Well, those rumors a few months back about Peter Nowak leaving D.C. United and being replaced by assistant Tom Soehn turned out to be true. Sort of. Nowak is indeed leaving D.C. United, but not for another MLS team or a club or national team in Europe. A press conference is scheduled for Thursday at which team president Kevin Payne and technical director Dave Kasper, according to a source who did confirm details, will announce that Nowak as taken a post as U.S. Soccer assistant coach, with D.C. assistant Tom Soehn …

Panamanian striker Luis Tejada has officially joined Real Salt Lake as Coach John Ellinger continues to build the team that managed just five wins in its 2005 expansion season and narrowly missed the playoffs last year. Tejada, 24, starred at the 2005 Gold Cup and won MVP honors of the tournament. That same year he scored a stunning bicycle kick against Mexico in the CONCACAF World Cup qualifiers. He has scored 28 goals for Panama, and his club career includes stints with CD Plaza Amador and Tauro FC in his native country, Envigado FC …

Despite claims that the trade that sent Freddy Adu to Real Salt Lake had only been formulating for a couple of weeks at most, the die was cast long before then. During his brief tenure as president and general manager of the Team Formerly Known as the MetroStars, Alexi Lalas hinted perhaps a change in location would soothe Adu's frustrations about playing time, position, training sessions, etc. Adu, too, dropped names and clues, such as his former pop-star girlfriend Jojo, who lives and records mainly in New York. Last year, during the playoffs, Adu complained about a lack …

The four coaching finalists for the vacant FC Dallas job are being evaluated by an intriguing quartet of executives: Clark Hunt, Dan Hunt and John Wagner of operator-investor Hunt Sports Group, and team president and general manager Michael Hitchcock. Each of them has used 10 criteria to score each candidate on a scale of 1 to 10. The scores have been tabulated and used as a basis for discussion and selection of the No. 1 candidate, after which financial and personal negotiations will begin and, hopefully, reach a fruitful conclusion. That process could be concluded by this weekend. …

The four coaching finalists for the vacant FC Dallas job are being evaluated by an intriguing quartet of executives: Clark Hunt, Dan Hunt and John Wagner of operator-investor Hunt Sports Group, and team president and general manager Michael Hitchcock. Each of them has used 10 criteria to score each candidate on a scale of 1 to 10. The scores have been tabulated and used as a basis for discussion and selection of the No. 1 candidate, after which financial and personal negotiations will begin and, hopefully, reach a fruitful conclusion. That process could be concluded by this weekend. …

When Galaxy coach Frank Yallop mentioned during MLS Cup activities last month he wasn't done changing the roster, he wasn't kidding. By trading a pair of two-year players -- striker Herculez Gomez and defender Ugo Ihemelu, for eight-year veteran goalkeeper Joe Cannon -- Yallop has added an element that was crucial to his winning the 2001 and 2003 titles in San Jose: a goalkeeper who commands the penalty area. (The five minutes played by Gomez in the 2003 season aren't counted here.) Both Cannon (2001) and Pat Onstad (2003) are among the best in the league at getting …