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Monday Kickoff: Notes on Holden, Chicago and the African Cup of Nations

Stuart Holden (ISIphotos.com)

Photo by ISIphotos.com

 

Stuart Holden's European adventure is now taking him to Bolton.

The soon-to-be former Houston Dynamo midfielder is reportedly set to begin a trial with Bolton after initially heading to England for a trial with Burnley. Owen Coyle's move to become Bolton's manager has precipitated the switch for Holden.

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The Chicago Fire formally announced the hiring of Carlos De Los Cobos as head coach on Sunday, and will present him on Monday in Chicago. De Los Cobos won't waste much time getting started. He is set to fly down to Florida on Monday evening to catch the final day of Combine action on Tuesday.

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The African Cup of Nations will resume today with Malawi facing USA World Cup opponent Algeria, and with Ivory Coast taking on Burkina Faso.

As we all still try to make sense of the senseless attack on the Togolese national team in Angola, one journalist took the time to remind us that he saw this coming.

Also from the Daily Mail, Emmanuel Adebayor admits that Togolese players wanted to stay and play to honor their fallen comrades.

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The club match of the weekend saw AC Milan easily dispose of Juventus, 3-0, on the strength of two goals from the rejuvenated Ronaldinho. Here are the highlights:

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Look out for more MLS Combine coverage throughout the day, as well as a feature on U.S. national team call-up Marcus Tracy that will post later this morning.

For now, please feel free to share your thoughts on any of the above stories in the comments section below.

Comments

  1. Where do you guys watch the African Cup of Nations? I was hoping to catch the Ivory Coast vs. Ghana game. Also, which other games might you recommend, as I know embarassingly little about African football?

    Thanks.

    Reply
  2. While it’s less than ideal playing with a good coach in the Championship isn’t necessarily a bad move, still a very good league with great coaching. There’s also quite a good chance that he could get picked up by another Premiership team if he has a good showing the rest of this season.

    Reply
  3. “I had a lot of feedback from their staff there, the main one was from the reserve coach. Steve Morrow was also keeping an eye on me during training. Basically they told me I had everything to play at Arsenal. Technically I’m right up there, and they saw putting me in there, that I didn’t hold the other players back. I wasn’t a step back; I was right there with them. And in most cases I was better than most of the reserve players, so they definitely liked what they saw and said keep doing what you’re doing, playing like you do wherever you go next. They said they’d keep an eye on me. That was basically it. It could have maybe been a different story if I would have had a European passport or work permit to play in England, than maybe they would have taken different steps, or taken further initiative, but just the fact that it was so hard for me to get a work permit made them want to wait and see on me.”

    Reply

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