Soccer America Archives

SMALL COLLEGE NEWS … John Leaney, who has won 529 games in more than 20 years of coaching at Macalester College, will retire at the end of the 2009 season so he can devote more time to raising his 4-year-old son Jack. Leaney’s wife Carrie passed away from cancer three years ago.

Leaney, who will be inducted into the Macalester M Club Athletic Hall of Fame later this month, came to the Division III Minnesota school as head men’s coach in 1986 and two years later took over the women’s program. The Scots won the NCAA Division III women’s national championship in 1998 and finished second the following year. He gave up his men’s coaching duties to concentrate on the women’s team in 2006.

“Raising a four-year-old requires a great deal of energy, as does coaching a college team full time,” said Leaney. “Right now, my son is the most important thing in my life and he deserves my undivided attention.”

WOMEN’S NEWS … Three days after Coach Neil McGuire left the No. 19 Cal women’s program, concerns about who was in charge were put to rest, at least for now, when he returned to work and apologized for leaving the team and missing Sunday’s 1-1 tie with nationally ranked Santa Clara.

McGuire’s absence resulted in Kelly Lindsay, an assistant volunteer coach who had been with the Bears for only two weeks, running the show against Santa Clara. Yes, that’s the same Kelly Lindsey who took over as the interim coach of WPS champion Sky Blue FC following the departure of Ian Sawyers only to suddenly quit herself shortly before the playoffs.

According to the Daily Cal, McGuire told his Bears players Friday he was “done” after their 1-0 loss to Sacramento State — their second defeat to an unranked team in a week. Two days later, they tied ranked Santa Clara — a remarkable feat considering Cal was depleted by injuries.

“I am deeply saddened I placed my team, program and administration in this unfortunate position,” he said Monday. “I had some profoundly difficult personal issues to deal with throughout last week, and I put myself ahead of our team, which goes against our ideal of program, team, individual.”

McGuire arrived at Berkeley from Texas Tech in 2007, accepting a four-year contract worth more than $250,000 a year in salary and potential bonuses and camp income. The Scotsman attended Augusta State in Georgia and later spent time coaching at Iowa State, Arizona State, Mississippi State and Texas.

“Neil McGuire is the right coach for our program,” Cal Athletic Director Sandy Barbour said in a statement. “I felt that more than two years ago when I hired him and I feel that today.”

* WEDNESDAY’S ACTION:
Non-Conference
Long Beach State 0 San Diego 0
Illinois State 5 SIU-Edwardsville 1
(Jessica Carlson ties Illinois State record for most goals in a game with three.)

MEN’S NEWS … It was a rough night for Top 25 teams Indiana, Boston University and George Mason. They were all playing at home and blew leads they held for long stretches, falling to unranked teams …

— No. 15 Indiana took the lead against visiting Butler in the 4th minute on Darren Yeagle‘s first goal since the 2006 season but gave up the tying goal in the 82nd minute and ended up losing, 2-1, on Connor Burt‘s header in overtime. “All credit to Butler,” said IU coach Mike Freitag. “They are a good team, and I said before the game this was going to be a tough one. We have to do some soul searching. Sometimes guys put on an Indiana jersey and they think it is just going to happen for them.”

— New Hampshire was undeterred by Michael Bustamante‘s goal in the 12th minute, rallying for second-half goals by Jordan Thomas and Chris Banks on counterattacks to defeat No. 17 Boston University, 2-1. The loss ended the Terriers’ five-game unbeaten streak.

— No. 23 George Mason was also unable to hold on to a 1-0 lead, losing to ACC rival Towson, 2-1, on goals by Marco Mangione and Liam Maloney in the last 11 minutes. For the Patriots, the loss snapped a five-match winning streak.

* ZIPS LEAVE IT LATE. No. 1 Akron improved to 10-0-0 with a 3-1 victory at UIC Wednesday night. The Zips didn’t get their first goal until Blair Gavin broke the deadlock in the 72nd minute and Kofi Sarkodie made it 2-0 in the 86th minute. Kevin Stoll ended Akron’s six-game shutout streak, cutting its lead to 2-1 with less than two minutes to play. But Teal Bunbury sealed the victory just 36 seconds later on a breakaway. “With this team, I never know who’s going to score but I always know someone will find a way eventually,” Akron coach Caleb Porter said. “Tonight it was Blair who made a special play to put us ahead.”

* WEDNESDAY’S TOP 25 ACTION:
UIC 1 (Stoll 89) No. 1 Akron 3 (Gavin 72, Sarkodie 86, Bunbury 89).
Big West: No. 7 UC Santa Barbara 1 (Silva 29) Cal Poly 0.
No. 8 Harvard 2 (Tsuda 27, Akpan 37) Holy Cross 0.
Big East: No. 11  Louisville 1 (Rolfe 84) No. 5 South Florida 0.
Northern Illinois 0 No. 12 Northwestern 1 (Eliason 46),
(Wildcats win third straight game by 1-0 score.)
No. 15 Indiana 1 (Yeagle 4) Butler 2 (Pollock 82, Burt 104) (OT).
America East: No. 17 Boston Univ. 1 (Bustamante 12) New Hampshire 2 (Thomas 53, Banks 74).
No. 20 Virginia 2 (Ownby 6, Agorsor 11) Longwood 0.
CAA: No. 23 George Mason 1 (Washington 49) Towson 2 (Mangione 79, Maloney 83).

Wednesday Results

* BULLS’ UPDATE. UMBC sophomore Andrew Bulls, the nation’s leading scorer, scored his 14th goal of the season in the Retrievers’ 2-0 win over Stony Brook. He tied the UMBC record set by Giuliano Celenza in 2000 by scoring at least one point in 11 straight games.

* OWNBY RETURNS. Brian Ownby wasted no time getting back into the swing of things for Virginia after returning from international duty at the Under-20 World Cup in Egypt. The U.S. U-20 scored six minutes into the Cavaliers’ 2-0 win over Longwood.

* CROWD COUNT. Five days after breaking the Harder Stadium attendance record, UC Santa Barbara drew a crowd of 5,842 for its 1-0 win over Cal Poly.