Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Reyna Signs on the Dotted Line -- Claudio Reyna made it official. He will be playing for the New York Red Bulls. This is not only a homecoming for Reyna, but also a reunion of sorts. Bruce Arena was Reyna's head coach at the University of Virginia, and with the U.S. men's national team over the last two World Cups. Certainly, Reyna and Arena know what to expect from each other.

The Red Bulls' small cadre of loyal fans can hope that the Arena/Reyna pairing will enjoy the kind of success they had at Charlottesville and the 2002 World Cup -- rather than the disappointing effort turned in by the U.S. in Germany last summer. The '06 Cup was an almost magical moment for Reyna. He narrowly missed a long distance effort against the Czechs, when that game was still in doubt. Against Ghana, Reyna made a terrible mistake, holding a ball too long -- he was stripped of possession, and the Ghanaians turned the mistake into the game's first goal. To add injury to insult, Reyna was hurt on the play, and had to exit the game soon after -- marking the end of his national team career. Now, he comes to play professionally in the U.S., for the first time. I expect this will be a good move for Reyna and the Red Bulls.

There is a teaser on the MLS' site about an announcement tomorrow in Denver. The league's deputy commissioner will be on hand. [UPDATE] The Denver Post is reporting it will be the formal announcement that the '07 MLS All-Star Game will be played at the Rapids' new stadium. I guess I was getting ahead of myself -- I thought that was already official. It is still possible that the league will also be announcing that Celtic (Glasgow) will be the foreign opponent at the MLS All-Star game in July. I guess that's nothing to sneeze at, but it's not quite the same as having Chelsea (last year's European representative).

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