San Jose midfielder and columnist Kelly Gray says that one of the great things about MLS is the camaraderie among players of different teams. Although he doesn’t mention if he’s yet spotted Dema Kovalenko and Ronnie O’Brien sharing a beer.
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
The Answer To MLS’s Crowded Schedule
“The league has fallen into the same trap as the Galaxy — trying to run before it can walk, trying to be global before it is even local.” Grahame L. Jones proposes easy solutions to Major League Soccer’s clogged schedule.
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
Tough Childhood Leaves Howard Fearing No Challenge
“Basketball is so awesome because you can influence the game, you get so many touches on the ball, and I miss that.” Michelle Kaufman interviews U.S. national team goalkeeper Tim Howard.
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
Turning Manchester City Into Its Own Reality Show
Dr. Sulaiman Al Fahim is the front man of Manchester City’s likely new owners, the Abu Dhabi United Group, and he has already mentioned the possibility of paying in the region of $250 million for Cristiano Ronaldo because City “is going to be the biggest club in the world.” Splashing out cash like that, writes […]
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
Open Cup Pits Minor Versus Major
That “great little competition,” the U.S. Open Cup, produced a dandy final Wednesday night when D.C. United topped the USL’s Charleston Battery 2-1 at RFK Stadium, writes Steve Davis. “The home team prevailed in a classic clash of a splashy MLS side against a smaller but impressive USL outfit, one that gave Tom Soehn’s home […]
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
Portland Launches MLS Bid
Merritt Paulson launched his plan Wednesday for bringing MLS to Portland, Ore. It involves a $75 million project to take the Portland Beavers baseball team out of PGE Park and into a new stadium, while converting PGE Park into a soccer facility. Where would the cash come from? Paulson, who owns both the minor […]
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
Schmid: MLS Rosters Need More Depth
The top two teams in MLS will meet at Crew Stadium this weekend when Columbus hosts the New England Revolution. Shawn Mitchell generously labels it “the most anticipated Major League Soccer game of the week, perhaps even the season,” although New England, who will head to Ohio trying to forget the 4-0 home spanking by […]
Posted inYouth Soccer Reporter, Youth What They're Saying
What They’re Saying
“We’re not asking for anything for free, [but] the kids we serve aren’t exactly upper-middle-class kids.”
— Irene Chavez, treasurer of the the Anaheim (Calif.) Soccer Club, after the local school district said that it would cost the club $60,000 to use fields for a whole season under a new fee schedule. Before this year, leagues paid $20 permit fees to use the fields. Both parties hoped to reach a compromise. (Orange County Register)
Posted inStory, Youth Soccer Reporter
Top-ranked boys prep team slumps
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.
Posted inStory, Youth Soccer Reporter
Cal South star signs with Mexico’s Tigres
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.
Posted inStory, Youth Soccer Reporter
RISING STAR: Chivas USA’s Omar Becerra
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.
Posted inStory, Youth Soccer Reporter
Meet the new U.S. U-17 residents
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 …
Posted inStory, Youth Soccer Reporter
U.S. U-17 boys residency program adds 17 new players
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 …
Posted inCollege Soccer Reporter, Story
MORNING BRIEFING: UConn gets scare
No. 2 Connecticut’s high-powered attack went silent on Wednesday night. It needed an own goal in the 75th minute to beat Stony Brook, 1-0, in Storrs.
Posted inCollege Soccer Reporter, Story
UPDATE: LSU forced to cancel tournament
LSU, No. 17 in the Soccer America Top 25, has had to cancel its Tiger Classic because the LSU Soccer Complex suffered considerable damage from Hurricane Gustav.
Posted inCollege Soccer Reporter, Story
MORNING BRIEFING: Stanford freshmen are sensational
No. 6 Stanford is getting big play out of its freshmen. Teresa Noyola, considered one of the best playmakers to enter college in the last decade, is just one of three first-year players to have a big impact on the Farm.
Posted inCollege Soccer Reporter, Story
SCOREBOARD: Soccer America Men’s Top 25
This weekend’s Men’s Top 25 action includes a pair of games involving top 10 teams — Indiana-South Florida at Notre Dame’s Mike Berticelli Memorial Tournament Friday and California-SMU at the Cal Legacy Classic Sunday. For this week’s Soccer America Men’s Top 25 results and schedules …
Posted inCollege Soccer Reporter, Story
IN HER OWN WORDS: South Carolina’s Blakely Mattern
Blakely Mattern is the star of the South Carolina women’s defense that has yet to give up a goal in three games — marking the first time the Gamecocks have opened with three straight shutouts. Mattern, one of only four players to have played every minute of every game, was the 2007 SEC Defensive Player of the Year as a sophomore. She recaps USC’s pre-season preparations and the excitement of opening the season and being introduced at halftime of the South Carolina-N.C. State football game before more than 80,000 fans.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Bay Area in, Dallas out (until 2010)
[WPS] Weeks before its first player moves will be made, Women’s Professional Soccer, the new women’s league, announced Wednesday that it will add a team in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2009 and its Dallas team will start in 2010, not 2009 as planned.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
German clubs cut back on spending
[TRANSFER TALK] In contrast to the wild dealing in England, German clubs spent cautiously on the summer transfer market, which closed at midnight on Monday. Bundesliga spending reached 150 million euros ($217 million) — less than a quarter of the money spent in England.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Islanders pull upset with miracle comeback
[CONCACAF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE] The Puerto Rico Islanders rallied for two goals in the last three minutes to beat former champion Alajuelense, 2-1, and give the USL First Division two teams in the group stage of the Concacaf Champions League — the same as MLS will have.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Toe injury sidelines Cristman for season
[MLS] The Revs may be the deepest team MLS but one of their more valuable role players won’t play again this season.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
D.C. fends off Battery to claim 12th title
[U.S. OPEN CUP] Nothing has come easy for D.C. United this season, so its loud, boisterous celebrations after defeating Charleston in the U.S. Open Cup were entirely genuine.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Special Editions for Saturday’s Cuba-USA match
Soccer America Executive Editor Mike Woitalla is in Havana to cover Saturday’s Cuba-USA World Cup qualifier (kickoff: 8 pm ET). Special editions of Soccer America Daily will appear on Saturday and Sunday with coverage before and after the game.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
CUBA DIARY: What soccer game?
Mike Woitalla reports from Havana
In the hotel lobby of the Parque Central in Old Havana, the television is tuned to CNN, with coverage of the Republican Convention. Later in the evening, security guard Gustavo switches to ESPN for the Red Sox-Cleveland game. Gustavo, although a fervid baseball fan, is one of the few Cubans I’ve met so far who is aware that Cuba hosts the USA in a World Cup qualifying game on Saturday.