Category: Soccer America Daily

[SPAIN] Barcelona became the first team to reach 50 points at the halfway point of La Liga season when it beat Deportivo Coruna, 5-0, on Saturday. Thierry Henry, Samuel Eto’o and Lionel Messi combined for all five goals to give them 41 of Barcelona’s 59 goals through 19 games.

[ITALY] David Beckham‘s first home game for AC Milan could have been Brazilian star Kaka‘s last. With San Siro fans chanting for Kaka to stay, AC Milan beat Fiorentina, 1-0, on a goal by Alexandre Pato

[ENGLAND] Chelsea remained in the Premier League race with a 2-1 win over Stoke City on goals by Juliano Belletti and Frank Lampard scored in the final four minutes, but the win was overshadowed by Didier Drogba‘s continuing absence from the lineup and the news that England midfielder Joe Cole will miss the remainder of the season after injuring his knee in Wednesday’s FA Cup replay against Southend United.

The Scottish Premier League race tightened as Rangers moved to within one point of Celtic, which fell at Aberdeen, 4-2. In France, Lyon and Bordeaux remained 1-2, while Monaco suffered another embarrassing collapse, this time without Freddy Adu on the field. It was winning, 2-0, at Caen when it gave up two late goals and had to settle for a 2-2 tie. For all the results of the major European leagues and the first day of play in Mexico …

[AMERICANS IN EUROPE] Title hopes for Rennes (Carlos Bocanegra) took a blow as its long undefeated streak ended. Brad Friedel helped keep Aston Villa near the top of the English Premier league. Landon Donovan made his third straight friendly game appearance for Bayern Munich. Oguchi Onyewu struck the wrong goal in Belgium. For a wrapup of Americans in Europe. …

[AMERICANS IN MEXICO] New Mexico product Edgar Castillo went the full 90 for Club America in a 2-1 win over his former club, Santos, in the first weekend of the Clausura 2009 championship.

[WPS] There were few surprises in Women’s Professional Soccer’s draft of college stars Friday in St. Louis. Amy Rodriguez and Megan Rapinoe, the only college seniors invited to the U.S. women’s national team camp that begins Tuesday at the Home Depot Center, were taken by Boston and Chicago, respectively, with the No. 1 and No. 2 picks. The two big names from previous U.S. national teams, Briana Scurry and Brandi Chastain, went to Washington in the fifth round and FC Gold Pride in the seventh round, respectively. For all the selections …

[WORLD CUP 2018/2022] FIFA has announced the timetable for the bid process to determine the hosts of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, beginning with the deadline of Feb. 2 for a national association to express its intent to bid. It has been expected U.S. Soccer would wait until after Tuesday’s inauguration of Barack Obama to announce its intention to host.

[MLS] Chivas USA midfielder Sacha Kljestan, a 2008 U.S. Olympian who has appeared 11 times for the full national team, is leaving the USA’s Southern California training camp to train for a week with Scottish Premier League leader Celtic.

[U.S. SOCCER] Jeff Agoos, who won five MLS titles and played 134 times for the USA, and Joy Fawcett, who won two Women’s World Cups and two Olympic gold medals, will be inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame.

[AMERICANS ABROAD] U.S. midfielder DaMarcus Beasley says he’s ready to leave Glasgow Rangers if he doesn’t get more playing time. He also says he loves the club he joined in the summer of 2007 but fears that his U.S. national team future will be jeopardized if he remains on the Scottish Premier League’s bench.

[AMERICANS ABROAD] Things haven’t gone so well for midfielder Michael Bradley since joining Borussia Moenchengladbach last summer. His team sits in last place at the midseason point. But Bradley scored a spectacular goal on Thursday in an exhibition during the team’s midseason training camp in Spain.

[U.S. SOCCER] In its quest to continue its streak of being the only nation to qualify for every U-17 World Cup, the U.S. U-17 boys national team will face Canada, Cuba and Honduras next spring at the Concacaf championship in Tijuana, Mexico.

[U.S. SOCCER] The U.S. U-20 national team will face Jamaica, El Salvador and either Honduras or St. Vincent & the Grenadines in group play at the Concacaf qualifying tournament for the 2009 U-20 World Cup in Trinidad & Tobago March 6-15.

An MLS SuperDraft record six Wake Forest players were taken in the 2008 draft held Thursday in St. Louis. They included Hermann Trophy winner Marcus Tracy, taken by Houston in the fourth round. Tracy bypassed the adidas Combine and will place instead for Danish club Aalborg. For the round-by-round SuperDraft picks …

For MLS SuperDraft coverage from Soccer America’s Ridge Mahoney and Paul Kennedy in St. Louis.

The clock is ticking, the laptops are clicking, and coaches have only a few hours left to nail down their picking for the 2009 MLS SuperDraft (TV: ESPN2, live, 2 pm ET). Questions abound. Will Seattle keep or trade the No. 1 pick. If the Sounders keep the top choice, will they take Akron’s Steve Zakuani, making him the first non-U.S. resident to go as the No. 1 MLS pick. How early will highly regarded keeper Stefan Frei go? How much are teams with holes at key positions willing to give up to move up in the draft order? For a look at all the major pre-draft questions …

MEMBERSHIP ALERT: Soccer America editors Ridge Mahoney and Paul Kennedy are in St. Louis covering the MLS SuperDraft. A special edition of SoccerAmericaDaily will appear later today with coverage of Thursday’s SuperDraft.

[WPS] The Women’s Professional Soccer’s draft of college players and other unclaimed players on Friday at the NSCAA Convention in St. Louis (Room 276) represents the league’s fourth assignment of players. Many of the college game’s biggest stars will be available. Soccer America projects who will go where in the first two rounds …

[MLS] Toronto FC holds the key to the 2009 MLS SuperDraft, possessing the second, fourth and 13th picks.

[MAKING A LIST] Players on the move in late pre-draft deals included Mike Magee (going from New York to Los Angeles) and Steve Purdy (returning from Germany to play for FC Dallas). For all the team-by-team moves …

[AMERICANS ABROAD] He’s only played in two friendlies, against modest opposition, but by creating two goals and scoring a fine one on his own, Landon Donovan has the German press raving and is drawing praise from Bayern coach Juergen Klinsmann. Bild newspaper dubbed the loaned L.A. player “Klinsi’s Liebling” and speculated he could even challenge veteran striker Miroslav Klose for playing time.

[OFF THE POST] Alarico Endres, the trainer of Brazilian club Gremio, hypothesizes that Viagra can improve players’ performance at altitude and recommends Gremio’s players pop the blue pills when they play Libertadores Cup games at 8,200 feet above sea level in Bolivia.