Category: Soccer America Daily

[SPAIN] Sunday’s Sevilla-Real Madrid showdown at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan in Sevilla answered several questions. Will the new Galacticos go unbeaten? No. Can Sevilla challenge Barcelona and Real Madrid for La Liga championship? After its 2-1 victory, the answer is a resounding yes.

[USL-1] The USL First Division trophy will remain in Canada. The defending champion Vancouver Whitecaps, held on for a 3-3 tie with regular-season champion Portland in a wild game before 14,283 fans Sunday afternoon and won their semifinal series, 5-4, on aggregate. The Whitecaps will meet the Montreal Impact, which made it four wins in four playoff games with a 2-1 win at Puerto Rico.

[MLS PREDICTIONS] A big Friday night matchup on ESPN2 between kicks off the weekend schedule when Los Angeles hosts Chicago. On Saturday, former Crew coach Sigi Schmid returns to Columbus with Seattle, and teams bunched closely in the standings square off when D.C. United hosts Chivas USA and New England plays at Colorado. Surging Dallas has the weekend off, but one other team that refuses to go way, Kansas City, heads to Houston needing a win. For details on this weekends matchups, all of Soccer America’s predictions, as well as TV viewing information. …

[WORLD CUP 2010 QUALIFYING] U.S. national team coach Bob Bradley has called up 22 players who will begin training for the final Hexagonal qualifiers against Honduras Oct. 10 and Costa Rica Oct. 14.

[WPS] All nine WPS clubs have made their initial offseason moves, picking up options on players or otherwise waiving or letting become free agents all players not signed to multi-year deals. The first big trade sent U.S. Olympic gold-medalist Amy Rodriguez from Boston to expansion Philadelphia. Notable U.S. internationals who became free agents include Carli Lloyd (let go by Chicago Red Stars), Leslie Osborne (FC Gold Pride) and Heather Mitts (Boston Breakers). For the team-by-team player moves …

[AMERICANS ABROAD] U.S. national team starters Tim Howard and Clint Dempsey both played the entire game in winning efforts Thursday for Everton and Fulham, respectively, in the new Europa League. For all the results on Day 2 of the group stage …

[COLLEGE] Marika Gray‘s goal in the 54th minute gave unranked Virginia Tech its second upset win of the week, this time against No. 2 North Carolina Sunday afternoon in Blacksburg. No. 12 St. John’s, No. 15 Florida, No. 16 Ohio State and No. 25 Kansas were the other Top 25 teams to lose to unranked teams in Sunday. St. John’s’ dropped its first Big East game when it lost, 1-0, at home to Cincinnati. Ole Miss knocked off Florida, 3-2. Katie Schoepfer‘s late penalty kick gave Penn State a 2-1 win over Ohio State, while Kansas dropped a 2-1 decision to Texas, its second Big 12 loss of the weekend on the road. For all the Sunday action and the weekend Top 25 schedule …

[COLLEGE]  No. 2 UCLA was held to a 1-1 tie at Washington when the Bruins conceded an own goal early in the second half. Kyle Nakazawa continued his hot streak with the lone UCLA goal. He has seven goals and four assists in his last six games and extended his scoring streak to six games. No. 21 Northwestern edged No. 11 Ohio State, 1-0, in a Big Ten clash on Sunday afternoon. For all the Sunday action and the weekend Top 25 schedule …

[OFF THE POST] Pele, in a speech on behalf of Rio de Janeiro’s bid to host the 2016 Olympic Games, tried to chide the competing bid from Chicago by pointing out that its big sports hero was absent from the Windy City’s delegation. But Pele said “Michael Jackson,” the dead pop star, instead of Michael Jordan, the basketball legend.

[WORLD CUP 2010 QUALIFYING] None of the 22 players called into to training for Bolivia’s upcoming World Cup qualifying games showed up for practice in a boycott by the players’ union.

[UNDER-20 WORLD CUP] Which U.S. team will show up Friday in Suez? The team that had a nightmare against Germany in its opening game? Or the team that ran all over Cameroon on Tuesday? Here’s what’s at stake when the USA closes out group play at the Under-20 World Cup against familiar foe South Korea, coached by former Los Angeles Galaxy star Hong Myung Bo, on Friday (TV: ESPN2, Galavision, 12:40 pm ET) …

[USL-1] The two Canadian teams, Vancouver and Montreal, won their home games in the first leg of the USL First Division semifinal series.

[CONCACAF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE] After failing to win any of its first eight group games in the Concacaf Champions League, D.C. United is on a roll. D.C. moved into second place in Group B with nine points from five matches by routing San Juan Jabloteh (Trinidad & Tobago), 5-1, at RFK Stadium Wednesday. Christian Gomez and Thabiso “Boyzzz” Khumalo each scored twice, and Fred netted once as United, which had not win any of its group games last year and lost its first two of this year’s competition, rattled off its third straight win.

[HONDA PLAYER OF THE YEAR] Five-time winner Landon Donovan, Jozy Altidore and Tim Howard are the three finalists for the 2009 Honda Player of the Year Award.

[UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE] Oguchi Onyewu made his official debut for AC Milan, but it could not have in more difficult circumstances. He came on in the 60th minute but could do nothing to prevent Milan from suffering an embarrassing 1-0 loss at home to FC Zurich that could trigger a shakeup at Milan. Here are three things we learned on Wednesday …

[MLS] FC Dallas kept its playoff hopes alive and dinged those of New England by beating the Revs, 1-0, at the Cotton Bowl Wednesday. Jeff Cunningham took over the league’s scoring lead by netting his 16th goal of the season; the depleted Revs struggled offensively and managed only five shots. They still hold the eighth and final playoff place with a 10-9-7 record and 37 points, just four more than surging Dallas (9-12-6, 33 points), which has been teetering on the precipice of elimination for more than a month but refuses to topple into the abyss.

[CONCACAF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE] Playing against one of the best club teams in region, Houston played one of its best international games, yet still came out a loser. Mexico’s Pachuca rode its luck, some dogged defending, and the goalkeeping of Miguel Calero to escape Robertson Stadium with a 1-0 victory Wednesday in Group A of the Concacaf Champions’ League.

[OFF THE POST] Burnley fan Jason Taylor lives around the corner from the home stadium of archrival Blackburn Rovers. But when the teams meet at Ewood Park in their derby game next month, he’ll have to travel more than 50 miles to see the game because of restrictions on away fans. Police are requiring Burnley fans to meet at its stadium, Turf Moor, and travel from there by bus to Ewood Park.

[COLLEGE] No. 1 Akron handed No. 11 Ohio State its first loss of the season with a 3-0 shutout Wednesday night in front of another record crowd at Lee Jackson Field. The crowd of 2,473 fans broke the record set 13 days earlier. No. 25 Brown came back from 2-0 and 3-2 down to tie No. 19 Boston University, 3-3. For all Wednesday’s results …

[COLLEGE] Unranked Virginia Tech moved into first place in the ACC with a 2-1 win at No. 23 Virginia on Wednesday night. For all Wednesday’s results …

[WORLD CUP 2010 QUALIFYING] Honduras coach Reinaldo Rueda called up 24 players for the Catrachos’ final two Hexagonal games, including the match Oct. 10 against the USA in San Pedro Sula.

Manchester United, Real Madrid and Chelsea won their UEFA Champions League matches on Wednesday and joined Arsenal, Lyon and Sevilla as the only teams with perfect records after Day 2. For the complete results and standings …

[USL-1] Defenders Cristian Arrieta (Puerto Rico) and David Hayes (Portland) are the only repeat selections on the USL First Division all-league first team. Rochester striker Johnny Menyongar earned all-league honors for the sixth time in his career, but it was his first first-team selection. For all the USL-1 first- and second-team selections …