Category: Soccer America Daily

[USL TEAMS OF THE WEEK] Cuban midfielder Yordany Alvarez, who scored two goals and had an assist for the Austin Aztez in its 3-1 win over the Puerto Rico Islanders, and South African Ty Shipalane, who scored two goals in 3-2 win for the Harrisburg City Islanders at 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. SOCCER] Starting with Wednesday’s World Cup qualifier in Costa Rica, the U.S. men’s national team has at least 13 games through October. It will play even more if it reaches the second round of the Confederations Cup and/or the Gold Cup. For the USA’s schedule with TV information. …

[WORLD CUP QUALIFYING] How the USA fares in its attempt to win a World Cup qualifier in Costa Rica (Wednesday, ESPN2, Galavision, 10 p.m. ET) for the first time depends much on its central defense tandem of Carlos Bocanegra and Oguchi Onyewu. The latter returns to the U.S. squad after winning the Belgian league title and filing a lawsuit against an opposing player.

[CANADA] USL club Vancouver assumed control of the Nutrilite Canadian Championship by beating MLS’s Toronto, 2-0, Tuesday at Swangard Stadium to all but clinch a spot in the 2009-10 Concacaf Champions League.

[OFF THE POST] French players had the names on their jerseys written in Braille for Wednesday’s friendly in Saint-Etienne against Nigeria, which won, 1-0, to mark its first ever win over France.

[AMERICANS ABROAD] Another American snapped up an English Premier League when billionaire Ellis Short took control of Sunderland. The Texan was expected to give new manager Steve Bruce more than $100 million in funds to spend on the summer transfer market.

[FIFA] On the eve of the FIFA Congress in the Bahamas, the Concacaf Ordinary Congress was held Monday and re-elected Concacaf President Jack Warner and General Secretary Chuck Blazer without opposition to the FIFA Executive Committee for another four years.

[EGYPT] Egypt, which will face the USA in its final group game at the Confederations Cup later this month, did not include its best-known player, Mido, in its preliminary 28-player squad for a pair of World Cup qualifiers and the Confederations Cup for what was described as “tactical reasons,” but Coach Hassan Shehata said the EPL striker could be recalled.

[COLLEGE] James Riverso, the 28-year-old head coach of the Division II women’s program LeMoyne, was arrested and placed on administrative leave after he was accused of sending text messages of a sexual nature to a 16-year-old player he was coaching on a youth team.

[MLS STATS] The expansion Seattle Sounders drew 29,126 fans to their game on Saturday against the Columbus Crew and lead the league in attendance, followed by Toronto FC and the Los Angeles Galaxy. Two teams are averaging less than 10,000 per game.

[REF WATCH] Next season’s Europa League, formerly the UEFA Cup, will be used to continue the refereeing experiment with five officials. In addition to the referee and two assistant referees on the sidelines, two extra assistants are placed behind the goal line to focus on incidents in the penalty area, such as fouls or misconduct.

[MAKING A LIST] Seventeen MLS players are on duty with their national teams in World Cup qualifying this week, representing eight countries, including the USA.

[WORLD CUP QUALIFYING] Coach Bob Bradley faces perhaps his most daunting problems since taking the job 36 games ago, because not much has gone right for the USA heading into its toughest two-match stretch of the Concacaf Hexagonal, after which it will have completed one-half of its schedule in this final qualifying round for the 2010 World Cup.

[ENGLAND] With Chelsea’s 2-1 win over Everton in Saturday’s FA Cup final, Dutchman Guus Hiddink‘s stint as interim manager is over. Italian Carlo Ancelotti is headed over from AC Milan to manage the Blues. The big question will be, what reinforcements will he bring with him?

[AMERICANS ABROAD] Everton, with Tim Howard in goal, lost, 2-1, in the English FA Cup final to Chelsea. Glasgow Rangers won the Scottish FA Cup, but neither Maurice Edu nor DaMarcus Beasley saw action in the 1-0 win over Falkirk.

[USL-1] Carolina and Charleston remained 1-2 in the USL First Division when they both shut out visiting Cleveland, dropping the first-year USL-1 club to 1-6-1. For all the weekend USL-1 action …

[MLS WINNERS & LOSERS] San Jose, New England and FC Dallas broke their various streaks of futility while the Chicago Fire lost its first game of the season. The Galaxy came up with its usual result and saw another ejection of its veteran defender. Colorado kept up its strong form thanks to its red-hot striker.

[WPS] In consecutive weeks, the Los Angeles Sol’s lead atop Women’s Professional Soccer has grown from three points to six points to eight points. The runaway leader — the only team in WPS with a positive goal difference — improved to 6-1-2 with a 2-0 win over the Saint Louis Athletica on Saturday afternoon at The Home Depot Center.

[AMERICANS ABROAD] Jose Francisco Torres fell short of becoming the second American to lift the Mexican league title within two years after Pachuca tied UNAM Pumas, 2-2, in overtime of the second leg of the final and fell, 3-2, on aggregate.

The late show continued in MLS, where the Los Angeles earned yet another tie — its ninth in 11 games — thanks a late goal from Edson Buddle. New England snapped its losing streak thanks to a penalty pick in stoppage time from Steve Ralston. For all the game summaries, standings, leading scorers and this week’s schedule …

Barcelona’s 1-1 tie at Deportivo Coruna on the final day of La Liga season gave it a record 87 points and 105 goals in 38 games – two short of matching Real Madrid’s record 107 goals scored during the 1989-90 season. Bordeaux clinched its first French league title in a decade when it won, 1-0, at relegated Caen. Werder Bremen captured the German Cup, while Rangers completed the Scottish double with a 1-0 win over Falkirk in the Cup final. For all the weekend results …

[TELEVISION] Wednesday’s UEFA Champions League final between Barcelona and Manchester United broadcast live on ESPN was the highest-rated and most-watched UEFA telecast in U.S. cable television history, attracting an average of 1,066,000 homes for a 1.1 rating. That represented an increase of almost 34 percent over the previous record set last year when Man United beat Chelsea in the UEFA Champions League final. Wednesday’s game was the last on the ESPN networks before the Champions League moves to the Fox family of networks in 2009-10.