According to Marc Connelly's January 2nd article on ESPN.com, MLS is seriously considering a "challenge cup" style competition in a proposed summer break for the league. The idea apparently has gotten more lip service recently because of the effect that the Man U tour will have on the league. Anyone heard anything?
I think most people are expecting something of the sort to be built into the calendar at this point because there was a lot of talk about it earlier in the offseason, including heated debate about including those games in the league standings (an idea which was abhorrent to most as I recall). We just have to wait for the schedule to be released and hopefully all will be made clear.
The Challenge Cup I'd heard discussed was to be MLS v. MFL with the exact structure yet to be determined. If it is a true challenge tournament, I'm all for it. I'm just not too happy about it counting in the MLS standings. -Tron