Lastly, Landon Donovan was named 2009 Volkswagen MLS MVP yesterday for the first time in his career. Donovan played a large part in the LA Galaxy’s success this season, and he will take the field this weekend with hopes of bringing yet another award back to LA.

The day featured three separate training sessions, one each for a group of U-18, U-16 and U-14 players, all of which were supervised by Tony Lepore, the Technical Advisor and Director of Scouting for U.S. Soccer. The Revolution sent groups from both the club’s U-18 and U-16 teams, while a group of players were also selected to represent the Revs at the U-14 level, although they currently do not have a U-14 program.

The players representing the Revolution at the event were Devin Devoy, Felix DeBona, Diego Fagundez, Christian Sady and Forest Sisk from the U-16 squad, and Miguel Castro, Felipe Fagundes, Dylan Hawkins, Kenny Kolbeck, Daniel Sangster and Josh Vlasich from the U-18 squad.

The U.S. Soccer Market Training Center is part of the U.S. Soccer Development Academy’s national scouting efforts. These opportunities continue to raise the level of elite club soccer and as a result, help grow the player pool for future U.S. National Team events.

With the U.S. Development Academy Winter Showcase set to take place from Dec. 4-8 in Phoenix, Ariz., this was an opportunistic warm-up for many of the players who will represent the Revolution’s U-16 and U-18 teams at the event.

But Alston isn’t the only player headed to South Africa. Chris Tierney is also headed to the World Cup 2010 nation for a month-long service trip with Grassroot Soccer, which Survivor winner Ethan Zohn helped co-found and promote, which uses soccer to educate and combat HIV and AIDS in African nations.

We’ve asked both players to check in periodically during their trips, so hopefully we’ll begin to get some updates once the trips begin.

Kevin Alston, a member of Generation adidas, will be traveling to South Africa to take part in training and a few matches. He will join other members of the Generation adidas team on the trip, writes Dylan Butler of MLSnet.com. Also online today is Ridge Mahoney’s breakdown of the best goalkeepers in the league this season, with the Revs’ Matt Reis coming in at the top of the list.

Kyle McCarthy checks in with his Musings for Goal.com this morning, focusing on what the future holds for the Chicago Fire and head coach Denis Hamlett.

The first conference final took place last night at The Home Depot Center, where the LA Galaxy defeated the Houston Dynamo, 2-0, in extra time to advance to the club’s record sixth MLS Cup. For those interested in general (and now slightly dated) news, Steve Davis has a look at who’s understated and underrated for all four conference finalists in his weekly Five-a-side.

Additionally, the Philadelphia Union has unveiled its uniform, which can be seen here.

Finally, the U.S. National Team is battling Slovakia in a friendly in Bratislava this morning, and the Associated Press previews the match here.

With the announcement set for Monday, we wanted to ask you … who was your Best XI in 2009?

Get ready to exercise your vote –click this link to vote  for Goal of the Year… this is one election where voting early and often is not only legal, it’s also encouraged.

Around the rest of the league, Ridge Mahoney poses some questions regarding the four teams that have already been knocked out of the playoffs in his piece for Soccer America and Kyle McCarthy looks at coaching announcements and speculation in his Musings on Goal.com.

Also, Goal.com reports that U.S. National Team striker and New England product Charlie Davies has left the hospital four weeks after a horrific car accident. His condition continues to improve and he looks forward to starting his rehabilitation.