“No one is to blame and it is certainly not that we are unprofessional but it is not something we will be doing again.”
— Lee Thorpe of English fourth division club Rochdale after breaking his arm in three places while arm-wrestling with a teammate on the bus taking them to Saturday’s playoff match at Darlington. (Reuters)
[OLYMPIC COUNTDOWN] For what will be the most important test for players seeking to make their way on to the U.S. Olympic men’s team, U-23 head coach Peter Nowak has named 22 players who will participate in the Festival Espoirs International in the region of Toulon, France, beginning May 23.
[REFEREE WATCH] So many borderline handball decisions arise during an MLS season that it’s somewhat disconcerting when a stone-cold violation becomes “controversial.” Such was the case Saturday when Ugo Ihemelu brought down a ball — expertly it must be said — with his left arm in the 87th minute of a game tied 1-1 between Colorado and Houston.
[AMERICANS ABROAD] In what could be Michael Bradley‘s last game in the Netherlands, Heerenveen earned a place in the 2008-09 UEFA Cup thanks a 2-2 tie with NAC on Monday.
[AMERICANS ABROAD] Monmouth University forward Damon Wilson signed a three-year contract to play with Kapfenberg SV of Austria’s T-Mobile Bundesliga. Kapfenberg SV recently won the Second Division championship, earning the club promotion to the First Division.
[EURO ’08 COUNTDOWN] Portugal coach Luiz Felipe Scolari named 11 players from his Euro ’04 runner-up team to the squad he will take to the European Championship finals in Austria and Switzerland next month. For the complete Portugal roster …
[ENGLAND] David Beckham, who was injured and missed the Los Angeles Galaxy’s game at Toronto FC last season, will likely miss the Galaxy’s trip to Toronto again this year. He was among the 30 players named to England’s squad for games against the USA May 28 at Wembley and at Trinidad & Tobago on June 1. TFC and the Galaxy are scheduled to meet May 31.
Contrary to what was reported on Monday’s SoccerAmericaDaily, the top three teams in each of Major League Soccer’s two conferences are assured berths in the playoffs. Last season only the top two teams in the two conferences were guaranteed spots in the eight-team playoffs.
[CHAMPIONS] On the final day of the English Premier League season, Manchester United broke the deadlock at the top when it won, 2-0, at Wigan and Chelsea could only tie Bolton Wanderers, 1-1, at home. United’s goalscoring heroes were Cristiano Ronaldo with his 31st goal of the EPL season and Ryan Giggs, who won his 10th EPL title with United.
“I’m starting to see in the MLS there isn’t much consistency.”
— Los Angeles Galaxy midfielder David Beckham after his team dropped a 2-1 decision at home to the New York Red Bulls, conceding the deciding goal in the 78th minute, a minute after it had tied the game. (Daily Breeze)
[NAMES & NUMBERS] There were three East-West confrontations over the MLS weekend, and all resulted in — you guessed it — wins for the visiting Eastern Conference teams. The Western Conference is so bad that FC Dallas, which dropped to .500 with a 2-1 loss to Real Salt Lake, is the only team that doesn’t have a losing record. It took seven weeks, but MLS stars Juan Pablo Angel, Taylor Twellman, Brian Ching and Dwayne De Rosario finally got their first goals of the season. For all the MLS weekend action …
[EUROPEAN RACES] The race for Italy’s Scudetto took a dramatic turn Sunday when Inter Milan defender Marco Materazzi missed a penalty kick that would have given the Nerazzurri their third straight Serie A title. Instead, Inter, which was held to a 2-2 tie by Siena, goes into the final day of the season with a one-point lead over Roma. In France, the race for the Ligue 1 championship will also be decided this weekend. Lyon and Bordeaux remained 1-2 in Ligue 1 with one game to play.
[MLS] With the start of World Cup 2010 qualifying only weeks away, the USA suffered a blow when Chivas USA defender Jonathan Bornstein was sidelined with a sprain of the lateral collateral ligament in his left knee that will be him out of action for 6-8 weeks.
[AMERICANS ABROAD] With three Americans in the starting lineup, one more on the bench and a fifth not suited up, Fulham completed one of the most improbable comebacks in English league history when it won at Portsmouth, 1-0, on Sunday to avoid relegation. The win gave the Cottagers nine out of nine points in their final three games to escape almost-certain relegation. Instead, Reading and Birmingham City, both big winners on Sunday, joined last-place Derby in being dropped to the League Championship.
The Seattle Sounders drew 10,184 fans at Qwest Field for their 0-0 tie with Northwest rival Portland in their 2008 home opener. The Timbers remained in first place in the USL-1, two points ahead of Minnesota, which beat Montreal, 1-0, before only 745 fans in rainy St. Paul. For all the USL-1 results and goal scorers …
[OLYMPIC COUNTDOWN] The U.S. women’s national team gained revenge for its only blemish of the year with a resounding 6-0 win over Canada before 9,322 fans Saturday in Washington, D.C.
The top six teams in the Eastern Conference have better records than the Western Conference co-leaders, Colorado and FC Dallas. For the up-to-date MLS standings and leading scorers, all the weekend summaries and this week’s schedule …
[CONCACAF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE QUALIFYING] The USL-1’s Puerto Rico Islanders took a 1-0 lead in their CONCACAF Champions League qualifying series with Trinidad & Tobago’s San Juan Jabloteh thanks to their victory Friday night in Bayamon on Haitian international Fabrice Noel‘s goal.
Francois Sterchele, the leading scorer in the 2006-07 Belgian First Division, was killed Thursday morning after he lost control of his Porsche and hit a tree near the city of Antwerp.
“We want to get paid.”
— Slogan on T-shirts donned by Levante players before their Spanish La Liga game against Deportivo Coruna. Levante players, who are owed millions of dollars in back pay, staged a stand-still kickoff protest at the game’s start, remaining stationary as a Coruna player dribbled the length of the field and shot the ball out of bounds for a goal kick.
The English Premier League race goes down to the final day of the season on Sunday with UEFA Champions League finalists Manchester United and Chelsea still tied for the English Premier League. United travels to Wigan, while Chelsea hosts Bolton Wanderers with United holding the advantage on the tiebreaker. Italy’s Scudetto could be decided on Sunday when leader Inter Milan and second-place Roma, three points back, host Siena and Atalanta, respectively. For all the weekend international action on television …
[LIBERTADORES CUP] Mexico’s Club America pulled off one of the most improbable upsets in the history of the Libertadores Cup when it overturned a 4-2 deficit from the first leg of its second-round series with Brazilian club Flamengo thanks to a 3-0 at the famed Maracana Stadium on Wednesday night.
[SPAIN] Less than 24 hours after a humiliating 4-1 loss to Spanish champion Real Madrid, Barcelona announced that Coach Frank Rijkaard would be replaced next season by former captain Pep Guardiola.
[MLS] Jason Kreis‘ largely unfounded tirade against MLS referees in a Deseret Morning News article has cost the Real Salt Lake coach a $1,000 fine and a one-game suspension.
[MLS/VIDEO] The momentum and the misery continued for Chicago and D.C. United, respectively, Thursday night at RFK Stadium in a game that included a brilliant long-range goal from the Fire’s Cuauhtemoc Blanco.
