Category: Soccer America Daily

[U.S. WOMEN] The USA closed out the year with a 1-0 win over China in Detroit that gave it a 33-1-2 record for the year, the best ever in the 24-year history of the women’s national team program. The U.S. team won all five tournaments it entered, including the 2008 Olympics, and also set a record for most wins and best winning percentage (.944) in a calendar year.

[AWARDS] U.S. Soccer announced the final winners of the 2008 Best of U.S. Soccer awards presented by Soccer America. The winners for Best Performance: Team, Best Goal: Men, Best Goal: Women and Best Photo were selected by fans in online voting at ussoccer.com. The winners are …

[ARGENTINA] San Lorenzo beat Tigre, 2-1, in the first game of the three-way playoff series for the Argentine opening championship.

[UEFA CUP] Deportivo Coruna, Lech Poznan and FC Copenhagen advanced to the knockout phase of the UEFA Cup after Wednesday’s final round of action in Groups E to H. Brad Guzan played through for already qualified Aston Villa in its 3-1 loss at Hamburg.

[CLUB WORLD CUP] Two first-half goals were enough for South American champion LDU Quito to move past Mexico’s Pachuca (featuring U.S. international Francisco Torres) into Sunday’s Club World Cup final.

[IRELAND] St. Patrick’s midfielder Gary Dempsey has been suspended for five games for placing a $30 bet on Galway United to beat his own team

[GRANTS] The Michigan Host Committee Foundation, formed following the successful staging of four World Cup 1994 games at the Pontiac Silverdome, has announced $140,000 in grants for inner city soccer programs, its final grants.

[MLS] Sighs of relief, hearty handshakes, jokes and reminisces, and a few tears highlighted the official announcement Tuesday of Seattle Sounders FC landing Sigi Schmid as its head coach.

USA-Mexico, Act III in Columbus will take place Feb. 11 when the Concacaf rivals will meet at Crew Stadium in the opening game of the Hexagonal, the final round of World Cup 2010 qualifying in the Concacaf zone.

[DATEBOOK] The inaugural Women’s Professional Soccer match will take lace on March 29, 2009, when the Los Angeles Sol hosts the Washington Freedom at The Home Depot Center with live television coverage on Fox Soccer Channel.

[ENGLAND] Blackburn Rovers has fired Paul Ince, the Premier League’s first British black manager, after only six months on the job.

[AWARDS] U.S. Soccer has announced the winners of the 2008 Best of U.S. Soccer awards presented by Soccer America in four more categories. The winners for Best Assist, Best all-access Video, Best Performance: Player and Best Goal: Academy were selected by fans in online voting at ussoccer.com. The winners are …

The long, twisting saga of Seattle FC’s pursuit of Sigi Schmid will end Tuesday with the official announcement of his hiring, a day after MLS imposed a penalty on the expansion team for unspecified improprieties.

[U.S. WOMEN] When she took the job as head coach of the U.S. women’s team 13 months ago, Pia Sundhage signed a deal that guaranteed her only nine months of employment. Upon an exhaustive review following the team’s gold-medal performance at the Olympic Games, which U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati indicated took about 30 seconds, negotiations began for a longer alliance. Monday came the official announcement that she will be in place until the next Olympics, scheduled for 2012 in London. In the meantime, Sundhage laid out plans for 2009 …

[WPS] Women’s Professional Soccer unveiled its first major sponsorship with Monday’s announcement that Puma would be a founding partner of  WPS and an official sponsor of all WPS teams. Amid a difficult economic climate, the deal is a coup for WPS, which kicks off its first season in 2009.

[ENGLAND] Both Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo have escaped disciplinary action from UEFA and the English FA, respectively, after video examination of two recent incidents involving the players.

[FRANCE] French soccer folks like to look down on the drinking habits of English players, but that doesn’t mean Frenchmen are teetotalers. French international Sidney Govou had his driver’s license confiscated on the spot when he was found to be driving in Lyons at five times over the French alcohol limit.

[U.S. UNDER-20 NATIONAL TEAM] A pair of Italian-based players, Vincenzo Bernardo of Napoli and Giuseppe Nazzani of Bologna, were among the five foreign-based players called into the U.S. under-20 national team training camp that began Monday in Sunrise, Fla. For the complete roster …

[AWARDS] U.S. Soccer has announced the first four winners of the 2008 Best of U.S. Soccer awards presented by Soccer America following nearly three weeks of fan voting online at ussoccer.com. For the choices of Best Soccer Specialty Store, Best Soccer Bar, Best Soccer Blog and Best Fan Photo …

[MLS] A month after its bid for its third straight MLS title ended, Houston Dynamo dealt star Dwayne De Rosario to Toronto FC as part of its effort to rebuild its attack. De Rosario, who grew up in the Toronto suburb of Scarborough, returned home in a trade that sent Trinidad & Tobago defender Julius James and allocation money reported to be between $125,000 and $150,000 to the Dynamo.

[AMERICANS ABROAD] Oguchi Onyewu could have played his last important game for Standard Liege before heading to France. Scouts for French club Marseille were once again on hand Sunday to watch the giant American defender in action for the Belgian champion in its 4-1 win at Club Brugge, and reports out of France Monday morning indicate that Onyewu could be headed to OM within the next few days.