Could 1860 Munich and U.S. international forward Kenny Cooper be on his way to the Coca-Cola Championship before the transfer window closes? That is a distinct possibility according to his agent, who says Plymouth Argyle are interested in arranging a loan deal for the former FC Dallas big man. Cooper is said to be responsive to the idea in hopes of improving his chances of making the Americans' 2010 World Cup squad.

Are the CAF guilty of a huge injustice?

Togo have been banned from the next two Africa Cup of Nations following their withdrawal from this year's tournament.
The Confederation of African football (Caf) also fined the Hawks $50,000 for quitting the competition in the wake of a gun attack on the team bus in Angola.

Mike Lapper, current assistant coach for the Columbus Crew, former defender for the U.S. National Team and various clubs, most notably the Crew, was kind enough to give me an exclusive interview for Pro Soccer Weekly. Mike is a really nice guy and gives some very frank answers to the questions that I had for him.

By Ollie Irish

Name: Brian McBride

Nationality: American

Position: Centre-forward

Why so hard? Not all football hard men are also dirty players, McBride being perhaps the best example I can think of.

Amid the continuing troubles engulfing the USL's 1st and 2nd divisions, the league is busy organizing their extensive lower divisions' 2010 season. Last week they announced the 2010 "alignment" of the Premier Development League (PDL).
The PDL is made up of amateur teams (with a few pro exceptions), and college-age players (with a few older exceptions) who are, well, developing.

How does a young college or university assistant coach get a job as a head coach?
I have been told by more than one athletic administrator that when going through a search, most athletic directors look for coaches who have previously successful head coaching experience (maybe at a level tier than the potential position) or have been an assistant coach at a very successful program (having a 'blueprint' of what it takes to be successful at that level).

Togo's footballers were today flying out of Angola after their government intervened and ordered them to return following the terrorist attack on their team bus.
The decision, which comes hours after members of the squad voted to stay and take part in the Africa Cup of Nations, emerged after the Prime Minister of Togo demanded they return home immediately.

My my, what do we have here? It's Elano scooping the lovely snow up with his wheelbarrow. And this is no playground, futbolitas. It's his own backyard in Istanbul, Turkey! Oh, how we wished all our backyards looked like this. It's nice to pretend to be a Snow Samaritan sometimes, especially if you're trying to break into Dopey's squad and can't manage hat-tricks every week.

By FRANCO PANIZO

The deadly attack on the Togo national team prior to the start of the African Cup of Nations left the soccer world stunned, and few disagreed when Togo decided to pull out of the tournament.

The African Football Confederation (CAF) is among those few.

At least one of the two NCAA Division I men's soccer coaching vacancies in Wisconsin should start to come into focus this week.

The opening at UW-Milwaukee, created when the school announced Nov. 20 that Jon Coleman wouldn't return after four seasons, is open for applications until Thursday.

Photo by ISIphotos.com

The Curt Onalfo era is officially underway in D.C., as United's newest coach was formally introduced at a press conference Tuesday.

For a club that is used to success, D.C. United has been humbled in recent seasons, failing to qualify for the postseason the last two campaigns.

The New York Red Bulls have announced the hiring of 57-year-old Swedish coach Hans Backe as the team's new head coach. A long-time confidant of Sven-Goran Eriksson, Backe most recently worked as head coach of English League two side Notts County, a job he quit after just seven weeks.

It has been a day of conflicting news and uncertainty following yesterday's deadly attack on the team bus of the Togolese national team.

With players and other staff members of the Togolese national team, officials of the Togolese FA and government, officials of the Angolan FA and government, CAF, FIFA, Sepp Blatter and a range of European clubs all releasing statements and bits and pieces of sometimes contradictory information, it's difficult to give a definitive picture of the current situation.

Those who died in the attack are the Angolan bus driver, the team's spokesman Stanislas Ocloo and assistant coach Amalete Abalo.Nine were injured - two players, an assistant manager, physio, goalkeeping coach and another coach.Defender Serge Akakpo, was hit by two bullets and lost a lot of blood but his condition was reported to be stable after successful surgery.

Richie Willams previews the MLS SuperDraft 2010 from Red Bulls Reader on Vimeo.

The NY Red Bulls Assistant Coach gives us his take as to what to expect at the 2010 MLS Superdraft.

St. Paul, MN 1-21-09

Kate Ryan Reiling, captain of Macalester's 1998 national championship squad, returns to her alma mater as the new head women's soccer coach, the St. Paul, Minnesota, college announced today. Ryan Reiling will begin her duties in March. She replaces John Leaney, who retired from coaching following a longtime and distinguished career at Macalester.

Turkish Football Federation(TFF) desperate to hire Italian stallion, who is still under contract with Republic Ireland National Team.
The Turkish National team has been without the head coach since Fatih Terim resigned, after not qualifying , for the world Cup 2010 games.

Eric Anderson is reporting at Madison Soccer Central that officials at UW-Milwaukee are stating that they will make a decision soon on the men's soccer coaching position at the school. The position has been vacant since November 20, 2009 when the schools AD announced that Jon Coleman would not be returning to coach in 2010.

Photo by ISIphotos.com

The Curt Onalfo era is officially underway in D.C., as United's newest coach was formally introduced at a press conference Tuesday.

For a club that is used to success, D.C. United has been humbled in recent seasons, failing to qualify for the postseason the last two campaigns.

Don't look so sad, Ray! I bet you won't miss us just as much as we won't miss you!

Today, FFF President Escalettes announced that we will know the next French coach before the 2010 World Cup we may even know as early as May.

We have already discussed how much the FFF want Bordeaux's Blanc.

I crammed myself into a downtown bar last night to attend DC United's meet the coach night which featured man-of-the-hour Curt Onalfo. Easily over 100 fans packed an undersized bar to get a mere glimpse, beer or handshake with Onalfo, owner Will Chang, GM Kevin Payne, new assistant coach Ben Olsen and forward Jaime Moreno.

STARTERS
Freddy Adu's latest Twitter message: "alright guys done deal. Signed a 18month loan deal with Aris FC. Alot of thought and research went into this. Thanks for the support."
ARTICLE OF THE DAY
David Conn of the Guardian on a very possible financial crisis ahead for Manchester United.

Swedish coach Hans Backe takes over a tall task of coaching the New York Red Bulls. (Getty Images)

After weeks of waiting for the New York Red Bulls to hire a coach today they have announced the hiring of 57-year-old Swedish coach Hans Backe. He most recently worked as head coach of English League two side Notts County, a job he quit after just seven weeks.

The Red Bulls finally announced the hiring of their new Head Coach. It's a Swedish guy by the name of Hans Backe. He's had plenty of experience in several countries, mananging in the Danish League, in the English lower divisions (had a two month spell at Notts County), in Austria (SV Salzburg - now FC Red Bull Salzburg), in Greece (A very brief, two game spell at Panathinaikos) and had a spell as an assistant to Sven-Goran Eriksson at both Manchester City and with the Mexican National Team.

With the player combine coming up this weekend and the MLS SuperDraft just a week away, the New York Red Bulls have finally settled on a head coach, unveiling Hans Backe as the new man in charge this morning. Red Bulls assistant coach Richie Williams and goalkeeping coach Des McAleenan will stay with the club in their current roles.

The Red Bulls once again look for a foreigner to manage their franchise, as they hire Swede Hans Backe to be the 13th coach in the 15-year history.
He certainly has an interesting resume, having worked most recently as the coach for Notts County in English League 2, stepping down after only seven weeks on the job on Dec.

1. Curt Onalfo to D.C. United
Of all the recent moves, this is the only one with a familiar name. D.C. needed a move and went to ex-Wizards boss Curt Onalfo. This guy has connections all over the place with the club: he used to play for 'em back in the day and also was an assistant coach a while back.

Former Mexican league and El Salvador national team coach Carlos de los Cobos has come to terms with the Fire and will be named the fifth coach in franchise history next Monday, according to a league source.

De los Cobos, 51, replaces Denis Hamlett, the longtime Fire assistant coach who did not receive a contract extension after two years on the job and parted ways with the club in late November.

There is only one story to cover this morning in a rare Saturday roundup, after waking up this morning and learning three more travelling with the Togo team have reportedly died from yesterday's terrorist attack in Cabinda, Angola, apparently a reserve goalkeeper, assistant coach and a PR official.

There still appears to be some confusion over the death toll, but it seems likely that as well as the un-named Angolan bus driver, assistant coach Abalo Amalete, press officer Stanislas Ocloo and reserve goalkeeper Kodjovi Obilale were either killed during the attack or died of their injuries afterwards.

A tournament that is often hard to find coverage of in the US, but we hard core soccer fans love to watch starts today, Sunday, January 10th. It's the African Cup of Nations (ANC), this year to played in Angola.

This year's Cup has been marred in tragedy before it even started. As I'm sure everyone knows by know, the team from Togo was traveling to the tournament by bus and attacked on Friday by armed gunman.

African Nations Cup tragedy leaves Togo with no choice but to leave the competition and mourn the loss and injury of teammates and officials.

Togo captain Emmanuel Adebayor has told French radio his team will return home from the Africa Cup of Nations following advice from their government.

Pro Soccer Weekly is proud to present an exclusive interview with Kerry Zavagnin, currently an Assistant Coach with the Kansas City Wizards. Kerry has had an extensive playing career and a lot of different experiences, including the games that he played for the U.S. National Team. Kerry was always someone whose career I was very interested in because I remember him starting out with the New York/New Jersey Metrostars and then later as a player with the Wizards and how he improved so much over the years.

It seems all anyone can talk about is Hans Backe taking on the post as the New York Red Bulls manager. Even, Freddie Ljungberg took time out of from his safari holiday to blog about it. For those of you who don't know, Backe is a well-known Swedish manager. Over the past couple of years, he has been Sven Goran Eriksson's wing man.

Missouri State Bears, Kelsey Finders (2012)

JONESBORO, Ark. (1/12/10) – The Arkansas State soccer team has made its first addition to its roster for the 2010 season adding a transfer from Missouri State University in forward Kelsey Finders.

Finders will be a junior with two years of eligibility remaining in the fall of 2010.

At least, it was live.. you know, earlier today... when we were in Philly. Now, it's archived footage, but because we had a few technical difficulties with the interwebs while at the Convention Center, we wanted to get you all the interviews Tony Limarzi conducted. Check out what GM Dave Kasper, Head Coach Curt Onalfo, Assistant Coach Mark Simpson and Assistant Coach Ben Olsen had to say about the return of Troy Perkins and the SuperDraft (among other things).

Sarah Teegarden might have to put her coaching career on hold.

The former UW-Milwaukee standout midfielder, who was an assistant coach at NCAA Division III Alverno College in Milwaukee last fall, was selected by Saint Louis Athletica in the sixth round of the Women's Professional Soccer draft today in Philadelphia.

Sarah Teegarden might have to put her coaching career on hold.

The former UW-Milwaukee standout midfielder, who was an assistant coach at NCAA Division III Alverno College in Milwaukee last fall, was selected by Saint Louis Athletica in the sixth round of the Women's Professional Soccer draft today in Philadelphia.

Former Rapids striker and current Houston Dynamo assistant coach John Spencer reportedly is a candidate for the Portland Timbers' head coaching position.

OregonLive.com reports that Spencer met with owner Merritt Paulson and others on the Timbers' staff within the past few days in Portland.

It went widely unnoticed or cared about, but when Soccer America reported that Eric Wynalda is being given a trial run as an Under-20 National Team assistant coach . . . my head started spinning.

Would Eric use his brash style, deep history and strong playing experience as a force of good to help groom our promising "next generation" of players?