
U.S. defender Jonathan Spector has joined Birmingham City on a two-year contract.
SSN is a digest of the day's soccer/football/futbol articles with a focus on the top European leagues and the United States National Team. Below, you’ll find links to articles and video, as well as additional features and commentary. We locate the top news of the day so you can stay updated with ease.

The marriage between Juergen Klinsmann and the United States national team began with a perfect slice of good fortune, but the new head coach should not expect his honeymoon period to last long. Klinsmann and the USA were handed a dream run through qualifying last weekend, when the World Cup draw in Rio de Janeiro gave the Americans what would appear to be a trouble-free passage toward the finals in 2014.
Instead of being pitched into a semifinal group including the likes of Costa Rica or Panama (which beat them in the recent CONCACAF Gold Cup), the Americans’ presumed list of opponents is Jamaica, Guatemala and Haiti. If Klinsmann could have hand-picked a set of foes for his first competitive round, it would probably have looked something like that.


The new football season is normally a time for optimism, hope and dreams of silverware.
World champion Spain was drawn on Saturday with 1998 winner France, Georgia, Belarus and Finland in a qualifying group for the 2014 tournament -- the first World Cup in Brazil in 64 years. The United States, featuring new coach Juergen Klinsmann, was drawn with Jamaica in a qualifying group from North and Central America and the Caribbean.
England was placed with 2012 European Championship co-hosts Ukraine and Poland in Group H. Montenegro, Moldova and San Marino also are in the group.

Essentially, Batista has been sacked because Carlos Tevez had his penalty saved in the shoot-out - but more fundamentally, he has gone because it is electoral year in the Argentine FA. This is the factor that forced the change. Julio Grondona, president for 32 years, is hungry for more, which means that he has to play to the gallery. His constituency is the club presidents. This is a moment where Grondona is careful to give them what they want. They wanted Batista out, and so out he goes.

