Starting out the day with some retirement news. Chivas USA midfielder Raphael Wicky has decided to retire today. The Swiss midfielder cited personal reasons for the retirement. Wicky originally joined Chivas USA before the 2008 season, during which he made just five appearances for the Red-and-White, due to a series of injuries.

“I would like to express my sincerest gratitude to everyone at Chivas USA for giving me the opportunity to play in Major League Soccer,” said Wicky. “I had a wonderful experience with the club, and only wish that I could have contributed more on the field.”

This honestly wasn’t a huge shocker to me. Wicky was hit with the massive injury bug that hurt the AmeriGoats all last season.

Just as promised, once I got more information, I would pass it along to you. This morning was more like a flood of information from sources, reports, and other blogs. What we do know is Captain America has retired.

But what it appears to be now is he was some what forced into retirement by his own club, the New York Red Bulls. According to Ives Galarcep, the Red Bulls came to Reyna with the idea first in what sounds like a buy-out of his contract.

According to team sources, the Red Bulls first approached Claudio Reyna about the possibility of retiring last month. It remains unclear when Reyna finally made the decision to retire, but the announcement had been delayed while Major League Soccer sorted out how exactly to handle the retirement (yes, you can rest assured that some new DP rules were recently added to the MLS rule book the public has never seen.)

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Another day, another retirement.

After a 14-year career that saw him play in Germany, England and Scotland before returning to the United States, Claudio Reyna has decided it is time to stop playing. The former U.S. national team captain and New York Red Bulls midfielder is retiring immediately, according to Ives Galarcep and his sources withing the league. The Red Bulls are expect to announce the retirement this week.

Leg and back injuries limited Reyna to just six games this season, and 27 games total during his two seasons with the Red Bulls.

Reyna’s retirement immediately frees up a designated player slot the team is expected to use to sign a forward to replace departed U.S. national team forward Jozy Altidore, who was sold to Villarreal last month.

Some will place Reyna in the bust-department of the MLS Designated Players along with Denilson, and some will say he just came back home to retire anyways. Either way you look at it we are seeing the end of a quality soccer player here in the States and what could end up being a good deal for New York.

I say its good for New York because now they have a load of space to get a high profile striker this summer in hopes to push their playoff hopes from dreadful to legit.

More to come on this as I get details on it…