Red Bull announced the updated design of Red Bull Park following their successful buyout of AEG by LA-based Rossetti Architects and named Hunter Roberts Construction Group of NJ as the general contractor. The target completion date remains in 2009. Marc DeGrandpre said, “Red Bull Park was re-designed to be more in line with soccer facilities worldwide. To fulfill our ultimate goal of creating an elite sports franchise in the United States for our fans, it is vital that we have a home that all of us can be proud of. Red Bull Park will become the benchmark in the North American soccer stadium landscape, setting the standard for other soccer arenas across the nation.”

MLSnet.com has posted to full archived highlights to seven of the best RBNY matches of 2007 here.

They are:

April 21 vs. Houston, May 19 vs. Columbus, May 24 vs. Chicago, August 12 vs. Toronto, August 18 vs. LA, September 1 vs. Fire and October 13 vs. Kansas City.

Petr Nowak has called Jozy Altidore and Hunter Freeman into the US U-23 camp in preparations for the 2008 CONCACAF Men’s Under-23 Championship in March which could see them qualify for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Altidore just recently recieved his first senior cap during the visit to South Africa and Freeman was part of the Under-20 team at the 2005 World Youth Championship. The two will head out to Carson, CA for a week of training beginning December 1st before going to China for two matches against the U-23 side on December 13th and 16th. Nowak’s Assisitant Coach is formerm Metro midfielder, Mike Sorber. Here’s the full roster courtesy of USSoccer.com:

USMNT U-23
GOALKEEPERS (2): Zac MacMath (St. Petersburg, Fla.), Chris Seitz (Real Salt Lake)
DEFENDERS (7): Hunter Freeman (New York Red Bulls), Patrick Ianni (Houston Dynamo), Jon Leathers (Furman University), Mike Randolph (Los Angeles Galaxy), Nathan Sturgis (Real Salt Lake), Tim Ward (Columbus Crew), Marvell Wynne (Toronto FC)
MIDFIELDERS (7): Arturo Alvarez (FC Dallas), Maurice Edu (Toronto FC), Eddie Gaven (Columbus Crew), Michael Harrington (Kansas City Wizards), Stuart Holden (Houston Dynamo), Sacha Kljestan (CD Chivas USA), Dax McCarty (FC Dallas)
FORWARDS (6): Josmer Altidore (New York Red Bulls), Adam Cristman (New England Revolution), Charlie Davies (Hammarby IF), Robbie Findley (Real Salt Lake), Robbie Rogers (Columbus Crew), Sal Zizzo (Hannover 96)

It is expected that Altidore will also be invited to a January training camp that leads up to the full national team’s Jan. 18 match against Sweden at HDC. That camp will convene on January 3rd and 4th.

Frank Giase is reporting in the Star-Ledger today that construction is finally set to begin on Red Bull Park within the next two weeks. DeGrandpre states that construction should be completed within 20 months and insists that the summer of 2009 is the target opening date. Apparently, Red Bull were waiting for the AEG buy-out to be finalized before going ahead with the construction due to the changes they wanted to make to the design. The stage that AEG wanted to put on concerts has been removed from the design and the number of luxury boxes has been lowered from 50 to 30. Red Bull Park will also now have a transluscent roof to cover almost all seating. The capacity at Red Bull Park will be 25,189.

Of course, this is welcome news but I don’t think any of us are holding our breath. When they restore the site cam and we can all see some progress I think we’ll all feel a bit better. DeGrandpre has lost whatever credibility he thought he had whether it comes to the stadium or the team. The best thing Red Bull could do would be to replace him as soon as possible with a person who actually knows the game.

A couple of quotations concerning the project since its inception (courtesy of the best MLS fan site) with the Metrofanatic links to the original press releases:

“The MetroStars will play one more season in the 80,000-seat Giants Stadium before moving at the start of the 2006 season.” — July 1, 2004 (Original announcement)

“Town officials have long championed the stadium complex, now expected to open in time for the 2007 MLS season, as the centerpiece of the redevelopment effort.” — August 4, 2005 (Agreement has been reached)

“When completed in summer, 2008, Red Bull Park will be the home of the New York Red Bulls of Major League Soccer, concerts, international soccer matches, special events and other sporting competitions.” — August 11, 2006 (Groundbreaking announced)

“We are now operating within a late third quarter 2008 timeline, however any further setbacks could push the opening of RBP into the ’09 season.” — May 21, 2007 (Delays due to industrial waste)

Here’s some more renderings:

The Los Angeles Times has basically confirmed that MLS Coach Of The Year, Preki, is on a shortlist of managers being considered by Red Bull to fill the vacancy left by Bruce Arena’s $1.2m buyout. The article states that Red Bull requested permission to talk to Preki during the MLS Cup Final weekend, however it doesn’t explicitly state that it was granted. A Chivas source “familiar with the talks” said that they do not expect Preki to leave.

Article requires registration with the LA Times website

Preki came up through the Red Star Belgrade youth system and made 86 appearances for Everton and Portsmouth between 1992 and 1995. He then went to Kansas City in 1996 and played for them until 2005 with a brief spell in Miami in 2001. He scored 71 goals in 218 competitive matches for the Wizards as well as having 28 USMNT caps between ’96 and ’98 scoring 4 goals. He scored the winner in the 1-0 victory over Brazil in the 1998 Gold Cup Semifinal and played in the dreadfully disappointing World Cup in the same year.

I think I feel the same as many of you. My first choice is Osorio but if Chicago absolutely refuses to let him talk then we could do worse than Preki. His team was very organized defensively and were fairly exciting when they really pushed forward. I’ve also read that the players like him very much. He could be the one to restore harmony to the Metro locker room.

Goal.com’s Lucas Brown is reporting that Real’s interest has been raised in Jozy Altidore and that they are ready to increase their efforts to sign him.  His agent, Richard Motzkin, is quoted as saying, “The fact that Real Madrid are keen to sign him is a real honour for Jozy.  It is now certain that a big club wants to sign him.  Jozy is delighted that Madrid have shown an interest in him. We know all the stories and rumours that have been published.  We will have to see what happens, but it is obvious that he is very excited.”

I don’t see that this changes a whole lot from what Jozy wrote in his piece for the New York Times’ Goal blog last week.  I don’t see how it is benefiting Jozy to have his agent in the press talking like this.  Do we really need his agent to tell us he’s excited, we all read his piece in the Times.  What I imagine is that I’m sure his agent wasn’t too pleased at the tone and/or approach that Jozy took in the blog article.  He didn’t seem desperate for the move and said he’d like to stay in NY.  Perhaps this is a minor form of damage control.  Would Real be insulted by Jozy rebuffing their advances?  Why is Motzkin now trying to let Real know that Jozy is “honoured” and “excited” by their interest?  Are all players supposed to bow before the almighty Real Madrid?

So the draw is in and the U.S.’ attendance at South Africa 2010 is not a foregone conclusion. They will face the winner of the Dominica- Barbados home and away matchup. Barbados is the likely winner here and the USMNT defeated them 7-0 and 4-0 in 2000 and 2002, respectively. But when they reach the group stage qualifying will become less assured. Their group will most likely feature Guatemala, Trinidad & Tobago, and Cuba. Let’s take a look at how the USMNT has fared in the recent times against these teams:

GUATEMALA
3/30/05 2-0 AL

9/7/05    0-0 Guatemala

2/19/06  4-0 TX

3/28/07  0-0 TX

6/7/07    1-0 CA

TRINIDAD & TOBAGO
2/9/05    2-1 Trinidad

8/17/05  1-0 CT

6/9/07    2-0 CA

CUBA
7/19/03  5-0 MA

7/7/05    4-1 WA

Now, I am not disparaging the USMNT or their chances. All I’m saying is that qualification is not a foregone conclusion and should the team get complacent they could run into trouble. Our record against Cuba has been definitive and they will be the whipping boys of the group but Guatemala is an entirely different proposition. All the USMNT victories have been narrow with Guatemala earning a scoreless draw at home in 2005. The same goes for Trinidad. All our victories have been narrow 1 goal margins save one. It’s not beyond the realm of possibility of either of these sides grinding out results especially at home.

I feel the USMNT’s preparation for the qualifying campaign is going well and that they should top the group. Cockiness and complacency have no place in a World Cup Qualifying campaign. Perhaps a big part of the USMNT’s recent failures at the World Cup, withstanding 2002, have been having weak qualifying opponents when compared to the UEFA and CONMEBOL qualifiers. They are simply not as well prepared for that level of competition by going through the CONCACAF qualifiers. This is why its especially heartening to see Bradley take the team to Europe and Africa for away friendlies and generally get positive results. I would think, that as the team stands now, qualifying for Round Of 16 will definitely be considered a success in 2010.

Here is the 20 minute, three-part “History Of The Metrostars” from YouTube chronicling the inception and inaugural season of the club:

PART 1
PART 2
PART 3

Ridge Mahoney at Soccer America is reporting that Chicago has refused Red Bull permission to enter talks with former Millionarios manager and Metrostars Assistant Coach, Juan Carlos Osorio. Mahoney quotes a Chicago source as saying that while Metro wouldn’t be willing to match Arena’s salary ($500,000 + incentives) it would be willing to double his current salary which is in the “low 200s”. Of course, he could just end up using our interest to leverage a better deal from Chicago who were recently sold by AEG to Andell Holdings.

Osorio left Metro in June 2001 to join Manchester City where he remained until returning to Bogota to manage Millionarios last year. He was generally successful there leading the club to 3rd position in the League Stage of the Mustang Cup and 5th overall before leaving to join Chicago on July 9, 2007 replacing Dave Strachan.

Here are the quotes from the New York Times’ Goal Blog written by Jozy yesterday regarding the transfer rumors:

“I know a lot of you out there heard about me and Real Madrid last week, I did, too.

It’s funny, because Beasley mentioned it to me in the airport in South Africa. That was the first I’d heard about it. I just laughed. And heard about it again when I got home. Going to a team like that has always interested me, but I can’t help but smile about it right now. I’ve just got to keep moving on until something real happens, if it does.

Right now, I don’t think it’s something to get serious about. I want to keep my focus and not let these things be too much of a distraction. I want to approach it in a professional manner. Right now, there’s nothing going on.

Do I want to play for a big team? Of course, but it’s more important for me to be playing right now and not be with a high-profile team on a reserve team or something like that. At my age, things will come if I keep playing. But if I’m not playing it won’t really matter. For a young player, if you’re able to play on a big team so be it, but the idea is to play all the time. I’m still young and I’ve still got a lot to learn. That’s just my opinion on it.

Playing in Europe is definitely a goal of mine. But as I’ve said before, I’m comfortable now with the Red Bulls and I want to win a championship next year. Europe? It’s not a secret to anybody. I love Europe and European soccer. It’s a dream of mine to player there, one day.”

It’s nice to see he is keeping such a mature perspective at such a young age. This is basically what I said in my post last week. I think we all think it would be better for him to stay and play regularly for RBNY rather than play for Real’s youth and reserve side. This is very encouraging and his committment to the team seems fairly strong… for next year at least.

Here’s the full text

Here’s a short feature done on Jozy by Glenn Davis for the Dynamo Report: