Category: Soccer America Daily

[AMERICANS ABROAD] The French season begins Saturday with two American internationals new to Ligue 1. While Rennes is counting up Carlos Bocanegra to help on its backline, Freddy Adu is sure to be welcomed at Monaco when he returns from the Olympics in China.

The U.S. men’s national team dropped to No. 31 in the FIFA world rankings, its lowest placing since being at No. 35 in October 1997.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has upheld the appeals filed by FC Schalke 04, SV Werder Bremen and FC Barcelona, who were protesting FIFA’s orders to release players – Rafinha, Diego and Lionel Messi, respectively — for the men’s Olympic tournament, an under-23 competition. But it seems unlikely that Barcelona will demand Messi to return from China and the German clubs have already given the Brazilians permission to stay in China. FIFA President Sepp Blatter, however, said the decision could have dire consequences in the future.

[VIDEO] A crowd of 38,152 at Giants Stadium watched Spanish giant Barcelona thump the New York Red Bulls, 6-2, in a friendly on Wednesday. Barcelona was up 3-0 within the first 24 minutes.

[MLS] The New York Red Bulls signed Venezuelan defender Gabriel Cichero, a 24-year-old defender who has played for Venezuela’s Deportivo Italia, Bulgaria’s Vihren Sandanski and Uruguay’s Montevideo Wanderers.

[OFF THE POST] Mark McGregor‘s career appeared to be over. Released by League Two club Port Vale in April, the 31-year-old failed to impress during a trial with Mansfield and was looking at a bleak, club-less future.

[REF WATCH] Referees in Bulgaria can expect less job security this season after the federation’s referee chief announced refs will be ousted for "serious" errors.

[MY VIEW] Wednesday’s start to the Olympics for the U.S. women recalled their dramatic collapse in the semifinals of the 2007 Women’s World Cup 10 months earlier. The Chinese venue was different, Qinhuangdao instead of Hangzhou, but the result was the same. The 4-0 loss to Brazil snapped Greg Ryan‘s 51-game unbeaten streak as U.S. women’s national team coach and led to his ouster. Wednesday’s 2-0 loss to Norway ended Pia Sundhage‘s honeymoon that was a 21-0-1 record in 2008 and was no less shocking. At least, Sundhage has a minimum of two more games to rehabilitate the Americans.

[RECAP] New U.S. coach Pia Sundhage asked that her players be more unpredictable, and unpredictable they were. After three wins over Norway by the margin of 12-1 in the last 10 months, who would have predicted the outcome of Wednesday’s Olympic opener in Qinhuangdao? For a recap of the game, Soccer America’s player ratings, reaction from the American press and more …

MEMBERSHIP ALERT: Soccer America apologizes for the delayed and imperfect delivery of yesterday’s special edition of SoccerAmericaDaily with coverage of Wednesday’s women’s action. A special edition with U.S. Olympic soccer coverage will appear each day during the Olympics that a U.S. team is playing, so look for our coverage of the USA-Japan men’s game later today. For fans not wishing to read our coverage until after they have watched the game, the subject line of these e-letters will begin “Special Olympic Edition.”

Soccer will continue on Thursday morning with live coverage of the USA-Japan men’s game on MSNBC and delayed coverage on Universal HD at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. ET. Soccer will also be available on various NBC networks, including USA, CNBC and Telemundo. Complete soccer coverage will be available on the NBC Olympic Soccer Channel and online at nbcolympics.com. Check with your television provider for the availability of the NBC Olympic Soccer Channel.

[TRANSFER TALK] After a fifth-place finish in the Premiership last season, there was talk that Everton could break into the big four and fight for a place in next year’s Champions League.

Longtime European contender Anderlecht was knocked out of the UEFA Champions League when the Belgian club fell to BATE Borisov of Belarus in the second round of qualifying. Another surprise was Cypriot club Anorthosis Famugusta’s win over Rapid Vienna. For all the results …

The USA opens play in the Olympic men’s soccer tournament on Thursday against Japan. With the Netherlands, which won the European U-21 title, and Nigeria, the 1996 gold-medal winner, still to come, both teams regard Thursday’s game as one they can’t afford to lose.

[OLYMPIC MEN] While all teams didn’t use their allotment of three overage (over-23) players for the Olympic men’s soccer tournament, the favorites are all counting on veterans to play key roles in attack. For profiles of Ronaldinho (Brazil), Juan Roman Riquelme (Argentina), Peter Odemwingie (Nigeria), Roy Makaay (Netherlands) and Tomasso Rocchi (Italy) …

[UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE] DaMarcus Beasley won’t be returning to the UEFA Champions League for a fourth time. Playing without the injured American, Scottish club Rangers fell to Lithuania’s Kaunas, 2-1, and was knocked out in the second qualifying stage on aggregate by the same score.

[OFF THE POST] Clubs could be facing a rash of psychological lawsuits after Inter Milan was ordered to pay $2,300 dollars to an opposing fan because of "existential damages."

[REF WATCH/VIDEO] The English FA has released a video as part of its new "Respect" campaign, aimed at reducing dissent toward officials. A number of high profile names appear in the film – including English referee Howard Webb and England national team manager Fabio Capello

MEMBERSHIP ALERT: Soccer America will kick off its Olympic coverage with a special edition of SoccerAmericaDaily later today with coverage of Wednesday’s women’s action, including the USA-Norway game in Qinhuangdao. A special edition with U.S. Olympic soccer coverage will appear each day during the Olympics that a U.S. team is playing. Fans not wishing to read our coverage until after they have watched the game should note that the subject line of these e-letters will be “Special Edition: U.S. Olympic soccer.”