Red Bulls Coach Heads South To Find Players

His bags are packed, he is ready to go. Red Bulls Coach Juan Carlos Osorio is headed to South America this week on a scouting trip with scheduled stops in Colombia, Argentina and Brazil.

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“I am looking for a central defender, hopefully left-footed,” Osorio said Monday in a telephone interview. “I’m also looking for a wide midfielder, also left-footed, and we’re trying to squeeze in a playmaker. I can tell you that we have already found the players we need, but there are restrictions because of the salary cap.”

Osorio said that two of the players were currently in “competitive leagues” in Europe, and added that one was “in the French league, at the moment.”

That player is probably the 32-year-old midfielder Marcelo Gallardo of Argentina, who has terminated his contract with Paris St.-Germain. The 5-foot-5 Gallardo is also being pursued by Borussia Dortmund in Germany and San Lorenzo in Argentina. His agent, Juan Berros, told Goal.com that Gallardo was more interested in a move to Major League Soccer. But the Red Bulls could be priced out because it is believed that Gallardo, who would come on a free transfer, would cost about $1 million a year in salary.

An offensive triumvirate of Gallardo, Juan Pablo Ángel and Jozy Altidore would be formidable, but the Red Bulls would probably need to sign Gallardo as one of their two designated players. That would mean either trading or buying out Claudio Reyna, who had a disappointing 2007 season.

“The money is frustrating, but I understand that this is all part of it,” Osorio said. “Hopefully I will be here long enough to see an increase in the salary cap that will allow us to go and look in different markets to help bring the level of M.L.S. higher.”

After returning from his scouting trip, Osorio will convene an optional minicamp before the full Red Bulls squad decamps for Carson, Calif., where they will train Feb. 2-17.

Last year, Osorio joined the Chicago Fire in midseason, leading it to the playoffs. Now he is looking forward to being with the Red Bulls from Day 1 in 2008.

“I think I will have more time to make an impact with the team,” he said. “I’ll have more time to work with them. I know, from the outside, their strengths and weaknesses. Now I’ll be able to find out in detail.”

Osorio said he still hoped to entice Omid Namazi, the coach of the New Jersey Ironmen of the Major Indoor Soccer League, to join his staff as the top assistant.

Africa

Joseph S. Blatter, the president of FIFA, used his bully pulpit to support a first World Cup in Africa (South Africa in 2010). Now, he has chimed in on the timing of the African Cup of Nations. The continental championship, which began Sunday in Ghana, is played every two years in the middle of the European season.

“They have to consider the issue of having African players in the best shape for the World Cup, and to do so, it would be important to take away from them the stress of having to play in a Nations Cup the same year,” Blatter told reporters Saturday in Accra.

“In 2010, the best African players will fight to be the African champions in the Nations Cup in Angola,” he said, adding, “Then they have to return to their clubs in Europe.”

Blatter said that those same players would then have to “raise their conditioning” for the World Cup in South Africa.

“Maybe it is better to play the Nations Cup every odd years in the off-season,” he said.

More than 130 African players have left their European clubs to participate in the 16-nation tournament. Many coaches and players have also called for the Nations Cup to be played when it is summer in the Northern Hemisphere; that is when tournaments like the European Championship, the Concacaf Gold Cup and the Copa América are held.

Officials have already set the schedule for the next three tournaments, all beginning in January: Angola (2010), Equatorial Guinea (2012) and Libya (2014).

United States

The United States men’s national team played its first international match on Aug. 20, 1916, against Sweden in Stockholm. The Americans won, 3-2. Nearly 92 years and 500 games later, the United States again faced Sweden on Saturday night in Carson, Calif., and won, 2-0. The United States evened its record at 194-194-112.

Three players — Eddie Robinson, Clarence Goodson and Jeremiah White — played in their first senior international match for the United States. Robinson scored the game’s first goal, making him the 44th American player to score in his international debut.

¶The United States men’s national team will play Spain in an exhibition match June 4, at a site to be determined but most likely in Europe. The teams have played only twice before, with Spain winning in friendly match in March 1992, 2-0, and at the 1950 World Cup in Brazil, 3-1.

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