Category: Section 2 Around the Net

On a night with everything on the line, it all went right for Real Salt Lake. RSL put together a near perfect performance against its rivals, the Colorado Rapids, while every other result from around the league fell into place to give RSL a playoff berth. Robbie Findley scored twice in the first half and […]

Don’t question Real Salt Lake’s Andy Williams of late. Like he forecast a goal in his previous home game, Williams predicted on his Facebook page that he would provide two assists for Real Salt Lake in Saturday’s 3-0 win over Colorado, a win that vaulted RSL into the MLS playoffs. Williams helped create two goals […]

Jeff Larentowicz scored his first goal of the season to lift the New England Revolution to a 1-0 win over the Colubus Crew and into the MLS playoffs for the eighth season in a row. Lerentowicz hammered a free kick past Crew goalkeeper Kenny Schoeni, making his first start of the season for the Crew. […]

In a rain-drenched Giants stadium, Toronto FC watched its playoff hopes wash away as it lost 5-0 to the New York Red Bulls. Needing a win to make its first ever postseason appearance, Toronto made history with its worst loss since entering the league in 2007. "I'm gutted," Toronto attacker Dwayne De Rosario said in […]

U.S. forward Jozy Altidore was left off the Hull City squad on Saturday for arriving late at the stadium. Now Altidore's public apology for the incident, which he tweeted to fans, has landed him in even more trouble with his club. Altidore wrote on his Tweeter account, "Apologize to all of you. I showed up […]

Fresh off a 5-0 drubbing by Chelsea on Saturday, Blackburn had three players and two staff members diagnosed with swine flu. The English Premier League club has not confirmed the affected players, but Coach Sam Allardyce said Sunday that midfielder David Dunn and defender Christopher Samba were sick with "a virus." The two players sat […]

CSKA Moscow fired coach Juande Ramos after a 3-1 home defeat to FK Moscow. Ramos, who has also coached Tottenham and Real Madrid within the last year, replaced Zico at the beginning of September. His short reign at the club produced a record of three wins, two losses and a draw. The loss to FK […]

Danny Dichio has gone dizzy this week trying to calculate Toronto FC’s playoff chances. “I’ve had my calculator out and everything this week, and I still haven’t figured it out,” said Dichio, the TFC cult hero who retired earlier this season to become the coach of the franchise’s soccer academy. “It still puzzles me. Even […]

D.C. United needs more than a win in its regular-season finale at the already-eliminated Kansas City Wizards. In the thick of the tightest playoff race ever, a six-team battle for the final two playoff berths going into the final weekend, United must rely on other teams’ results. “There’s so many scenarios that can work out,” […]

American billionaire Robert Kraft admitted his interest in acquiring a Premier League club, but only if the league introduced a salary cap. “I love the Premier League and we probably wouldn’t seriously consider coming in unless there was some sort of salary cap,” Kraft said. “We are involved in the NFL and in Major League […]

Liverpool fans are planning to march against the team's management, namely American co-owners George Gillett Jr. and Tom Hicks, ahead of Sunday's league match against Manchester United. In organizing the protest, the club's Spirit of Shankly group made a public request on its website for information on where Gillett and Hicks are staying. In an […]

Following a dismal start to the season and a 4-0 drubbing by Chelsea, Atletico Madrid fired head coach Abel Resino on Friday. The club, which has won only one of its last 10 games, lies 15th in the Spanish league and last in its Champions League group. "I gave it everything I have, but soccer […]

Carlos Alberto Parreira, who resigned last year as coach of South Africa, says he has agreed to return to coach the team. Parreira said he met Thursday in Brazil with the president of the South African soccer federation, Kirsten Nematandani, to discuss the terms of the agreement. “This has to have the approval of the […]

Wolfsburg striker Grafite hasn't had the same start to the Bundesliga season as he had last year. After scoring a league-high 28 goals last season, Grafite has found the net only twice this year. Other frustrations for the striker include making headlines for fighting with Coach Armin Veh and drawing a red card in Wolfsburg's […]

U.S. Soccer announced on its web site that defender Oguchi Onyewu underwent successful surgery on Wednesday in Los Angeles on his patellar tendon in his left knee. The defender will miss an estimated six months of action, two months more than initially reported, to rehabilitate the injury. The AC Milan defender began rehabilitation exercises immediately, […]

Goalkeeper Steve Cronin thought his season had ended when Vancouver eliminated his Portland from the USL-1 playoffs on Oct. 4. But D.C. United had other ideas. United, exercising the league's "extreme hardship" exemption to shuffle its roster late in the season, called on Cronin to replace injured starter Josh Wicks. Cronin joined the team last […]

Italian forward Christian Vieri announced his retirement from soccer on Thursday. "I don't want to carry on playing," Vieri said. "I'm not even tempted to play abroad." Vieri made his debut in 1991 for Torino, after which he played for eight different clubs in eight seasons, including Juventus, Atletico Madrid and Lazio. After claiming the […]

Germany’s players have been advised to strap on bullet-proof vests at next summer’s World Cup in South Africa. BaySecur, the German security company that deals with the country’s soccer federation (DFB), announced its concerns with players travelling outside the team’s hotel grounds in Pretoria. “The possibility for the players of moving outside of the hotel […]

Liverpool co-owner George Gillett has reiterated his support of manager Rafael Benitez while outside pressure grows around the Spanaird during Liverpool’s early-season woes. On Tuesday, Gillett witnessed Liverpool’s 2-1 loss to Lyon in the Champions League, the club’s fourth loss in a row and the most recent amid its worst losing stretch since 1987. Asked […]

Stoke defender Robert Huth received a three-match ban for punching West Ham defender Mathew Upson during Saturday's Premier League match. Huth swung his right arm at Upson while the pair jostled for position in the penalty box during Stoke's 2-1 win over the Hammers. Huth escaped punishment during the match, but will watch this Saturday's […]

Freddie Ljungberg‘s tireless work for Seattle Sounders FC doesn’t often show up on the score sheet. But Ljungberg’s teammates and coaches recognize him as a crucial catalyst to the team. “He’s been doing it all season,” striker Roger Levesque said. “He’s the type of guy, when push comes to shove, he’ll get the job done. […]

Some  believe that the U.S. U-17 national team will use this year’s World Cup in Nigeria to show American audiences a form of the game little seen in this country, an attacking one. “In the past, what our country’s kind of been known for is sitting back and playing the counterattack,” the team’s goalkeeper, Earl […]

On Wednesday, Rangers midfielder Maurice Edu tweeted his disappointment with the racial abuse he received from two of his own club’s fans. “Not sure what hurt more: result last nite or being racially abused by couple of r own fans as I’m getting in my car,” Edu wrote on his Twitter page after Rangers 4-1 […]

This season 39-year-old Kasey Keller has played 28 regular season games, two international exhibitions and many matches as part of his team’s run to the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup title. But the Seattle Sounders FC goalkeeper hinted that he could play beyond the initial two-year contract he signed with the Sounders. Keller said that […]

Major League Soccer has earned high marks from a University of Central Florida Institute study on racial and gender hiring. The league received its third consecutive A for racial hiring. Its gender grade improved to a B from last year’s C-plus and 2007’s D-plus. “The sport of soccer is such a diverse sport between our […]