What will the players of Major League Soccer be up to at the start of next week? Although a number of teams have already convened for the beginning of preseason training, there remains the chance that, come Feb. 1, tools will be downed until a new collective bargaining agreement is reached.

Days before Sunday's expiration of the current deal, it remains unclear as to where MLS and its players are in relation to a resolution. However, the parties involved are still talking, and the impression I get is that, slowly but surely, an agreement is getting closer. It also seems that even if this weekend's deadline passes, things will be sorted out well before the start of the new season on March 25.

On the same subject, an interesting nugget popped up on the personal blog of Freddie Ljungberg on Tuesday. The Swede confirmed he would be back with the Sounders next week after he was told there would be no lockout or strike. Of course, this may mean that, as opposed to a new CBA being imminent, the ongoing negotiation period will merely be extended. A knock-on effect of that could be the non-interruption of teams' preseason schedules.

Well played, young men

If you have yet to read the interview of Charlie Davies conducted by my ESPN.com colleague Ives Galarcep, then make a point of doing so. The U.S. striker continues to make remarkable progress in his recovery following his involvement in a fatal car crash in October.

Despite all he has been through, Davies retains lofty ambitions. He intends to return to training with Sochaux by the end of February and aims to be playing again by April. Two months later, he plans to be in South Africa as part of the United States' World Cup squad. His comeback to date has been remarkable. To see him line up against England on June 12 would be nothing short of unbelievable.

Davies is rehabbing alongside another key man for the national team, Oguchi Onyewu. The AC Milan defender is also targeting a late-February return to practice, which would give him two-plus months to regain full match fitness … provided he can get on the field.

An unused substitute for his new club five times in the opening six weeks of the season, Onyewu logged 31 Champions League minutes two weeks before he suffered a knee injury against Costa Rica. Since then, the Rossoneri's form has improved, but cover for first-choice central defenders Alessandro Nesta and Thiago Silva is one area in which Milan remains short -- meaning opportunities should present themselves for a healthy Onyewu.

A thing that made me go hmmm …

Here's hoping that Davies and Onyewu (as well as Clint Dempsey) continue to rehab smoothly, for there was little in Saturday's friendly with Honduras to suggest that the Americans' reserves are capable of stepping up to perform on the biggest of international stages.

Granted, the early red card shown to Jimmy Conrad -- could the referee not have shown a little more common sense, given the circumstances of the game? -- plunged Bob Bradley's side into a hole from which it was difficult to escape. But nonetheless, a number of potential World Cup squad members missed a chance to shine.

Most disappointing to this observer were the performances of a pair of midfielders. Despite his ability to do so, Benny Feilhaber was unable to take the game by the scruff of the neck. Meantime, the regression of Sacha Kljestan continues, with the Chivas man bearing little resemblance to the player who netted a hat trick against Sweden in the opening international of 2009.

Elsewhere, Kyle Beckerman did OK, as did Robbie Rogers and Brad Davis, whose passing acumen and set-piece delivery was a key factor in the U.S. team's best spell of the match, which came in the final 20 minutes. The Houston Dynamo defender is worthy of another look when Bradley's men take on El Salvador on Feb. 24.

Rivalries renewed in Africa

The Africa Cup of Nations semifinals take place Thursday. First, Ghana faces Nigeria, before Algeria and Egypt meet for the fourth time in the past eight months. Algeria has recovered well from its opening-game defeat to Malawi, and was worthy of its quarterfinal win against Ivory Coast, a game in which the Desert Foxes twice came from behind.

As well as beating Egypt in a World Cup playoff in November, Algeria also was the last country to beat the Pharaohs in a Cup of Nations match, all the way back in 2004. Since then, Egypt has gone 17 games without defeat and has won back-to-back championships.