HexagonalBlog

SVG players out of Malaysia

With the news that Malaysia's top domestic league will close its doors to foreign players, a trio of CONCACAF-based players will have to look for work elsewhere.  Jamaican striker Scott Lawson plays for Penang FA, and the St. Vincent and the Grenadines' Marlon James and Cornelius Huggings play for the champions Kedah FA.  Marlon James was the most successful striker in the Malaysian league in the past two seasons, finishing as second highest scorer in 2006-07 and top scorer in 2007-08.

It's possible that he could get on a professional team stateside, with somewhere in the USL being his most likely destination. But maybe a MLS side desperate for help up front could take a flier on him.

UPDATE: Welcome BigSoccer readers!

Chuck Blazer has a blog

Okay, he's had a blog for a while.  But I'm only noticing or caring now.

Looks like it's really him.  Lots of name-dropping and schmoozing going on.  Being a high-level official of an international federation has its perks, doesn't it?

Costa Rica and Panama have new coaches

Last week Costa Rica made a replacement for Hernán Medford at the helm of the national team.  His name is Rodrigo Kenton, a Costa Rican with extensive experience with national teams.  He was an assistant coach to Bora Milutinovic when he coached Costa Rica in 1990 and Nigeria in 1998, and he was also a manager of the junior teams in Costa Rica (which he qualified for the 2004 Olympics) and Guatemala.  Kenton becomes the 24th Costa Rican to lead the national team.

Panama made their move today, selecting the Englishman (and longtime Panamanian resident) Gary Stempel as the national team coach.  Stempel was the manager of Apertura champions San Francisco FC, but he also had experience with Panama's U-20s, who he led to their first U-20 World Cup in 2003.  As you can tell from the post-match interview on this clip, Stempel has a very good command of the local language. 

Obviously, Costa Rica needed to hire a new coach for the next round of World Cup qualifying, but why was Panama in a hurry when they had nothing to play for?  The answer is the UNCAF Nations Cup,  which will take place in Panama early next year.  Federation president Ariel Alvarado gave the Cup as the motive for the quick hire. 

In the end, both federations went with coaches who have intimate knowledge of their countries' youth national teams, some of whose graduates now make significant contributions to the senior team.

Puerto Rico's new league

Puerto Rico raised the curtain on a new domestic soccer league last night when Ponce River Plate played Atlético San Juan.  The Puerto Rico Soccer League (PRSL) has eight teams of which half are affiliated with foreign clubs, and will be competed over 14 rounds with a playoff phase for the top four teams.  The top three teams will enter a playoff with the Puerto Rico Islanders to select PR's representative to the 2009-2010 CONCACAF Champions League (I'm guessing the preliminary round).  So we've already seen one positive effect of the new continental competition in that a professional soccer league has been formed in a country that did not have one previously.

The league appears to be similar to the International Soccer League that formed in the early 1960s in the USA.  What I find interesting is that there's also going to be a Second Division composed of 18 clubs in three regionalized groups.  Will there be a promotion/relegation scheme between the two divisions, or will the Second Division serve as a farm team for the PRSL sides?  If it's the former, then it would be an unprecedented event for a professional sports league in the United States (yes in the eyes of FIFA it's a separate 'country', but it is a commonwealth).

JFF still planning that national football academy

Two years ago I wrote a post on the Jamaica Football Federation's efforts to build a national football academy in St. Elizabeth parish in the western part of the country.  It was supposed to take seven months, yet it hasn't been completed.  And if you read this article from the Jamaica Gleaner, you'll find that the academy has been in the works since 2003!  Well, the same article now reports that the JFF will move that academy to the campus of the University of West Indies in Mona, a wealthy suburb of Kingston.  It's the result of an agreement between the the federation and the university to rebuild some athletic facilities on the campus and house the academy of approximately 6.5 acres of land.  The deal is in line with Horace Burrell's desire to relocate the academy when he returned to the helm of the JFF.

The decision perhaps makes the most sense, since the federation would be pooling its resources with the top educational institution in the country and would locate its academy in a spot with much better infrastructure.  After so many detours, however, I'll believe that the academy will happen when construction is actually completed. 

MORE:  The press release from the UWI website.

Other changes around the region

Alexandre Guimaraes' dismissal wasn't the only coaching change around the region.  Several managers saw their contracts end as their national team's qualifying campaigns came to an end.  Barbados' FA released Eyre Sealy and Keith Griffith from their head coach and technical advisor positions, respectively.  (Actually, their contracts came to an end and the federation decided not to renew them.)  There was also an issue related to belated payments to the players that served as a sideshow to the campaign.

It looks like there might be changes to the head of Trinidad & Tobago's technical staff very soon, judging from the deterioration of the relationship between Francisco Maturana and the domestic hierarchy.  One has to wonder why Maturana would want to deal with this kind of infighting for much longer.  And the elephant in the room remains Jack Warner.

In contrast, Guyana looks like they will retain the services of national team manager Jamaal Shabazz.  Their focus will be on a long-term development of the national team and more systematic planning and preparation for the international tournaments, starting with the Digicel Caribbean Cup.  It's something that a lot of Caribbean countries talk about but few actually deliver, so good luck to Guyana.

UPDATE:  I missed this one - Hernán Medford has been sacked as the Costa Rica coach this afternoon.   To hear Medford tell it, he's relieved to be out of the door.  And given the rebuilding effort ahead of the Costa Rican national team, who can blame him?

Warner escapes China earthquake

I was not aware that Jack Warner was in Chengdu on the day of that massive earthquake a few days ago.  I'm happy to find out that he escaped harm.  Prayers for those who did not.

Since someone at CONCACAF is reading this site...

...I thought they'd like to know that I like the look of their new website.  It's one that's worthy of a continental confederation.

Now, where's that Champions League website?  And if it's a new competition, why was the Caribbean qualification result found on the old Champions' Cup page?

Just putting it out there

ESPN Deportes is reporting that the Mexican football federation has talked to Sven-Goran Eriksson about the vacancy in the national team position.  An excerpt of a radio interview with the secretary general of the FMF was played, and he didn't deny it, but said that they were looking were looking at several coaches, including Javier Aguirre.

So is this for real, or manufactured by the media?  I guess we'll find out soon.  What's clear is that Chucho Ramírez won't be the permanent coach, which is too bad.

Hugone

Hugo Sánchez has been relieved of his position as the manager of the Mexican national team.

For English speakers, here are press reports from Reuters and the Associated Press, and commentary from Steven Goff, Bernardo Fallas and Ives Galarcep.  I'm sure it's being discussed on BigSoccer.com as well.    For the Spanish speakers, ESTO has an update on their website and a long piece written earlier today by Carlos Trápaga, editor of ESTO, appealing for Sánchez to stay in his post.  Medio Tiempo has lots of coverage, including press reports, reactions within and without Mexico, and a blog that covered the FMF meeting.

So, briefly:  by a unanimous vote the board of directors of the FMF, comprised of the owners of the first division clubs, terminated Sánchez's contract.  Jesús "Chucho" Ramírez, who coached the Mexican U-17 team that won the world championships three years ago, will be the interim coach.  Names being bandied around as a permanent replacement include Enrique Meza, Javier Aguirre, and Ricardo LaVolpe.  Ramírez, of course, could make the position his if Mexico get better results under his command.

Well that's it for Hugo Sánchez, who found out that being in the arena is very different from sniping from the sidelines.  I expected more from Sánchez based on his achievements with UNAM, but his hubris got the best of him in the end.  His best effort was the 3rd place at the Copa América, but the failure to even reach the semifinals of what was a very mediocre CONCACAF Olympic qualifying tournament was unforgivable.  You just know that Ricardo LaVolpe has to be laughing to himself from his home in Buenos Aires.

One question: if this failure is to be shared by the Mexican federation and the rest of Mexican football, as Trápaga claimed and Compeán admitted, why is Compeán still in charge?