HAPPY TUESDAY everyone, we are approaching the midweek and it should be a busy few days ahead as we have European games, the CONCACAF Champions league, a national team roster on the horizon and youth notes.

Let’s get this kicked off

US Soccer’s Sporting Director

In a January conference call, U.S. Soccer president Cindy Parlow Cone gave a very rough outline of when she wanted to hired the Sporting Director job that was vacated by Earnie Stewart who returned to Holland to take a front office job with PSV. With the search being led by Sportsology, she wanted the SD to be hired by the start of the Women’s World Cup in July. This would then lead to a new USMNT coaching hire (with Gregg Berhalter still in the running) by the summer.

The good news is that some names are starting to surface. Doug McIntyre at Fox Sports reported yesterday that former USMNT defender Oguchi Onyewu is in the running after he left his post in November as the secretary general of Royal Excelsior Virton in Belgium's second tier. ASN can confirm Fox’s report. Last month, the Athletic reported that Philadelphia Union sporting director Ernst Tanner was approached about the job but turned it down. ASN has also heard that Dane Murphy was approached for the job but declined to in order to remain in Europe. He left his post as Nottingham Forest’s CEO in January (he previously was the sporting director at Real Salt Lake, DC United, and then at Barnsley in the Championship – where he brought Daryl Dike over from Orlando and helped the club climb into the promotional playoffs).

But regardless of where they are in the process, the fact that names are surfacing is positive that perhaps the hiring process is ahead of schedule.

Monday’s games

Fulham has had a great season and both Tim Ream and Antonee Robinson have been very important to that success. But on Tuesday they lost to Brentford 3-2 away. Robinson was beaten on the final Brentford. Ream was his standard decent self.

Celta Vigo and Osasuna played to a 0-0 draw and Luca de la Torre started for Celta and was subbed out in the 56^th minute. Despite the result, De la Torre played fairly well – especially with his defensive positioning. Offensively, he only managed to get on the ball 24 times. Still, it has been a big step forward in this season going from the bottom of the Eredivisie to hanging in La Liga.

Tuesday’s games

Most eyes will be on the UEFA Champions League on Tuesday with Chelsea looking to rebound at home against Borussia Dortmund following a 1-0 loss in the first leg. Christian Pulisic will be back in the squad after a two-month absence. Gio Reyna is also on Dortmund although his minutes have been few and far between since play resumed in January.

My guess is that Pulisic has a good chance to play although his minutes will be limited. But with Chelsea not having played well under Potter, Pulisic might offer him a different look. Reyna is a luxury player right now for BVB. His best chance of playing is if Chelsea manage to get the upper hand and BVB is pressing for a goal.

In the Conference League knockouts, Djordje Mihailovic will likely be on the bench for AZ Alkmaar when it visits Rome to face Lazio.

In the Championship, West Brom hosts relegation battling Wigan. If West Brom are looking to make a push into the promotional playoffs, the streaky Daryl Dike is going to be a part of that. He is more than capable of going on a hot streak that could help elevate 11^th place West Brom. It is currently seven points out of the playoffs.

Three MLS teams are in the CONCACAF Champions League opening tonight.

Austin FC travels to Haiti to face Violette AC. Austin FC has three points from its first two matches in MLS this season. Head coach Josh Wolff has a big task ahead of himself in 2023 after a successful 2022 season where it advanced to the Western Conference final.

The Philadelphia Union are in El Salvador to visit Alianza. Jim Curtin’s talented team is coming of a disappointing loss to Inter Miami over the weekend. It will be interesting to see if and how Curtin rotates his squad.

The big one will be Orlando City traveling to Monterrey, Mexico to face a Tigres UANL that is having a strong season in Liga MX. Head coach Oscar Pareja rotated his squad this past weekend to prepare for this match but in the first two weeks of the MLS season, Orlando’s offense has been disjointed.