The USMNT kicks off the Hex on Wednesday against Honduras. The game will be at 4 PM ET on beIN Sport. It is being played in the afternoon since Honduras wants to play in the sun and heat. Apparently Honduras declared Wednesday a national holiday so the country can watch the game.
US Soccer gives us a video tour of Estadio Olimpico in Honduras (the video is from 2009, but it still gives you a look). US Soccer has also posted field-level highlights from the friendly against Canada.
Brent Latham (ESPN Insider) looks at the January transfer moves and their impact with the USMNT.
It doesn’t look like Tim Howard or Brad Guzan will have to look over their shoulder for Mix Diskerud moving up the goalkeeper ranks.
Nothing new to report on the financial situation at Brøndby, but Clarence Goodson played in a friendly for them this weekend.
Eugene Starikov played in a friendly for Rostov this weekend and picked up an assist.
Michael Bradley will have a new manager at Roma since Zdenek Zeman was fired this weekend after their 4-2 loss to Cagliari. Aurelio Andreazzoli is now the interim manager.
Zak Whitbread is making progress, but still not fully back from his calf injury.
Daniel Antunez was spotted in a Chivas USA friendly last week. Antunez last played for Inter Turku in Finland in 2012.
That is it for the links. The USMNT roster should be announced some time this morning as well. One possible surprise name on the roster? Kim Kardashian.
The USMNT are now in Houston gearing up for tomorrow’s friendly against Canada. Canada’s young and inexperienced team lost to Denmark, 4-0, on Saturday.
Jurgen Kinsmann recaps the camp so far in this video. Grant Wahl also informs us that Klinsi has been using a helicopter to travel between his Orange County home and the camp while it was in Carson. If only I had one to avoid the 405 traffic. Also while training at the Home Depot Center, the team hung out with the U-15 team. Pretty cool idea.
Brian Sciaretta spoke to Houston Dynamo forward Will Bruin about the current camp. While Andrew Keh talked to Alejandro Bedoya about being a free agent.
Hann0ver 96 are still unsure of when Steve Cherundolo will return to the field. Cherundolo has missed the last couple games and did return to training last week only to have a set back. But he did train today.
Geoff Cameron missed Stoke City’s game this past weekend, but it sounds like he should be back for tomorrow’s game against Wigan. For those counting at home, the likely starting backline for the US (Cherundolo, Cameron, Bocanegra and Johnson) have all missed at least one game this month due to injury. Hopefully they can get healthy before the Honduras qualifier.
Speaking of Honduras, here is their roster for that qualifier.
Brian Sciaretta also talked to Maurice Edu recently to talk about his start in Turkey.
It looks like Aron Johannsson is making the move from AGF Aarhus to AZ Alkmaar. Maybe Jozy Altidore can convince him to play for the US? That said, I am wondering if this move is about lining up a Jozy replacement since most pundits think he will be making a move to a bigger club this summer.
DC United midfielder Nick DeLeon declined a call-up with Trinidad & Tobago. He is dreaming of a future USMNT call-up.
Eugene Starikov and Rostov defeated some team 17-1 (!) in a friendly this weekend with Starikov scoring two goals.
We have a Jemal Johnson sighting (not to be confused with Jamel Johnson)!
Jeff Carlisle gives us an update on Junior Flores.
And finally, some American named Patrick Otte is on trial at Leeds.
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 looks like the site’s server woke up from its post-turkey nap and is running somewhat faster. That all said, here are a few links from the last week or so.
This report out of Scotland has Celtic manager Neil Lennon wanting to sign Juan Agudelo after impressing during his training stint with the Scottish club. STV Sport also did a 13-minute video interview with Agudelo right here.
Some Danish reports are saying Jurgen Klinnsman will help Michael Parkhurst find a new club come January.
Staying in Mexico, Tijuana (Joe Corona, Edgar Castillo, Greg Garza) are headed to the Liga MX final to face Toluca after defeating Leon 3-2 on aggregate. Both Corona and Castillo started in yesterday’s second-leg victory. By making the final, they also earned a spot in the 2013-14 CONCACAF Champions League.
The Bolton News recently did an interview with Tim Ream. Ream started at defensive midfielder on Saturday in Bolton’s 1-1 draw to Brighton & Hove Albion.
Continuing with the interviews, Brian K. Blickenstaff spent some time with Danny Williams in Germany.
Brian Sciaretta looks at some potential options for the USMNT central defense aside from Geoff Cameron.
Here is a highlight video of Kemi Kings’ Christian Eissele and his 2012 season in Finland, which saw him lead the Kakkonen in goals.
As for some noteworthy performances from the weekend. Fabian Johnson scored for Hoffenheim in their 2-1 loss to Bayer Leverkusen (highlights here). Clint Dempsey assisted on one goal and “hockey” assisted on another in Tottenham’s 3-1 victory over West Ham United (highlights here). And Charlie Davies head-butted a guy (highlights here).
Marc Heider scored his eighth goal of the season in Holstein Kiel’s 3-0 win over Victoria Hamburg in German Regionalliga action. Eugene Starikov is starting to get more playing time in Russia, getting another start for Rostov in their 2-0 win over Mordovia Saransk. And Bobby Wood has fought his way back from injuries to make an appearance off the bench (16 minutes) for 1860 Munich in their 2-2 draw to Union Berlin.
Earlier this week, FC Tom Tomsk manager Valeri Nepomniachi (best known for guiding Roger Milla and Cameroon into the quarterfinals of the 1990 FIFA World Cup) resigned with the Siberians in 14th place in the 16-club Russian Premier League. The defense for Tom Tomsk, 8th in the league last season, has disappeared, with Tom Tomsk having allowed a league-worst 41 goals this season (they allowed just 43 in 30 matches last season). Notably, the Siberians are already ensured of having to play the final third of the epic 2011-12 RPL season in the relegation group.
Tomsk wasted little time in finding a new permanent boss, hiring Sergei Perednya, an assistant from FC Volga Nizhny Novgorod’s, last season’s RPL runners-up. Six matches remain in this stage of the season; following that, the top and lower halves of the tables will split, with all teams playing an additional set of round robins within their respective divisions. Perednya will need to avoid the 5th-place slot in the second half of the season in order to guide his club entirely clear of relegation playoffs.
Perednya, it’s worth noting, is a former Siberian who scored 28 goals for Tomsk from 2000-04. It’s also fun to see that he’ll need to obtain his appropriate UEFA coaching license (this always kills me for some reason).
