Thursday’s Portugal-Mexico game on ESPNU and Galavision shapes up as one of the best first-round games at the Under-20 World Cup. For the complete Under-20 World Cup schedule …
<
[REGION III FINALS] The Dallas Texans once again dominated the US Youth Soccer Region III Championships. Last year, they captured six regional titles. This year, four Texan teams went home with trophies. The U-19 Texans boys are defending national champions in their age group. The three girls champions are the U-15 and U-16 Texans, both regional champions in 2006, and the U-17 team. Two other Texans teams finished second in Wednesday’s finals in Oklahoma City, Okla. Nine of the 12 teams advancing to the US Youth Soccer National Championships in Frisco, Texas, July 24-29 at Pizza Hut Park, hail from Texas. Rounding out the championship mix were two teams from North Carolina (CASL U-19 girls and U-14 boys) and one from Georgia (Atlanta Fire United).
“We like for the continent’s most important competition to be respected with the best players. [The USA] opted to send a team with some players who aren’t their regulars. That doesn’t please us.”
— Eduardo Deluca, the general secretary of the South American confederation [CONMEBOL] on the USA sending a “B” team to the Copa America, where the USA lost its first two games while being outscored 7-2. Deluca said CONMEBOL does hope for hopes for continued U.S. participation in the tournament. (AP)
Brazilian Luciano Emilio moved to within a goal of MLS leadings scorers Juan Pablo Angel (New York) and Eddie Johnson (Kansas City) with his eighth strike, the decider in D.C. United’s 1-0 win at Kansas City. Toronto won its first road game of the season, over hapless Real Salt Lake, 2-1. Landon Donovan struck twice from the penalty spot as Los Angeles downed Chicago, 2-0, in front of the biggest Fourth of July crowd (24,333). FC Dallas notched its fourth shutout in five games with a 2-0 win over Chivas USA. Colorado and Columbus played to a scoreless tie.
“First off let me say how thrilled I am to be involved with the Brigade. The Brigade has the right vision of success and if it’s about making soccer better and doing it the right way, I’m in.”
— Eric Wynalda, 38, who’s coming out of retirement to play for the Bakersfield Brigade of the USL’s Premier Development League. The veteran of three World Cups, whose last MLS season was 2001, is set to make his Brigade debut Saturday against the LA Storm.
[VIDEO] A Freddy Adu hat trick, two excellent goals by Danny Szetela, and a nice finish from Jozy Altidore destroyed Poland, 6-1, and moved the USA atop Group D with four points in the U-20 World Cup.
[YOUTH] U.S. Soccer’s Development Academy, which is accepting applications from youth clubs through the end of July for its inaugural season, has added 10 more teams, including the youth clubs of MLS’s D.C. United, Chicago Fire and Red Bull New York, and USL’s Richmond Kickers. Those additions, plus the Colorado Rush, Potomac Soccer (Md.), Real Colorado (Colorado), Richmond Strikers (Va.), VA Rush Soccer Club (Va.) and Washington Premier FC raised the number of accepted clubs to 31.
[LIST] U.S. Soccer coaches will be selecting qualified clubs for the U.S. Soccer Development Academy Clubs on a rolling basis until Aug. 1. The first 31 clubs accepted to the academy represent 16 states and the District of Columbia.
Robb Rolfing, who played for the Sioux Falls SpitFire of USL’s Premier Development League in 2001, was killed last weekend by enemy small arms fire while serving as a special forces engineer. Staff Sgt. Rolfing, 29, was an original member of the inaugural SpitFire team and also played soccer at Vassar College.
Five games on Independence Day and a Thursday night ESPN2 matchup gives every MLS team except New England a slice of midweek action. Of course, why would the Revolution, of all teams, play at home on Independence Day? Ridge Mahoney previews the action …
A consortium led by former Fire player Frank Klopas is just one of two groups seriously interested in buying the Fire from the Anschutz Entertainment Group, says a source close to the discussions being held. Of the two groups, the out-of-town group not fronted by Klopas has been performing due diligence for a couple of months, examining financial documents at the team and league level.
[VIDEO] American goalkeeper Adin Brown scored on a header off a corner kick in stoppage time to earn his Norwegian club Aalesund a 2-2 tie with Rosenborg.
New Jersey’s PDA, Pennsylvania’s FC Delco and the Baltimore Casa Mia Bays all had two boys teams crowned champions on Tuesday at the US Youth Soccer Region I Championships. On the girls side, Virginia led all state associations with four champions: VSA Heat (U-12), McLean Freedom (U-16), Richmond Strikers Elite (U-17) and PWSI Cardinals (U-19). PDA added a third Region I title when it won the U-15 girls crown. For complete Region I results and goalscorers …
[NORDIC CUP ROSTER] Coach Bill Irwin named 18 players who will represent the USA in Vassa, Finland, at the 2007 Nordic Cup, being held from July 18-24.
The U.S. roster features numerous college stars and others who have completed their college eligibility and are playing in the W-League or WPSL.
Venezuela, Uruguay and Peru joined Mexico, Argentina and Paraguay in the quarterfinals of the Copa America when they finished 1-2-3 in Group A. Venezuela clinched the Group A title and a place in the quarterfinals — for the first time in Copa America history — when it held Uruguay to a 0-0 tie Tuesday in the final group match. Striker Claudio Pizarro‘s second goal of the game with five minutes remaining gave 10-man Peru a 2-2 tie with Bolivia in the first game, in which D.C. United’s Jaime Moreno scored his second goal of the tournament.
The USA will be cheering for Mexico to beat Chile or Ecuador to beat Brazil on Wednesday to remain alive at the Copa America. For the complete Copa America TV schedule …
The Under-20 World Cup continues on July 4 with four games in Victoria and Burnaby. All four games will be televised on ESPN360.com (broadband) and Costa Rica-Japan will be shown on Fox Sports en Espanol. For the complete Under-20 World Cup schedule …
Defending champion Argentina matched the USA on Tuesday, scoring six goals in a 6-0 victory over Panama at the Under-20 World Cup. Brazil, the 2007 South American champion, recovered from a stunning 1-0 loss to Poland in its first game to beat South Korea, 3-2.
For the second straight game, Argentina brushed aside the minor inconvenience of falling behind on a early goal and recovered to score four goals. Against the USA, the Argentines conceded a penalty kick by Eddie Johnson in the 9th minute yet prevailed, 4-1. Against Colombia on Monday night in Maracaibo, a clever back heel by Edixon Perea put the Argentines in a hole in the 10th minute, but they again recovered to win, 4-2, and join Paraguay and Mexico in the quarterfinals.
“I would score 49 out of 50 times. Unfortunately, it was the wrong time to miss it.”
— Drew Moor, whose otherwise encouraging debut at right back for the USA on Monday night was marred by a wide-open header right in front of the Paraguay goal he hit tamely straight to keeper Aldo Bobadilla with the score 2-1 in Paraguay’s favor late in their Copa America match. Minutes later, Paraguay put the game away with a third goal and won, 3-1.
[PDL RESULTS] As the PDL entered the final month of the regular season, the race for the goalscoring continued. Four players have hit double figures in goals: Brazilian Pablo Campos of Fresno Fuego leads the PDL with 13 goals. Dwight Barnett, the former NJCAA Player of the Year at Herkimer County, has 12 goals for Cape Cod. D3 college players Andrew Wheeler (York College) and Ross Schunk (University of Redlands) have 11 and 10 goals, respectively, for unbeaten Hampton Roads and Los Angeles.
[W-LEAGUE RESULTS] In a battle of future teams in the 2008 women’s pro league, Jersey Sky Blue handed the Washington Freedom its first defeat of the 2007 W-League season with a 3-0 win. North Carolina stars Tobin Heath and Casey Nogueira provided all the scoring. Ohio State’s Swiss international, Lara Dickenmann, set up all three goals — playing a one-two with Heath and feeding Nogueira with long passes. Villanova’s All-American, Jillian Loyden, picked up the shutout in goal.
[USA-POLAND PREVIEW] Before the FIFA U-20 World Cup started, U.S. coach Thomas Rongen described Poland, which the USA faces Tuesday in probably a must-win game in Montreal, as “a typical Eastern European country that’s going to be very hard to break down and very methodical in their approach.” To those attributes can be added opportunism and determination and resiliency. Poland upset Brazil, 1-0, on the opening day of play with a long-range free kick by Grzegorz Krychowiak and a staunch defensive display following the ejection of Real Madrid’s Krzysztof Krol in the 27th minute.
[REGION I YOUTH RESULTS] Host state Maine is sending its second team ever to the US Youth Soccer Region I Championship finals. The Coastal SC’s U-17 boys beat Connecticut’s South Central, 1-0, on an overtime goal by Eddie Jones to advance to Tuesday’s final in Portland. The Coastal SC, which had been playing down a man since early in the second half, has yet to concede a goal at the regionals. FC Delco defeated the defending national champion Baltimore Casa Mia Bays, 4-1, in a shootout in their U-18 boys semifinal. FC Delco, Casa Mia Bays and PDA all had two teams advance to the boys finals. PDA had three girls teams qualify for the finals. FC Delco and FC Stars of Massachusetts have two teams apiece in the girls championship games. For complete Region I semifinal results and goalscorers …
[REGION III YOUTH RESULTS] The US Youth Soccer Region III Championships moved on despite early morning rain that pushed back play by an hour in Oklahoma City. There have been 20 consecutive days of rain that broke a 70-year-old record. The Dallas Texans went 7-1 in Monday’s quarterfinals. Its U-19 boys team has already qualified for Tuesday’s semifinals. North Carolina’s CASL Elite was 4-0 in boys quarterfinal action. For complete Region III quarterfinal results …
