“What were you doing punching the corner flag? You’re a crazy man, a crazy man.”
— England coach Fabio Capello to striker Wayne Rooney, who was red-carded for throwing the ball toward the referee and punched the corner flag on the way to the locker room in an English Premier League game last weekend. The Manchester United striker is in the England camp preparing for a friendly against Slovakia on Saturday and a World Cup qualifier against Ukraine four days later. (The Times)
[BY THE NUMBERS] The University of North Carolina and Brazil have supplied the most talent to Women’s Professionel Soccer teams. Five holdovers from the 1999 U.S. World Cup championship team are among the former WUSA players on opening day rosters.
[WPS] Amid a severe economic slowdown that has hit Americans sports leagues hard, Women’s Professional Soccer is set to begin its first season on Sunday when the Los Angeles Sol featuring Brazilian star Marta hosts the Washington Freedom (TV: Fox Soccer Channel, live, 6 pm ET/3 pm PT). While WPS Commissioner Tanya Antonucci says the league goal for average attendance remains 4,000-6,000 a game, the push to opening day has not been without some upheaval, the replacement of one team’s president and general manager.
[WPS] Both the Los Angeles Sol and Washington Freedom, who will play in Sunday’s Women’s Professional Soccer game, are awaiting clearances on their respective French signings, Camille Abily (Los Angeles) and Sonia Bompastor (Washington), whose move to the United States has touched off controversy at their French club Lyon, in part because their departure comes on the eve of the UEFA Women’s Cup semifinals.
During a conversation last week MLS commissioner Don Garber refuted a suggestion that the international calendar in 2009 was so crowded with World Cup qualifiers, Confederations Cup, and Gold Cup commitments there wouldn’t be much room left for club matches. “Believe it or not, it seems the consumer has an insatiable appetite for international exhibition matches,” said Garber. “There will be many, many played in the U.S. this summer, with [Guadalajara], Barcelona, Chelsea, [AC] Milan. It will be very busy.”
[MLS] Obviously, the Galaxy shouldn’t have been awarded a penalty kick when a ball bounced off the underside of defender Rodney Wallace’s leg and not his arm in its 2-2 tie with D.C. United Sunday, but should referee Jair Marrufo have given a penalty earlier when Christian Gomez and Dema Kovalenko got tangled up at the edge of the penalty area?
[MLS] FC Dallas signed goalie Dario Sala to a new contract last year, yet backup Ray Burse will be the starter for the short-term.
[MLS] Swedish attacker Freddie Ljungberg, whom the Seattle Sounders signed as a Designated Player at $1.31 million before they even hired Coach Sigi Schmid, is set to play on Saturday against Real Salt Lake in what would be his first competitive match since the 2008 European Championship.
[IN THESE TIMES] La Liga club Villarreal is offering unemployed season-ticket holders free passes in 2009-10. “Season-ticket holders who are on the dole will be allowed in free next year,” said club president Fernando Roig said on Tuesday.
“In any case, we are always playing away from home. We play against Ireland [in France] and the stadium is full of Irish people, against Scotland it’s the same.”
— France left back Patrice Evra complains about a lack of support from Les Bleus fans, who during a 2-0 defeat to Argentina in Marseille jeered the home team and cheered the visitors. France faces Lithuania in World Cup 2010 away on Saturday and at the Stade de France April 1. (AFP)
[HEXAGONAL] U.S. attacker Landon Donovan‘s two-and-a-half month loan stint ended in time for him to rejoin the Los Angeles Galaxy for its MLS opener against D.C. United and he scored twice in the 2-2 comeback tie. Now he looks forward to World Cup qualifying games at El Salvador on Saturday (TV: ESPN2, TeleFutura, live, 9 pm ET) and Trinidad & Tobago April 1 (TV: April 1, live, 7:30 p.m. ET/6:30 p.m. CT, ESPN2 and Galavision).
“To get the Greek national manager ringing me up and telling me who I should play and who I shouldn’t play is absolutely outrageous. You deal with your damn Greek side, don’t start telling us who we should play. If I get another call from the Greek damn national manager, he’s going to get a real kick from us.”
— Portsmouth chairman Peter Storrie, who received a complaint that Greek striker Theofanis Gekas isn’t getting playing time for 15th place English Premier League club. (Irish Times)
[AMERICANS ABROAD] Marcus Tracy, the 2008 MAC Hermann Trophy winner out of Wake Forest, scored his first pro goal – Aalborg’s gamewinner in a 3-2 victory over FC Midtjylland in the Danish first division.
[MLS] Not for a few years will it be known if aggressive expansion by MLS owners in the five-year period from 2007 to 2011 is brazen or brilliant, or both. By adding Toronto, San Jose, Seattle, Philadelphia, Vancouver and Portland in that span, assuming all goes as planned, the league will have increased its membership sharply from 12 to 18 teams. It will have banked more than $150 million in expansion fees, greatly expanded its national TV footprint, and added some of North America’s largest markets. Soccer America’s Ridge Mahoney spoke to MLS Commissioner Don Garber about the league’s growth amid economic crisis.
[HEXAGONAL] In Miami, where the climate is close to the high-80s expected in San Salvador on Saturday, 15 of the players of the USA’s 22-man roster started training for its second game of the final round of World Cup qualifying.
[OFF THE POST] Within a week in England, former Celtic and Blackburn star Chris Sutton stormed onto the field of his son’s U-14 game and swore at the ref, and former Scotland international Graeme Souness got profane at his son’s U-10 game. Souness downplayed his behavior, but admitted he swore at a coach and told a “very unattractive woman” to shut up.
[HEXAGONAL] Members of El Salvador’s national team resumed training on Monday in San Salvador for Saturday’s critical World Cup 2010 qualifier against the USA at Estadio Cuscatlan (TV: ESPN2, TeleFutura, live, 9 pm ET). Their Mexican coach, Carlos De los Cobos, admitted that valuable training was lost when the players went on strike last week in a dispute over unpaid bonuses, but he added they have a week to get ready for the game against the Americans.
[HEXAGONAL] Trinidad & Tobago coach Francisco Maturana has called in nine European-based players for World Cup 2010 qualifiers against Honduras and the United States (TV: April 1, live, 7:30 p.m. ET/6:30 p.m. CT, ESPN2 and Galavision). The squad includes goalie Clayton Ince and Chris Birchall, who are both suspended for the Honduras game but will be eligible to face the USA, but it does not include captain Dwight Yorke, whose four-game suspension by FIFA (for his red card for dissent against El Salvador in the Hexagonal opener) is currently being appealed.
[WORLD CUP 2010 QUALIFYING] David Beckham can break the England record for most games played by a field player if he plays in one of England’s upcoming games — a friendly against Slovakia on March 28 and a World Cup qualifier against Ukraine on April 1.
[HEXAGONAL] Coach Bob Bradley has named a 22-man roster for the USA’s second and third games of the final round of World Cup qualifying. The USA, which opened the Hexagonal with a 2-0 home win over Mexico, plays at El Salvador March 28 and hosts Trinidad & Tobago April 1 in Nashville, Tenn. The team begins convening for training March 22 in Miami. Freddy Adu is included in the roster after being left out for the Mexico game.
Chivas USA, which rallied to beat Colorado, 2-1, was the only MLS team that won at home in weekend play. For all the MLS results, lineups and standings from Week 1 …
Anderlecht reclaimed the lead in Belgium when Oguchi Onyewu‘s Standard Liege fell, 1-0, at Charleroi. In Turkey, Sivas maintained its one-point lead over second-place Besiktas when the leaders tied 1-1. in Scotland, leaders Celtic and Rangers (three points behind) both had to settle for ties. For all the results in Europe’s major leagues and Mexico …
[ENGLAND] Liverpool keeps piling it on, and Manager Rafael Benitez still isn’t happy. A 4-0 win over Real Madrid in the UEFA Champions League was followed by 4-1 win at Manchester United and 5-0 victory over Aston Villa in the Premier League. Suddenly, there’s a race in the EPL, and don’t think Liverpool wasn’t thinking of goal difference — the tiebreaker — when it hammered Aston Villa. Benitez’s only regret Sunday was that the Reds didn’t add to their 5-0 margin following American goalie Brad Friedel‘s dismissal in the 64th minute.
[MLS] Considering its lowly finish in 2008 – tied at the bottom of the Western Conference with expansion San Jose with 33 points – it’s not surprising that of the seven Western teams (in 2008), only the Galaxy had a losing record last year against the East.
[MLS] The first weekend of play featured five interconference matchups hosted by Western teams, and of those only expansion Seattle came out on top by thrashing New York, 3-0, in the opener Thursday night.
