[REGION II YOUTH CHAMPIONS] Team Ohio won five boys divisions at the Ohio South championships. On the girls side, Ohio Premier won four titles and had two teams finish second. For Region II state-by-state champions …
Category: Story
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
CASL Elite goes 6-for-6 in North Carolina
[REGION III YOUTH CHAMPIONS] CASL Elite won all six North Carolina boys divisions that will send teams to the Region III finals in Oklahoma City June 28-July 4. CASL Spartan Elite won North Carolina state titles in the U-19, U-16 and U-14 divisions. In Florida, Kendall Soccer Alliance (U-19 and U-16 boys) and Tampa Knights FC (U-17 boys and girls) were multiple winners in the higher age groups. For Region III state-by-state champions …
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Arsenal clears first hurdle in bid for fourth national title in a row
[REGION IV YOUTH CHAMPIONS] Arsenal FC began its quest for an unprecedented four straight US Youth Soccer national boys championships in its age group with a 2-0 win over CRSC in the final of the Cal South U-18 division. Arsenal FC, which moves on to the Region IV finals June 18-24 in Las Vegas, got a scare in the semifinals, where it needed overtime to beat the San Diego Surf, 3-1. The Surf won the U-17 and U-16 Cal South boys titles. The U-14 Slammers made it three Cal South titles in a row with a 1-0 win over the So Cal Blues in the final. The Slammers won all seven games in the state cup by shutout. They also won the U-15 and U-16 girls divisions. For Region IV state-by-state champions …
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Rongen to take 16 U-20 players for Canada training camp
U.S. under-20 national team coach Thomas Rongen will take 16 players to a training camp May 30-June 6 in Canada as part of the team’s preparation for the upcoming Under-20 World Cup. The USA will face Canada twice during the camp, which will be the final camp before Rongen names his 21-player roster for the Under-20 World Cup and provide the USA with a first-hand look at their two Group E venues in Montreal and Ottawa.
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
Poor Form Could Cost Dynamo Players International Spots
By any measure, it’s been a poor start to the season from MLS defending champ Houston Dynamo. A 2-4-1 record is bad enough, but the fact that Houston has netted just four goals and been shut out in five of the seven games is a worrying sign for Coach Dominic Kinnear. What happened to Brian […]
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
Construction Delays Add to Red Bulls Woes
Things are going far, far smoother for the Red Bulls on the field than they are upstairs in management. After rather limply dismissing the club’s second-worst season attendance average on Tuesday, there came more bad news from Red Bulls managing director Marc de Grandpre, according to a New York Daily News report. The club’s 25,000-seat […]
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
Why Milan Shouldn’t Be in Athens
Technically, there can be no question that AC Milan’s Rossoneri deserve to be in Wednesday’s Champions League final. Driven by the superb midfield trio of Andrea Pirlo, Clarence Seedorf and Kaka, the man who would undoubtedly be crowned this year’s World Player of the Year award if Milan wins, the team has only gotten better […]
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
Rumors Swirl Over Reds Ahead CL Final
If the British press wants to see Liverpool win Wednesday’s Champions League final (and you suspect that most would), it’s certainly not done the Reds any favors with the endless speculation about who’s going where in the offseason. Talk all you want about Man United, Carlos Tevez, Jose Mourinho and any of the other countless […]
Posted inSoccer America Confidential, Story
Balancing what beckons Beckham
Galaxy general manager Alexi Lalas, talking on his cell phone at the Denver airport waiting for a connecting flight to Los Angeles, is wary of loading too many exhibition matches onto his team’s schedule. Lalas was returning from Minneapolis, having concluded negotiations for his team to feed off the frenzy that will hit these shores in another month or so. Still, playing at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome Oct. 10 against an opponent to be named later makes sense
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Liverpool-AC Milan, the protagonists
Liverpool and AC Milan meet Wednesday in the UEFA Champions League final in Athens. The game is a repeat of the 2005 final Liverpool won on penalty kicks after the Reds trailed, 3-0, at the half. Here’s a look at some of the key figures in this year’s final.
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Clarke takes over as Puerto Rico coach
Former FC Dallas coach Colin Clarke has been named the head coach of the USL-1’s Puerto Rico Islanders, replacing Toribio Rojas, who will remain with the Islanders to work in their youth program.
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Mo’ Deals In Toronto: Esky for Cunningham
Not all great goalscorers, or great players, think alike. Real Salt Lake has sent striker Jeff Cunningham to Toronto in exchange for Alecko Eskandarian and TFC’s first-round 2008 SuperDraft pick. Despite scoring 94 goals in his MLS career, Cunningham has bounced among several clubs, and his quirky personality doesn’t mesh well with that of Coach Jason Kreis, who has not wavered from the no-nonsense approach that enabled him to set a league record – since tied by Jaime Moreno – of 108 goals. Let’s just say Kreis didn’t ask to wear No. 108 on his jersey this season before deciding to retire and take over as head coach.
Cunningham’s jersey number last year (76) and this season (90) refer to his goalscoring totals. (He’s netted four this year).
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D.C. United gets Chivas rematch in Copa Sudamericana
D.C. United, which was invited to take part in the Copa Sudamericana by virtue of its third-place finish in this year’s CONCACAF Champions Cup, will enter the Copa in the round of 16 and face Mexico’s Chivas Guadalajara. It was Chivas that eliminated D.C. United in this year’s Champions Cup semifinal (3-2 on aggregate). In 2005, D.C. United was the first MLS team to participate Copa Sudamericana. It lost in the round of 16, 4-3 on aggregate to Universidad Catolica of Chile.
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OFF THE POST: Bad word ousts high school team
In Iowa high school soccer, Waterloo West’s boys season came to an abrupt end because of its goalkeeper’s expletive, which was deemed red-card worthy by the referee, according to the Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier. Keeper Alex Frank cursed when he gave up a corner kick. Iowa High School Athletic Association rules dictate that a team is disqualified from postseason play if it collects four red cards during the season. Frank’s ejection made it a quartet for the Wahawks and meant a forfeit in the regional game against Dubuque Senior while they were leading, 2-1.
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No. 1 Greenville captures South Carolina boys title
[BOYS HIGH SCHOOL RANKINGS] Greenville (S.C.) High School remained the top-ranked boys team in the NSCAA/adidas spring rankings. The Red Raiders won the South Carolina Class AAA state championship with a 3-1 win over Socastee to finish 27-0-0. The difference in the final was two Socastee own goals. Sebastian Velasquez scored the other Greenville goal. No. 2 McIntosh won the Georgia Class AAAA state final with a 2-1 win over Whitewater.
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Top-ranked Apex girls continue climb to top in North Carolina
[GIRLS HIGH SCHOOL RANKINGS] Undefeated Apex (N.C.) High School, the No. 1 girls team in the NSCAA/adidas spring rankings, faces New Berlin Wednesday in the semifinals of the North Carolina Class 4-A state championship. The Easterns winner faces the East Forsyth-Monroe Weddington winner in the state final. Top 20 girls teams to have wrapped up state titles include No. 5 Parkview (Georgia Class AAAAA co-champion), No. 12 Vestavia Hills (Alabama 6A) and Eastside (South Carolina Class AAA).
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Ambitious Panama calls up Rapids’ Brown for Gold Cup
[GOLD CUP ROSTER] Panama, the surprise runner-up at the 2005 Gold Cup, has called up Colorado Rapids striker Roberto Brown for the 2007 Gold Cup. Brown, who played on the 2005 team, was one of nine foreign-based players called up by Coach Alexandre Guimaraes. Panama faces Honduras, Mexico and Cuba in the first round.
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Beckham’s Galaxy headed to Minnesota in busy October
Another date has been added to the David Beckham traveling show. The Los Angeles Galaxy will head to Minneapolis on Oct. 10 to face a yet-to-be-named opponent in the Copa Minnesota at the 64,000-seat Metrodome.
Copa Minnesota, organized by the USL’s Minnesota Thunder, is Beckham’s only scheduled U.S. visit to a non-MLS city in 2007, but it will mean Beckham and the Galaxy will play exhibitions on the road on back-to-back Wednesdays just one week before the last week of the MLS regular season.
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AC Milan given edge over Liverpool in the remake
[TV PREVIEW] Six months ago, no one would have expected Liverpool and AC Milan to be meeting Wednesday in Athens in a remake of their 2005 UEFA Champions League final thriller. Liverpool and Milan had gone so far as to schedule a friendly game in Milan for their respective reserve teams. That game, of course, has been canceled as their “A” teams square off in the 2007 UEFA Champions League final. AC Milan began the 2006-07 season in crisis as it was slapped with an eight-point penalty for the 2006-07 Serie A season because of its role in the widespread Italian match-fixing scandal. Liverpool, for its part, was never in the hunt for the English Premier League title. But as has so often been the case in recent years, the finalists were allowed to concentrate on Europe’s top competition without the distraction of a domestic title race.
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
Clarence Seedorf Has Something to Say
Simon Kuper of the Financial Times gives writes entertaining portrait of AC Milan midfielder Clarence Seedorf, the man who after Kaka, perhaps, is most responsible for the Rossoneri reaching Wednesday’s Champions League final against Liverpool. “Well-meaning,” “intelligent,” self-righteous and supremely confident, Seedorf has one problem, according to his teammates: He won’t shut up. Former England […]
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
Mascherano’s ‘Surreal’ Road to the CL Final
After the five luckless months Javier Mascherano endured at West Ham United, it’s little wonder the Argentine says. “I find it unbelievable to be involved in this final.” Indeed, nothing could have been more unlikely. Toiling away in the Hammers reserves as a club takeover and two different management regimes passed him by, Mascherano in […]
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
Is Money Changing Hands in Spain?
As he does every week, ESPN Soccernet’s Phil Ball gives his impression of the weekend in Spain — and what a weekend it was. From spectacular and unexpected one-sided thrashings to closely contested, edge-of-your-seat matches capped by late winners, it was a weekend showcasing everything that’s been so special about this season in La Liga. […]
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
Who Needs Fans? We Just Want to Win, Bulls Director Says
Red Bulls managing director Marc de Grandpre admitted that the noticeable dramatic dip in attendance at games in Giants Stadium is disappointing, but management isn’t pulling the panic button yet. At 9,867 spectators per game, The Red Bulls are averaging the worst home attendance in the New York franchise’s history and the second-worst average in […]
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
What Does Kroenke Want with Arsenal?
Unfortunately, when British soccer fans think of wealthy Americans buying English soccer clubs, they think of the hostile scenes that marked the takeover of Manchester United by the unwanted Malcolm Glazer family. Years later, the Glazers largely kept their noses out of soccer matters, and the animosity has lessened, though the allegory for many still […]
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Foreigners dominate German scoring charts
[MAKING A LIST] Foreign nationals and foreign-born players dominated the German Bundesliga scoring charts. Of the players who ranked in the top 10 in First Division scoring, all but one was born abroad, including Germany national team strikers Kevin Kuranyi (born in Brazil) and Miroslav Klose (born in Poland). The only German-born player was 22-year-old Stuttgart sensation Mario Gomez, born in Riedlingen to a Spanish father and German mother.