[TOP 25 WOMEN’S ACTION] No. 3 Virginia extended its unbeaten streak to 12 games with a 2-0 win over Virginia Tech on Thursday night. The game drew a record women’s crowd of 2,011 and was televised nationally on Fox Soccer Channel.
Author Archives: Paul Kennedy
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More than 7,000 watch Cal Poly stun UCSB
Cal Poly took over first place in the Big West with a 2-1 win over defending national champion UC Santa Barbara on Wednesday night before a record crowd of 7,143 fans at Spanos Stadium. A goal by Anthony Grillo in the 49th minute broke a 1-1 tie in favor of the Mustangs, who opened up a three-point lead on UCSB in the Big West.
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USA ends slide with win over pathetic Swiss
After losing five games in a row, the USA will take a victory any way it can get it. The young Americans patiently held off a Swiss team short on players and — even worse — short on ideas and came away with a 1-0 victory Wednesday in Basel. In a friendly with few clear chances, the outcome was decided in the 86th minute on a goal that followed a well-constructed setup and a fortunate bounce.
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REPORT CARD: Edu passes first test
[USA-SWITZERLAND GRADES] Soccer America’s Paul Kennedy grades the U.S. players’ performance in their 1-0 victory over Switzerland on Wednesday.
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Mexico’s Tri stunned at L.A. Coliseum
It was supposed to be Los Angeles fans’ first glimpse of the great Mexico team of the future with the Spanish-based trio of Andres Guardado, Carlos Vela and Barcelona starlet Giovani Dos Santos in the starting lineup and New Mexican Edgar Castillo coming off the bench. But what the 42,350 fans saw on Wednesday night was one of the most stunning defeats in the history of the Mexican national team program. Guatemala beat the Tri for the first time in 40 years, winning, 3-2, in an incident-filled game that featured six red cards and seven yellow cards.
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Surprises in first RPI men’s rankings
[RPI RANKINGS] Wake Forest, No. 1 in this week’s Soccer America Men’s Top 25, is first in the NCAA’s initial RPI rankings of the 2007 season. Teams with surprisingly high rankings: Quinnipiac, Fairfield, Loyola (Md.) and Binghamton. On the other hand, Duke didn’t crack the top 40.
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USA aims to end skid against Swiss
You have to go back more than 30 years to find when the USA lost at least six international matches in a row, but Bob Bradley‘s Americans will match that mark if they lose on Wednesday to Switzerland at Basel’s St. Jakob Park (TV: Fox Soccer Channel, 2:30 pm ET; Galavision, delay, 7 pm ET/PT). After a 10-0-1 start that culminated in its 2-1 victory over Mexico in the final of the 2007 Gold Cup, the USA has lost its last five games under Bradley, going down to defeat in all three matches at the Copa America and falling to Sweden and Brazil in recent friendlies.
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Penn State No. 1 in first women’s RPI ranking
[RPI] Penn State was No. 1 in the first RPI ranking of NCAA Division I women’s teams released by the NCAA last week.
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Riquelme and Rey golazos power Argentina and Venezuela in World Cup qualifying
[VIDEOS] Argentina star Juan Roman Riquelme and Jose Manuel Rey of Venezuela were the stars of the first day of World Cup 2010 qualifying in South America. Riquelme, who has not played this season for Spanish club Villarreal, didn’t show any signs of being rusty. he scored two superb free kicks in the first half to lead Argentina to a 2-0 win over Chile on Saturday. Rey converted a free kick from 45 yards out to give Venezuela, the only South American team to have never played in the World Cup, a 1-0 win in Ecuador.
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Coach insists Germany still has work to do
[EURO 2008 QUALIFYING] Germany became the first team to qualify for the Euro 2008 finals when it clinched one of the top two spots in Group D with a 0-0 tie with Ireland in Dublin on Saturday. The Czech Republic is in line to capture the second berth in Group D, while several other groups are almost decided. Croatia and England both can wrap up berths in Wednesday. Romania, Croatia, Spain and Sweden are all in good shape.
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North Carolina sweeps Duke series
[UNC-DUKE DOUBLEHEADER] Host North Carolina swept a rare men’s and women’s twinbill against archrival Duke, winning the women’s game, 2-1, and then taking the men’s game, 1-0, in overtime. The crowd of 4,717 for the doubleheader marked the largest crowd in UNC men’s history and was the nation’s third largest crowd of the season for a women’s game.
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Deja vu in South American qualifying
[WORLD CUP 2010] South America officials didn’t wait until the 2010 World Cup qualifying draw to begin the long road to the finals in South Africa, and they didn’t waste time figuring out the schedule. If the 2010 qualifying schedule looks familiar to fans, it’s because it is the same as was used for the 2002 and 2006 qualifiers! That means Argentina hosts Chile Saturday and Brazil travels to Colombia Sunday in this weekend’s top matches. For previews of this weekend’s opening qualifiers …
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Euro ’08 qualifying moves into home stretch
[PREVIEW] The first of the two remaining double fixture weekends in Euro ’08 qualifying begins on Saturday. Here’s a look at seven key matches …
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Player of the Year candidate White powers No. 1 UConn
O’Brian White is an early favorite for Men’s Player of the Year honors. The Jamaican youth international via Ontario scored a hat trick for the second straight game and led No. 1 Connecticut to a 3-0 win over Providence Wednesday night at Morrone Stadium.
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Clemson sinks to new low
[UPSET] Clemson’s long season got even longer Tuesday night when it lost to UNC Asheville, a team it had beaten in their six previous meetings, 2-1, in overtime. The loss dropped the Tigers’ record to 4-7-1 and left them increasingly danger of finishing with a losing record for only the third time in the 41-year history of the program.
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Wake Forest’s Phelan makes up for lost time
[MEN’S TOP 25 ACTION] Pat Phelan quickly made up for lost time. After going 65 games at Wake Forest without scoring a goal, the senior defender scored twice in the first six minutes on Tuesday to lead No. 2 Wake Forest to a 5-0 win over Appalachian State.
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OBITUARY: Cal State Northridge’s Jay Singh (1987-2007)
Jay Singh, a 20-year-old junior whose coach called him “Beckham” for the way he could strike a ball, died unexpectedly Sunday night at his home in San Bruno, Calif. Singh was redshirting at Cal State Northridge after transferring from Loyola Marymount. According to the Los Angeles Daily News, the cause of death is still under investigation and results of an autopsy done on Monday would not be known for several weeks.
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Wild night in ACC country
Friday’s three men’s conference games proved why the ACC is considered the most exciting conference in the country. Virginia Tech-Wake Forest, Duke-Boston College and Maryland-Clemson produced 17 goals, dramatic comebacks and great action.
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WEEKEND WRAPUP: International Soccer Headliners
[VIDEO] Arsenal’s young Gunners rolled on in England. Brazilian Afonso Alves set a Dutch record with seven goals for Heerenveen. Bayern Munich celebrated the end of Oktoberfest with a victory over Nuremberg in their 176th Bavarian derby, while Mexico’s Club America dumped Coach Luis Fernando Tena after its 3-1 loss to Toluca.
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Ducks letter a quarter of century later
[HISTORY] More than a quarter century after they played pioneering roles in women’s soccer, members of the University of Oregon’s 1980 and 1981 teams will be honored at ceremonies Friday during the Ducks’ game with Portland. It will be the first time that Oregon has honored its 1980 varsity team, and it will also be the first time that the 1981 team has been formally recognized with varsity status and players granted letterman status.
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Nation’s leading scorer realizes dream
Quinnipiac’s Graciano Brito isn’t your typical college star. He never played organized soccer before entering college. Three years later, he leads all NCAA Division I scorers with nine goals — and two hat tricks — in six games, but he still commutes 45 minutes each day between home and school and often works until midnight as a clerk at a local supermarket.
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Injury epidemic hits Santa Clara women
[PREVIEW] No. 4 Santa Clara will take a depleted roster on the road when the Broncos face No. 1 Stanford Friday and No. 3 UCLA Sunday. Their epidemic got so bad that injuries to Courtney Lewis and Lindsey Johnson left Coach Jerry Smith with only two available substitutes for last Sunday’s game against California.
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WEEKEND PREVIEW: International Soccer Headliners
Arsenal’s fast start has led to comparisons between Arsene Wenger‘s young Gunners and his “Invincibles” of four seasons ago. Manchester City’s Brazilian, Elano, is one of the best summer signings in the English Premier League. After Marseille’s victory at Liverpool on Wednesday, Belgian coach Eric Gerets must get down to the work he was this week hired for at the French club. Sunday’s River Plate-Boca Juniors derby isn’t the only sporting event that has Argentines talking.
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N.C. State’s Tarantini gets 200th win
[MILESTONE] N.C. State men’s coach George Tarantini recorded his 200th career victory Wednesday afternoon when the Wolfpack downed visiting High Point, 5-0, at Method Road. The Argentine-born Tarantini is in his 22th year as the Wolfpack’s head coach. In his early years at N.C. State, the fiery Tarantini, whose younger brother Alberto played on Argentina’s 1978 World Cup championship team, built some of the most talented teams in the history of college soccer.
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Travails of a two-sport star
Mark Buchholz should be applauded for his accomplishments as a two-sport star at Clemson. On most Friday nights, the Georgia native plays for the Tiger soccer team, for which he is a four-year starter. On Saturdays, he’s the field goal kicker on Tommy Bowden‘s football team. Problem is, recent misses on the gridiron have local pundits demanding that Buchholz quit soccer.