October 11, 2007
The roster is out for the US Women's National Team's three game mini-tour versus Mexico and Hope Solo is one of the three goalkeepers included in the list.
The real grist for the conspiracy theorists is the fact that there are no quotes from Head Coach Greg Ryan. When US Soccer usually releases a roster like this (Example: USMNT roster announcement for Swiss friendly) the coach has a quote or two about the players they have selected.
Perhaps it's just because the roster is essentially just the World Cup roster, but you would think that given the firestorm surrounding Solo-gate, that there would have been something from Greg Ryan on the decision to include Hope on the roster for these three matches.
Speaking of the US-Switzerland friendly
Ives Galarcep gives a little background on a couple of the "Who's that?" names on the US roster for next Wednesday's friendly versus the Swiss.
Given that both Tally Hall and Steve Purdy are on the radar screen for next year's Olympic squad, you can guess that Peter Nowak had some influence in the selection of the two European based 22 year olds.
One of the best giveaways ever
The first 5000 fans that show up for tonight's Chivas USA-FC Dallas match at Pizza Hut Park will receive a Juan Toja wig.
That is brilliant.
And the video of Toja's FC Dallas teammates donning the wigs at a recent practice is awesome.
It's too bad that Josh Bolton was never a big enough star to make Josh Bolton Wig Night a huge promotion for the Rhinos.
Some more one touch news notes:
- The rumor mill is saying that the rumors of Seattle to MLS may not mean the death of the Portland to MLS talk. If the USL 1st Division loses both Seattle and Portland, that would be a huge blow to the future of the USL's top league.
- Grant Wahl of SI.com has a great piece on Michael Bradley. The people that continue to scream nepotism have no clue, IMO.
- Could Cobi Jones and Chris Armas back away from retirement talk? Personally, I hope so as both guys still have some game left.
- Could there be one silver lining to Beckham's knee injury? It sure seems like it after the Galaxy's schedule is getting eased after having to reschedule some money grab friendlies in USL markets.
- Luis Bueno of SI.com with another reason to hate El Tri or grumble about US Soccer and their inability to tap into the Mexican-American talent base.
- And Bobby Boswell.com with coverage of RFK's playing surface being transformed from a baseball field to a soccer pitch for DC United's stretch run. That looks so much better.....
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.
