Jurgen Klinsmann will announce his roster for the upcoming camp/friendlies/qualifiers on Thursday. He is going to name about 27 players, which is slightly more than usual, due to seven players sitting on yellow cards and late arrivals into camp.
One player who is rumored to be missing from this roster is Landon Donovan. If Landon does not get called in, you would have to think he would be called in with the guys for the Gold Cup.
Speaking of that Gold Cup roster, it looks like they will have their own friendly against Guatemala down in San Diego before the tournament begins on July 9. But US Soccer has not officially announced anything yet.
We told you about the Gold Cup getting a new trophy last week. Well, here it is and it sort of looks like the old trophy.
With all these different USMNT rosters, Brian Sciaretta takes a guess at both rosters.
Jozy Altidore was named to the De Telegraaf Eredivisie Team of the Season. And here are two photos of Jozy holding the Dutch Cup after last week’s victory: Photo 1 & Photo 2.
Carlos Bocanegra is looking forward to returning to Rangers next season, although Bocanegra’s agent tells Greg Seltzer that there is some MLS interest.
There was a Sky Sports story that we posted last week about Bursaspor trying to obtain Maurice Edu from Stoke City on a permanent basis and multiple people are telling Greg Seltzer the same.
If Edu does return to Stoke City next season, he along with Brek Shea and Geoff Cameron will look like they play for the Columbus Crew in away games in their new black-and-yellow kits for 2013-14.
Remember when Freddy Adu’s manager at Bahia was fired a week after he joined the club and there was some crazy stat about the club going through 20-25+ managerial changes over the previous 10 years? Well, Bahia fired another manager.
As expected, Steve Cherundolo will be getting a new one-year extension at Hannover 96.
After being released by Carlisle United, Frank Simek is currently on trial with D.C. United even though he would still need to go through the allocation rankings since he has played for the USMNT before. Yay weird MLS rules!
Even with the broken leg, Will Packwood has agreed to a one-year extension with Birmingham City.
The LA Times has a new story up about Bob Bradley.
Brian Sciaretta talked to Alejandro Bedoya recently about his good start to the season and his big summer ahead.
Mix Diskerud talked to Goal.com this week about his future with the USMNT and his failed move to Portland.
Tijuana defeated Palmeiras 2-1 last night meaning they will advance to the quarterfinals of Copa Libertadores. Edgar Castillo and Joe Corona both got the start in the win and they will now take on Brazilian side Atlético Mineiro.
Alex Kurial of Yanks Abroad has a story up on how Americans Shane Recklet and Jacob Wilson are trying to help Vasas SC back to the top level of soccer in Hungary.
And go take a look at our cool new Sacha/Over There shirt. They will go up for sale next week.
Jozy Altidore got the start and scored what turned out to be the winning goal in the KNVB Beker Final. The goal gives Altidore 31 across all competitions this season. Here is his goal.
Much like last year, it looks like AZ Alkmaar probably won’t release Jozy Altidore for the beginning of the upcoming USMNT camp.
It appears that Michael Bradley does know how to smile between this photo and this video.
Staying in the Bradley family, here is a trailer for the upcoming Bob Bradley/Egypt documentary.
Brek Shea made the travel roster, but did not dress in Stoke City’s 1-1 draw yesterday. I guess Ian Darke talked about it more at halftime, but he also tweeted that they are working on getting him 100% match fit as he finally got over his foot injury. Here is also a story from England where it mentions that Tony Pulis brought Shea to the club with next year in mind.
It is not quite the silly season just yet, but we have our first rumor on a possible Jonathan Spector move to newly promoted Cardiff City.
Honefoss goalkeeper Steve Clark was fined for taunting opponents during the club’s Norwegian Cup match from last week. He was fined 20,000 Norwegian crowns, which the internet tells me is about $3,500 or 1,000 Schrute bucks.
Jon-Paul Pittman was one of 12 players released by Oxford United this week. Pittman scored two goals in 15 appearances in 2012-13.
I posted about Paul Arriola’s move to Tijuana last week and he recently talked to Tom Marshall about making the move.
Finally, both Julian Green and Russell Canouse scored for their teams in German U-19 action and you can view the goals in this U-19 video recap of the weekend (their games are the first two games highlighted in the video). Hell of a strike by Canouse.
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).
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.
I like numbers and so does Greg Seltzer so he unloads some numbers at us about some Americans in Europe. I wish he would give us a full list of the all-time single-season goals list for AZ Alkmaar now that Jozy Altidore is at 30 across all competitions in 2012-13. I might also be working on something about Herculez Gomez which could be up later today or tomorrow.
As Howie posted on Monday, Carlisle United has released Frank Simek.
Mike Grella and Scunthorpe United were officially relegated to League Two this past weekend. Grella is one of six players under contract with the club for the 2013-14 season.
While one player was relegated, DaMarcus Beasley, Michael Orozco Fiscal and Puebla are officially clear of relegation in Mexico.
Rapid Vienna’s fans are not happy about being in third place and let the team and management know about it.
Michael Parkhurst has fallen down the depth chart at Augsburg due to missing time with soreness in his knee and having the flu.
I finally found highlights of a Bahia match from down in Brazil from the weekend, but Freddy Adu remained on the bench the whole game. But Adu has made the gameday roster for Wednesday. Hopefully he sees the field and I can find highlights again.
Brad Friedel thinks Gareth Bale is good at soccer and answers some other questions.
Bruce Arena thinks Mike Magee should at least be considered for the USMNT. Possibly a Gold Cup spot if he continues to lead MLS in goals?
Brian Sciaretta introduces us to Desevio Payne. Payne is a 17-year-old right back currently playing with FC Groningen’s youth team in Holland.
Remember how fun and crazy the end of the Premier League was last year? The end of the League One was also pretty crazy this year. Doncaster (second place) played Brentford (third place) over the weekend and Brentford had a stoppage time PK to win the game and give them automatic promotion to the Championship. . . .then this happened.
Howie’s Pick – Fabian Johnson (TSG Hoffenheim – German Bundesliga)
Fabian Johnson got the start at left midfield and had an assist in Hoffenheim’s 2-1 win over Nurnberg.
Matt’s Pick – Jozy Altidore (AZ Alkmaar – Dutch Eredivisie)
Jozy Altidore continues his tear on Eredivisie with another two goals, bringing his total to 30 across all competitions this season, although his back-heel assist might have been his best effort of the weekend (highlights here).
Jozy Altidore scored twice today in AZ’s 4-0 win over Heerenveen. That gives him 30 across all competitions this season. Here are his goals and his sweet assist.
One last shameless plug for my Inside the Numbers piece on why Clint Dempsey is awesome. I am also happy to report, while still being completely vague, that there will be something new to the site in about a month and it is going to be awesome. I just got an e-mail yesterday from someone who is helping with the project and it looks great. I would tell you more but then I would have to kill you.
Moving on….
It looks like Jozy Altidore’s injury from the weekend is no big deal and he should be good to go come Friday’s game against Heerenveen.
Jozy also talked to Jason Davis about the latest transfer speculation and other things.
Danny Williams has been MIA for Hoffenheim the last couple weeks and I just assumed (incorrectly) that it was due to them getting a new manager and him trying out new things. Actually, Williams has been out with an ankle injury that he picked up while playing with the U-23 team in the Regionalliga earlier this month.
Brian Sciaretta caught up with Ben Spencer to talk about his time so far in Norway with Molde FK.
Tab Ramos has called in 24 players for the latest U-20 camp at the Home Depot Center for this week. He also has some quotes on it right here.
Gwendolyn Oxenham of Pelada fame (go see this movie if you haven’t already) wrote a nice piece for SI.com about pickup games and American players.
And finally, Romania’s stretchers are better than everyone else’s stretchers.
Jozy Altidore got the start, but had to be subbed out after 54 minutes after picking up an injury. His replacement was Aron Johannsson who scored AZ’s lone goal in a 3-1 loss. Here is his goal.
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.
