Gabriel Ferrari, best-known for his occasional appearances in the 18 as a teenager for Sampdoria before spending the next few years on loan to the lower divisions of Italy has finally found a new home after his time in Switzerland with FC Wohlen came to an end. The member of the 2007 U-20 World Cup is the newest member of the Chicago Fire.
There should be opportunities for Ferrari to play in Chicago. The oft-injured Calen Carr was recently traded to Houston for another forward, Dominic Oduro, who struggles with finishing. Chicago’s other options at forward include on-loan Israeli teenager Orr Barouch, rookie Davis Paul, and a pair of 25 year-old Uruguayans. It seems like a good spot to turn his career around.
I hope many of you are enjoying your day off from work if you were granted one. Here are some links worth checking out.
Kenny Cooper officially signed with the Portland Timbers today. Portland is building a nice little attack.
Jonathan Bornstein made his debut in Mexico this past weekend. From the sounds of it, he played a holding/defensive midfielder type role rather than his normal left back position.
There are some reports that Sunderland are trying to get Michael Bradley, but it doesn’t make a lot of sense to me on Borussia Moenchengladbach’s end. They would be semi-conceding relegation in my eyes. It makes a lot more sense to keep him, try to stay up and sell him this summer. But what do I know?
Yanks Abroad has a story on a couple of youngsters that will be going on trial together at Czech Republic club Sigma Olomouc. Stefan Jerome is 18 and last played with Miami FC (NASL), while Drew Yates is 22 and played last season with FC Tampa Bay (NASL).
Former US U-20 forward Gabriel Ferrari has been released by Swiss club FC Wohlen. Ferrari scored one goal in four appearances with the Swiss side in the Swiss Challenge League (second division) this season.
The United States was granted the rights to host the CONCACAF qualifying tournament for the 2012 Olympics in London this past weekend. The US hosted this tournament in 2000 and 2008 with Mexico hosting the 2004 tournament. This year’s version will take place in March with the locations to be determined.
According to Steven Goff, ticket sales for this Saturday’s friendly look pretty slow. I will also finally set up the guess the score contest later tonight.
And finally, US Soccer put up another version of Inside the Lines yesterday. You can check out that video below.
Here are some links that I may have missed in the last couple days. Some good reading material before the games start up tomorrow (technically today in some parts of the US right now).
And finally, Match Fit USA decided to do a “18 tickets” type article as they attempted to guess the 2012 Olympic squad in three parts: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3
An ambitious effort on their part. And it is easy to critique on my end considering I didn’t spend a lot of time trying to do this myself. One small nitpick on my end, but if you include Samir Badr in the “in the picture” section for the goalkeepers, I think you have to add Zac MacMath as well. MacMath was on the 2010 Milk Cup title team and got the start over Badr in the final (two clean sheets in the tournament). The University of Maryland keeper is also in England training with Tim Howard at Everton this month.
But that was just one little thing I noticed, a solid job on the “18 tickets” by Match Fit USA.
