Category: Soccer America Site

Perennial underachiever Santa Clara toughens up its beautiful game and finally wins a national championship. It all made sense, finally, two years ago. Jerry Smith, the women’s coach at Santa Clara University, had assembled the finest in a series of spectacularly talented Bronco squads, one that mowed down everything on its path toward certain coronation. […]

Midfielder Aly Wagner, the centerpiece of a spectacular Santa Clara squad that captured the NCAA Division I women’s soccer championship in 2001, has been selected Player of the Year by Soccer America magazine. Wagner, a junior playmaker from San Jose, Calif., scored 17 goals — including a tremendous blast to the upper-left corner that beat […]

MLS investor Ken Horowitz participated in a press conference call hours after the Jan. 8 announcement of the leagueÆs folding his franchise, the Miami Fusion. Here are selected quotes from Horowitz: Ken Horowitz: Opening comments: “This decision literally came down to Friday, just a few days ago, and it was a very difficult decision. We […]

MLS deputy commissioner Ivan Gazidis participated in a press conference call hours after the Jan. 8 announcement of the leagueÆs folding his franchise, the Miami Fusion. Here are selected quotes from the deputy commissioner: Ivan Gazidis On the status of players under contract who are not selected in the dispersal draft: “Those players would be […]

MLS Commissioner Don Garber participated in a press conference call hours after the Jan. 8 announcement of the leagueÆs folding of its Florida franchises Tampa Bay and Miami. Here are selected quotes from the commissioner: Don Garber: Opening comments: “Earlier this morning we announced to the staffs of the Tampa Bay Mutiny and the Miami […]

The Tampa Bay Mutiny and the Miami Fusion are no longer. After more than a month of speculation that Major League Soccer would contract for the 2002 season, Commissioner Don Garber announced on Tuesday (Jan. 8) that Tampa Bay and Miami will immediately cease operations. MLS also announced that it is in continuing negotiations with […]

Hours after MLS announced the folding of the Miami Fusion, its coach, Ray Hudson, was named coach of D.C. United. Hudson replaces Thomas Rongen, whose contract was not renewed after the 2001 season marked his second consecutive failure to take D.C. United to the playoffs. Hudson compiled a 16-5-5 regular-season record with the Fusion last […]

American Brian Hall was among the 36 referees named by FIFA for duty at the 2002 World Cup. The 41-year-old Californian was one of five referees picked from the CONCACAF region. No American was among the 36 assistant referess (four from CONCACAF) selected for next summer’s tournament. The 36 refs selected hail from 36 different […]

U.S. World Cup opponent South Korea will be the first team to arrive for the Gold Cup when it travels to San Diego Jan. 8 for 10 days of training. Guus Hiddink’s preliminary list of 30 players included German-based Shim Jae Won (Eintracht Frankfort, Germany) and J-League players Yoo Sang Chul, Hwang Sun Hong and […]

Cuba, the second U.S. opponent at the Gold Cup, fell to Guatemala, 1-0, in the first of two exhibition games in Havana. Carlos Ruiz had the only goal for Guatemala in a match that attracted 3,000 fans at Pedro Marrero Stadium. Cuba-Guatemala lineups: Cuba: Odelin Molina, Livan Perez (Lazaro Dalcourt), Alexander Cruzata, Mario Pedraza, Alexander […]

Joe-Max Moore and his club, Everton, advanced in the English FA Cup, Gregg Berhalter and Jovan Kirovski were eliminated along with Crystal Palace while goalkeepers Brad Friedel and Kasey Keller must yet play a match to see if they move to the fourth round of the competition. The teams of other Americans in Europe were […]

Referees Referee Assistants ASIA BUJSAIM Ali UAE AL-TRAIFI Ali KSA KAMIKAWA Toru JPN AWANG HAMAT Mat Lazim MAS KIM Young Joo KOR KOLEIT Haidar LIB LU Jun CHN KRISHNAN Visva Nathan SIN MANE Saad Kamel KUW HASSOUNEH Awni JOR — SAEED Mohamed MDV — SANKAR Komaleeswaran IND AFRICA CODJIA Coffi BEN ADJENGUI Taoufik TUN DAAMI […]

Gold Cup organizers got bad news before Christmas. Any hope of getting big crowds for the Gold Cup’s return to the Rose Bowl went by the wayside when Mexico announced plans to send a “B” team. The Mexican federation will leave its stars at home in return for an agreement with First Division clubs to […]

Costa Rica, which won the Hexagonal, is pulling out all the stops to win its first Gold Cup. Ticos coach Alexandre Guimaraes called up 23 players for his Gold Cup training camp, and only two players are newcomers: Max Sanchez and Pablo Camacho, both from Santos. Star Paulo Cesar Wanchope (Manchester City) will join the […]

New U.S. U-20 coach Thomas Rongen gathered his team yesterday for the first time for an 11-day camp in Chula Vista, Calif., that will include a match against the Canadian U-20s on Jan. 9. The U.S. will also face three regional teams at the ARCO Olympic Training Center. The training camp will be the first […]

Economic uncertainty, fearsome leases and the stigma of league-run teams draining millions of dollars per year sparked talk of shrinkage. For the past few years MLS executives occasionally declared their pride in having moved or folded no teams. That perfect record is in great jeopardy. In November and December were held the most serious discussions […]

Two European-based veterans who arenÆt seeing playing time for their clubs and 26 MLS players make up the 28-man roster Coach Bruce Arena has named to train for the 2002 CONCACAF Gold Cup (Jan. 18-Feb. 2 in Pasadena and Miami). Frankie Hejduk, who hasnÆt played a game for his German club, Bayer Leverkusen, in the […]

D.C. United midfielder Ben Olsen is set to undergo additional minor surgery on his right ankle. Dr. Mark Myerson will perform the procedure Friday at Union Memorial Hospital in Baltimore, Md. The surgery is necessary as a result of tendonitis and will delay Olsen’s return to full training with United until the beginning of February. […]

The U.S. U-23 national team will train with the U.S. national team preparing for the Gold Cup. The U-23s, who include 11 members of last year’s U-20 team that reached the round of 16 at the World Youth Championship, will have an eight-day training camp in Claremont, Calif., from Jan. 5-12. Also in camp are […]

Eighteen teams will compete in 2002 — a reduction of two from the 2001 season. The Calgary Storm, which finished second in the Premier Development League last season in preparation for its move to the A-League, debuts, and the Hampton Road Mariners return in place of the Nashville Metros. Also gone are the Long Island […]

How will the United States fare against its three first-round opponents: Portugal, co-host South Korea and Poland. Here's your chance to predict the U.S. first-round results at Korea/Japan 2002.

Here are the results of the December poll in which 2,065 fans predicted how the United States will do at the World Cup. More than 60 percent said the Americans would reach at the least the second round. The United States will … Lose all three games in group play – 108 – 5.2% Gain […]

Brazil had to go down to its final game against Venezuela before qualifying for the 2002 World Cup. Still, there’s few who believe the four-time World Cup champion won’t be a factor next year. BRAZIL A force to be reckoned with Brazil is through to the World Cup, its record of having qualified for every […]

MLS has purchased the English-language television rights in the United States for the next two FIFA World Cups (Japan/Korea 2002 and Germany 2006) from the Kirch Group, and will produce, package and sell the programming. The arrangement also includes the English-language domestic television rights to the 2003 Women’s World Cup to be held in China. […]

In his fifth match with his new club Sunderland, U.S. midfielder Claudio Reyna injured his ankle during a 1-1 tie with Aston Villa on New Year’s Day. Kasey Keller, meanwhile, picked up his first victory with Tottenham at the expense of fellow U.S. goalkeeper Brad Friedel and Blackburn. Friedel was beaten by a close-range header […]