Soccer birthdays: India star Sunil Chetri turns 28. The Sporting Kansas City washout currently plays for Sporting Clube de Portugal B. Alrighty then!
Big Important Story of the Day: The American women take on New Zealand in the quarterfinals of the Olympic tournament. Abby Wambach, Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe. You know the drill. Win, and the gold-medal game is just one match away.
Big Story of the Day that’s not really that important, but still a big story: Terrence Boyd drew a penalty in Vienna’s 2-1 Europa League loss on Thursday night. The man continues to ball.
RASNoD (Random American Soccer Name of the Day): Mia Hamm (maybe not that random)
*Ahead on the blog today: We take a look at some MLS salary figures. Plus, Ricardo Clark returns to where he belongs (Houston), and the comedically brilliant stylings of one Steve Davis.
Twitter daps: A two-fer from our man in Belgium, Sacha Kljestan:
What you should watch on TV:
The US women against New Zealand. 9:30 am. NBC Sports Network.
And then: New York Red Bulls against the Houston Dynamo at the beautiful BBVA Compass Stadium, obviously. NBC Sports Network (doubleheader!), 8:00 pm. Get into it.
PST background noise while blogging today: The Star-Spangled Banner. It’s Olympic season.
*Always subject to change; you know how it is…