The 2007 NCAA Division I women’s season kicked with several big upsets, notably South Carolina’s 1-0 win at No. 1 North Carolina. No. 3 UCLA fell to No. 8 Texas on Sunday in Houston, and No. 2 Notre Dame had to settle for a 0-0 tie in its opener against Michigan.
Category: Soccer America Daily
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TV PREVIEW: International Weekend Headliners
Soccer America begins a weekly series, during the international club season, previewing the weekend’s big TV matches, with a look at the players, coaches and matches making headlines around the world. Today we look at Michael Owen, Roy Keane, the Hamburg-Bayern Munich match in Germany and Atlante-Santos in Mexico.
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What They’re Saying
“Investigations confirmed he suffered a complete rupture of his quadriceps muscle in the areas where the quadriceps inserts into the patella. His recovery will be a steady process in the early stages, and we are hoping for a return some time around Christmas.”
— Fulham physiotherapist Jason Palmer on American forward Brian McBride, who suffered a separated kneecap on Aug. 18 while scoring. (AP)
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Disappointing showing by CONCACAF teams
[U-17 WORLD CUP SCOREBOARD]. Two years ago, Mexico won the U-17 World Cup in Peru, but it failed to qualify for this year’s finals in South Korea. Of the CONCACAF region’s five representatives, two reached the second round and were eliminated on Thursday: the USA losing, 2-1, to Germany, and Costa Rica falling, 2-0, to Argentina. Haiti and Honduras, which had edged out the Mexicans in qualifying, exited in the first round without a win, as did Trinidad & Tobago. The quarterfinalists are comprised of four European teams (France, Spain, England, Germany) and two African teams (Ghana, Nigeria).
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Germany ousts USA from U-17 World Cup
[VIDEO] The USA’s U-17 World Cup ended at the round of 16 stage with a 2-1 loss to Germany on Thursday. The Americans won only one game — a 2-0 over Belgium in which they played with a man advantage for 54 minutes — in their four outings in South Korea. Against the Germans, U.S. keeper Josh Lambo and slightly off-target shooting kept the Germans from translating their dominance into goals until Toni Kroos set up Richard Sukuta-Pasu for strikes in the 65th and 89th minutes. U.S. defender Mykell Bates‘ third goal of the tournament came two minutes into stoppage time.
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Hot clashes in Texas
[MLS GAME PREVIEWS]. Interconference play takes center stage this weekend, with the hottest action taking place in Texas: FC Dallas hosts D.C. United, and Kansas City travels to Houston. Might we see a preview of MLS Cup 2007?
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Under-17 World Cup TV Schedule
ESPNU and Galavision provide live provide live coverage of the U-17 World Cup from South Korea. This weekend’s action kicks off early morning Saturday U.S. time …
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Blanco hits New York
In his five MLS matches, Cuauhtemoc Blanco has scored two goals and assisted on four others. On Saturday, he leads the Fire against the New York Red Bulls.
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A Meeting of MLS’s worst
Real Salt Lake goes for a second straight win at last-place (!) Los Angeles. Both teams have managed only three wins this season.
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Playoff implications for Crew and Rapids
Columbus and Colorado are tied for the eighth and final playoff spot with 27 points and both have eight games to play.
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UEFA Champions League Odds
Following Thursday’s draw in Monaco, Barcelona was installed by British bookmaker Ladbrokes as the odds-on favorite to win the 2008 UEFA Champions League. Barcelona was given 11-2 odds despite the fact the Catalan club was placed in Group D, arguably the toughest of the eight groups, along with six-time French champion Lyon and German Bundesliga champion Stuttgart. Chelsea and Manchester United are second favorites at 7-1, followed by Inter Milan and AC Milan at 9-1.
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Chances of U.S.-hosted World Cup any time soon appear to shrink
If we were to project out the implications of a proposed in FIFA system’s to award World Cup hosts, don’t count on the World Cup returning to the United States any time before 2026. That appears to be the effect of the proposed new FIFA bidding process revealed by Reuters’ FIFA sources on Thursday in Monaco, where much of Europe’s top soccer brass was assembled for the ceremonial kickoff to the new soccer season, the UEFA Champions League draw and other UEFA events.
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Beckham bumps MLSnet.com visitors
What has the impact of David Beckham‘s signing with MLS’s Los Angeles Galaxy been online? Worldwide traffic to Major League Soccer’s web site, mlsnet.com, more doubled between July 2006 and July 2007 when Beckham debuted against Chelsea.
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What They’re Saying
“We got a goal. That’s big progress for us.”
— American Samoa coach David Brand, whose team is ranked last (199th) in the world by FIFA, after a 12-1 loss to the Solomon Islands in their 2010 World Cup qualifying opener. America Samoa made history in 2002 World Cup qualifying with a 31-0 loss to Australia. (Reuters)
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UEFA Champions League Results
Both teams from England (Arsenal and Liverpool), Scotland (Celtic and Rangers), Turkey (Fenerbahce and Besiktas) and Ukraine (Dynamo Kiev and Shakhtar Donetsk) earned passage to the group stage of the UEFA Champions League by winning their third qualifying round series. The draw for the group stage will take place Thursday in Monaco despite the death of Sevilla player Antonio Puerta that forced the AEK Athens-Sevilla second leg to be postponed.
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Adu’s Benfica advances in the UEFA Champions League
Benfica qualified for the group stage of the UEFA Champions League with a 1-0 win at FC Copenhagen on Wednesday to advance, 3-1, on aggregate in their third qualifying round series. American teenager Freddy Adu, whose made his European debut in the first leg, did not play in Copenhagen. Greek international Kostas Katsouranis scored in the 17th minute after a free kick from Rui Costa was headed down, silencing the nearly 40,000 fans at Parken Stadium.
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Ghana ousts Brazil in U-17 World Cup
[U-17 WORLD CUP RESULTS/VIDEO] Despite playing the entire second half with a man-advantage, Brazil fell, 1-0, to Ghana in the round of 16 of the U-17 World Cup in South Korea. Francis Boadi was red-carded for two rash tackles within 10 minutes late in the first half, but Issac Donkor converted a rebound for the winning goal in the 51st minute. In the quarterfinals, Ghana faces Peru, which beat Tajikistan on PKs after a 1-1 tie. In Wednesday’s other round of 16 games, Bojan, who is on the brink of breaking into Barcelona’s first team, scored twice in Spain’s 3-0 win over North Korea. Damien Le Tallec also notched two, as France downed Tunisa, 3-1.
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New Argentines send Salt Lake past Kansas City
A month or so ago, Kansas City had its sights set on the Eastern Conference lead. Now its playoff chances are by no means secure. Real Salt Lake (3-11-6) sent the Wizards (9-9-5) tumbling to the .500 level with goals by two of its recently signed Argentines and its resident Jamaican, yet relied a team effort to frustrate KC with hustle and pressure, plus some tidy possession play, for much of the game.
Matias Mantilla, Fabian Espindola and Andy Williams (from 50 yards!) delivered the knockout punches in the 3-1 win that dealt KC its fourth loss in the last five games. Eddie Johnson scored with 21 minutes remaining for his 13th of the season but by then his team trailed by two.
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Chivas USA’s Zotinca gets three-game suspension
[VIDEO] MLS fined Chivas USA defender Alex Zotinca $1,250 and suspended him for three games for delivering a head-butt during a melee sparked after his teammate, Jesse Marsch, kicked David Beckham in the ribs during a Aug. 23 game against the Galaxy.
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Santos, with two Americans, downs Chivas to extend streak
[AMERICANS ABROAD] Santos Laguna remains perfect in the Mexican Apertura 2007 season with a 2-1 win over Chivas Guadalajara on Wednesday. U.S. product Edgar Castillo went the full 90 for the fifth time this season. Texan Sonny Guadarrama made his first appearance of the season for Santos as a 68th minute sub. Californian Michael Orozco made his fifth appearance of the season for San Luis in its 2-1 win over Veracruz.
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Gallant Galaxy falls a kick short
Great saves. Astonishing goal-line clearances. Fierce tackles. Penalty-kick appeals denied. An own goal scored, another narrowly averted. Brazen goalkeeper “gamesmanship” during the penalty-kick shootout going unpunished, as usual. An unbelievable stoppage-time equalizer, on a bicycle kick, by an American.
Pachuca prevailed on penalties, 4-3, following 120 minutes that would be hailed as thrilling, dramatic, and riveting anywhere in the world. But David Beckham left the game in the 33rd minute with a knee strain and Landon Donovan failed to convert from the penalty spot.
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Pachuca, Galaxy square off for $1 million prize
[SUPERLIGA PREVIEW] The Galaxy is so badly banged up for the SuperLiga final Wednesday (11 p.m. ET, TeleFutura, MLSnet.com) against Pachuca it can’t draw any confidence from its feat in the first round, when it beat Pachuca, 2-1, despite being outshot, 23-9. It didn’t have David Beckham for that game, but it did roll out Landon Donovan and a suddenly sharp Alan Gordon. They scored the goals that downed the defending Mexican champion at Home Depot Center.
After losing to Guadalajara, an incredible 6-5 win over FC Dallas propelled the Galaxy to the semifinals against D.C. United. Beckham whipped in a free kick and sent Donovan free to score the clincher in a 2-0 victory. Ole!
Unfortunately …
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USA faces Germany at U-17 World Cup
The USA has appeared in the U-17 world championship a record 12 times but has won a second-round game only once. At this summer’s U-17 World Cup, the Americans started meekly but managed second-round passage and face Germany on Thursday (6:45 am ET, live on ESPNU). In the previous five U.S. second-round appearances, the USA won only in 1999 with a team included Landon Donovan, DaMarcus Beasley, Bobby Convey and Oguchi Onyewu.
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Bobby Convey gets a start for Reading
[AMERICANS IN ENGLAND] American midfielder Bobby Convey played 100 minutes in Reading’s 1-0 overtime win over third-tier Swansea City in the second round of the English League Cup. Convey, who was injured most of last season, has come off the bench in two of four EPL games this season. His last start for Reading before knee-injury treatment came in an FA Cup last February.
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What They’re Saying
“I want to excuse myself with everyone – Parma fans included – but not to him. He provoked me.”
— Silvio Baldini, coach of Italian club Catania, after being suspended for one month for literally kicking Parma coach Domenico Di Carlo‘s butt. The two coaches squabbled during a 2-2 tie and Baldini struck once Di Carlo turned his back to walk away. Click HERE for video.