Three members of the Derby County Wolves, who won the 2009 U.S. Soccer Development Academy U-15/16 age group, trained at English club Derby County’s academy program in late summer.
Monthly Archives: August 2009
Posted inStory, Youth Soccer Reporter
USA tunes up for U-17 World Cup
Playing without two key players, the USA tied Colombia twice (1-1 and 2-2) in a pair of tuneups played in Lauderhill, Fla., for this fall’s Under-17 Men’s World Cup in Nigeria.
Posted inYouth Soccer Reporter, Youth What They're Saying
What They’re Saying
“There has been some backlash for sure, but we try to be up front about it. We try to communicate that these are our goals, and hopefully club presidents, club boards, club coaches, club technical directors understand that it’s also an opportunity for a player to maybe one day play for what should be their hometown team, D.C. United, and this is an avenue for them. There is still some resistance, and club coaches don’t necessarily get that or care.”
— D.C. United General Manager Dave Kasper on conflicts that have risen between local clubs and his MLS club since it launched an advanced youth program. (Washington Post)
Posted inSoccer America Daily, What They're Saying
What They’re Saying
“It is the first time I read a national team coach, a person of great institutional responsibility, said the next championship will be won by a certain team, that is Juventus. Even if in his mind he wants this, I think just saying it is a lack of respect.”
— Inter Milan coach Jose Mourinho gets hot under the collar because Italian national team coach Marcello Lippi predicted his former club Juventus would win Serie A this season. Said Lippi, “I’m sorry if Mourinho has given this interpretation. It was simply a prediction, one of a thousand hypothesis that are made before the start of the [season].” (Reuters)
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Heavy losses don’t deter women’s league
[WPS] Despite losses of as much as $2 million for some clubs, Women’s Professional Soccer Commissioner Tonya Antonucci expects the principal investors of all seven teams to return for Year 2.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Galaxy tests its success against East foes
[MLS PREDICTIONS] The ESPN networks present a rare midweek double dip, starting with a classic interconference clash between Chicago and Los Angeles at Toyota Park, where the Galaxy has yet to garner even a tie but comes in with an unbeaten record against Eastern Conference teams.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Tarley and Noviello earn top honors
[USL TEAMS OF THE WEEK] Melvin Tarley, whose goal gave the Minnesota Thunder a 1-0 victory at Miami FC for its first USL-1 road win of the season and who followed up with two goals in a 2-2 tie at Austin, and Jyler Noviello, who had the winning and tying goals for the Wilmington Hammerheads in a win and tie that gave them the USL Second Division title, are the USL Players of the Week. For the Teams of the Week …
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Late goals down D.C. United in Honduras
[CONCACAF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE] United coach Tom Soehn used a few new faces and four in the back to extract a result out of San Pedro Sula, and it nearly worked. But a spirited effort fell short, and late goals five minutes apart by Jerry Palacios and Mario Berrios swept Honduran club Marathon past D.C. United, 3-1, in the Concacaf Champions’ League Group C opener Tuesday night.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Dallas gets ‘Son of the Wind’
[MLS] FC Dallas, which sits in second-to-last in the West with a 6-10-5 record, has aqcuired Honduran attacker Marvin Chavez, whose nickname is “El hijo del viento” (the son of the wind).
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Crew subs spark 2-0 win
[CONCACAF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE] In German soccer, subs who score goals are known as “jokers,” and player moves by Crew coach Robert Warzycha – a native of bordering nation Poland — left him, his players and Columbus fans smiling Tuesday night.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Houston deals with congested schedule
[CONCACAF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE] When it comes to playing international games in the final one-third of the MLS season, Dynamo coach Dominic Kinnear is as ambitious as he is realistic as his team faces six games in the next two months in the regional championship.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Texan businessman to buy Italy’s Bari
[AMERICANS ABROAD] Timothy Barton became the latest Texan to splurge on a European soccer club when he reached a preliminary deal to buy promoted Italian club Bari.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Soccer America Women’s Preseason All-Americans
[COLLEGE] Casey Nogueira, the 2008 Soccer America Women’s Player of the Year, heads the Soccer America Women’s Preseason All-American team, as selected by its editors. Nogueira, who helped North Carolina win the 2008 NCAA title and led the nation with 25 goals and 58 points, is one of three Tar Heels on the Preseason All-American first team along with fellow seniors Whitney Engen and Tobin Heath. Florida State, Notre Dame and UCLA are the only teams with two players named to the first and second teams. For all the Preseason All-American selections …
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
Werder Bremen Signs Peru Striker Pizarro
Werder Bremen has signed Peru striker Claudio Pizarro on a permanent three-year deal from Chelsea, the Bundesliga club said on Tuesday. Pizarro joined Werder last season on loan, his second stint with the club. From 1999 to 2001, he helped Bremen win the German Cup and reach the UEFA Cup final. Pizarro’s new contract, running […]
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
Ibrahimovic to Debut Against City on Wednesday
Sweden striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic will make his Barcelona debut in a friendly against Manchester City on Wednesday after recovering from a hand fracture. “He’s in good shape and we are planning on him (Ibrahimovic) playing a part,” Coach Pep Guardiola said at a news conference on Tuesday. Ibrahimovic joined from Inter Milan last month in […]
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
Arsenal Might Nab Young American
Arsenal has joined the list of European clubs mining America for young talent. Reports from Young Guns website devoted to Arsenal’s reserve and youth program suggest that the English Premier League club will sign 15-year-old Luis Gil within weeks. Gil is a native of Garden Grove, Calif. He previously played club soccer at Pateadores and […]
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
USL For Sale, But Can MLS Afford It?
According to several league and club executives, United Soccer Leagues has been put up for sale by Nike, the majority owner of the league. Two sources from the lower-level league have confirmed that MLS has inquired into purchasing it. Followers of the North American game have long dreamed of a promotion-relegation system similar to the […]
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
Saint Louis Athletica Coach Speaks Soccer, Not English
Gabriel Andrade, the translator for Saint Louis Athletica’s Brazilian coach Jorge Barcellos, might have the toughest job on the team. Barcellos speaks little English, so Andrade relays everything Barcellos says in Portuguese to his team, in film sessions, in practice, during games, in one-on-ones with players. Sometimes this can get complicated, like when Barcellos says, […]
Posted inSoccer America Classifieds, Story
Soccer America Classifieds
Welcome to Soccer America Classifieds, Soccer America’s email newsletter connecting soccer companies and organizations to Soccer America members each week. Soccer America Classifieds feature soccer classified advertisements on the latest soccer job openings, soccer products and soccer opportunities. Read Soccer America Classifieds each Wednesday.
Posted inCollege Soccer Reporter, Story
ESPNU to air six SEC women’s games
TELEVISION. ESPNU will for the first time feature SEC women’s soccer in a regular lineup. The soccer schedule includes six games to air on Sundays at 3 p.m. ET — five regular-season games and the SEC Tournament championship game on Nov. 8 from Orange Beach, Ala. The highlight will the Oct. 18 match between defending champion Florida and Georgia.
Posted inCollege Soccer Reporter, Story
North Carolina No. 1 in Women’s Preseason Top 25
WOMEN’S NEWS … There’s no surprise here: Defending champion North Carolina is No. 1 in the Soccer America Women’s Preseason Top 25 rankings.
Soccer America Top 5
RANK/TEAM (2008 RECORD)
1. North Carolina (25-1-2)
2. Stanford (22-2-1)
3. UCLA (22-1-2)
4. Portland (20-2-0)
5. Notre Dame (26-1-0)
Complete Top 25 rankings
Carolina is seeking its 20th NCAA title in 28 years, though the trophies haven’t come as easily as they once did. The Heels won 16 of the first 19 championships but only three of the last nine.
The Heels sneaked up on the competition — if that’s possible — in 2006 when they won with seven freshman starters and last year they had to knock off two unbeaten teams, UCLA and Notre Dame, at the College Cup.
UNC will not be sneaking up on anyone this season. The Tar Heels return nine starters, including 2008 Soccer America Player of the Year Casey Nogueira, from last year’s College Cup championship team. They don’t include two regular-season starters — Nikki Washington and Meghan Klingenberg — who missed the postseason because of their participation at the U-20 Women’s World Cup.
The ’09 Tar Heels have a chance to be one of the great Anson Dorrance teams of all-time. They will certainly get the opportunity to prove it. Their schedule includes five 2008 elite eight teams in the first two months of the season — UCLA, Notre Dame, Texas A&M, Duke and Florida State. They open Saturday at Fetzer Field against UCLA, which they beat in the ’08 semifinals.
* Carolina leads a group of five ACC teams ranked in the top 14. The rest are Florida State (No. 7), Boston College (No. 8), Virginia (No. 11) and Duke (No. 14). Led by Stanford and UCLA at No. 2 and No. 3, respectively, the Pac-10 also has five teams in the Top 25. Six other conferences represented are the Big East (4 teams), Big 12 (4), Big Ten (3), WCC (2), CAA (1) and SEC (1).
* The only team ranked in the Top 25 that did not make the 2008 NCAA Tournament is Connecticut, whose absence left North Carolina as the only team to have played in all 27 tournament. The Huskies welcome back nine starters plus Brittany Taylor, who was a medical redshirt last season but could be one of the top defenders in the 2010 WPS draft.
* Soccer America’s Women’s All-Americans will appear in Wednesday’s Soccer America Daily.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Cristiano Ronaldo chases Beckham dollars
[BY THE NUMBERS] Cristiano Ronaldo, who moved from Manchester United to Real Madrid on a $130 transfer, could rival David Beckham in endorsement income.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Red Bulls sign Argentine defender
[MLS] The New York Red Bulls, MLS’s worst team with only two wins, got reinforcement in 25-year-old Argentine defender Walter Garcia, who arrives from Argentine second division club Quilmes.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Jesus Padilla comes ‘home’ to Chivas USA
[MLS] Jesus Padilla, a 22-year-old California-born Mexican-American who left home at age 14 to join Chivas Guadalajara, has been acquired by Chivas USA on loan. Padilla, who plays in the midfield and on the frontline, spoke with Soccer America’s Mike Woitalla after Padilla came on as a sub for Guadalajara in an exhibition against Barcelona in San Francisco earlier this month.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, What They're Saying
What They’re Saying
“It’s easy to translate his passion. It’s his sayings that get complicated. His vocabulary is very rich, and sometimes he uses words that I have a hard time finding in English. I have to use simpler words when he wants to use more eloquent words.”
— Gabriel Andrade, the translator for Jorge Barcellos, the Brazilian coach of WPS’s St. Louis Athletica who says things such as “A bird who goes along with bats sleeps upside down” and “[I] didn’t take this job to bring grass for the donkeys to eat.” (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)