“We know that Marco and Felipe have been going through a bit of a rough spell. We were lucky that Marco made the difference tonight with his two goals. Overall, I think that we played very well,” said Schallibaum. “We applied immense pressure on the sides with Justin (Mapp) and Romero. We were very much at ease both offensively and defensively too. D.C. plays an intelligent game and is a tough team to play.”

Major League Soccer announced that SKC striker C.J. Sapong has been named the league’s Rookie of the Year for 2011. Sapong played in all 34 regular-season games, no small feat for a first-year player right out of the NCAA. He scored five times and added five assists.

Playing with 10 men for the game’s final 53 minutes, Toronto FC managed a 2-2 tie with D.C. United Saturday evening at Blackbaud Stadium. The stalemate, on the third and final game day of the 2011 Carolina Challenge Cup, secured United’s second consecutive tournament title.

It’s rare for Caleb Porter to take a break from his passion. The University of Akron head coach is a self-professed soccer junkie, constantly watching, reading about and developing tactics for the game so it was a strange thing for him to put everything aside for a month following his Zips’ 1-0 win over Louisville in the NCAA title match on Dec. 12. The championship was Akron’s first as a school. But given the stamp the 35-year-old Porter has put on the program in his five years in charge, it might not be the last.

The Vancouver Whitecaps stuck to their guns. Omar Salgado, whose move to the club in August 2010 was scuttled after MLS discovered it would break international transfer rules, was grabbed with the No. 1 pick in the MLS SuperDraft in Baltimore. But, unless Vancouver gets special clearance from FIFA, he won’t be eligible to play for the team until Sept. …