Want a podcast to pass the time today?  Jurgen Klinsmann spoke to the Mens in Blazers this week.

CONCACAF has made some changes to the Gold Cup regarding the rosters and tiebreakers.

Jason Davis has some words on Herculez Gomez over at ESPNFC.com.  It is pretty crazy that all nine of Gomez’s CCL goals have come against MLS teams.

Doug McIntyre wonders (ESPN Insider) if Steve Cherundolo’s USMNT future is murky.

The USMNT has had some width issues under Klinsmann so Matt Wagner writes about possibly moving Timothy Chandler and Fabian Johnson up to midfield.

Brian Sciaretta caught up with Juan Ocegueda this week to talk about the U-20 World Cup draw.

Continuing with the theme of English teams searching far and wide for American goalkeepers, Reading is signing US U-17 goalkeeper Aleks Gogic.

Enjoy the weekend.

Lets start off with some site-related issues.  You may have noticed that the site has been loading really slowly over the last 24 hours and has its moments like this every so often.  I am currently in talks with the hosting company on trying to fix these issues.

As for the next issue, I know some of you who check out the site on their cell phone will sometimes have some “pay day loans” ad scroll across the site making it tough to read.  This site is not supposed to have ads so something is secretly embedding the ads and I am still working on getting this fixed as well.

As for a minor change that is sort of “fun”.  The comments now give you some Spacer Invader-like icon next to your name instead of the silhouette of the head when you post if you don’t have your own gravatar.

And finally, we are looking for a graphic designer for help with a project that could be really cool if we can pull it off.  What we need help with is outside my level of expertise with photoshop.  Please use the contact page to e-mail us if you are interested.

Now lets get to the links.

Our goal tracker was busy yesterday with Bobby Wood, DaMarcus Beasley and Herculez Gomez all scoring goals.  Also in action on Wednesday was Clarence Goodson in Brøndby’s 1-1 draw in the Danish Cup.

Mexico released its roster for the upcoming qualifiers.  And Jon Arnold gave ASN a quick rundown of Costa Rica’s roster.

Brian Sciaretta took a guess at the names that will appear on the US roster.  While Neil Blackmon takes a look at the US midfield.

If you missed it yesterday, the Gold Cup groups and schedule were released.  And this has sort of been rumored in the past already, but it looks like the June 18th qualifier against Honduras will be in Utah at Rio Tinto.

The always good for a couple of laughs Jimmy Conrad did a video interview with Jozy Altidore.

Brian Sciaretta caught up with Terrence Boyd to talk about his progress at Rapid Vienna and where he stands in the USMNT picture.

It now appears that Juan Ocegueda will not be able to play for Chivas Guadalajara and he can’t be sent to Chivas USA since he would have to enter a MLS lottery so he is in limbo land.

And finally, Anthony Brooks might miss this weekend’s game due to a cold (or thanks to Google Translate, he is just really cold).  And Brooks was called into Germany’s U-20 camp, although some say the U-20 team is not that serious compared to the U-21 team (the U-21 Euros are this summer) in Germany, so this could be a good thing for his US hopes.

Jurgen Klinsmann took over US Soccer’s twitter account yesterday and while he didn’t answer any of Howie’s questions, he did give us some good news on Clint Dempsey, Fabian Johnson and Steve Cherundolo.

Spoke with Clint. Back in training & hopes to play v Inter. All good for WCQs RT: ‏@mrhoffman02 When will we know if Dempsey is able to play

— U.S. Soccer (@ussoccer) March 11, 2013

Yes. He should be good to join us in Denver. RT @chieffif Heard that Fabian Johnson is returning to training. Option for the next 2 games?

— U.S. Soccer (@ussoccer) March 11, 2013

Happy he is back in training. Hopefully he can catch up as soon as possible. @elchosenjuan94how is cherundolo doing? #AskJK

— U.S. Soccer (@ussoccer) March 11, 2013

And while it has been mentioned before, Bruce Arena gave an update on Landon Donovan and he should return to the Galaxy the last week in March.

Costa Rica released their roster for the qualifiers.  Good news for USMNT fans, and most Red Bulls fans can confirm this, Roy Miller made their roster.  Also, I just noticed tonight that the US is winless in its last five games (3L, 2D) against Costa Rica and haven’t won a game since a qualifier in 2005.

The US U-20 team will be playing in the Toulon Tournament in late May/early June.

One of those players, Juan Ocegueda, is still going to play for Chivas Guadalajara despite playing for the US.  Chivas have a policy of “Mexican only” players, but they are apparently going to look the other way with Ocegueda.

It looks like Villyan Bijev finally got his work permit and made Liverpool’s U-21 bench this past weekend.

Conor O’Brien got the start and went he full 90 minutes in Nordsjaelland’s 1-1 draw to FC Midtjylland yesterday.

I haven’t heard Charles Renken’s name since he returned to the US last year, but he and fellow American Aubrey Perry are in Sweden on trial at Umeå FC at the moment.

And finally, Etchu Tabe has returned to Finland with KuPS again.

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.

Links!

Brek Shea played well in a recent closed-door scrimmage for Stoke City against Scunthorpe United and could possibly make the gameday roster this weekend when the Potters travel to London to play Fulham.

The US-Costa Rica qualifier in Denver is officially a sellout.

Peter Hirdt gives us our Landon Donovan/Jozy Altidore stat of the day:

Yep, Altidore has scored 11 of his 13 international goals w/ Donovan on the field (2 goals in 1300+ min w/out LD)

Some guys in action on Tuesday.  Jonathan Spector went the full 90 minutes in Birmingham City’s 0-0 draw to Sheffield Wednesday.  Stuart Holden was an unused sub in Bolton’s 1-1 draw to Derby County.

As for last night, Ventura Alvarado, a 20-year-old Mexican-American, scored his first professional goal in Club America’s 3-1 win over Necaxa (highlights here).  If you don’t know much on Alvarado, Brian Sciaretta interviewed him back in August.  And Joe Corona and Edgar Castillo both started with Castillo help setting up the lone goal of the game as Tijuana defeated Colombian champions Millonarios in Tijuana’s Copa Libertadores debut (highlights here).

There is some internet speculation (so it must be true!) that Jurgen Klinsmann contacted Rogelio Funes Mori and Michael Hoyos about a possible USMNT call-up.  That said, some people don’t think Funes Mori is a US citizen, while Hoyos has not been the same since a car accident in 2011.

Staying with the car accident theme, Ravi Ubha of ESPN FC has an interview up with Charlie Davies.

Marc Pelosi had successful surgery on his broke leg on Monday.  If you want to see the harsh tackle that caused it, here you go (around the 9:25 mark).

There is still no word on whether Juan Ocegueda will play for Chivas Guadalajara or Chivas USA once he returns from U-20 duty.

U-20 midfielder Matthew Dunn is currently on trial with the Colorado Rapids.  Dunn has been with OFK Beograde in Serbia.

And finally, Ben Spencer started for Molde FK yesterday in a friendly against Kristiansund.

The US looks to qualify for the U-20 World Cup for the first time since 2009 (and end a two-tournament elimination streak for all youth events) in Puebla, Mexico, February 18-March 3.

The US roster features its usual mix of full professionals, college players, and youth players:

GOALKEEPERS (3): Cody Cropper (Southampton FC; Maple Grove, Minn.), Kendall McIntosh (Santa Clara; Santa Rosa, Calif.), Zackary Steffen (FC DELCO Academy; Downington, Pa.)

DEFENDERS (5): Eric Miller (Creighton; Woodbury, Minn.), Juan Pablo Ocegueda (C.D. Guadalajara; Riverside, Calif.), Boyd Okwuonu (North Carolina; Edmund, Okla.), Shane O’Neill (Colorado Rapids; Boulder, Colo.), Javan Torre (UCLA; Santa Monica, Calif.)

MIDFIELDERS (5): Luis Gil (Real Salt Lake; Garden Grove, Calif.), Benji Joya (Santos Laguna; San Jose, Calif.), Mikey Lopez (Sporting Kansas City; Mission, Texas), Caleb Stanko (SC Freiburg; Holly, Mich.), Wil Trapp (Columbus Crew; Gahanna, Ohio)

FORWARDS (5): Brandon Allen (Georgetown; Old Bridge, N.J.), Daniel Cuevas (Santos Laguna; Sacramento, Calif.), Daniel Garcia (North Carolina; Dallas, Texas), Mario Rodriguez (1. FC Kaiserslautern; North Hollywood, Calif.) Jose Villarreal (LA Galaxy; Inglewood, Calif.)

It is interesting to see Juan Ocegueda in the squad. He has publicly stated his committment to the US program, but he is on the books for Guadalajara right now.

I have an Inside the Numbers piece on Clint Dempsey and Jozy Altidore which should be on the site later tonight or early tomorrow.

Speaking of Dempsey, he talked to the London Evening Standard about his good run of form.

So Friday got a little crazy with the Brek Shea news.  Big D Soccer does a good job of breaking down what we know so far.  And there was a Shea sighting at FC Dallas training today.  Sounds like he was running around a little.

Landon Donovan will be returning to the LA Galaxy in 2013.  I am assuming this means we will see him in a USMNT jersey in the future.

As of last Thursday, only 8500 tickets have been sold in Houston for the upcoming friendly against Canada.

The US U-20 team lost to Panama, 2-1, in a friendly today.

After traveling to Turkey to check things out, Clarence Goodson has decided to turn down a move to Orduspor.

As rumored, former Halmstads BK defender Ryan Miller signed with the Portland Timbers.

You can add Birmingham City to the list of teams having financial issues.  They are open to any offer on any of their first-team players.  Will this mean anything to Jonathan Spector (likely not Will Packwood)?

In the good news department, Timothy Chandler did not suffer a concussion this weekend and will return to training on Tuesday.

Tim Ream got some love in the Bolton News about his play this past weekend.

US U-20 regular Juan Ocegueda is headed to Chivas de Guadalajara on loan.  People are wondering if this will affect his ability to play with the US since Chivas released a statement last November saying that their players could not play for foreign national teams.

I am sort of sad to see this move, but Aaron Wheeler signed with the Philadelphia Union.  I am sad since I won’t be able to mention his old team, Finnish side KooTeePee, anymore.

J.R. Eskilson is hearing that Chivas USA youth academy product Ben Spencer will be joining Molde FK during their preseason trip to Spain.

Columbus Crew forward Aaron Horton has been loaned to Bosnia’s FK Sarajevo.

First off, congrats to Bryan Gerzicich and Kiryat Shmona for winning the Israeli Premier League title today with a 0-0 draw to Hapoel Tel Aviv.  With the win, they earned a spot in next year’s Champions League qualifiers.   This was also Kiryat Shmona’s first time winning the Israeli Premier League, and as the SI.com article mentions, only the second time in more than two decades that someone outside Israel’s “Big Four” (Maccabi Haifa, Maccabi Tel Aviv, Hapoel Tel Aviv and Beitar Jerusalem) won the title.

Conor O’Brien and SønderjyskE also played today in some Danish Superliga action.  O’Brien got the start and played 86 minutes in a 3-1 victory over AGF Aarhus.

Tab Ramos has called in 24 players for April’s U-20 camp, which will be held in Portland.  The bigger names include Luis Gil, Will Packwood and Juan Pablo Ocegueda.

One U-20 player not called into the camp, likely since he is just returning from injury, is goalkeeper Cody Cropper.  Cropper played in only his second game back from injury this past weekend with Ipswich Town’s U-18 team.

The US U-17 team is also playing this month in the 40th Mondial Minimes Tournament in France.  You can check out the roster for that here.

Finally, Jordan Seabrook was bouncing around Finland on various trials over the last couple months, but it looks like he has found a home with Enköpings SK in Sweden’s third tier.

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.

Billy Schuler talked to the Independent Weekly about choosing to play in Sweden over the MLS.

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.