Category: Soccer America Daily

[SIGN OF THE TIMES] The “All-Stars for Hope” charity match scheduled for June 14 at Giants Stadium was scrapped because of the lack of corporate sponsors. “The current economic situation has brought down all of our hopes to organize what should have been one of the greatest soccer games in U.S. history,” the event’s Web site said. The game was supposed to feature such stars as Cristiano Ronaldo and Thierry Henry.

[AMERICANS ABROAD] English second division club Reading, whose goalkeeper is American Marcus Hahnemann, saw its quest to return to the English Premier League dashed on Tuesday with a 2-0 loss to Burnley in the promotion playoffs. But defender Zack Whitbread‘s hopes of moving up the ladder, from the third to second tier, got a boost on Thursday when he helped Millwall to 1-1 tie with Leeds and a 2-1 aggregate win that takes Millwall to the promotion final.

[MLS PREDICTIONS] San Jose, stuck near the bottom of the overall standings at 1-5-2, takes its turn as the bye team during a week that features a matchup of conference leaders (Chivas USA vs. D.C. United), followed by defending champion Columbus at Los Angeles the following day at Home Depot Center. Toronto and Chicago, a point apart in the Eastern Conference in second and third, respectively, meet at BMO Field; 2006 and 2007 MLS Cup winner Houston heads to 2008 finalist New York, which knocked it out of the playoffs last year. For all of Soccer America’s predictions, as well as TV viewing information, and to see how we’ve fared on prediction so far this season …

[MLS] It’s rare that a goalkeeper breaks right into an MLS team out of college, but Stefan Frei, picked 13th overall out of Cal in the 2009 MLS SuperDraft, has been outstanding for Toronto FC. Frei has won the starting goalkeeper job and helped his team to a 3-1-2 record. Frei began playing soccer in Switzerland and played high school and college ball in California before finding his way to Toronto. Soccer America’s Bryan Alvarez profiles the 23-year-old keeper in the MLS Rising Stars series.

[ENGLAND] Manchester United rallied to beat Wigan Athletic, 2-1, to move to within one point of clinching a third straight Premier League title. The hero was Argentine Carlos Tevez, who expressed a desire to leave the club at the end of the season but scored a brilliant goal to start the comeback. United can clinch the title with a win or tie at home against Arsenal on Saturday.

[SPAIN] One down, two to go. Barcelona won its first title of the season when it captured the Copa del Rey — Spain’s cup competition — for a record 25th time with a 4-1 win over Athletic Bilbao thanks to three goals by Lionel Messi, Bojan Krkic and Xavi in nine minutes in the second half.

[AMERICANS ABROAD] It looks like U.S. national team midfielder Michael Bradley will be staying in the German Bundesliga. He played the entire 90 minutes in Borussia Moenchengladbach’s 1-0 win at Energie Cottbus that moved it into 14th place, two spots and three points out of the relegation zone with two games to go. Meanwhile, fellow U.S. midfielder Maurice Edu also went 90 minutes for Rangers, whose 1-1 tie at Hibernian may have cost it the Scottish Premier League title.

[NUTRILITE CANADIAN CHAMPIONSHIP] Soccer fever has swept Canada as evidenced by Wednesday’s crowd of almost 20,000 that watched Toronto FC defeat the Montreal Impact, 1-0, in a Nutrilite Canadian Championship match at BMO Field. The win gives TFC two wins in the competition to determine Canada’s representative in the CONCACAF Champions League. The evening wasn’t entirely positive for the MLS club, though. Marvell Wynne left the game with a hamstring injury in the 16th minute.

[OFF THE POST] The German soccer federation has asked Werder Bremen goalkeeper Tim Wiese to provide a written account of what occurred after his team’s 2-0 win over archrival Hamburg SV, although the various videos taken by fans of his profane cheerleading have been posted online and paint a pretty clear picture.

[U.S. WOMEN] A pair of friendly games — the first at home in 2009 — the U.S. women’s national team scheduled against Japan were canceled on Tuesday because of Japanese concerns with the H1N1 virus. Instead of games May 20 at Pizza Hut Park in Frisco, Texas, and May 23 at Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy, Utah, the USA will face Canada at BMO Field in Toronto on May 25 when Japan was scheduled to conclude its North American tour.

[MAKING A LIST] Mexico’s pro ranks are an increasingly important feeder for the U.S. national team program. Fourteen Americans played in Mexico’s top two pro leagues in 2008-09. They included First Division players Jose Francisco Torres and Michael Orozco, who have played on the national team in World Cup qualifying, and Jose Gonzalez, who spent time this season with Potros Chetumal in the Second Division and has been called up to next week’s U-20 camp in Sarasota, Fla.

Free-lance writer Dan Woog shares a memory of Julio Mazzei, who died on Sunday at the age of 78. Mazzei was best known as Pele’s adviser during his New York Cosmos and later coached the Cosmos to the 1982 North American Soccer League title.

[GERMANY] Out of the doghouse since Jupp Heynckes replaced Juergen Klinsmann as Bayern Munich coach, Lukas Podolski scored one goal and set up Luca Toni and Franck Ribery as Bayern beat Bayer Leverkusen and kept pace with Wolfsburg in the sizzling Bundesliga race.

[CONCACAF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE] Atlante won the inaugural Concacaf Champions League Tuesday when it tied fellow Mexican club Cruz Azul, 0-0, in the second leg of the final in Cancun to win, 2-0, on aggregate. The game marked the end of the season for Atlante and Cruz Azul. Both teams finished last in their group in the Torneo Clausura and did not qualify for the playoffs.

[USL TEAMS OF THE WEEK] Hunter Gilstrap, whose spectacular work in goal earned the Cleveland City Stars a 0-0 tie with the Portland Timbers and their first point in their USL-1 debut season,  and Bermuda’s Nigel Burgess, who posted nine saves in a 1-0 win over Richmond for the Hogges’ first win ever over the Kickers, 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 …

[ENGLAND] With English clubs having run up debts of 3 billion pounds ($4.56 billion), the Premier League has proposed tough measures to curb abuses and bolster transparency.

Brazilian Julio Mazzei, best known as Pele‘s adviser during his New York Cosmos and later the coach of the Cosmos when they won the 1982 North American Soccer League title, died Sunday at the age of 78 in Santos.

[AMERICANS ABROAD] Portuguese Vitoria Guimaraes club has signed 23-year-old American Kamani Hill to a three-year contract as its first reinforcement for the 2009-10 season. The former UCLA forward signed a contract with current Bundesliga leader Wolfsburg in 2006, made his debut in early 2007 but was relegated to the German club’s second team and no longer figured in its plans.

[OFF THE POST] A thief stole thousands of dollars of cash and valuables from the house of Everton’s Steven Pienaar while he was busy playing against Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday. Piennar is the 16th English Premier League player whose house was targeted in recent years while on club duty, according to British media reports.

[U.S. UNDER-23 WOMEN] The U.S. under-23 women’s national team will face Ireland’s women’s national team on Wednesday in Dublin and Northern Ireland’s women’s national team in Belfast on Wednesday. For the U.S. roster …

[MLS] Philadelphia, MLS’s 16th team, will be named the Union. The team name is a reference to the original thirteen colonies, while the colors of navy blue and gold are a throwback to the uniforms of the American Continental Army.