Grantland.com is going to do a series of posts on the future of US Soccer and here is the first one on US Soccer’s efforts to centralize the development of youth talent.
Here are some field-level highlights of the USMNT’s 1-1 draw to Guatemala from earlier this month.
SJK defeated HIFK, 4-0, in Finland yesterday. Both Justin Moose (SJK) and Kyle Luetkehans (HIFK) came off the bench and played the last 20 minutes of the game.
UEFA drew the first two qualifying rounds of both the Champions League and Europa League earlier this week. Greg Seltzer has the breakdown for those teams with Americans on them.
And finally, Mikkel Diskerud is still awaiting a purchase option decision from Gent, but in the event he does get bought by Gent, here are their home and away kits for next season.
American-Australian goalkeeper Caleb Patterson-Sewell has signed a deal with Portuguese side Vitoria Setubal this week. Patterson-Sewell is coming off a season where he started 29 games for Atletico CP (notching 12 clean sheets) as he helped them survive relegation from the Liga de Honra (Portugual’s second division).
Vitoria Setubal finished in 11th place out of 16 teams in this past season’s Primeira Liga and was the home to Alex Zahavi in 2011-12 (on loan from Maccabi Haifa).
With the signing, there will be three Americans in Portugal’s top-flight division in 2012-13 with Oguchi Onyewu at Sporting CP, Tony Taylor at newly promoted Estoril and now Patterson-Sewell at Vitoria Setubal.
Still no USMNT/U-23 highlights from the second scrimmage, as I post this late at night, but there are some photos here and here.
I tweeted this last night, but Grant Wahl was on some radio show/podcast in the UK talking about Tim Ream and Edson Buddle. You can listen to it here.
Speaking of Edson Buddle, Phil Neville had the tweet of the day regarding the American invasion of Everton.
We’ve got howard donavon hannaman buddle at training today thought I’d joined an MLS team for a minute #yankseverywere
According to Ives, Tim Ream’s work permit hearing should be next week. With Alejandro Bedoya and now Robbie Rogers able to get one this year, you would think that Ream should be able to get his.
Also coming from Ives today is that Gale Agbossoumonde turned down a move to the MLS this week in order to see out his final year of his deal with Traffic Sports. Since his loan deal with Eintracht Frankfurt is now over, he is expected to play with the Carolina Railhawks of the NASL this upcoming season with an eye to move to Europe once he becomes a free agent.
Staying with the Traffic Sports theme, I missed that Tony Taylor’s loan deal with Atletico CP is now over and he is already back with the Traffic Sports-affiliated Estoril, logging 30 minutes off the bench on January 8, although did not dress in their next game this past weekend due to the U-23 camp.
As for Taylor’s now former teammate at Atletico CP, goalkeeper Caleb Patterson-Sewell, it looks like the New York Red Bulls are wondering about his availability.
As for another goalkeeper, Josh Wicks, reports out of Finland have some mystery European team contacting IFK Mariehamn about his services.
Continuing with the Google translate fun, this article from Germany has Hoffenheim manager Holger Stanislawski saying some nice things about Joe Gyau.
And finally, some tweets from Brian Sciaretta with some interesting tidbits. First off, UMass midfielder Jason Villagomez is on trial with LKS Lodz in Poland. And U-20 players Juan Ocegueda and Uvaldo Luna will be participating in a camp with Mexico’s U-20 team one week after participating in the US U-20 camp this month.
Finally made it to my parents after a day at the airport. Now they are asleep and I am stuck on West Coast time, although it allowed me to catch up on all the news and notes from the day.
Howie just posted about Brian Span heading to Sweden. With the MLS SuperDraft coming up, it is that time of year where a bunch of newer guys will start to pop up in smaller leagues across Europe.
A few guys saw the field on Tuesday. Zak Whitbread went the full 90 minutes in Norwich City’s 2-2 draw to Wolves. It is nice to see him logging these minutes again. In the DFB Pokal, Timothy Chandler went the full 90 minutes in Nurnberg’s 1-0 loss to Greuther Fürth. And Fabian Johnson (90 minutes) and Danny Williams (seven minutes) both played in Hoffenheim’s 2-1 victory over Augsburg.
Amobi Okugo recently told Brent Latham that his training stint at Freiburg could turn out to be something more than just a training stint.
SI’s Steve Davis spoke to Jurgen Klinsmann about Klinsi’s desire for the US players to train year round.
One of those players following that plan is Landon Donovan. Mark Lawrenson of the Liverpool Daily Post gives his thoughts on the move. And Everton manager David Moyes spoke to MLSsoccer.com about Donovan.
Some of you might have already saw Tony Taylor’s goal from this past weekend. Now here is your chance to meet his teammate and Atletico CP’s starting goalkeeper Caleb Patterson-Sewell.
Now for some fun rumorville time with the January transfer window quickly approaching us. First up is Robbie Rogers to Leeds, while the second name of the day is Eddie Johnson to Puebla.
Caleb Patterson-Sewell and Tony Taylor both got the start in a 3-1 loss to Desportivo Aves with Tony Taylor scoring the lone goal for Atletico CP. Here are the highlights.
* While it was reported earlier this week that Stuart Holden played another game with Bolton’s reserve squad, here are some more quotes by Holden in the Bolton News.
* On-loan defender Gale Agbossoumonde came off the bench and played 13 minutes in a recent test match for Eintracht Frankfurt.
* It looks like Bob Bradley is Egypt’s top choice for their head coaching job as they wait for an answer from him.
* According to an interview with Ridge Mahoney, Carlos Bocanegra was named captain by Saint-Etienne before his transfer to Rangers, which surprised the French club.
* Nick Leyden has an interview up at Yanks Abroad with American-Australian goalkeeper Caleb Patterson-Sewell. The 24-year-old keeper made the move this summer to Atlético CP, the same club that Tony Taylor is currently on loan with.
* Terrence Boyd has scored six goals so far for Borussia Dortmund II this season. For those scoring at home, that is tied for the most in the Regionalliga West with Schalke II’s Andreas Wiegel.
* Brian Sciaretta gives us his progress report of the USMNT so far in the Jurgern Klinsmann era. I do agree with him that we, as fans, shouldn’t care as much about results at this point as Klinsmann is still feeling his way through the player pool. Now, if the US starts losing/drawing a bunch during the beginning of next summer’s qualifying, then maybe we should start to worry.
