With American Dan Califf again starting in the middle of the defense, AaB was knocked out of the UEFA Cup on Thursday when it fell at home to Spanish club Getafe, 2-1. The Danish club finished in last place in Group H with one point in four games. The top three teams in each group advance to the round of 32 in February. For all the results and goal scorers …
Category: Soccer America Daily
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Atlante holds UNAM to 0-0 tie in finals
[MEXICO] Atlante held UNAM to a 0-0 tie Thursday in the first leg of the Torneo Apertura finals played in Mexico City, its old home.
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U.S. U-17s win in Cabrera’s debut
The U.S. U-17 ’92 national team won its first international match under new coach Wilmer Cabrera when it beat Russia, 2-0, on Thursday at the Development Academy Nike Friendlies in Bradenton, Fla. For more on Cabrera’s debut and all the Nike Friendlies results …
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What They’re Saying
“It is a little difficult to relive that. Mentally, I was full of all sorts of emotions. The World Cup was the only thing that kept me together after the death of my father [in June], kept me fighting and together and dedicated to the game. More so, the moment I realized we didn’t have the opportunity to win the gold medal, my world came tumbling down. I had nothing to immediately give back to my father. I was wound so tight emotionally, and the moment after the loss I broke.”
— U.S. women’s national team goalkeeper Hope Solo, who was controversially benched during last summer’s Women’s World Cup and then kicked off the team for criticizing the decision. Solo made her first public comments on the incident to the Associated Press on Thursday.
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USL-1 to play 30-game season in 2008
The San Francisco-based California Victory, which debuted in 2007, won’t return to USL-1 in 2008 but defending champion Seattle Sounders will return for one more season before Seattle becomes an MLS city in 2009 – setting up an 11-team slate in which each team will play 30 games.
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USL Second Division 2008: Pittsburgh back, Real Maryland joins
Ten teams will compete in USL-2 in 2008, with the return of the Pittsburgh Riverhounds after a one-year hiatus and the arrival of expansion Real Maryland. Longtime USL-2 club New Hampshire Phantoms and the Cincinnati Kings have joined the Premier Development League for the 2008 season.
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USL: 67 teams in 2008 USL Premier Development League
The PDL will consist of 67 teams in 2008, playing in 10 divisions that comprise four conferences. Expansion teams are the Kalamazoo Outrage, Houston Leones, Panama City Pirates, New Jersey Rangers, Austin Stampede and Vancouver Whitecaps U23s. For a list of all teams and conferences …
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OFF THE POST: 72-year-old plays 60th season
Dickie Borthwick of Weymouth, England is entering his 60th season of soccer. The 72-year-old is playing for Wyke Rangers, a team he joined three decades ago, and hits the field with some players 50 years his junior. “I have lost a bit of pace and can’t run as much as I used to, but I am still quick in the mind and that’s what counts,” he told The Daily Mail . Since joining a team in 1947 at age 12, he’s never been cautioned or red-carded. “I am a clean player and I believe in playing hard but fair,” he said.
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What They’re Saying
“What happened in the game?”
— The first words from outgoing Japan coach Ivica Osim when the Bosnian came out of a two-week coma. Osim suffered a stroke at his suburban Tokyo home while watching an English Premier League game on TV. (Guardian)
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UEFA Cup Results
With American Tim Howard in goal, English club Everton beat Zenit St. Petersburg, 1-0, to clinch a berth in the round of 32 of the UEFA Champions League. Atletico Madrid, Villarreal, Hamburg and FC Basel also won Wednesday to advance to the knockout phase. American Ramiro Corrales‘ foul set up Basel’s winning free kick by Carlitos in the Swiss club’s 1-0 win over Brann, which is in third place in Group D with four points and still has a chance of advancing depending on next week’s game between Dinamo Zagreb and Rennes. For all the UEFA Cup results …
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Club World Cup TV Schedule
The Club World Cup begins Friday in Japan with a first-round match between Iran’s Sepahan, the Asian champion, and New Zealand’s Waitakere United, the Oceania winner. Fox Soccer Channel and Fox Sports en Espanol will provide live coverage from the tournament, which continues through Dec. 16.
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Early start to test MLS drawing power
The league schedule won’t be released until January at the earliest, but the lineup for opening weekend of the 2008 season is known. And for a few games at least, heavy jackets, thick gloves, and hot chocolate are recommended. After kicking off its season the first weekend of April for the past few seasons, MLS is moving up its start date.
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Modest Argentine club wins Copa Sudamericana
Argentine club Arsenal, which had not won a title in its 50-year history, won the Copa Sudamericana final on away goals after a 2-1 loss to Club America ended the series 4-4 on aggregate. Club America, the third Mexican team to reach the final in three years, was headed toward victory in Buenos Aires when Martin Andrizzi scrambled through its defense before scoring an 83rd minute goal. Arsenal won the first leg, 3-2, in Mexico City.
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Celtic loses but advances in UEFA Champions League
Scottish champion Celtic fell to defending champion AC Milan, 1-0, in their final Group D game on Tuesday but advanced to the knockout phase of the UEFA Champions League, beginning in February, thanks to Benfica’s 2-1 win at Ukraine’s Shakhtar Donetsk
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Simoes returns to coach Reggae Boyz (and Girlz)
Brazilian Rene Simoes, who coached Jamaica to its greatest achievement when it played in the 1998 World Cup, is returning as coach of the Reggae Boyz.
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What They’re Saying
“Ribery can do what he wants after he has scored a goal, everything is perfectly correct.”
— Bayern Munich coach Ottmar Hitzfeld says he had no problem with his French striker Franck Ribery making a shut-up gesture to Arminia Bielefeld fans, who had been taunting him with an offensive chant before his winning goal last weekend. (AFP)
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More South America shopping by D.C. United
The pursuit of Argentine midfielder Juan Sebastian Veron by D.C. United has reached the stage that Veron’s wife has reportedly been hunting for homes in the area. Veron, 32, has been playing in Argentina for Estudiantes while D.C. tries to work out a deal that won’t necessarily cost the club a DP slot. But it doesn’t have the big chunks of allocation money it had last winter when it acquired Brazilians Fred and Luciano Emilio, and it may or may not have additional salary cap space that would be created by the possible departures of Bolivian Jaime Moreno (unlikely) and Argentine Christian Gomez (possible).
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Pia Sundhage sets first camp for U.S. women
The first training camp conducted by recently hired U.S. women’s national team camp Pia Sundhage will be brief, but it will be important. She has just eight months to repair the effects of a goalkeeping controversy and a humiliating 4-0 loss to Brazil in the Women’s World Cup semifinals before the Americans defend their 2004 Olympic gold medal at the 2008 Games in Beijing.
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Romario blames balding for failed doping test
Brazilian star Romario says hair-loss medicine made him fail a doping test. The Vasco da Gama striker, a World Cup winner in 1994, had tested positive for finasteride after the game against Palmeiras on Oct. 28. "I’m losing some hair and I have been taking this product for a while," the 41-year-old said.
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Club America aims for Copa Sudamericana title
Club America aims to bring the Copa Sudamericana title to Mexico for the second straight year, but must overcome a 3-2 first-leg deficit when it faces Argentina’s Arsenal in Buenos Aires in the second leg on Wednesday (TV: Fox Sports en Espanol, 7:30 pm ET). Arsenal has never won an international title or even an Argentine championship in its 50-year existence, and has never placed a player on the Argentine national team.
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U.S. Soccer Development Academy Report
Six clubs saw U.S. Soccer Development Academy action on the weekend before the 2007 Development Academy Nike Friendlies in Bradenton, Fla. from Dec. 6-9.
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Select Academy squads for Nike Friendlies
[ROSTERS] U.S. national team coaches selected 29 Academy players for two U.S. National Training Select Teams participating in this week’s Development Academy Nike Friendlies. The Under-15/16 National Team Training Select team will be comprised of Academy players born in 1992 and will be coached by Keith Fulk. The Under-17/18 National Team Training Select team will be coached by Raul Diaz Arce and be comprised of Academy players born in 1990 and 1991 as well as current Residency players born in 1990.
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U.S. U-15 boys national team squad of 32 players
[ROSTER] Under-15 boys national team coach Jim Barlow has called 32 players into training for the Development Academy Nike Friendlies in Bradenton, Fla. The U-15s will be split into two teams, Blue and White, which will each play three games over the four days against Under-15/16 Development Academy clubs. The players, all born in 1993, will be vying to be apart of the Under-15s first training camp of 2008, in which 28 players will train at the Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif. in February.
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Man U downs Fulham
[AMERICANS ABROAD] Clint Dempsey played the first 64 minutes for Fulham but teammate Carlos Bocanegra stayed on the bench as the Cottagers fell, 2-0, to Manchester United on two goals by Cristiano Ronaldo.
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What They’re Saying
“I like the money, but of course teachers should get more than us. I’m not saying footballers should save the environment and change the NHS [National Health Service], but if we portrayed ourselves 15 percent better then it would help.”
— Longtime American English Premier League goalkeeper Brad Friedel, who has created a soccer self-help manual provisionally titled “Bling Free Zone.” (Times)