[EURO ’08 QUALIFYING WRAPUP] Filippo Inzaghi, the hero of AC Milan’s recent UEFA Champions League triumph, saved world champion Italy from embarrassment as his two first-half goals were barely enough to give the Azzurri a 2-1 victory over the Faeroe Islands in Saturday’s Euro 2008 qualifier. The win was good enough to move Italy into second place in Group B behind France, which beat Ukraine 2-0, but the Azzurri came in for harsh criticism in the Italian press. For complete Euro ’08 qualifying results and goalscorers …
Author Archives: Paul Kennedy
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BYU men earn spot in U.S. Open Cup
A college team has qualified for the first round of the 2007 U.S. Open Cup. Brigham Young University, which plays in the amateur PDL, hosts the California Victory of the USL-1 on June 14 in a first-round match at BYU South Stadium. With nine returning starters, the Cougars are expected to challenge for the PDL’s Northwest Division title. Going into Friday’s game at Ogden, BYU is in first place with a 4-1-0 record. The Cougars clinched their Open Cup berth with a 3-1 win at the Spokane Spiders last Saturday.
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England welcomes back Beckham and Owen for Brazil friendly
[TV PREVIEW] David Beckham will play for England for the first time since being dropped nearly a year ago by Coach Steve McClaren on Friday when England faces Brazil in a friendly game at Wembley Stadium. Some experts will argue that more important than the return of Beckham is the comeback of Michael Owen, who is set to start for England for the first time since suffering a knee injury at the 2006 World Cup that sidelined him for most of the EPL season.
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Powers limp into key Euro 2008 qualifiers
[TV PREVIEW] Saturday is a key day for powers Italy, Spain and Portugal, who are all fighting to stay in contention in Euro 2008 qualifying. Unfortunately, they find themselves depleted of firepower at the end of a long season. Italy is fourth in Group B with 10 points, two points behind leaders Ukraine, Scotland and France, and it will be missing many key strikers for its trip to the Faeroe Islands on Saturday and Lithuania on Wednesday. Spain is third in Group F, four points behind leaders Northern Ireland and three behind Sweden, and also has problems up front. With Atletico Madrid’s Fernando Torres injured, uncapped Osasuna striker Roberto Soldado may start up front with David Villa against Latvia on Saturday. Portugal is second in Group A, five points behind Poland, going into its game at Belgium on Saturday, but Manchester United star Cristiano Ronaldo is suspended and Benfica attackers Simao Sabrosa and Nuno Gomes are injured. The biggest clash takes place at the Stade de France, where 2006 World Cup runner-up France hosts quarterfinalist Ukraine. Both teams will be without their scoring aces. Nicolas Anelka should fill in for Thierry Henry, out with a groin injury, in the Bleus’ attack. Andriy Voronin will be the main Ukraine threat in the absence of Andriy Shevchenko, who underwent hernia surgery last month.
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Kaka and Ronaldinho to make cameo at Wembley
The rebuilding of Brazil continues when it faces England at Wembley on Friday in a key test before the Copa America later this month. Coach Dunga’s squad for Friday’s game should include superstars Ronaldinho and Kaka, who have both asked not to go to Venezuela for the Copa America. Kaka and Ronaldinho are expected to play behind Vagner Love and Robinho of Real Madrid in the Brazil attack at Wembley. Jo could start for Robinho, giving Brazil a strike force of players based at Russian club CSKA Moscow. Gilberto Silva was outstanding in midfield for Arsenal and should join Elano of Ukraine club Shakhtar Donetsk as holding midfielders behind Ronaldinho and Kaka against England
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Scotsman McBeth pays price for FIFA remarks
Sepp Blatter‘s re-election to a third term as president of FIFA on Thursday was overshadowed by remarks by Scotsman John McBeth critical of corruption within FIFA countries that resulted in his being replaced by Geoff Thompson, chairman of the English FA, as Britain’s vice-president on FIFA’s executive committee. McBeth won his place in a vote of the four British associations earlier this year, but remarks about African and Caribbean nations to Scottish reporters last week sparked a swift reaction within FIFA.
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Canada calls up seven MLS players for the Gold Cup
Canada called up 20 players and three reserves for the 2007 Gold Cup, which starts on June 6. Canada’s 20-player roster includes six players from MLS teams — three from Toronto FC two from the Los Angeles Galaxy and one from the Houston Dynamo — and three USL players — two from the Montreal Impact and Martin Nash, brother of NBA star Steve Nash, from the champion Vancouver Whitecaps. The only uncapped player is Antonio Ribeiro of the Impact. Toronto FC captain Jim Brennan turned down an invitation to play for Canada to concentrate on MLS play.
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Dispute depletes T&T squad for the Gold Cup
Trinidad & Tobago will send a depleted roster to the Gold Cup, where it will face the USA in the first round. All 2006 World Cup veterans playing abroad won’t be playing because of a dispute with the T&T federation over World Cup bonuses. Dwight Yorke, the T&T captain at the 2006 World Cup, turned down an offer to return to the national team. His decision not to come out of international retirement a second time was reportedly to support his World Cup teammates who are currently locked in a dispute over bonuses with the T&T federation.
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Notre Dame’s Lapira debuts for Ireland national team
Notre Dame’s Joseph Lapira, Soccer America’s College Player of the Year and the Hermann Trophy winner in 2006, debuted for Ireland’s national team in a 1-1 tie with Ecuador on Wednesday night at Giants Stadium. Lapira, who hails from Lake Charles, La,, and qualified to represent Ireland through his mother, Kate , became the first amateur player to play for Ireland in 43 years. Lapira replaced Sunderland’s Daryl Murphy four minutes from the end of the game, the first of two on Ireland’s U.S. tour.
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Inzaghi delivers for Milan in Champions League final
Filippo Inzaghi repaid AC Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti for his faith in him by leading Milan to a 2-1 victory over Liverpool Wednesday in the UEFA Champions League final. At 33, Inzaghi was considered washed up, having scored just two goals this season for Milan in Serie A, but he matched that total with two goals in the final to give Milan its seventh title in Europe’s most important club competition.
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AC Milan given edge over Liverpool in the remake
[TV PREVIEW] Six months ago, no one would have expected Liverpool and AC Milan to be meeting Wednesday in Athens in a remake of their 2005 UEFA Champions League final thriller. Liverpool and Milan had gone so far as to schedule a friendly game in Milan for their respective reserve teams. That game, of course, has been canceled as their “A” teams square off in the 2007 UEFA Champions League final. AC Milan began the 2006-07 season in crisis as it was slapped with an eight-point penalty for the 2006-07 Serie A season because of its role in the widespread Italian match-fixing scandal. Liverpool, for its part, was never in the hunt for the English Premier League title. But as has so often been the case in recent years, the finalists were allowed to concentrate on Europe’s top competition without the distraction of a domestic title race.
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Liverpool-AC Milan, the protagonists
Liverpool and AC Milan meet Wednesday in the UEFA Champions League final in Athens. The game is a repeat of the 2005 final Liverpool won on penalty kicks after the Reds trailed, 3-0, at the half. Here’s a look at some of the key figures in this year’s final.
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Champion UCSB adds pair of Kiwi U-20 stars
Defending NCAA Division I men’s national champion UC Santa Barbara has signed Michael Boxall and Sam Jenkins, who are both expected to represent New Zealand at next month’s Under-20 World Cup. Boxall, a gifted center back that can also play in the midfield, was named Auckland City FC’s Young Player of the Year. Jenkins, who scored three goals in his first two games with the U-20s, plays for Hawke’s Bay United in the NZ Football Championship, New Zealand’s top domestic league. Boxall and Jenkins follow in the footsteps of former UCSB defender Tony Lochhead and forward Neil Jones, who both competed for New Zealand at the national level prior to their arrival in Santa Barbara.
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Grudge match marks FA Cup’s return to Wembley
[TV PREVIEW] The English FA Cup returns to Wembley — the new Wembley Stadium built at a cost of $1.49 billion — on Saturday when Manchester United and Chelsea meet in a grudge match. The game comes almost two weeks after United ended Chelsea’s two year-reign as English league champion, clinching the Premier League title. A crowd of 90,000 will pack Wembley for the dream final.
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Repeat performance for FC Dallas
For the second time in six days, FC Dallas won, 2-1, on the road sin Carlos Ruiz in the starting lineup. On Saturday, FCD beat Kansas City. On Thursday, Coach Steve Morrow fielded the same starting lineup the beat the Wizards and FCD prevailed over Chicago in the Brimstone Cup to take over first place in the Western Conference. With Ruiz, a subject of trade rumors, sidelined with what was described as a tight left hamstring, Kenny Cooper and Colombian Juan Toja again provided the scoring
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Team-building, according to Bob Bradley
[BRADLEY AUDIO] Evoking the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team and the 2006 Italy World Cup team, Bob Bradley set about expressing what he considers important as a coach on his first day with the tag of interim U.S. men’s national team coach removed. Speaking to reporters at a press conference in New York and on a teleconference call shortly thereafter, Bradley talked about team-building as the USA sets forth on a busy summer with the Gold Cup and Copa America and 2010 World Cup qualifying beginning next year.
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Brazil superstars Ronaldinho and Kaka ask to skip Copa America
First, Kaka asked to skip the Copa America. Now three days later Ronaldinho has asked not to be included in Brazil’s squad for its title defense of the Copa America June 26-July 15 in Venezuela. Their requests, if granted, will put a damper to Coach Dunga‘s plans to field a full-strength squad for the South American championship.
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Gulati expected to name Bradley U.S. coach on Wednesday
U.S. Soccer President Sunil Gulati will make a major announcement at a press conference to be held on Wednesday at 1 p.m. ET at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in in New York City. That announcement is expected to be Gulati’s choice for U.S. national team men’s head coach. Bob Bradley, who has held the job on an interim basis since December, is the likely choice to retain his job on a permanent basis. Indeed, within hours of the press conference being announced, the Los Angeles Times reported that Bradley, who coached MLS’s Chivas USA in 2006, will dispose of the interim tag.
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Spector plays role in Hammers’ Old Trafford triumph
[U.S. ABROAD] Jonathan Spector came off the bench in the 26th minute for injured George McCartney and helped West Ham United upset his old club, Manchester United, 1-0, at Old Trafford on Sunday. The Hammers’ win cap a late-season comeback to remain in the English Premier League. Fulham’s three Americans — Carlos Bocanegra, Brian McBride and ,B>Clint Dempsey — all went the entire 90 minutes in a 3-1 loss to Middlesbrough that dropped Fulham to 16th place. Loan players Oguchi Onyewu and DaMarcus Beasley may have played their last games in the EPL.
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Kremser is stepping down as FIU men’s coach
Karl Kremser is retiring after 27 years as the men’s head coach at Florida International University, which he helped build into a national power. He guided the Golden Panthers to NCAA Division II championships in 1982 and 1984, and three other FIU teams reached the national finals, including his 1996 team that played for the NCAA Division I crown against St. John’s. Long-time assistant Munga Eketebi, a former FIU star, is expected to replace Kremser.
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Pariani, starter on 1950 U.S. World Cup team, dies
[OBITUARY] Gino Pariani, the inside right for the 1950 U.S. World Cup team that produced one of the greatest upsets in World Cup history, died on Wednesday at the age of 79 after a two-year battle with bone cancer.
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Mexico’s Club America battles on two fronts
[TV PREVIEW] It will be a busy week for Mexican giant Club America. It began Tuesday night in Santiago, Chile, where the Eagles fell to Colo Colo, 2-1, in the second leg of their Libertadores Cup series but moved into the quarterfinals with a 4-2 aggregate win. America returns home for two games in the quarterfinals of Mexico’s Torneo Clausura.
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Ferguson in agony until United clinches EPL title
On Championship Sunday, Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson spent the day watching his grandson play soccer and then watched horse racing on television when he returned home. “When that was finished and I had nothing to do but twiddle my thumbs,” the 65-year-old Scotsman said, “I watched the last 15 minutes at the Emirates Stadium, and I was in agony.” Chelsea’s 1-1 draw at Arsenal on Sunday clinched United’s first league title since 2003.
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USA wins group to earn record 12th straight berth at U-17 World Cup
Goals by Gregory Garza and Ellis McLoughlin gave the USA a 2-1 victory over previously unbeaten Costa Rica to win Group B of the CONCACAF Under-17 Qualifying Tournament in Kingston, Jamaica. The USA qualified for the Under-17 World Cup for a record 12th straight time.
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NCAA announces sanctions in West Virginia men’s investigation
The NCAA placed the West Virginia men’s soccer program on two-year probation and issued a public reprimand to the school for major rules violations by former men’s coach Mike Seabolt. In a lengthy report, the NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions outlined violations committed by Seabolt.