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Friday Kickoff: Holden to Bolton rumors persist, Harmse dealt to Houston and more

Holden (Reuters)

By TRAVIS CLARK

Speculation has been rampant this past week about Stuart Holden's future. Reports that Bolton had passed on signing the Houston midfielder circulated — however, news from Houston and the UK still link the 24-year-old with a move to the Wanderers.

No official announcement has been made and even the mainstream British press has yet to pick up on the newest link. Whatever the case, it's only a matter of time before Holden lands a deal, with Owen Coyle's side still in the hunt.

As for Houston, training camp is fast approaching and Dominic Kinnear will need to rebuild a midfield that has lost two starters from last season with Ricardo Clark's move to Germany.

Here are a few more stories for Friday:

HOUSTON ACQUIRE HARMSE

Kinnear's first move to bolster his midfield is the addition of Kevin Harmse from Chivas USA. The Dynamo acquired the rights to Harmse in exchange for a conditional draft pick (either third or fourth round) in 2012.

Harmse will join the club for preseason, though it appears he'll have to secure a contract with the club — Houston would be his fourth MLS club — he made 12 appearances for Toronto in 2009, but never featured for Chivas after joining the Goats in June.

UNION ADD DELLACAMERA FOR PLAY-BY-PLAY

Philadelphia Union added another big name off the pitch, as they revealed that announcing and play-by-play duties will be handled by ESPN announcer J.P. Dellacamera. Soccer fans in the area will hear a familiar voice, as Dellacamera will call Union games while maintaining his game of the week duties for ESPN2.

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Where will Holden end up? Is Bolton the place? Will Harmse make the squad in Houston and help their midfield? Glad to see the Union add Dellacamera?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. A slight revision:

    John Harkes is actually the guy that I hate. JP is always working games with him so I confuse the 2. I apologize for the confusion; I actually consider JP to be average to above average as far as commentators I have heard. As long as he’s not working with Harkes, Philly will be okay…

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  2. I would like to see Holden get a deal with Bolton playing in the EPL could get him some valuable experience. The new nike USMNT jerseys are average I would prefer adidas better.

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  3. Same here, we probably won’t know unless it changes on a club’s website. Right now, on the Houston Dynamo’s website, it still says that Holden is on their roster.

    I haven’t seen anything about Holden coming or going from any news source from Greater Manchester or Greater Houston.

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  4. JP Dellacamera is a terrible, terrible soccer commentator. I’m glad I’m a Revs fan, so I get to watch plenty of Dellacamera-free matches.

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  5. Houston’s COO went on the local news and said Stu was leaving last night…that’s a much better source then everytime SBI cites the Daily Mirror as “Report: …..”

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  6. Obviously the internet is not the most trustworthy source, but I’ve seen things saying Bolton is about to announce a deal for Holden through the end of the season.

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  7. JP also did the Hockey World Junior Championships on NHL Network. He knows a lot about sports! I think he slipped up and used a soccer term once or twice, but otherwise, you wouldn’t be able to distinguish him from any other hockey play-by-play guy, other than the fact that he’s better than most (a high compliment, considering the exceptional quality of most hockey broadcasters with the notable exception of the Bruins’ guys).

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  8. I wore Nike shoulder pads in high school for American football. Nike is a sporting goods company, not a basketball company.

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  9. I’ve never heard JP criticize a player before. Maybe ask the color guy what went wrong in a certain move, but never criticize the player himself. Play by play guys dont do that, the color guys do. jp isnt a color guy, lalas is. nothing wrong with that.

    bottom line, though, everyone sucks. all the american guys, not a single one of them adds to the atmosphere of the game. Maybe Rob Stone, but that’s it. Schoen, O’Brian, Bretos, Edwards, JP, whoever, it’s all the same garbage.

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  10. So JP couldn’t do the Red Bulls games and the ESPN games, but now all of a sudden he can do Philly and ESPN games??? Bull.sh*t.

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  11. As a Bolton fan I would disagree…in the last two games vs. Arsenal Coyle was forced to bring McCann in as a sub, who is a hard worker but offers very little in terms of skill. Muamba is strong and athletic but again, nothing to give in attack. Cohen is decent but unspectacular, Taylor is out of form, Mark Davies showed something Wednesday until William Gallas decided to go in studs up on him, resulting in a bad ankle injury that will keep him out for a while. There’s no doubt in my mind that while we look set on the wings (Gardner, Lee, Taylor will probably keep his place, and now Weiss) we need center midfield help desperately. I wouldn’t be surprised if Holden started featuring on the bench in Mark Davies’ place right away.

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  12. I’d like to know what exactly do you think is so bad about Glenn Davis?

    The few games I’ve seen him on ESPN, he’s been great!

    I didn’t get to see the US vs Guatemala game in 08 but that’s about it, I’ve watched most of them.

    When he does Dynamo games, he brings a lot of enthusiasm and doesn’t just say crap that is of his personal opinion, which is more than I can say for Harkes or Balboa and even Wynalda

    Reply

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