Category: Soccer America Daily

[OFF THE POST] It’s been a tough year for European club bosses. Joaquin Bilbao, president of Spanish club Xerez, was arrested last month following a shootout at a brothel and resigned from his position. Now, Gigi Becali, owner of Romanian powerhouse Steaua Bucharest, has been jailed on kidnapping charges.

[WPS] A last-minute goal by Tiffeny Milbrett gave FC Gold Pride a 2-1 win over the Boston Breakers and marked a storybook ending to the first full weekend of play in Women’s Professional Soccer. Milbrett, the former national team star with 100 goals for the USA, had been overlooked in each of the WPS drafts and allocations and only made the Pride after asking for a tryout. She came off the bench in the opener and scored in the 89th minute to cap an exciting game at Buck Shaw Stadium.

[SCOUTING REPORT] The USA will aim to win its group for the fourth straight time when it faces European champion Germany, African runner-up Cameroon and Asian semifinalist South Korea in Group C at the 2009 Under-20 World Cup, which will be played Sept. 24-Oct. 16 in Egypt.

[MEXICO] Changing coaches in the middle of qualifying or before the World Cup is nothing new for Mexico. But having four coaches in less than a year — Hugo Sanchez, Jesus Ramirez, Sven Goran Eriksson and now Javier Aguirre — is extreme. Aguirre returns to take over the Tri in remarkably similar circumstances to those that existed eight years.

[EUROPE] Italian teen Federico Macheda was such an unknown before Sunday’s game against Aston Villa that Manchester United captain Gary Neville admitted he had never seen him. All Macheda did was come off the bench and lead United to a 3-2 win over Villa with a stoppage-time goal that kept it in the lead in the English Premier League. For who’s up, who’s  down, who’s in and who’s out in Europe …

Chicago and New England are tied for first place in the Eastern Conference after registering wins over the weekend, while Chivas USA and Seattle won their third game in a row to remain in the lead in the Eastern Conference. For all the summaries …

The French race remained tight with five teams separated by only four points at the top of the standings. Celtic’s lead in Scotland was still three points, and Porto held on to its four-point advantage in Portugal. For all the results in Europe’s major leagues and Mexico …

[MLS NAMES & NUMBERS] Seattle and Chivas USA are 3-0. FC Dallas is 0-3. Los Angeles coach Bruce Arena was furious after the Galaxy fell, 3-2, at home to the Colorado Rapids on a Conor Casey hat trick that included the second-fastest goal in MLS history — off the Galaxy kickoff!

[MLS] The expansion Seattle Sounders FC captured their third game of the 2009 season with a 2-0 win at Toronto FC on Saturday, but the excitement of another big victory was tempered by the absence of young Colombian star Fredy Montero, who remained in Seattle because of an illness, according to the team. The game came two days after a report by the (web-only) Seattle Press-Intelligencer in which it stated Montero was a subject being investigated regarding two sexual assault cases.

[MLS] By beating Colorado, 2-1, Sunday at Home Depot Center, Chivas USA matched expansion Seattle atop the overall MLS standings at 3-0. The Sounders won their first away test Saturday, beating Toronto FC, 2-0, at BMO Field. They return home next week to play Kansas City and so perhaps only a road game on the grass – at Home Depot Center against Chivas USA April 18 as luck would have it – can expose the upstart.

[AMERICANS ABROAD] U.S. defender Jonathan Spector suffered another setback when he suffered a concussion in West Ham United’s 2-0 win over Sunderland on Saturday. He was treated for six minutes on the field after being hit going up for a header. “He couldn’t remember much of it but he was fine,” said Hammers manager Gianfranco Zola. “He doesn’t remember me — which is a good thing!”

[GOLD CUP] The USA opens play at the 2009 Gold Cup on July 4 against Grenada at Qwest Field in Seattle. It also faces Honduras in Washington, D.C., on July 8 and Haiti at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Mass., on July 11. The Honduras match comes a little more than a month after the USA faces the Catrachos in World Cup 2010 qualifying in Chicago. The Gold Cup follows a busy June for the USA, which is also playing at the Confederations Cup in South Africa. For a look at the three U.S. opponents …

[GOLD CUP] The longest and most expansive Gold Cup in history kicks off July 3 with a doubleheader — Canada-Jamaica and Costa Rica-El Salvador — at the Home Depot Center. The 12-team Concacaf event will be played in 13 cities — more than any other regional championship ever — over 21 days — including a week’s gap between group play and the quarterfinals — making it the longest Gold Cup ever. For the complete schedule …

[MEXICO] Mexico hiring the Swede Sven-Goran Eriksson, who had only modest success during a six-year stint as England coach, never made a lot of sense. But just how disastrous an appointment it was went beyond predictions. After Wednesday’s 3-1 loss at Honduras, which marked El Tri’s sixth loss under Eriksson in 13 games, he was finally fired.

[WPS] Women’s Professional Soccer moves into full gear with three games over the weekend. Marta’s drawing power will be put to the test when Los Angeles travels to Sky Blue FC. Chicago travels across Illinois to face St. Louis on the campus of SIU-Edwardsville, while FC Gold Pride hosts Boston in the WPS Game of the Week on FSC. For a look at this week’s games …

[MLS] With ties in its first two games, one at home and one on the road, one could give defending champion Columbus some benefit of the doubt.  But after a 4-1 thrashing inflicted by Real Salt Lake at Rio Tinto Stadium Thursday, there may be some cause for doubting the Crew’s ability to defend that title.

[MLS PREDICTIONS] What will happen when the high-flying Sounders play their first road game? For all the predictions, as well as TV viewing information, and to see how we fared last week …

[OFF THE POST] The German soccer federation [DFB] says it won’t punish striker Lukas Podolski for lashing out at captain Michael Ballack during the team’s 2-0 World Cup qualifying win against Wales.

[TELEVISION] The UEFA Champions League’s move to Fox for the next three seasons gives it a chance to spread its coverage of Europe’s most important competition across a number of affiliated networks, including Fox Soccer Channel, FSN, FX and Fox Sports en Espanol, boosting midweek programming on FSC and showcasing international soccer on regional outlets and Fox’s general cable entertainment network.

[AMERICANS ABROAD] President Barack Obama, who played soccer as a boy while he was living in Indonesia but became a basketball enthusiast when he moved back to Hawaii, turned down a chance to chime in on World Cup qualifying at the G20 Summit in London.

[WORLD CUP 2010 QUALIFYING-ASIA] Australia moved to within one point of clinching a berth in the World Cup finals with a 2-0 win over Uzbekistan. South Korea took over the lead in Group B with a 1-0 victory over North Korea.

[USL-1] For many years, there’s been talk of a second pro team joining the Red Bulls (nés MetroStars) in New York. It won’t be a second MLS team but a USL-1 team set to play at Hofstra University in 2010.

[HEXAGONAL] Honduras did it again. For the fourth time in the last four World Cup qualifying cycles, the Catrachos beat Mexico in San Pedro Sula. They got two goals from Carlos Costly and one from the former Los Angeles Galaxy striker Carlos Pavon and defeated the reeling Tri, 3-1. The result propelled Honduras into third place and dropped Mexico into fourth. Costa Rica claimed second behind the first-place USA thanks to a 1-0 win over El Salvador.