FanHouse Cuauhtemoc Blanco

Leave it to deceptive diva Cuauhtemoc Blanco (right) to steal a bit of the spotlight from the Seattle Sounders and Houston Dynamo, who opened the MLS Cup playoffs Thursday night in an ill-tempered 0-0 game that, unfortunately, did not feature finishing worthy of the atmosphere or occasion.

As Seattle and Houston were battling at Qwest Field, news broke that the Fire's playmaker had abandoned his "hope" of another season in Chicago and opted instead to spend next spring with Veracruz, the third-placed club in Mexico's second division. The episode marks yet another hurdle for a Fire team that was the league's preseason favorite and will serve an additional subplot in its annual postseason confrontation with the New England Revolution. In the other Eastern Conference semi, the Columbus Crew will begin their title defense against hard-to-read Real Salt Lake. Here is a short preview:

Mexican soccer icon Cuauhtemoc Blanco indicated that the new FIFA 10 cover featuring him wearing a red Chicago Fire jersey may not be obsolete by this winter after all.

Six months after telling the Chicago Tribune that he had decided to leave the Fire when his contract concluded at the end of this season, the mercurial forward said Tuesday that, "I'm happy to play in Chicago. The goal and the hope is that I'm renewed one more year with the Chicago Fire."

Electronic Arts took a tried-and-true method for the North American cover for 'FIFA 10', choosing something old and something new ... and, well, something Frank Lampard.

EA selected a pair of MLS stars -- Cuauhtemoc Blanco and Sacha Kljestan -- to flank the Chelsea midfielder for the game's cover. This is a tactic the company has used in the past, with a Mexican and American player sharing the cover spotlight with an established world star like Ronaldinho and Wayne Rooney.