Who says West Coast soccer doesn’t draw? For the second time in less than three weeks, defending men’s champion UC Santa Barbara and Cal Poly shattered the Big West regular-season attendance record.
Author Archives: Paul Kennedy
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Fergie fumes after Arsenal-United draw
[INTERNATIONAL HEADLINERS/VIDEO] Arsenal and Manchester United played to a 2-2 tie in an EPL top-of-the-table clash filled with drama and controversy that left United manager Alex Ferguson fuming. Ronaldinho was in fine form for Barcelona with two goals on free kicks in its 3-0 win over Real Betis. The race has tightened considerably in Germany, where Bayern’s lead over Hamburg is down to two points. Struggling at home and in Europe, Ukrainian power Dynamo Kiev made yet another coaching change on Sunday.
Posted inCollege Soccer Reporter, Story
Projecting the NCAA Division I men’s field
The NCAA has released its second RPI for NCAA Division I men’s teams. Soccer America examines the 48 teams that would made the NCAA Tournament as of the NCAA’s late-season snapshot — the top-ranked team from each of the 22 conferences and the 26 next highest-ranked teams. The latest RPI shows strength for the Big East, ACC and Big Ten. It’s a weak year for the Pac-10, and the CAA has fallen sharply. For Soccer America’s projected 48 and conference rankings …
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WEEKEND PREVIEW: International Soccer Headliners
The recent form of Arsenal and Manchester United has fans salivating about Saturday’s clash of EPL co-leaders at the Emirates Stadium. Tensions are high in Italy, where Juventus and Inter Milan meet Sunday for the first time since Juventus was relegated in 2006 and Inter was awarded Juve’s league title in the aftermath of the Calciopoli scandal. In Spain, Sevilla hosts La Liga leader Real Madrid in Sevilla coach Manolo Jimenez‘s third tough test in a week since taking over as for Juande Ramos. In Germany, young Dutch star Rafael van der Vaart should be back in the lineup for Hamburg against Hertha Berlin amid renewed speculation of a move to Spanish club Valencia.
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Happy Halloween for Top 25 teams on the road
[TOP 25 ACTION] Nine of the 11 Top 25 men’s teams in action on Wednesday played on the road, and only No. 11 Michigan State returned home with a loss. The Spartans dropped their second straight 2-0 decision, falling at Cincinnati in non-conference action. No. 4 Brown, No. 6 Boston College, No. 9 Indiana, No. 14 UC Santa Barbara, No. 17 Duke and No. 19 West Virginia all won on the road.
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MIDWEEK WRAPUP: International Soccer Headliners
Valencia fans must hope that the hiring of Dutchman Ronald Koeman as head coach will end the La Liga club’s free fall. Wednesday’s announcement followed Valencia’s 5-1 loss at home to La Liga leader Real Madrid. In Roma, Roma won city bragging rights with a 3-2 win over Lazio. On the agenda in England was the League Cup, in which Chelsea rallied to beat Leicester City, 4-3, thanks to Frank Lampard‘s hat trick. As expected, Sao Paulo wrapped up its second straight Brazilian national championship.
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Transfers have big impact at major programs
[FEATURE] Alejandro Bedoya is making a strong case for ACC Player of the Year honors at Boston College after transferring Fairleigh Dickinson. California JC star Oscar Castillo has been an invaluable addition to the UConn backline. Andrei Gotsmanov, son of a former Soviet international star, has emerged from a two-year layoff to star at Creighton. Virginia Tech took the unusual route of bringing in 6-foot-6 Englishman Robert Edmans and Germans Georg Zehender and Stefan Hock from European universities. All are first-year transfers, and all are playing big roles at Top 10 programs.
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The Brazil World Cup 2014 challenge
[MY VIEW] FIFA’s decision to abandon the rotation system for awarding future World Cups might very well cost the USA the chance to host the World Cup in the near term. The flaw with FIFA’s policy of awarding the World Cup to countries from different confederations was very much evident in the choice of Brazil as host of the 2014 finals. Brazil was not the overwhelming choice to host the 2014 finals. Brazil was FIFA’s only choice, and its bid was accepted, holes and all.
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Germany 2011: ‘Welcome back’
[WOMEN’S WORLD CUP] Germany beat out Canada for the right to the host of the 2011 Women’s World Cup.
The decision, announced by FIFA president Sepp Blatter following a meeting of the executive committee on Tuesday in Zurich, comes exactly one month after Germany successfully defended its Women’s World Cup title, beating Brazil, 2-0, in the final in Shanghai. FIFA’s decision was another setback for Canadian soccer, rocked by upheaval within the Canadian Soccer Association and charges of CSA mismanagement.
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Maryland’s Cirovski issues warning
Maryland coach Sasho Cirovski has issued a warning: “We’re a lot better than some people think out there right now.” He likes the progress his young team has made in recent weeks. The Terrapins, 3-4-1 at one point in the season, have quietly run off an eight-game unbeaten streak and slipped this week to the Soccer America Men’s Top 25 at No. 21.
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Boston College finds secret to beating Wake Forest
Well, Wake Forest can be beaten. Indeed, the No. 1 Demon Deacons were thoroughly stymied by Boston College, whose 1-0 margin of victory on Saturday night didn’t reflect its dominance. For more on how BC shut down Wake …
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WEEKEND WRAPUP: International Soccer Headliners
Despite the 1-1 tie at Liverpool that snapped Arsenal’s 12-game winning streak, Gunners manager Arsene Wenger is convinced that his young team can achieve greatness this season. Valencia dumped its coach, Quique Sanchez Flores, after its 3-0 loss to Sevilla. Club America won Mexico’s Superclasico with a 2-1 win over Guadalajara, while goalkeeper Rogerio Ceni moved Sao Paulo one step closer to the Brazilian championship title.
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Wildfires impact Southern California programs
For almost a week now, fires have been raging across Southern California, affecting the movement of college teams. Pepperdine’s women managed to play at San Diego in WCC action last Sunday but then couldn’t get back home. Classes at San Diego have since been canceled and the campus used as an evacuation site. Unable to practice, the Torero women headed to Portland a day early to prepare for their nationally televised match on Thursday night. San Diego State teams have been forced move home games outside the area — to Los Angeles and as far away as Provo, Utah. Then there’s San Diego State men’s assistant coach Oscar Rodriguez, a San Diego firefighter who has been battling fires non-stop since last Sunday.
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Kings of the clubs take BU by storm
[FEATURE] Icelanders Petur Sigurdsson, Jon Jonsson and Hrafn Davidsson follow in a long tradition of foreign players who have helped make Boston University a national men’s power for more than a quarter century. All three players have been key contributors on the Terriers, who extended their unbeaten streak to six games with a 1-1 tie with Hartford on Wednesday, and they brought with them their fun-loving ways from Reykjavik’s music scene.
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Liverpool’s mountain gets bigger
[REACTION/VIDEO] Liverpool, the 2007 UEFA Champions League runner-up, is in danger of not reaching the knockout phase of the 2008 competition after its 2-1 loss at Turkish club Besiktas left the Reds in last place in Group A with only one point after three games.
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Wake Forest steamroller rolls on
There’s no stopping Wake Forest. The No. 1 Demon Deacons beat Coastal Carolina, 5-0, on Tuesday night to give them five wins by a margin of 25-0 in their last five games — 16-0 in the last three games, all on the road.
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Crisis-hit Milan battles emerging giant Shakhtar
[MARQUEE MATCHUP] Its Serie A season a mess, AC Milan turns it attention to the UEFA Champions League, where it has gotten off to a rocky start in its title defense. Milan, which split its first two games, faces a must-win situation at home on Wednesday against Ukraine’s Shakhtar Donetsk, the surprise Group D leader with wins in its opening games.
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Happy birthday, Arsene!
[REACTION/VIDEO] A day after he celebrated his 58th birthday, Arsenal handed its manager, Frenchman Arsene Wenger, a birthday present with a record-tying 7-0 win over Slavia Prague in Champions League action on Tuesday. The Gunners were every bit as good as the score indicated, but Wenger said his young team still had room for improvement.
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Swede Sundhage relishes U.S. women’s ‘challenge’
Head coach Marika Domanski-Lyfors and assistant Pia Sundhage have quit the Chinese women’s national team, leading Sundhage, who coached in WUSA for three years, to say she would be interested in the challenge of the U.S. women’s national team head coaching job for which her name has come up prominently since Greg Ryan‘s exit as U.S. women’s national team coach.
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Quinnipiac, the other unbeaten team
Everyone knows about Wake Forest, the No. 1 team in the Soccer America Men’s Top 25, unbeaten in 13 games, winner of its last four games by a margin of 20-0. But another team remains unbeaten going into Week 8 of the 2007 season. Led by scoring sensation Graciano Brito, the Cape Verdean immigrant who never played organized soccer until he entered college, Quinnipiac has completed one of the most remarkable turnarounds in the history of college soccer. Coming off a 1-12-4 season and being picked to finish last in the Northeast Conference, Quinnipiac is 9-0-3.
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Rangers riding high going into Barca match
[MARQUEE MATCHUP] Rangers and Barcelona play for the Group E lead when they meet Tuesday in the Champions League at Ibrox. Both teams won their first two games in group play, but they had contrasting fortunes over the weekend.
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Cheney leads No. 1 UCLA to Pac-10 sweep
U.S. international Lauren Cheney is making a strong case for Women’s Player of the Year honors. The sophomore scored one goal and set up another in a 2-0 win at No. 2 Stanford on Friday night and scored both goals two days later in another 2-0 victory at California on Sunday.
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West Virginia’s giant-killers strike again
West Virginia’s reputation as a giant-killer grew Friday night when the Mountaineers knocked off Connecticut, ranked No. 2 in the Soccer America Men’s Top 25, 1-0. Jason Bristol had been inserted into the starting lineup for his first collegiate start in order to help shut down the high-scoring UConn attack, but the 6-foot-4 sophomore was the scoring hero, striking his first collegiate goal for the Mountaineers, who beat a Top 5 team for the third time this season.
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WEEKEND WRAPUP: International Soccer Headliners
Liverpool edged Everton in their Merseyside derby marred by questionable refereeing. Alessandro Del Piero kept Juventus near the top of Italy’s Serie A, while AC Milan’s troubles at home continued. Defending Bundesliga champion Stuttgart hit a new low when it fell at Hamburg, 4-1.
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Greg Ryan, in or out?
U.S. Soccer has called a media conference call for Monday at 4 p.m. ET at which time President Sunil Gulati and Secretary General Dan Flynn will address the status of U.S. women’s national team coach Greg Ryan. Ryan’s absence from the conference call raises speculation that his contract will be not be renewed for 2008. The conference call comes two days after the USA tied Mexico, 1-1, in its final game of 2007.