Category: Soccer America Daily

[CONFEDERATIONS CUP] The 2009 Confederations Cup is a dress rehearsal for the 2010 World Cup, allowing television viewers to get into next summer’s routine. Get ready for long lunches and weekend doubleheaders by following the Confederations Cup action from South Africa on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN360.com, as well as on Spanish-language  Univision’s family of network. For the complete schedule …

[CONFEDERATIONS CUP] The Confederations Cup, which begins Sunday in South Africa, is a sneak preview of how the 2010 World Cup shapes up. Spain, which opens play on Sunday against New Zealand, is the early favorite to win the World Cup, having won Euro 2008 and boasting an embarrassment of riches, most notably a nucleus of players from the great Barcelona team that won the 2009 UEFA Champions Cup.

[MLS] To the critics of slow starts, which have been the rule rather than the exception since the team moved from San Jose to Houston, Dynamo players, coaches and fans reply thusly:

[HEXAGONAL] Qualifying for the World Cup is a relatively straightforward process: win all your home games and take the odd point on the road and you should go through. It’s been a winning formula for the USA in the last three Hexagonals, where three of the six teams advance to the finals. With that in mind, the USA’s entirely forgettable performance at Costa Rica is irrelevant. Winning its three home games and earning a point with a late comeback in El Salvador put the USA in reasonably good shape at the halfway point of Concacaf’s final round of 2010 World Cup qualifying.

[HEXAGONAL] Mexico avoided the unthinkable but just barely. It got goals early in both halves from Argentine-born Guillermo Franco and Oscar Rojas and edged Trinidad & Tobago, 2-1, at Azteca Stadium to move into fourth place at the halfway point of World Cup 2010 qualifying in the Concacaf zone. Honduras remained third, behind Costa Rica and the USA, with a 1-0 win over visiting El Salvador.

[WORLD CUP 2010 QUALIFYING] Argentina doesn’t like to play at altitude. After falling to Bolivia, 6-1, at 12,000 feet above sea level in La Paz in April, it traveled to Quito and lost to Ecuador, 2-0, at 9,300 feet above sea level. Coach Diego Maradona remained confident Argentina would qualify for the 2010 World Cup, but its lead over Ecuador for the fourth and final automatic berth in the World Cup 2010 finals was reduced to two points with four games to play. In Europe, former U.S. U-17 international Neven Subotic scored an insurance goal for Group 7 leader Serbia in the its 2-0 win at the Faeroe Islands.

[U.S. OPEN CUP] The Ocean City Barons became the first PDL team to beat a higher ranked team in the U.S. Open Cup when they beat Crystal Palace Baltimore of the USL Second Division, 3-0. In Wednesday’s other makeup game, USL2’s Real Maryland edged the Aegean Hawks, 1-0, in a game cut short by lightning.

[MLS] If it ain’t broke, so goes the adage, don’t fix it. But if it is, as in the case of the San Jose Earthquakes, well, get to fixin’. They’ve sent away a veteran defender and possible targets include an England international.

[WORLD CUP 2010 QUALIFYING] Before Brazil heads to the Confederations Cup, where it will face the USA, it hosts Paraguay Wednesday in a clash of the South American qualifying group leaders. For more on the Brazil-Paraguay showdown in Recife and a listing of all of Wednesday’s qualifiers on television …

[MLS PREDICTION] Western Conference leader Chivas USA will take a break from league play starting June 20 for the SuperLiga, but first has a tough road date Wednesday in Houston and another in Columbus Sunday, and thus needs points. The second-place Dynamo is riding an eight-game unbeaten streak and with two games in hand can close to within three points of the conference lead by winning.

[HEXAGONAL] Mexico returns to the friendly confines of Azteca Stadium, where it faces Trinidad & Tobago Wednesday in Mexico City in a battle of the last two teams in Concacaf’s World Cup 2010 qualifying group. Big changes are expected after the Tri lost its fourth straight qualifier on the road Saturday. Of perhaps more importance to the USA’s hopes of qualifying for South Africa is Wednesday’s other Hexagonal match between Honduras and El Salvador. A tie or El Salvador win would very much be the USA’s interest.

[USL TEAMS OF THE WEEK] Tyler Hemming, who helped lead the undefeated Charleston Battery to a win and a draw at Austin after earning his first cap for Canada earlier in the week, and Western Mass goalie James Thorpe, who had big games in wins over Crystal Palace Baltimore and Real Maryland, earned the USL First Division and Second Division Player of the Week honors, respectively. For the USL-1 and USL-2 Teams of the Week …

[U.S. OPEN CUP] The Sonoma County Sol of the NPSL and El Paso Patriots and Chicago Fire Premier of the PDL were the lowest ranked teams to win games on Tuesday in the first round of the 2009 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup.

[TEAM OF THE WEEK] Players who reprised their former positions took center stage to help their teams win in Week 12 and head Soccer America’s MLS Team of the Week for Week 3.

[OFF THE POST] Harvard student Jessica Lin designed a soccer ball that captures impact energy when the ball is kicked and stores it to charge lights and batteries. Lin and her team of students received a grant from the Clinton Global Initiative University to bring the energy balls to Nigerian farmers.

[JAMAICA] Less than a month before the start of the Gold Cup, former England star John Barnes quit as Jamaica’s national team coach. Minutes after the Reggae Boyz’s 3-2 win over Panama on Sunday night in Kingston, Barnes announced that he was leaving to become manager of English third division club Tranmere Rovers.

[MLS BY THE NUMBERS] With last weekend’s 4-0 loss at New England, the New York Red Bulls tied the league record for consecutive road games without a win at 19, their 0-13-6 road record dating back to May 2008. This season, the Bulls are scoreless and 0-6-1 on the road. Two other teams are winless on the road.

[MLS] Coping with international absences last week tested the depth of numerous MLS teams, and of those that passed the tests there was at least one major surprise. Despite being deprived of important players, Houston (Ricardo Clark, Brian Ching) and Chivas USA (Sacha Kljestan, Jonathan Bornstein) both won, by narrow 1-0 scores, against Chicago and Seattle, respectively, heading into their meeting Wednesday at Robertson Stadium.

[MLS BY THE NUMBERS] Columbus’ Argentine striker Guillermo Barros Schelotto took a share of the league scoring lead with his pair of strikes last weekend to down Kansas City. He is the only foreigner in the top seven. Houston’s Brad Davis leads the league in assists.

[CONFEDERATIONS CUP] Italy arrived in South Africa and immediately got down to work preparing for Monday’s opener against USA at the Confederations Cup in Pretoria. The defending World Cup champion’s squad is a mixture of veterans — including 12 2006 World Cup champions — and young players — notably American-born Giuseppe Rossi and 18-year-old defender Davide Santon.

[WORLD CUP 2010 QUALIFYING] The Netherlands, Australia, Japan and South Korea became the first teams to join host South Africa at next year’s World Cup finals when they clinched berths on Saturday. South Korea returns to the seventh straight time, the Netherlands qualified for the finals for the sixth straight time, and Japan made it four in a row. Australia was playing in Asian qualifying for the first time. For a look at all the qualifying action in Europe, Asia, South America and Africa …