Category: Soccer America Daily

[BY THE NUMBERS] Two U.S. World Cup veterans lead the league in scoring. The league’s highest scoring team is also its only undefeated club. Two teams have yet to earn a point on the road.

[TEAM OF THE WEEK] With five of the seven games played last weekend ending in ties, a lot of players turned in solid showings yet there were only a few outstanding performances. One of them, by Josh Wolff, earned him honors as MLS Player of the Week, yet there were several late goals, and admirable displays of ability.

[USL TEAMS OF THE WEEK] Scott Vallow, who stopped 11 shots, including a penalty, to lead Rochester to a 2-1 victory at Vancouver, and Crystal Palace Baltimore’s Matthew Mbuta, who scored twice in his first two games back on loan from MLS’s New York Red Bulls, 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 …

[GERMANY] With one game left in the Bundesliga season, relegation-threatened Arminia Bielefeld fired their coach and appointed Joerg “The Fireman” Berger, famous for saving six clubs from relegation dating back to 1989. Bielefeld is third-from-last, in 16th place, trailing Michael Bradley‘s Borussia Moenchengladbach by three points.

[MLS] Chivas USA’s 40-year-old defender, Claudio Suarez, is ready for action after being removed from the club’s Disabled List. Suarez, who retired in the offseason then re-signed one day before the season kickoff, had a calf injury.

Charlotte Moran, who played an important leadership role in the growth of women’s soccer, died early Monday morning after a two-year battle with pancreatic cancer. Moran was involved in soccer at many levels for more than 30 years. She was the longtime executive director of the Eastern Pennsylvania Youth Soccer Association and administrator for the Region 1 Olympic Development Program.

[MLS] Last weekend was a good one for some of the thirtysomethings in MLS who are edging into the second half of that decade as well as a few on the lower end. A hustling, physical league will always be dependent on young legs but a few of the older (can’t say old!) guard proved they can still get it done at critical moments.

[OFF THE POST] Manchester City will earn $45 million in a multi-year shirt sponsorship deal with Etihad Airways, the carrier airline of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. But the deal might offend its fans.

[U.S. UNDER-23 WOMEN] The U.S. under-23 women’s national team dominated Northern Ireland’s national team but had to settle for a 0-0 tie in Belfast.

[AMERICANS ABROAD] Goalkeeper Marcus Hahnemann was among a group of players released by Reading after it was knocked out of the playoffs for promotion to the English Premier League. The 36-year-old played 282 games for Reading, including 38 English Premier League games during the Royals’ one season in the top flight, in 2007-08.

[REF WATCH] After his team’s 1-1 tie with the Washington Freedom on Sunday, Boston Breakers coach Tony DiCicco said officiating in the new Women’s Professional Soccer League is “getting scary now.”

[EUROPEAN RACES] Manchester United, Barcelona and Inter Milan all clinched their respective league titles on Saturday without winning a game. In close races, Wolfsburg (Germany), Bordeaux (France) and Rangers (Scotland) have opened up leads in their respective leagues.

[MLS WINNERS & LOSERS] Undefeated Chicago Fire made its streak look better in Toronto, but Los Angeles settled for another stalemate. The Red Bulls’ red-card problem continued while FC Dallas and Real Salt Lake disappointed at home.

[AMERICANS ABROAD] Hopes remain alive for Americans to lift titles in Mexico, Scotland and Belgium while, despite a big loss, Michael Bradley‘s chances of staying in the top tier in Germany look very good.

[USL-1] It took six games, but the Montreal Impact, one of the favorites to win the USL First Division title, finally got its first win on Sunday. The Impact, who replaced John Limniatis as head coach with Marc Dos Santos three days earlier, blew out the Austin Aztex, 4-0, getting three goals in 11 minutes.

[WPS] Brazilian star Marta‘s first goal in four weeks gave Los Angeles a 1-0 win over Sky Blue FC, and the Sol opened up a three-point lead at the top of the Women’s Professional Soccer standings.

MLS teams continue to rack up the ties, five in seven games in weekend action. The other two games ended 2-0 away wins for Chicago and Kansas City over Toronto FC and Real Salt Lake, respectively. For all the game summaries, standings, leading scorers and this week’s schedule …

Titles were decided in England, Italy and Spain, while the race tightened in France. For all the results in Europe’s major leagues and Mexico …

[MEXICO] New national team coach Javier Aguirre has recalled Chicago Fire forward Cuauhtemoc Blanco, who retired from international play last year, for Mexico’s World Cup qualifiers against El Salvador on June 6 and Trinidad & Tobago on June 10.

[WPS] The WPS weekend kicks off with the Los Angeles Sol and Sky Blue FC in the first Friday night game and the first WPS game broadcast on Universal Sports. For a look at all the weekend WPS action …

[AMERICANS ABROAD] U.S. national team midfielder Jose Francisco Torres scored the second goal in Pachuca’s 3-1 win at Jaguares in the first leg of their quarterfinal clash on Thursday. Another young Texan, Marco Vidal, helped Indios upset Toluca, 1-0. And Ramon Nunez, a Honduras native who was raised in Dallas, notched an assist in Puebla’s win over Monterrey.

[SUPERLIGA] The 2009 SuperLiga competition between MLS clubs Chicago, New England, Chivas USA and Kansas City, the four 2008 playoff teams not entered in the 2009 Concacaf Champions League, and four Mexico teams will begin June 20-29 with the group stage. The competition, which concludes with the semifinals on July 15 and final on Aug. 5, also features San Luis, Santos, Tigres and Atlas, none of which qualified for the 2009 Clausura playoffs that began this week.