- U.S. Soccer representatives told me a few minutes ago that Caleb Porter probably won’t name Josh Gatt’s replacement along the under-23 back line until Tuesday. Just a guess, but I would think Greg Garza has a good chance. The Club Tijuana man was in Porter’s recent 10-day training camp prior to the Mexico friendly, but wasn’t on the list when Porter named his provisional 19-man Olympic qualifying roster last week.
- Whoever gets the call, know this: he won’t be some afterthought replacement, destined to be kept behind the “In case of emergency” glass. Whoever it is, chances are good he’ll be front and center at some point over the next few days. With three group-play matches over five days – Ridiculous scheduling, no? – Porter is likely to squeeze every last drop of toothpaste from the 20-man tube.
- Freddy Adu was named captain on Monday.
- If you took a look at the video in the previous, Olympic Team-related ProSoccerTalk post, you see a slick fellow more or less undress the Atlanta Silverbacks defense before rolling a ball laterally for a nice, easy put-away. That’s Jared Jeffrey doing the slicing and dicing. Now you know.
- Personally, I like big weather. Breaks up the monotony of life. But if you’re planning for an important soccer tournament, and if you’re favored to go through from your group – harsh conditions mitigates and edge in quality and definitely favors the underdogs – then you surely disdain big weather. The forecast for Nashville later this week falls into the “dicey” zone. Big weather will roll through at some point; right now, it looks more likely for Friday than Thursday, but we’ll keep an eye on it.