Wisconsin Soccer Central

Tosaint Ricketts (UW-Green Bay) made his debut for Norwegian club Sandnes Ulf on Sunday, coming on at halftime of the team's 2-0 loss at Strømsgodset in a Tippeligaen season opener.

The 25-year-old striker signed with Sandnes Ulf in January after spending three months with Vålerenga in the same league last year.

He wasn't allowed to play until the final three matches of the top-division season, after a lengthy dispute with the Romanian Football Federation concerning his contract with former club Politehnica Timi?oara was finally settled.

Ricketts will now join up with the Canadian national team in Qatar, where the team will face Japan on Friday and Belarus on March 25 in friendlies in Doha.

• Second-year pro Ethan Finlay (Marshfield) made his Major League Soccer season debut Saturday night, playing the final 27 minutes for the Columbus Crew in their 1-1 draw with the visiting San Jose Earthquakes.
• After 10 years with the Charlotte Eagles, Milwaukee Wave defender Josh Rife has changed USL PRO teams. The 33-year-old Rife, a first-team all-league selection last summer, signed with expansion club VSI Tampa Bay FC as a player-coach. Rife, who finished up his fourth season with the Wave last weekend, has coaching experience after being an assistant at Palm Beach Atlantic (Fla.) from 2008 to '10.
• Jose "Coco" Navarro isn't a pro – the 18-year-old will be a freshman at Marquette next fall – but the midfielder from Inglewood, Calif., played for Real Salt Lake on Saturday night in its MLS Reserve League match against the Colorado Rapids and scored what proved to be the winning goal in the 84th minute of a 2-1 victory at Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy, Utah. Navarro plays for the RSL-Arizona Academy team and ranks third in the Under-17/18 Division with 18 goals in 17 matches. The sequence that led to his goal Saturday night starts at the 3:05 mark: