Antonio De Giorg, the 41-year-old equipment manager for Italian Serie B club Lecce, was killed after being struck by lightning at the end of a practice at the team’s stadium Thursday. He had collected equipment and was headed toward the locker room when he was struck.
Category: Soccer America Daily
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OFF THE POST: Brazilian brawl reignites at airport
Players from Brazilian teams Atletico Paranaense and Gremio fought during and after Paranaense’s 2-0 win on Wednesday night, and the next day at the airport, delegations from the club brawled. Paranaense director Mario Cesar Petraglia said he was reading the newspaper while waiting for his flight to Sao Paulo when members of the Gremio relegation attacked him. He reportedly suffered a lost tooth and a swollen face. Gremio representatives, who were on their way to home to Porto Alegre, said Petraglia’s security men were involved in the fight.
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High School Boys Fall Rankings
Austin King‘s goal secured Evansville Memorial, ranked first place in the NSCAA/adidas High School Fall Boys Top 25, its first IHSAA state title with a 1-0 win over Chesterton on Saturday. For the complete Top 25 …
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High School Girls Fall Rankings
New Jersey’s Immaculate Heart Academy remained No. 1 in this week’s NSCAA/adidas High School Fall Girls Top 25. Seven other Top 25 teams remained unbeaten and united. For the complete Top 25 …
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MIDWEEK WRAPUP: International Soccer Headliners
Valencia fans must hope that the hiring of Dutchman Ronald Koeman as head coach will end the La Liga club’s free fall. Wednesday’s announcement followed Valencia’s 5-1 loss at home to La Liga leader Real Madrid. In Roma, Roma won city bragging rights with a 3-2 win over Lazio. On the agenda in England was the League Cup, in which Chelsea rallied to beat Leicester City, 4-3, thanks to Frank Lampard‘s hat trick. As expected, Sao Paulo wrapped up its second straight Brazilian national championship.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, What They're Saying
What They’re Saying
“At the moment, there are no contract discussions at all. They [the club] are happy with the year I have left. They don’t want to give me anything, which is great after playing 250 games for them. The whole idea is that you show loyalty and they show it back but I guess I have to wait for mine to come to me.”
— American goalkeeper Marcus Hahnemann, 35, announces his disappointment that his English Premier League club, Reading, hasn’t offered him a more lucrative contract, which runs through this season with an option for 2008-09. Hahnemann has conceded 23 goals in 11 games for 12th place Reading. (The Times of London)
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Adu scores his fourth Benfica goal
[AMERICANS ABROAD] Freddy Adu, three days after scoring his first league goal for Benfica, scored in his third straight cup game, but his team fell, 2-1, to Setubal and was eliminated with a 3-2 aggregate result. Adu, making his first start since joining Benfica this summer, struck from the penalty spot in the 45th minute. He was subbed with five minutes left. Benfica’s official Web site praised the 18-year-old’s overall performance.
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United doomed if demons prevail
[PLAYOFF PREVIEW] Halloween has come and gone, thus the curse must be broken. So go the hopes of D.C. United and its perplexed fans, who watched yet another playoff shutout inflicted by the Fire last Thursday, a 1-0 deficit that in normal circumstances scarcely would raise the blood pressure. D.C. scored 56 goals in the regular season and beat Chicago, 3-1, at RFK, June 16, so what’s the problem? Repeat that result and all will be well.
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Charlie Davies hits hat trick in Sweden
[VIDEO/AMERICANS ABROAD] Charlie Davies, the New Hampshire product who played college ball at Boston College through 2006, scored a hat trick in Hammarby IF’s last game of the season after going scoreless in the first 19 games of the season. Davies, who has been capped three times by the USA, was expected to be a high pick in the 2007 MLS draft but opted for a career abroad after Hammarby offered a reported $1 million-plus deal for four seasons.
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OFF THE POST: Player’s paycheck shows up on Internet
A copy of Liverpool midfielder John Arne Riise‘s paycheck stub has shown up on the Internet in several fan chat sites revealing his salary, home address, national insurance (tax and benefits) number and other personal details. Riise, who was declared bankrupt by Liverpool County Court for an unpaid debt of around $200,000, was paid $289,311 by Liverpool for a month’s work, according the paycheck stub.
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U.S. Soccer Development Academy Weekend Report
With a 4-2 win over South Florida rival Schulz Academy, Miami FC Kendall moved to 5-0-1 in the U-15/16s division in the inaugural U.S. Soccer Development Academy. Other weekend highlights included hat tricks by Cesar Avalos for Birmingham and Matthew Tobin for the Clearwater Chargers in the Chargers’ 6-4 win and Austin Savage‘s Academy-leading eighth goal of the season for South Carolina’s Bridge FA in a 2-2 tie with the Virginia Rush. For all the weekend game reports …
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U.S. U-18s fall in France
In its first action of the two-year cycle leading up to the 2009 Under-20 World Cup, the U.S. U-18 boys national team fell to host France, 3-1, on Tuesday night at the Limoges Tournament.
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Who deserves MLS individual honors?
MLS has announced three finalists for each of its end-of-season awards. Juan Pablo Angel, Cuauhtemoc Blanco and Luciano Emilio are the candidates for MLS MVP and the new Newcomer of the Year Award. There’s also Rookie of the Year, Defender of the Year, Goalkeeper of the Year and Coach of the Year honors. Soccer America’s Ridge Mahoney reveals his picks …
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The Brazil World Cup 2014 challenge
[MY VIEW] FIFA’s decision to abandon the rotation system for awarding future World Cups might very well cost the USA the chance to host the World Cup in the near term. The flaw with FIFA’s policy of awarding the World Cup to countries from different confederations was very much evident in the choice of Brazil as host of the 2014 finals. Brazil was not the overwhelming choice to host the 2014 finals. Brazil was FIFA’s only choice, and its bid was accepted, holes and all.
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Germany 2011: ‘Welcome back’
[WOMEN’S WORLD CUP] Germany beat out Canada for the right to the host of the 2011 Women’s World Cup.
The decision, announced by FIFA president Sepp Blatter following a meeting of the executive committee on Tuesday in Zurich, comes exactly one month after Germany successfully defended its Women’s World Cup title, beating Brazil, 2-0, in the final in Shanghai. FIFA’s decision was another setback for Canadian soccer, rocked by upheaval within the Canadian Soccer Association and charges of CSA mismanagement.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, What They're Saying
What They’re Saying
“Two backs, I need two midfielders and I need two quality strikers. I think this club and its supporters need different kinds of players to excite them.”
— Toronto FC coach Mo Johnston, whose contract was renewed despite the team’s last-place finish in MLS, announces slight changes to the squad he put together for the club’s inaugural season. (MLSNet.com)
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Will depth, or disaster, determine playoff outcomes?
Don’t blame the playoff system, or fate, or injuries for the tricky tasks facing the higher seeds in the conference semifinals. Blame the policies of MLS that restrict teams to an 18-man roster and a $2.1 million salary cap despite a burdensome schedule of regular-season, Open Cup, playoffs and international club competitions. With more competitive games come greater chances for injury to attacking players and a commensurate loss of offensive punch.
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FIFA postpones extra ref experiment
FIFA has decided not experiment with extra assistant referees to monitor penalty area action at December’s World Club Cup, having decided the Japan-hosted tournament, which features the six continental club champions, was too high profile. The experiment, in which an additional linesperson would stand behind each goal and assist the referee with decisions on penalty-area incidents, will instead be carried out at next year’s women’s U-17 World Cup in New Zealand or the women’s U-20 World Cup in Chile.
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1860 Munich advances in German Cup
[AMERICANS ABROAD] Defender Gregg Berhalter and forward Josh Wolff helped 1860 Munich down fellow Second Division club Mainz 05, 2-1, in the second round of the Germany Cup. Right back Steve Cherundolo played 120 minutes for Hannover, which went down, 2-0, to fellow First Division club Schalke 04 in overtime. Defender Heath Pearce, who hadn’t seen action in more than a month for First Division Hansa Rostock, started in midfield in a 6-0 win over Second Division Kickers Offenbach. In England, defender Jonathan Spector was a halftime sub for West Ham in its 2-1 fourth-round League Cup win over second-tier Coventry.
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Freddy’s first Portuguese league goal
[VIDEO] Click HERE video of Freddy Adu’s first goal for Benfica in Portuguese league play, the winner in a 2-1 victory last Sunday over Maritimo. Adu scored six minutes after entering the game in the 80th minute.
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Toronto’s Dichio with three Goal of the Year nominations
[VIDEO] Toronto may have finished with the worst MLS 2007 record while scoring the fewest goals, but its striker Danny Dichio has three goals among the 34 that are in the running for 2007 Sierra Mist Goal of the Year. Voting to pare the nominees down to five finalists concludes on Oct. 31. Two other players, New England’s Taylor Twellman and Chicago’s Cuauhtemoc Blanco each have a pair of goals in the running.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, What They're Saying
What They’re Saying
“Here in the United States, more kids than in any other country in the world are playing soccer. In my opinion, they play soccer because of the freedom of the game, because they feel freedom to be creative on the field. They can express themselves on the field and freedom is something the kids love. We have to take advantage of that, and guide them to use that freedom in the best way.”
— New U.S. U-17 national team coach Wilmer Cabrera.
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MLS scoring up just a tiny bit; D.C. is tops again
2007 MLS regular-season games averaged 2.66 goals, compared to 2.62 in 2006. But the 2007 season was the third lowest-scoring year in the league’s 12-year history. MLS averaged more than three goals per game in six of its first seven seasons but hasn’t hit the 3.0 mark since 2002. For the third straight season, D.C. United was the league’s highest scoring team, notching 56 goals in 30 games for 1.87 per game strike rate. Two teams, Colorado (0.97) and Toronto (0.83) mustered less than a goal per game. For year-by-year scoring averages and this year’s team-by-team breakdown …
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MLS attendance second best in history
The MLS 2007 regular-season attendance average of 16,770 is the highest since the inaugural season of 1996, when attendance averaged 17,406. The 2007 season also marked the first time attendance average broke the 16,000-mark since the inaugural season. And for the first time in MLS history, three teams averaged more than 20,000: Los Angeles (24,252) D.C. United (20,967) and Toronto FC (20,130). Total attendance for the season’s 195 games was 3,270,210.
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Referee swears back
Referee Danny McDermid has been charged by the English FA “with using abusive and/or insulting words” toward Leeds United coach Dennis Wise, who claimed that McDermid told him to “f*** off” after Wise cursed at McDermid, who ejected Wise at halftime of a 1-1 tie with Gillingham. McDermid has until Nov. 13 to respond to the charge. The FA suspended Wise for three games and fined him $10,000 protesting the ejection Tresor Kandol, who had received two yellows for dissent. The second was for sarcastically applauding the ref.