Category: Soccer America Daily

[MLS] D.C. United’s future in Washington does not look bright. Following another setback in its effort get a stadium project off the ground, MLS Commissioner Don Garber told the Washington Post’s Soccer Insider that the team will be moved if it can’t get a deal done soon.

[MLS PREDICTIONS] The expansion Seattle Sounders FC should make it four wins in four games, but will their shutout streak continue? The first SuperClasico pits unbeaten and untied Chivas USA against the struggling Galaxy at the HDC. For all of Soccer America’s predictions, as well as TV viewing information, and to see how we fared last week …

[MLS] The start of the season doesn’t end the process of altering and adjusting MLS rosters.  In New York, master tinkerer Juan Carlos Osorio will probably unveil one new player this weekend when the Red Bulls host Houston and might give another his first start, with another signing still awaiting the receipt of his international transfer certificate at MLS offices.

[UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE] Barcelona very much looks like the favorite to win the 2009 UEFA Champions League after putting on a superb show against Bayern Munich on Wednesday. The German champion looked helpless in face of the Barca onslaught and fell, 4-0, with all four goals coming in the first half.

[UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE] Serbian defender Branislav Ivanovic — so anonymous that he didn’t play a game for Chelsea last season — was the unlikely hero of a memorable Liverpool-Chelsea showdown, scoring two goals on headers to give the visiting Blues a 3-1 win in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League quarterfinal series.

[CONCACAF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE] Rafael Marquez Lugo‘s penalty kick in the fourth minute of stoppage time gave Atlante a 3-1 victory over Mexican rival Santos Laguna on Wednesday and a 4-3 win on aggregate that sent the Cancun team to the Concacaf Champions League final against Cruz Azul.

[WORLD CUP 2010 QUALIFYING] The coaches of both teams the USA has beaten in the Hexagonal are gone. Less than a week after Trinidad & Tobago’s 3-0 loss to the USA in Nashville, Francisco Maturana quit as the Soca Warriors coach. Maturana’s departure follows the firing of Mexico’s Sven Goran Eriksson a week ago.

[IRAQ] Former U.S. national team coach Bora Milutinovic, 64, will coach Asian champion Iraq — the eighth national team he has coached — at this year’s Confederations Cup in South Africa.

[WORLD CUP 2018/2022] The World Cup in Lincoln, Neb., or at Green Bay’s famed Lambeau Field? They might be long shots for the 2018 or 2022 World Cup, but they were among the 44 stadiums with a capacity of 70,000 or more the USA Bid Committee has identified on its initial list of stadiums. For the complete list of 70 stadiums identified …

[TEAM OF THE WEEK] Robbie Findley (Real Salt Lake) and Conor Casey (Colorado), who both scored hat tricks, head Soccer America’s MLS Team of the Week for Week 3.

[UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE] Manchester United hit a road bump on its drive for five, having to settle for a 2-2 tie with Porto Tuesday at Old Trafford in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League quarterfinal series. The result means United will probably have to do what no other English team has done and win in Oporto next Wednesday if it is to advance to the semifinals and keep alive its bid for five titles.

[UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE] Arsenal’s good form continued when it earned a 1-1 tie at Villarreal in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League quarterfinal series thanks to an acrobatic goal by Emmanuel Adebayor. The game was costly, though, as the Gunners could have lost two key players — both injured in collisions with Italian-American Giuseppe Rossi — for next Wednesday’s second leg in London.

[UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE] Liverpool and Chelsea meet for the fifth time in the Champions League in the last five years when they open their UEFA Champions League quarterfinal series Wednesday at Anfield. Reeling from its 5-1 loss in the Bundesliga on Saturday, Bayern Munich traveled to Barcelona without its two central defenders.

[MLS] So much for P.G. United. D.C. United’s efforts to find a home in Maryland’s Prince George’s County suffered a setback when Prince George’s County Council voted to oppose legislation authorizing Maryland to study plans for a 24,000-seat soccer stadium.

[CONCACAF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE] Even in defeat, Puerto Rico put its mark on the Concacaf Champions League competition. The USL-1 Islanders succumbed to Cruz Azul Tuesday night on penalty kicks after being on the verge of moving into the final.

[U.S. OPEN CUP] Three days after the Los Angeles Galaxy suffered an embarrassing loss to the Colorado Rapids in MLS action, they met again at the Home Depot Center in a U.S. Open Cup qualifying game. The Galaxy’s defense, pathetic on Saturday, held firm, but its attack was equally abysmal in the rematch, playing with a man advantage for 84 minutes but failing to convert a host of chances, and Los Angeles fell again, this time on penalty kicks, after the game ended in a 0-0 tie.

The Houston Dynamo could have believed its lousy fortune had run out. But instead of getting the breaks, the Dynamo is getting beat early in 2009, adding to a recent history of poor starts in MLS.

[REF WATCH] Not often does an MLS team incur an early red card and still go on to win, but by doing so last weekend, the Chicago Fire added another entry to the on-going debate of whether red-card procedures should be changed.

[MLS] A field of more than 2,000 players from more than 36 different states has been narrowed to 12 in Sueno MLS 2009. The 12 finalists who participated in regional tryouts organized by the Los Angeles Galaxy, Chicago Fire and D.C. United are headed to the “Final Event,” where the Sueno champion will be crowned Sunday on Univision’s “Republica Deportiva.”

[UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE] Manchester United’s bid for an unprecedented five championships in a season continues Tuesday when it hosts Porto in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League quarterfinal series. Red-hot Arsenal travels to Villarreal in Tuesday’s other match.

[WORLD CUP 2010 QUALIFYING] With its bid to return to the World Cup finals in jeopardy, Iran has fired Coach Ali Daei and brought back former coach Mohammad Mayelikohan.