Category: Section 2 Around the Net

On Tuesday, FIFA approved Jermaine Jones‘ application to switch national allegiance to the USA from Germany. Jones, who turns 28 on Nov. 3, has been sidelined since summer by a broken left shin. The midfielder won’t be ready to play for the U.S. in its European friendlies on Nov. 14 and 18.

U.S. national team and AC Milan defender Oguchi Onyewu plans to have surgery on Wednesday to repair a ruptured patellar tendon in his left knee. Onyewu injured his knee while playing for the U.S. in last week’s World Cup qualifier against Costa Rica. U.S. national team physician Dr. Bert Mandelbaum will operate on Onyewu in […]

Joel Santana quit as South Africa coach on Monday. The South African Football Association said its management committee and Santana had “unanimously agreed” that the Brazilian would leave the job “with immediate effect.” An executive meeting on Friday aims to indicate some of Santana’s possible replacements. Fans and commentators criticized the 60-year-old Santana after South […]

Days after earning a crucial home victory over MLS leader Columbus Crew, D.C. United must switch its focus from making the league playoffs to making the quarterfinal round of the CONCACAF Champions League. United travels to Toluca to play the finale of group play on Tuesday. United (9 points) is second behind the Mexican club […]

Chicago Fire coach Denis Hamlett has had to use his entire roster this year, including his youngest players, to survive a busy schedule, unexpected departures, and a backlog of injuries. “I think our young guys this year have stepped up to the challenge,” Hamlett said. “Given the fact of the injuries and all of the […]

As the New York Red Bulls play their final game in Giants Stadium on Saturday, NY Times blogger Jack Bell reviews 10 of the most memorable games seen in the historic venue. “To an international audience, Giants Stadium means soccer in the United States because of the still flickering penumbra of the Cosmos,” writes Bell. […]

The Montreal Impact’s season did not go as planned. In March, Montreal suffered a demoralizing Concacaf Champions League defeat. After taking a 2-0 lead in the first leg against Mexican power Santos Laguna, the Impact watched as Santos scored five goals in the second leg, two in stoppage time, to reach the semifinal round. When […]

FC Dallas keeps winning. Playing with the urgency and spirit it lacked earlier in the season, Dallas defeated fellow playoff contender Colorado 2-1. The win gives FCD 39 points, tying it with Toronto FC, New England and D.C. United for the eighth and final playoff spot.   On Saturday, Dallas got two unlikely goals from […]

Red cards continue to plague the Houston Dynamo. Veteran Brian Ching picked up his second red card in as many home games during Sunday’s 0-0 draw against the Los Angeles Galaxy.   Following a hard tackle by David Beckham on Dynamo midfielder Ricardo Clark, Ching was given a yellow card for arguing with referee Kevin […]

Steven Gerrard has recovered from an injury he sustained while playing for England to return to training for Liverpool. Gerrard is scheduled to face Lyon in UEFA Champions League play on Tuesday. But Liverpool’s star striker Fernando Torres will miss the match due to an injury he picked up on international duty for Spain. “Torres […]

“We didn’t play well but we had bad luck,” said Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez, whose team lost for the fourth time this season to slip to eighth place in the league. A red beach ball, floated onto the field by a Liverpool fan, played a large part in the club’s misfortune. Sunderland’s Darren Bent struck […]

Ireland will play 1998 World Cup champion France in the playoffs for entry to the World Cup finals. The two competed in the same qualifying group in 2006, when Thierry Henry scored the only goal in the teams’ two games.   Ireland goalkeeper Shea Given criticized FIFA’s decision to seed the playoffs, which apparently led […]

Qualifying for the World Cup has given Honduras citizens a welcome distraction from the political crisis that has gripped the country for over three months. Thursday, the day after Honduras defeated El Salvador 1-0 to clinch its first World Cup appearance since 1982, was declared a national holiday. Hundreds of thousands of people celebrated in […]

While the drama of World Cup qualifying plays out across the globe, the tournament’s home team, the Bafana Bafana, has escaped much of the media’s attention. But criticism of South Africa’s coach, Joel Santana, has been mounting throughout the country, despite South Africa’s secure place in the World Cup. This week, Santana’s South Africa squad […]

Oguchi Onyewu‘s club, AC Milan, is seeking compensation from the U.S. Soccer Federation for Onyewu’s injury during a World Cup qualifier against Costa Rica. “I’m very angry because once again the national teams take players and we lose out due to injuries,” AC Milan chief executive officer Adriano Galliani told Italian media Thursday. “This is […]

Diego Maradona‘s obscene rant against the press on live television after Argentina qualified for the World Cup has drawn the ire of Fifa. “The reports we have received so far leave us no other alternative but to ask the disciplinary committee of FIFA to open a case against the coach Diego Armando Maradona,” FIFA president […]

"Fans want to see the best and it's the two best teams that this league has to offer," USL president Tim Holt said of the all-Canadian championship series between the Vancouver Whitecaps and the Montreal Impact. "We look at ourselves as a North American league. More people from the outside look at it as two […]

The defending USL-1 champions Vancouver Whitecaps aim to overcome a 3-2 deficit from the first leg when they travel to the Montreal Impact for the second-leg of the final on Saturday (2:30 pm ET, live on Fox Soccer Channel). Vancouver recovered from a slow start this season to earn the final spot in the playoffs […]

Montreal Impact forward Eduardo Sebrango will honor his late father if the Impact wins the USL-1 championship on Saturday. “I’ll dedicate it to him. Definitely,” Sebrango said. “Obviously, he has meant so much to me and to our family. He is missed. I want to win this one for him.” The game has sold out […]

German club Bayern Munich reports that prized new winger Arjen Robben could return from injury as early as this weekend, just two weeks after he had surgery on his right knee. The surgery was originally supposed to sideline Robben for at least three weeks. But Coach Louis Van Gaal said that Robben should be back […]

Fans at RFK stadium showed an outpouring of support for striker Charlie Davies, who suffered serious injuries in an automobile accident that jeopardize his career. In the ninth minute of the final U.S. World Cup qualifier, against Costa Rica, thousands of fans held up white cards inked with a No. 9, Davies’ jersey number. Other […]

With a 1-0 victory over rivals El Salvador, Honduras qualified for its first World Cup in 28 years. The country's only previous appearance came in Spain in 1982. Honduras coach Reinaldo Rueda was sent to the stands in the 35th minute for criticizing a foul called against one of his players. In the 64th minute, […]

Seattle can clinch a playoff spot with a win Saturday against Kansas City. A win would give the team 44 points to earn one of four wild-card berths. Another win in the regular season finale Oct. 24, plus some favorable results in other games, could send Seattle to a higher seed in the Western Conference. […]

After Argentina qualified for the World Cup with a 1-0 win over Uruguay, Diego Maradona let fly with the sort of sexually charged and defiant gestures that have defined much of his relationship with the press. “You take it up the a**,” he said, scanning the locker room before adding, “if the ladies will pardon […]

On a snowy night in Chorzow, Slovakia got the 1-0 result it needed against Poland to qualify for its first World Cup since independence. Poland defender Seweryn Gancarczyk slid an own goal past goalkeeper Jerzy Dudek that proved the decisive goal of the match. Jan Mucha – who plays his club soccer for Legia Warszawa […]