Category: Soccer America Daily

[COLLEGE] No. 10 Penn State twice rallied from one goal down to beat Connecticut, 3-2, on Monday. In the other game at the Penn State Invitational, No. 25 BYU defeated No. 9 West Virginia, 1-0, on freshman Carlee Payne‘s golden goal. For this week’s schedule …

[MLS] Geoff Cameron is a second-year player with the Houston Dynamo and was finalist for last year’s MLS Rookie of the Year Award. This year, he’s established himself as a starter and made the MLS All-Star team. Get to know the 24-year-old in this profile by Soccer America’s Bryan Alvarez that covers on and off-field experiences.

[COLLEGE] Danielle Foxhoven, who scored the first two goals in No. 3 Portland’s 4-0 win over ranked California and both goals in 2-0 victory over Washington, is the Soccer America Women’s Player of the Week for games played Aug. 28-30. For the Soccer America Women’s Team of the Week …

[USL] The fallout from the decision of Nike to sell its majority interest in United Soccer Leagues to an Atlanta group, NuRock Soccer, continued as a group of USL-1 owners said they would “pursue all avenues” to gain control of the league. Meanwhile, USL announced that NuRock chairman Rob Hoskins and chief executive officer Alec Papadakis will take on similar positions in USL and Tim Holt, the USL vice president and chief operating officer, will remain with the league as president.

[COLLEGE] The top four teams — No. 1 North Carolina, No. 2 Stanford, No. 3 Portland and No. 4 Notre Dame — remained unchanged in the Soccer America Women’s Top 25, but there was lots of changes in the rest of the rankings. For this week’s Top 25 rankings as well as last week’s results …

[UNDER-20 WORLD CUP] A record five players from MLS’s FC Dallas — goalkeeper Josh Lambo, defenders Kyle Davies and Anthony Wallace and forwards Peri Marosevic and Brek Shea — are among the 21 players named to the U.S. under-20 national team that will compete in the world championships in Egypt.

[WPS] As expected, Brazilian star Marta won the Michelle Akers Player of the Year Award as the top player in the 2009 Women’s Professional Soccer season. Winners of WPS year-end Award awards were announced during WPS’s Awards Gala on the eve of Sunday’s 2009 WPS All-Star Game in Fenton, Mo.

[USL-2] Second-half subs David Bulow and John DiRaimondo scored late goals to give the Richmond Kickers a 3-1 victory over the Charlotte Eagles in the USL Second Division final. The championship was the second for the Kickers, who were loaded with former MLS players.

[WPS] Women’s Professional Soccer earned bragging rights as the best women’s league in the world Sunday when its All-Stars rallied from two goals down after 15 minutes to beat an albeit depleted Swedish powerhouse Umea, 4-2, in an exciting All-Star Game in Fenton, Mo. WPS MVP Marta, a former Umea star, scored a goal and had two assists and Canadian Christine Sinclair scored twice to lead the the WPS All-Stars.

[AMERICANS ABROAD] Edgar Castillo, the Mexican-American left back who is eying a call-up by the U.S. national team, scored for Tigres with a 25-yard volley. In the English Premier League, Eddie Johnson made his first league appearance of the season and a pair of keepers celebrated wins. For how U.S. players fared last weekend in foreign leagues.

The MLS playoff race is shaping up to be the tightest ever as wins by D.C. United, Colorado and New England tighten things considerably. Only three point separate the seven teams currently battling for the seven playoff berths. For all the weekend game summaries, current standings and leading scorers …

Bayern Munich finally got its first win of the German season when it beat defending Bundesliga champion Wolfsburg, 3-0, Celtic and Rangers remain perfect in Scotland, while Braga is the surprise leader in Portugal. For all the weekend results and current standings …

[USL-1] Carolina, Charleston and Puerto Rico joined leader Portland in clinching berths in the USL First Division. Rochester, Montreal and defending champion Vancouver are in line to clinch the remaining three playoff spots.

[ENGLAND] Luck was not with Arsenal when the Gunners lost to defending champion Manchester United, 2-1, on Saturday. To make matters worse, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger was sent off for kicking an empty water bottle late in the game — a decision by referee Mike Dean on the advice of fourth official Lee Probert that was called an error and will result in an apology.

[SPAIN] Real Madrid debuted its $300 signings on Saturday, but they struggled to beat Deportivo Coruna, 3-2, in La Liga opener on Saturday in Madrid. Cristiano Ronaldo, the most expensive signing at $131 million, converted a penalty kick, but he otherwise wasn’t much of a factor in the game. Real needed goals from holdovers Lassana Diarra and Raul to pull out the win.

[MLS NAMES & NUMBERS] Only of one the weekend’s seven games had more than one goal. Included in five 1-0 decisions were the New York Red Bulls’ second straight win since their coaching change, David Beckham‘s first goal of the season, and D.C. United keeper’s assault of a teammate.

[TRANSFER WATCH] Indicative of their dominance in Spain, Real Madrid or Barcelona has been involved in each of the 10 biggest La Liga transfers of the summer. The impending $35 million deals sending Dutch winger Arjen Robben from Real Madrid to Bayern Munich and Ukrainian defender Dmytro Chyhrynskiy from Shakhtar Donetsk to Barcelona put the value of the 10 biggest deals at a staggering $515 million.

[SPAIN] Jozy Altidore, La Liga’s lone American in 2008-09, was loaned by Villarreal to English club Hull City after last season’s loan to then-second division club Xerez expired. Danny Szetela moved to D.C. United after after his loan at Italian Serie B club Brescia ended and Racing Santander did not extend his contract. The Altidore and Szetela moves are typical of the activity in Spain, where a large portion of the La Liga summer moves are loan deals or involve the return of players previously on loan.

[OFF THE POST] Italian goalkeeper Lamberto Boranga, whose pro career in the 1960s through 1980s included stints with Fiorentina and Parma, is coming out of retirement at age 66 to play for amateur club L’Ammeto. He last played at age 50.

[COLLEGE] The top four teams — No. 1 North Carolina, No. 2 Stanford, No. 3 Portland and No. 4 Notre Dame — remained unchanged in the Soccer America Women’s Top 25, but there was lots of changes in the rest of the rankings. For this week’s Top 25 rankings as well as last week’s results …

[USA] U.S. national team coach Bob Bradley called up 24 players who will train in advance of the World Cup qualifiers against El Salvador Sept. 5 in Sandy, Utah, and and Trinidad & Tobago Sept. 9 at Trinidad & Tobago. All 20 players who traveled to Mexico City for the recent qualifier against Mexico were called up. The most notable omission is Kenny Cooper, who is off to a tremendous start at German club 1860 Munich. For the complete roster …

[UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE] Barcelona-Inter Milan and Real Madrid-AC Milan — those are the two biggest pairings in the eight groups drawn for the 2009-10 UEFA Champions League on Thursday in Monaco.