Category: Soccer America Daily

[ENGLAND] U.S. goalkeepers Brad Friedel of Aston Villa and Tim Howard of Everton faced off in a lively five-goal game that Villa edged, 3-2, at the very death. Elsewhere, the Big Four all won to keep things unchanged at the top.

[GERMANY] Bayern Munich beat Hoffenheim with a late, late goal from Luca Toni to win the table-top clash. Michael Bradley was dropped to the bench for Borussia Moenchengladbach, coming on too late to save it from another defeat.

[UEFA CUP] Hamburg, Wolfsburg and Valencia made the UEFA Cup knockout stages after Thursday’s night’s group action. Brad Guzan played for Aston Villa as it lost 2-1 at home to Slovak side Zilina, but his team progressed anyway.

[MLS] For the second time in as many seasons, FC Dallas has cut loose a high-priced international player.

[UNDER-20 WOMEN’S WORLD CUP] For the second time in three weeks, the United States and North Korea will meet to decide a world championship. The USA beat Germany, 1-0, and North Korea edged France, 2-1, Thursday to set up a showdown in the final Sunday at 4:30 ET (TV arrangements TBA.). Three weeks ago, the North Korean under-17 team defeated its U.S. counterpart, 2-1, to claim the first-ever title of that age group for female players.

[MEXICO] Defending champion Santos, with 22-year-old New Mexico product Edgar Castillo and Cuauhtemoc Blanco, who is on loan duty from Chicago, could only manage a 0-0 tie at home against Toluca in the first leg of their semifinal.

[OFF THE POST] Emerson “Piojo” Acuna of Colombia’s Atletico Junior managed to draw a penalty kick with a truly audacious dive during a game against America Cali.

[OFF THE POST] Argentine midfielder Adrián Jesús Bastía of Greek club Asteras Tripolis was red-carded for tripping a field-invading fan.

[WPS] Women’s Professional Soccer will hold two combines for its seven teams to evaluate players before the 2009 WPS Draft on Jan. 16 at the NSCAA Convention in St. Louis. In total, 144 players will participate in the WPS combines with 72 at each location: San Diego (Dec. 11-14) and Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. (Dec. 18-21). For the complete list by location…

[SOUTH AMERICA] Internacional became the first Brazilian team in to win the Copa Sudamericana since the tournament’s inception in 2002. A 1-1 second-leg tie with Estudiantes earned it a 2-1 final win on aggregate.

[OFF THE POST] A Manchester City ball boy hurled the ball at the head of Manchester United’s Cristiano Ronaldo, who reacted just in time, during Sunday’s derby. The incident, which prompted a halftime warning by Referee Howard Webb to Man City about its fetchers, is just the latest incident of ball boy stunts.

[MEXICO] Cruz Azul downed Atlante, 3-1, on Wednesday in the first leg of their Apertura 2008 semifinal series. In the other semifinal series, defending champ Santos, with New Mexico product Edgar Castillo, hosts Toluca on Thursday (Azetca America, live, 8 pm ET).

[MEXICO] The Mexican national team, which plays more friendly games in the USA than on its own soil, opens its 2008 U.S. tour Jan. 28 in Oakland, Calif., against Sweden, the homeland of Mexico coach Sven-Goran Eriksson.

[UEFA CUP] In Wednesday’s UEFA Cup group action, American defender Oguchi Onyewu scored for Standard Liege in its 3-0 win over Sampdoria to help his team qualify for the knockout stages.

[ENGLAND] Manchester United reached the League Cup semifinals after beating Blackburn 5-3, including four goals from Carlos Tevez. Watford and Jay DeMerit fell, 2-1, at home to Tottenham Hotspur.

[EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES] Soccer America provides the latest on employment opportunities for soccer-related positions. They include college coaching opportunities, as well as jobs in pro soccer, youth soccer, the soccer industry and television.

[U.S. WOMEN] Kristine Lilly, the world’s all-time cap leader with 340 international appearances, is set to make her first appearance for the USA in 2008 when the USA faces China in a pair of games, Dec. 13 at the Home Dept Center in Carson, Calif., and Dec. 17 at Ford Field in Detroit.

[MLS] March 19 isn’t the earliest starting date for an MLS season. It’s not even in the top two. Still, it’s 10 days earlier than the 2008 season, and the third earliest in league history. Only the 1998 (March 15) and 2000 (March 18) seasons got underway prior to the 2009 campaign, which will be the first that league officials make significant concessions to the FIFA international match calendar, though details of those arrangements have yet to be confirmed.

[ENGLAND] Burnley knocked Arsenal’s teenage team out of the English League Cup at the quarterfinal stage. Derby County also reached the semifinal.

[MLS] 2008 MVP Guillermo Barros Schelotto, the key to Columbus’ MLS title win, will be returning to Columbus, which has elevated the Argentine to Designated Player status. That enables it to pay him a reported salary of $650,000, nearly twice as much as his 2008 earnings. For a history of MLS’s DPs …

[MLS] About an hour before MLS Cup 2008 kicked off at Home Depot Center, San Jose keeper Joe Cannon confirmed he’d been informed by Quakes management the option on his contract wasn’t being picked up for 2009.

[UNDER-20 WOMEN’S WORLD CUP] Japan and Brazil, the only unbeaten and untied teams left in the Under-20 Women’s World Cup, fell in Monday’s quarterfinals.