Photo by ISIphotos.com
By AVI CREDITOR
After having his name tossed around the rumor mill in the last couple of months, Juan Carlos Osorio has a new squad to coach – the Honduras national team.
The former Chicago Fire, New York Red Bulls and Once Caldas coach has been selected to become the next manager of Los Catrachos. Fresh off capturing the Colombian clausura championship with Once Caldas, Osorio was rumored to be returning to MLS as coach of Chivas USA.
Instead he'll look to guide Honduras in this summer's CONCACAF Gold Cup and beyond.
An interesting side note from the Honduras coaching search, according to this story, is that current Chicago Fire coach Carlos de los Cobos was one of the final candidates for the position.
Here are a few more stories from around the soccer world:
NEVILLE RETIRES
Longtime Manchester United defender Gary Neville announced his retirement from soccer, effective immediately.
The 35-year-old Neville appeared an astounding 602 times for the Red Devils throughout his career. He also earned 85 caps for England, but has been besieged by injury of late.
"Gary was the best English right back of his generation," Manchester United coach Sir Alex Ferguson told the BBC.
It's speculated that Neville will to be stepping into a role either in television or as a coach.
TFC, PARTIZAN DRAW IN TURKEY
Nana Attakora scored off an attempted cross in the sixth minute, but Partizan Belgrade pulled even from the penalty spot before halftime as Toronto FC and Partizan played to a 1-1 draw in a friendly in Turkey on Wednesday.
Dwayne de Rosario missed a penalty for TFC, which also saw Doneil Henry get sent off for receiving two cautions.
TFC is in Turkey until Feb. 12 and will play Dinamo Zagreb in a friendly two days before departing.
BARCELONA, REAL MADRID ADVANCE TO COPA DEL REY FINAL
After entering the second leg of its Copa del Rey semifinal tie with a 5-0 lead, Barcelona took the opportunity to rest most of its regular starters. It didn't seem to matter.
Adriano, Thiago and Ibrahim Affelay each scored as Barca downed Almeria, 3-0, to advance to the Copa del Rey final.
Joining Barcelona in the final will be rival Real Madrid, which received late goals from Mesut Ozil and Emmanuel Adebayor to defeat Sevilla, 2-0 (3-0 on aggregate) to take their semifinal tie.
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What do you think of Osorio coaching Honduras? Surprised that De los Cobos was a candidate? What's your reaction to Neville retiring? Like TFC's preseason slate? Who do you see winning the Copa del Rey?
Share your thoughts below.
Now he gets the chance to screw up an entire country’s national team. Surreal
does that mean that canada will soon be able to be ranked above honduras?
I third that!
I second that.
Well, since we’re talking about homeliness, I think Jose Bosingwa’s uni-brow beats 3 or 4 of those guys all by itself. But I generally don’t rate teams on looks, so I’ll leave the final decision to you.
Without Gary Neville, Man U is in danger of losing their long-running title of the homeliest team in the Premiership! Ah well, at least they still have Rio Ferdinand and Nani, with respectable though lesser contributions from Paul Scholes, Wayne Rooney and Dimitar Berbatov. Bad move to sign Chicarito though.
Juan Carlos Osorio at the national team level might surprise some people. I see De Los Cobos being mentioned but he did he definitely shocked some with El Salvador’s performance in the last qualifying cycle. I will say aside from being Colombian, Osorio does share some similarities with Honduras previous coach Reinaldo Rueda.
The Honduran squad is on the up and up. They have had players plying their trade though out Europe and Asia and have started to slowly make their way to more recognized leagues. Nunez, Izaguirre, Palacios, Thomas, Figueroa are just a few guys that have made their way to better leagues.
The Honduras and Osorio connection can only lead to a more competitive Concacaf. He is a great reader of the game and just because his tenure in MLS wasn’t spectacular doesn’t mean he isn’t a good coach.
Madrid/Barca play three days after the Copa del Rey in La Liga. Safe to say that week will be focused en Espana, and that Barcelona will seal the double in those two games.
Osorio is not a very good coach, he has not been able to keep a time succesful for more than a year. After a year he wears his teams out.
This will certainly help the USA win Najar.
Didn’t know TopGear was on Sky
Osorio must have impressed them with his note-taking abilities.
Najar just picked Honduras.
haha…in the Osorio article, where he looks 20 years older: RED BULLS, DEL CIELO AL INFIERNO
Hey man, all good things come to an end, right?
Sky?
We will see in 3+ more years. That’s all I;m gonna say about it until then.
Gutted about Gary – fantastic servant for the club and an inspiration to all.
Disagree, I think he’s a fine coach outside of MLS – where he still had success.
Can’t say I know much about the Honduras team’s up and coming players, but it won’t come down to the coach in my opinion.
I hear that the BBC might have some jobs available…
I am going to go out on a limb. I guarantee that Honduras does not qualify for the next world cup.
Najar to USA!
Some things in life just don’t make sense….Good thing is that Najar can’t possibly wanna play for Osorio…..
Najar would be the starting RB for honduras oh JCO
You mean Carlos de los Cobos was almost gone? Why can’t we get rid of this loser?