A pair of former MLS players nabbed game-winning goals for their respective countries in two very important games recently. On Sunday, former Colorado and San Jose striker Junior Agogo sent Ghana into the African Nations Cup semifinals with a goal against Nigeria seven minutes from time. Then on Thursday, Alain Nkong, another former Rapids player, […]
Category: Story
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
2008 Schedule Kinder to the Galaxy
Major League Soccer released its 2008 schedule on Thursday, once again ignoring the international calendar. U.S. and other internationals would now miss games the weekends of Sept. 6-7 and Oct. 11-12. Each team plays a total of 30 games, playing home and away games against each of the league’s 13 teams in addition to an […]
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
Big Clubs Face Key Injuries for Weekend Clashes
European league play resumes this weekend, but an inordinate number of key players will be missing for some of the bigger clubs. AC Milan is arguably the hardest hit by the injury bug. Having already endured a terrible first half of the season, Milan will now be without World Player of the Year Kaka and […]
Posted inSoccer on TV., Story
Soccer on TV
Americans face off in the English Premier League on Saturday when Everton (Tim Howard) hosts Reading (Marcus Hahnemann & Bobby Convey). Also on slate are derbies from England (Manchester United-Manchester City) and Mexico (Atlas-Guadalajara). Bayern Munich meets Werder Bremen in a battle of German Bundesliga leaders. Argentina’s Torneo Clausura kicks off this weekend.
Posted inCollege Soccer Reporter, Story
Western Kentucky drops men’s soccer
Paul Kennedy examines the move
Last Friday is a day the members of Western Kentucky University’s men’s soccer program won’t soon forget. Assembled in the weight room for their regularly schedule workout, they were told by Coach David Holmes that Western Kentucky President Gary Ransdell and Athletic Director Wood Selig wanted to meet with them immediately. Holmes’ players were then blindsided with the news that their soccer careers at WKU were over. The school became the latest to drop men’s soccer.
Posted inCollege Soccer Reporter, Story
Death knell for Hartwick’s D1 men’s program
These are hard times for soccer in the town they call Soccer Town USA. Four years after soccer supporters and alumni staved off an attempt to eliminate Division I men’s soccer at Hartwick, one of college soccer’s most storied men’s programs, trustees at the Oneonta, N.Y., school will meet on Saturday to consider a new plan to eliminate athletic scholarships and switch men’s soccer and nationally ranked women’s water polo to Division III in 2009. This time, the move is considered a fait accompli.
Posted inCollege Soccer Reporter, Story
Discontinued NCAA Division I Men’s Programs (1991-2008)
[MAKING A LIST] Western Kentucky became the 18th Division I school to drop its men’s soccer program in the last 18 years.
Posted inCollege Soccer Reporter, Story
Greg Ryan gets Michigan women’s job
Greg Ryan, who lost of once in 55 games as U.S. women’s national team coach, has been named Michigan’s new women’s coach. “I think it is a program that has a great upside,” said Ryan, who replaces Debbie Rademacher, who started Big Blue women’s soccer and resigned in November after 14 years at the helm.
Posted inCollege Soccer Reporter, Story
NCAA Division I Men’s & Women’s Coaching Changes
Vermont selected Kwame Lloyd, the head coach at Division III Christopher Newport , as the Catamounts’ new women’s head coach. Former American University star Michael Brady left his alma mater, where he was the women’s coach, to become John Kerr Jr.’s assistant at Duke. For all the coaching moves …
Posted inCollege Soccer Reporter, Story
UCSB adds Barrera and Dominguez
[RECRUITING] UC Santa Barbara moved quickly to replace attacking midfielders Eric Avila and Ciaran O’Brien, who left early to sign with MLS, when it signed Danny Barrera and Bryan Dominguez to national letters of intent.
Posted inCollege Soccer Reporter, Story
Oregon lands Canadian national team player
Canadian national team player Julie Armstrong highlights a class of five women’s players who signed letters of intent to play for Oregon.
Posted inCollege Soccer Reporter, Story
Shattuck-St. Mary’s players sign at national powers
Seven players signed national letters of intent on Wednesday from Shattuck-St. Mary’s School, the Minnesota boarding school that offers a full-time residential program for soccer players.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Tweaked format highlights 2008 schedule
[MLS] A stadium delay in San Jose, a revamping of its scheduling format, and the usual issues of conflicts and TV considerations forced MLS to push back the release of its 2008 schedule until Thursday.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Phenom De Guzman’s snub is only latest insult
[CANADA] Canada’s national team program took another knock when 20-year-old Jonathan De Guzman, considered one of international soccer’s hottest prospects, decided to play for the Netherlands instead of Canada, for which his older brother, Julian, is a key player.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
French rights fees approach $1 billion a year
[TV WATCH] France’s Ligue 1 has many structural weaknesses that make the French domestic game lag behind that of other major European countries. Despite its weaknesses, the French league (LFP) will earn almost $1 billion a year in television revenue. Driving the big money offered in bidding that concluded this week is the multi-media marketing tactic of bundling familiar to American consumers but now being introduced by France Telecom.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Ex-Rapid Nkong leads Cameroon into finals
[AFRICAN NATIONS CUP] In only his second international match, former Colorado Rapids midfielder Alain Nkong became an instant national hero when his second-half goal gave Cameroon a 1-0 win over host Ghana in the semifinals of the African Nations Cup on Thursday. Egypt completed a day of upsets when the defending champion knocked off red-hot Ivory Coast, 4-1, in the other semifinal.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
National High School Winter Rankings
Miami’s Varela High School remained No. 1 in the NSCAA/adidas High School Winter Rankings for boys, while Florida’s American Heritage (30-0-0) remained No. 1 in the girls rankings. For the boys and girls rankings …
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
International Weekend TV Schedule
This weekend’s action includes the Manchester United-Manchester City clash that will mark the 50th anniversary of the Munich air disaster in which the crash’s 23 victims included eight United players and a former City goalkeeper. Bayern Munich meets Werder Bremen in a battle of German Bundesliga leaders. Argentina’s Torneo Clausura kicks off this weekend. For all the weekend international action …
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
The unique case of American fandom
Mike Woitalla reports from Houston
Of the more than 40 national team games played across the world on Wednesday, only England’s game at Wembley drew a larger crowd than the USA’s 2-2 tie with Mexico in Houston, where a sellout crowd of 70,103 set a U.S. national team record for ticket sales income. Soccer America’s Mike Woitalla checked out the fans in Texas.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
2008 MLS Schedule
Major League Soccer’s national networks — ESPN2/ESPN Deportes and ABC, Fox Soccer Channel/Fox Sports en Espanol, HDNet and TeleFutura — will combine to broadcast 113 games. Each of the 14 clubs will play 30 regular-season games over 31 weeks. The 2008 season kicks off March 29, and regular season ends on Oct. 26.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
New York’s Osorio reviews large cast
[MLS TEAM PREVIEWS] Roster returnees from last year? Bring ’em all. Draft picks, ditto. Mini-camp survivors? Book ’em, flights to Southern California that is. Three dozen players are going through the regimens of Red Bulls head coach Juan Carlos Osorio at Home Depot Center, and by next week he’ll have trimmed the squad to make room for a few more players, not counting Jozy Altidore, who scored a goal in his first national-team start in the 2-2 tie with Mexico Wednesday.
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
Classic USA-Mexico Encounter Bows New Generation
SI.com’s Grant Wahl offers five takeaways from Wednesday’s 2-2 draw between the USA and Mexico at Reliant Stadium in Houston. Firstly, Wahl says, the next generation has arrived — for both teams. Jozy Altidore, scorer of the Americans’ second goal with a brilliant header, “never looked out of place going the entire 90 minutes.” Altidore […]
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
EPL Clubs Agree to Overseas League Games
The English Premier League’s 20 clubs on Thursday agreed to a proposal that would see each team play games in cities across the world over one weekend in January, beginning in 2011. This would be an extra match, bringing the total number of Premier League matches to 39. Teams would randomly draw a venue but […]
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
Capello Justifies Beckham, Owen Omissions
England coach Fabio Capello reiterated that caps won’t be handed out lightly after reporters questioned him on the omission of longtime England regulars David Beckham and Michael Owen from Wednesday night’s 2-1 victory over Switzerland at Wembley. England prevailed against Switzerland after a nervy opening half hour during which England’s fans booed the team and […]
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
Derby’s Mysterious American Owners
Derby County’s new ownership situation looks increasingly unclear, says the Guardian’s David Conn. Detroit-based General Sports & Entertainment bought the club a few weeks ago, promising to turn Derby County into “a global brand.” The group’s president, Andy Appleby, owns 93 percent of the club’s shares “on behalf of GSE.” However, Appleby later said that […]