000)

(Unlikely assists leader with 4 for the Reds.)

Brandon McDonald, San Jose ($40,000)

(Steady starter for Frank Yallop’s team.)

Jonathan Bornstein, Chivas USA ($100,000)

(Low salary for a guy who played well in the World Cup and is headed to Mexico’s Tigres in January.)

A.J. DeLaGarza, Los Angeles ($45,100)

(Part-time starter has fit in well with Galaxy.)

Nana Attakora, Toronto ($40,000)

(One of Preki’s regulars in TFC back line.)

What are your thoughts on the latest MLS salary info?

WHAT TO WATCH

This isn’t a complete listing of available games in the U.S., but these are the best live games available this weekend:

FRIDAY

• Bayern Munich-Wolfsburg (Germany), 2:30 p.m. ET, ESPN Deportes

SATURDAY

• Arsenal-Blackpool (England), 10 a.m. ET, ESPN2

• Everton-Wolves (England), 10 a.m. ET, FSC

• Wigan-Chelsea (England), noon ET, FSC

• Hamburg-Schalke (Germany), 12:30 p.m. ET, GolTV

• Toronto-New York (MLS), 1 p.m. ET, MLS Direct Kick

• San Jose-Los Angeles (MLS), 4 p.m. ET, TeleFutura

• Pachuca-Monterrey (Mexico), 8 p.m. ET, TeleFutura

SUNDAY

• Newcastle-Aston Villa (England), 8:30 a.m. ET, FSC Plus

• Fulham-Manchester United (England), 11 a.m. ET, FSC

• PSG-Bordeaux (France), 3 p.m. ET, FSC Plus