NOTE: This appeared first at SoccerCentric.

HEADLINE | For years, Barcelona has been the byword for beautiful soccer, known for Lionel Messi and company passing the ball around so quickly that eventually the ball becomes a blur and defenders, enraptured by so much one-touch passing, fall to the ground and experience enlightenment.

But there are those of us who remember when it was Arsenal – Bergkamp and Henry, Vieira and Pires, Ljungberg and Wiltord and Gilberto Silva – who were known for free-flowing, effervescent soccer. And after Saturday’s display against Norwich, in which the Gunners won 4-1, it’s time to wonder again: is Arsenal finally back?

Watch the goals from Saturday’s game; they’re enough, at least, to remind us of some of Arsenal’s best teams. The first goal in particular, when Santi Cazorla, Olivier Giroud, and Jack Wilshire pinballed passes through six near-stationary Norwich defenders, was as good as anything the Invincibles of 2003-04 ever produced.

Granted, Arsenal have played exactly zero games against Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea, and Liverpool; in fact, only one of their first eight games, a 1-0 win over Tottenham, came against a team in the top half of the table. And true to form, Arsenal followed good things with bad, as they lost 2-1 at home to Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday in the Champions League.

Still, though, there are positive things happening at the Emirates – and that hasn’t always been true over the past decade.

PREMIER LEAGUE | Meanwhile, panic time is still on in Manchester, as United dropped points again on Saturday. Adam Lallana scored in the 89th minute, giving Southampton a shocking 1-1 draw at Old Trafford. United have yet to record consecutive wins under new manager David Moyes, who insisted that he’s not worried about the team’s stuck-in-molasses start – an attitude that must be more difficult when Sir Alex Ferguson is in attendance, as he was on Saturday.

ITALY | A word of congratulations to Roma, the last team left in a first-tier European league with a perfect record. The Giallorossi have an astonishing eight wins from eight, during which they have scored 22 and given up just one solitary goal. Roma beat second-place Napoli 2-0 over the weekend – probably the closest any team has come to dealing with Roma so far this year.

The weekend in Italy also saw Milan, Inter, Roma, and Torino punished for racist chanting, which I suppose is a reminder that Italy is still, unfortunately, Italy.

INVERNESS CALEY THISTLE | The official best name of SoccerCentric lost 2-1 over the weekend to – I just love this – Partick Thistle, 2-1. Kris Doohlan scored twice for the visitors, who took home the Thistle Trophy* for the win.

*Note: Not true, but wouldn’t it be great if it were?

NOTE: This also appeared at SoccerCentric.

United has basically no chance of winning the fall championship, but still has three games remaining on the schedule. In past years, the jockeying for NASL playoff spots and playoff position would be in full swing; in other sports, even the teams at the bottom of the league might be able to think about where their draft position might be.

The current NASL setup offers no such help for fans of teams who are out of the running. United is left just to play out the string, but captain Aaron Pitchkolan insists that this doesn’t mean that his team isn’t taking the rest of the year seriously. “If you look at it that way, you’ll find a lot of guys without jobs the next season,” he said. “It’s a professional environment; it’s very competitive, and you’re always playing for your job.”

This isn’t to say that tempers aren’t rising in the United camp. Pitchkolan and Pablo Campos exchanged some heated words at the end of Thursday’s training session, regarding the latter’s perceived exertion at the end of practice, and afterwards head coach Manny Lagos pulled the two of them aside, along with defender Connor Tobin, for a long conversation.

Said Lagos, “I just think that we have a legacy of good soccer here over the years. The reality is, we didn’t quite get it done this year. So this is a big three games for the club, for a lot of individual players, and for our fans, to show that we’re going to start working on an identity and the future of the club right now for next year. It’s not going to be easy, because there are a lot of personalities and things to get sorted out.”

Pitchkolan echoed the manager. “It’s not a lost year just because we didn’t make the finals,” he said. “You’re always building for something in the future.”

It will be interesting to see how Lagos approaches the remainder of the year with his lineups. He’s spoken several times of how important it is to put the best lineup on the field to try to win – especially at home, in front of the home fans, to get a few wins and send everyone home for the offseason without a bitter taste in their mouths.

That said, though, he also needs to evaluate talent for 2014 and beyond. That could mean more time for some of the younger players, like Michael Reed or Travis Wall, at the expense of the team’s established veterans.

A Ubiparipovic update

Midfielder Sinisa Ubiparipovic, on loan from Montreal, has been dealing with an ankle injury – one that Lagos confirmed will keep him out for the remainder of 2013.

“”It’s really bothered him,” said the coach. “I think with this situation, being that he can’t really train, he’s going to head home and get some rest and just go on from there.”

Ubiparipovic played seven games in the fall, four as a starter and three off the bench, and did not score. His 2013 tenure may be remembered most for the September 8 game against Edmonton, when he came on as a substitute in the 60th minute and was sent off in the 61st minute for kicking Montons midfielder Chris Nurse, a performance that prompted the team’s supporters group to change its rating system so that he could be awarded an 0 out of 10.

In other injury news, Campos – who missed last week’s game with a hip problem – trained all week, but will be a game-time decision for this afternoon’s match.

Game details

The game is at 2:30pm, at the National Sports Center in Blaine – but if you can’t make it to the north Metro, you can watch the game live on Fox Sports North. If you don’t have cable, or just like watching games on the computer, you can still see an internet broadcast at NASL.com/live…Carolina hasn’t won a road game in 2013, with five draws and eight losses in thirteen road games in all competitions. They also haven’t lost at home. Carolina must be traveling on a rickety team plane, like the Indians did in the movie “Major League”; it’s the only explanation for their road woes…David La Vaque’s preview box for the game is here.

NOTE: This appeared at SoccerCentric.

Minnesota United have announced that defender Kevin Friedland, who also serves as an assistant coach for the team, will retire from playing at the conclusion of the 2013 season.

The announcement brings down the curtain on a Minnesota pro soccer career that stretches all the way back to 2004; to put that in perspective, Friedland has been a pro in Minnesota for just about half the time there has been professional soccer in Minnesota. He’s seen four different names and two different stadiums, six different team owners and four head coaches and has worn countless different jerseys – many of which, in his role as team jersey maker, he made himself.

As with the jersey making, in the past few years, Friedland has taken on more than just a playing role with the club; he’s served as an assistant coach, he’s scouted players and brought in players to Minnesota, he’s worked in the team’s front office, and he’s organized the team’s fantasy camp. In general, he’s done whatever it took to keep pro soccer going in Minnesota, and for that, United fans can’t thank him enough.

Since becoming an assistant coach, the 32-year-old’s appearances have been limited – two this year and seven last year, for example – and he has served mostly in a backup role. He made one start this year, during United’s spring injury crisis, and came on at halftime as a substitute in another game.

He posted a heartfelt letter on the team website, in which he thanked players, coaches, and fans. “In 2004, I was offered a contract to play professional soccer for the Minnesota Thunder,” it begins. “I was 22 years old, and had no idea what moving to Minnesota would mean for my playing career or my life. Here I am, retiring at 32 years old, and as I sit and reflect on the last ten years in my life, I can’t imagine it any other way than spending this time in Minnesota.”‘

As the team’s press release points out, Friedland trails only Vikings defensive tackle Kevin Williams for tenure on the local pro sports scene, and is tied with Vikings long snapper Cullen Loeffler and Twins catcher Joe Mauer.

For now, all that’s decided is Friedland’s on-field future. But it’s hard not to see his retirement as the end of an era in Minnesota pro soccer.

HEADLINE | And as it came to the end, Mexico was out of the World Cup.

The Mexicans had lost 2-1 at Costa Rica on Tuesday night, and Luis Tejada had scored six minutes from time to give Panama a 2-1 lead over the USA, at home – a pair of results that would see Panama into fourth place in the final North America & Caribbean World Cup qualifying standings. Panama would thus advance to a playoff against New Zealand for a place in Brazil in 2014, while Mexico – mighty Mexico, the team that as of last year had an argument to be one of the top three teams in the world – was going to miss out on qualifying.

All the USA had to do was roll over in the final few minutes against Panama, and their greatest rivals – and their fans, who have consistently treated Americans like dirt – would be on the outside looking in next summer, while Panama had a chance to go to the finals for the first time ever.

But Graham Zusi scored in the 92nd, then Aron Johannsson scored a minute later, and suddenly the Americans had won 3-2 and Panama was out and Mexico was in.

By the end, the website of Mexican newspaper El Universal carried the banner “If not for the USA, El Tri would be out,” and #YoureWelcomeMexico was trending on Twitter. It was one of the more thrilling conclusions to qualifying ever – for Mexico, if not for Panama.

The USA, Costa Rica, and Honduras qualify automatically for Brazil next year, with Mexico going into the playoff – even though they won just two of ten matches in the final qualifying round.

WORLD CUP QUALIFYING ELSEWHERE | Over in Europe, qualifying went down to the final day, as well. Bosnia-Herzegovina secured their first-ever berth in the finals with a 1-0 win against Lithuania, while England sealed their own spot with a 2-0 home win against Poland. Spain and Russia also sealed automatic qualification, while Iceland clinched a spot in the playoffs, keeping alive their chance to be the smallest country to ever qualify for the finals. France, Ukraine, Greece, Portugal, Romania, Sweden, and Croatia will also head to the playoffs for a shot at the final four European qualifying spots.

In South America, Uruguay beat Argentina 3-2 but still ended up fifth in the standings, thus condeming them to a playoff for an astonishing fifth consecutive time. They’ll play off against Jordan, the fifth-place team in Asia. Despite the loss, the Argentines finished first, qualifying automatically along with Colombia, Chile, and Ecuador.

The only confederation yet to finish qualifying is Africa, which held the first leg of its five two-legged playoffs to determine the five African teams to qualify. Most notably for American fans, Egypt – coached by former USA coach Bob Bradley – lost 6-1 to Ghana, giving the Egyptians a rather insurmountable task to qualify. Reports surfaced that Bradley had been fired following the loss, but they were refuted by the coach himself.

Eleven spots of 32 remain – five for the African playoffs, four for the European playoffs, and for the winners of Mexico-New Zealand and Uruguay-Jordan. Soccer’s greatest spectacle is thus almost set.

Minnesota United lost 3-1 in Atlanta last night, which appeared to be the final nail in their fall-season coffin. After all, their loss combined with New York’s 4-0 thrashing of Carolina means that Minnesota is ten points behind the Cosmos in the fall-season standings with three matches to play; there’s no way they can finish ahead of New York.

However, we have to remember that the Cosmos have yet to clinch the fall-season title; both Tampa Bay (seven points behind) and Atlanta (eight) are still not technically out of the running.

It’s Atlanta that we’re interested in; the Silverbacks won the spring season, and if they were to also win the fall season, the team with the second-most points over both halves of the season combined would face them in the Soccer Bowl on November 9.

Now, the chances of the red-hot Cosmos blowing their lead in the standings is pretty miniscule; New York is one win away from wrapping up the fall. But, in the extremely unlikely event they did collapse, and Atlanta came back to win… here are the overall standings for the year (with, for obvious reasons, Atlanta and New York removed):

Tampa Bay.........35
Carolina..........34
Minnesota.........28
San Antonio.......27
Edmonton..........25 (eliminated)
Fort Lauderdale...22 (eliminated)

So, all United needs is three wins, three wins from Atlanta, and complete collapses from New York, Tampa Bay, and Carolina.

I was going to write “stranger things have happened” at the end of this post, but that would be untrue.