[VIDEO] Midfielder Joel Griffiths of Australian club Newcastle United Jets escaped with a yellow card for striking a linesman in a manner that one TV commentator described with “He’s clocked him one in the jewels” and another called a “short jab in the nether regions.”
Category: Soccer America Daily
Posted inSoccer America Daily, What They're Saying
What They’re Saying
“Personally, I’m not ashamed because I see how in a short time they have made very good progress, because I have taken them away from their women, from their wives. We went to the [training] base, because women in soccer are a scourge. They do not understand that men need to work, that they have a hard job to do.”
— Dynamo Kiev coach Josef Sabo, upon being asked by a female reporter if his team’s poor early-season performances as defending champion were shameful. (Reuters)
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U.S. U-17s dominate at Development Academy’s Fall Showcase
[VIDEO] The U.S. Soccer Development Academy’s Fall Showcase Weekend wrapped up on Monday at The Home Depot Center, where the U.S. U-17s ’90/91 team defeated the U-18 Richmond Kickers, 1-0, and the U.S. U-17 ’92 team beat the Kickers’ U-16s, 7-0. Jack McInerney led the ’92 team with a hat trick, and Stefan Jerome added two goals. The U.S. U-17 teams both swept both games at the Fall Showcase. The De Anza Force of Northern California was the only club to sweep all four games. Other teams to sweep both games were the La Jolla Nomads, Schulz Academy, Kendall Soccer Alliance and Crossfire Premier (U-16s) and San Diego Surf (U-18s). No club left Carson without at least a point for one of its two teams.
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World Cup qualifying kicks off in Asia with revenge match
The United Arab Emirates gained revenge for its loss to Vietnam in the quarterfinals of this summer’s Asian Cup with a 1-0 win on the road Monday in the first leg of their first-round World Cup 2010 qualifying series, the first step in Asian qualifying for the South Africa finals. The only other team to lose its home leg was Palestine, a 4-0 loser to Singapore.
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Stoitchkov picks win to say goodbye to Celta
Less than six months after quitting as Bulgaria’s national team coach to charge of Spanish club Celta, Hristo Stoitchkov has left the Vigo club.
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Will Armas stay or go?
Galaxy midfielder Cobi Jones isn’t the only MLS original reconsidering his announcement to retire. Chris Armas, a former teammate of Jones in Los Angeles, has played the last 10 seasons with Chicago and might try to squeeze out one more. Maybe.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Fulham trio falls; Feilhaber gets start
[AMERICANS IN BRITAIN] Goalkeeper Kasey Keller, defender Carlos Bocanegra and forward Clint Dempsey went the distance and fell 2-0 with Fulham against Portsmouth. Benny Feilhaber got his first start for Derby and was replaced in the 65th minute by compatriot Eddie Lewis in a 1-0 loss to Reading, for which Marcus Hahnemann played in goal.
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Cherundolo assists in Hannover 96 win
[AMERICANS IN GERMANY] Right back Steve Cherundolo set up Hannover 96’s second goal in a 2-0 win over defending Bundesliga champion VfB Stuttgart. Szabolcs Huszti, who also scored Hannover’s first, headed home Cherundolo’s pinpoint cross as Hannover held on to sixth place.
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New Jersey product among La Liga’s leading scorers
[AMERICAN IN SPAIN] New Jersey product Giuseppe Rossi of Villarreal scored his fifth goal of the Spanish La Liga season in a 3-2 loss at Osasuna. The 20-year-old Rossi, born in Teaneck, N.J., and raised in Clifton, N.J., left home at age 13 to join Italian club Parma’s youth program. He then played for Manchester United and Newcastle in the EPL and Parma in Italy’s Serie A, before joining Villarreal this season.
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Donovan claims 2007 Honda U.S. Player of the Year
Landon Donovan became the first four-time winner of the Honda Player of the Year Award. The 17-year-old award honoring the best U.S. national team player is voted on by American sports media. Donovan, 25, also won the award in 2002, 2003 and 2004. Donovan scored nine goals for the USA in 2007 and helped it to the Gold Cup title.
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Miami names Zinho head coach
USL-1 club Miami FC has named 1994 World Cup champion Zinho head coach. Zinho is retiring from his playing career, the last two years of which were with Miami.
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Santos, Castillo roll on
[AMERICANS IN MEXICO] Edgar Castillo made his 11th straight start and Santos extended its season-long undefeated streak in the Mexican Apertura to 11 games with a 3-2 win over UNAM Pumas. Santos leads the overall standings, two points ahead of Atlante, the league’s other undefeated squad.
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WEEKEND WRAPUP: International Soccer Headliners
[VIDEO] Arsenal’s young Gunners rolled on in England. Brazilian Afonso Alves set a Dutch record with seven goals for Heerenveen. Bayern Munich celebrated the end of Oktoberfest with a victory over Nuremberg in their 176th Bavarian derby, while Mexico’s Club America dumped Coach Luis Fernando Tena after its 3-1 loss to Toluca.
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Galaxy keeps playoff hopes alive; FC Dallas clinches
[MLS WEEKEND ROUNDUP] The Galaxy rallies to beat Houston and keep pace with eighth-place Chicago, which knocks off New England; the Rapids stay live with a home victory; Chivas USA takes over first place in the Western Conference by winning in Salt Lake City; Columbus stumbles after taking the lead and loses at home to FC Dallas, which clinched a playoff spot.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, What They're Saying
What They’re Saying
“I hate to do it to a city that’s very dear to me, but I’m a Dallas man now.”
— FC Dallas goalkeeper Ray Burse, who attended Ohio State in Columbus, after helping his team down the struggling Crew, 3-1. (Columbus Dispatch)
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Development Academy Fall Showcase U-16 Results
All the results, all the goalscorers, all the players from the first two days of U.S. Soccer’s Development Academy Fall Showcase U-16 kickoff competition. Some of the weekend stars: Austin Savage (four goals in one game for Bridge Futbol Alliance) and Cody Snyder and Kelyn Rowe (hat tricks in the same game for Crossfire Premier).
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Development Academy Fall Showcase U-18 Results
All the results, all the goalscorers, all the players from the first two days of U.S. Soccer’s Development Academy Fall Showcase U-18 kickoff competition. Some of the weekend stars: Brian Ownby (five goals in two games for the Richmond Strikers and Mackenzie Pridham (four goals in two games for the De Anza Force)
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UEFA Cup Results
Dutch club Ajax’s European slide continued. Just five weeks after it lost in UEFA Champions League qualifying, the Amsterdam club was ousted from the UEFA Cup, falling to Dinamo Zagreb of Croatia on away goals in their first-round series.
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Red Bulls leave barmy BMO rebuffed yet again
If New York coach Bruce Arena told his team it had to break its recent trend of tying three straight games, 2-2, the message came through garbled. Poised again to clinch a playoff spot by winning, again the Red Bulls faltered. They scored an own goal and had a player ejected as ex-New York right back Marvell Wynne and his mates took them down, 2-1, at BMO Field in front of the usual cacophonous crowd of red-clad crazies and a national TV audience.
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MLS hits gut-check time
[TV PREVIEWS] Soccer America’s Ridge Mahoney breaks down the action in MLS, which begins Friday when Kansas City hosts D.C. United. It’s gut-check time for the Wizards and the Fire, who can solidify if not confirm postseason reservations by winning at home, and must-win time for skidding homies Columbus and Colorado. The Galaxy takes its improbable but not impossible playoff quest to Houston, and the 2005 expansion teams renew their unique rivalry in Utah. Toronto has a whole lot of Mo’mentum after beating RBNY.
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U.S. ABROAD: Mixed results in UEFA Cup
Of the seven Americans to play Thursday in UEFA Cup action, only three survived to reach the group stage. Ramiro Corrales and Danny Califf had reason to celebrate, as did Tim Howard after a dangerous trip to Ukraine. But Oguchi Onyewu saw red at Standard Liege, and Brad Friedel’s Blackburn Rovers quickly exited from the UEFA Cup. Heavy losses end the European campaigns of Michael Bradley and Charlie Davies.
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WEEKEND PREVIEW: International Soccer Headliners
Arsenal’s fast start has led to comparisons between Arsene Wenger‘s young Gunners and his “Invincibles” of four seasons ago. Manchester City’s Brazilian, Elano, is one of the best summer signings in the English Premier League. After Marseille’s victory at Liverpool on Wednesday, Belgian coach Eric Gerets must get down to the work he was this week hired for at the French club. Sunday’s River Plate-Boca Juniors derby isn’t the only sporting event that has Argentines talking.
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MLS’s Garber throws book at Houston’s Ricardo Clark
Midfielder Ricardo Clark, one of the defending MLS champion Houston Dynamo’s key players and a player with a bright future on the U.S. national team, was banned for nine games — an MLS record — and fined $10,000 after a violent kick on Guatemalan Carlos Ruiz during last Sunday’s FC Dallas-Houston game.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, What They're Saying
What They’re Saying
“I have decided that it is necessary to take firm action to reflect the fact that Ricardo Clark‘s violent kick to Carlos Ruiz in last weekend’s game against FC Dallas, while out of character, is unacceptable behavior from an MLS player. In taking this action, Major League Soccer is sending a signal that it will not accept reckless and dangerous behavior on its fields. If there is a repeat of this kind of behavior by any MLS player, even firmer sanctions can be expected in the future.”
— MLS Commissioner Don Garber on the record nine-game suspension he gave Ricardo Clark for kicking Ruiz during last Sunday’s FC Dallas-Houston game.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Revs riddle Dallas defense to lift U.S. Open Cup
Losers in all four of its previous finals, New England struck upon a novel approach for the 2007 U.S. Open Cup final Wednesday against host Dallas: attack and exploit. And win. The Revs, which had scored a grand total of two goals in losing the 2001 Open Cup final and 2002, 2005, and 2006 MLS Cups, thumped FCD, 3-2, to capture its first trophy with a blend of youth and experience.