Monthly Archives: June 2009

[COPA AMERICA] The Mexican federation has reversed its decision to pull out of all South American competitions and will participate in the 2011 Copa America in Argentina. The Mexicans had announced their pull-out after South American teams refused to play Mexican clubs in the Copa Libertadores for fear of swine flu infection.

[AMERICANS ABROAD] Another American snapped up an English Premier League when billionaire Ellis Short took control of Sunderland. The Texan was expected to give new manager Steve Bruce more than $100 million in funds to spend on the summer transfer market.

[OFF THE POST] French players had the names on their jerseys written in Braille for Wednesday’s friendly in Saint-Etienne against Nigeria, which won, 1-0, to mark its first ever win over France.

[CANADA] USL club Vancouver assumed control of the Nutrilite Canadian Championship by beating MLS’s Toronto, 2-0, Tuesday at Swangard Stadium to all but clinch a spot in the 2009-10 Concacaf Champions League.

[WORLD CUP QUALIFYING] How the USA fares in its attempt to win a World Cup qualifier in Costa Rica (Wednesday, ESPN2, Galavision, 10 p.m. ET) for the first time depends much on its central defense tandem of Carlos Bocanegra and Oguchi Onyewu. The latter returns to the U.S. squad after winning the Belgian league title and filing a lawsuit against an opposing player.

[U.S. SOCCER] Starting with Wednesday’s World Cup qualifier in Costa Rica, the U.S. men’s national team has at least 13 games through October. It will play even more if it reaches the second round of the Confederations Cup and/or the Gold Cup. For the USA’s schedule with TV information. …

[USL TEAMS OF THE WEEK] Cuban midfielder Yordany Alvarez, who scored two goals and had an assist for the Austin Aztez in its 3-1 win over the Puerto Rico Islanders, and South African Ty Shipalane, who scored two goals in 3-2 win for the Harrisburg City Islanders at Real Maryland, earned the USL First Division and Second Division Player of the Week honors, respectively. For the USL-1 and USL-2 Teams of the Week …

[WORLD CUP QUALIFYING] Coach Bob Bradley faces perhaps his most daunting problems since taking the job 36 games ago, because not much has gone right for the USA heading into its toughest two-match stretch of the Concacaf Hexagonal, after which it will have completed one-half of its schedule in this final qualifying round for the 2010 World Cup.

[MAKING A LIST] Seventeen MLS players are on duty with their national teams in World Cup qualifying this week, representing eight countries, including the USA.

[REF WATCH] Next season’s Europa League, formerly the UEFA Cup, will be used to continue the refereeing experiment with five officials. In addition to the referee and two assistant referees on the sidelines, two extra assistants are placed behind the goal line to focus on incidents in the penalty area, such as fouls or misconduct.

[MLS STATS] The expansion Seattle Sounders drew 29,126 fans to their game on Saturday against the Columbus Crew and lead the league in attendance, followed by Toronto FC and the Los Angeles Galaxy. Two teams are averaging less than 10,000 per game.

[COLLEGE] James Riverso, the 28-year-old head coach of the Division II women’s program LeMoyne, was arrested and placed on administrative leave after he was accused of sending text messages of a sexual nature to a 16-year-old player he was coaching on a youth team.

[EGYPT] Egypt, which will face the USA in its final group game at the Confederations Cup later this month, did not include its best-known player, Mido, in its preliminary 28-player squad for a pair of World Cup qualifiers and the Confederations Cup for what was described as “tactical reasons,” but Coach Hassan Shehata said the EPL striker could be recalled.

[FIFA] On the eve of the FIFA Congress in the Bahamas, the Concacaf Ordinary Congress was held Monday and re-elected Concacaf President Jack Warner and General Secretary Chuck Blazer without opposition to the FIFA Executive Committee for another four years.