Monthly Archives: April 2003

French midfielder Gilles Grimandi, Colorado's main offseason signing who for weeks has refused to follow through on his commitment to the Rapids, has reached an agreement with MLS that allows him to return to France. ''The Colorado Rapids organization is deeply saddened by Gilles Grimandi's decision to return to France.'' Colorado Rapids general manger Dan […]

Player of the Week Evaud Thompson (Westchester Flames) Team of the Week G — Greg Sherwood (Reading) * Six saves in 2-1 win at New York D — JT Dorsey (Reading) * Solid play in 2-1 win at New York D — Alfredo Esteves (New Hampshire) * Solid play in 2-1 loss at New Jersey […]

Player of the Week Thiago Martins (Pittsburgh Riverhounds) Team of the Week G — Randy Dedini (Pittsburgh) * Seven saves in 5-0 win at Charlotte D — Fred Degand (Charleston) * Solid performance in 1-0 win over Montreal D — Nick DeSantis (Montreal) * Solid performance in 1-0 loss at Charleston D — Kevin Knight […]

The 18-man roster U.S. coach Bruce Arena has named for the May 8 friendly against Mexico in Houston includes nine players from the 2002 World Cup squad. Six of them — Brian McBride, Landon Donovan, Eddie Pope, Pablo Mastroeni, Earnie Stewart and Cobi Jones — played against Mexico in the second-round 2-0 victory that earned […]

By Mike Woitalla Two weeks after Fresno State announced the elimination of its 33-year-old men's soccer program, Coach Dave Chesler is hopeful that his team's ambitious fund-raising drive will lead to reinstatement. ''There is more than hope, but we still have an incredible fund-raising challenge,'' says Chesler. Chesler says he was told by the university […]

Honduras and Martinque came out on top of a three-team playoff with Trinidad & Tobago to fill the final two spots in this summer's Gold Cup. Honduras beat Martinique, 4-2, on Sunday after both teams had assured themselves of qualification with wins over T&T. Martinique had beaten T&T, 3-2, and the Hondurans won, 2-0. The […]

American goalkeepers Brad Friedel and Kasey Keller continued to shine in the English Premier League. Friedel's Blackburn Rovers remain in the hunt for a UEFA Cup spot thanks to a 3-2 victory at Leeds. Keller, meanwhile, repeatedly thwarted Manchester United before the league leaders took a 2-0 win. ENGLAND * Brad Friedel (Blackburn, PL) at […]

By Ridge Mahoney, Senior Editor HERO: Taylor Twellman ran onto a long diagonal ball from Steve Ralston to thump a left-footed volley for the winning goal in the Revs' 2-1 victory at Dallas. GOATS: Kansas City defender Nick Garcia let Andy Williams get past him just before the Fire midfielder drilled home the tying goal […]

By Scott French, Senior Editor LET'S PLAY TWO: Nine WUSA players — eight Americans and a Canadian — pulled double-duty this weekend, seeing time in the U.S. women's national team's 6-1 win Saturday over Canada in Washington and in their clubs' league matches. Three of them — Atlanta goalkeeper Briana Scurry, San Jose defender Brandi […]

A few weeks after Wade Barrett arrived in Denmark, he found himself at the fishmonger's selecting a variety of herring to take to his apartment in downtown Aarhus, an eastern port city of 575,000. ''One reason I came was to live in a European environment,'' said Barrett, who was raised in Virginia Beach and spent […]

A-C-L. They can be the most frightening three letters an injured player hears. The anterior cruciate ligament. Pliable although not elastic, it connects the bones and pretty much holds the knee together. Three prominent U.S. players suffered torn ACL's in 2002. Chris Armas missed the 2002 World Cup after going down a month before the […]

The inevitable is hap-pening. Those stalwarts who were inspired during the NASL years and witnessed its demise are leaving MLS, which they helped found. Eric Wynalda, Marcelo Balboa and Tab Ramos each played in three World Cups. John Harkes played in two. Peter Vermes' only showing was in 1990, but if not for Walter Zenga's […]

April 25 Richmond 3 (Russell 34, Jeffrey 49, Testo 90) Indiana 0. Charlotte 0 Pittsburgh 5 (Woolfolk 4, Evans 13, Martins 14, 32, Villar 70). El Paso 0 Minnesota 1 (Morehead 14). April 26 Atlanta 2 (Nusum 26, Asad 60) Pittsburgh 2 (Woolfolk 4, Martins pen. 70). Virginia Beach 2 (Washington 15, Fenger 38) Indiana […]

Kim Pickup's famed ''flip-throw'' led to the winning goal Sunday as San Diego beat toothless San Jose, 2-1, before 5,965 at Torero Stadium. Julie Fleeting scored one goal and played a role in the winner as the Spirit (2-1, 6 points) rallied from a second-half deficit and moved above .500 for the first time in […]

April 26 at Washington Washington 1 Atlanta 1. Goals: Golebiowski 67; Dominguez 67. Washington — Mullinix, S. Little, Moore, Grubb, Barr, Stoecker, Jones, Lindsey, Golebiowski (Gerardo, 78), Schott (Hamm, 63), Wambach. Atlanta — Scurry, Bivens, Nonen (J. Augustyniak, 93+), N. Augustyniak, Gaston, Miller, Serlenga, Crumpton, Sawa, Dominguez, Hooper (Dieke, 87). Yellow cards: Washington — Golebiowski […]

April 26 at Columbus Columbus 0 MetroStars 1. Goal: Magee 59. Columbus — Busch, Hejduk, Clark, Dunseth, Denton (Walsh, 84), Paule (West, 65), Maisonneuve, Martino, Garcia, Cunningham, McBride. MetroStars — Howard, Leitch, Jolley, Pope, Ziadie, Clark, Mathis, Williams, Wolyniec, DiGiamarino, Moreno (Magee 22; LeBlanc, 86). Yellow Cards: Columbus û Maisonneuve 31; MetroStars û Williams 10. […]

Siri Mullinix stopped a penalty kick and benefited from her woodwork on Saturday as the Washington Freedom held off an inspired Atlanta Beat for a 1-1 draw in the battle of the WUSA unbeatens at RFK Stadium. Atlanta's Maribel Dominguez and Washington's Kelly Golebiowski scored goals 43 seconds apart as the host Freedom (3-0-1, 10 […]

Shannon MacMillan scored four goals and Kristine Lilly earned her world-record 250th cap on Saturday as the U.S. women's national team blitzed a Canadian B side, 6-1, before 5,693 in the rain at RFK Stadium in Washington. MacMillan tallied on a terrific free kick from 20 yards in the 16th minute to pull the Americans […]

Club America lost, 3-1, in its second leg, quarterfinal match against Costa Rica's Alajuela on Wednesday but advances 5-3 on aggregate to an all-Mexican final four. Club America, which won 4-0 at Azteca Stadium last week, faces Toluca. Morelia meets Necaxa. First- and second-leg games for both series are tentatively set for April 30 and […]

Paul Sapsford, who last fall helped guide Stanford University's women's team to a 21-1-1 record and the NCAA quarterfinals, was named as the new head coach at St. Mary's College in Moraga, Calif., replacing Paul Ratcliffe, who left the Gaels to become the Stanford coach. Sapsford and fellow co-coach Stephanie Erickson were selected Soccer America's […]

Ajax AmsterdamÆs John OÆBrien, the first American to play in the quarterfinal stage of European Champions League, saw his dream of reaching the semifinals end when Jon Dahl Tomasson scored a stoppage time goal to give AC Milan a 3-2 home win the second leg of the quarterfinal series. Having tied 0-0 in Amsterdam two […]

Player of the Week: Roland Aguilera (Virginia Beach Mariners) Team of the Week: G — Eric Pattison (Cincinnati) * Shutout in 1-0 win at Charlotte D — Mark Watson (Charleston) * Solid defensive effort in 2-0 win at Richmond D — Kevin O'Brien (Charlotte) * Solid defensive effort in 1-0 loss against Cincinnati D — […]

Unable to secure travel visas to the United States, Nigeria's women's national team has dropped out of Saturday's exhibition match against the U.S. women at RFK Stadium in Washington and been replaced by Canada. The Nigerians earlier had canceled a pair of closed-door friendlies with the Canadians scheduled for last week in South Carolina. ''We […]

With this week's announcement that Fresno State is dropping men's soccer, the number of NCAA Division I men's soccer programs eliminated in the last decade is 13. That number could grow to 15 if The Citadel and Marshall drops men's soccer. School officials told the military academy's Board of Visitors last Friday it might be […]

By Ridge Mahoney, Senior Editor HERO: Wizards' keeper Tony Meola helped his team steal a point in San Jose by thwarting Landon Donovan and Brian Mullan with superb saves in their 1-1 tie. Meola dived left to foil Donovan on a long-range drive and snuffed Mullan in overtime for two of his nine saves. HEROIC: […]