Action at the 2007 Copa America continues this weekend with two games each on Saturday and Sunday. Brazil will look to rebound from its 2-0 loss to Mexico when it faces Chile on Sunday, while the Tri will go for two wins in a row when it faces Ecuador in the second game of the doubleheader in Maturin. Both games will be broadcast live in Spanish on Univision. For the complete Copa America TV schedule …
Category: Soccer America Daily
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2007 Under-20 World Cup TV Schedule
The USA-South Korea Under-20 World Cup opener Saturday in Montreal will be broadcast live on ESPNU, with coverage beginning at 4:45 pm ET, and delayed on Fox Sports en Espanol at 7 pm ET. The Under-20 World Cup will be shown in English on ESPNU and ESPN360.com (broadband) and in Spanish on Fox Sports en Espanol, Galavision and TeleFutura. For the Under-20 World Cup schedule …
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Next up for USA at Copa America: Paraguay, a 5-0 winner over Colombia
Paraguay, the next U.S. opponent the Copa America, crushed Colombia, 5-0, in their opening Group C game on Thursday in Maracaibo. Striker Roque Santa Cruz scored a hat trick, and substitute Salvador Cabanas added two more in the last 10 minutes as Colombia collapsed.
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D.C. United rides out weather and Rapids
Of the two 4-1 games played Thursday night, only one was closer than the score would indicate and it wasn’t the U.S. loss to Argentina in the Copa America. Rain, lightning, and two late strikes by D.C. United swept Colorado to its fifth straight defeat, 4-1, after Colorado wasted chances to stay in the game.
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What They’re Saying
“We did not despair when we went behind and continued to look for goals until we secured the victory. We must not get carried away, though, as we have only won one game. They made things difficult for us. We had the ball, but we could not create chances. In the second half, we knew they would be tired.”
— Argentina coach Alfio Basile, whose team recovered from a one-goal deficit to defeat the USA, 4-1, the teams’ Copa America opener. (Ticker)
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Soccer fever hits Canada in a big way
The Under-20 World Cup begins Saturday as 24 teams, including the USA, compete in six Canadian cities, and ticket sales have stunned organizers. More than 750,000 tickets have been sold, and final attendance figures could surpass 1 million, double original estimates. Canada’s opening game on Sunday and the final on June 22, both in Toronto, are already sold out. The USA opener on Saturday against South Korea could sell out the 55,000 Olympic Stadium in Montreal — the main venue for the 1976 Olympic Games. Five of the six opening doubleheaders could be sellouts.
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Argentina and Brazil head U-20 World Cup favorites
Argentina the defending champion, and Brazil, the South American champion, are the favorites, along with European champion Spain, at the 2007 Under-20 World Cup, which begins Saturday in Canada. They have combined to win the last seven U-20 world championships. Argentina’s 2005 victory in the Netherlands gave it five titles, one more than Brazil. Other teams to watch include Mexico and Nigeria. Here’s a look at the favorites.
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USA wilts in Copa opener against Argentina
Back to the real world. The Copa America in any South American nation is a long way from the Gold Cup anywhere in the United States. An Argentine lineup featuring several world-class stars pummeled a makeshift American team, 4-1, to end the 11-match unbeaten run of Coach Bob Bradley. After a courageous hour of surviving at 1-1 with sweat and grit, the U.S. resolve melted in a searing display of skill and speed by the tournament favorites.
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U.S. REPORT CARD: Tough day for young team
Soccer America’s Ridge Mahoney grades the U.S. players’ performance in their 4-1 Copa America loss to Argentina. …
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U.S Soccer’s super streak comes to end
Until its 4-1 loss Thursday night against Argentina in the Copa America, the U.S. men’s national team was undefeated — 10-0-1 – since Bob Bradley took over as head coach in December. The USA’s last loss was more than a year ago, the 2-1 defeat to Ghana at the 2006 World Cup. The U.S. women are undefeated for more than a year. Coach Greg Ryan‘s team is on a 43-game unbeaten streak — 24 of those games came in the last 12 months, which means that before the men’s Copa loss, U.S. men’s and women’s national teams were 31-0-4 over 365 days.
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West battle highlights MLS weekend
[MLS WEEKEND PREVIEWS]. Dallas and Houston, the top two teams in the Western Conference square off, the Crew tries to keep its revival going at home against New York, the Revs head west to test Chivas USA, Chicago plays its first league match in four years without coach Dave Sarachan, and Kansas City hosts Toronto in a tightening Eastern Conference race. Soccer America’s Ridge Mahoney previews all the weekend’s MLS action …
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OFF THE POST: Soccer mom goes on rampage
During a girls game in Norway, a mother stormed the field, attacked a 13-year-old player, pushing her to the ground. She swore at several other players and put the referee into a stranglehold before being restrained, reports the Aftenposten. “The referee was completely shaken and the players were crying,” said Tor Eriksen of the Bardufoss regional sports association.
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What They’re Saying
“I’m a little small, but I’m fast, I like to get a touch of the ball, I like my left foot and I like to make things exciting. I’ll make runs and hopefully my style of soccer will suit the fans, and I can repay them for all the good things they’ve been saying about me so far.”
— DaMarcus Beasley, the 5-foot-8, 145-pound U.S. midfielder, upon signing with Scottish power Glasgow Rangers. (Ticker)
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2007 Copa America TV Schedule
The USA opens play at the 2007 Copa America on Thursday at 8:30 pm ET against Argentina. The game will be broadcast live in Spanish on Univision and English on GolTV. For the complete Copa America TV schedule …
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Argentina leads with Messi and the Monsters
Alfio Basile knows something about winning at the Copa America. He coached Argentina at the South American championship twice, and it won both times, in 1991 and 1993. He is downplaying, however, any comparisons between those teams and his current team that opens play in Group C against the USA on Thursday in Maracaibo, saying it will be difficult to play at the level of those teams. But with a team that includes Lionel Messi and Hernan Crespo in attack, Juan Roman Riquelme in midfield and Carlos Tevez probably on the bench, Argentina will be formidable.
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USA has world’s most registered youth players
The USA leads the world in registered youth soccer players, according to a FIFA’s Big Count survey. The USA has 3.9 million registered youth players (2.34 million boys and 1.56 million girls). Brazil (2.1 million) and Germany (1.3 million) rank second and third, followed by South Africa (1.3 million), France (1 million) and England (820,000).
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U.S. SOCCER ACADEMY: ‘No. 1’ Chicago Magic takes new challenge
[CLUB PROFILE SERIES] The Chicago Magic, which for the last three years has occupied the No. 1 spot in Soccer America Magazine’s Top 20 Best Boys Youth Clubs, is among the first clubs accepted for the inaugural season of the U.S. Soccer Development Academy this fall. The Magic rose to national prominence under Mike “Matko” Matkovich, who remains Director of Coaching while serving as assistant coach of Major League Soccer’s Toronto FC. Famous Magic alumni include Chivas USA goalkeeper Brad Guzan, a member the USA’s Copa America squad, who joined the Magic at age 10. For more on the Magic story …
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Mexico stuns Brazil with spectacular goals from Castillo and Morales
After losing to the USA at the Gold Cup, Brazil looked downright easy. Mexico got spectacular goals from striker Nery Castillo and midfielder Ramon Morales midway through the first half and held off a second-half onslaught to earn a 2-0 win over the defending champion in their opening Group B game Tuesday. In the other Group B opener, Chile twice came from one-goal deficits on goals by Humberto Suazo, then got a goal from substitute Carlos Villanueva on an 87th-minute free kick to beat Ecuador, 3-2.
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Underdog USA brings some bite to Copa
The much-maligned roster taken by Coach Bob Bradley to the Copa America is designed for long-term benefit, not short-term results. With 15 of the 22 players chosen based in MLS, and many eligible to compete as U-23 players in the Olympic soccer tournament next year, getting out of the group is a realistic, if difficult, task. It is not the main objective. Yet failure to do so, with two of the three third-place teams advancing, would be a disappointment. They need a win and a tie, plain and simple. Soccer America’s Ridge Mahoney rates the U.S. squad, position by position …
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Michigan Hawks-Wolves pounce at Region II youth finals
[REGION II YOUTH CHAMPIONS] Teams from the Michigan Hawks-Wolves club won four titles on Wednesday on the final day of the US Youth Soccer Region II Championships in Des Moines, Iowa. Two boys (Wolves) and two girls (Hawks) teams won championship matches. In the U-15 boys final, Sonny Saad scored four goals to lead the Wolves past the archrival Vardarstars. Another team from Michigan, the Bloomfield Force, will send its U-18 girls team to US Youth Soccer National Championships to be played July 24-29 in Frisco, Texas. Carmel United of Indiana won two girls titles. The NFC Bluejays defeated Ohio’s Internationals, 3-0, in the U-18 boys final to become only the second team from Nebraska to advance to the national championships.
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FIFA’s high-altitude tweak doesn’t help Bolivia
FIFA eased up on its ban on high-altitude games, raising the limit to 3,000 meters from 2,500 while applying the ban only to World Cup qualifiers. But Bolivia, whose president Evo Morales [photos] led the campaign against the ban, won’t be able to play in its capital, La Paz (3,600 meters above sea level). Brazil suffered its first ever World Cup qualifying loss in La Paz 14 years ago. Further defeats in the Andean highlands by Argentina and Brazil, which have seats on FIFA’s executive committee, prompted the ban.
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Once-discredited Valcke resurfaces as FIFA’s new general secretary
FIFA named Frenchman Jerome Valcke as its new general secretary on Wednesday — less than eight months after it had “parted company” with Valcke and three other employees in its Marketing & TV Division he headed after being discredited in a multi-million dollar lawsuit with long-time sponsor MasterCard.
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U.S. SOCCER ACADEMY: The venerable Nomads
[CLUB PROFILE]. Nomads SC of Southern California, a pioneer in American youth soccer, was one of the first clubs accepted by the U.S. Soccer Development Academy. In the first of a Soccer America series profiling the clubs that will field teams, we look at Nomads, which were founded in 1976 and by the mid-1980s became of the one of the first fully staffed, multi-team elite youth clubs that soon proliferated throughout the nation.
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‘Trader Mo’s’ latest deal lands Todd Dunivant
His penchant to swap players has anointed Toronto head coach Mo Johnston with the nickname “Trader Mo,” yet his trigger-finger frenzy of jettisoning players he’s recently acquired is more “Quick Draw McGraw.”
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Gold Cup attendance average up by 11,000
The attendance average for the 2007 Gold Cup’s 13 game days was 37,598, an increase of more than 11,000 from the previous championship tournament of North and Central America and the Caribbean. The 2007 attendance average was the highest since 1993, when the USA co-hosted the tournament with Mexico. The 2005 was also co-hosted; the USA was lone host for the other seven Gold Cups. For Gold Cup attendance history: