[CONFEDERATIONS CUP] Americans fans will be familiar with many of the players at the Confederations Cup. Kaka of Brazil and Fabio Cannavaro of Italy are two former European and World Players of the Year competing at the Confederations Cup. New Zealand boasts six players who attended U.S. colleges and four of them are playing in MLS. For the complete numerical rosters of the eight entrants …
Monthly Archives: June 2009
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Favorite Spain looks to build on successes
[CONFEDERATIONS CUP] The Confederations Cup, which begins Sunday in South Africa, is a sneak preview of how the 2010 World Cup shapes up. Spain, which opens play on Sunday against New Zealand, is the early favorite to win the World Cup, having won Euro 2008 and boasting an embarrassment of riches, most notably a nucleus of players from the great Barcelona team that won the 2009 UEFA Champions Cup.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
TV viewers ready for dress rehearsal
[CONFEDERATIONS CUP] The 2009 Confederations Cup is a dress rehearsal for the 2010 World Cup, allowing television viewers to get into next summer’s routine. Get ready for long lunches and weekend doubleheaders by following the Confederations Cup action from South Africa on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN360.com, as well as on Spanish-language Univision’s family of network. For the complete schedule …
Posted inStory, Youth Soccer Insider
Feedback: The Barcelona Approach; Tryouts
Soccer America readers comment on recent editions of the Youth Soccer Insider e-letter.
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
PDL Guest Player Scores for FC Dallas in Friendly
FC Dallas got goals from Andre Rocha in the 21st minute and another from guest player Alex Fichera in the 60th minute to take a 2-0 victory against Costa Rican Primera Division club CS Herediano on Wednesday night at Pizza Hut Park in a "friendly" game that saw the visitors finish with just eight men. […]
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
Leonardo: ‘Pato and Pirlo Will Stay’
Brazil forward Alexandre Pato and Italy midfielder Andrea Pirlo will not leave AC Milan to join their former boss Carlo Ancelotti at Chelsea, the Serie A club’s new coach Leonardo said on Thursday. “They are not moving from Milan,” Leonardo was quoted as saying by La Gazzetta dello Sport’s website. “They are both very important […]
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
U.S. Setting Up Friendly with Iran
The U.S. soccer team might go to Iran in November for the first match between the nations in almost a decade. USSF president Sunil Gulati said Wednesday the game could be held in Tehran on Nov. 14 or 18. The United States was upset 2-1 by Iran at the 1998 World Cup in France, then […]
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
Man United Accepts Real Offer For Cristiano Ronaldo
Manchester United confirmed that it has accepted a world-record bid from Real Madrid for Cristiano Ronaldo after he once again asked to leave the club. An official Manchester United statement read, "Manchester United has received a world-record, unconditional offer of £80 million ($132 million) for Cristiano Ronaldo from Real Madrid. At Cristiano's request – who […]
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
Adidas Expects World Cup Sales Boost
Adidas AG, the world's second-largest sporting-goods maker, expects soccer sales to exceed 1.3 billion euros ($1.8 billion) next year as fans purchase jerseys, balls and footwear tied to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Adidas aims to use the World Cup to raise its leading share of the global soccer market to more than […]
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
Italy’s New Jersey Boy Set to Face USA
Giuseppe Rossi left Clifton N.J., just before his 13th birthday to join the Parma youth system in Italy and pursue his dream of playing for the Italian national team. The United States invited him to training camp before the 2006 World Cup, but Rossi demurred, ignoring criticism that he was dismissive of American soccer and […]
Posted inStory, Youth Soccer Reporter
Houston clubs merge academy program
Two major Houston youth clubs — the Dallas Texans-Houston Division and Texas Soccer Club — are joining forces to field USSF Academy teams.
Posted inStory, Youth Soccer Reporter
Fisher named WSYSA executive director
Terry Fisher, whose soccer roots go back to the North American Soccer League, has been named the Washington State Youth Soccer Association’s executive director.
Posted inStory, Youth Soccer Reporter
Thunder coach loses technical director job
The Minnesota Thunder Academy executive board removed Mark Abboud as the club’s technical director after he ordered the players on his under-12 Thunder East team to miss their penalty kicks on purpose so their opponents, the favored U-13 Thunder, could win, which happened.
Posted inStory, Youth Soccer Reporter
Clubs dominate at state championships
Beadling (Pennsylvania West), Brentwood Premier (Tennessee), Empire United (New York West), Minnesota Thunder Academy (Minnesota) and Seacoast (New Hampshire) were among the big winners at recent U.S. Youth Soccer state championships. For the results of the under-14 to under-19 boys and girls groups in Connecticut, Delaware, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New York West, Ohio North, Pennsylvania West, Tennessee and Wisconsin …
Posted inStory, Youth Soccer Reporter
Region IV finals set to begin
Five girls and three boys teams will seek to defend their titles at the US Youth Soccer Region IV Championships that begin Monday at the Lancaster National Soccer Center in Lancaster, Calif.
Posted inStory, Youth Soccer Reporter
Powers wins Gatorade national award
Dillon Powers, whose Andromeda team won the 2008 US Youth Soccer Under-17 national championship and led Plano Senior High School to the 2009 Texas Class 5A state championship, is the 2008-09 Gatorade National Boys Soccer Player of the Year.
Posted inStory, Youth Soccer Reporter
Derby County Wolves rank No. 1
The Derby County Wolves — the Michigan Wolves’ academy program sponsored by English club Derby County — is ranked No. 1 in both the U.S. Soccer Development Academy’s Under-17/18 and Under-15/16 age groups. For the Top 10 rankings, based on points per game …
Posted inStory, Youth Soccer Reporter
U-17s expand player search
The USA won its group at the Concacaf Under-17 Championship in style to qualify for the 2009 Under-17 World Cup, but Coach Wilmer Cabrera isn’t content to work only with players from that team that he has in residency in Bradenton, Fla. Of the 40 players called into a training camp, beginning Sunday at the Players Development Academy in Somerset, N.J., are 14 players who have not been part of U.S. Soccer’s residency program. For the complete roster …
Posted inYouth Soccer Reporter, Youth What They're Saying
What They’re Saying
“I’d come back here again, I don’t want to be anywhere else. I still want to make this facility work and if the economy hadn’t gone the way it did, we’d still be working right now.”
— American goalie Brad Friedel, whose Ohio-based Premier Soccer Academies, the first full-scholarship youth soccer academy in the United States, were forced to scale back operations because of the downturn in the economy. (Morning Journal)
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Ocean City pulls upset
[U.S. OPEN CUP] The Ocean City Barons became the first PDL team to beat a higher ranked team in the U.S. Open Cup when they beat Crystal Palace Baltimore of the USL Second Division, 3-0. In Wednesday’s other makeup game, USL2’s Real Maryland edged the Aegean Hawks, 1-0, in a game cut short by lightning.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, What They're Saying
What They’re Saying
“It was something I’ve been waiting for a long time. Something that I always dreamed about, playing with the national team and scoring with them. A great feeling.”
— Giuseppe Rossi, who was born in New Jersey and lived there until age 13 when he moved to Italy to join Parma’s youth system in 2000, on scoring his first goal for the Italian national team on Saturday in a 3-1 win over Northern Ireland. Rossi is at the Confederations Cup with Italy, which plays the USA on Monday. (New York Times)
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Another loss for Maradona’s Argentina
[WORLD CUP 2010 QUALIFYING] Argentina doesn’t like to play at altitude. After falling to Bolivia, 6-1, at 12,000 feet above sea level in La Paz in April, it traveled to Quito and lost to Ecuador, 2-0, at 9,300 feet above sea level. Coach Diego Maradona remained confident Argentina would qualify for the 2010 World Cup, but its lead over Ecuador for the fourth and final automatic berth in the World Cup 2010 finals was reduced to two points with four games to play. In Europe, former U.S. U-17 international Neven Subotic scored an insurance goal for Group 7 leader Serbia in the its 2-0 win at the Faeroe Islands.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Mexico hangs on Azteca
[HEXAGONAL] Mexico avoided the unthinkable but just barely. It got goals early in both halves from Argentine-born Guillermo Franco and Oscar Rojas and edged Trinidad & Tobago, 2-1, at Azteca Stadium to move into fourth place at the halfway point of World Cup 2010 qualifying in the Concacaf zone. Honduras remained third, behind Costa Rica and the USA, with a 1-0 win over visiting El Salvador.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
The USA’s winning formula
[HEXAGONAL] Qualifying for the World Cup is a relatively straightforward process: win all your home games and take the odd point on the road and you should go through. It’s been a winning formula for the USA in the last three Hexagonals, where three of the six teams advance to the finals. With that in mind, the USA’s entirely forgettable performance at Costa Rica is irrelevant. Winning its three home games and earning a point with a late comeback in El Salvador put the USA in reasonably good shape at the halfway point of Concacaf’s final round of 2010 World Cup qualifying.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Dynamo finds its groove
[MLS] To the critics of slow starts, which have been the rule rather than the exception since the team moved from San Jose to Houston, Dynamo players, coaches and fans reply thusly: