Major League Soccer is moving to NBC.In a new three-year deal announced today, the American broadcasting giant will begin a three-year deal starting in 2012. It will broadcast 45 MLS games each season, the lion’s share going to NBC Sports Network.

MLS released its playoff schedule on Tuesday — and the road to MLS Cup is tougher than ever.

Martin Rennie will take over as head coach of the Vancouver Whitecaps in 2012.

The soap opera that is the Montreal Impact’s final season in NASL has taken another bizarre turn.On Sunday, a day after a large number of the Ultras —the Impact’s largest and most vocal supporters’ group — walked out of Stade Saputo at the outset of a 3-1 loss to the NSC Minnesota Stars, owner Joey Saputo wrote an open letter to the fans.

Fast forward to Sunday afternoon and, through a combination of inspired finishing, loose defensive play and some diabolical goalkeeping, the Whitecaps and Fire produced a six-goal thriller. The Whitecaps won 4-2 at Empire Field — and the Fire erased all doubt of who is the worst team in MLS at the moment.

Dwayne De Rosario once again exacted sweet, sweet revenge against another former club — this time a hat trick against his hometown team, Toronto FC.

In the end, the new graphic was well-received but the evening ended on a down note for Montreal, who dropped a 3-1 decision to the third-place Minnesota Stars, a game in which it did not challenge seriously for victory.

Jarju has been called up to the Gambian national squad and will begin preparations for a friendly on Wednesday against the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

As Canada prepares to begin its World Cup qualifying campaign — which kicks off Sept. 2 against Puerto Rico — coach Stephen Hart has a lot on his plate.With that in mind, The 11, with some input from our readers, has created a list of players — not including Junior Hoilett, he’s been talked about ad nauseam already— who didn’t take part in the Gold Cup and could inject some life into the Canadian squad.

And, in a month that was dominated by some great goalkeeping performances around the league, Hartman was named MLS Player of the Month after the ballots from the North American Soccer Reporters were counted.