Category: Soccer America Daily

[TELEVISION] Mexico’s 1-0 win over China in Seattle on Wednesday drew 56,416 fans and was also a hit on TV. It was broadcast by Telemundo, which announced that according to Nielsen Media Research the game was the most-watched program among men of all age groups in Los Angeles from beginning to end. Nationally, the match was watched by more than 2 million people.

[FRANCE] Amateur club Carquefou’s fairly tale run in the French Cup ended when the fifth division club lost to relegation-threatened Paris St. Germain, 1-0. Portuguese veteran Pauleta‘s 28th goal in 23 French Cup games earned PSG the win before a sellout crowd of 40,000 in Nantes.

[OFF THE POST] New York contemporary artist Spencer Tunick is famous for photographing people in the nude — thousands at a time — and he plans on photographing 2,008 soccer fans inside Vienna Ernst Happel Stadium, site of the final of the 2008 European Championship Austria and Switzerland are co-hosting.

Argentine stars Marcelo Gallardo and Guillermo Barros Schelotto — rivals for many years with River Plate and Boca Juniors, respectively — will meet Thursday when D.C. United hosts the Columbus Crew in an Eastern Conference match at RFK Stadium. For all this week’s MLS TV schedule …

To say the least, the first three weeks of the 2008 MLS season have not gone as the two-time defending champion Houston Dynamo would have liked. It was dumped from the Concacaf Champions Cup by Costa Rica’s Saprissa. It’s winless in its first three games of the 2008 MLS season and must play its next three games without starting center back Eddie Robinson. On top of that was Wednesday’s release of a letter from MLS Commissioner Don Garber to the Dynamo owners regarding the “troubling situation” regarding their inability to conclude a soccer stadium deal with the City of Houston. It included what in Houston was being termed a “threat” to move the Dynamo — a club with one of the best fan bases in the league.

San Jose Earthquakes fans who are anxiously awaiting word of a major signing to bolster the forward corps will have to wait a little longer. But the team, scoreless in its first two games, has made a move. According to a source with knowledge of the transaction, San Jose has landed former Rapids and MetroStars striker Jean-Philippe Peguero, who scored 20 goals in 58 games from 2004 to 2006 before being transferred to Danish club Brondby. He will be on loan for the MLS season.

[MLS] The Major League Soccer Disciplinary Committee suspended Houston Dynamo defender Eddie Robinson three games and fined him $1,000 for an elbow to the head of Kansas City Wizards defender Tyson Wahl during the Dynamo’s 0-0 tie at Kansas City on April 12.

[YOUTH] The U.S. under-20 national team made up for an embarrassing 3-1 loss to the tiny Cape Verde Islands in their opening game with a 3-0 win over Northern Ireland on Wednesday at the Torneio Campos Verdes 2008 in Beja, Portugal.

[INTERNATIONAL FRIENDLY] The fourth largest soccer crowd in Seattle history watched Mexico beat China, 1-0, Wednesday in a friendly game that marked Jesus Ramirez‘s debut as interim national team coach.

[SPAIN] Valencia won the Copa del Rey, the Spanish Cup, for the seventh time when it beat Getafe, 3-1, on Wednesday in Madrid to salvage its troubled season.

FC Dallas is one of only two teams unbeaten after three weeks of play in MLS, but FCD players aren’t happy about their play. Dallas beat New York, 2-0, last weekend to move into second place with a 1-0-2 record, a point behind surprising Western Conference leader Colorado. Yet those ties felt like losses; in both games, FCD conceded late equalizers, which a revamped defense is supposed to avoid, right?

[MLS] The final day before the close of MLS’s main transfer window was relatively quiet as the only announced transfer was the Columbus Crew’s signing of Nigerian under-23 national team midfielder Emmanuel Ekpo from Enyimba International FC.

[MEXICO] For the moment, Jesus Ramirez‘s commitment to coach the Mexico national team is only three games, the first of which takes place on Wednesday when the Tri faces China in Seattle. Ramirez, who led Mexico to the 2005 Under-17 World Cup title, was named interim coach after Hugo Sanchez was fired following Mexico’s failure to qualify for the 2008 Olympics.

[MAKING A LIST] Legendary Alfredo Di Stefano edged out Zinedine Zidane as Real Madrid’s all-time best player in a poll of Real Madrid fans conducted at the Spanish club’s Web site.

CASL rallied for a 2-1 win over South Charlotte, its sixth victory in a row, and maintained ts lead atop the Atlantic Conference in the U.S. Soccer Development Academy’s U-17/18 Age Group. Other U-17/18 conference leaders: B/W Gottschee and FC Westchester (Northeast), New York Red Bulls (Mid-Atlantic), Columbus Crew (Great Lakes), Concorde Fire (Southeast), U.S. youth national team (Mid-America), Arsenal FC (So Cal) and Real Colorado (West).

Miami’s Varela and Wilson of Long Beach, Calif., finished as the top-ranked boys and girls teams, respectively, in the NSCAA/adidas Winter High School Rankings. Varela won Florida’s Class 6A championship in a shootout. Wilson finished as California’s Southern Section Division I co-champion with No. 8 San Clemente. For all the final boys and girls national rankings …

South Carolina’s Spring Valley and Georgia’s Parkview remained the top boys and girls teams, respectively, in the NSCAA/adidas Spring High School Rankings. For the boys and girls Top 20 rankings …

[EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES] Soccer America provides the latest on employment opportunities for soccer-related positions, They include college coaching opportunities, as well as opportunities in pro soccer, youth soccer, the soccer industry and television.

[YOUTH] The U.S. under-15 girls national team opened a training camp Monday in Palo Alto, Calif., where it will play five matches against college teams — two full matches and three mini-matches — at the 2008 Stanford University Kicks Against Breast Cancer Tournament. For U.S. head coach Tad Bobak‘s roster …

[OFF THE POST] Beitar Jerusalem was leading Maccabi Herzliya, 1-0, with four minutes to play in Sunday’s Israeli Cup final when Beitar fans began celebrating the apparent victory. Thousands of fans rushed on to the field, and Maccabi was handed the cup by default when officials were unable to clear the field so play could continue and the referee suspended the match.

[MLS] Major League Soccer isn’t like American leagues such as the NFL and NBA, which have ready-made stars emerge from their drafts each year. The lack of young impact players is the most glaring weakness of American soccer, leaving MLS clubs to struggle to make use of the annual player draft. For evidence, one needs to look no further than the first round of the MLS SuperDraft. To date, eight of the 14 players taken in the first round of the 2008 MLS SuperDraft have yet to play while three other players have played a combined 27 minutes.

The Columbus Crew attack overran a vaunted Chivas USA defense last Saturday and rang up four goals — a mark it failed to reach in 30 games last year — to win, 4-3. Guillermo Barros Schelotto earned Player of the Week honors with a penalty-kick goal and two assists. All eyes will be on him this Thursday when he takes on Marcelo Gallardo and D.C. United in the first MLS matchup of these Argentine veterans, former stars for Boca Juniors and River Plate, respectively.