Category: Story

[WPS] Both the Los Angeles Sol and Washington Freedom, who will play in Sunday’s Women’s Professional Soccer game, are awaiting clearances on their respective French signings, Camille Abily (Los Angeles) and Sonia Bompastor (Washington), whose move to the United States has touched off controversy at their French club Lyon, in part because their departure comes on the eve of the UEFA Women’s Cup semifinals.

During a conversation last week MLS commissioner Don Garber refuted a suggestion that the international calendar in 2009 was so crowded with World Cup qualifiers, Confederations Cup, and Gold Cup commitments there wouldn’t be much room left for club matches. “Believe it or not, it seems the consumer has an insatiable appetite for international exhibition matches,” said Garber. “There will be many, many played in the U.S. this summer, with [Guadalajara], Barcelona, Chelsea, [AC] Milan. It will be very busy.”

[MLS] Obviously, the Galaxy shouldn’t have been awarded a penalty kick when a ball bounced off the underside of defender Rodney Wallace’s leg and not his arm in its 2-2 tie with D.C. United Sunday, but should referee Jair Marrufo have given a penalty earlier when Christian Gomez and Dema Kovalenko got tangled up at the edge of the penalty area?

[MLS] FC Dallas signed goalie Dario Sala to a new contract last year, yet backup Ray Burse will be the starter for the short-term.

[MLS] Swedish attacker Freddie Ljungberg, whom the Seattle Sounders signed as a Designated Player at $1.31 million before they even hired Coach Sigi Schmid, is set to play on Saturday against Real Salt Lake in what would be his first competitive match since the 2008 European Championship.

[IN THESE TIMES] La Liga club Villarreal is offering unemployed season-ticket holders free passes in 2009-10. “Season-ticket holders who are on the dole will be allowed in free next year,” said club president Fernando Roig said on Tuesday.

[HEXAGONAL] U.S. attacker Landon Donovan‘s two-and-a-half month loan stint ended in time for him to rejoin the Los Angeles Galaxy for its MLS opener against D.C. United and he scored twice in the 2-2 comeback tie. Now he looks forward to World Cup qualifying games at El Salvador on Saturday (TV: ESPN2, TeleFutura, live, 9 pm ET) and Trinidad & Tobago April 1 (TV: April 1, live, 7:30 p.m. ET/6:30 p.m. CT, ESPN2 and Galavision).

[HEXAGONAL] Members of El Salvador’s national team resumed training on Monday in San Salvador for Saturday’s critical World Cup 2010 qualifier against the USA at Estadio Cuscatlan (TV: ESPN2, TeleFutura, live, 9 pm ET). Their Mexican coach, Carlos De los Cobos, admitted that valuable training was lost when the players went on strike last week in a dispute over unpaid bonuses, but he added they have a week to get ready for the game against the Americans.

[HEXAGONAL] Trinidad & Tobago coach Francisco Maturana has called in nine European-based players for World Cup 2010 qualifiers against Honduras and the United States (TV: April 1, live, 7:30 p.m. ET/6:30 p.m. CT, ESPN2 and Galavision). The squad includes goalie Clayton Ince and Chris Birchall, who are both suspended for the Honduras game but will be eligible to face the USA, but it does not include captain Dwight Yorke, whose four-game suspension by FIFA (for his red card for dissent against El Salvador in the Hexagonal opener) is currently being appealed.

[WORLD CUP 2010 QUALIFYING] David Beckham can break the England record for most games played by a field player if he plays in one of England’s upcoming games — a friendly against Slovakia on March 28 and a World Cup qualifier against Ukraine on April 1.

[AMERICANS ABROAD] Marcus Tracy, the 2008 MAC Hermann Trophy winner out of Wake Forest, scored his first pro goal – Aalborg’s gamewinner in a 3-2 victory over FC Midtjylland in the Danish first division.

[MLS] Not for a few years will it be known if aggressive expansion by MLS owners in the five-year period from 2007 to 2011 is brazen or brilliant, or both. By adding Toronto, San Jose, Seattle, Philadelphia, Vancouver and Portland in that span, assuming all goes as planned, the league will have increased its membership sharply from 12 to 18 teams. It will have banked more than $150 million in expansion fees, greatly expanded its national TV footprint, and added some of North America’s largest markets. Soccer America’s Ridge Mahoney spoke to MLS Commissioner Don Garber about the league’s growth amid economic crisis.

[HEXAGONAL] In Miami, where the climate is close to the high-80s expected in San Salvador on Saturday, 15 of the players of the USA’s 22-man roster started training for its second game of the final round of World Cup qualifying.

[OFF THE POST] Within a week in England, former Celtic and Blackburn star Chris Sutton stormed onto the field of his son’s U-14 game and swore at the ref, and former Scotland international Graeme Souness got profane at his son’s U-10 game. Souness downplayed his behavior, but admitted he swore at a coach and told a “very unattractive woman” to shut up.