[YOUTH] U.S. Youth Soccer ODP girls teams are participating in an international tournament, beginning Thursday in San Jose, Costa Rica. The four regional teams are made up of U-15 and U-16 players to compete against the U-17 national teams of Trinidad & Tobago and Costa Rica and the U-20 national teams of Chile and Honduras. For complete rosters …
Category: Story
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Cristiano Ronaldo, a man for all situations
[UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE] Whether he plays wide or in the middle, whether it’s up front or in midfield, whether it’s on the ground or in the air, there’s no stopping Cristiano Ronaldo. The 23-year-old Portuguese star scored his 10th goal in his last 11 appearances in Europe and 36 goals in all competitions this season to lead Manchester United past Roma, 2-0, in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League quarterfinal series on Tuesday in Rome.
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Teen Bojan, a pleasure to watch
[UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE] True to its principles, Barcelona went to Germany with the idea to attack Schalke 04, and, sure enough, scored an early goal by 17-year-old Bojan Krkic that held up for a 1-0 victory in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League quarterfinal series on Tuesday. His goal made him the second youngest player to score in the Champions League.
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Raw beef not good idea for Korean team
[OFF THE POST] A K-League game was postponed after players from Gwangju Sangmu suffered severe food poisoning from a dish of raw beef mixed with rice served at a popular restaurant in Gwangju during their team meal. “This is the first time an incident like this has caused a delay in games,” said a K-League official.
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D.C. downed in Mexico
[GAME REPORT] If Luis Montes isn’t a regular starter for Pachuca, D.C. United players and coaches would like to know why. In the Concacaf Champions Cup Wednesday night at Estadio Hildago, he came on as a halftime substitute and proved to be the perfect focal point for an attack that couldn’t stop squandering chances.
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MLS champ Houston has some holes to fill
[PREVIEW] The 2007 MLS champion has yet to hit its stride and is in the midst of a stretch that would be tough for any team, even one that has all its players healthy and available. The Dynamo is missing a few bodies for its semifinal, first leg encounter with Deportivo Saprissa of Costa Rica in the Concacaf Champions Cup Wednesday (10 p.m. ET, Fox Soccer Channel), but it could have two players added from the squad that lost in feeble fashion to New England, 3-0, in its MLS opener last weekend.
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Ruiz injury adds to Galaxy woes
[MLS] The life of Galaxy coach Ruud Gullit isn’t going quite the way he hoped it would. At the tail end of a 4-0 thumping in Colorado Saturday night that marked Gullit’s coaching debut in MLS, the Rapids’ Ciaran O’Brien crashed into Carlos Ruiz from behind. The tackle removed both players from the game; O’Brien with a red card and Ruiz hobbling from a knee injury that Tuesday required arthroscopic surgery.
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Deep Revs re-group for Chicago
[MLS] If any MLS team might be well-prepared to lose two of its best players, it’s New England, which takes on Chicago Thursday in the first game of the ESPN2 doubleheader (7:30 p.m. ET) minus Taylor Twellman and Steve Ralston.
Posted inSoccer America Magazine, Story
JP takes the lead in MLS TV booth
Longtime play-by-play man JP Dellacamera goes full-time with MLS and U.S. Soccer
Posted inSoccer America Magazine, Story
Major League Soccer Gets a Kick
A steady stream of encouraging developments marked the latest MLS offseason.
Posted inSoccer America Magazine, Story
Measuring Youth Development Progress
MLS expansion challenges American youth soccer to produce exceptional players at a higher rate.
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
L.A.’s Galactic Mess
Along with his other opening weekend notes, ESPN’s Jeff Carlisle has plenty to say about the L.A. Galaxy’s humiliating 4-0 loss to what looked like a Colorado Rapids reserve squad. Sure, a poor penalty decision changed the game, but the greater problem, Carlisle says, is that L.A. quit. “If one bad call in Commerce City […]
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
McBride Interested in Olympic Return
Soccer By Ives is reporting that Fulham forward Brian McBride may come out of a two-year retirement with the U.S. national team in order to play with the U-23s at the Summer Olympics in Beijing. According to the report, McBride, 35, has been in discussions with Olympic team coach Peter Nowak about being one of […]
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
Revs’ Gambians Leave Favorable Impression
Saturday night was quite a coming out party for the New England Revolution’s Gambian pair, Kenny Mansally and Sainey Nyassi, says the Boston Globe’s Frank Dell’Apa. The 19-year-olds each played a part in the Revs’ 3-0 thumping of 2007 MLS champ Houston, and will likely retain their starting spot for Thursday’s visit to Chicago. Nyassi […]
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
United Forced to Fight the Odds Against Pachuca
D.C. United and the Houston Dynamo, Major League Soccer’s Concacaf Champions Cup representatives, had poor showings over the weekend in their league debut, losing 2-0 and 3-0, respectively. Of course, it’s no secret that both teams had bigger fish to fry: United has a Champions Cup semifinal date at 7,900 feet with the competition’s defending […]
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
Roma, Barcelona without Key Players For CL Quarterfinals
Manchester United and Schalke will be lifted by the news that both Roma and Barcelona will be missing key players for their respective Champions League quarterfinal first-leg clashes. Roma will be without talismanic captain Francesco Totti, who tore a muscle against Cagliari over the weekend. “The team loses in percentage terms for the extraordinary things […]
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D.C. renews USA-Mexico club rivalry
Only one MLS team will face Mexican opposition in the Concacaf Champions’ Cup semifinals this year, with D.C. United drawing the short straw to face defending champion Pachuca on Tuesday. Houston, which was eliminated by Pachuca in last year’s semis, opens its two-game semifinal series against Deportivo Saprissa of Costa Rica Wednesday at Robertson Stadium, which is a formidable enough task. Yet D.C. is facing a tough opponent that plays at altitude and has been winning domestic and international trophies regularly for the past two years.
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Player attacks ball boy and fan
[OFF THE POST] Gustavo Semino of Chilean club Huachipato was red-carded for pushing a ball boy and then punched a field-invading fan. Semino, whose strike reportedly knocked a tooth out of the fan’s mouth, was apprehended by police and arrested, as was the fan.
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Hugo Sanchez gets the boot
[MEXICO] Hugo Sanchez, whose 16-month stint as Mexican national team coach included two losses to the USA and one tie with the archrival, has been fired. Sanchez’s ousting comes two weeks after he failed to qualify Mexico for the 2008 Olympic Games.
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Beckham to appear on Jay Leno Show
[TV] David Beckham, who earlier in March was featured on “60 Minutes,” will appear on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” on Tuesday (NBC, 11:35 pm ET/PT)
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U.S. women headed to Juarez
[WOMEN’S OLYMPIC QUALIFYNG] U.S. women’s national team head coach Pia Sundhage named her 20-player roster for 2008 Concacaf Olympic women’s qualifying tournament that begins Wednesday in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. The squad includes four relative newcomers who spent last fall playing in the U.S. college ranks — Rachel Buehler, Tobin Heath, Lauren Cheney and Amy Rodriguez — and Kacey White, whom Sundhage knows from having spent two years playing club ball in Sweden.
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UEFA Champions League TV Schedule
The UEFA Champions League moves into the quarterfinals with games Tuesday and Wednesday this week and next. Action kicks off Tuesday with a pair of games: Roma-Manchester United and Schalke-Barcelona. For all this week’s Champions League action …
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Fenerbahce dances to samba beat
[IN THE SPOTLIGHT] Brazilians have long had a big impact in countries like Portugal, Spain, Italy and France, but their influence has now spread to countries like Turkey, where Fenerbahce, coached by former Brazilian great Zico, is expected to start five Brazilians on Wednesday when it hosts Chelsea in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League quarterfinal series.