Category: Soccer America Daily

[ITALY/VIDEO] Forget Alexandre Pato. AC Milan fans have a new darling: Alberto Paloschi. The 18-year-old Paloschi scored with his first touch in a Serie A game when he struck a superb goal to give Milan a 1-0 win over Siena.

[EUROPEAN RACES] On a day it marked the 50th anniversary of the Munich air crash that killed 23 people, including eight United players, Manchester United fell to Manchester City, 2-1, to further threaten its title hopes. In Spain, Real Madrid extended its lead, while the top-of-the-table clash in Germany between Werder Bremen and Bayern Munich ended in a 1-1 tie.

[AFRICAN NATIONS CUP] Egypt won the African Nations Cup for the sixth time when it beat Cameroon, 1-0, in Sunday’s final on a late goal by Mohamed Aboutrika. The Pharaohs are only the third team to successfully defend its title. Egypt won the first two competitions in 1957 and 1959 and Cameroon won back-to-back titles in 2000 and 2002.

[AMERICANS ABROAD] Chris Gbandi became the sixth American to sign with a Norwegian club during the offseason when the former Hermann Trophy winner signed with Adeccoligaen (second division) club FK Haugesund from FC Dallas. For all the winter overseas transfers involving Americans …

[MLS TEAM PREVIEWS] The Colorado Rapids have bet the bank on 2006 MLS MVP Christian Gomez, acquired from D.C. United in a deal that includes a guaranteed contract through 2009. Coach Fernando Clavijo isn’t so lucky. His contract expires at the end of the 2008 season, and the Rapids will have to show some significant improvement from the team that went 9-13-8, failed to make the playoffs and had the second-worst attack in MLS last season.

[U.S. WOMEN] U.S. women’s national team head coach Pia Sundhage has reduced her roster to 26 players who are training at the Home Depot Center to prepare for the 2008 Algarve Cup, which will be held March 5-12 in southern Portugal

[AWARDS] Michael Elster (boys) of Sutton (Mass.) Youth Soccer Club and Yon Struble (girls) of the Norcross (Ga.) Soccer Academy were the recipients of the 2007 US Youth Soccer adidas Competitive Coaches of the Year announced at the US Youth Soccer Awards Gala, held in conjunction with the 2008 US Youth Soccer adidas Workshop in Pittsburgh. For all the award winners …

[MLS] Traffic between MLS and Norway is flowing both ways. The transfer of FC Dallas defender Chris Gbandi to second division club FK Haugesund has finally been formally announced, while deals sending defenders Ramiro Corrales and Nat Borchers back to MLS are in the works.

[MLS TEAM PREVIEWS] Roster returnees from last year? Bring ’em all. Draft picks, ditto. Mini-camp survivors? Book ’em, flights to Southern California that is. Three dozen players are going through the regimens of Red Bulls head coach Juan Carlos Osorio at Home Depot Center, and by next week he’ll have trimmed the squad to make room for a few more players, not counting Jozy Altidore, who scored a goal in his first national-team start in the 2-2 tie with Mexico Wednesday.

[MLS] A stadium delay in San Jose, a revamping of its scheduling format, and the usual issues of conflicts and TV considerations forced MLS to push back the release of its 2008 schedule until Thursday.

[CANADA] Canada’s national team program took another knock when 20-year-old Jonathan De Guzman, considered one of international soccer’s hottest prospects, decided to play for the Netherlands instead of Canada, for which his older brother, Julian, is a key player.

[TV WATCH] France’s Ligue 1 has many structural weaknesses that make the French domestic game lag behind that of other major European countries. Despite its weaknesses, the French league (LFP) will earn almost $1 billion a year in television revenue. Driving the big money offered in bidding that concluded this week is the multi-media marketing tactic of bundling familiar to American consumers but now being introduced by France Telecom.

[AFRICAN NATIONS CUP] In only his second international match, former Colorado Rapids midfielder Alain Nkong became an instant national hero when his second-half goal gave Cameroon a 1-0 win over host Ghana in the semifinals of the African Nations Cup on Thursday. Egypt completed a day of upsets when the defending champion knocked off red-hot Ivory Coast, 4-1, in the other semifinal.

Miami’s Varela High School remained No. 1 in the NSCAA/adidas High School Winter Rankings for boys, while Florida’s American Heritage (30-0-0) remained No. 1 in the girls rankings. For the boys and girls rankings …

This weekend’s action includes the Manchester United-Manchester City clash that will mark the 50th anniversary of the Munich air disaster in which the crash’s 23 victims included eight United players and a former City goalkeeper. Bayern Munich meets Werder Bremen in a battle of German Bundesliga leaders. Argentina’s Torneo Clausura kicks off this weekend. For all the weekend international action …

Mike Woitalla reports from Houston
Of the more than 40 national team games played across the world on Wednesday, only England’s game at Wembley drew a larger crowd than the USA’s 2-2 tie with Mexico in Houston, where a sellout crowd of 70,103 set a U.S. national team record for ticket sales income. Soccer America’s Mike Woitalla checked out the fans in Texas.

Major League Soccer’s national networks — ESPN2/ESPN Deportes and ABC, Fox Soccer Channel/Fox Sports en Espanol, HDNet and TeleFutura — will combine to broadcast 113 games. Each of the 14 clubs will play 30 regular-season games over 31 weeks. The 2008 season kicks off March 29, and regular season ends on Oct. 26.

[OFF THE POST] South Korea indicted 92 current and former soccer players — including 15 K-League professionals — who are accused of dodging military service by intentionally dislocating their shoulders to receive medical exemptions.

[WORLD CUP QUALIFYING-ASIA] Reigning Asian champion Iraq’s World Cup 2010 campaign got off to a disappointing start when it was held to a 1-1 tie with China in its opening group game played Wednesday in Dubai. For all the Asian qualifying news …

[WORLD CUP QUALIFYING-CONCACAF] Potential U.S. World Cup opponents Dominica and Barbados played to a 1-1 tie in the first leg of their first-round CONCACAF series on Wednesday in Roseau. San Jose Earthquakes forward Gavin Glinton scored what proved to be the winning goal to lead the tiny Turks & Caicaos Islands to a shock 2-1 victory over St. Lucia for their first win ever in World Cup qualifying. El Salvador got five goals from Rudis Corrales and three from former MLS star Ronald Cerritos to beat Anguilla, 12-0. For all the CONCACAF qualifying news …

England won its first game under new coach Fabio Capello with a 2-1 victory over Switzerland Wednesday at Wembley. In matches involving Euro ’08 finalists, Italy was impressive in a 3-1 win over Portugal. A late goal gave Spain a 1-0 win over France. Germany and the Netherlands rolled to 3-0 wins at Austria and Croatia, respectively. MLS players of the past (Honduran Amado Guevara), present (Toronto FC’s Jamaican Tyrone Marshall and Welshman Carl Fletcher) and possibly the future (Costa Rica’s Dominican-born Victor Nunez) found the mark. Argentina’s team of Olympic hopefuls drew 25,000 fans at the Los Angeles Coliseum for its 5-0 win over Guatemala. For all the friendly results and goalscorers …