Monthly Archives: July 2009

[MLS NAMES & NUMBERS] Cuauhtemoc Blanco assisted and scored a beauty to keep Chicago in first place in the East. For last weekend’s MLS highlights. …

[GOLD CUP] Fitness and resolve propelled the U.S. through 120 minutes of play and numerous rugged incidents as it defeated Panama, 2-1, at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia Saturday night to earn a spot in the Concacaf Gold Cup quarterfinals.

[USA-PANAMA REPORT CARD] Soccer America’s Ridge Mahoney grades the U.S. players and comments on their performance in their 2-1 quarterfinal win over Panama in the Gold Cup …

[WPS] Kerri Hanks, the 2006 and 2008 Hermann Trophy winner at Notre Dame, scored her first goal since being traded from Saint Louis to Sky Blue, striking in stoppage time to give the New Jersey team a 1-0 win over Chicago and keep it in fourth place. The weekend’s other two games both ended in 1-0 wins for Washington over Saint Louis and Boston over FC Gold Pride.

Following wins by Chicago, D.C. United and Columbus, New England got a must-win victory in its bid to get back in contention in the Eastern Conference. Sunday’s 2-0 victory over Chivas USA tied Kansas City for fifth place, eight points behind the Fire and seven behind United and the Crew and six behind Toronto. For all the game summaries, conference standings and leading scorers …

[USL-1] The Portland Timbers set a USL First Division record when they beat FC Miami, 3-0, Sunday to extend their unbeaten streak to 16 games, the longest single-season unbeaten streak ever.

[U.S. WOMEN] Abby Wambach scored the 100th goal in her international career to give the USA a 1-0 win over Canada Sunday in her hometown of Rochester, N.Y. She became the fifth American to reach the century mark, joining Mia Hamm (158), Kristine Lilly (129), Michelle Akers (105) and Tiffeny Milbrett (100).

[SEATTLE SOUNDERS-CHELSEA] The Seattle Sounders FC, who lead MLS in attendance, drew a crowd of 65,289 fans for Saturday’s 2-0 loss to Chelsea — more than twice as large as they’ve drawn for any MLS game this season.

[WORLD FOOTBALL CHALLENGE] Club America beat Inter Milan in a shootout after their game finished 1-1 in the opening of the World Football Challenge. The game drew a pro-Club America crowd of 31,026 fans.

[L.A. GALAXY-AC MILAN] An impressive performance by the Los Angeles in its 2-2 tie with Italian giant AC Milan Sunday was overshadowed by the hostile reception some Galaxy fans gave David Beckham, making his 2009 Galaxy debut at the Home Depot Center. The English star was greeted with boos from some in the capacity crowd of 27,000, became clearly irritated by the reception he got and even confronted some fans.

[GOLD CUP] Mexico, Costa Rica and Honduras, the other three remaining Hexagonal teams in the Gold Cup, joined the USA in the final four. Honduras edged Canada, 1-0, Saturday in Philadelphia, while Mexico and Costa Rica won easily on Sunday before a crowd of 82,252 in the first sporting event at the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium.

[GOLD CUP] The USA rallied from a goal down to beat Panama, 2-1, in overtime and advance to the semifinals of the Gold Cup against Honduras on Thursday. Kenny Cooper converted the winning penalty kick after he was kicked high in his chest by defender Roman Torres in the area.

[MLS PREDICTIONS] All five games this weekend match teams from opposite conferences, and all of the Eastern teams are at home as the playoff race – with the top four teams in the East bunched within a point – tightens up. For all of Soccer America’s predictions, as well as TV viewing information, and to see how we’ve fared so far this season …

[AMERICANS ABROAD] American Johann Smith made his debut for Croatian club Rijeka in its 1-0 loss Thursday at Luxembourg club Differdange in the first leg of their Europa League preliminary. Other Americans to play in second qualifying round action were U.S. U-20 Mikkel Diskerud (for Norway’s Stabaek in the UEFA Champions League) Ryan Guy and Marcus Tracy (Europa League).

[OFF THE POST] Manchester City owner Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan gave the each of the team’s players a $270,000 watch when they paid him a visit in Abu Dhabi en route to an exhibition tournament in South Africa.