[RECRUITING] Coming off a 7-8-5 season, the University of North Carolina men’s team was in need of a big recruiting class and got it with the signing of three players who represented the USA at the 2007 Under-17 World Cup in South Korea: forward Billy Schuler (Matchfit Academy), midfielder Kirk Urso (Sockers FC Chicago) and defender/forward Sheanon Williams (FC Greater Boston Bolts).
Monthly Archives: April 2008
Posted inCollege Soccer Reporter, Story
NCAA Division I Men’s & Women’s Coaching Changes
A total of 43 women’s jobs have opened up during the offseason. For all the NCAA Division I men’s and women’s coaching moves …
Posted inCollege Soccer Reporter, Story
Portland women land youth national team standouts
[RECRUITING] Portland remains one of the premier destinations for top women’s recruits, as evidenced by the Pilots’ 2008 signees, headed by U.S. national youth team players Danielle Foxhoven (Colorado Rush), Michelle Olivier (Concorde Fire) and Charney Burk (Slammers FC).
Posted inCollege Soccer Reporter, Story
Maisonneuve leaves U-17 residency for Louisville post
Former U.S. World Cup player Brian Maisonneuve is leaving the U.S. U-17 residency program, where he has worked since 2005, to become an assistant on the University of Louisville’s men’s staff headed by Ken Lolla.
Posted inCollege Soccer Reporter, Story
Goalie coach Wheddon takes Syracuse women’s job
Englishman Phil Wheddon, the goalkeeper coach for the United States women’s national team, is Syracuse University’s new women’s soccer coach and will take over full-time after the 2008 Beijing Olympics (if the USA reaches the finals).
Posted inCollege Soccer Reporter, Story
Soccer scholarship chase: fact & fiction
Soccer players and their families spend thousands of dollars each year on youth soccer in pursuit of athletic scholarships, but just what are the odds of landing a soccer scholarship? According to NCAA figures released recently by The New York Times, there is 1.4 women’s scholarships for every 100 high school players and half that — 0.7 scholarships for every 100 high school players — on the men’s side. The chase of athletic scholarships can come to preoccupy the families of aspiring stars, but the opportunities are often “overexaggerated,” according to the NCAA President Miles Brand.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
What’s in a (nick)name?
Can it be coincidence that the rumors of Thierry Henry perhaps heading to Seattle sooner rather than later surfaced at about the same time was announced the team nickname, which turns out to be a paragon of compromise? There’s nothing like a convenient distraction. After months of heated discussions among the ownership members and despite the adamant insistence of Commissioner Don Garber that the 2009 expansion team wouldn’t carry the same nickname as a loved but departed NASL franchise as well as the current USL entry, at high noon Monday came word: Seattle Sounders FC, joining the MLS club of Football Clubs that already includes Dallas and Toronto.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
U.S. U-20 men to play in Portugal
[ROSTER] Coach Thomas Rongen has named a 21-man roster for the U.S. U-20 men’s national team’s trip to Portugal, where it will play three games in Campos Verdes International Tournament April 13-19. The Americans will face Northern Ireland, the Cape Verde Islands and Portugal. The U.S. squad includes six European-based players.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, What They're Saying
What They’re Saying
“I really appreciate the apology published in the Daily Star. The truth is now coming out – finally. I am looking forward to a quick and positive conclusion to my claims against the other newspapers who published lies about me.”
— Italy defender Marco Materazzi after the settlement of a libel suit against British tabloid The Daily Star, which printed an apology to Materazzi and agreed to pay him undisclosed damages for having reported that he goaded Zinedine Zidane with racial abuse before the French captain head-butted him during the 2006 World Cup final. The Daily Star also agreed to pay the Materazzi’s legal costs (AP)
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Oguchi goal helps Standard Liege close in on title
[AMERICANS ABROAD] Defender Oguchi Onyewu‘s headed goal with four minutes left gave Standard Liege a 1-0 win over Excelsior Mouscron to solidify its lead at the top of the Belgian Jupiler League to nine points. In the Netherlands last weekend, Heerenveen, with Michael Bradley, helped its chances to qualify for the UEFA Champions League qualification playoffs.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Germany’s last hope in uphill battle
[IN THE SPOTLIGHT] A German team hasn’t lifted the European Champions League title since Bayern Munich’s victory in 2001. Schalke 04, the lone German club among this year’s quarterfinalists, faces an uphill battle, going to Barcelona Wednesday after falling, 1-0, at home last week in the first leg of their quarterfinal series. But Schalke’s strong run in Bundesliga play has lifted its confidence.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Game-fixer must pay
[REF WATCH] Robert Hoyzer, the key figure in Germany’s 2004 game-fixing scandal, must pay the German soccer federation $1,086 per month for 15 years as compensation for damages the DFB incurred.
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
Henry-Seattle Rumors Heat Up
For the past several days, speculation has been mounting that France World Cup winner Thierry Henry will join MLS expansion club Seattle for its inaugural 2009 season.
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
Billionaire Soros Eyes AS Roma
Italian paper La Gazzetta dello Sport has been reporting for several weeks now that American billionaire George Soros is inching closer to a takeover of Serie A giant AS Roma. Regardless, the paper points out that the club’s parent company, Italpetroli, has accumulated debts in the region of $555 million and looks likely to sell. […]
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
Cameron Cracker on MLS Debut
After being blasted by New England in their MLS opener, drawing 0-0 at home to Costa Rican club Saprissa in the Champions Cup semifinals, and staring at a 3-2 loss to FC Dallas in their home opener, the Houston Dynamo fans, reminded of last year’s slow start, must have been thinking: “here we go again.” […]
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
Goals From Unlikely Places as KC Moves Top
The Kansas City Star’s Bob Luder points out that the Wizards may have added a new dimension to their attack, as two of the team’s three goals against Colorado on Saturday came from set pieces, which had been a glaring hole on the team stat sheet in 2007. Perhaps even rarer was the fact that […]
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
Platini Offers Cardiff UEFA Cup Lifeline
Cardiff City fans are still rejoicing following the Welsh club’s 1-0 FA Cup semifinal win over Barnsley on Sunday. The Bluebirds have become the third Welsh club in competition history to reach the FA Cup final, and the first to do so in 81 years. Cardiff City last reached the final in 1925, when it […]
Posted inSoccer on TV., Story
Soccer on TV
Midweek action includes European Champions League action and the quests of two MLS teams to reach the Concacaf Champions Cup final.
Posted inSoccer America Confidential, Story
A brilliant beginning to season 13
I know we’re only two weeks into the 13th MLS season, and declaring detections of trends at this stage is a fool’s game, but I do see glimmers of a subtle yet critical phase in the maturation of America’s soccer league.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
MLS Game Summaries, Standings, Stats, Schedule
With the season barely underway, only the Kansas City Wizards, which won their second straight game, and New York, which opened play last weekend, are MLS’s only perfect teams.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
U.S. women down Mexico in front of 22,280
[OLYMPIC QUALIFYING] The U.S. women’s national team beat host Mexico, 3-1, in front of a record crowd of 22,280, to come within a game of qualifying for the 2008 Olympic Games. The victory in Ciudad Juarez came two days after the USA’s 6-0 win over Jamaica and puts the Americans in a semifinal against Costa Rica – the winner of which earns a ticket to China.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Fulham slips closer to relegation
[AMERICANS ABROAD] Three of Fulham’s five Americans saw action as the Cottagers fell, 3-1, at home to Sunderland. Fulham is six points deep in the drop zone and will likely join Derby, which has two Americans — Eddie Lewis and Benny Feilhaber – among EPL relegation teams this season.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Scoring spree continues in Week 2
[MLS NAMES & NUMBERS] A six-goal Texas shootout, a winning start for the Red Bulls, and D.C. United’s emphatic rebound from its season-opening loss highlighted MLS Week 2 action.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Joy in Wales; woes in Barcelona
[WINNERS & LOSERS] “I cannot overestimate how much Cardiff City’s appearance at the FA Cup final on 17 May is going to mean to Wales and Cardiff’s profile all over the world,” said Rhodri Morgan, the First Minister of Wales after the finalists in the world’s oldest soccer competition were set last weekend.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, What They're Saying
What They’re Saying
“Thierry Henry is one of my favorite players of all time. He has spoken in the past about coming to MLS to play soccer. I am now in a position with the Seattle franchise to consider such a player. It would be irresponsible of me not to explore and consider a possibility like this.”
— Adrian Hanauer, part owner and general manager of the Seattle franchise that will enter MLS in 2009, on rumors that the club is pursuing French striker Thierry Henry, currently with Barcelona. (Seattle P-I)