Glasgow Rangers has grabbed the unofficial title of Team America on Wednesday after making U.S. national team captain the second American to sign with the Scottish club champions on Wednesday.
Bocanegra joins Rangers via transfer from St. Etientte, and could be in action as soon as Thursday. His signing came on the same day Rangers announced the acquisition of U.S. national team midfielder Alejandro Bedoya.
Bocanegra, Bedoya and Maurice Edu will now team up to try and help Rangers advance in Europa League as well as win another Scottish League title.
With three U.S. players on the books, Rangers has the most Americans of any European squad.
What do you think of Bocanegra moving to Rangers? Like the move? Ready to buy a Rangers jersey?
Share your thoughts below.
Rangers just signed two Latino Catholics and a black guy. Maybe we can stop talking about how bigoted and evil they are. It’s not like they’re Chivas or anything.
Dude, they just signed two Latino Catholics and a black guy. Maybe we can stop talking about how bigoted and evil they are. It’s not like they’re Chivas or anything.
Shame? Did I miss something?
Yeah – Real Madrid was Generalisimo Francisco Franco’s team from 1939 – 1975 (fascist dictator who “restored” the monarchy to Spain after there was an attempt at a freely elected democratic government by the Spanish Republic – Franco was aided during the Spanish Civil War by Hitler and Mussolini, there are still mass graves being discovered today in Spain created by Franco’s fascist troops under orders to rid Spain of all Republicans, “reds,” and Masons, and free thinkers, etc. etc. – if interested read “Las Fosas de Franco.”). The Camp Nou was the only place in Spain where the people of Catalunya could sing their national anthem, or dance the Sardana with out getting a rifle but in the head from Franco’s fascist police “la Guardia Civil.” Barcelona and Catalunya were the site of fierce resistance to the Fascist-Nationalist troops led by Franco, and the Catalans were punished accordingly for siding with the Republic for decades. I too, could go on for pages and pages….. ………..but suffice it to say – Mourinho has proven once again why he is the “special one,” that he is a very special and unique example of poor sportsmanship, a genuine horses a** – his behavior does not belong in organized football. Guardiola has more class in his left foot than Mourinho has in his entire soul-less body.
I believe he is referring to their perennial chances. Rangers has a far better chance of finishing tops in their league than Boca’s squad did in France.
Got em.
I don’t like this. I would rather him be in France.
I can understand your point. I guess what I meant to say was that I think the race card and charges of racism/xenophobia/bigotry are way too quick to be leveled at other people, parties, groups, and, in this case, soccer teams. Especially when it’s not like Celtic is the shining beacon on the hill of goodwill while anyone associated with Rangers will be sitting next to Adolf Hitler in Hell.
Bocanegra and Bedoya better be skipping the sign of the cross if they score. Rangers is one team that gives me the creeps.
I think what he is saying is it is okay to talk politics as related to soccer. Generalizations like your “No one plays the race/xenophobia/ethnic card quite like the left in the USA. This is pretty mild, all things considered.” are unnecessary.
“take politics somewhere else?” This entire thread has been about politics.
Here is how UEFA ranks the leagues by country (for seeding puposes).
Note that Sweden and Norway aren’t even in the top twenty.
The top 4 MLS teams would doubtless do just fine in the SPL. The biggest gap between MLS teams and equivalent European sides is the depth. Most European sides have a more resources for developing depth.
Once MLS academies start to really develop talent my suspicion is things will change dramatically for the better.
Rank2011 League
1 England
2 Spain
3 Germany
4 Italy
5 France
6 Portugal
7 Russia
8 Ukraine
9 Turkey
10 Netherlands
11 Greece
12 Denmark
13 Romania
14 Belgium
15 Scotland
16 Switzerland
17 Israel
18 Austria
19 Czech Republic
20 Cyprus
His injury was a “calf strain” and he then went on to play 90 minutes on Saturday.
Yes, though they are now in Europa League.
And SPL pays a whole lot better than MLS for a journeyman defender.
Get the chapter in question here: http://tinyurl.com/3ky3kfv
Errrmmmmm… …just confirming here… isn’t “Walker, Texas Ranger” more a symbol of American shame?
I am pretty shocked at how many people are tearing down the SPL… the league is not nearly as soft and unskilled as you all think… there are some decent footballing sides and I would say as a whole it is every bit as good if not a little better than the MLS…
And for the record I always defend the MLS… I would not be stunned if Hearts beat Spurs reserves today in Europa..
IIRC Celtic banned that player for life after the Reyna stunt.
Will Bocanegra switch to the middle in Scotland? That is probably the only place he can play right now with the USNT.
For those of you interested in the mixture of culture, politics and soccer I’d recommend “How Soccer Explains the World” by Franklin Foer. There is an entire chapter dedicated to the significance and history of the Rangers – Celtic rivalry. An easy read.
http://www.amazon.com/How-Soccer-Explains-World-Globalization/dp/0066212340
I’m sad to see boca on the decline, but I hope he can keep the big paychecks coming as long as possible. Ligue 1 is fast and technical, and he rarely attacked from his left back position. An ASSE forum notes that they got 1 to 1.5m euros for him from Rangers and lightened ASSE’s wage bill. But they also said that while Boca was slow and had faults, he was hard worker and a tough leader and will be missed on defense. http://www.asse-actu.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12364
This is true bro. But people did forget about the Barca-Real rivalry as well. Huge historical political and social implications there too. Rivalries like that are part of soccer all over Europe.
Predominance isn’t the problem, bigotry is. You make a “fine” contribution to proving that point.
Yeah but Americans don’t know how to play football properly according to Backe… and of course that explains why the Rangers never win anything while the Red Bulls are the #1 MLS team!!
Well said.
Being a Yank and a Yankees fan are totally different things by the way.Go Red Sox.
Yank till I die Yank till i die Hie o the dairy of IM Yank till i DIE
Im catholic till i die Im catholic till i die Hie o the dairy o im catholic till i die.
Think they’ll print an Edudoyanegra jersey?
Rangers has more americans and will start them than NY Redbulls…thanks Backe, you are the worst that can happen the development of this sport in this league…
Here’s the automatic counter to that: Nobody covers up their racist tendencies like the right in the US, by saying things like, “playing the race card.”
See, moron, it easily works both ways. Take the politics someplace else, and TRY to leave this a board about soccer.
i giggled
Obviously now Rangers will go after Eddie Johnson. Michael Bradley too.
As if “Bocanegra” and “Bedoya” aren’t catholic-sounding enough for ya. This whole sectarian thing is BS. F**k Glasgow. Ally McCoist is a fine name for a Celtic man too.
agreed
Pretty psyched to see Boca and Bedoya moved to the Gers. I started following them the past few years once Edu went there. Rangers have had a very solid team the past few years – without much money to spend, they had to coach and develop their players. What a novel concept – instead of just splashing the cash every time things got rough. They ended up with a group that had a lot of cohesion.
From reading a lot about the situation there, it doesn’t seem like either Rangers or Celtic fans can really take a moral high ground. I think one thing us Americans can relate to is the friction that can come from an immigrant population that still identifies with their previous home. All the Mexicans who live here but support El Tri over our team. You assume at some point a few generations on they’ll think of themselves more as “Americans” (like all of us have). By comparison, and I say this realizing some others probably know a LOT more on the subject – it seems like Protestant Scots wonder if Catholic Irish immigrant descendants will ever totally assimilate and become Scottish, and Catholic Irish may wonder if they’ll ever be treated as “Scots” as much as their neighbors. My calm two cents.
Yeah kind of like pracically the entire Spain squad playing together on Barcelona, or Real Madrid.
Ok, scratch that comparison : (
I always assumed it was more because soccer started in the UK (not in Somalia or Spain). It’s not Scotland are the only ones with their own national team separate from England, Northern Ireland and Wales have them as well.
Imaginary country may change, the nationalist have won the majority and get to vote on whether they want to become an independent nation. Although they finally get a vote, it probably still won’t pass.
Scotland and the SPL exist because of special clauses and grandfathering. Scotland does not deserve it’s own domestic league that receives special European slots nor do they deserve their own national team. Why?
It boils down to one of two things-a) Scotland=’functionally a country’ and deserves national team recognition, and/or b) they’re not good enough to exist without their special recognition. Those are both really lame reasons.
Scotland is part of the United Kingdom. Yes they have a good degree of autonomy, guess what, so do hundreds of regions throughout the world-Somaliland, Zanzibar, Western Sahara, Basque regions in Spain, Catalunia, islands in Indonesia, tons of Russia, etc. Yet none of them get special recognition-it is unfair to each and every one of those relatively autonomous regions, who have players who would make the Basque national team but not the Spanish for Scotland to have a team. And please, yes Scotland has differences than England and Wales, but come on, every country has regional differences, Texas and New York are very different, but we are American first, Texan second(well, most of us anyway). b) is similar to a)-nobody cares that your team isn’t good enough to play on a United Kingdom team, tough, get some better players.
Oh ya, the various member states of the UK also have like 60% of the voting in the rules of the game committee whereas FIFA as an orginzation has 1 vote I believe.
We have a winner!
I hope Rangers place him back in his strongest position of centerback.
Racist Rangers. Celtics all the way.
SPL hasn’t dropped THAT far yet.
Yeah, what happened here?
He was under contract, right? I’m really confused….