Author Archives: Paul Kennedy

[U.S. WOMEN] Teenager Christine Nairn lived up to her reputation as one of the top prospects in the U.S. women’s national team program, scoring in the 89th minute to give the USA a 1-0 win over Canada Wednesday in Charleston, S.C., and a sweep of their three-game series.

[WPS] Saint Louis Athletica moved into second place in Women’s Professional Soccer with a 1-0 win over Sky Blue FC — its third one-goal win over the New Jersey team — on a goal by England international Eniola Aluko three minutes into the second half.

[WORLD FOOTBALL CHALLENGE] For its first game against its coach Jose Mourinho‘s former team since the Portuguese coach came to Italy, Inter Milan put on a stunningly lackadaisical performance. Chelsea strolled to a 2-0 win over the Italian champions Tuesday night before 81,224 fans at the Rose Bowl in a boost for the Blues’ new coach, Carlo Ancelotti, Mourinho’s archenemy during his days at AC Milan.

[TRANSFER WATCH] American-style player trades rarely take place in soccer, but Barcelona and Inter Milan have a blockbuster in the works: Inter will send Swedish star Zlatan Ibrahimovic to Barca in exchange for Cameroon star Samuel Eto’o and cash.

[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.

[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.

[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).

[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.

[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.

[U.S. SOCCER] U.S. Soccer Chief Operating Officer Jay Berhalter, one of the most influential persons in American soccer, is leaving the federations to head up the Kentaro Group’s new office in the United States.

[WPS] Sky Blue FC and the Washington Freedom set a Women’s Professional Soccer record Wednesday night for goals in a game when they played to a 4-4 tie. Cat Whitehill scored the late equalizer for the Freedom, robbing Sky Blue a chance to pull away from Chicago and the Freedom in the playoff fight. In Wednesday’s other game, Boston’s 1-0 win over Chicago moved the Breakers into third place, four points ahead of Chicago and Washington, tie for fifth place.

[MLS] Who needs David Beckham for long-range shooting when you have Alecko Eskandarian, Landon Donovan and Eddie Lewis? All three scored on volleys from distance in the first half to lead the Galaxy to 3-1 win over the New York Red Stars in Beckham’s first game back with the Galaxy. All were given acres of space by the hapless Red Bulls, who have not won an MLS game in more than two months, a span of 11 games.

[USA-PANAMA] The USA puts its unbeaten record against Panama on the line when it faces the Canaleros Saturday in the quarterfinals of the Gold Cup at Philadelphia’s Financial Field (TV, live, 8 p.m. ET, Fox Soccer Channel and TeleFutura). The match marks the third consecutive Gold Cup that the teams meet in the knockout phase.

[MANCHESTER UNITED] Manchester United was forced to cancel its trip to Indonesia and Saturday’s match against an Indonesia Super League XI in Jakarta when the hotel it was scheduled to stay at was attacked by terrorists Friday. Blasts struck the Ritz-Carlton as well as the Marriott, killing eight people, according to early reports. The friendly, United’s first in Indonesia and part of a tour of four Asian countries, had sold out the 100,000-seat Bung Karno Stadium.

[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).

[SUPERLIGA] Cuauhtemoc Blanco‘s goal on a 25-yard free kick in the second half gave the visiting Chicago Fire a 2-1 victory over the defending champion New England Revolution and moved it into the final of the 2009 SuperLiga against Tigres, a 3-2 winner over Santos in Wednesday’s other semifinal at Gillette Stadium.

[MLS] David Beckham is set make his return to MLS, but much of the questioning at Wednesday’s press conference in Hoboken was not about Thursday’s important clash the Los Angeles Galaxy has with the New York Red Bulls at Giants Stadium (TV: Fox Soccer Channel, 8 pm ET), but about the Englishman’s commitment to MLS.  “I’m committed to the MLS as an ambassador,” Beckham insisted during the press conference. On Thursday night, fans will get their first chance to see whether Beckham remains committed as a player …

[REAL MADRID] Real Madrid, which will head to North America next month to face Toronto FC and D.C. United in preseason exhibitions, chose a remote Irish estate dating back to the 1100s as the site of its first week of summer training with new signing Cristiano Ronaldo. Golf is a main attraction at Carton House, which lies on the 1,100-acre estate 15 miles west of Dublin and boasts two golf courses. But it has gone in the soccer business, installing a field with a state-of-the-art playing surface, complete with an irrigation system identical to that at Manchester United’s Old Trafford, to attract big-time teams.

[UPDATE] Carlos Ruiz, who played a supporting role in the much-publicized “The Beckham Experiment” as the overpaid (for purposes of getting the Los Angeles Galaxy under the salary cap) foreign star, is on the move for a second time since leaving Major League Soccer. After a successful Apertura campaign at Paraguayan club Olimpia, he got his wish to move to closer to family in Guatemala and the United States, signing with Mexican club Puebla, where he will replace former FC Dallas teammate Ramon Nunez.

[GOLD CUP] Charlie Davies‘ signing with French club Sochaux was good news for the New Hampshire product but bad news for the U.S. national team, which faces Panama Saturday in the quarterfinals at the Gold Cup. He is the fifth player to leave the U.S. team to return to his European club, having left Tuesday to complete his medical exam and sign his contract.