Author Archives: Paul Kennedy

[AMERICANS ABROAD] After more than 30 years of involvement in American soccer, as a player, coach, referee and most recently as an influential figure in U.S. Soccer and the U.S. Soccer Foundation, Jerome de Bontin, the new president of French club AS Monaco, promises to bring an American touch to one of the most prestigious names in European soccer, a club that has struggled in recent years.

U.S. national team head coach Bob Bradley has named a pool of 33 players who have been called for friendlies against England, Spain and Argentina, beginning with a game against England May 28 at Wembley Stadium. For a look at who’s invited …

[NAMES & NUMBERS] There were three East-West confrontations over the MLS weekend, and all resulted in — you guessed it — wins for the visiting Eastern Conference teams. The Western Conference is so bad that FC Dallas, which dropped to .500 with a 2-1 loss to Real Salt Lake, is the only team that doesn’t have a losing record. It took seven weeks, but MLS stars Juan Pablo Angel, Taylor Twellman, Brian Ching and Dwayne De Rosario finally got their first goals of the season. For all the MLS weekend action …

[UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE] Didier Drogba, derided by Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez before the game for diving, got the better of the Reds, scoring two goals and leading Chelsea to a 3-2 victory Wednesday that moved the Blues into the final of the UEFA Champions League against Manchester United on May 21 in Moscow.

[IN THE SPOTLIGHT] Barcelona’s semifinal series against Manchester United in the UEFA Champions League, which begins Wednesday (TV: ESPN2, ESPN Deportes, live, 2:30 pm ET) in Barcelona, will go a long way toward deciding the makeup of the team going forward. Barca touted its “Four Fantasticos” — Ronaldinho, Thierry Henry, Samuel Eto’o and Lionel Messi — but its domestic troubles are so severe that three of them — Ronaldinho, Henry and Eto’o — are rumored to possibly be leaving Barcelona.

[MEN’S SCOUTING REPORT] The USA was drawn with the Netherlands, the two-time defending European U-21 champion, former Olympic gold-medalist Nigeria and Japan, an Asian age-group powerhouse, in what shapes up to be a very tough test at the Olympic men’s tournament. For a look at the U.S. opponents and some of the stars whom the Americans will face in China …

[WOMEN”S SCOUTING REPORT] The USA’s draw for the 2008 Olympic women’s soccer tournament could have been a lot worse. Compared to Group F, which features 2007 Women’s World Cup champion Germany, runner-up Brazil and quarterfinalist North Korea, as well as African powerhouse Nigeria, Group G looks like a cakewalk with Norway, Japan and New Zealand. U.S. coach Pia Sundhage looks at the three U.S. opponents …

To say the least, the first three weeks of the 2008 MLS season have not gone as the two-time defending champion Houston Dynamo would have liked. It was dumped from the Concacaf Champions Cup by Costa Rica’s Saprissa. It’s winless in its first three games of the 2008 MLS season and must play its next three games without starting center back Eddie Robinson. On top of that was Wednesday’s release of a letter from MLS Commissioner Don Garber to the Dynamo owners regarding the “troubling situation” regarding their inability to conclude a soccer stadium deal with the City of Houston. It included what in Houston was being termed a “threat” to move the Dynamo — a club with one of the best fan bases in the league.

[MEXICO] For the moment, Jesus Ramirez‘s commitment to coach the Mexico national team is only three games, the first of which takes place on Wednesday when the Tri faces China in Seattle. Ramirez, who led Mexico to the 2005 Under-17 World Cup title, was named interim coach after Hugo Sanchez was fired following Mexico’s failure to qualify for the 2008 Olympics.

[MLS] Major League Soccer isn’t like American leagues such as the NFL and NBA, which have ready-made stars emerge from their drafts each year. The lack of young impact players is the most glaring weakness of American soccer, leaving MLS clubs to struggle to make use of the annual player draft. For evidence, one needs to look no further than the first round of the MLS SuperDraft. To date, eight of the 14 players taken in the first round of the 2008 MLS SuperDraft have yet to play while three other players have played a combined 27 minutes.

[NAMES & NUMBERS] The third weekend of play in Major League Soccer produced several wild affairs. The smallest MLS crowd in Columbus home history saw the Crew prevail, 4-3, over Chivas USA in a match that featured four goals in 11 minutes — and a pair of red cards in the next two minutes. Frenchman Laurent Robert won the battle of former EPL long-ball specialists handily over David Beckham as Toronto FC stunned Los Angeles, 3-2, on Sunday. Real Salt Lake exploded for its biggest victory in its history when it crushed D.C. United, 4-0. For all the MLS developments …

[MLS] John Guppy, who served as the Fire’s president and general manager for four years, became the second MLS club boss to depart in three days when he left the Fire on Friday. Red Bull New York managing director Marc de Grandpre resigned on Wednesday.

[AMERICANS ABROAD] The 2008 Norwegian season kicked off last weekend with a record 13 Americans on the rosters of pro clubs in the top two divisions. In the Eliteserien (First Division), keepers Troy Perkins (Valerenga) and Adin Brown (Aalesund) squared off, and Perkins emerged victorious with a 1-0 win in his Norwegian debut. The only other American to play in the First Division last weekend was recent Molde signing Willis Forko. The latest signing is 2006 Hermann Trophy winner Joe Lapira of Notre Dame. He signed Tuesday with Nybergsund of the Adeccoligaen (Second Division), which begins next weekend.

[THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE UGLY] Spaniard Fernando Torres scored in Liverpool’s sixth straight home game, tying a Reds’ record, and helped them beat Everton, 1-0, in their Merseyside derby. Barcelona was all but eliminated from Spain’s La Liga race when it blew a two-goal lead against Real Betis and lost, 3-2. Italian soccer was again marred by violence when a Parma fan was accidentally run over by a bus as it attempted to leave a service station at which Juventus and Parma fans were trading insults. For all the weekend developments across Europe …

[WORLD CUP 2010 QUALIFYING] Dwayne Stanford‘s goal in the 69th minute gave Barbados a 1-0 win over Dominica and set up a date with the USA in June in a home-and-home series in 2010 World Cup qualifying.

[CONCACAF CHAMPIONS CUP] On a team with Latin American stars, two unlikely players provided the spark as D.C. rolled to a 5-0 win over Jamaica’s Harbour View in the Concacaf Champions Cup quarterfinals on Tuesday night and moved into next month’s semifinals.

Hugo Sanchez always had a big ego. When he finally was given the job of Mexico national team coach — a job he had coveted for years — he promised he wouldn’t disappoint, boasting that Mexico would win the Gold Cup and earn an Olympic medal. Well, Mexico lost to the USA, 2-1, in last year’s Gold Cup final and won’t be going to Beijing Olympics. Following the U-23 Tri’s shock third-place finish, behind Guatemala and Canada, in the group stage of Concacaf qualifying, the Mexican press hammered Sanchez.

[OLYMPIC QUALIFYING] It was an afternoon fans won’t quickly forget at the Home Depot Center. Canada, with its hastily assembled team of no names, and Mexico, with its Golden Generation, were in a race to run up the score and earn the second berth from Group B — and a date with the USA Thursday — in the all-important semifinals of Concacaf Olympic men’s qualifying. Canada beat group winner Guatemala, 5-0, to put the pressure on Hugo Sanchez‘s Mexico U-23s, who could only beat Haiti, 5-1, in the nightcap and were eliminated. Thus ended Mexico’s dream of its first Olympic medal. Its exit immediately sparked speculation that Sanchez will be gone by the end of the month.