Category: Soccer America Daily

Spain’s La Liga starts this weekend after a hectic summer during which clubs loaded up on international stars signed from foreign teams. The moves confirmed La Liga’s status as the best league in the world. Here’s a look at moves by the principal contenders: BARCELONA. The champions spent almost $40 million on new talent. Barca picked […]

MLS expansion team Toronto FC named Scotsman Mo Johnston as its first head coach. Johnston takes charge of MLS’s first Canadian team less than two months after being fired as New York Red Bulls coach. With three games remaining in the 2005 regular season, he was promoted from assistant coach to head coach with the MetroStars, […]

“Barcelona play from memory. They know each other to perfection. I’ve got players who arrived a month, two weeks ago, but we’re getting near where we want to be.” — Real Madrid coach Fabio Capello, dubbed “Sergeant Capello” by the Spanish media. The Italian was hired to lead Real Madrid in its bid to wrest […]

American goalies Brad Friedel and Tim Howard squared off for the fifth time in the English Premier League on Wednesday when Howard’s Everton held Blackburn to a 1-1 tie. Howard did well to hold Blackburn to only one goal scored by South African Benni McCarthy, who has been a nemesis for Howard. It was McCarthy’s […]

For the third year in a row, Barcelona and Chelsea will meet in the UEFA Champions League. Barca, the defending champion, was drawn with Chelsea in Group A for the group stage of the European club competition. Last year, Barcelona beat Chelsea in the second round en route winning the title. In 2005, the Blues […]

The quarterfinals of the U.S. Open Cup produced heroes in unlikely roles. Landon Donovan was the supersub for the Los Angeles Galaxy, and Jamil Walker made the most a rare start for D.C. United. Donovan, who came on the 37th minute, scored twice in overtime to give the Galaxy a 3-1 victory over the Colorado […]

“We’re on the one-yard line, and there’s a long ways to go before anything’s completed.” — Carl Gerlach, mayor of Overland Park, Kan.,  referring to his own one-yard line and using a football analogy after the Overland Park city council met last night to discuss having a public hearing on using sales tax and revenue bonds […]

Ricardo La Volpe is returning to his native Argentina to coach Boca Juniors, the legendary Buenos Aires club, after spending more than two decades in Mexico. La Volpe, the No. 3 goalie on Argentina’s 1978 World Cup championship team, finished his playing career in Mexico, then had a successful career as a club coach before […]

The first step toward a solution to the Kansas City Wizards’ stadium situation takes tonight when the Overland Park (Kan.) city council meets to discuss public financing for a soccer complex. Overland Park Mayor Carl Gerlach calls the meeting “the beginning of the process” to seek sales tax revenue (STAR) bonds for the project. The […]

The U.S. Open Cup moves into the quarterfinals tonight with four matches involving MLS teams: LOS ANGELES-COLORADO — The Galaxy won the title in 2005 and reached the final in three of the last five years. — The Rapids have defeated Los Angeles, 1-0, in all three 2006 MLS meetings. — Colorado hasn’t advanced past […]

U.S. Soccer’s under-17 residency program reopened this week with 19 first-semester players in the 40-player fall class at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla. Preparations begin in earnest this fall for qualifying for the 2007 Under-17 World Championship next summer in South Korea. The fall class is dominated by ’90 players who will form the nucleus of […]

“Coaches don’t play. [United coach] Peter [Nowak] doesn’t play and Bruce doesn’t play, even though I think we would have a little more advantage if Peter did play because I don’t think Bruce can move as well as he used to.” — D.C. United striker Alecko Eskandarian on tonight’s U.S. Open Cup match between D.C. […]

For this week’s nationally televised games: https://www.socceramerica.com/article.asp?Art_ID=562137505

U.S. under-20 men’s national team head coach Thomas Rongen will take 11 professionals to the Busan International Tournament Aug. 29-Sept. 2 in Busan, South Korea. The pros are defenders Carlos Borja (Chivas USA),  Erik Hort (Sparta Prague/Czech Republic), Blake Wagner (FC Dallas), Tim Ward (Columbus Crew), midfielders Nikolas Besagno (Real Salt Lake), Miguel Gonzalez (New England Revolution), […]

The Houston Dynamo released Salvadoran Ronald Cerritos, one of MLS’s longest-serving foreign players. Cerritos was scoreless in 15 games with Houston in 2006 after enjoying a comeback season with San Jose last season. He scored eight goals and nine assists and started 28 games in the Earthquakes’ final season in San Jose. The 31-year-old Cerritos […]

The USA moved into the quarterfinals of the Under-20 Women’s World Championship with a 4-1 win over Argentina on Monday. The victory was the Americans’ second in two games in the Group D play. France also clinched a berth in the quarterfinals with a 1-0 victory over the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Bleuettes, who […]

“It was absolutely a zoo. It was completely out of control. We lost luggage; it was just a disaster.” — Colorado Rapids coach Fernando Clavijo on the media frenzy at Los Angeles International Airport on Sunday night when the Rapids’ flight arrived at the same time as a flight from Thailand brought in John Mark […]

For this week’s nationally televised games: https://www.socceramerica.com/article.asp?Art_ID=562137505

Charlotte downed Pittsburgh 6-1 on aggregate in the USL-2 semifinals to set up a final date with Richmond, which downed Cincinnati, 2-1, on aggregate. The Richmond-Charlotte final will air on Fox Soccer Channel Saturday at 7 pm ET (live). For complete USL results: https://www.socceramerica.com/article.asp?Art_ID=562137507

Newly promoted Reading won its English Premier League opener, 3-2, over Middlesbrough but American keeper Marcus Hahnemann looked shaky on both goals. Bobby Convey played 83 minutes for Reading. … Brad Friedel saved a Nwankwo Kanu penalty kick in stoppage time but went down, 3-0, with Blackburn against Portsmouth. … Jay DeMerit played the second […]

Jeff Cunningham assisted twice and scored his league-leading 14th goal as Real Salt Lake won an unprecedented fourth straight game with a 3-1 win over Houston Dynamo. Chris Klein and Douglas Sequeira also scored for Salt Lake, now just two points out of a playoff spot, in front of a 14,091 crowd at Rice-Eccles Stadium. […]

"We had the entire Empire State Building on our backs, with King Kong on top of it." — Columbus coach Sigi Schmid on his team’s 13-game winless streak, which ended Saturday with a 1-0 win over the New York Red Bulls. (Columbus Dispatch)

For this weekend’s nationally televised games: https://www.socceramerica.com/article.asp?Art_ID=562137482

The Mexican federation is putting a stop to the practice of players donning the masks of their favorite professional wrestling stars to celebrate goals. The Chiapas Jaguars’ Omar Ortiz had been putting on a mask like one worn by Nacho Libre wrestler “Blue Demon” while Cruz Azul’s Gabriel Pereira preferred a “Mistico” mask. Do that […]

The Lyons Township Soccer Club and the Illinois Youth Soccer Association are being sued by the family of a player who alleges he suffered two cracked vertebrae and partial paralysis during a drill in which the coach forced players to carry teammates on their backs while jogging, reports the Chicago Sun-Times.