Soccerball fever It's soccerball weekend on What was the score? Today Chicago Fire host Celtic in an exhibition game. Chicago are the only team in the MLS with a worse record than David Beckham's LA Galaxy. Some friends and I did talk about going, the 20,000 stadium is not a sell-out, but we couldn't be arsed.

Chicago Fire have their very own high-profile signing making his debut today. Mexican Cuauhtémoc Blanco was welcomed by 7,000 fans when he was unveiled by the Fire 3 weeks back. The striker is an iconic figure back in Mexico, spending the majority of his 15-year career there winning every gong possible. He has 97 international caps and the MLS and Fire fans will hope that Blanco can stimulate as much interest amongst the hispanic community in Chicago that Beckham has gained in Hollywood.

Next weekend starting on Friday another exhibition competition takes place on these shores, this time at Chicago's Soldier Field. The Chicago Trophy has been championed by the city's mayor (that means a lot around these parts) and the competing teams are UEFA Cup winners Sevilla, Poles Wisla Krakow, Serie A's Parma and Mexican club Toluca, each carefully chosen I suspect to appeal to football-starved 2nd generation immigrants in the city.

The teams will each play two matches, one on Friday and the second on Sunday and will be awarded 3 points for a win and one for a draw but in a novel feature, teams will earn bonus points for scoring goals. Welcome to America.  ¶ 14:08