Category: Story

[MLS] Major League Soccer isn’t like American leagues such as the NFL and NBA, which have ready-made stars emerge from their drafts each year. The lack of young impact players is the most glaring weakness of American soccer, leaving MLS clubs to struggle to make use of the annual player draft. For evidence, one needs to look no further than the first round of the MLS SuperDraft. To date, eight of the 14 players taken in the first round of the 2008 MLS SuperDraft have yet to play while three other players have played a combined 27 minutes.

The Columbus Crew attack overran a vaunted Chivas USA defense last Saturday and rang up four goals — a mark it failed to reach in 30 games last year — to win, 4-3. Guillermo Barros Schelotto earned Player of the Week honors with a penalty-kick goal and two assists. All eyes will be on him this Thursday when he takes on Marcelo Gallardo and D.C. United in the first MLS matchup of these Argentine veterans, former stars for Boca Juniors and River Plate, respectively.

[NAMES & NUMBERS] The third weekend of play in Major League Soccer produced several wild affairs. The smallest MLS crowd in Columbus home history saw the Crew prevail, 4-3, over Chivas USA in a match that featured four goals in 11 minutes — and a pair of red cards in the next two minutes. Frenchman Laurent Robert won the battle of former EPL long-ball specialists handily over David Beckham as Toronto FC stunned Los Angeles, 3-2, on Sunday. Real Salt Lake exploded for its biggest victory in its history when it crushed D.C. United, 4-0. For all the MLS developments …

[EUROPEAN RACES] Manchester United knocked Arsenal out of the English Premier League race with a 2-1 win over Arsenal at Old Trafford on Sunday. Real Madrid (Spain) and Inter Milan (Italy) also moved closer to repeating as league champions, while Bayern Munich (Germany) opened up a double-digit lead in its bid to win the Bundesliga title. Lyon, winner of the last six French league titles, saw its lead over second-place Bordeaux fall to four points.

The third weekend of MLS action produced road victories for FC Dallas, Colorado and Toronto FC. For all the MLS summaries, standings, leading scorers and next week’s schedule …

[AMERICANS ABROAD] Brian McBride scored one goal and hit the woodwork on another shot as relegation candidate Fulham beat Reading, 2-0, for its first English Premier League on the road since September 2006.

[AMERICANS ABROAD] Joe Lapira, the 2006 Hermann Trophy winner for Notre Dame, scored his first two goals for Norwegian second division club Nybergsund in a 4-0 win over Bryne FK.

[MLS] John Guppy, who served as the Fire’s president and general manager for four years, became the second MLS club boss to depart in three days when he left the Fire on Friday. Red Bull New York managing director Marc de Grandpre resigned on Wednesday.

Rookie Dominic Cianciarulo scored his second goal of the game in stoppage time to give the Charleston Battery a 2-2 tie at the Miami FC Blues and spoil the coaching debut of Zinho, the 1994 Brazilian World Cup champion, on the opening day of the 2008 USL First Division season. The Vancouver Whitecaps opened the 2008 season with a 1-0 home victory over Canadians rival Montreal before a sellout crowd of 5,288.

[OLYMPIC WOMEN’S QUALIFYING] For the first time in 11 games since Pia Sundhage took over as head coach, the U.S. women’s national team didn’t earn an outright victory, but it managed to beat Canada in a shootout Saturday to win the 2008 Concacaf Olympic women’s qualifying tournament in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. The battle of Olympic finalists ended in a 1-1 tie (0-0 after 90 minutes), and the Americans prevailed, 6-5, on penalty kicks. The result ended the Americans’ perfect record of 27 wins in Concacaf competitions dating back to 1991.