Soccer America’s College Soccer Reporter today resumes its daily (Monday-Friday) frequency during the college season. Soccer contacts are requested to e-mail releases to Managing Editor Paul Kennedy at: paul@socceramerica.com Soccer America’s Top 25s will appear in each Monday’s College Soccer Reporter and at the College Soccer Reporter section at socceramerica.com Soccer America’s Players of the […]
Category: Story
Posted inCollege Soccer Reporter, Story
Soccer America Preseason Women’s Top 25
Defending champion North Carolina is No. 1 in Soccer America’s preseason women’s rankings, edging out Notre Dame and UCLA, which the Tar Heels beat in the final and semifinals, respectively, at the 2006 Women’s College Cup. WCC powers Portland and Santa Clara round out the Top 25. Read Thursday’s College Soccer Reporter for previews of all the teams in the Soccer America Top 25.
Posted inCollege Soccer Reporter, Story
Rennie to step down after 29 years at Duke
Duke head men’s coach John Rennie has announced that the 2007 season will be his last. Rennie built Duke into one of the elite programs in the country, earning the school’s first national championship in any sport in 1986 and leading his squad to five Men’s College Cups (1982, 1986, 1992, 1995 and 2004). Rennie’s Blue Devils have won five ACC titles, including back-to-back titles in 2005 and 2006.
Posted inCollege Soccer Reporter, Story
San Francisco loses Valentino with knee injury
San Francisco senior defender Rob Valentino, the 2006 West Coast Conference Player of the Year, will miss the 2007 season after having successful knee surgery. Valentino, who has led the Dons to the NCAA playoffs in all three of his seasons, was injured working out prior to the start of official practice and underwent surgery Saturday on his left knee. He is expected to have a complete recovery.
Posted inCollege Soccer Reporter, Story
Soccer America Preseason Men’s Top 25
UCLA, last year’s NCAA Division I runner-up, is No. 1 in Soccer America’s preseason men’s rankings. ACC teams Wake Forest and Duke are No. 2 and No. 3 respectively, followed by defending national champion UC Santa Barbara. Today’s College Soccer Reporter also features previews of the Top 25 teams, along with the latest news from preseason camps.
Posted inCollege Soccer Reporter, Story
UCLA has depth to withstand Zizzo exit and Estrada injury
[MEN’S TOP 25 PREVIEWS: 1-10] Top-ranked UCLA lost U.S. U-20 Sal Zizzo, who signed with German club Hannover, and won’t have Soccer America Freshman of the Year David Estrada for perhaps the first three weeks of the season, but the Bruins still have plenty of firepower.
Posted inCollege Soccer Reporter, Story
Former champions UConn and Indiana return to title hunt
[MEN’S TOP 25 PREVIEWS: 11-20] Connecticut (winner of two national titles) and Indiana (which captured the last of its seven national championships in 2004) are both looking to return to the Men’s College Cup after exiting prematurely during the 2006 postseason.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Beasley and Rangers return to Champions League
DaMarcus Beasley is returning to the Champions League. With the American winger a second-half substitute, Scottish club Rangers clinched a spot in the group stage thanks to a 0-0 tie at Serbian powerhouse Red Star in Belgrade on Tuesday night. The draw gave Rangers a 1-0 victory on aggregate in the third qualifying round.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Young Spaniard Puerta dies three days after collapsing
Sevilla midfielder Antonio Puerta, one of Spain’s most promising left-sided players, died on Tuesday three days after collapsing during the opening game of the season. Only hours after Puerta’s death, an English League Cup match between Nottingham Forest and Leicester City was called off at halftime after Leicester defender Clive Clarke collapsed in the locker room. The Irishman was reported to be in a stable condition in a Nottingham area hospital.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
UEFA Champions League Results
Liverpool and Lazio joined Rangers as winners in the third qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League. Freddy Adu will look to join fellow American DaMarcus Beasley in the group stage when Benfica faces FC Copenhagen on Wednesday.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
USL Weekend Results
The Harrisburg City Islanders won the USL-2 title for the first title when it edged the Richmond Kickers, 8-7, in a shootout after their game ended in a 1-1 tie. Harrisburg goalie Matt Nelson, who made one stop in the shootout, now heads to Vancouver for the remainder of the USL-1 season. The defending champion Whitecaps are in seventh place and face a fight in their bid to return to the playoffs. Atlanta and Puerto Rico clinched USL-1 playoff berths last week.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Pachuca, Galaxy square off for $1 million prize
[SUPERLIGA PREVIEW] The Galaxy is so badly banged up for the SuperLiga final Wednesday (11 p.m. ET, TeleFutura, MLSnet.com) against Pachuca it can’t draw any confidence from its feat in the first round, when it beat Pachuca, 2-1, despite being outshot, 23-9. It didn’t have David Beckham for that game, but it did roll out Landon Donovan and a suddenly sharp Alan Gordon. They scored the goals that downed the defending Mexican champion at Home Depot Center.
After losing to Guadalajara, an incredible 6-5 win over FC Dallas propelled the Galaxy to the semifinals against D.C. United. Beckham whipped in a free kick and sent Donovan free to score the clincher in a 2-0 victory. Ole!
Unfortunately …
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
USA faces Germany at U-17 World Cup
The USA has appeared in the U-17 world championship a record 12 times but has won a second-round game only once. At this summer’s U-17 World Cup, the Americans started meekly but managed second-round passage and face Germany on Thursday (6:45 am ET, live on ESPNU). In the previous five U.S. second-round appearances, the USA won only in 1999 with a team included Landon Donovan, DaMarcus Beasley, Bobby Convey and Oguchi Onyewu.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Bobby Convey gets a start for Reading
[AMERICANS IN ENGLAND] American midfielder Bobby Convey played 100 minutes in Reading’s 1-0 overtime win over third-tier Swansea City in the second round of the English League Cup. Convey, who was injured most of last season, has come off the bench in two of four EPL games this season. His last start for Reading before knee-injury treatment came in an FA Cup last February.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Wizards aim to reboot against Salt Lake
[TV PREVIEW] The Wizards have been slowly losing ground to a chasing pack of teams close behind them, and far more than a formality against the league’s worst team, this match is vital to their playoff hopes. After hosting Kansas City, Real Salt Lake sets out on a four-game road swing; if wants to take any momentum into the final month of the season with University of Utah football in full swing, it needs a strong showing.
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
Dallas: Denilson is MLS’ Second-Biggest Signing
Second only perhaps to the signing of David Beckham is FC Dallas’ unveiling of World Cup winner Denilson as its new designated player on Monday. Club owner Clark Hunt called the 30-year-old’s signing the most important in FC Dallas’ history and the second-most important in MLS history. Denilson was capped 60 times by Brazil, scoring […]
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
Untied Champion Ole Gunnar Solskjaer Retires
The man who scored perhaps the most famous goal in Manchester United history retired from the game on Tuesday. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, a loyal 11-year veteran of Alex Ferguson’s Red Devils, announced “after much deliberation and with deep sadness” that he’d finally lost his battle with chronic knee problems. The 34-year-old striker, who many believe […]
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
Schedule, Roster, Personnel All Wrong for the Galaxy
“Things have unraveled spectacularly for Los Angeles,” says ESPN Soccernet’s Steve Davis, “and the foul-ups in Galaxy Valley have become too numerous to count.” Top of his list is an astonishing number of injuries brought on by a grueling end-of-season schedule that would test any of Europe’s biggest teams (note that they have the depth […]
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
Sevilla’s Antonio Puerta, 22, Dies
Three days after suffering a series of cardiac arrests during FC Sevilla’s La Liga opener, Antonio Puerta died on Tuesday. The midfielder, a former Spanish international, was admitted to the Virgen del Rocio hospital in Seville on Saturday and had been in deteriorating condition since. He was just 22 years old. Puerta’s body will now […]
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
FA to Investigate Agents’ ‘Mafia’ Behavior
The English Football Association, wracked last year by a report that exposed the shady dealings of player agents and certain team managers, is set to make a fresh inquiry into the matter after agent Jess Learoyd-Hill pointed to the hidden money trails and mafia-like behavior of some of his peers. Learoyd-Hill added that some agents […]
Posted inGrassroots Soccer Biz, Story
Give Your Email Newsletters A Kick
The best way to keep your diverse soccer membership engaged in your communications is to send them highly relevant email communications.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Adu waits for league debut; club signs more midfielders
Freddy Adu stayed on Benfica’s bench again in his Portuguese club’s second game of the season, a 0-0 tie with Guimaraes that was the debut of new coach Jose Antonio Camacho. As was the case when Adu moved to Real Salt Lake, the coach who brought him was fired after the American attacker’s arrival. Fernando Santos was sacked as Benfica coach after the first league game. Shortly after Camacho was hired, Benfica signed two Uruguayan national team midfielders.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
FC Dallas’ bet on Denilson makes sense
Remember the wails of anguish from FC Dallas fans and a few pundits back in March when “negotiations” broke off with Dutch midfielder Edgar Davids? The two sides never got very close, according to a source. FC Dallas had offered in the neighborhood of $800,000; Davids had a sum closer to $2.5 million in mind, give or take a few guilders. There were some who believed Davids could be the missing piece to the puzzle of FCD finally reaching an MLS Cup. That was wishful thinking, since at the time, perhaps only Coach Steve Morrow had an idea what that puzzle might eventually look like.
A drastic revamping of the team’s midfield had already begun and would soon accelerate: Ronnie O’Brien and Simo Valakari, and eventually, Richard Mulrooney and Ramon Nunez, out; Juan Toja and Pablo Ricchetti, and just last week, Denilson, in.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
OFF THE POST: Soccer-ball goodwill gesture backfires
The U.S. military had hoped to foster goodwill and bring joy to Afghanistan children when it dropped soccer balls from a helicopter in the Khost province. But at least one of the balls had a small picture of the Saudi Arabian flag, which includes script with the words Allah and the Prophet Muhammad. Villagers were upset and angry, pointing out they found kicking something with the names of the Muslim icons on it offensive. The U.S. military spokesman said it regretted the incident. The balls were reportedly manufactured in China and bought by the U.S. military in a market in Kabul.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Onyewu and Standard Liege on high-scoring streak
[AMERICANS ABROAD] In the Belgium First Division, U.S. defender Oguchi Onyewu has played every minute of Standard Liege’s first four games – all victories in which Standard has scored four goals. Onyewu struck once, in the season opener against SV Zulte-Waregem.