Category: Soccer America Daily

[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 …

[EUROPEAN RACES] It was not a good evening for Barcelona. It had a chance to wrap up La Liga title Sunday, but it blew a 3-1 lead late in the game against Villarreal and had to settle for a 3-3 tie, meaning Barca needs one more point to clinch. But there was worse news for Barca. In England, Chelsea took out the frustrations of its Champions League exit out on Arsenal. In Germany, four goals by VfB Stuttgart’s Mario Gomez threw the Bundesliga race wide open with three matches left. Races were decided in Portugal and Ukraine, while there was a lead change in Scotland.

[AMERICANS ABROAD] A 0-0 tie with Tottenham clinched a Europa League (formerly UEFA Cup) spot for Everton and marked keeper Tim Howard‘s 16th shutout of the season, a club record. Carlos Bocanegra scored in the French Cup final and Oguchi Onyewu hit the net in Belgium. Three U.S. products are headed to the playoffs in Mexico. Michael Bradley celebrated a crucial win in Germany. …

[WORLD CUP 2018/22 BID] In an interview with Univision news anchor Jorge Ramos, President Barack Obama reiterated his support for the USA’s effort to win the right to host the 2018 or 2022 World Cup. For Obama’s response to Ramos’ soccer question …

[MEXICO] The final weekend of play in the Torneo Clausura first phase, which saw longtime First Division club Necaxa be relegated when it lost to sister club Club America, was overshadowed by the decision by the Mexican soccer federation (FMF) to sever ties with Conmebol, South America’s confederation, the latest fallout from the flu epidemic that impacted Mexico.

[WPS] Parity finally arrived to Women’s Professional Soccer in the form of victories for Sky Blue FC and the Saint Louis Athletica, the first wins for both teams six weeks into the league’s first season. Sky Blue’s 2-0 win at Chicago resulted in the Red Stars’ first loss of the season.

In the Eastern Conference, last-place Columbus beat Kansas City for its first win of the season. In the Western Conference, San Jose and FC Dallas trail the pack after they both lost on the road. For all the game summaries, standings, leading scorers and this week’s schedule …

Rangers took over the lead in Scotland after beating archrival Celtic, 1-0. Besiktas moved ahead of Sivas in Turkey. For all the results in Europe’s major leagues and Mexico …

[MLS NAMES & NUMBERS] The defending champion Columbus Crew finally got its first win of the season, joining three other teams that have mustered only one victory. Chivas USA continues to rule at the Depot, while Chicago remains undefeated. New York had its most productive outing of the year. …

[USL-1] Journeyman Charles Gbeke did it again. The 31-year-old Ivorian-born Canada international, who was the MVP in Vancouver’s 2-1 win over Puerto Rico in the 2008 USL First Division final, scored in the 82nd minute to give the Whitecaps a 1-0 win over the Islanders Sunday night and move them into first place.

[BRAZIL] Having scored 10 goals in 13 games for Corinthians since returning from a one-year knee-injury layoff, two-time world champ Ronaldo could be set for a national team comeback.

[MLS PREDICTIONS] Of the seven games, only Friday’s matchup of New York and San Jose pairs teams from different conferences. Out west, Texas rivals Houston and Dallas play the first of their three meetings this season. In the East, foes Chicago and New England square off again, the Crew celebrates the 10th anniversary of the first game played at Columbus Crew Stadium when it hosts Kansas City, and leader D.C. United takes on second-place Toronto FC at RFK. 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 …

[WPS] A week after Boston handed the leader Los Angeles Sol its first defeat of the season, the Breakers head to the Home Depot Depot, where they face the Sol in a Mother’s Day afternoon game. For a look at all the weekend action …

[WPS] After drawing the two lowest crowds of the inaugural Women’s Professional Soccer season for back-to-back games — 3,321 and 2,533 — FC Gold Pride, WPS’s Bay Area team, announced it was cutting individual game ticket prices by an average of 25 percent. In addition, beginning with the May 24 match against the Los Angeles Sol, the Pride will reduce seating capacity at Buck Shaw Stadium, the Santa Clara University stadium used by MLS’s San Jose Earthquakes, from 10,500 to 5,680.

[WPS] Women’s Professional Soccer Commissioner Tonya Antonucci suspended Washington Freedom forward Abby Wambach for one game for her tackle on the St. Louis Athletica’s Daniela Sunday at Maryland SoccerPlex that left the Brazilian star with damage to two knee ligaments and a cracked tibia. Athletica defender Kia McNeill was also suspended for “persistent egregious conduct toward” Wambach during the game, which ended in a 3-3 tie.

[REF WATCH] Tom Henning Ovrebo, who refereed Champions League semifinal on Wednesday in which Barcelona ousted Chelsea, needed police protection after the game and has been receiving death threats. The hate campaign against the Norwegian included a Facebook group titled “Kill Tom Henning Ovrebo.”

Leo Weinstein, a Stanford University professor who coached the Stanford soccer team and later was a soccer journalist for such publications as Soccer America, died on Monday at John Muir Hospital in Walnut Creek, Calif., from cancer. He would have been 87 on May 15.

[MEXICO] Stadiums across Mexico will be reopened — with restrictions — for the final weekend of regular-season play in Mexico’s Torneo Clausura. Following two weekends of games without fans in response to the swine flu outbreak, supporters will be allowed at games, but they will restricted to sitting in every other seat and every other row and they must wear facemasks, wash their hands when entering and walk to their seats in single file.

[UEFA CUP] Germany’s Werder Bremen and Ukraine’s Shakhtar Donetsk defeated domestic rivals on Thursday to advance to the final of the last edition of the UEFA Cup before the competition is converted to the Europa Cup.

[U.S. WOMEN] U.S. women’s national team coach Pia Sundhage has named 17 WPS players and four collegians to face Japan in friendly matches on May 20 at Pizza Hut Park in Frisco, Texas and on May 23 at Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy, Utah. For the complete roster …

[MLS] The already snug Eastern Conference standings were drawn tighter Wednesday when host Kansas City tied D.C. United, 1-1, to bunch the top four teams within two points of each other.

[UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE] How was it that Barcelona, the highest-scoring team in European soccer’s modern history, could have gone scoreless for 179 minutes of its UEFA Champions League semifinal series with Chelsea and went without a shot on goal for 89 minutes in Wednesday’s second leg? Chelsea had the lead and all the chances until a desperation goal by Andres Iniesta sent Barca into the final against Manchester United.

Precious few games pack more action and drama into stoppage time than the rest of the match, but by such a remarkable scenario Real Salt Lake and Los Angeles wound up tied, 2-2, Wednesday at Rio Tinto Stadium.