Soccer Fan Pro

I don’t know why this fascinates me so. The second-tier World Cup teams who figure they won’t go anywhere at the World Cup … unless they hire some (usually) big-name foreigner to come in and run their team.

Nigeria has done this in the past. And Nigeria is doing it again.

On Saturday, Nigeria fired its home-grown coach, Shaibu Amodu, with the 2010 World Cup barely four months away.

Amodu’s crime? Well, there are two of them.

His team lost 3-1 to Egypt in the Cup of African Nations, and then lost 1-0 to Ghana in the semifinals. That’s crime No. 1.

Crime No.2: He’s Nigerian. Nigeria doesn’t think it’s going anywhere at the World Cup unless a foreigner is in charge. Say, like in 1998, when Bora Milutinovic got them into the knockout phase of the World Cup in France.

The usual names are coming up: Guus Hiddink first and foremost. Even though Guus says he will serve out the remainder of his contract with Russia.

(It strikes me that some of the top hired-gun coaches seem to come from two regions: Holland and Serbia/Croatia. Bora is a Serb. So is Ratomir Dujkovic, former Ghana coach, listed as a candidate for the Nigeria job.)

Actually, Nigeria could be a pretty good gig. There is some talent there (Yakubu Aiyegbeni, Obafemi Martins, Mikel John Obi, Dickson Etuhu, Joseph Yobo). A little jaded, perhaps, and individual-oriented. But it isn’t like trying to win with New Zealand’s guys.

So, drop in, make $500,000 or whatever for four months, with all sorts of incentives for doing anything good in South Africa … with the chance that your guys catch fire and get deep into the playoffs and pop you up to Guus Hiddink status — where your name comes up for every lucrative job opening in the world.

Also, this may be the only job opening before the 2010 World Cup. North Korea was thought to be looking for a coach, but it now seems as if the craziest country in Fifa will stick with their local guy. Which is probably just as well, considering North Korea has no money.

Nigeria is in a difficult but not impossible group: Argentina, Greece, South Korea. All three of those matches are in play, considering Diego Maradona coaches Argentina. Somebody may about to be famous.

One of the biggest underachievers in world soccer has a new man in charge.

Which is good news for China, because things could hardly get worse.

Soccer is the most popular sport in the world’s most populous country, but China is ranked No. 97 in the world and is sitting out the World Cup. As per usual.

So, after owning up to a rotten situation … China has a new guy running its federation, Wei Di. And he’s not even from soccer, which probably is good, too. Wouldn’t want anyone who has been tainted by the stink of failure/cheating that has surrounded the sport there.

China has been laughably inept. Playing in the world’s weakest region, it couldn’t even get into the final 10 of Asian qualifying last year.

It gets worse. The professional league there is massively corrupt. The last head of the football association is being held after investigations of bribery and match-fixing. Yes. It’s that bad.

How China, so disciplined and straight-laced in so many endeavors of the sports type, can allow their football federation to decay into incompetence and vice … is almost inexplicable.

The new guy, whose background is in water sports, is approaching this in the right way. He said China’s first goal is to become a “strong team in Asia.” Which right now, would be a big step forward for a nation of 1.3 billion soccer fans.

The younger brother of former star Stuart Holden of Major League Soccer’s Houston Dynamo, defender Euan Holden, signed a two-year deal Saturday to play for Vejle, a Dutch team currently in eighth place in the country’s second division, where they have been relegated, instead of playing for the Dynamo, who drafted Euan, out of the University of New Mexico, in the fourth round of the 2010 MLS SuperDraft, according to The Houston Chronicle.

After four seasons and two MLS Cup titles with the Dynamo, the older Holden became a free agent and recently signed a deal to play for Bolton in the English Premier League.

Brian Farber, Chay Bardales and Enrique Tovar each scored two goals to lead the host California Cougars to a 10-7 victory over Revolucion Tijuana in Professional Arena Soccer League play Saturday at Stockton Arena,

Uriel Robredo, Vicente Figueroa, Nelson Santa and player-head coach Antonio Sutton added goals for the Cougars, the defending league champions and currently in second place in the Western Division behind the San Diego Sockers, who they welcome to town Saturday.

Eduardo Velez, a former Cougar, had two goals to lead Tijuana, a member of the amatuer Premier Arena Soccer League.

Jorge Duran scored a pair of two-point goals and Jose Bontti earned his league-high eighth win of the season as a goalkeeper and scored a three-point goal as La Raza de Monterrey defeated the Rockford Rampage 13-6 in Major Indoor Soccer League play Sunday at Arena Monterrey.

Mark Ughy, Carlos Farias and Shaun David each added a two-point goal in the win, which improved Monterrey to 8-5 on the season, a game head of the Milwaukee Wave (7-6) and 1 1/2 games ahead of the Rampage (6-6).

Bato Radoncic had two two-pointers and Roberto Gallo the third for Rockford.

Monterrey hosts the Baltimore Blast on Valentine’s Day this Sunday and Rockford travels this Saturday to the Wave.