Brian Carroll, Ben Olsen and Santino Quaranta were among a group of American players to get a first-hand look at the intensity of a Celtic home game against Rangers in Glasgow last December when the U.S. traveled to an exhibition match against Scotland.
“[U.S. midfielder] Claudio [Reyna] couldn’t sit with us because he would’ve gotten bombarded,” said Olsen.
Reyna spent a number of seasons with Rangers, Celtic’s cross-town rival and Scotland’s other top team. Together the teams are called the “Old Firm” due to their domination of Scottish soccer, including a combined 91 league championships
Polish striker Maciej Zurawski scored 20 goals last season to lead Celtic to its 40th Scottish league title, and 23-year-old Scottish forward Shaun Maloney was the team’s player of the year.
