Category: Soccer America Daily

[AMERICANS ABROAD] Clint Dempsey scored his first goal in seven weeks to give Fulham a 1-1 tie with Wigan Saturday in the English Premier League club’s first game since Manager Lawrie Sanchez was fired.

A valiant effort by Tim Howard, playing his first game against Manchester United since being transferred to Everton, was spoiled Sunday by a needless foul by South African Steven Pienaar that led to a penalty kick and a 2-1 Manchester United victory.

The English Premier League returns to action on Wednesday with its traditional Boxing Day program and continues with games over the weekend and on New Year’s Day. Here’s the schedule for the big three …

The draw for the first knockout phase of the 2007-08 UEFA Champions League produced several tantalizing matches: defending champion AC Milan against English leader Arsenal and last year’s runner-up Liverpool against Inter Milan, which is on course toward a third straight Italian league title. For the entire draw and schedule …

The UEFA Cup moves into the round of 32 in February — with 24 qualifiers from the group stage of the UEFA Cup and eight from the UEFA Champions League.

John Fisher, one of the owners of Major League Baseball’s Oakland Athletics and an investor in Major League Soccer’s San Jose Earthquakes with Lew Wolff, has bought an interest in Scottish champion Celtic.

[TV PREVIEW] French star Thierry Henry could appear in his first Barcelona-Real clasico on Sunday at Barca’s Nou Camp Stadium (TV: Gol TV, 1 pm ET). Barcelona cleared the 30-year-old Henry to play after almost four weeks out with a lower back injury.

U.S. Soccer named Clint Dempsey as the 2007 Male Athlete of the Year and Abby Wambach as the 2007 Female Athlete of the Year. Michael Bradley, son of men’s national team coach Bob Bradley, and Lauren Cheney, the 2007 Soccer America College Women’s Player of the Year, won the Young Male and Young Female awards, respectively.

[OFF THE POST] It’s getting harder and harder to coach youth soccer these days. A 12-year-old boys team in Phelan, Calif., was kicked out of the local AYSO playoffs because its coach was only licensed to coach players up to 10 years old.

One year ago, Maurice Edu was contemplating leaving Maryland early to join MLS. Now after only one year with Toronto FC, Edu must consider a move from MLS to Europe.

The results are in for the 2007 “Best of U.S. Soccer” awards presented again this year by Soccer America. This year’s awards included for the first time Best Blog. For all the winners …

Italian star Luca Toni exploded for four goals to lead Bayern Munich to a 5-0 win over Greek club Aris on Wednesday. With the win, Bayern clinched a berth in February’s round of 32. For all the results …

US Youth Soccer announced the regional boys rosters for the ODP Super Group Dec. 27-30 at the Disney’s Soccer Showcase in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., For all the rosters …

Brazilian Romario‘s hair-loss treatment defense didn’t fly. The 1994 World Cup champion was banned for 120 days on Tuesday for failing a drug test which he blamed on a hair-loss treatment that he had been taking for some time.

The 2007 MLS champion Houston Dynamo will face Guatemala’s Municipal and D.C. United, MLS’s 2007 regular-season champion, will meet Harbour View of Jamaica in the quarterfinals of the 2008 CONCACAF Champions Cup.

The USA was drawn with Panama, Honduras and Cuba in Group A of the Olympic men’s soccer qualifying tournament to be held March 11-23 at three U.S. venues.

The USA’s 4-0 loss to Mexico in the semifinals of the 2004 CONCACAF Olympic qualifying tournament marked the first time since 1976 that the USA had not qualified for or hosted the Olympics in men’s soccer.

Brazilian star Marta has repeated as the FIFA Women’s World Player, earning 988 points to beat Birgit Prinz of Germany with 507 and fellow Brazilian Cristiane with 150.

Peter Nowak was almost home, back to his residence in Naples, Fla., but he had one more layover and one more flight to endure. “Almost home,” he said on his cell phone after eating dinner with U.S. head coach Bob Bradley and several U.S. Soccer staff members during the layover. “It was a long trip, 17 days, but I think some good came out of it.”