Category: Story
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story

Soccer America Men’s Weekend College Scoreboard

by Soccer America

[COLLEGE] No. 3 UCLA improved to 5-1-0 with a 3-0 win over  visiting Air Force. The Bruins got two second-half goals from senior Kyle Nakazawa. No. 4 California and No. 5 South Florida rebounded from losses on Friday night to pick up wins on Sunday over Air Force (3-0) and Pitt (2-1), respectively. Four more Top 25 teams fell to unranked teams, bringing the weekend total to 13. Portland edged No. 14 Creighton, 2-1. No. 17 N.C. State fell at Virginia Tech, 2-0. Penn State snapped No. 18 Michigan’s winning streak at seven games with a 2-0 win, while No. 25 Wisconsin-Green Bay lost for the first time this season when it fell at Butler, 2-1. For all the Sunday action …

Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story

Soccer America Women’s Weekend College Scoreboard

by Soccer America

[COLLEGE] Top-ranked Stanford improved to 10-0-0 with a 1-0 at St. Mary’s in a game played in 100-degree temperatures. No. 2 North Carolina rediscovered its scoring touch and made easy work of No. 17 Wake Forest, 4-0. In another ACC match involving Top 25 teams, No. 6 Florida State handed No. 3 Boston College its first loss of the season with a 3-2. The visiting Eagles twice came back from one-goal deficits, but sophomore Jessica Price won the game for the Seminoles with her seventh goal of the season in the 73rd minute. Top 25 teams to fall to unranked teams were No. 9 Maryland (2-0 at Miami, Fla.), No. 10 Santa Clara (2-0 at home to USC), No. 19 Indiana (3-2 at Wisconsin on sophomore Laurie Nosbusch‘s hat trick), No. 21 Texas A&M (3-2 at Oklahoma) and No. 25 UCF (1-0 at home to Memphis). For all Sunday’s action …

Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story

United overpowers Marathon to edge toward second round

by Soccer America

[CONCACAF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE] Luciano Emilio, thwarted several times in the first half, scored twice after the break to lead D.C. United past Honduran club Marathon, 3-0, in the regional championship Thursday at RFK Stadium. By winning, United pulled into a second-place tie with Marathon in Group B. Both teams have 2-0-2 (W-T-L) records and six points with two games to play. Mexican club Toluca (4-0-0, 12 points) increased its lead atop the group Wednesday by slamming San Juan Jabloteh (0-0-4) of Trinidad & Tobago, 3-0.

Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story

Seattle rewarded for big crowds

by Ridge Mahoney

[MLS] Perhaps the new marketing slogan for MLS should be, “If you sell tickets, TV will come.” Spectacular season-ticket sales in Seattle prompted MLS to open its season at Qwest Field last March on a Thursday night, and the league will return there next spring. Opening day of the 2010 season will set the Sounders — who are averaging 30,739 this season — against the expansion Philadelphia Union, whose own home opener on April 10 – and perhaps several other home games – will be played at Lincoln Financial Field while work is completed on its stadium in Chester, Pa.

Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story

Three hopefuls host vital home games

by Ridge Mahoney

[MLS PREDICTIONS] With five weeks of the season to go, no team has clinched a playoff spot. Western Conference leader Houston will sit idle as New England, Kansas City and Chivas USA get a chance to improve their playoff fortunes at home. Maybe this is the week the Galaxy can overtake the idle Dynamo for first place in the Western Conference, but only a win at defending champion Columbus can do the trick, and the Crew has yet to lose at home this season. Also needing results on the road are Real Salt Lake (Dallas), Toronto FC (Chicago), Colorado (Kansas City), and Seattle (New England). For an outline of the playoff race, Ridge Mahoney’s weekend predictions and TV info …

Posted inCollege Soccer Reporter, Story

Don’t count out Penn State yet

by Soccer America

WOMEN’S NEWS … Penn State’s 0-0 tie with Bucknell left it with a 4-4-1 record heading into Big Ten play against No. 13 Michigan State on Sunday (TV: Big Ten Network, live, 12 pm ET). It isn’t where the Nittany Lions, ranked sixth in the Soccer America Preseason Top 25 would like to be, but they have played the toughest schedule in the country.

Penn State has already beaten two Top 25 teams, No. 14 Virginia and No. 16 Connecticut, and its two other wins are over Boston University, which won the 2008 America East title, and James Madison, which reached the final 16 in the 2008 NCAA Tournament. The Lions lost to three teams in this week’s Top 25, No. 6 Florida State, No. 17 Wake Forest and No. 20 Rutgers, and the fourth loss was to West Virginia, which had been ranked every week up and until this week.

Soccer America MVP Alyssa Naeher extended her shutout streak in goal to 334 minutes, but the Nittany Lions cannot buy a goal. They had 30 shots against Bucknell but couldn’t score. The Lions would have lost but Bucknell’s Christa Matlack hit the post after she had dribbled around the sprawling Naeher.

Scoring has been the Lions’ problem. They only have 11 goals in nine games. Katie Schoepfer, who entered the season with 34 goals for Penn State, has scored only once in nine games.

Wednesday’s Results

* LOBOS REMAIN UNBEATEN. One of the hottest teams in women’s soccer is New Mexico, which matched its win total of each of the last four seasons with its eighth victory (to go along with two ties) in a 3-1 victory over Northern Colorado on Wednesday.

Sophomore Jennifer Williams has been a big factor in the Lobos’ success. Her goal 235 seconds into Wednesday’s game was her sixth gamewinner of the season. The biggest win of the season came last Sunday when the Lobos won at Texas, 1-0, thanks to — you guessed it — another Williams goal.

Coach Kit Vela was particularly impressed how her players responded after the disappointment of tying Rice, 1-1, two days earlier when they gave up a goal in the 88th minute. “They played hard for 90 minutes,” she said, “and never let down.”

Posted inCollege Soccer Reporter, Story

Another ACC power gets scare

by Paul Kennedy

MEN’S NEWS … Like North Carolina, Maryland, Duke and Virginia the day before, Wake Forest made things hard on itself in its mid-week non-conference test. Corben Bone broke a 1-1 tie in the 53rd minute to lift the No. 9 Demon Deacons to a 2-1 victory against Elon on Wednesday night. But for a couple of great saves by Wake keeper Akira Fitzgerald, the Phoenix could have tied the score.
 
— Next up for Wake Forest is another non-conference game on Saturday against No. 6 Harvard. The Crimson improved to 6-0-0 with a 1-0 win at New Hampshire on Wednesday. Freshman Brian Rogers, who had the goal against UNH, has complemented All-American Andre Akpan beautifully up front. Rogers, who had started as an eighth-grader for his high school team in Bronxville, N.Y., already has four goals and three assists.

* BACK IN GOAL. During UMBC’s 8-0-0 start, much of the attention has been focused on Andrew Bulls and Levi Houapeu, who have combined for 18 goals. But one of the unsung stars has been freshman goalie Phil Saunders. He wasn’t even the starting goalie last year at Maryland’s Perry Hall High School — the starter was Zach Kane, now at Loyola (Md.) — but Saunders’ play with the Baltimore Bays caught the attention of UMBC coach Pete Caringi. “He played the last year of high school as a back and made all-state,” Caringi told the Catonsville Times, “but we knew he was probably the best goalkeeper in the state.”

Wednesday’s Results

* HAT TRICK HERO. Justin Meram, one of the many stars from JC juggernaut Yavapai now scattered across the country, had his first hat trick in No. 18 Michigan’s 5-1 victory over Bowling Green on Wednesday night. After being blown out by Notre Dame, 5-1, on opening day, the Wolverines have been unstoppable. The triumph was their seventh straight — and fifth straight by two or more goals.

Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story

Under-20 World Cup TV Schedule

by Soccer America

[TELEVISION WATCH] The USA’s three group games at the Under-20 World Cup will air live on television, beginning with Saturday’s game against Germany on ESPN Classic (9:55 am ET) and Spanish-language Galavision (9:55 am ET/PT). The ESPN networks will broadcast seven games live and Galavision will air 12 games live or delayed. In addition, all games will be available live online at espn360.com. For the complete schedule …

Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story

Ronaldo, Kaka and Ibra all on target

by Paul Kennedy

[SPAIN] Real Madrid remained perfect when it defeated short-handed Villarreal, 2-0, Wednesday night in Manuel Pellegrini‘s first trip back to El Madrigal since taking over as the Real coach. Real, which kept pace with Barcelona, a 4-1 winner over Racing Santander on Tuesday night, got a great solo goal from Cristiano Ronaldo — his fifth in four La Liga games — and a penalty kick from Kaka — his first goal with Real.

Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story

Players to watch at Egypt ’09

by Paul Kennedy

[UNDER-20 WORLD CUP] Jozy Altidore and Freddy Adu are not in Egypt. Nor is Brazilian star Alexandre Pato. Or Spain’s Bojan Krkic. Or Italy’s Davide Santon. The Under-20 World Cup will kick off Thursday without many of the best players eligible for FIFA’s oldest world youth championship. Here’s a look at some of the stars who will on display …

Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story

A deja vu disappointment for Colorado

by Ridge Mahoney

[MLS] The team that had nothing to lose didn’t, and the team that needed to win also didn’t. Five days after a Conor Casey stoppage-time penalty kick resulted in a 1-1 tie between the Quakes and Rapids in California, the same scenario produced the same score in Colorado in front of a sparse crowd (6,234) smaller than the attendance (10,525) in San Jose last Friday night. The Rapids’ playoff quest, after getting only two points against the league’s second worst team in two games, looks a lot more challenging.

Gift this article