Monthly Archives: December 2006

Luton coach Mike Newell, hoping to inspire his struggling team, pinned the famous Rudyard Kipling poem “If” on the locker room wall. “But I don’t think any of the players could make head or tail of it,” he said. “I left it up for an hour but took it down before it got defaced."  Striker […]

By Ridge Mahoney Sometime before Christmas, U.S. Soccer will announce the hiring of Juergen Klinsmann as its national team coach and thus will conclude months of anticlimax. Much federation business has been on hold while President Sunil Gulati and Klinsmann have negotiated, bargained and dickered, but not preparations for the men’s under-20 team, which plays […]

“He’s [Cristiano Ronaldo] the most fouled player in the country without question. All the statistics are there. What is more serious in our game? Preventing the best players from playing or going on for three days about a dive that wasn’t a dive?” — Manchester United coach Alex Ferguson responds to accusations from Middlesbrough boss […]

Barcelona quickly put to rest about doubts about whether it would become the first defending champion to be eliminated in the group phase of the UEFA Champions League. The Catalan club got goals from Ronaldinho (free kick under the leaping wall) and Eidur Gudjohnsen (header off Ludovic Giuly cross) in the first 19 minutes and […]

Nine players repeated as 2006 NSCAA/adidas Girls High School All-Americans, including junior forward Tiffany McCarty (Washington’s St. John’s High School), who earned the award for the second consecutive year. The remaining eight repeaters all are seniors or graduated last spring: midfielders Hannah Cerrone (Ketcham H.S./Wappingers Falls, N.Y.), Bianca D’Agostino (Loomis Chaffee School/Windsor, Conn.), Kate Macauley […]

Janice Keating, a Modesto (Calif.) city councilwoman, was ejected from her daughter’s U-14 game for using foul language while questioning the referee’s decisions. “I’m a normal parent at a game,” Keating told the Modesto Bee. “Was that embarrassing? Yes, it was. Do I regret that? Absolutely.” The 24-year-old referee, Amanda Grover, who did not know […]

By Ridge Mahoney The 2007 season is four months away and already Colorado has a huge advantage over most of the teams that have moved into new stadiums. Unlike the laborious road streaks undertaken by Columbus (1999), Los Angeles (2003), and Chicago (2006), Colorado opens its new stadium with the season opener April 7 against […]

“OSAA has asked that during the playoffs the home school escort the refs to their car or the locker room as the case may be.” — Patrick Duffy of the Oregon School Activities Association, which has instituted the security requirement after incidents in which high school soccer referees have been chased, threatened or assaulted by […]

The all-tournament teams from the Super Y-League’s recent North American finals were announced. The following were the divisional MVPS: U17 Boys MVP: Ben Foerstner H.C. United U17 Girls MVP: Jennifer Stoltenberg – West Coast FC U16 Boys MVP: Edvin Worley – Schulz Academy U16 Girls MVP: Emily Ohlhaver – Wolfpack Blue U15 Boys MVP: Oscar […]

The U.S. under-17 girls national team will head off for an 11-day trip Dec. 8-18 to Buenos Aires, Argentina. Coach Erica Walsh will take 18 players on the trip afor three matches against the Argentina U-20s (Dec. 13), the senior Argentina national team (Dec. 15) and a final match against either the Argentina U-17s or […]

German leader Werder Bremen will look to pull one of the biggest upsets in the history of the UEFA Champions League on Tuesday when it plays at defending champion Barcelona. A Werder win or tie will send it through to the round of 16 and eliminate La Liga leader. Werder isn’t about to abandon its […]