• Martin Vasquez, whom I LOVED as a player and who helped the United States get its only point ever on Mexican soil (despite having been a former member of Mexican national youth teams) in 1997 has been tipped by Jurgen Klinsmann to join him on the staff for Bayern Munich. Vasquez coached with the LA Galaxy and then moved to Chivas USA when his former Head Coach with the Tampa Bay Mutiny, Thomas Rongen was the inaugural coach for the goats LA team. Vasquez’s appointment at Bayern is a major breakthrough for American coaches and I join the rest of the stateside soccer community in wishing him the best in his endeavorer in Germany. Vasquez by the way played on a tough Tampa Bay backline that included Frank Yallop, Cle Kooiman and Dominic Kinnear (Kinnear could play both d-mid and right back). Talk about superb backline for the early days of MLS!
  • Andrew Jacobson’s decision to sign with Lorient in the French League after being drafted by DC United is another testimony as to the insulting pay scale MLS has for young American players and how backwards the emphasis on development is in Major League Soccer.
  • Danny Szetela has moved to Brescia in Serie B on loan. He becomes the second member of the US U-20 team from last summer to currently play their club football in Italy. Gabe Ferrari who is nearing a first team breakthrough for Sampadoria is the other.
  • Sky Sports has confirmed that Tony Caig has moved from Gretna to the Houston Dynamo. Caig will backup Pat Onstad and probably never get a game until Onstad retires. Caig is used to it- he dressed and was in the squad several times in his Newcastle days but never once got a first team game thanks to Shay Given. Caig then left Newcastle in the summer of 2006 and early in the 2006-2007 season Given gets hurt. Talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time!
  • I’m working on a story comparing the development of Jonathan Spector and Michael Bradley, two players who grew up together but took differing paths recently, with one going to England and the other going to Holland.