Thursday night begins a new era in Real Salt Lake’s history; the opening of RSL’s brand new home, Rio Tinto Stadium. ESPN2’s PrimeTime Thursday will be there to show RSL vs the NY Red Bulls at 8pm local Mountain time.

There are some great photos of the stadium at the official website.

Tonight will be a sellout, and emotions are running hot.

RSL already missing astro-turf advantage?!? No way, grass is sweet.

RSL Owner Dave Checketts with an intriguing interview - Liverpool for next year’s All-Star Game?

I looked around and found a couple interesting photos after the jump…

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Team England trains for their match against Kazakhstan (…paging Sascha Baron Cohen). Match will be live on FSC at 12pm Eastern.

Capello must run these guys hard, because no one looks happy here, save maybe Rooney.

Image via Kickette

Numero uno is FIFA’s president Joseph Blatter, and they give a great quote from Sepp:

“FIFA is like the United Nations but it has more members and is more powerful”

Six of the top ten most powerful global figures have soccer ties including Becks clocking in at No. 5, Roman Abramovic at No. 6, and Cristiano at 7. Herbert Hanier the president of Adidas is No. 4 and Michel Platini UEFA president is 8. Click on this link for the slideshow and complete coverage from Business Week.

photo. getty images

I.Shouldve.Played.Soccer

This was Becks’ first trip to the Buckeye state.  Looked like a real barnburner of a game, and the atmosphere fantastic.

Image via JonothanAlcorn

[NSFW]

Funny…

[Bill Archer via TrickHog]

Ruud Gullit speaks with The Daily Mail on MLS, Beckham, and the EPL.

Ruud also observes about the EPL, ‘The culture is changing here. Players no longer spend their time down at the pub…’

Image via Flickr

Becks took some time off the other day to pick the kids up from day care… Ho Hum… Gonna bring out the Phantom Drop and shut ‘ish down; Interesting how its just a day or two after we let you know about C. Ronaldo picking up a 2 door Bent… I think someone has been reading TOW!!!

full story here, pics and news thanks to the crew at popsugar.com. Even more on the story here, courtesy of the daily mail….

I.Shouldve.Played.Soccer

Major League Soccer was on life support at the beginning of this decade…It is a much different game today.

Our first independent study on the finances of Major League Soccer–using past transactions as a guide–shows that three teams are already worth at least $40 million, and the average franchise is worth $37 million.

No surprise which team is #1, but would you have guessed who is at #2…?

Image via PBase

Love the Brit papers…they pull no punches…

“Just in case we were in any danger of getting carried away by Team GB’s heroics, Team Fabio reminded us last night what English sport looks like when the wheels really do come off. It could have been a Steve McClaren tribute night at Wembley: a wretched performance in the rain and booing on the final whistle from an England support who have had a gutful of insipid football….”

Brian Barwick, Head of the English FA, ousted!

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Image via Flickr