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2.21.14

ASN Morning Read: A Hopeful Onyewu Opens Up

The injured Gooch dishes on his thoughts, emotions and World Cup hopes; We await news on the friendly in the Ukraine; The league takes over Chivas USA; Maurice Edu gets slap-happy.
BY Jesse Yomtov Posted
February 21, 2014
7:02 AM
  • In the first of a series for Sports Illustrated, Oguchi Onyewu gave us some insight into what he’s thinking and feeling, currently injured as he tries to get into the World Cup picture. “[Getting hurt] sucks, to just be blunt, because I’ve been — since the Gold Cup in terms of having to step out with an ankle injury and then all the controversy that surrounded the summer transfer window and finding QPR and everything else — having six months without an official game, and I hit the ground running with Sheffield.”

    His spirits were buoyed by Klinsmann mentioning his name a few weeks ago as being in contention. “As a player it’s good to know that your coach hasn’t given up on you. For me, in terms of what I’m doing, I’m doing everything in my power to kind of give justification behind his words.”

  • With the Ukrainian crisis escalating, the USSF is “having discussions with the Ukrainian federation about all options” regarding the March 5 friendly scheduled to take place in Kharkiv. The most viable option seems to be playing the match a neutral site. Thursday’s Europa League game between Dynamo Kiev’s and Valencia was moved to Nicosia, Cyprus.

  • Rejoice! The ASN World Cup Channel is live. Good luck getting anything done for the next four months.

  • Major League Soccer purchased Chivas USA and will soon put it up for sale. “The league does not want to own this and operate it a day longer than it has to,” commissioner Don Garber said. The plan is to have the club in new hands by the end of 2014 and it will be rebranded once it’s sold.

  • Three new MLS clubs haven’t even began play, Don Garber is already discussing further expansion. He mentioned Atlanta, Minneapolis, Sacramento, San Diego and San Antonio as possibilities.

  • In a terrific interview, our Brian Sciaretta spoke with former U.S. captain Thomas Dooley, who recently became manager of the Philippines national team. Plenty of insight from Dooley, including the similarities between the U.S. trying to find its foothold in the early-1990s, much like the Philippines in the present day.

  • The Europa League knockout stage got started Thursday with two Americans in action. Aron Johannsson and AZ Alkmaar won 1-0 at Czech side Slovan Liberec. Brad Friedel started for Tottenham in the Ukraine against Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk, with Spurs losing 1-0 on late penalty that Friedel could do nothing about.

  • The schedule for this summer’s International Champions Cup was announced. AC Milan vs. Olympiacos and Real Madrid vs. Manchester United don’t have official locations yet, but due to some slip-ups from the ICC’s PR team, we know they’re likely to be played at Citi Field and Michigan Stadium respectively.

  • Maurice Edu got to slap a KICK TV staffer for getting a score of 10 in “Flappy Bird.” This is why you shouldn’t make slap bets.

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