Author Archives: Paul Kennedy

[WORLD CUP 2010 QUALIFYING] Less than two weeks before it hosts the United States in the Hexagonal, El Salvador has been rocked by a player strike. Twenty-three of 24 players — all but U.S. resident Edwin Miranda — walked out of training on Tuesday afternoon to protest the non-payment of bonuses for having qualified for the Hexagonal, the final round of qualifying.

[ENGLAND] On the heels of two of the biggest wins in Liverpool history, Reds manager Rafael Benitez won another battle when he earned a new five-year contract valued at $6 million a year. Just as important, the Spaniard won greater control over personnel matters, ending a prolonged battle with Liverpool’s American owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett.

[MY VIEW] It’s all coming together for MLS in the Northwest. As it should be. The Seattle Sounders FC will make their MLS debut against New York Thursday before a sell-out crowd at (down-sized) Qwest Field (TV: ESPN2, 9 pm ET). On Wednesday, MLS announced that Vancouver will join the league as its 17th team in 2011. Portland is the favorite to be awarded the 18th franchise, also scheduled to begin play in 2011.

[CONCACAF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE] Puerto Rico was bounced by the USA from the World Baseball Classic with a three-run rally in the bottom of the ninth inning, but all was not lost for Puerto Rican sports fans on Tuesday night. The USL-1 Islanders continued their remarkable campaign in the Concacaf Champions League with a 2-0 win over Mexico’s Cruz Azul in front of more than 13,000 fans at the Juan Ramon Loubriel Stadium in Bayamon.

[ENGLAND] The Arsenal-Chelsea semifinal date is on for April 18 at Wembley Stadium after the Gunners rallied in the last quarter of an hour, getting a tying goal from Robin van Persie and a controversial winner from William Gallas to beat Hull City, 2-1, in the quarterfinals on Tuesday.

[WPS] Women’s Professional Soccer awarded its eighth franchise to Philadelphia, which will begin play in 2010. The Philadelphia ownership group, led by David Halstead and Matthew Driver, hopes to play in the stadium being built in Chester, Pa., for the MLS team also scheduled to debut in 2010.

[MLS] Tuesday is a big day in D.C. United’s efforts to obtain funding to build a stadium in Prince George’s County, Md. Maryland lawmakers have been bombarded with emails from soccer fans from around the world, but anti-tax activists are prepared for a fight.

[MLS] Former D.C. United defender Mike Zaher, who scored a stunning goal for UCLA at Buck Shaw Stadium during the NCAA playoffs two years ago, will be playing his home games on the Santa Clara campus this season.

[WPS] Tiffeny Milbrett scored 100 goals in 202 international matches for the U.S. national team, but that wasn’t good enough to get selected in the recent Women’s Professional Soccer draft. FC Gold Pride was the only one of four clubs to respond favorably to the 36-year-old striker’s request for a tryout, after which she won a spot on its 24-player roster for the 2009 season.

[AMERICANS ABROAD] Michael Bradley scored two goals for German club Borussia Moenchengladbach in a 4-2 win over FC Cologne that moved Gladbach into a tie for 15th place in the Bundesliga with Bochum (inside the relegation zone on goal difference). Bradley has scored four of his five Bundesliga goals since the winter break and helped Gladbach escape from the cellar.

[CONCACAF UNDER-20 CHAMPIONSHIP] The USA’s bid for its first Concacaf U-20 championship failed when it fell to Costa Rica, 3-0, in Sunday’s final in Macoya, Trinidad. While the Americans qualified for Egypt 2009, marking the seventh straight time they will played in the under-20 world championships, they hardly dominated. In five games, they scored only five goals and were handed three red cards. The final marked the second game in which the USA had been outshot by a margin of more than 3-1.

[ENGLAND] Liverpool’s shocking 4-1 win over Manchester United on Saturday brought life back to the English Premier League title race, but Reds manager Rafael Benitez says the Reds have a difficult task ahead of them if they are to catch United.

[EUROPE] Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Bojan Krkic had big games for Inter Milan and Barcelona, the Italian and Spanish leaders, respectively. Injuries to Bayern Munich’s Miroslav Klose and Chelsea’s Deco could spell the end to their 2008-09 campaigns. For who’s up, who’s down, who’s in and who’s out …

[WPS NOTEBOOK] It’s only 16 days until the Women’s Professional Soccer opener, and clubs are busy at work in preseason camps, beginning the cuts to get their rosters down to 22 players (including four developmental players). U.S. national team veterans Kristine Lilly, Tiffeny Milbrett and Brandi Chastain have set the tone with goals in early action.

[ALGARVE CUP] The USA’s bid for a third straight Algarve Cup championship was thwarted when it fell to Sweden on penalty kicks in Wednesday’s final after a 1-1 tie. The only other time in the last seven years the Americans failed to win the Portuguese tournament was in 2006 when they fell to Germany in a shootout.

[CONCACAF UNDER-20 CHAMPIONSHIP] Costa Rica and Trinidad & Tobago will join the USA and Honduras as the Concacaf representatives at the 2009 Under-20 World Cup. The Ticos won Group B with a 2-1 victory over Canada on Wednesday. Host T&T will face the USA in Friday’s semifinals after tying Mexico, 2-2, to finish second and qualify for the U-20 finals for the first time since 1991.

[UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE] Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson could have gloated after a big win over his former nemesis Jose Mourinho Wednesday night, but he chose to blast his players after escaping against Inter Milan in what he termed a “game of suicide.” Barcelona, Arsenal and FC Porto also advanced to the quarterfinals.

[CONCACAF UNDER-20 CHAMPIONSHIP] While its archrival, Mexico, was unceremoniously dumped from the tournament, the USA got the job done and qualified for the Under-20 World Cup for the seventh straight time, defeating El Salvador, 2-0, in Tuesday’s group finale despite finishing with only nine players.

[UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE] Real Madrid has won nine European Cup titles, more than any other club, but that’s all ancient history as the Merengues have failed to get past the first round of the knockout phase for the last five years. Its latest exit was the result of Tuesday’s 4-0 thrashing at Liverpool — its worst defeat in the history of the Champions League. Chelsea, Bayern Munich (with a record aggregate victory) and Villarreal (2-1 winner at Panathinaikos) also advanced.

[2009 GOLD CUP] Concacaf will hold the 2009 Gold Cup in 13 different U.S. cities — a record for a continental championship and once less than the 14 different Spanish cities that hosted games for the 1982 World Cup, a record for an international championship hosted by a single country.

[ALGARVE CUP] In just her second international start, Chicago Red Stars forward Megan Rapinoe scored to give the USA a 1-0 victory against Norway in their final group game at the Algarve Cup. The Americans had already clinched a berth in Wednesday’s final against Sweden, a 3-2 winner over Germany on Monday.

[GERMANY] Ukrainian striker Andrei Voronin, a bust at Liverpool, has rediscovered his form since returning on loan to the Bundesliga. He upped his total to 10 goals this season with a hat trick in leader Hertha Berlin’s 3-1 victory at Energie Cottbus that moved it four points ahead of Bayern Munich, Hamburg, Hoffenheim and Wolfsburg, all tied for second place.

[CONCACAF UNDER-20 CHAMPIONSHIP] The USA had a chance to clinch Sunday to clinch a berth at the 2009 Under-20 World Cup in Egypt, but it was badly outplayed by Honduras and had to settle for a 0-0 tie that means it must earn at least a point against El Salvador on Tuesday to qualify unless Jamaica and Honduras tie.