Author Archives: Soccer America

[AMERICANS ABROAD] Attacker Clint Dempsey, who joined EPL club Fulham in January of 2006, has signed a two-year contract extension with Fulham through 2010. The 25-year-old started 28 league games, made seven appearances off the bench this season and leads the team with six goals. Fulham climbed out of the relegation zone last weekend and can ensure survival with a win over Portsmouth on Sunday.

[ENGLAND] Chelsea stayed in the England Premier League race when it won, 2-0, at Newcastle United on Monday thanks to second-half goals by Michael Ballack and Florent Malouda.

[EURO COUNTDOWN] Slaven Bilic, who extended on Monday his contract as Croatia coach through 2010, named a 23-player squad for Euro 2008 that included a pair of 20-year-olds, Nikola Kalinic and Ivan Rakitic, and 22-year-old Luka Modric, who is headed to English club Tottenham next season.

[AMERICANS ABROAD] Michael Bradley‘s stellar season in the Dutch Eredivisie ended on a sour note when the 20-year-old Heerenveen midfielder was ejected in the 39th minute of a 3-1 loss to Ajax Amsterdam in a playoff for a spot in next season’s UEFA Champions League. Bradley, who led the team in scoring with 15 goals, was sent off for his second yellow card with the score 0-0.

[U.S. SOCCER] More than 40,000 tickets have already been sold for the U.S. national team’s June 8 friendly against Argentina at Giants Stadium, which has a capacity of 80,242. It will be the USA’s third home game of 2008, following a 2-0 win over Sweden in Carson, Calif., that drew 14,878 and a 2-2 tie with Mexico in Houston in February that drew 70,103.

[AMERICANS ABROAD] American defender Eric Lichaj started for Aston Villa in its 2-0 win over Manchester City Saturday at Birmingham’s Villa Park in the 2008 Premier Academy League final. Lichaj, a product of the U.S. under-17 residency program, joined Villa last summer after missing his freshman year at North Carolina with a metatarsal fracture in 2006.

[AMERICANS ABROAD] Brian McBride scored for Fulham in a 2-0 win over Birmingham that moved the Cottagers out of the relegation zone for the first time since Dec. 22. The team with four other Americans will almost certainly avoid the drop from the English Premier League if it wins its final game against Portsmouth next Sunday. Reading, with two Americans, fell into the relegation zone with a 1-0 loss to Tottenham. Reading is tied on points with Fulham but has an inferior goal difference of six.

[OLYMPIC COUNTDOWN] For the second time in a week, the U.S. women’s national team blew a multiple-goal lead over Australia and needed a goal in stoppage time to prevail over the Matildas. The Americans gave up two own goals and gave up a three-goal lead in the second half before winning, 5-4, on substitute midfielder Angela Hucles‘ gamewinner in the 94th minute.

The Seattle Sounders won a rematch of last year’s USL-1 championship game when they beat the Atlanta Silverbacks, 2-0, on the road on Friday night. Goals from Leighton O’Brien and Sebastien LeToux gave Seattle its first win in three games, all on the road. For all the USL-1 results and goal scorers …

[EUROPEAN RACES] Manchester United moved to within one win of clinching the Premier League title after beating West Ham United, 4-1, at Old Trafford on Saturday. But the races tightened in France and Italy, where defending champions Lyon and Inter Milan had their leads reduced to two points and three points, respectively, with two games to play.

[CHAMPIONS] Bayern Munich’s spending spree paid big dividends as its clinched its 21st German league title (and 20th since the formation of the Bundesliga in 1963) and third domestic double with a 0-0 tie at Wolfsburg on Sunday that left it 10 points ahead of Werder Bremen with three games to play.

[CHAMPIONS] Bernd Schuster has accomplished what the six Real Madrid head coaches before him did not. He’ll keep his job for a second year. It wasn’t easy, but Schuster led Real Madrid to the 2008 Spanish La Liga title, which it clinched on Sunday when it rallied from a one-goal deficit to win, 2-1, at Osasuna, and give it a 10-point lead over second-place Villarreal with three games to play.