The big news from yesterday, which Howie already posted, is that Stuart Holden is back in the USMNT picture.  Holden also did an interview with Lion of Vienna Suite this week where he states that he feels 100%.

Steven Goff gives us the latest USMNT ticket sales update.  I really need to stop playing around and pull the trigger on a trip up to Seattle in June.

Jurgen Klinsmann doesn’t appear to be happy about Brek Shea’s lack of playing time at Stoke City.

Sky Sports is reporting that Maurice Edu might make a permanent move from Stoke City to Bursaspor, but the article really only has quotes from Edu about being happy in Turkey.

Here is a video of Geoff Cameron talking about Stoke City’s summer tour to play against Houston Dynamo.

Greg Seltzer updates us on AZ Alkmaar’s all-time single-season goals list (plus gives us some other numbers and stats).  Jozy Altidore is fourth with 30 goals and has three games left to add to that tally.  Kees Kist holds the top three spots with 39 goals (1981-82), 36 (1978-79) and 35 (1977-78).

Want some other numbers?  Conor O’Brien leads all Danish Superliga players in average kilometers covered per game this season.

Steve Cherundolo talked to US Soccer about soon becoming the fourth player in Bundesliga history to play 300 games and playing the most games in club history after his next appearance.  Cherundolo is also close on a new contract with Hannover 96.

This is from last week, but this story has some quotes from Tab Ramos on the US U-20 team, including why DeAndre Yedlin didn’t make the CONCACAF U-20 Championship roster.

A player that was on the CONCACAF U-20 Championship roster, Mario Rodriguez, scored a goal for Kaiserslautern in the semifinals of the U-19 German Cup the other day.

US U-17 forward Junior Flores is headed to Germany to train with Borussia Dortmund up through their Champions League final appearance.  Flores signed a pre-contract deal with Borussia Dortmund back in October and can’t sign a professional deal until he turns 18 in March of 2014.

We have another American at Club Tijuana as former LA Galaxy youth academy player Paul Arriola has signed with the Liga MX club.

And finally, here is a local paper type story on Aleks Gogic signing with Reading.

Breaking with his tradition of waiting until the last second to announce callups, US head coach Jürgen Klinsmann said today that hard-luck Bolton midfielder Stuart Holden will be called up to the May/June camp and will also play in the Gold Cup.

“We’ve been in touch with Stuart throughout this whole injury period,” said Klinsmann.  “The last couple of months have given us a lot of positive signals. I spoke to his coach at Bolton, and spoke to his coach at Sheffield Wednesday where he played some very important minutes and games while on loan. He’s on his way back. That being said, we want to have him back in our picture. We are going to bring him for the May-June camp, and also for the Gold Cup.”

“We have the backing from his club that we can play him through the summer,” Klinsmann said. “He knows there won’t be big vacation time, and he said ‘I don’t want vacation anymore. I had one and a half years off!’  So that’s exciting news for us, having him back in the group and seeing him and evaluating where he’s at, and helping him become the old Stuart Holden,  and even better because he’s still so young.”

There’s no getting back the time that Holden, once a promising 25 year-old on a team making a run at Europe (everyone forgets this), has lost, but he hopefully has retained his technical ability and will definitely bring passion to his return. If nothing else, it’s extremely easy to be happy for him because no one is more deserving of a chance at some healthy minutes.

The title says it all.

Jurgen Klinsmann spoke to some reporters on Wednesday and touched on a few different topics, including Stuart Holden and some ideas on how he is going to build this summer’s Gold Cup roster.

“We save most of [the top-flight European-based players] clearly for the World Cup qualifiers and then give them a well-deserved break. And then we have to build a very competitive roster for the Gold Cup.

“It’s tricky. Who is in a rhythm? The Scandinavians are in a rhythm. The MLS players are. Mexico is in a similar break like Europe, so it makes it difficult. Whoever from Mexico you leave out of the May-June camp, most likely we will leave them out of the Gold Cup as well because they would come from vacation and they can’t catch up. It’s a challenge for us.”

Klinsi also doesn’t want to see Carlos Bocanegra returning to Rangers next season.

Klinsmann also addressed Landon Donovan in the quotes above and Landon agrees that he has some work to do before returning to the USMNT.

Going back to Holden for a second, here is another article from England about him returning to Bolton after his loan to Sheffield Wednesday.

US Soccer put up a video this week with John O’Brien talking about his first cap with the USMNT.

It looks like Brek Shea and Geoff Cameron will be headed to FC Dallas this summer. . . . .in a scrimmage as Stoke City are headed back to the States this summer for some friendlies.

J.R. Eskilson decided to brave the 405 this week and went to the Home Depot Center to watch the US U-20 team partake in an intrasquad scrimmage.

Billy Schuler got the start and played 45 minutes in Hammarby’s 1-0 loss to Falkenberg on Thursday.

Zach Pfeffer scored a goal for Hoffenheim’s U-19 team in some youth cup match on Wednesday.

Brian Span scored a goal for Djurgården’s U-21 team earlier this week and here is a highlight of it.

After making his debut over the weekend, Freddy Adu came off the bench again and played eight minutes for Bahia in a 0-0 draw to Bahia de Feira on Wednesday.

Still recovering from his broken leg, Will Packwood was offered a new contract by Birmingham City this week.

And finally, here is an awesome interactive site that features the historical English football league tables from 1889 to 2012.  Click on a team and it highlights their position for every season.

But that whole manhunt sort of got in the way.

Greg Seltzer talked to Bob Bradley this week about the chaos of coaching in Egypt.

US Soccer President Sunil Gulati was elected to the FIFA executive committee, beating out Mexican Football President Justino Campeon by one vote.  He will be taking over Chuck Blazer’s old spot.

Freddy Adu has made at least made Bahia’s gameday roster for this weekend’s game.  Adu was also on the BBC’s Football Focus this week.

Brian Sciaretta caught up with Stuart Holden this week to talk about his comeback.  Sheffield Wednesday’s manager Dave Jones also wants to extend Holden’s loan.

While there is a lot of speculation that Jozy Altidore will be sold to a bigger club this summer, Earnie Stewart claims that AZ want to keep Altidore and build around him for next season.

A new American youngster to keep an eye on down in Mexico, Alonso Hernandez, made his debut with Monterrey tonight.

I got a message from Daniel Stevens this week telling me that he is not longer at Kemi Kings in Finland, but he is now at Finnish side BK-46.  They just won their fifth round game in the Suomen Cup.

A few in-house things.  As I posted in yesterday’s The OT Report, here is a link to Sacha Kljestan’s goal from yesterday.  Still can’t find a video that I can embed on this site.  Also, a shameless plug for the latest Inside the Numbers where I update where Jozy Altidore’s 28 goals stack up in Europe.

Now for some links.

Staying with Jozy, here is a post-game interview from the weekend after his hat trick.

Stuart Holden has one more game left with Sheffield Wednesday until his loan deal ends, although it looks like there is some chatter about extending the deal until the end of the season.

Michael Bradley and Roma are headed to the Coppa Italia final on May 26, which means he is likely going to miss the first week of the USMNT camp.  Bradley also completed 96.7% of his passes in yesterday’s match against Inter Milan.

Speaking of those USMNT upcoming games, Steven Goff gives us even more updated numbers on ticket sales.

Want a random youtube video of various Brad Guzan saves from this season?  Alright.

Doug McIntyre of ESPN Insider looks at Freddy Adu’s uncertain USMNT future.

It looks like Sebastian Lletget had missed some time with an injury, but is back and playing with West Ham’s U-21 team again.  Doesn’t appear to be anything serious.

It doesn’t look like we will see Seb Hines in many of Middlesbrough’s remaining games this season.

And finally, US Soccer youth player Joshua Perez is headed to Italy to join Fiorentina’s youth academy.

Lets dive right in.

The US moved up five spots to #28 in the latest FIFA World Rankings after their win over Costa Rica and draw to Mexico last month.  Since Brazil is not playing any qualifiers since they are the host nation, they are continuing to drop (to #19!) since qualifiers are weighed more than friendlies.

For those few people who don’t think Terrence Boyd is a “true” American, he got a new tattoo.

The English Premier League will have goal-line technology next season.

Despite being on loan with Sheffield Wednesday, Stuart Holden took over Bolton Wanderers’ twitter account for a couple hours.  Check out the timeline to see the questions that he answered.

Dylan Fahy writes on Michael Bradley for the NY Times.

As for another Bradley, here is a trailer for a documentary on Egypt’s quest to qualify for the World Cup.

Andrea Canales of ESPN FC has an article up on Herculez Gomez.

Sky Sports has a pretty cool scouting report on Anthony Brooks up on their site.

Brian Sciaretta caught up with Duane Holmes to talk about his new contract offer with Huddersfield Town.

And lets finish with a poorly translated interview with Jerome Kiesewetter.

Want some links?  Why not.

Stuart Holden is close to signing a new deal with Bolton Wanderers.  That article references an interview with ESPN and you can find that here.  And you may have noticed that Holden sat out of the mid-week game for Sheffield Wednesday after playing over the weekend, but there is some speculation that part of the loan deal was for him not play multiple games over a week.  Probably would be a smart thing.

Mikkel Diskerud took on some grand master in chess.  And lost.

On the USMNT friendly front, nearly 30,000 tickets have already been sold for the friendly against Germany in DC.  And the US are looking to play in Europe during the August international window.

Remember when I told you earlier this week that Freddy Adu went to a team who just fired their manager?  I guess Bahia have made 25 (!) managerial changes over the last 10 years.  Yikes.

Here is what Jozy Altidore will wear in home games next year if he ends up staying at AZ Alkmaar.  I like the Alkmaar flag in the V-neck.

J.R. Eskilson got some quotes on 17-year-old goalkeeper Aleks Gogic signing with Reading.  I know a couple people were wondering about the work permit, but it appears that his parents are Polish, which makes things easier.

US U-20 forward Danny Garcia is headed to Mexico to train with Club America.

Another youth product to keep an eye on in Mexico:  Herbert Robinson Garcia.  He is a 17-year-old Mexican-American at Santos Laguna who dressed for the senior team last weekend and is the captain of their U-17 team.

And another youth player who still has a ways to go to before ever playing for the US (a.k.a. he is not a US citizen but did live in the US briefly), but we can dream is Gedion Zelalem.  Zelalem made his debut with Arsenal’s U-21 team over the weekend.

A couple links for Tuesday morning.

Here are some quotes from Stuart Holden about his first game with Sheffield Wednesday from the weekend.  Here is a photo from that game against Barnsley.

As you can see from yesterday’s The OT Report, Joe Gyau played 45 minutes in St. Pauli’s 1-1 draw.  But here was the nice equalizing goal in stoppage time from St. Pauli’s goalie.

Kaiserslautern’s manager Franco Foda can’t wait to have Andrew Wooten back from his loan with Sandhausen for next season.

Brian Sciaretta talked to Gregg Berhalter as he is set to manage his second season with Hammarby.  And here are the kits that Hammarby will wear this season.

Former US US-20 midfielder Alex Molano has signed with Bodens BK in Sweden’s fourth tier.  It is the same club that has American Lester Dewee on the squad.

Stuart Holden is headed to Sheffield Wednesday on loan until April 24.  The 27-year-old midfielder has seen limited playing time with Bolton since slowly returning from his knee injuries (one league appearance and two FA Cup appearances).

This will give him a chance at playing time as Bolton are fighting for a promotion playoff spot, while also giving Holden some big games as Sheffield Wednesday battle relegation in the Championship (currently sitting one spot and one point above the drop zone).  This might also be a chance for Holden to audition for other teams as his contracts ends this summer, although he is in talks with Bolton.

Holden is eligible for this weekend’s game as the Owls host Barnsley on Saturday.

Thoughts on the move?

***UPDATE***

Howie was sad that we lost his John Harkes/Sheffield Wednesday picture from his post so here it is again.

A few things to start your week.

You may have noticed in The OT Report that Clarence Goodson came off the bench for Brøndby IF this weekend.  Goodson has sort of fallen out of the lineup for the club and has voluntarily given up the captain’s armband as well.

I am still looking for highlights of Alejandro Bedoya’s goal from the weekend and this is the best I can do for now.  Someone forgot to zoom in.

Staying in Sweden, Paul Torres and Ryan Gracia helped Nyköping (Swedish third tier) upset Kalmar FF (Allsvenskan) in the Swedish Cup.  Torres assisted on the first goal of these highlights.

The New York Times has a story up on US U-20 head coach Tab Ramos playing in the 1983 FIFA World Youth Championship.

Dual-citizen Maki Tall has been called into the France U-18 camp/team that will be playing the US and Germany this month.

Devann Yao is continuing his trialing ways, now at English League Two side Chesterfield.

Bundesliga Fanatic has an interview up with Michael Parkhurst.

And finally, Bolton manager Dougie Freedman hopes Stuart Holden re-signs with Bolton when his contract ends this summer.