Category: Soccer America Daily

[ITALY] Inter took the Serie A top spot after leaving it late to beat Udinese, with city rivals Milan dropping points when Lecce also scored a last-gasp goal.

[MLS] For the first time, one conference will provide three members of the final four MLS playoff teams, and might yet supply both MLS Cup finalists. Form held in the East, with both of the higher seeds winning, yet in the West, neither of the top two survived. Eastern conference champion Columbus defeated No. 4 Kansas City, 2-0, Saturday to complete a 3-1 aggregate win and on Thursday (7:30 p.m. ET ESPN2) hosts the No. 2 Fire, a 3-0 aggregate winner over No. 3 New England. The Red Bulls, fifth-place finishers in the East, travel to Utah for a Saturday (9:30 p.m. ET, Fox Soccer Channel) showdown with Real Salt Lake, which won the first playoff series in its history by tying Chivas USA, 2-2, to prevail on aggregate, 3-2. New York stunned Western Conference champion Houston, 3-0, Sunday for a 4-1 series victory.

[AMERICANS IN GERMANY] Defensive midfielder Michael Bradley returned to Borussia Moenchengladbach’s starting lineup after coming off the bench last weekend and helped Gladbach win its first road game of the season. The 2-0 victory over Arminia Bielefeld moved Gladbach out of the relegation zone. Steve Cherundolo and Neven Subotic, however, suffered losses with their Bundesliga teams.

[MLS] Soccer America’s Paul Kennedy, Ridge Mahoney and Mike Woitalla grade the players’ performance in the four second-leg games of the MLS quarterfinals …

[UNDER-17 WOMEN’S WORLD CUP] The USA moved into the semifinals of the Under-17 Women’s World Cup with an emphatic 4-2 victory over South Korea Sunday in New Zealand that moves it into Thursday’s semifinals against Germany.

[U.S. WOMEN] The USA improved to 5-0-1 on this fall’s Achieve Your Gold Tour thanks to a 1-0 win over South Korea on Saturday in Tampa. Making her first start up front in 2008, Heather O’Reillyscored the lone goal for the USA.

[ENGLAND] Liverpool and Chelsea are six points ahead of the chasing pack after easy weekend wins in the English Premier League, helped by Arsenal’s 2-1 victory over Manchester United in a classic attacking encounter.

[GERMANY] Bayern Munich beat Schalke to move up to third in the Bundesliga, just one point off the leading pair of Leverkusen and Hoffenheim, both of whom dropped points.

[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.

The United States faces surprise Group D winner South Korea in the quarterfinals of the Under-17 Women’s World Cup Sunday in Hamilton, New Zealand. The other quarterfinals are Denmark-North Korea, Germany-Canada and Japan-England. For all the results and schedules …

[UEFA CUP] In Thursday’s UEFA Cup group action, Brad Guzan earned a shutout in a road win for Aston Villa, while Oguchi Onyewu and Standard Liege beat Sevilla of Spain.

[MLS AWARDS] New England defender Michael Parkhurst, who started 28 games and committed only nine fouls in 2,520 minutes of play, won the 2008 MLS Fair Play award. Chicago keeper Jon Busch was named Goalkeeper of the Year, and the Columbus’ Chad Marshall was voted Defender of the Year.

[MLS PLAYOFF PREVIEW] Only four of 12 MLS regular-season champions have lifted MLS Cup, so whatever euphoria Columbus players may have felt last week after substitute Steven Lenhart scored a last-minute goal to tie the first leg, 1-1, against Kansas City had best be long gone.

For the TV schedule of MLS quarterfinal, second-leg games. …

[MLS PLAYOFF PREVIEW] Whether or not the Magic of Yura Movsisyan arises yet again, Chivas USA must get its house in order at Home Depot Center. After losing just once in 16 home games (counting playoffs) last year, it dropped four matches at HDC this season, including a loss to Real Salt Lake in mid-June. And all RSL needs to win this series is a tie, thanks its 1-0 lead on Movsisyan’s remarkable back-heeled goal in the final seconds of regulation at Rio Tinto Stadium last weekend.

[MLS PLAYOFF PREVIEW] Going into the second leg of a conference semifinal tied is a new experience for the two-time defending champion Houston Dynamo and bad news for its opponents from New York.

[REF WATCH] Residents of Gatehouse Academy, a long-term residential drug rehab facility in Arizona, are refereeing youth soccer games for AYSO’s Wickenburg Soccer League.

[HALL OF FAME] Twenty-five players are on the ballot for induction into the National Soccer Hall of Fame. All players have been previously on the ballot.

[UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE] Alessandro del Piero was the hero of Wednesday’s Champions League group play when his two goals lead Juventus to a stunning victory at Real Madrid.

[OFF THE POST] Defender Andre Luis of Brazilian club Botafogo snatched the yellow card out of referee Carlos Chandia‘s hand during a Copa Sudamericana game against Estudiantes, then was shown the red.

[U.S. WOMEN] South Korea held the USA to a 0-0 tie Wednesday in Cincinnati, marking only second time in 33 games this year that the Americans didn’t emerge victorious.