Category: Soccer America Daily

[MLS NAMES & NUMBERS] A day after losing star Kenny Cooper, who signed with German second division club 1860 Munich, FC Dallas exploded for a 6-0 rout of the Kansas City Wizards that featured four goals by Jeff Cunningham and two by Brazilian David Ferreira. After the best of his four goals, Cunningham, who has scored seven goals in his last four games, ran to the stands to beat on a fan’s drum.

[WPS] With one week remaining in the regular season, Saint Louis Athletica clinched second place in Women’s Professional Soccer and the home-field advantage in the Super Semifinal thanks to its 1-0 victory over the Boston Breakers and the Washington Freedom’s 3-2 loss to FC Gold Pride.

The 2009-10 season began in Belgium and the Netherlands. Having lost American star Oguchi Onyewu to AC Milan, two-time Belgian champion Standard Liege had to settle for a 2-2 tie at home with St. Truiden. Dutch champion AZ lost at Heracles, 3-2. For all the results and goal scorers …

[WPS] Thomas Anderson, a volunteer as a locker-room attendant at FC Gold Pride games, was charged with eight felony counts of a lewd or lascivious act on a child younger than 14 after two witnesses reported seeing him acting inappropriately with a child at a July 19 WPS game at Buck Shaw Stadium.

[AMERICANS ABROAD] Goalie Brad Guzan stopped two shots to help Aston Villa win the Peace Cup with a shootout victory over Italian giant Juventus in the final in Seville, Spain. The final marked the third straight game 20-year-old defender Eric Lichaj started at right back for Villa.

[WPSL] The Long Island Fury won the 2009 Women’s Premier Soccer League with a 1-0 win over California’s Ajax America on a goal by 18-year-old Molly Bruh at Adelphi University’s Competition Field.

[W-LEAGUE] The Pali Blues and Washington Freedom, winners of the last two W-League championships, will meet Friday in the 2009 final after earning victories in the semifinals. The Pali Blues crushed the Hudson Valley Quickstrike Lady Blues, 4-0, while the Freedom ended the Ottawa Fury’s bid to return to the finals for a third straight year with a 3-1 win on penalty kicks after their game ended in a scoreless tie.

[PDL] The Chicago Fire will play in the Premier Development League final for the first time since finishing as runner-up in 2003 when it travels to face the Ventura County Fusion in Saturday’s final.

[USL-1] The Portland Timbers extended their unbeaten streak to a USL-1 record 18 games, but Saturday’s 1-1 draw at Minnesota left them two points behind Charleston (with two games in hand). Carolina joined the Timbers in a tie for second place thanks to its 3-0 victory over Austin. For all the USL-1 results and standings …

[AMERICANS ABROAD] Four days after being in goal for the USA in its 5-0 loss to Mexico in the Gold Cup final, Troy Perkins was back in action, this time playing for Norwegian club in in its 2-1 loss at Greek club PAOK in the first leg of the third round of qualifying for the new Europa League. Of the four Americans in action on Thursday, the star was Californian Ryan Guy, who assisted on the winning goal in Irish club St. Patrick’s 1-0 win at Russian club Krylya Sovetov.

[MLS PREDICTIONS] The Galaxy takes the week off to play some Spanish team (Barcelona by name), giving several Western Conference foes opportunity to move up at its expense. Also off this week are Chivas USA and New York. So bunched are the Eastern Conference’s top teams that third-place D.C. United could take over the lead by winning, or drop to eighth overall by losing in Houston. The Revs can tie fourth-place Toronto by beating TFC at Gillette, and Chicago could go on top by handling RSL at home. For all of Soccer America’s predictions, as well as TV viewing information, and to see how Ridge Mahoney fared so far this season …

[BARCELONA TOUR] In a summer highlighted by huge crowds across the country for international matches, the biggest crowd of the summer should turn out Saturday at the Rose Bowl, where the Los Angeles Galaxy hosts European champion Barcelona on the first game of the Spanish club’s three-game West Coast tour (TV: Fox Soccer Channel, live, 11 pm ET). In addition to the stars from last season’s triple championship team, newly acquired Zlatan Ibrahimovic will be in Pasadena for his second game in two weeks and Mexican teenager Jonathan Dos Santos is in the traveling squad.

[WPS] Referee Jose Carlos Rivero decision to eject Boston Breakers defender Alex Scott for her studs-up tackle — a clear red-card offense — on Washington’s French international, Sonia Bompastor, five minutes into Wednesday’s game didn’t sit well with Boston coach Tony DiCicco, who for the second time this year ripped the Women’s Professional Soccer refereeing after the game.

[MLS] After four years at UCLA, Mike Zaher joined MLS in 2008 and had a stint with D.C. United before settling in nicely with the San Jose Earthquakes. Get to know the 23-year-old in this profile by Soccer America’s Bryan Alvarez that covers on- and off-field experiences.

[CONCACAF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE] Leave it to the worst team in Major League Soccer to extract some respectability for MLS from the first leg of the preliminary round. The Red Bulls, welded to the bottom of the Eastern Conference with a 2-15-4 record, scored a pair of deflected goals to come out of the Manny Ramjohn Stadium in Marabella with a 2-2 tie against W Connection of Trinidad & Tobago Thursday.

[OFF THE POST] Aston Villa coach Martin O’Neill was ejected for thrusting the ball into the chest of an Atlante player during the Peace Cup in Malaga. 4thegame.com speculated that O’Neill may have come into the game angry because the tournament program listed his name Martin O’Leary.

[PDL] The Premier Development League has moved into the quarterfinals with a pair of games set for Friday in Des Moines, Iowa, and Laredo, Texas. The quarterfinalists represent the fourth division summer league’s dynamic blend of the new and the old, including teams affiliated with the Chicago Fire, Burnley and the IMG Academies, a first-year team from the Puget Sound area and a Southern California team that had its first player signed by an English Premier League club.

[TELEVISION WATCH] Former U.S. national team star Eric Wynalda, replaced by former teammate John Harkes as the lead color person on ESPN2’s MLS coverage, will be returning to the air as Nick Webster‘s co-host of Fox Football Fone-In, replacing the controversial Steve Cohen.

[WPS] Abby Wambach‘s second-half goal gave the Washington Freedom a 1-0 win over the visiting Boston Breakers that propelled it into third place ahead of the Breakers and eliminated last-place FC Gold Pride from playoff contention.

[CONCACAF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE] After a spectacular 6-1 thumping of Montreal in June that captured the Nutrilite Canadian Championship and with it a spot in the Concacaf Champions League, Toronto FC players and Coach Chris Cummins emphasized how important it was for them to represent Canada and do well in the regional club competition. But TFC left itself a huge task by losing the first leg of its two-match preliminary series, 1-0, to Puerto Rico Islanders Wednesday at BMO Field.

[MEXICO-USA] Mexico coach Javier Aguirre rewarded El Tri’s heroes for the 5-0 dismantling of the USA in the Gold Cup final, calling up all but two starters for the Aug. 12 showdown with the USA in World Cup 2010 qualifying. Barcelona star Rafael Marquez was one of eight players in the 20-players squad who played last season in Europe. The Chicago Fire’s Cuauhtemoc Blanco was also recalled for the game at Azteca Stadium.

[AMERICANS ABROAD] Young American Eric Lichaj has earned starts in back-to-back games for English club Aston Villa at right back at the Peace Cup in Spain.

[OFF THE POST] After referee He Zhibiao ejected three Tianjin FC players in its 3-1 loss to Beijing in a third-round Chinese Cup He had to run to safety.