Soccer short takes

December 10, 2016 at 2:58AM

• It looks like we've seen the last of the North American Soccer League. Nothing is official yet, but according to various reports, all but one or two of the league's teams will either fold or join the USL for 2017. It looks likely that USL will take over as the American second division and, at least for the time being, the U.S. will be without a third division.

• U.S. Soccer will announce its Player of the Year awards this weekend. If I were among the voters for the awards, I'd pick Tobin Heath on the women's side and Bobby Wood on the men's. Heath doesn't get mentioned often enough for her role as the most dangerous playmaker on the women's national team. She deserves the accolades. Wood's rise to become a first-choice striker for the men's national team deserves recognition as well.

• Fans of Liga MX can plan ahead for some Christmas Day soccer. Club America made it all the way to the championship round. With the team also participating in the FIFA Club World Cup in Japan in December, the championship match was pushed back almost into 2017. The two legs of the final will be Dec. 22 and Christmas Day.

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