With the absolutely humiliating display of football Colombia has been exhibiting lately, it was a foregone conclusion that technical director Jose Luis Pinto would have to walk the plank. Well, it happened. And in his place, interim coach Eduardo Lara, is looking to mend fences with those shunned by Pinto.

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Former Liverpool and England star John Barnes was named Wednesday as the new manager of Jamaica. The move comes after the dismissal of Brazilian Rene Simoes as the Jamaica Football Federation's technical director as a result of the team losing two World Cup qualifiers in four days—against Mexico and Honduras. Click to continue reading...

While many of you are already into your fall seasons, some of you still may be looking to recruit an assistant coach to help out. Our state soccer association recently started publishing a Recreational Soccer newsletter, called the Sideline Beacon and the first issue had some good tips. Bill Furjanic, the NCYSA Technical Director of [. Click to continue reading...

Goal Seattle has a great rundown of rumors and news surrounding the team's coaching search.

Added is a report from Ives that the K.C. technical director Peter Vermes turned down the job.

While current Sounder coach Brian Schmetzer remains in the pool, there is one name that's getting some mention. Click to continue reading...

Ives Galarcep is reporting that Wizards Technical Director, Peter Vermes has turned down Seattle Sounders FC for the chance to become their head coach. According to the report, Vermes is one of 3 candidates that the Sounders have reached out to about becoming the team's first head coach next season. Click to continue reading...

The path to the West Ham manager's desk appears to be clearing for Gianfranco Zola after Michael Laudrup and Slaven Bilic fell out of the running for the job. Denmark legend Laudrup was expected to be interviewed by Irons chief executive Scott Duxbury and technical director Gianluca Nani on Monday, only for Russian giants Spartak Moscow [. Click to continue reading...

The Kansas City Wizards continue to add pieces to their roster, hoping the last-second reinforcements will push their club over the top in the postseason race. After adding striker Herculez Gomez a day earlier, the Wizards announced the acquisition of FC Dallas forward Abe Thompson on Friday, added in exchange for allocation money. Click to continue reading...

Despite being without a manager West Ham have completed the signing of Uruguayan defender Walter Lopez. In a clear indication of the influence of technical director Gianluca Nani has at Upton Park the Hammers have snapped up the free-agent on a one-year deal, following his release by River Plate. It is also thought the Italian will now [. Click to continue reading...

The Colorado Rapids have traded forward Herculez Gomez to the Kansas City Wizards in exchange for a fourth-round draft pick in the 2009 MLS SuperDraft, as well as a first-round pick in the '09 Supplemental Draft and an undisclosed sum of allocation money.Gomez, 26, was once one of the brightest young stars in the league when he was with the Los Angeles Galaxy. Click to continue reading...

West Ham boss Alan Curbishley has played down speculation that he has fallen out with the club's new technical director Gianluca Nani. A national newspaper claimed the Irons boss had had a "row" with Nani, who joined the club from Italian club Brescia last month, over the possibility of signing Chilean striker Sebastian Pinto. Click to continue reading...

Press reports this morning claim West Ham boss Alan Curbishley isn't happy with new technical director Gianluca Nani about the possible signing of Chilean striker Sebastian Pinto. The Santos striker flew into London to play in a trail match for the Hammers with the view to completing a £5million on a four-year deal. Click to continue reading...

Coach Kelderman meets with the reserves before beating D.C. 4-2

Our friend Bob Luder of the KC Star checked in today with a story on our reserve squad and their success so far this season. Read it here, then click on the tag below for "KCW Reserves" to re-live some of the match recaps. Also in Bob's story is a link to an interesting one about our Technical Director PV. Click to continue reading...

Wizards technical director, Peter Vermes will remain with the Wizards. Bob Luder is reporting that Vermes had been offered the job of GM with the LA Galaxy, following the firing of Alexi Lalas. Vermes turned the position down. Honestly I can't blame him for it. The situation in LA is a circus and almost a no win situation for the man that takes the GM position. Click to continue reading...

West Ham United are unlikely to pursue a bid for Ghana midfielder Stephen Appiah. The 27-year-old, who spent the 2002/03 season under new Irons technical director Gianluca Nani at Serie A side Brescia, has spent the last three seasons at Turkish giants Fenerbahce. However, the past two years of his career has been blighted by a serious [. Click to continue reading...

Busy day here at Hillcrest huh! Technical Director Peter Vermes stopped by local NPR station KCUR 89.3 this morning for a long chat about soccer. Keegan Pierce, press officer for Chivas USA, highlights the soccer hour for the first 7-10 minutes talking about our game against Chivas USA and the differences between MLS and Mexico, then Vermes sticks around for the rest of the time. Click to continue reading...

Ex-Arsenal winger Marc Overmars will be coming out of retirement to play for Dutch side Go Ahead Eagles next season. The 35-year-old Ernst-born winger had been working as the Eagles' technical director since retiring from football in July 2004. He was a member of the Ajax team that won the European Cup in 1995 against A. Click to continue reading...

Utrecht have struck a deal with Liverpool to take promising striker Jordy Brouwer on a season-long loan.

The 20-year-old is yet to break through into the Reds' first team after joining from Ajax's academy in January 2007.

Brouwer is a regular in Liverpool's reserve side, although he is now set to garner experience in the Eredivisie. Click to continue reading...

Stopped by training today for a little look at the guys before tomorrow's important match against Chivas USA. The session went well, with the starting group knocking the ball around and working on crosses. The reserves participated in 7-v-7 matches on a small field. Technical Director Peter Vermes and Coach Onalfo were involved, with their two teams squaring off in the final. Click to continue reading...

Astrit Ajdarevic is likely to leave Anfield this summer, and as he begins a trial at NEC Nijmegen the Netherlands seem to be his most likely destination.

The Kosovo-born Swedish youth international arrived at Anfield in 2007 from Falkenbergs, but has yet to make a first team appearance for the Reds. Click to continue reading...

I had been planning on getting my brother to help blog about the Wizards Juniors trip to nationals this week, and he still might. But the Wizards look to have someone stepping up to blog on the team down in Arkansas this week. The team has set up a KC Wizards Juniors blog, which as the little blurb about the blog says, "This is the online home of news and information for the KCW Juniors, the official youth development arm of the Kansas City Wizards. Click to continue reading...

Scott Sealy has been sent packing from Kansas City today. The Wizards veteran forward will team up with Darren Huckerby -who has to be the most hyped player signing from the Championship League ever- in northern California and attempt to invigorate San Jose's impotent attack. I've got no official press release to link to so I've posted the emailed release below. Click to continue reading...

Hello all, Hillcrest is up here with the team in mild-weathered Seattle. No rain so far. I thought it was supposed to be dreary up here? Tonight's game should be an interesting one. Seattle is one of the stronger teams in USL-1 each year, and with the scheduled move to MLS next year, this squad is no different. Click to continue reading...

As far as anyone could tell, AC Milan were out of the race for Arsenal striker Emmanuel Adebayor but it does appear that the Italian club might still be looking at the Togo international. Club technical director Leonardo admitted the... Click to continue reading...

Well, this is embarrassing. I did a quick rundown of Euro 2008 Player of the Tournament candidates last night, and there was one name I forgot: Xavi Hernández.

And guess who UEFA has named as player of the tournament this morning? That's right: Xavi Hernández.

I'm pretty sure UEFA did this just to make me look bad.

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The chase for this Dutch master has been heating up and now that his contract talks have stalled the race for this striker just got a hell of a lot hotter! Ajax technical director Danny Blind admitted to De Telegraaf that contract talks had failed in large part because Huntelaar wanted a release clause written into [. Click to continue reading...

The chase for this Dutch master has been heating up and now that his contract talks have stalled the race for this striker just got a hell of a lot hotter! Ajax technical director Danny Blind admitted to De Telegraaf that contract talks had failed in large part because Huntelaar wanted a release clause written into [. Click to continue reading...

To the surprise of no one, Alexandre Guimaraes has been relieved of the technical director position with Panama's national team. Here is the official press release from FEPAFUT, the Panamanian football federation, with the full text of the termination letter included. There are reports in Panama's La Prensa and Mexico's Medio Tiempo that say about the same thing, but Medio Tiempo is reporting that FEPAFUT is preparing a protest of the referee's actions during the game and the crowd behavior. Click to continue reading...

Official word about the new Tampa Bay Rowdies who will take the field in USL-1 in the spring of 2010. Apparently the new ownership group includes the guy who owns Bern's Steak House in Tampa, which is a really fancy joint. The story says that Perry Van Der Beck has been hired as "technical director of community development," [. Click to continue reading...

Holy cow, Hillcrest Road made it out to practice today. What a lovely day it was. Sunshine and warm weather abounds. The U-19 Juniors were out training at the beginning of practice, with Technical Director Peter Vermes personally coaching the session. A group of players from O'Hara High School were out to watch the practice and seemed very impressed by the shooting display put on from long range by our midfielders during one drill. Click to continue reading...

It looks like money doesn't always get you what you want; a host of European clubs have raised their drawbridges in anticipation of a Chelsea raid. First up was AC Milan who told Chelsea in no uncertain terms that Kaka isn't going anywhere. Ever. Leonardo, the technical director at Milan, said: "It's normal for a Brazilian [. Click to continue reading...

We had reported and discussed how the next coach of FC Dallas would be both the head coach and the club's technical director. It appears that won't be the case...meaning say SMU coach Schellas Hyndman is indeed hired next week by FC Dallas, he won't be the club's technical director. That coming from Tobias Lopez [. Click to continue reading...

Now that Luiz Felipe Scolari has taken his name out of the running, FC Dallas has narrowed their search for a new head coach to three. They are current SMU college coach Schellas Hyndman, former Dallas player Oscar Pareja and former Chicago Fire coach Dave Sarachan. If rumors are true, Hyndman is the favorite. Click to continue reading...

For those that have missed the news, Rob Baan announced that he will not renew his contract which expires in six months. Citing a desire to return to the Netherlands and spend more time with his wife and family, it appears the 65 year is looking forward to retirement.

Hired back in Dec 2006, Baan was appointed to the role of Technical Director and tasked by Frank Lowy to. Click to continue reading...

I missed The World game last week and yesterday I was catching up via the The World game website which posts clips of the show. I came across a piece by Craig Foster and Les Murray discussing the China Match. There is nobody within the Football media that inspires as much polarization of opinion as Craig Foster. Click to continue reading...

"'We will bring on a technical director to work with (national coach) Bob (Bradley),' [U.S. Soccer Federation President Sunil] Gulati told Reuters."

"'There's a reasonable chance that would be an international coach, not because I necessarily think they're better but because he'll bring something different to the mix.'"

While the rest of that article goes on to talk about Gulati's preference for a Hispanic coach to connect with America's growing Hispanic population - oh, hell, call it what they call it, growing Hispanic market - it's the second passage that has me thinking conspiratorially. Click to continue reading...