Lets dive right into it.

The USMNT roster came out yesterday.  Franco Panizo got some quotes from Jurgen Klinsmann as he discusses the roster.

Speaking of Klinsmann, Roger Bennett looks at the various manager who have influenced Klinsmann throughout his career.

You want some previews for Wednesday’s game?  The Total Soccer Show breaks down the Canada friendly, while also previewing Wednesday’s game.  Leander Schaerlaeckens previews the final phase of qualifying.  And Jon Levy gives us his preview of Wednesday’s game.

I posted the US Soccer tour video of Estadio Olimpico from 2009 yesterday, but I was just reminded tonight that the US Soccer/Gatorade commercial from 2006 features the ceiling tiles shaking from that stadium.  Good times.

Will Parchman is doing a three-part feature on the US’ failed qualification run for the 1986 World Cup and here is Part 1.

Brian Sciaretta has an article up on Timothy Chandler.  And here is photo of a U-16 Chandler from the 2006 Dallas Cup.

David Keyes did a really interesting interview recently with Pachuca’s head of scouting Marco Garcés.  They talk about how Pachuca scouts the various Mexican-American players currently living in the US.

Stuart Holden’s younger brother, Euan, has signed a “non contract terms” deal with English League One side Bury.  Euan last played for Stockport County in the Conference National.

And finally, remember when Roma played Orlando City over the winter break?  I guess I missed his name in the match report, but Christian Eissele played in that game.  Here is Jon Arnold’s interview with Eissele from back in November.

***UPDATE***

Jon just let me know that he talked to Christian last month about that friendly and this is what he had to say.

“The opportunity was great and it was awesome to be able to see that kind of level first-hand. That will definitely benefit me in the future.”

That is a Fiesta Bowl reference.

Brian Sciaretta caught up with Sacha Kljestan to talk about about his rise in status at both the club and country level.  And Daniel Renders gives Sciaretta a cool stat about Anderlecht’s record with/without Kljestan.  And this has prompted me to start up on an Inside the Numbers piece, which will hopefully be up in the morning.

Kljestian has 18 months left on his contract, but there are on-going talks over a new deal/extension.

Julian De Martinis of ESPN writes about Michael Bradley’s first six months at Roma.

Noah Davis gives us 20 wishes for the USMNT in 2013.

The USMNT January/Camp Cupcake will now begin on January 7, not January 14.  And expect the roster to be announced on Sunday, with the possibility of one small surprise.

Euan Holden has parted ways with Stockport County.  Holden appeared in only one league game in 2012-13 after playing in 33 games last season.

Tim Ream and Bolton are trying to find out why they can’t win two games in a row.

I hope Brian Sciaretta has PennyTalk as after he was talking to Sacha Kljestan, he got an interview with Eugene Starikov in Russia.  Maybe Sciaretta can teach me how to take a penalty kick…..

The always seemingly injured Zak Whitbread is out with a calf injury.

Robbie Rogers hasn’t played much as of late with Stevenage, but his loan ends on January 15.

Julian Green was nominated for some type of Sportsman of the Year award.

It is looking more and more like FC Dallas’ George John will be headed to Blackburn.  Since he is a Greek citizen, he just needs a Greek passport to be registered as a EU player and avoid the whole “he needs to have played in x% of USMNT games over the last two years” rule to get a work permit.

While he did appear in Europa League last week for Rangers, Carlos Bocanegra (and Alejandro Bedoya) did not play this past weekend in Rangers’ Scottish Premier League game since he hadn’t received his work visa yet . . . until today.

Mikkel Diskerud did an interview with some local Norwegian press where he talks about hoping Jurgen Klinsmann calls him in at some point and moving to a more central midfield role with Stabæk.

Speaking of Klinsi, Matthew from The Shin Guardian takes a stab at the USMNT roster for the upcoming friendlies.

And finally, it is not often we have highlights from the English Conference National (the fifth tier of English soccer), but here is Euan Holden’s goal for Stockport County against Kettering Town from last week.

If you have been living under a rock in the last 24 hours, Bob Bradley got fired and US Soccer hired Jürgen Klinsmann today.  A full press conference will be held on Monday.

People are starting to write up their thoughts on the hire, but I will let Grant Wahl tackle this one.  And here is video of Alexi Lalas on today’s SportsCenter to talk about the hire.

As for my quick thoughts.  I have never been overly impressed by Klinsmann when compared to the rave reviews by the vocal anti-Bob Bradley crowd in recent years (not to say I don’t think he could be a good coach).  With that said, my biggest fear when they re-hired Bob was that the program would become a little stale.  Over the last year it looks like things may have been getting stale, so US Soccer probably needed a shot in the arm and this hire does do exactly that.  I am eager to see what happens over the next couple months.  No matter what, I want US Soccer to become better.

Goal.com has an interview with Alejandro Bedoya where he talks about Bob’s firing as well as his current situation with Örebro SK/Rangers.

Media reports suggested that Bradley lost the locker room during the Gold Cup. Is that true?

No, I don’t think so. As everyone knows, he is a very serious and disciplined kind of guy. Rumors are rumors. In general, I thought he did a good job of keeping the team settled.

After trialing with many different teams over the last year, Euan Holden has found a new home with English Conference National side Stockport County.  They were relegated from League Two last season.

The US ended its 2011 Milk Cup with a 2-1 win over Georgia (the country, not the state) to claim third place.  The US goals were scored by Jordan McCrary and Jerome Kiesewetter.

Reports out of Germany have Gale Agbossoumonde going on trial with German Bundesliga club FC Cologne.  His current loan deal with Djurgården ends this weekend.

I am headed to Chicago on Sunday for the next week and don’t know my internet situation, but I should be around somewhat next week (internet was functioning at my sister’s place earlier this summer when I visited).  Have a good weekend.

It’s been a big year for Stuart Holden. Even with the Bolton midfielder out for several months due to a rough tackle by Manchester United’s Johnny Evans, he made an all-league team by Zonal Marking’s Michael Cox. It’s been a less successful year for this younger brother Euan, who after being let go by Danish 1st Divison (2nd division in actuality) side Vejle bounced around on trials throughout the United Kingdom, spending time with Oldham Athletic, Derby County, St. Mirren, and Crewe Alexandria. His search for a club has ended not too far from where it started: in the 2nd division of Denmark.

Via Yanks Abroad:

“FC Hjørring has signed a contract until the summer with Euan Holden, who has been on trial with the team for the last week,” the team announced through their website.

“Euan Holden [...] is a very versatile player who can play both left back and central defense. He has been a nice addition to the training, and we want our squad to be as strong as possible for the last push of the season. ”

Hjørring just made the jump up to the second level of Danish soccer after last season for the first time in team history, and is currently locked in a battle for their survival in the division.

They are currently three points out of the drop zone with a game in hand over most of the teams behind them, however as there is still nearly one-third of the season left to play, their status is anything but confirmed.

It is expected that the 23 year-old defender will immediately contribute to the team, possibly as early as their Thursday-afternoon visit to similarly struggling Hobro IK.

“Hopefully when we get all the papers ready, Euan can be included in the squad tomorrow for the match against Hobro,” the announcement concluded.

It sounds as if Holden the Younger will get a chance to make a difference right away with Hjørring fighting to stay out of the relegation zone. He also restores the token American quota in the Danish second division back to 1 following Benny Feilhaber’s move to the New England Revolution. Plus, if you look at the bolded phrase (emphasis added) you’ll realize that we have found Candidate #818725 in our pursuit of First Great American Leftback.

A bunch of little updates on a few of the younger Americans overseas.

Brian Sciaretta over at Yanks Abroad talks to Adrian Reulas about his time in Scotland so far.  While there has been some confusion on his deal with Celtic, it looks like he is going to train with the first team until January then Celtic/Santos Laguna will decide his future (transfer?  loan deal?  head back to Mexico?).

While he talks about adapting to the increased level of speed and play in Scotland, he also shoots down some rumors about him switching to Mexico over the US.

“I am not expecting them to call me,” he continued. “All this has been going on but I have felt really comfortable with the US. They treat me really well and my head is just on making the team for Colombia. I think I’ve done well and [Coach Rongen] likes me. I am really looking forward to the upcoming camps.”

While Ruelas said that he is not expecting to hear from Mexico, he also said that he would not change even if they did contact him.

“You’d have to think about it but yes, I would say that I will stick with US,” Ruelas added. “The last three camps have been really positive. I’ve really liked it and I would have to say I will stay with the US.”

It looks like Ruelas will re-join the US U-20 team at an upcoming camp in December.

As for a former US U-20 player, Jared Jeffrey is currently hurt with a hip injury.  Jeffrey has trained a lot with Mainz’s first team, but has appeared in five games for the reserve team, Mainz II, in the fourth tier of the German soccer system (Regionalliga).  He played in 14 games last season for Mainz II, scoring one goal.

Jeffrey last played on October 1 in a 3-2 loss to Borussia Dortmund II, but is expected to return to training in the near future.

And a 2-for-1 in this article.  It is a game recap from a recent reserve match between Derby County and Sheffield Wednesday where American Conor Doyle scored for Derby.  While reading through it, I also noticed that Euan Holden is now on trial at Derby County.

Defender Mitch Hanson, on the way back from a serious knee injury, came in for triallist Euan Holden, while winger David Martin was replaced by second year Academy scholar Aaron Cole.

Euan was last seen on trial at Crewe Alexandra in September.

Owen Coyle and Bolton really love Stuart Holden as they extended his contract through the 2012-13 season.  Holden has been a regular in Bolton’s lineup this season and according to Opta Sports, he leads all Premier League players this season with 31 successful tackles.

As for news with his brother, we mentioned the other day that Euan Holden had gone on trial with Crewe Alexandra.  Holden played 90 minutes in a reserve team victory over Shrewsbury Town on Wednesday.

Trialist Euan Holden played the full 90 minutes at Shrewsbury yesterday.

The 22-year-old defender is a free agent after his contract with Danish side Vejle BK was cancelled earlier this year.

“We put him in at left-back and he did OK,” said Davis.

“We’re not sure how long he’ll spend here, but we’re always looking at options.”

And finally, Omar Salgado was going over to Everton to train for a while, but now this training session has turned into a two-week trial.  Salgado was forced to leave Chivas in Mexico once he selected to play for the US and looks to be one of the top picks in next year’s MLS SuperDraft.

Thanks to an OT reader for bringing this to my attention, but the 22-year-old left back is headed to Crewe Alexandra to go on trial.

Meanwhile, Crewe have taken Scottish-American left-back Euan Holden on trial.

The 22-year-old was born in Aberdeen but spent much of his youth in the United States and is the brother of Bolton’s American international midfielder Stuart Holden.

He has been playing in Denmark, but will feature in a reserve game against Shrewsbury on Wednesday.

GD Estoril snatched up another U-20 player with the signing of Greg Garza to a two-year deal.  The young left back had spent a couple seasons with Sporting Lisbon’s youth ranks, but he will join fellow Americans Tony Taylor and Bryan Arguez at Estoril (a Traffic Sports operated team).

Stuart Holden’s younger brother, Euan Holden, was passed over at St. Mirren of the Scottish Premier League after completing a trial.  Euan played at Vejle BK in the Danish second division last season before parting ways.

And finally, Yanks Abroad has a nice interview with U-20 goalkeeper Zac MacMath on his recent training stint with Tim Howard and Everton.  MacMath is currently at the University of Maryland and will probably be looking to go pro after his upcoming  junior season.

The Daily Record is reporting that Euan Holden would consider playing for Scotland’s national team if given the call.  Holden, much like his older brother Stuart, was born in Scotland, but grew up in the United States for most of his life.

Euan was drafted by the Houston Dynamo in this year’s MLS Draft, but opted to sign with Danish First Division side Vejle Boldklub.

While the younger Holden probably has ways to go before playing for any national team, it looks like it would come down to whatever country calls him first.

Holden added: “It’s a decision I’ll have to make if the US or Scotland knocks on my door first. I’m hoping I’ll play well enough to have that choice in the future.

“It wouldn’t bother me playing for a different country to my brother. No one from Scotland ever approached him and no one can blame him for taking the opportunity.”