Category: Soccer America Daily

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The USA begins its quest to qualify for the 2010 World Cup June 15 against a team ranked 117th in the FIFA World Rankings. Today, the USA faces No. 4-ranked Spain. A poor showing in Santander won’t set off any alarm bells regarding the USA’s qualifying chances, but an impressive performance is what it needs to repair its reputation after its poor effort last week in England. A Guardian reporter, for example, belittled the 2-0 England win by claiming “a set of traffic cones would have put up more resistance” than the American players.

The U.S. under-17 girls national team continues preparations for next month’s Concacaf Championship with a training camp that begins Friday in Jersey City, N.J. U.S. head coach Kazbek Tambi has called in 26 players for the camp, including three 1993s. For the complete roster …

[EURO ’08 COUNTDOWN] In its final tuneup before its Euro ’08 opener against Romania on Monday, France defeated Colombia, 1-0, on Franck Ribery‘s penalty kick in the 24th minute. Thierry Henry, who was taken down in the penalty area for the deciding penalty, celebrated his 100th cap for France.

[SPAIN] After a lackluster 2-1 win over Peru, Coach Luis Aragones is likely to make several changes when Spain faces the USA Wednesday in Santander. Young Raul Albiol will likely replace Carlos Marchena in the middle of the backline, while Daniel Guiza, La Liga’s top score with Mallorca last season, could get his first start in place of Fernando Torres. But it’s in midfield where Aragones has an abundance of riches — one of the reasons Spain is a favorite to win Euro ’08, which begins Saturday.

[EURO ’08 COUNTDOWN] Fabio Cannavaro, who two years ago lifted the World Cup trophy as Italy captain, will miss the 2008 European Championship after after injuring his left ankle Monday during Italy’s first training session after its arrival at its Austrian headquarters, the Schloss Weikersdorf Residenz, near Vienna.

[WORLD CUP 2010 QUALIFYING] Uzbekistan and Bahrain are the only teams unbeaten and untied after three games in the second round of World Cup 2010 qualifying in Asia. Uzbekistan went on the rampage and scored five goals in the first half en route to a 7-3 win. Bahrain won, 3-2, at Thailand. On the other hand, Iran’s scoring troubles continued as it was held to a 0-0 tie by the United Arab Emirates — its third straight tie. For all the Asian results and goalscorers …

[U.S. SOCCER] Jonathan Spector, the 22-year-old defender who plays for the English Premier League’s West Ham, will undergo hip surgery and will be sidelined for three to six months. He is thus dropped from the USA’s roster for its friendly Wednesday against Spain and will miss this summer’s Olympic tournament with the U.S. U-23s. Also unavailable for the Spain friendly is Landon Donovan, who has yet to recover from the groin injury that forced him to miss last week’s 2-0 loss at England. For the latest U.S. roster for its game against Spain. …

The Major Indoor Soccer League has folded after seven seasons while announcing it is considering restructuring.

[EURO ’08 COUNTDOWN] Antonio Di Natale is certainly making it hard for Italian star Alessandro Del Piero to regain his spot in the Azzurri’s starting lineup. The Udinese forward scored twice to pace an impressive Italian effort in a 3-1 win over Belgium … France’s injury concerns mounted as captain Patrick Vieira could be sidelined for next Monday’s opener against Romania with a thigh injury … Young Liverpool star Ryan Babel will probably have to settle for a spot on the Netherlands’ Olympic team after an ankle injury forced him to withdraw from the Oranje’s Euro ’08 squad. For all the latest Euro ’08 news …

[WORLD CUP 2010 QUALIFYING] Tragedy struck on the opening weekend of play in the second round of World Cup 2010 qualifying in Africa when at least eight fans died of suffocation in a rush to enter an overcrowded Samuel K. Doe Stadium in the Liberian capital of Monrovia, where the Lone Star hosted Gambia on Sunday.

[BRAZIL-CANADA] The first two times Brazil and Canada met in friendly matches, the games ended in ties. This time, Brazil won, but it was close.

[WORLD CUP 2018 BID] Last week in London, where England hosted the United States in a friendly, the talk was of a U.S. bid for the 2018 World Cup. In Port of Spain, Trinidad, where England beat T&T, 3-0, on Sunday, the talk was of Concacaf’s Trinidadian president, Jack Warner, and his view on the English bid in 2018. And at the FIFA Congress in Sydney, Australia, there was a twist to the 2018 campaign — a proposal to award the 2018 and 2022 World Cups at the same time. A recap of the news on the 2018 bidding front …

The Vancouver Whitecaps took over first place in the USL First Division with a pair of shutout wins on the road: 2-0 at previous leader Charleston and 1-0 at fifth place Minnesota. In Montreal, a crowd of 12,034 fans watched the Impact fall to Portland, 1-0, and go scoreless for the third straight game at the new Stade Saputo. For all the USL-1 results and goal scorers …

[U.S. SOCCER] Coach Bob Bradley, in the wake of his team’s 2-0 loss to England, has named a 24-man roster for the June 4 friendly in Spain that includes all 17 European-based players who were on the roster for the England game.