Category: Soccer America Daily

The MLS playoffs kick off this weekend with quarterfinal, first-leg matches. In this round, teams play two games, to be decided by total goals, with the higher-seeded team playing the first game on the road. Away goals carry no extra weight and there is no overtime. Penalty kicks will decide aggregate ties. Find out how […]

With American Brad Friedel in goal, Blackburn defeated Polish club Wisla Krakow, 2-1, on the road Thursday night in their UEFA Cup group opener. Friedel was helpless on the Wisla goal that took a deflection off a Blackburn defender. Blackburn recovered to win on second-half goals by Robbie Savage and David Bentley. American Michael Bradley […]

Real Madrid will be out of wipe away the memory of last season’s humiliating defeat at Bernabeu Stadium when it hosts Barcelona Sunday in soccer’s most passionate regional clasico (TV: Gol TV, live, 3 pm ET). When Barcelona played Real Madrid last season at Madrid’s Bernabeu Stadium, Barca star Ronaldinho exited to a standing ovation […]

Goalscoring during the MLS 2006 regular season matched its lowest average in history. The 2006 average of 2.62 was just a whit higher than the league’s most anemic season ever – in 2004, when games averaged 2.61 goals. MLS averaged more than three goals per game in six of its first seven seasons but hasn’t […]

“It’s pure speculation. There’s a list of people who I guess always get mentioned and I feel pretty flattered that I get put into that mix. It means I’m doing something right in my coaching career. But I’m not looking at doing that at the moment. I really enjoy what I’m doing here. I’m looking […]

U.S. women’s national team coach Greg Ryan named 20 players who will compete in the Peace Queen Cup Oct. 28-Nov. 4 in South Korea. The eight-team tournament will be the last test for the Americans before November’s Gold Cup that will serve as qualifying for the 2007 Women’s World Cup in China. Ryan called up […]

Chelsea beat defending champion Barcelona, 1-0, in their much-anticipated Champions League showdown Wednesday on an outstanding individual effort by Ivory Coast star Didier Drogba. Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho was in no mood to be boastful, despite the win against the club that the Blues have faced in two emotionally charges series the last two years. […]

By Ridge Mahoney It could prove be nothing more than sniping by the desperate, but scuttlebutt around the league is that D.C. United’s lackluster finish to the regular season may be borne of more than indifference. A stagnant back line, a creaky Jaime Moreno, and a propensity of several players to bark at referees or […]

Sonny Guadarrama, who has played for the U.S. under-18 and under-20 national teams, has been called into a Mexico U-20 national team camp this week in Mexico City. The 5-foot-7 Guadarrama, the second leading scorer in the NCAA Division I ranks as a freshman in 2005 for Campbell, left school this summer to join Mexican […]

France leads all nations with 11 players nominated for the 2006 European Player of the Year. The Paris magazine France Football, which organizes the award, announced a short list of 50 candidates for the 51st Ballon d’Or (“Golden Ball’). Chelsea leads all clubs with nine players picked, followed by Barcelona with eight and Lyon with […]

“We have to accept sometimes referees give goals because they do not see things. Tonight we have something new — that they cancel goals because they saw things which did not exist.” — Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger after Spanish referee Manuel Enrique Mejuto Gonzalez ruled that France striker Thierry Henry had used his arm on […]

Manchester United and Lyon maintained their perfect starts to the UEFA Champions League with their third straight wins on Tuesday. Manchester United leads Group F after a 3-0 victory over FC Copenhagen at Old Trafford. Paul Scholes, John O’Shea and Kieran Richardson scored for United in a match notable for 20-year-old Wayne Rooney‘s debut as […]

“Despite John’s admittance that he has spelt his surname as Paintsil in the past — including while playing for Ghana in the World Cup finals this summer — the fact remains that the spelling on his official documentation is PANTSIL. For this reason, the Club has no other option but to use that spelling of […]

By Ridge Mahoney He would like nothing better than to repeat the feats of his first year in MLS, yet Chicago defender C.J. Brown is quite aware of how difficult it will be to match the MLS Cup and U.S. Open Cup double the Fire pulled off as an expansion team in 1998. “At the […]

FIFA will pay out $6 million to the 16 finalists at the 2007 Women’s World Cup, including a $1 million bonus to the champions. China ’07 will mark the first time FIFA will pay federations for participating in the women’s championship. The runners-up will receive $800,000, while the other teams will earn lesser bonuses. The […]

Less than six weeks before Canada enters CONCACAF qualifying for the 2007 Women’s World Cup, a dispute has surfaced pitting three veteran stars, all residing in the United States, against Canada coach Even Pellerud, the Canadian Soccer Association and millionaire Greg Kerfoot, owner of the W-League champion Vancouver Whitecaps and financial backer of Canada’s full-time […]

Brian McBride celebrated his 100th appearance in the English Premier League with the first goal in Fulham’s 2-1 victory over Charlton on Monday night. McBride struck from the edge of the box in the 65th minute with a low shot that was deflected before beating Charlton keeper Antti Niemi. It was the second straight Monday […]

Helio dos Anjos became the fourth coach to depart struggling Brazilian club Sao Caetano this season when he quit after its 2-0 loss at home to Gremio, the seventh loss in seven games since he took over. “I couldn’t go on losing,” he said. Sao Caetano, runner-up in the 2002 Libertadores Cup, is 19th in […]

In Argentina, a policeman working crowd control at a Lanus home game against his hometown club, Estudiantes La Plata, jumped up and cheered when Estudiantes made it 3-0. Fans hurled debris at him until he was removed by colleagues. The cheering cop was suspended for 10 days without pay.

Chelsea heads into its Champions League showdown against Barcelona with a goalkeeping crisis after its top two goalies were hurt in the 1-0 win at Reading on Saturday night. Czech star Petr Cech had surgery for a skull fracture after being hit in the face by the knee of Reading midfielder Stephen Hunt. Chelsea manager […]

Benny Feilhaber, a 21-year-old Californian product who left UCLA last year to join Hamburg SV, made his German First Division debut, coming on at halftime of a 2-1 loss to Schalke. The score was tied 1-1 when he replaced 21-year-old Dutch international Nigel de Jong. It took an own goal — Ivar Ingimarsson deflecting a […]

By Ridge Mahoney Kudos and plaudits are being bestowed upon the New York Red Bulls and Coach Bruce Arena for eking into the playoffs by beating Kansas City, 3-2, with an Amado Guevara hat trick. His first two goals came on penalty kicks and the Wizards also had Nick Garcia sent off with three minutes […]

"My wife is always telling me to shoot more so I saw some room and hit it. I can’t score if I don’t shoot so maybe I’ll try shooting more from now on." — Red Bull Amado Guevara, whose 25-yard strike completed his hat trick in a 3-2 win over Kansas City that earned New […]

Nicolas Mazzola scored in stoppage time to give host Argentina a 2-1 victory over the USA Friday night in the final of the Torneo Internacional Sub-17 in San Luis. Ellis McLoughlin‘s goal in the 40th minute gave the USA a 1-0 lead it carried late into the second half before surrendering two goals in the […]

“Here to you … Misses Robinson” — Headline in England’s Daily Express on the own goal in England’s 2-0 loss against Croatia that saw goalkeeper Paul Robinson whiff horribly on a seemingly innocuous back pass from Gary Neville.