Category: Soccer America Site

By Mike Woitalla Executive Editor The New York Red Bulls, whose youth program was considered one of the league's most advanced as MLS launched its Youth Development Initiative for the 2007 season, have fired their Director of Youth Soccer and Player Development, Giovanni Savarese. Savarese was hired by the club in 2005, two years after […]

Kerri Hanks, Michele Weissenhofer, Amanda Cinalli and Brittany Bock, who combined for 63 goals and 50 assists for NCAA Division I runner-up Notre Dame in 2006, will head the U.S. under-21 women's national team that travels to England on Friday for games against three English clubs. U.S. coach Bill Irwin is bringing 18 players for […]

Two more collegians have bypassed MLS and signed with European clubs. Penn State's Simon Omekanda, picked by Chicago in the fourth round of the 2007 SuperDraft, signed with Swedish club IF Norrkoping. The two-time All-Big Ten First Team was born in Morocco and spent time in Belgium before moving to Rochester Hills, Mich., where he […]

Greg Paynter, the associate head women's coach at James Madison and a member of the JMU coaching staff for the last eight years, is leaving the Dukes to become the head women's coach at CAA rival Towson. Paynter succeeds Leslie Wray, who resigned in December after seven seasons as the Tigers head coach.

Pizza Hut Park will become the third MLS soccer-specific stadium to host the NCAA Division I men's championship. The NCAA has approved SMU — the only NCAA Division I men's program in Texas — as the host of the 2008 Men's College Cup in partnership with FC Dallas at Pizza Hut Park in Frisco, Dec. […]

Long-time college coach and former U.S. international Dieter Ficken is returning to college coaching one year after leaving Columbia University. Ficken was named the head men's coach at Division II C.W. Post. He had spent 27 years at Columbia, compiling a 252-139-53 record and leading the Lions to the final four twice. He had previously […]

The German soccer federation's Kontrollausschuss, its disciplinary committee, handed American Gregg Berhalter a three-game suspension for an incident in 1860 Munich's 2-0 win over Eintracht Braunschweig on Sunday. Berhalter, who scored the second goal against Braunschweig from the penalty spot, was found to have kneed Braunschweig's Moldovan striker, Alexandru Golban, in the sixth minute of […]

(Note to Sunday morning TV viewers: Daylight savings time starts on Sunday, so remember to move your clocks forward an hour.) Manchester United and Chelsea, 1-2 in the English Premier League and both through to the quarterfinals of the UEFA Champions League, are in action on a third front this weekend when they play in […]

Where do Barcelona and Real Madrid go following their exits this week from the UEFA Champions League? Right into Saturday's clßsico at the Nou Camp (TV: GolTV, live, 4 pm ET). Following their exits from the Champions League, media in both cities are looking for recriminations. The main target at Real Madrid was Italian coach […]

The Columbus Crew won the rights to U.S. U-20 national team forward-midfielder Robbie Rogers Thursday afternoon in a weighted lottery. The 19-year-old Rogers has been signed to a developmental contract and will not occupy one of the Crew's 18 senior roster spots. Rogers recently secured his release from Heerenveen of the Dutch Eredivisie, with which […]

Peter Kay, the chief executive of England's Sporting Chance Clinic, which provides athletes with counseling and treatment to combat addictions such as alcoholism, drug abuse and gambling, says another growing problem has arisen among English Premier League players – Internet porn obsession. ''It becomes a problem when he is doing it 14, 15, 16 times,'' […]

Who gets first crack at David Beckham has been debated over the past few weeks, and on Friday, AEG and the Galaxy will announce a match against Chelsea. Both the weekend before and after the All-Star Game (July 19 in Dicks' Sporting Goods Park) are open dates, and the Galaxy opens play in the SuperLiga […]

By Ridge Mahoney Senior Editor Discussions between Chicago/AEG and Mexican international Cuauhtemoc Blanco have gone far enough that the two sides are juggling salary terms and length of contract, playing the money against the risk. According to a source who has spoken to people involved in the negotiations, to get Blanco the Fire would have […]

Fox Soccer Channel and sister network Fox Sports en Espanol have signed a three-year deal for English-language and Spanish-language TV rights for Italy's Serie A. Kicking off in late August, the networks will showcase up to four matches from Serie A each weekend. In addition, there will be preview and recap shows and some select […]

In less than two weeks, Arsenal went from contending in three cup competitions to being alive in none. On Feb. 25, the Gunners lost to Chelsea, 2-1, in the English League Cup final and then were bounced out of the FA Cup three days later by Blackburn Rovers, 1-0, in a replay. On Wednesday night […]

Arsenal's problems have part due to the absence of French star Thierry Henry. The Gunners had only managed seven goals in this year's UEFA Champions League before Wednesday's game against PSV, and they only managed to score thanks to an own goal by PSV defender Alex in a 1-1 tie that sent the Dutch through […]

The USA stretched its unbeaten streak under Coach Greg Ryan to 35 games with a 2-1 victory over China on goals by Kristine Lilly and Carli Lloyd Wednesday in its opening game of the 2007 Algarve Cup in Silves, Portugal. Starting with a 3-4-3 formation that Ryan employed for the first time in their 2-0 […]

Fox Soccer Channel and sister network Fox Sports en Espanol have signed a three-year deal for English-language and Spanish-language TV rights for Italy's Serie A. Kicking off in late August, the networks will showcase up to four matches from Serie A each weekend. In addition, there will be preview and recap shows and some select […]

Sports daily Ole reported that the Argentina's hard-core hooligans have gone into the consulting business. They've organized conferences in other countries and hosted wannabe thugs, charging U.S. dollars to share their expertise on stadium chants, weapon use and how to extort players and club officials. Said the leader of Boca Juniors' notorious ''fan club'' La […]

Gamblers call it the choking point, that threshold of betting tolerance at which boldness melts and fear sets in. Judgment falters, confidence erodes, and more often than not, losses ensue. At the poker table, once that stack of chips to be pushed into the pot gets high enough and thick enough, the player quavers. At […]

GUATEMALA. The Chapines remain the only major Central American soccer nation to have never reached the World Cup finals, and their national team coach says that won't change any time soon. They came close in qualifying for the 2006 finals, mounting a strong campaign to finish fifth in the Hexagonal, but they have since slipped. […]

It was too little, too late for Barcelona, which beat Liverpool, 1-0, at Anfield Tuesday night in the UEFA Champions League but could not make up for its 2-1 loss to the Reds two weeks earlier in Barcelona. Liverpool knocked out the defending champions on the away goals after their round-of-16 series ended in a […]

The spate of trouble on the field and off at major European games continued Tuesday night when Valencia's Champions League aggregate victory over Inter Milan was marred by a mass brawl at the final whistle in which Inter's Argentine midfielder, Nicolas Burdisso, suffered a broken nose. The brawl had begun on the field when David […]

Once again, the USA looks to have an easy draw in group play at the Gold Cup. It's 7-0-0 against Guatemala, Trinidad & Tobago and El Salvador, its Group B foes at the 2007 the Gold Cup, and they all three are in turmoil. El Salvador only recently ended a 29-month winless streak. Like El […]

Referee-turned-politician Philippe Leuba of Switzerland used as part of his campaign material a shot of him shaking hands with David Beckham before the England-Argentina friendly he reffed in 2005. In the photo, Beckham's speech bubble had him saying, ''I hope you are just as impartial in the state parliament as you were on the soccer […]