Category: Youth Soccer Reporter

In a shakeup of the U.S. under-17 national team residency program, Coach Wilmer Cabrera and his staff have brought in 17 new players for the 2008 fall semester of the 40-player program in Bradenton, Fla. For the complete roster …

The U.S. under-17 national team staff has recruited one of the largest incoming classes in the history of the residency program, which was launched in 1999. Here’s a look at the new players …

Omar Becerra joined the Chivas USA U-18 team through Sueno MLS, a program that offers a series of open tryouts for professional soccer hopefuls. Becerra traveled three times a week from his home in San Diego, where he has a young daughter and attended an alternative high school, to Bell Gardens, a community about five miles south of downtown Los Angeles, where Chivas practiced.

Oscar Lopez, who played for Cal South at the 2008 U.S. Youth Soccer ODP National Championships, has left his home in West Covina, Calif., to join Tigres of the Mexican First Division.

Raleigh (N.C.) Broughton High School, the top-ranked boys team in the 2007 NSCAA/adidas High School National Rankings, had its 54-game unbeaten ended when it lost to Roberson, 1-0, on Saturday in a battle of North Carolina prep powers at the Mellow Mushroom Tournament in Boone.

For years, soccer credentials of a dubious nature have been thrown about freely, but Josh Muscadin is one of the few ex-players to get caught telling a tall tale. References he made about having played on the 1984 U.S. Olympic men’s soccer team cost him his job at a Maine prep school when a newspaper’s work on a feature on Maine Olympians revealed the hoax.

[PLAYER OF THE WEEK] Allie Bailey led the San Diego Surf to a sweep of its three U-15 games at the Nike Women’s Friendlies with a team-high four goals.

The U.S. under-15 girls national team won by scores of 5-0, 6-0 and 4-2 against U-17 club teams at the 2008 Women’s Nike Friendlies at the U.S. Soccer National Training Center in Carson, Calif.

Play wrapped up Sunday at the 2008 Women’s Nike Friendlies at the U.S. Soccer National Training Center in Carson, Calif. Three U.S. youth national teams and 25 club teams from around the country played three games over the course of four days.

The New York Red Bulls’ U-17s scored one of the biggest wins an MLS youth team has ever recorded when it beat Inter Milan’s Serie A U-17 championship team, 3-1, on on Saturday night in Newark, N.J.

The Disney Soccer Showcase under-16 all-stars, chosen from players  competing at the 2007 Disney’s Soccer  Showcase, finished fourth in Chelsea Academy’s inaugural youth cup near London.

The U.S. under-14 girls national team has been split into two teams – Team Stars and Team Stripes – for six matches in the U-16 division at the 2008 Women’s Nike Friendlies that began Wednesday at The Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif. Team Stripes fell to Real So Cal, 4-1, in the opening game of the competition. For the complete rosters …

U.S. under-17 boys national team head coach Wilmer Cabrera has called 25 players into a week-long mini-camp at the IMG Academies in Bradenton, Fla., that will also serve as the final tryout for for a handful of open places for the upcoming fall semester of the team’s Residency Program. For all the players participating in these tryouts …

To highlight their first year of operation, Brad Friedel‘s Premier Soccer Academies organized the World Youth Tournament that attracted under-16 national teams from Chile and Venezuela to their campus in Lorain, Ohio, but the winner was the Rush Select XI, representing the Rush soccer program headquartered in Colorado.

FC Dallas has thrown its hat into the competitive world of North Texas youth soccer. The MLS club will have entrants in the U.S. Soccer Development Academy when Texas clubs are added in 2008-09. One of the most promising players is London Woodberry, nephew of former MISL star Terry Woodberry. London Woodberry scored 38 goals as a junior at McKinney High School and is reported to have made a verbal commitment to attend the University of Maryland.

The Dallas area is a hotbed for soccer, having produced three national championship clubs this year in Andromeda (U-17 and U-18 U.S. Youth Soccer champions), Solar (U-19) and the Dallas Texans Red (U-15), but they should get some competition from Club Deportivo Independiente.

Soccer will take over the village of Barboursville, W. Va. the next two years when it will host the U.S. Youth Soccer Region I Championships. According to the 2000 census, Barboursville has a population of 3,183 — and that’s about as many motel rooms that have been reserved for the tournament.

The U.S. under-15 girls national team will play three matches in the U-17 division at the 2008 Women’s Nike Friendlies this week at The Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif. U.S. coach Mike Dickey has selected 24 players for the event, which features 27 teams in three divisions. For the complete roster …

While regional leagues have been part of the soccer scene in Regions I-III for several years, Region IV struggled to get a competition off the ground. But this fall Region IV has attracted many of the region’s top clubs that are competing in under-14 to under-18 boys and girls divisions over five weekends. For all the Fall Far West Regional League entrants …

Two former members of the Phoenix area’s Sereno Soccer Club were suspended by the Arizona Youth Soccer Association following its investigation into what it concluded was the forgery of a player form that resulted in Sereno being kicked out of this year’s McGuire Cup finals.

Ryan Kawulok won three state titles with the Colorado Storm before joining the Colorado Rapids academy program, who opened in 2007. He is headed to the University of Portland.