Category: Soccer America Daily

[WPS] Allie Long scored what could prove to be one of the most important goals of the Women’s Professional Soccer season when the former Penn State and North Carolina star scored in the 89th minute to give the Washington Freedom to a 3-2 win over the Chicago Red Stars that moved it into a tie with Sky Bue FC for fourth place. The loss ended sixth-place Chicago’s slim playoff hopes.

[MAKING A LIST] You have to go all the way to the late stages of group play at the 1994 World Cup to find a day when there were three soccer crowds in excess of 42,000 for games played in the United States on the same day as there were on Sunday. Sunday’s crowd of 79,156 for the USA-Mexico Gold Cup final was the largest of the day but ranks only third for the month of July. There have been 18 crowds greater than 25,000 — eight for the Gold Cup, six for the World Football Challenge, two for MLS games and two international exhibitions.

[WORLD FOOTBALL CHALLENGE] Sunday was a big day for English club Chelsea. Captain John Terry confirmed he was staying at Chelsea, spurning an offer from Manchester City, and the Blues clinched the World Football Challenge with a 2-0 win over Mexico’s Club America before 57,229 fans at Jerry World — Jerry Jones‘ new Dallas Cowboys Stadium dubbed a stadium like no other in the world by Chelsea star Andriy Shevchenko.

[GOLD CUP] A sign of what was to come occurred in stoppage time of the first half, before a five-goal Mexican onslaught buried the USA in the Gold Cup final Sunday at Giants Stadium in front of a pro-Mexico crowd of 79,156. After a U.S. free kick, Mexico countered, and only Jay Heaps got back in time as Giovanni Dos Santos and Alberto Medina swept forward. Medina, who’d been threatening but hardly fearsome on the left flank, dragged his shot wide of the far post.

[USA-MEXICO REPORT CARD] A horrid second half during which it conceded five goals left the U.S. team with marks ranging from poor to terrible in its 5-0 loss to Mexico in the Gold Cup final. Soccer America’s Ridge Mahoney grades the U.S. players and comments on their performances.

[MLS NAMES & NUMBERS] Claudio Lopez scored a remarkable goal for Kansas City when David Beckham came to town. Seattle’s Designated Player Freddie Ljungberg got himself sent off in a stalemate with Chicago. No surprise on how the Red Bulls fared. For last weekend’s MLS highlights and lowlights …

All the weekend MLS results, including the defending champion Columbus Crew’s win that put it in first place in the Eastern Conference …

[WPS] The Los Angeles Sol clinched the inaugural Women’s Professional Soccer regular-season title in anticlimactic fashion. Its 0-0 tie at last-place FC Gold Pride gave it the title with two games to spare and a bye into the WPS Championship at the Home Depot Center on Aug. 22 (TV: Fox Sports Net and select regional outlets, live, 4 pm ET/1 pm PT).

[GOLD CUP] The USA advanced to its third straight Gold Cup final with its third win over Honduras in the last two months, a 2-0 victory in Thursday’s semifinals thanks to goals by Clarence Goodson and Kenny Cooper at the end of each half, both set up by Stuart Holden. The USA meets Mexico Sunday in the final at Giants Stadium (TV: Fox Soccer Channel, Univision, live, 3 pm ET). Soccer America’s Ridge Mahoney explains how the Americans succeeded sans their most dynamic players. …

[SOUTH AFRICA] Manchester City players, in Johannesburg on a preseason tour, met Nelson Mandela on his 91st birthday and presented him with a No. 91 jersey. Upon meeting the young-looking 25-year-old Brazilian star Robinho, Mandela said, “You are a baby! What are you doing here?”

[GOLD CUP] Mexico survived the disappointment of conceding the tying goal three minutes into stoppage time at the end of regulation to defeat Costa Rica in a shootout Thursday and move into Sunday’s Gold Cup final against the USA, a repeat of the final won by the Americans two years ago.

[USA-HONDURAS REPORT CARD] Soccer America’s Ridge Mahoney grades the U.S. players and comments on their performance in their 2-0 semifinal win over Honduras in the Gold Cup …

[MLS PREDICTIONS] TFC and the Crew continue their Trillium Cup tradition in Columbus, former MLS Cup opponents Houston and New England square off in Texas, and the Galaxy takes its four-game winning streak to Kansas City on a weekend that features two games on the ESPN family of networks as well as a Saturday night Fox Soccer Channel tussle in San Jose. For all of Soccer America’s predictions, as well as TV viewing information, and to see how Ridge Mahoney, who was perfect last week, fared so far this season …

[MLS] A match that was more of a training exercise, with reserves on the BMO Field surface and liberal substitution rules in effect, produced a 4-3 shootout win for Argentine team River Plate against Toronto FC Wednesday in a friendly in front of 20,005 fans.

[GOLD CUP] One game away from a chance to win its third straight Gold Cup, the USA plays Honduras for the third time in the past seven weeks Thursday (TV: Fox Soccer Channel & Telefutura, 7 pm ET) with a different team than it used the last two times.

[WORLD CUP 2014] The price tag for Brazil’s 2014 World Cup could top $40 billion. That’s the estimate of a report released Wednesday on stadium and infrastructure spending projects planned by the 12 cities that will host the competition.

[WORLD FOOTBALL CHALLENGE] The Georgia Dome’s second 50,000-plus crowd in a month watched American Oguchi Onyewu make his debut for Italian club AC Milan on Wednesday. It was an inauspicious debut, however, as Onyewu was the defender beaten on Club America’s first goal — well-taken by Enrique Esqueda — 10 minutes after entering the game and the Mexican club went win, 2-1.

[U.S. WOMEN] Teenager Christine Nairn lived up to her reputation as one of the top prospects in the U.S. women’s national team program, scoring in the 89th minute to give the USA a 1-0 win over Canada Wednesday in Charleston, S.C., and a sweep of their three-game series.

[MLS] FC Dallas, which is third-to-last in the overall standings, added Colombian Jair Benitez to its backline. The 30-year-old was acquired on loan from Deportivo Cali.

[WPS] Saint Louis Athletica moved into second place in Women’s Professional Soccer with a 1-0 win over Sky Blue FC — its third one-goal win over the New Jersey team — on a goal by England international Eniola Aluko three minutes into the second half.

[MLS] Chicago Fire striker Brian McBride, who leads the team with six goals, could miss the rest of the season after undergoing shoulder surgery. The 37-year-old had played in all of the Fire’s 16 games this season, scoring six times and assisting on one goal.

[NSCAA] Longtime soccer executive Joe Cummings is leaving his post as president and general manager of WPS’s Boston Breakers to become the new CEO and executive director of the National Soccer Coaches Association of America.

[OFF THE POST] A Malaysian man is in the hospital recovering from chest wounds inflicted by his wife, who stabbed him twice with a kitchen knife for coming home late after attending Manchester United’s 3-2 win over Malaysia in an exhibition match in Kuala Lumpur. District police chief Abdul Jalil Hassan said she was “very angry.”