Category: Soccer America Daily

[MLS] Jason Kreis called the strike a “wonder goal,” and while it conjured up memories of a colorful, swashbuckling, occasionally troublesome goalscorer, that player no longer exists. Clint Mathis hammered a left-footed volley off a corner kick past New England keeper Brad Knighton during a record-setting 6-0 romp at Rio Tinto Stadium Saturday night.

[MEXICO] In response to the concerns about the outbreak of swine flu in Mexico, Concacaf canceled the knockout phase of the Under-17 Championship in Tijuana to safeguard the health of players, officials and fans. In addition, the second leg of the Concacaf Champions League final between Atlante and Cruz Azul has been postponed from Wednesday to May 12.

[OFF THE POST] Earlier this month, ball boys for Argentine club Gimnasia-La Plata were busted for hiding balls behind the substitutes’ benches to delay the game while the team was ahead 1-0 in the second half. Last weekend, a ball boy and a goalkeeper were sent off by the referee in Gimnasia-Jujuy vs. River Plate game after the keeper lashed out at the ball boy he believed was delaying the game.

[MLS] Toronto drew 19,915 fans for last Wednesday’s 1-0 win over Chivas USA and 20,056 for 1-0 win over Kansas City on Sunday. Only league newcomers Seattle Sounders are drawing better, with an average of nearly 30,000 after 28,838 attended their fourth home game, a 2-0 win over San Jose on Saturday.

[MLS] After its 6-0 rout of New England on Saturday, Real Salt Lake leads the league in scoring. It is one of only two teams that is averaging at least two goals per game. Four teams are mustering one goal or less per match. For team-by-team scoring averages. …

[GERMANY] European club coaches get fired all the time, but Bayern Munich’s sacking of Juergen Klinsmann is of particular interest this side of the Atlantic because of his American connections. A California resident since his playing days ended in 1998 until he took the Bayern job last summer, Klinsmann brought two American assistant coaches to Munich, tried unsuccessfully to incorporate Landon Donovan into the Bayern squad, and was, in 2006, courted to coach the U.S. national team.

[AMERICANS ABROAD] Borussia Moenchengladbach faced another relegation-threatened team and managed only a 1-1 tie, with Arminia Bielefeld, as Michael Bradley played the first 69 minutes for Gladbach. On the whole, it wasn’t an outstanding weekend for the U.S. foreign legion.

[UNDER-17 CONCACAF CHAMPIONSHIP] The USA completed group play at the Under-17 Concacaf Championship with another offensive display, scoring three first-half goals en route to a 3-0 victory over Honduras Saturday in Tijuana. It gave the Americans three wins and 12 goals in three outings.

[WPS] After failing to connect on her first 16 shots in her first three Women’s Professional Soccer games for the winless Washington, the pressure was mounting on American star Abby Wambach. But she finally came through for the Freedom, opening the scoring against FC Gold Pride on Sunday with a header off a Cat Whitehill cross and breaking a 3-3 tie in stoppage time when she again scored on a header off a Whitehill free kick. The goal sealed the 4-3 win for the Freedom and capped the most exciting game in WPS’s young history.

[USL] The Carolina RailHawks wrapped up a perfect three-game homestand with a 1-0 win over Minnesota on Sunday and are off to their best start in the team’s three-year history. With nine points, Carolina remains in first place.

The defending champion Columbus Crew and Los Angeles remained the only MLS teams without a win when they tied the Chicago Fire, 2-2, and Colorado Rapids, 1-1, respectively. For all the game summaries, standings, leading scorers and next weekend’s schedule …

Standard Liege and Anderlecht remain tied in Belgium. Marseille has opened up a five-point lead in France. Sivas leads Besiktas by one point in Turkey. For all the results in Europe’s major leagues and Mexico …

[MEXICO] Three Mexican First Division games were played in empty games because of the swine flu epidemic has gripped Mexico City. Mexican soccer federation officials banned fans from the three games — Pachuca-Cruz Azul, played in Pachuca on Saturday, and UNAM-Guadalajara at the Olympic Stadium and Club America-UAG at the Azteca Stadium in Mexico City on Sunday — on the recommendation of health officials to avoid large concentrations of people in which the virus could spread.

[EUROPEAN RACES] Spain’s La Liga race came alive as leader Barcelona, which had not allowed a goal in seven straight games, had to rally for a 2-2 tie at Valencia, allowing Real Madrid, a 4-2 winner over Sevilla, to move to within four points with five games to play. The goals kept on coming in England, where first-place Manchester United rallied to blitz Tottenham, 5-2, with five goals in 22 minutes in the second half.

[MLS NAMES & NUMBERS] Real Salt Lake had its best second half in club history. D.C. United made a spectacular comeback in New York. Los Angeles remains winless after tying with a late goal for the second straight game. Chicago came back against floundering defending champ Columbus to remain the league’s only undefeated team. Week 6 also saw the first coaching casualty of the season.

[WPS] Women’s Professional Soccer faces its first week of play without many of its foreign stars on international duty abroad. Marta and four other WPS Brazilians are in Europe. They drew a European women’s soccer record crowd of 44,825 fans Wednesday in Frankfurt for their 1-1 tie with Germany and play Sweden on Saturday. For a look at this weekend’s WPS action …

[WORLD CUP 2018/2022 BID] The USA Bid Committee received positive responses from public officials and executives representing 58 major U.S. stadiums confirming interest in playing host to World Cup matches in 2018 or 2022. Three new candidates — Las Vegas, Nev., Raleigh-Durham, N.C., and Salt Lake City, Utah — also reached out to the USA Bid Committee to express their interest.

[MLS] Ahead by a goal and up a man for nearly the entire match, host Kansas City squandered several chances to put the game away yet maintained the status quo and beat New York, 1-0, Thursday at CommunityAmerica Ballpark in front of 10,385 fans. The Red Bulls’ Carlos Johnson‘s red card in the second minute was the fastest in MLS history and the second in two games for the Costa Rican MLS newcomer.

[MEXICO] U.S. product Edgar Castillo was named to the first training camp roster called in by new Mexico coach Javier Aguirre.

[UNDER-17 CONCACAF CHAMPIONSHIP] Jack McInerney continued where he left off in the opener, scoring two more goals — the first on the penalty kick in the 2nd minute and the second on a bomb from 30 yards on the half-hour mark — to lead the USA to a 4-2 victory over Canada Thursday at the Under-17 Concacaf Championship that clinched a berth in the 2009 Under-17 World Cup in Nigeria. It keeps alive the U.S. record of being the only country to played in every U-17 World Cup since its launch in 1985. The USA faces Honduras, a 6-0 winner over Cuba, Saturday and then moves next week into the Concacaf tournament’s knockout phase.

[MLS PREDICTIONS] Defending champ Columbus aims for its first win of the season when it hosts undefeated Chicago. New England defends an undefeated record in Salt Lake. Los Angeles, the only other winless team besides the Crew, hopes to break the futility run in Colorado. For all of Soccer America’s predictions, as well as TV viewing information, and to see how we fared last week …

[AMERICANS ABROAD] Iran has its third national team coach in less than a month — and its Afshin Ghotbi, an Iranian-born and U.S.-educated coach who has mostly recently been coaching in Iran for Persepolis in 2007 and 2008.