The Chicago Fire, which won just one game in its last eight outings, has fired Coach Dave Sarachan. Denis Hamlett, an assistant coach for Chicago for 10 seasons, takes over as interim head. Sarachan coached the Fire since 2003, when the Fire finished MLS runner-up. The Fire missed the playoffs once during Sarachan’s four full seasons in charge, in 2004. It was eliminated last year in the quarterfinals on penalty kicks by New England. Sarachan guided the Fire to U.S. Open Cup titles in 2003 and 2006. “I don’t think this was a fair time to assess [Sarachan],” Chicago captain Chris Armas told the Chicago Tribune . “Why even re-sign him at the end of [last] year in the first place? He should have been given the year to get things back on track. We have injuries and guys at the national team camp. Our core group has been gone.”
Monthly Archives: June 2007
Confident Canadians aim at USA
[GOLD CUP PREVIEW] Two decades ago, the U.S. team beat Canada, 3-0, in an Olympic qualifying match and began to shed the label of underdogs. In the Gold Cup semifinals Thursday at Soldier Field in Chicago, it will be the Canadians seeking an upset. From Chicago, Ridge Mahoney previews the semifinal clash that airs on Fox Soccer Channel and Telefutura at 7 pm ET. …
Crew breaks out of slump with win over Kansas City
The Columbus Crew picked up its first MLS win in almost two months Wednesday night when it beat the Kansas City Wizards, 2-1, for only the club’s second win of the season. Eddie Gaven and Stefani Miglioranzi scored goals — the first of the season for both players — to break a 0-0 deadlock in the second half.
Streaking MLS teams clash in Thursday night action
[TV PREVIEW] Houston and Chivas USA, both in the midst of three-game winning streaks, clash in ESPN2’s Thursday Night MLS game. Houston coach Dominic Kinnear figured he’d lose midfielders Dwayne DeRosario (Canada) and Ricardo Clark (USA) and forward Brian Ching (USA) during the Gold Cup, but he wasn’t expecting the emergency call-up of keeper Pat Onstad to the Canadian team.
Angloma and the ‘Gwadaboys’
The surprise of the Gold Cup has been Guadeloupe, the French department making its debut in the CONCACAF championship. The “Gwadaboys” have already beaten Canada and Honduras and meet Mexico Thursday in the quarterfinals. Here’s a look at some of its stars …
MLS launches free summer kids soccer program
Major League Soccer has launched a summer youth program, “Verano MLS,” that will provide 8- to 12-year-olds venues for twice-a-week pick-up-style soccer and “an opportunity to meet MLS players and coaches.” The six-week program, overseen by Colombian World Cup veteran Wilmer Cabrera, who is MLS’s Manager of Fan Development, debuts in Dallas, Chicago, Los Angeles and New York. The program, part of the league’s outreach to the USA’s Hispanic community, offers children a Verano MLS adidas soccer ball, a Verano MLS adidas T-shirt and a complimentary MLS game ticket for themselves and members of their family.
What They’re Saying
“Wherever you can make love, you can play sports.”
— Bolivian President Evo Morales, who is leading the charge to get FIFA to reverse its ban on games at above 2,500 meters (8,200 feet). The ban would prevent Bolivia from hosting games in its capital, La Paz (11,811 feet). (The New York Sun)
Speculation grows that Thierry Henry will leave Arsenal
[TRANSFER TALK] Will Thierry Henry leave Arsenal for Barcelona? There has been rampant speculation that Henry, reportedly unhappy about the Gunners’ future, has signed an agreement with Barca on a three-year contract (plus an option year) worth $11 million a year. There’s even been talk that Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, who brought Henry to Highbury in 1999, would take over for Frank Rijkaard as coach at Barcelona
Defending national champion Valley Blast advances at Region IV youth championships
[REGION IV SCORES] The Valley United Blast, the defending national champion in its age group, moved into the quarterfinals of the U-15 boys division with a 3-0 win over the Honolulu SC Bulls on Wednesday at the the US Youth Soccer Region IV Championships in Las Vegas. Valley United, HSC and LV Premier all finished with 2-1 records, but Valley United and LV Premier advanced to the quarterfinals on the tiebreaker. Laramie Blizzard will be the sole team representing its home state of Wyoming in the quarterfinals after advancing in the U-14 boys division with a 2-1 win over Helena Arsenal. For complete Region IV Day 3 scores and Friday’s quarterfinals pairings …
Boca buries Gremio by record margin in Libertadores Cup final
Juan Roman Riquelme scored two second-half goals as Boca Juniors beat Gremio, 2-0, in Porto Alegre on Wednesday to win the Libertadores Cup by an aggregate score of 5-0 — the largest margin of victory in the 48-year history of the competition. Riquelme, playing the final match for Boca under its loan agreement with Spain’s Villarreal, scored eight goals during the competition. He scored with a long-range effort in the 69th minute and slotted home a rebound 12 minutes later.
UEFA U-21 championship semifinal decided after 16-round shootout
The host Netherlands advanced to the final of the UEFA Under-21 Championship on Wednesday after beating England, 13-12, in a shootout that lasted 16 rounds, Heerenveen’s Gianni Zuiverloon converted the winning penalty in the shootout that took place after the two teams played to a 1-1 tie. Dutch goalkeeper Boy Waterman made three fine penalty saves before England’s Anton Ferdinand hit the top of the bar with his spot kick, setting up Zuiverloon’s decisive shot. The 25 goals in the shootout were a record for a UEFA competition.
2007 Gold Cup Television Schedule
The Gold Cup moves into the semifinals with two games on Thursday. The USA meets Canada at 7 pm ET on Fox Soccer Channel and TeleFutura followed by Mexico against surprise Guadeloupe on TeleFutura at 10 om ET …
Guadeloupe: Supplying the French National Team for Decades
The Boston Globe’s Frank Dell’Apa has a great story about Guadeloupe, the Gold Cup’s surprise package this year. However, if you take a look at the tiny French Caribbean nation’s past, then perhaps it’s not so surprising to see Guadeloupe in the Cold Cup semifinals. The following French national team players have Guadeloupe heritage: Pascal […]
Boca Victory is no Foregone Conclusion
By most accounts, Boca Juniors already has the 2007 Copa Libertadores wrapped up: leading 3-0 after the first leg, Boca travels to Porto Alegre, Brazil, to face Gremio, a team that hasn’t managed to score more than three goals in any of its 13 matches in the tournament thus far. And surely, the great Boca […]
Lalas Blazes MLS PR Trail
L.A. Galaxy President Alexi Lalas is certainly doing his part: less than a month before David Beckham’s arrival, Lalas is everywhere, doing his best to feed the hype. In an interview with The Sun, Lalas moves away from the Premiership “delusion,” focusing instead on the merits of MLS. “I challenge anybody that says a player […]
Inter in Financial Probe
An Italian commission has accused Inter Milan of inflating certain transfer fees between 2003 and 2005, saying the Serie A champion would have been financially insolvent before the 2005-06 season had it not made the illegal move. The commission accused Inter of failing to show “losses connected to the fictitious capital gains” which “would not […]
Maximize your worth to sponsors
Not too many moons ago, the idea of a youth soccer club having over 3,000 member/participants was, for many, both incredulous and overwhelming. Nowadays, however, such a size is commonplace, and there are now clubs whose headcount exceeds even the 10,000 threshold.
Crew looks to tighten D against KC
[TV PREVIEW] Two teams coming off six-goal games last weekend figure to tighten things up, so there might be a repeat of their May 5 meeting (1-0). Jose Burciaga slalomed through the Crew to score the only goal of the game in the 90th minute to end a Crew three-game shutout streak. That was also the game in which Ricardo Virtuoso’s shoulder cracked the jaw of Wizards defender Jimmy Conrad and Guillermo Barros Schelotto debuted for the Crew. Columbus is a much different team than it was then, which it showed last week by rallying from two goals down to snatch a 3-3 tie with the Revs at Gillette Stadium.
Policewomen to ref pro games in Germany
[PHOTO] Bibiana Steinhaus, described by the German press as a pretty blond policewoman, is poised to become the first woman to referee in German men’s professional soccer. The 28-year-old, whose latest day-job assignment was shielding the G-8 Summit from anti-globalization protesters in Rostock, was promoted by the German soccer federation to the Second Division after six years of refereeing the men’s third division. Only two percent of Germany’s 80,000 referees are female. The only other female referee in German men’s pro soccer was Gertrud Gebhard, who lasted two games as a lineswoman in 1995.
AC Milan and Inter tussle over Honduran Suazo
[TRANSFER TALK] Honduran David Suazo, arguably the best striker ever to come out of Central America, is involved in a tug-of-war between Italian clubs AC Milan and Inter Milan. Days after the 27-year-old Suazo was reported to have joined Serie A champion Inter from Cagliari, AC Milan said it had signed Suazo.
Arsenal FC and four other U-18 boys teams go 2-0 at Region IV championships
[REGION IV SCORES] Three-time defending national champion Arsenal FC was one of five teams to win their first two games in the under-18 boys division at the US Youth Soccer Region IV Championships at the Bettye Wilson Soccer Complex and the Kellogg Zaher Sports Complex in Las Vegas, Nev. Arsenal FC, based in Alta Loma, Calif., beat Washington champion Emerald City FC Green, 3-0, thanks to goals by former U.S. U-17 resident Ryan Peterman, Cal recruit Davis Paul and an Emerald own goal. Also 2-0 were hometown favorite LV Premier, Real of Hawaii, San Diego Surf White and Colorado Nike Rush. For Region Day II scores …
Three California clubs take two titles apiece at U.S. Club Soccer regionals
[U.S. CLUB REGIONAL CHAMPIONS] Three clubs won a pair of titles at US Club Soccer’s National Cup VI Region H championships in Modesto, Calif. Mustang claimed the Super Group Girls U17 and Premier Boys U14 championships, while California Rush Nike triumphed in the Super Group Girls U16 and Premier Boys U16 divisions and Portuguese Athletic Club was victorious in the Super Group Boys U12 and Premier Girls U12 brackets. Four teams repeated as regional champions: Santa Rosa United’s U15 Super Group Boys, Mount Hamilton Lobitos’ U17 Super Group Boys, San Juan Spirits’ U13 Super Group Girls and USA 17 Academy’s U14 Super Group Girls. Winners from each of the eight regionals advance to the 2007 National Cup VI Finals later this summer in Greensboro, N.C., and Burlington, N.C. For complete list of regional champions …
What They’re Saying
“If you want to win, you have to pay up to £100,000 [$200,000] a week to a player who can hardly read or write and he earns four or five million pounds [$8 or $10 million]. It’s crazy.”
— Mohamed Al Fayed, the chairman of English Premier League club Fulham. (BBC)
Beckham Receives Fitting Panegyric in Spain
It’s a funny thing, perhaps, that David Beckham “in spite of winning so little, leaves Spain having won so much respect — from journalists, fans, dressing room heavyweights … and even from the manager who once vowed to never pick him again,” The Guardian’s Jack Rashleigh points out. Indeed, the praise Becks has received in […]
It Gets Tougher from Here for the USA
The consensus on the U.S. national team’s 2-1 quarterfinal win against Panama is that an uncomfortably frantic final six minutes marred what should have been an easy win. Coach Bob Bradley suggested that the lapse in concentration that led to Panama’s goal showed an immaturity that has to be stamped out if the U.S. hopes […]