Still have the U-20s on the mind and Brian Sciaretta gives us his 21 tickets for Turkey.

Sciaretta also talked to Daniel Cuevas this week about qualifying for the U-20 World Cup.

Another U-20er, Juan Ocegueda, took to twitter to tell fans why he picked the US over Mexico.  Just scroll down his timeline to his tweets from March 6.

Carlos Bocanegra is struggling to see the field at Racing Santander and apparently has lost his starting spot.

And if you want to be semi-depressed, John Godfrey breaks down the struggles along the back line for the USMNT.

Roma midfielder Miralem Pjanic will be out a month with an ankle injury, which probably means Michael Bradley will return to the starting lineup.  Bradley has come off the bench in two of his last three games.

I forget whether I posted this last week or not (and I am currently too lazy to look and see), but here is a NY Times story/interview with Brad Guzan.  Can’t hurt to post to it twice.

Tijuana continues their hot streak in Copa Libertadores with a 1-0 win over defending champions and 2012 FIFA Club World Cup champions Corinthians.  Joe Corona got the start while Greg Garza came off the bench.

We posted about Daniel Antunez playing with Chivas USA during training camp.  Well, he officially signed with the club this week.  Antunez last played for Inter Turku in Finland in 2012.  Also, we might pass around a hat to take up a collection so OT can sponsor at tarp at a Chivas USA game at the Home Depot Center.  Just joking (or am I?).

Sticking with the Chivas USA theme, Franco Panizo talked to Juan Agudelo about playing for Chivas and his training stints in Europe this offseason.

Here is a post-game interview with Conor O’Brien after FC Nordsjælland’s win from the weekend.

And this has nothing to do with Americans in Europe, but this might be the worst conditions ever for a corner kick.

Looks like a few things came out today after I posted the Jonathan Borrajo signs with Mjøndalen post.

Looks like we can call off the dogs on the Brek Shea to Stoke City stuff.  While some people think it is because MLS denied the transfer, BBC is saying because of his injury.

Brian Sciaretta got some quotes about Ben Spencer’s trial at Molde FK.

Leander Schaerlaeckens has an interesting story on Brad Friedel.  Friedel stayed at Tottenham to help facilitate his UEFA coaching license.

According to some papers in Scotland, Celtic hope to hear whether Chivas USA like their offer for Juan Agudelo or not in the near future.

Remember when I posted about the rumor USMNT centennial jerseys?  Sounds like they are coming in March.

Greg Seltzer decided to clear his notebook on various Yanks abroad and even gave us a little shout out for our Inside the Numbers story on Clint Dempsey and Jozy Altidore.

Who wants to see a photo of Marc Pelosi and Villyan Bijev having fun in the snow?  Here you go.

Kenneth Di Vita Jensen ended last season on loan to Ullensaker / Kisa and it looks like Hønefoss are trying to send him out on loan again.

I already posted it earlier today, but it looks like we might see some special centennial USMNT jersey at some point this year.

Graham Zusi retrurns to the US this week to begin training with the USMNT, but he first spoke with Brian Sciaretta about his trial at West Ham United.

His training buddy at West Ham and now with the USMNT, Juan Agudelo, is getting linked some more with a move to Celtic.  And possibly Everton.  Yay silly season!

Jermaine Jones’ four-game ban has been reduced to three games.  And Jones picked up an injury during training camp in Qatar, so I don’t expect him to come back to the US to train/play with the USMNT like he did last year when he had a lengthy suspension around this time.

It looks like only 8,000 tickets have been sold so far for the friendly against Canada.

And one last thing about the USMNT.  Tony Beltran kicks off ussoccer.com’s January Camp journal entries.

Stuart Holden will be part of Bolton’s gameday roster for tomorrow’s FA Cup match against Sunderland.

It looks like Clint Dempsey will be looked upon to step up for Tottenham by Andre Villas-Boas while Emmanuel Adebayor leaves for the Africa Cup of Nations.

Not shocking, but Jurgen Klinsmann helped with Michael Parkhurst’s move to Augsburg.

Tony Taylor came off the bench and played nine minutes for Estoril in their 1-0 win over Beira-Mar today.  He played in their cup game last week and this was his first league appearance since late November, so he is slowly starting to get some more playing time.

Shawn Parker scored for Mainz in some Winter Cup match/friendly against Borussia Dortmund.  And here are some highlights of the goal.

Bruce Arena was asked about Landon Donovan’s future and we really don’t learn anything new.

FD: Landon Donovan?
BA: As we get closer to reporting date we’re going to finalize where he’s headed this year.

FD: Sounds optimistic?
BA: You never know with Landon, so we’ll see.

Bobby Wood is hitting the weights in Turkey during 1860 Munich’s training camp.

Goalkeeper Samir Badr is training with Manchester United this week before reporting to some MLS team’s training camp next month.  Badr was supposed to play with Haras El Hodood of the Egyptian Premier League last year before the season was canceled.

Some new jerseys/kits are slowly starting to leak out for next season.  Here is Djurgardens IF’s away kit for next season.  Hopefully Brian Span will wear it some more in 2013 as he appeared in only nine league games in 2012.

Bob Bradley and Egypt lost 4-2 to Ivory Coast in one of their final friendlies before World Cup qualification resumes in March.

And finally, could Bob and Klinsi battle in the future for a 20-year-old forward?  Probably not, but Amro Tarek Abd El-Aziz was born in the US and is apparently being looked at by US scouts according to that article, although he last played for Egypt’s U-20 team.  He has scored one goal in 13 appearances with Wolfsburg II in the German Regionalliga in 2012-13.

A bunch of links for Tuesday evening.

In case you don’t follow us on Twitter or Facebook, but we have a new addition to the site.  We are going to try and track every goal scored this calendar year.  You can find our goal tracker by clicking the goals link above in the navigation bar.

I posted on Monday about Graham Zusi and Juan Agudelo training at West Ham this week, but it looks like at least Zusi’s trip is an actual trial.

Sticking with the MLS-to-Europe training stints, DC United goalkeepers Joe Willis and Andrew Dykstra are both headed to England to train with different clubs (Sunderland for Willis and Hartlepool United for Dykstra).

Matt over at The Shin Guardian did a detailed depth chart of the USMNT as we enter 2013.  And Brian Sciaretta gives us his breakdown of the January camp.

Not too of a shock, but Grant Wahl is hearing that ESPN won/bought the rights to the US-Mexico qualifier at Azteca.  So ESPN should have that game plus all the home qualifiers, while beIN Sport should have all the rest of the road qualifiers if I am remembering this correctly.

A week after playing in an indoor reserve match, Stuart Holden took the field outside in Bolton’s reserves’ 3-0 win over Oldham Athletic’s reserves.  Holden got the start and played 65 minutes, which got some good reviews of his performance.

While he is coming back from injury, Will Packwood is scheduled to have a second surgery on his broken leg.

US U-18 midfielder Zach Pfeffer scored a goal in his first friendly since going out on loan at Hoffenheim.

Marc Pelosi got the start and went the full 90 minutes in Liverpool’s 4-1 win over Inter Milan in the NextGen Series (U-19 tournament).  With the win, Liverpool advance to the next round.

Parker Walsh could be headed back to Karlsruher SC.

Not a surprise, but Stoke City are open to loaning out Maurice Edu.  Edu has only appeared in one game with the Potters since making the move from Rangers to Stoke City.

Clarence Goodson’s Brøndby are having some money issues and the players might have to take a pay cut or the club might go bankrupt.

Alejandro Bedoya apparently has some suitors in Spain, German, Denmark and Sweden.  Bedoya is expected to stay with the USMNT until a deal is finalized.

Conor O’Brien also has a few different teams looking at him according to Greg Seltzer.

American Jack Stefanowski has been named the head coach of Nepal’s national team.

Alecko Eskandarian tells us a cool story about Clint Dempsey from 2005′s Camp Cupcake.

And finally, Sciaretta has another interview with Sacha Kljestan.

This weekend was sort of a fun one with Dempsey and Herc scoring goals, plus the USMNT roster announcement.  Good times.  Now or some links from the weekend.

Speaking of the USMNT January camp.  Both Graham Zusi and Juan Agudelo are going to be a week late as they are headed to West Ham United this week for one of these MLS week-long-summer-camp-training sessions.

Doug McIntyre (ESPN Insider) gives us his surprises of the 25-man roster.

The other chatter from yesterday regarding the USMNT was locations of the various hexagonal qualifiers.  We are nearing the home opener against Costa Rica in March and we still don’t know the location.  Grant Wahl is hearing that the final three possibilities are Kansas City, Salt Lake and Denver.  I am guessing it will be Salt Lake or Denver as the US plays Mexico at Azteca a few days later and those two sites give the US players some training/game action with altitude.

Steven Goff is hearing that the June qualifiers could finally be headed to the Pacific Northwest in Portland and Seattle.  While that is all fun and games, Portland Timbers owner Merritt Paulson was tweeting a bunch about how there probably won’t be a qualifier in Portland since they don’t want to put sod on their turf for a couple different reasons.  But he thinks there is a decent shot that Portland hosts a Gold Cup game.  You can check out his feed for all his reasons/ranting.

I already linked above Clint Dempsey’s goals from the weekend, but here is a video interview from after the game.

Birmingham City’s website gives us a quick update on Will Packwood.  It looks like he will be out “for at least nine months.”  Teammate Jonathan Spector missed out on the FA Cup match with some kind of back injury.

I missed this story last week, but this should make Bob Bradley’s job a little easier.

ESPN FC gives us three young Bayern Munich players to keep an eye on including Tampa-born Julian Green.

Shawn Parker scored the game-winning goal this weekend for Mainz in a friendly against Club Brugge.

Andrew Wooten and Sandhausen made it to the finals of the Harder Cup before losing to Karlsruher SC.  Wooten was one of Sandhausen’s top scorers of the tournament.  And it looks like I was able to find video of the whole final.  That looks like it would be fun to attend.

I haven’t heard Jann George’s name mentioned since he was kicked off Nurnberg in early November, but apparently I missed that he signed with 1860 Munich II late in November and has been training with the first team as they start their winter break training camp.

And finally, much to Howie’s chagrin, former US U-17er Fuad Ibrahim has been named to Ethiopia’s team for the 2013 African Cup of Nations.

These first two links are a little dated from last week, but I didn’t have a chance to post them.

The first one is about Celtic having interest in signing Juan Agudelo, but Chivas USA are not interested in selling him.  And Tim Ream wants to find more consistent playing time with Bolton so he can return to the USMNT picture.

Sticking with Ream, he spoke with Andy Schreur of Yanks Abroad for an interview.

We are approaching the winter transfer window/silly season and Brian Sciaretta gives us a list of Americans in Europe who could be on the move during the window.

Former US youth international Mobi Fehr will have a new team in MLS come Tuesday via a weighted lottery.  Fehr was born in the US, but grew up in Japan and was part of Tokyo Verdy’s youth teams.

Mix Diskerud’s dad confirmed to MLSsoccer.com that Portland has contacted Mix about coming to MLS, but the league/Portland has yet to bid on his services.

According to this report, Jurgen Klinsmann did invite Aron Johannsson to come to the US camp in January to check out how things are run (not to play), but his most recent injury (I guess he is getting surgery) is going to keep him in Europe during January.

Brad Guzan made ESPN’s Team of the Week after leading Aston Villa to a win over Liverpool at Anfield.  Here is also a video interview with Guzan on the Premier League site.

Herculez Gomez will be wearing these new kits for Santos Laguna next season.

Carlos Bocanegra returned early from his muscle tear and played for Racing Santander in their 1-0 loss to Sabadell on Sunday.

With their 2-1 win over OH Leuven on Sunday, Anderlecht have now won their last eight league games when Sacha Kljestan starts.

And a quick league leaderboard update.  Jozy Altidore’s 11 goals are fourth most in the Eredivisie (more on this tomorrow).  Matt Taylor’s 11 goals are tied for the third most in the German 3. Liga as they enter the winter break.  And Terrence Boyd’s nine goals are tied for the fifth most in the Austrian Bundesliga.

It looks like the site’s server woke up from its post-turkey nap and is running somewhat faster.  That all said, here are a few links from the last week or so.

This report out of Scotland has Celtic manager Neil Lennon wanting to sign Juan Agudelo after impressing during his training stint with the Scottish club.  STV Sport also did a 13-minute video interview with Agudelo right here.

Some Danish reports are saying Jurgen Klinnsman will help Michael Parkhurst find a new club come January.

Jose Torres is making the move from Pachuca to Tigres UANL.

Staying in Mexico, Tijuana (Joe Corona, Edgar Castillo, Greg Garza) are headed to the Liga MX final to face Toluca after defeating Leon 3-2 on aggregate.  Both Corona and Castillo started in yesterday’s second-leg victory.  By making the final, they also earned a spot in the 2013-14 CONCACAF Champions League.

Greg Seltzer talked to Matt Taylor last week about his success in Germany.

The Bolton News recently did an interview with Tim Ream.  Ream started at defensive midfielder on Saturday in Bolton’s 1-1 draw to Brighton & Hove Albion.

Continuing with the interviews, Brian K. Blickenstaff spent some time with Danny Williams in Germany.

Brian Sciaretta looks at some potential options for the USMNT central defense aside from Geoff Cameron.

Here is a highlight video of Kemi Kings’ Christian Eissele and his 2012 season in Finland, which saw him lead the Kakkonen in goals.

As for some noteworthy performances from the weekend.  Fabian Johnson scored for Hoffenheim in their 2-1 loss to Bayer Leverkusen (highlights here).  Clint Dempsey assisted on one goal and “hockey” assisted on another in Tottenham’s 3-1 victory over West Ham United (highlights here).  And Charlie Davies head-butted a guy (highlights here).

Marc Heider scored his eighth goal of the season in Holstein Kiel’s 3-0 win over Victoria Hamburg in German Regionalliga action.  Eugene Starikov is starting to get more playing time in Russia, getting another start for Rostov in their 2-0 win over Mordovia Saransk.  And Bobby Wood has fought his way back from injuries to make an appearance off the bench (16 minutes) for 1860 Munich in their 2-2 draw to Union Berlin.

Some reading and links for your Friday morning pleasure.

Juan Agudelo is headed to Celtic for a training stint starting on Friday.  Jurgen Klinsmann has encouraged these training stints in Europe for MLS players in the past.  And Agudelo trained with Liverpool and Stuttgart last winter after the MLS season.

According to AZ Alkmaar technical director Earnie Stewart, Jozy Altidore is being scouted by some bigger clubs.  There was even a offer this past summer by an unnamed eastern European club.

Randy Kim recently spoke to Gregg Berhalter about his first season as manager at Hammarby in Sweden’s second division.

Clint Dempsey explains why he likes the number two.

Guam has already gone after A. J. DeLaGarza and now they are going after Shawn Nicklaw.

I haven’t heard this name in a while, but it looks like Alex Molano is going on trial in Austria (last sentence of the story).

And finally, Robbie Findley’s loan with Gillingham has ended as he is back with Nottingham Forest, playing with their U-21s this week.

Jürgen Klinsman called in twenty players for the Russia friendly, including two potential debutantes and some long-absent faces:

GOALKEEPERS (3): Tim Howard (Everton), Sean Johnson (Chicago Fire), Nick Rimando (Real Salt Lake)
DEFENDERS (6): Carlos Bocanegra (Racing Santander), Geoff Cameron (Stoke City), Timmy Chandler (Nuremberg), Maurice Edu (Stoke City), Clarence Goodson (Brondby), Fabian Johnson (Hoffenheim)
MIDFIELDERS (7): Michael Bradley (Roma), Mix Diskerud (Rosenborg), Joshua Gatt (Molde), Joe Gyau (Hoffenheim), Jermaine Jones (Schalke 04), Sacha Kljestan (Anderlecht), Danny Williams (Hoffenheim)
FORWARDS (4): Juan Agudelo (Chivas USA), Jozy Altidore (AZ Alkmaar), Terrence Boyd (Rapid Vienna), Herculez Gomez (Santos Laguna)

Reports out of Norway have Lillestrøm feeling good about acquiring Mikkel Diskerud this transfer window.  It appears that Mix’s current club, Stabæk, are having some huge financial problems and are shedding contracts in order to stay alive.  According to one Swedish journalist, Stabæk currently do not have a home ground and the coach left the team.  Doesn’t sound like a great place to be right now.  We should know more on his potential move once he is done with the U-23 camp.

According to the AP’s Andrew Dampf, Michael Bradley has been impressing Italian fans since making the move to Chievo Verona and has earned the nickname “General Bradley”.

We all know about Clint Dempsey’s hat trick this past weekend.  Soccer Insider Steven Goff has a list of hat tricks by Americans over in Europe since 1990.

A couple quick things on Freddy Adu.   Adu is ready to become a leader of the Olympic team after already participating in the 2008 Olympics.  And Adu also talked to Arch Bell about taking another run at playing overseas.

Jon Arnold talked to Brek Shea and Juan Agudelo about the hardest parts of January’s USMNT camp.

Sticking with the camp in Arizona, US Soccer has a Q&A with Michael Parkhurst.

FC Kaiserslautern’s reserve team faced 2. Bundesliga side FSV Frankfurt in a friendly yesterday with Andrew Wooten (Clan) scoring all three goals in Kaiserslautern’s 3-0 victory.  I know there was some word that Wooten trained with the first team over winter break (one of two reserve players that did), but he did not head to Spain for training camp with the first team and returned to the reserves.

The Fresno Bee did a quick interview with promising forward Villyan Bijev.

It looks like the US pipeline to Hammarby is still open as former South Carolina midfielder Jeff Scanella is headed there for a trial.

Reports out Germany have Edson Buddle still looking for a move to England, but he can’t find a suitor at the moment.

Charlie Davies played a half in Sochaux’s reserves 1-0 loss in a friendly this past weekend.  The link also includes a photo of Davies in uniform.