So another friend has gone. I can't say Stanley Lover was a close friend -- we didn't see enough of each other for that. But he was a dear friend, a respected friend, and I am greatly saddened to hear of his passing.

As the 2013 MLS season climaxed we were treated to the unenviable experience of watching the New York Red Bulls and the Seattle Sounders -- two teams that had looked like wiping out everyone -- suddenly suffering hopeless slumps and departing from the playoffs, if not in disgrace, then certainly in disarray.

As college finals go, Notre Dame's 2-1 win over Maryland was quite a good one. Good, that is, within the limitations of the college game. Whether those limitations are imposed by the NCAA or whether they represent the way that the Division I coaches want things to be, I am no longer certain. It doesn't matter anyway: The limitations are there, they have been there for decades.

Writing before MLS Cup, I picked out either Real Salt Lake's Javier Morales or Kansas City's Aurelien Collin as MVP candidates.

Scanning the Kansas City and the Real Salt Lake rosters for a likely MVP in today's final, two names -- representing two very different aspects of soccer -- stand out: Aurelien Collin for KC, and Javier Morales for RSL.

It is fair to say that there are two main events at the end of each MLS season: the MLS Cup final, and the address by Commissioner Don Garber on the State of the League.

In the last couple of columns, I've been looking into the genetic intricacies and mysteries revealed in David Epstein's book "The Sports Gene." He doesn't have much to say about soccer -- I counted 12 references to the sport, mostly brief mentions to bolster a point that Epstein is making about another sport. This should hardly be too surprising

I left you last time with the vision of the virtually untrained high jumper Donald Thomas winning the world championship against Stefan Holm, who had spent the previous 25 years of his life training to perfect his jumping technique.