Soccer Fan Pro

Reading United, formerly the Reading Rage, of the United Soccer Leagues Premier Development League signed current Duke player Andrew Wegner and North Carolina player Billy Schuler to contracts Wednesday, according to PhillySoccerNews.com.

Wagner joined the then-Rage last midseason after being named the Atlantic Coast Conference Freshman of the Year and to the conference’s first team. He also has played on the US U-17 and U-20 National Teams and was the National High School Soccer Player of the Year at Warwick High School.

Schuler led the Tar Heels to the NCAA College Cup in his first two seasons at Chapel Hill. In 2009, he was named to the National Soccer Coaches Association of America’s Third Team All-American squad and to the ACC’s first team.

The Kalamazoo Outrage of the United Soccer Leagues Premier Development League announced Wednesday former captain Don Bulley will become an assistant coach to head coach Mark Spooner.

Bulley played on the team’s inaugural team in 2008, scoring four goals before missing the rest of the season after breaking a metatarsal bone.

In 59 starts betwen West Texas A&M and the University of Buffalo, where Bulley recently graduated, he had 27 goals and 11 assists.

Ironbound Express, formely Newark Ironbound Express, of the United Soccer Leagues Premier Development League announced the first 23 players on the 2010 roster.

The list is led by midfielder Jeff Matteo, a 2001 graduate of St. John’s University.

In January 2002, Matteo trained in Italy with Monza of their Division C1, but returned to the States and played in Major League Soccer with the Columbus Crew, who selected him 17th overall in the 2002 SuperDraft.

He also played in MLS for the New York Red Bulls, then joined USL First Division in 2004 with the now-defunct Minnesota Thunder. Matteo also played in USL1 for the Charleston Battery (now in USL Second Division) and Miami FC Blues (now in the USSF Division II Pro League).

The other players joining the Express for the season are Matia Daimiani, Kyle Grato, Ryan Meara, Carlos Suarez, Assaf Sheleg, John Sallhag, Jeverton DeLorenzi, Farzan Bigdeli, Leroy Sequeira, Michael Konicoff, Robert Larocca, Shea Brown, Frank Alesci, Henri Bega, Andrew Konopelsky, Joseph Afful, Arthur Kolkov, Hemir Niebles, Kevin Meyer, Tarik Smith and Josh Trott.

Bobby Burnley scored the game’s only goal in the 51st minute off assists from Quincy Amarikwa and Simon Elliott as Major League Soccer’s San Jose Earthquakes beat a developmental squad from Tottentham Hotspur of the English Premier League 1-0 Wednesdat at Spurs Lodge in Chigwell, London, England.

The Earthquakes, who won their second game in London against an EPL opponent, faces a fellow MLS Western Conference foe in the Colorado Rapids Friday at Spurs Lodge.

This isn’t about soccer, really. It’s about South Africa. Which is going to host the World Cup in 90-some days.

South Africa is a place of some fairly intense political rhetoric. Given its history, understandably. But the place seems to move forward when it does its best to look ahead, not back.

And in this case we have the loose cannon of the African National Congress, name of Julius Malema, president of the ANC’s youth league, singing a song about killing Boers in a public appearance at a university in Johannesburg.

“Boer” is the name usually given to the (mostly) Dutch settlers who dominated the country for about 400 years.

What does this mean for the World Cup?

Probably nothing. Governments of all stripes tend to put aside their internal rivalries when a huge event comes to their country. They declare a sort of truce until the event is complete.

That said, it’s getting late for South Africa to have some fairly significant political turmoil. With some calling for the censure of president Jacob Zuma for various and sundry personal failings, and now we have one political figure laying “a criminal charge” against Malema (who may also be a crook, but that’s another story) … for inciting violence against Boers.

Malema apparently led a chorus of an apartheid era song that includes lyrics pertaining to killing the Boers — who these days generally are known as farmers. Who are, in fact, sometimes victims of violence, as the linked story noted.

So, yes, fairly provocative. Where does it all go? Perhaps heated rhetoric is what South Africa does. I’ve been following the country only since last summer. Maybe it means nothing significant.

To those of us of a literal bent, a song that advocates killing on a race basis … is pretty strong stuff. It would be the end of a politician’s career in, say, the United States.

In South Africa, perhaps not. But it gives us a bit more insight into the backdrop on which the 2010 World Cup will be played out, three months hence.