Soccer birthdays: One of the game’s truly poignant stories this year belongs to Stiliyan Petrov, the Aston Villa midfielder who had to suspend his career in late March after being diagnosed with acute leukemia. Petrov turns 33 today.
Also, United States women’s national team midfielder Megan Rapinoe (pictured) turns 27.
Ahead on the blog today*: Looking back at a busy night in Major League Soccer’s Round 18, plus Noah Davis’ weekly “”Overlooked and Underloved” feature, where he spotlights an MLS match that is, well, overlooked and underloved.
Big Important Stories of the Day: And major transfer news from across the Atlantic, the big vote in Zurich on GLT, plus the two men who got back on the field for Major League Soccer teams Wednesday night: Omar Gonzalez and David Ferreira.
(GLT = goal-line technology; better start getting used to the acronym since I have a feeling we’ll see it frequently now.)
What we should all watch on TV: Mexico’s under-23 team continues prep for the Summer Olympic tournament with a friendly against Leon: 8:30 p.m. ET on Telefutura.
RASNoD (Random American Soccer Name of the Day): David Regis
Twitter daps:
Los Angeles Galaxy defender and 2011 MLS Defender of the Year Omar Gonzalez (@Omar4Gonzalez), who completed a stunningly quick comeback Wednesday from major knee injury: I truly appreciate all of your kind words and encouragement. It means a lot to me! It will only get better from here! Oh, and Happy 4th!
NBC announcer Arlo White (@arlowhite), commenting on another MLS man who got back on the field after a lengthy injury layoff: Wonderful 2 see David Ferreira back on the field for @FCDallas. 438days since last app. To Seattle tomorrow, what price 2 comebacks in 1 wk?
PST background noise while blogging today: Seems like there’s a new soccer podcast to keep up with almost every week. Maybe I need to declare Thursdays as “podcast day.”
*Always subject to change; you know how it is