Category: Story

Ridge Mahoney’s pre-draft analysis
Kansas City head coach Curt Onalfo, who holds the No. 1 pick in Friday’s MLS SuperDraft (TV: ESPN2, live, 2 pm ET), believes this year’s pool of players is relatively solid, yet readily admits his rival coaches might not share that opinion. For a look at what teams might take whom with the top picks …

[USA-SWEDEN] Two players have left camp and at least one other is injured, so the choices for U.S. coach Bob Bradley will be limited somewhat when he names his 18 players who will face Sweden Saturday at Home Depot Center (TV: Fox Soccer Channel, 8:30 p.m. ET).

Paul Kennedy updates WPS’s launch plans
After more than three years of work on the startup, a new women’s pro league moved one step closer to reality with Thursday’s announcement that it will be called Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS). “Today’s a day for celebration,” said Tanya Antonucci, the WPS commissioner who has overseen the project since being talked into it at a gathering of Stanford soccer alumni — she played for the Cardinal in the mid-1980s — shortly after she left Yahoo!, where she served as general manager of its World Cup partnership with FIFA. For details on WPS …

[PREVIEW] The 2008 African Nations Cup kicks off Sunday when host Ghana faces Guinea in Accra. With such international stars as the Black Stars’ Michael Essien, Ivory Coast’s Didier Drogba and Cameroon’s Samuel Eto’o, the African championship is now arguably the second most popular continental championship in the world behind the European Championship. It is certainly the most impactful. Dozens of players were reluctantly released by top-level clubs across Europe for the three-week tournament. For a look at the tournament, television information and our predictions ..

All 10 English Premier League games being played Saturday-Monday will be available on American television, included relegation-threatened Fulham hosting Arsenal on Saturday morning. All nine games from Mexico’s Clausura 2008, which kicks off Friday night, will also be available on U.S. outlets. La Liga action features the Villarreal-Valencia derby.

Zach Thornton, waived by Colorado after the 2007 season, has returned to New York, where he began his MLS career in 1996. For all the team-by-team MLS offseason player moves …

The Kansas City Wizards continued to clean out their backline when they dealt Jose Burciaga to Colorado for a second-round pick in the 2009 SuperDraft. The trade follows the deal that sent Nick Garcia to San Jose for the No. 1 pick in Friday’s SuperDraft. For all the team-by-team MLS offseason player moves …

[U.S. YOUTH ROSTERS] A new cycle for the U.S. under-20 national team begins Thursday in Bradenton, Fla., with the start of a mega-camp for players born in 1990. They will be joined on Sunday by 16 players — including Generation adidas signees Josh Lambo and Brek Shea — who will form the core of the team U-20 head coach Thomas Rongen is taking to the Copa Chivas that begins next week in Guadalajara, Mexico.

[ENGLAND] Havant & Waterlooville, which plays in the sixth level of English soccer, won Wednesday’s English FA Cup third-round replay with a 4-2 win over League One (third division) leader Swansea City to set up a date in the fourth round at Liverpool that could earn it $2 million in revenues

[EUROPE] It was a bad night for European powerhouses in domestic cup competitions.