Category: Soccer America Daily

[AMERICANS ABROAD] Goalkeeper Tim Howard helped Everton reach the FA Cup final by saving two penalty kicks against his former club, Manchester United. Defender Oguchi Onyewu scored twice for Belgium’s Standard Liege. In Scotland, Maurice Edu scored the gamewinner for Glasgow Rangers. But it didn’t go so well for Michael Bradley in Germany.

[USL-1] The Puerto Rico Islanders gained revenge for their loss to the Vancouver Islanders in last year’s USL-1 championship with a 2-1 victory on Saturday at Juan Ramon Loubriel Stadium. Nicholas Addlery, who played the Whitecaps last season, scored both goals for Puerto Rico. Carolina took the early lead in the USL-1 with its second win, a 1-0 victory over Rochester. In its debut, expansion Austin tied Minnesota, 1-1, at home, while Cleveland, with Real Salt Lake keeper Chris Seitz playing on loan in goal, fell in its USL-1 debut at Miami FC, 3-1.

[WPS] Starting her first game of the season, two-time Olympic gold-medalist Aly Wagner set up Brazilian star Marta for the only goal to lead the Los Angeles Sol to a 1-0 win over FC Gold Pride for its third consecutive shutout victory of the season.

The defending champion Columbus Crew and Los Angeles Galaxy are the only winless MLS teams after five weeks and find themselves in the Eastern and Western Conference basements, respectively. For all the game summaries, standings, leading scorers and next weekend’s schedule …

Lyon’s hopes of winning its eighth straight French league title are fading. Porto maintained its four-point lead in Portugal. Only one point still separates in Celtic and Rangers in Scotland. For all the weekend results and standings in Europe’s major leagues and Mexico …

[MLS NAMES & NUMBERS] Houston, FC Dallas and New York finally won, leaving defending champ Columbus, which had a bye, and Los Angeles, the league’s only winless teams. The Chicago Fire is undefeated after five games for the first time in club history. Jaime Moreno hit another milestone. Chivas USA remained undefeated by handing Seattle its second straight loss.

[MEXICO] Playing for its third coach in a month, Guadalajara defeated Club America, 1-0, Sunday at the Jalisco Stadium to win the Super Clasico, the biggest game of the Mexican league season.

[ENGLAND] Everton and Chelsea will meet in the English FA Cup final May 30 after winning their semifinal matches at Wembley Stadium. Everton’s shootout victory — courtesy of two saves by American keeper Tim Howard — ended Manchester United’s bid for five titles this season. Chelsea came from behind to down London rival Arsenal, 2-1.

The UEFA Cup is down to four teams — two Ukrainian and two German. Dynamo Kiev and Shakhtar Donetsk will meet in one semifinal, while Hamburg will faces Werder Bremen in the other. For all of Thursday’s results and goalscorers …

[WPS] The Chicago Red Stars, who won and tied their first two games on the road, are the last WPS team to open at home when they host Sky Blue FC in the WPS Sunday on FSC (TV: 6 pm ET). For a look at this weekend’s WPS action …

[AMERICANS ABROAD] Jozy Altidore, who scored four goals in the last two U.S. World Cup qualifiers, will be out for up to a month because of toe-nail surgery. Steve Cherundolo, who’s been missing from his right back position with the USA, is due to undergo hip surgery and will miss the rest of the Bundesliga season.

[CONCACAF UNDER-17 CHAMPIONSHIP] U.S. under-17 national team coach Wilmer Cabrera named 20 players whom he’ll take to 2009 CONCACAF U-17 Championship April 21-May 2 in Tijuana, Mexico. USA, the only country to qualify for every FIFA U-17 World Cup since the tournament’s inception in 1985, has one notable omission: 15-year-old midfield star Charles Renken, who has been in residency five semesters but is again sidelined with a knee injury. For the complete roster …

[USL-2 PREVIEW] A new USL Second Division champion will be crowned following the promotion of last year’s winners, the Cleveland City Stars, to the USL-1. The contenders include Charlotte, Richmond, Crystal Palace Baltimore and Harrisburg. Here’s a look at nine teams in order of last year’s finish …

[MLS PREDICTIONS] Among the teams seeking their first victory of the season is the beleaguered Los Angeles Galaxy, whose game against the San Jose Earthquakes was set in Oakland to accommodate a Beckham crowd, which instead must settle for a postgame firework show. 2008 runner-up New York looks for its first win when it hosts Real Salt Lake. Houston tries to end a four-game winless streak when it hosts Colorado. Also hosting is winless FC Dallas, which welcomes Toronto. The league’s top team so far, Chivas USA, hosts Seattle, which lost for the first time last week. For all of Soccer America’s predictions, as well as TV viewing information, and to see how we fared last week …

[MAKING A LIST] Maine became the 19th Division I school to drop its men’s soccer program in the last 19 years.

[UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE] Cristiano Ronaldo‘s goal from 40 yards six minutes into the game was all Manchester United needed to accomplish what no other English club has done — beat Porto at the Dragao Stadium. United’s defense held, and the defending champion moved into the semifinals of the UEFA Champions League with a 1-0 win that gave it a 3-2 victory on aggregate.

[UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE] By this point last season, Arsenal was running out of gas. Now, the Gunners may be the hottest team in Europe. Their performance in the second leg of their UEFA Champions League series was certainly the most impressive. Arsenal cruised to a 3-0 win over Villarreal that extended it record in 2009 to 13 wins, seven ties and only one loss in 21 games and gave it a 4-1 win on aggregate, setting up a date with Manchester United in the semifinals.

[MLS] Less than six months after MLS rejected its bid for an expansion team in 2011, the Montreal Impact is seeking to strengthen its case by getting $20 million in government funding to expand 13,000-seat Stade Saputo.

[SIGN OF THE TIMES] The University of Maine’s men’s program became the first Division I soccer program to get the ax in response to cutbacks necessitated by the economic woes that have befallen state universities. This was no Title IX move. Women’s volleyball also was dropped, resulting in a projected savings of $600,000 from dropping the two programs in the next fiscal year. It’s a decision that will have a devastating impact on soccer in Maine. It leaves Maine without a D1 program at a time when boys soccer, always popular at the schoolboy level, has taken off at the club level.

[WORLD CUP 2018/2022 BID] President Barack Obama gave his support for the U.S. World Cup bid, writing FIFA President Sepp Blatter about how he has seen soccer bring children together, first as a child growing up in Indonesia and more recently as the father of two soccer-playing girls in Chicago.

[MLS] Seattle Sounders FC star Fredy Montero won’t face criminal charges in connection with a complaint filed by a Seattle area woman, who claimed that Montero raped her and then stalked her. A local prosecutor declined to pursue the matter, citing insufficient evidence to support the woman’s claim.