Red Bulls keeper Bouna Coundoul and left back Roy Miller have been called up to their respective national teams and will miss the team’s first preseason trip in Mexico.
Coundoul was called up be Senegal for its upcoming friendly against Guinea on Feb. 9. One can only hope they don’t have the seasoned veteran fly all the way to Dakar and sit him on the bench, as they’ve done in the past. He’s been capped four times, the most recent a 1-0 win over the Cape Verde Islands last Aug. 11.
Miller joins the Costa Rican National Team for their Feb. 9 friendly vs. Venezuela in Puerto La Cruz. He just started all four matches for the Ticos in the Central American Cup. He converted the clinching penalty in the shootout to earn a Jan,. 21 semifinal win over Panama, 1-1 (4-2), and he went the full 90 in the final, a 2-1 loss to Honduras.
*** Thierry Henry will be in the Mexican portion of camp, and will be there for the March 19 opener against Seattle, despite Newcastle’s attempts to lure him away. After selling striker Andy Carroll to Liverpool for a boatload of cash _ £35million? Really? _ Newcastle approached Henry’s friend and agent Darren Dein for a loan deal.
“We had a real attempt to get Henry but the start of the MLS season worked against us,’’ the Daily Express quoted a source as saying.
*** Ex-Red Bull coach Juan Carlos Osorio had seemed set to take over the Honduran national team job, but he had a change of heart and stayed with Once Caldas.
Apparently Osorio _ whose contract ran until December _ had reached a verbal agreement with Honduras pending approval from Once Caldas and the Honduran federation that he could stay on with the Colombian league champs until June.
But when Honduras deemed that too close to World Cup qualifying and pushed him to start next week he decided to stay in his native Colombia. That ruins any opportunity to see him coaching a Gold Cup game at Red Bull Arena, against the U.S. (coached by fired ex-MetroStar coach Bob Bradley) and broadcast by ESPN’s Alexi Lalas (an ex-New York GM). Pity.
