On Thursday, we reached a milestone on twitter.com: 100 followers!

The same day, we received our 100th comment on the Web site in our first month of operating.

And today, I’m proud to announce our first sponsors. Perhaps you’ve noticed the ads on the right side of our homepage.

The Colorado Force was our first sponsor, and Sawol is our first advertiser.

Sawol stands for Soccer: a way of life. And owner David Bird, a 24-year-old who hails from Vermont, has always loved that lifestyle.

“Since I was in high school, I always wanted to start a soccer brand,” Bird said. “I grew up with a passion for the game, and the logical conclusion was to have a profession related to the sport. I saw the need for a U.S.-based soccer brand that was dedicated 100 percent to the beautiful game.”

So last year, Bird decided to launch the business.

“Since that time, we have never looked back,” he said. “If you work hard, you can reap the benefits. Whether it is on the pitch or in the office, true success and happiness only come through hard work and dedication.”

Seeing soccer embraced in the United States is one of Bird’s motivations, one we share wholeheartedly at ColoradoSoccerNow.

Another was to create a company that focuses completely on soccer.

“Too many companies try to be soccer companies but lose their way by diversifying in multiple sports,” Bird said. “We are dedicated completely to soccer.”

So take some time and head over to Sawolsoccer.com. If you’re on our homepage, just click the Sawol link to take you right there. Or use this link, and go there right now.

It’s a beautiful Web page with some great products … and more on the way all the time. The current Sawol line includes of men’s and women’s long-sleeve T-shirts, women’s short-sleeve T-shirts, casual track jackets and match level soccer balls. 

Check it out. And tell ‘em ColoradoSoccerNow sent ya.

Check it out. Here’s a direct link to the chat portion of INDenverTimes.com.

Here’s a link to the news site’s main page.

If you go to the main page, just click on their link that to the “INsiderChannel,” and you’re in.

There’s no need to register. Just start chatting.

I hope to see you there and then.

Go here for the chat.

Bring your questions about the Rapids, the U.S. Open Cup, Major League Soccer, the U.S. men’s national team or whatever.

We hope to cover soccer in Colorado like no one else, from the college level up to Major League Soccer. And every now and then, there’ll be a treat, like Wednesday’s Mexico-Bolivia game, which doesn’t seem to have any logical tie to the Denver area other than a whole lotta fans of Mexico live here.

I’ll bet one shiny nickel that there are more fans at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park on Wednesday than there were at the U.S. men’s national team’s appearance at the stadium last year.

But I digress.

Although a lot of people were sad about the closure of the Rocky, the circumstances actually might allow me to be at the games more often than when I was working at the newspaper. For instance, I was wrangling for the night off to attend the Mexico-Bolivia game. Now I can just go! How simple is that?

Anyway, we hope you like the site, and we hope you tell all your friends about us. Like everything on the Inter-ma-Web, word of mouth is a precious commodity.

That’s enough PR. On to the futbol!