October 12, 2007
For all my loyal readers out there, here is a soccer news round up to end all soccer news round ups....
- The Rhinos announced that Nate Craft (2 yr deal) and Kevin Burns (1 yr deal) will be back in 2008. That means that over a dozen player will return from this year's squad. Will that help quell the cries of "We can't put names to numbers anymore!" from some fans? I doubt it.
- Hope Solo may be on the US roster for the upcoming friendlies versus Mexico, but she missed practice today. Coach Greg Ryan says it was excused, but it will be interesting to see how this whole things plays out. Lori Chalupny hopes that Solo learned her lesson. Andrea Canales writes that the team hope to rebound. And I'm hoping that either Greg Ryan learned his lesson (don't yank your starting goalkeeper ahead of a big match) or that he gets bounced from his spot on the US bench.
- SJ Earthquakes GM John Doyle speaks and there are rumors of his team's new home (Hint: it has fewer seats than PAETEC Park).
- Speaking of new homes, DC United's brass stopped by the Washington Post and wrote a letter in attempts to get some traction going towards getting a new stadium built in DC. And in the time honored tradition of MLS scare tactics to get stadium deals moved along, they are throwing stories out about looking outside DC at potential new homes.
- And speaking of expansion, there are more stories about Seattle and Paul Allen and St. Louis. St. Louis could be Toronto all over again. Whereas Seattle scares me only because of the plan to stay at Qwest Field.
- Jeff Carlisle talks about the future of the DP rule and Ives Galarcep talks about the worst trades in MLS this season. Combine the two articles and I wonder which is the worse move: Chivas giving up their DP slot for Guevara or the Red Bulls using a DP slot on Claudio Reyna? NY has gotten 17 more games and 3 more assists out of Reyna than Chivas USA got out of Guevara. But, Chivas USA doesn't have Guevara's contract to worry about any longer as opposed to the Red Bulls and Reyna.
- Speaking of Chivas USA and the Red Bulls, Ante Razov got injured last night and the Red Bulls defense is still a mess. I wonder if Palguta or Bertz could get loaned to NY for more than merely a reserve league match?
- From across the pond, Johann Smith gets loaned to a Division Two club and Clint Dempsey has again been named Fulham's Player of the Month. Talk about career paths in opposite trajectories. I wonder when Smith lands in MLS at this rate.
- Speaking of career paths, ABC News has a piece on Jozy Altidore. I really wonder how long it is until Jozy follows fellow U-20 teammates like Adu and Szetela and he leaves MLS for Europe?
- And finally, Soccer Sam must be in heaven now that the MISL has signed a TV deal with the Fox Sports errrrrrrrr Soccer Channel.
I'll talk at you tomorrow when Laurie Calloway is a guest on Kick This!
The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author, and not necessarily those of the Rochester Rhinos or SoccerSam.com. Feel free to send any comments or complaints to news@soccersam.com. James promises to read (but not to respond) to all of them.
