Author Archives: Paul Kennedy

[WPS] Starting her first game of the season, two-time Olympic gold-medalist Aly Wagner set up Brazilian star Marta for the only goal to lead the Los Angeles Sol to a 1-0 win over FC Gold Pride for its third consecutive shutout victory of the season.

[ENGLAND] Everton and Chelsea will meet in the English FA Cup final May 30 after winning their semifinal matches at Wembley Stadium. Everton’s shootout victory — courtesy of two saves by American keeper Tim Howard — ended Manchester United’s bid for five titles this season. Chelsea came from behind to down London rival Arsenal, 2-1.

[WPS] The Chicago Red Stars, who won and tied their first two games on the road, are the last WPS team to open at home when they host Sky Blue FC in the WPS Sunday on FSC (TV: 6 pm ET). For a look at this weekend’s WPS action …

[CONCACAF UNDER-17 CHAMPIONSHIP] U.S. under-17 national team coach Wilmer Cabrera named 20 players whom he’ll take to 2009 CONCACAF U-17 Championship April 21-May 2 in Tijuana, Mexico. USA, the only country to qualify for every FIFA U-17 World Cup since the tournament’s inception in 1985, has one notable omission: 15-year-old midfield star Charles Renken, who has been in residency five semesters but is again sidelined with a knee injury. For the complete roster …

[USL-2 PREVIEW] A new USL Second Division champion will be crowned following the promotion of last year’s winners, the Cleveland City Stars, to the USL-1. The contenders include Charlotte, Richmond, Crystal Palace Baltimore and Harrisburg. Here’s a look at nine teams in order of last year’s finish …

[UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE] Cristiano Ronaldo‘s goal from 40 yards six minutes into the game was all Manchester United needed to accomplish what no other English club has done — beat Porto at the Dragao Stadium. United’s defense held, and the defending champion moved into the semifinals of the UEFA Champions League with a 1-0 win that gave it a 3-2 victory on aggregate.

[SIGN OF THE TIMES] The University of Maine’s men’s program became the first Division I soccer program to get the ax in response to cutbacks necessitated by the economic woes that have befallen state universities. This was no Title IX move. Women’s volleyball also was dropped, resulting in a projected savings of $600,000 from dropping the two programs in the next fiscal year. It’s a decision that will have a devastating impact on soccer in Maine. It leaves Maine without a D1 program at a time when boys soccer, always popular at the schoolboy level, has taken off at the club level.

[WORLD CUP 2018/2022 BID] President Barack Obama gave his support for the U.S. World Cup bid, writing FIFA President Sepp Blatter about how he has seen soccer bring children together, first as a child growing up in Indonesia and more recently as the father of two soccer-playing girls in Chicago.

[UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE] One of the most wide-open high-profile UEFA Champions League series ever ended with Chelsea reaching the semifinals for the fifth time in the last six years but not before the Blues got a scare from Liverpool, which rallied from 3-1 down after the first leg at home to take a 2-0 lead at halftime of Tuesday’s second leg. The second half produced six goals as the match ended in a 4-4 tie that gave Chelsea a 7-5 win on aggregate and a semifinal date with Barcelona, which beat Bayern Munich 5-1 on aggregate after their second leg ended with a more sedate 1-1 tie.

[UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE] Manchester United will probably need to accomplish what no other English club has done and win at Porto’s Dragao Stadium on Wednesday (TV: ESPN2, live, 2:30 pm ET) to advance to the semifinals of the UEFA Champions League. Five years ago, United fell to Porto, coached by Jose Mourinho, on a late goal that marked the beginning of the end of Tim Howard‘s stint as the United No. 1 keeper.

[UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE] Only fourth in the English Premier League, Arsenal nonetheless may be the hottest of the four EPL clubs in the UEFA Champions League quarterfinals. The Gunners are favored to beat Villarreal Wednesday (TV: ESPN Deportes & Setanta Sports USA, live, 2:30 pm ET) and advance to the semifinals.

[AMERICANS ABROAD] Heath Pearce, the starting U.S. left back for the first two games of the final round of World Cup 2010 qualifying, has been dropped from German Second Division club Hansa Rostock’s first team by Coach Andreas Zachhuber “for performance reasons.”

[UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE] Down 3-1 after the first leg, Liverpool must score at least three goals in Tuesday’s second leg of its UEFA Champions League quarterfinal series with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge (TV: ESPN2, live, 2:30 pm ET) to have any chance of advancing. Impossible? Lowly Bolton scored three goals in eight minutes at Stamford Bridge on Saturday.

[UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE] Barcelona won the first leg of its UEFA Champions League series with Bayern Munich by a margin of 4-0, but it is taking nothing for granted going into Tuesday’s second leg (TV: ESPN Deportes, Setanta Sports USA, live, 2:30 pm ET).

[USL-1] The defending champion Vancouver Whitecaps had to settle for a 0-0 tie with the Charleston Battery at home Saturday on the opening of the 2009 USL-1 season. In the weekend’s only other game, revamped Carolina edged Minnesota, 2-1, thanks to former MLS striker Gavin Glinton‘s goal only four minutes after coming on in his RailHawks’ debut.

[EUROPEAN RACES] What could 17-year-old Italian Federico Macheda do for an encore? A week after coming off the bench and scoring in his debut to give Manchester United a 3-2 win over Aston Villa, Macheda came on as a substitute at Sunderland and scored to give United a 2-1 victory that kept it a point ahead of Liverpool and four ahead of Chelsea with a game in hand in the tight English Premier League race. For a look at the European races …

[WPS] Kelly Smith wavered before leaving the Arsenal Ladies and returning to the United States to play in WPS, and Boston Breakers fans are glad she came. Smith, who could rival Los Angeles star Marta for being the most dangerous striker in WPS, scored one goal and set up Kristine Lilly another to lead the Breakers to a 2-0 win over St. Louis in their home opener.

[MLS] D.C. United’s future in Washington does not look bright. Following another setback in its effort get a stadium project off the ground, MLS Commissioner Don Garber told the Washington Post’s Soccer Insider that the team will be moved if it can’t get a deal done soon.

[SIGN OF THE TIMES] Despite record revenues of $371 million, Manchester United’s parent company, Red Football Joint Venture, suffered pre-tax losses of $65.6 million in 2007-08 in part because of interest payments on loans its owners are unable to restructure in the current economic environment.

[WORLD CUP 2010 QUALIFYING] The coaches of both teams the USA has beaten in the Hexagonal are gone. Less than a week after Trinidad & Tobago’s 3-0 loss to the USA in Nashville, Francisco Maturana quit as the Soca Warriors coach. Maturana’s departure follows the firing of Mexico’s Sven Goran Eriksson a week ago.

[IRAQ] Former U.S. national team coach Bora Milutinovic, 64, will coach Asian champion Iraq — the eighth national team he has coached — at this year’s Confederations Cup in South Africa.