[U.S. WOMEN] U.S. women’s national team head coach Pia Sundhage has reduced her roster to 26 players who are training at the Home Depot Center to prepare for the 2008 Algarve Cup, which will be held March 5-12 in southern Portugal
Monthly Archives: February 2008
Posted inSoccer America Daily, What They're Saying
What They’re Saying
“Soon you will have in England no English [club] presidents, you already have no English [national team] coach, you have no English players and maybe now you will have no clubs playing in England. It’s a joke.”
— UEFA president Michel Platini, calling the English Premier League’s plans to consider staging league matches overseas “a nonsense idea.” (Telegraph
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Gomez is just one of the changes in Colorado
[MLS TEAM PREVIEWS] The Colorado Rapids have bet the bank on 2006 MLS MVP Christian Gomez, acquired from D.C. United in a deal that includes a guaranteed contract through 2009. Coach Fernando Clavijo isn’t so lucky. His contract expires at the end of the 2008 season, and the Rapids will have to show some significant improvement from the team that went 9-13-8, failed to make the playoffs and had the second-worst attack in MLS last season.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Winter Transfer Moves
[AMERICANS ABROAD] Chris Gbandi became the sixth American to sign with a Norwegian club during the offseason when the former Hermann Trophy winner signed with Adeccoligaen (second division) club FK Haugesund from FC Dallas. For all the winter overseas transfers involving Americans …
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Pharaohs reign again
[AFRICAN NATIONS CUP] Egypt won the African Nations Cup for the sixth time when it beat Cameroon, 1-0, in Sunday’s final on a late goal by Mohamed Aboutrika. The Pharaohs are only the third team to successfully defend its title. Egypt won the first two competitions in 1957 and 1959 and Cameroon won back-to-back titles in 2000 and 2002.
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
2008 Schedule Kinder to the Galaxy
Major League Soccer released its 2008 schedule on Thursday, once again ignoring the international calendar. U.S. and other internationals would now miss games the weekends of Sept. 6-7 and Oct. 11-12. Each team plays a total of 30 games, playing home and away games against each of the league’s 13 teams in addition to an […]
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
MLS Misses the Boat in Africa
A pair of former MLS players nabbed game-winning goals for their respective countries in two very important games recently. On Sunday, former Colorado and San Jose striker Junior Agogo sent Ghana into the African Nations Cup semifinals with a goal against Nigeria seven minutes from time. Then on Thursday, Alain Nkong, another former Rapids player, […]
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
Mixed Reviews for International EPL Matches
English Premier League managers were mixed in their reaction to the news that EPL officials were considering adding a 39th game to the regular season that would be played overseas. Under the new proposal, approved in principle by officials representing each of the league’s 20 clubs, EPL teams would share the revenue generated by these […]
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
U.S.-Mexico: No Need to Panic
Soccer blogger Ives Galarcep responds to some of the negative press the U.S. national team received after its 2-2 draw with Mexico on Wednesday night. Galarcep says that having watched the game a second time, there’s no reason “to be in panic mode about any particular aspect of the U.S. team.” That said, some glaring […]
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
Big Clubs Face Key Injuries for Weekend Clashes
European league play resumes this weekend, but an inordinate number of key players will be missing for some of the bigger clubs. AC Milan is arguably the hardest hit by the injury bug. Having already endured a terrible first half of the season, Milan will now be without World Player of the Year Kaka and […]
Posted inSoccer on TV., Story
Soccer on TV
Americans face off in the English Premier League on Saturday when Everton (Tim Howard) hosts Reading (Marcus Hahnemann & Bobby Convey). Also on slate are derbies from England (Manchester United-Manchester City) and Mexico (Atlas-Guadalajara). Bayern Munich meets Werder Bremen in a battle of German Bundesliga leaders. Argentina’s Torneo Clausura kicks off this weekend.
Posted inCollege Soccer Reporter, Story
Shattuck-St. Mary’s players sign at national powers
Seven players signed national letters of intent on Wednesday from Shattuck-St. Mary’s School, the Minnesota boarding school that offers a full-time residential program for soccer players.
Posted inCollege Soccer Reporter, Story
Oregon lands Canadian national team player
Canadian national team player Julie Armstrong highlights a class of five women’s players who signed letters of intent to play for Oregon.
Posted inCollege Soccer Reporter, Story
UCSB adds Barrera and Dominguez
[RECRUITING] UC Santa Barbara moved quickly to replace attacking midfielders Eric Avila and Ciaran O’Brien, who left early to sign with MLS, when it signed Danny Barrera and Bryan Dominguez to national letters of intent.
Posted inCollege Soccer Reporter, Story
NCAA Division I Men’s & Women’s Coaching Changes
Vermont selected Kwame Lloyd, the head coach at Division III Christopher Newport , as the Catamounts’ new women’s head coach. Former American University star Michael Brady left his alma mater, where he was the women’s coach, to become John Kerr Jr.’s assistant at Duke. For all the coaching moves …
Posted inCollege Soccer Reporter, Story
Greg Ryan gets Michigan women’s job
Greg Ryan, who lost of once in 55 games as U.S. women’s national team coach, has been named Michigan’s new women’s coach. “I think it is a program that has a great upside,” said Ryan, who replaces Debbie Rademacher, who started Big Blue women’s soccer and resigned in November after 14 years at the helm.
Posted inCollege Soccer Reporter, Story
Discontinued NCAA Division I Men’s Programs (1991-2008)
[MAKING A LIST] Western Kentucky became the 18th Division I school to drop its men’s soccer program in the last 18 years.
Posted inCollege Soccer Reporter, Story
Death knell for Hartwick’s D1 men’s program
These are hard times for soccer in the town they call Soccer Town USA. Four years after soccer supporters and alumni staved off an attempt to eliminate Division I men’s soccer at Hartwick, one of college soccer’s most storied men’s programs, trustees at the Oneonta, N.Y., school will meet on Saturday to consider a new plan to eliminate athletic scholarships and switch men’s soccer and nationally ranked women’s water polo to Division III in 2009. This time, the move is considered a fait accompli.
Posted inCollege Soccer Reporter, Story
Western Kentucky drops men’s soccer
Paul Kennedy examines the move
Last Friday is a day the members of Western Kentucky University’s men’s soccer program won’t soon forget. Assembled in the weight room for their regularly schedule workout, they were told by Coach David Holmes that Western Kentucky President Gary Ransdell and Athletic Director Wood Selig wanted to meet with them immediately. Holmes’ players were then blindsided with the news that their soccer careers at WKU were over. The school became the latest to drop men’s soccer.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
International Weekend TV Schedule
This weekend’s action includes the Manchester United-Manchester City clash that will mark the 50th anniversary of the Munich air disaster in which the crash’s 23 victims included eight United players and a former City goalkeeper. Bayern Munich meets Werder Bremen in a battle of German Bundesliga leaders. Argentina’s Torneo Clausura kicks off this weekend. For all the weekend international action …
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
National High School Winter Rankings
Miami’s Varela High School remained No. 1 in the NSCAA/adidas High School Winter Rankings for boys, while Florida’s American Heritage (30-0-0) remained No. 1 in the girls rankings. For the boys and girls rankings …
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Ex-Rapid Nkong leads Cameroon into finals
[AFRICAN NATIONS CUP] In only his second international match, former Colorado Rapids midfielder Alain Nkong became an instant national hero when his second-half goal gave Cameroon a 1-0 win over host Ghana in the semifinals of the African Nations Cup on Thursday. Egypt completed a day of upsets when the defending champion knocked off red-hot Ivory Coast, 4-1, in the other semifinal.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
French rights fees approach $1 billion a year
[TV WATCH] France’s Ligue 1 has many structural weaknesses that make the French domestic game lag behind that of other major European countries. Despite its weaknesses, the French league (LFP) will earn almost $1 billion a year in television revenue. Driving the big money offered in bidding that concluded this week is the multi-media marketing tactic of bundling familiar to American consumers but now being introduced by France Telecom.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Phenom De Guzman’s snub is only latest insult
[CANADA] Canada’s national team program took another knock when 20-year-old Jonathan De Guzman, considered one of international soccer’s hottest prospects, decided to play for the Netherlands instead of Canada, for which his older brother, Julian, is a key player.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Tweaked format highlights 2008 schedule
[MLS] A stadium delay in San Jose, a revamping of its scheduling format, and the usual issues of conflicts and TV considerations forced MLS to push back the release of its 2008 schedule until Thursday.