“It feels like a World Cup final.”
— Adam Tamburello, whose cross set up teammate Jack Miller for the winning goal in Commack (N.Y.) High School’s 2-1 win on Thursday that broke nationally top-ranked Brentwood’s 28-game winning streak and 78-game league unbeaten streak. (Newsday)
Texas SC DTH, the product of the merger of the Texas Soccer Club (TSC Texans) and Dallas Texans Houston Division academy programs, is off to a great start in the 2009-10 U.S. Soccer Development Academy. The U-17/18s are in first place in the Texas Division with a pair of wins and the U/15-16s are tied with Andromeda for the top spot with a win and tie.
First-year program Weston FC holds the lead in the U.S. Soccer Development Academy’s Southeast Division standings for U-17/18s and U-15/16s. For the complete standings …
English club Chelsea extended its reach in the U.S. soccer ranks all the way to Hawaii with its partnership with Le Jardin Soccer Academy.
“It’s going to be a disaster. Am I going to do everything I can to make this program go? You betcha. But I read the handwriting on the wall, and it’s not going to be pretty.”
— Alan Wharton, a referee assignor for New York’s Public Schools Athletic League, on the projected 50 high school programs (25 boys and 25 girls) that might disband because of lack of players. This follows the move to shift the girls season from the spring to the fall, as part of an agreement made by the New York Department of Education and the New York Civil Liberties Union after a lawsuit was threatened. (Girls want to be able to play for club teams in the spring when they can be seen by colleges.) (New York Daily News)
Newcomer Weston FC swept all four games in the debut of its U-17/18 and U-15/16 teams in the U.S. Soccer Development Academy. The Florida club dominated during the abbreviated Labor Day schedule that kicked off the 2009-10 season for 77 clubs.
Eddie Henderson, one of the fastest college players during his heyday in the late 1980s, has joined Las Vegas club Neusport FC as director of coaching from this position as director of coaching of the Nevada State Soccer Association. Henderson, who starred at the University of Washington and represented the USA at the 2007 Under-20 World Cup in Chile, was a stockbroker but says he reassessed what he was doing after the events of 9/11 and returned to soccer. He talks about his career and plans for Neusport …
Soony Saad, the 2008 Under-15/16 Development Academy Player of the Year, is returning to Dearborn, Mich., for his senior year of high school but will play for the Derby County Wolves, not Vardar, which he left last fall to enter the U.S. U-17 resident program.
Chris Branscome, the director of marketing for U.S. Youth Soccer, has been named the chief executive officer of the Eastern Pennsylvania Youth Soccer Association. In his new role, the Philadelphia Soccer Hall of Famer oversees all aspects of youth soccer operation and development in Eastern Pennsylvania.
As U.S. Soccer readies to send a team to one Under-17 World Cup, it begins preparations for another Under-17 World Cup two years from now. U.S. under-17 coach Wilmer Cabrera welcomed 40 players for the 2009 fall semester at the Residency Program in Bradenton, Fla.
U.S. Club Soccer will take a boys team of the best players from this fall’s id2 Regional Training Camps to the Netherlands and Germany for a 10-day trip next February. For fall id2 dates and locations …
Rosie DiMartino will become the fourth DiMartino to participate in the U.S. national team program when she participates in the U-14 national team camp, its only camp of the year, beginning Sunday at the Home Depot Center.
U.S. U-15 girls national team coach Mike Dickey is holding a week-long training camp for 24 players at the Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif.
Colorado Rush Nike and SC del Sol were the big winners at the Elite Clubs National League’s inaugural showcase with both clubs having two teams go 3-0 in weekend play.
San Diego Surf, winner of the 2009 U.S. Youth Soccer under-15 national championship, heads the entrants in the 2009-10 U.S. Youth Soccer National League. Four runners-up at the 2009 National Championships in Lancaster, Mass., will also participate.
Volkswagen has launched the Volkswagen Junior Masters, an international youth tournament that will take place in May 2010, prior to the World Cup in South Africa.
“There has been some backlash for sure, but we try to be up front about it. We try to communicate that these are our goals, and hopefully club presidents, club boards, club coaches, club technical directors understand that it’s also an opportunity for a player to maybe one day play for what should be their hometown team, D.C. United, and this is an avenue for them. There is still some resistance, and club coaches don’t necessarily get that or care.”
— D.C. United General Manager Dave Kasper on conflicts that have risen between local clubs and his MLS club since it launched an advanced youth program. (Washington Post)
Playing without two key players, the USA tied Colombia twice (1-1 and 2-2) in a pair of tuneups played in Lauderhill, Fla., for this fall’s Under-17 Men’s World Cup in Nigeria.
Three members of the Derby County Wolves, who won the 2009 U.S. Soccer Development Academy U-15/16 age group, trained at English club Derby County’s academy program in late summer.
Eric Ramirez-Avila, who played this past season in the Indiana Premier League with the Southern Indiana Fusion, will leave Sunday for a three-month stint with Rosario Central’s youth division team in Argentina.
“I am proud of the growth of soccer in Encinitas over the past decade and now feel that the time is right to pass the baton on to the next generation of coaches. Youth soccer is now big business in San Diego County and it is my sincere wish that the person who takes over will be able to build on what we have created here and make the club the best in the area.”
— Former NASL and MISL star Juli Veee, who is retiring after 15 years as director of coaching at the Encinitas Express. The Hungarian-born Veee, one of the first U.S. internationals to play in Europe, is also an accomplished artist whose works have appeared at many shows in California, Arizona and New Mexico. (Daily San Diego Soccer News)
Seattle Sounders FC, MLS’s widely popular first-year team, will launch regional training centers across the state of Washington this fall in its first youth soccer initiative in partnership with Washington Youth Soccer.
The U.S. under-20 national team finished second at the Copa Ciudad de Rosario in Argentina when it fell to Australia, 3-1, in its final group game of the round-robin tournament.
The USA survived an eight-round shootout and defeated Israel in the fifth-place game in the U-18 Elite division at the Milk Cup in Northern Ireland.
The annual U.S. under-14 boys national development camp, led by veteran coach Manfred Schellscheidt, is in the midst of its annual identification camp in Concord, Mass. For a list of all the 118 players, their club affiliations and hometowns …
