Soccer America Archives

[REF WATCH] Referees in Bulgaria can expect less job security this season after the federation’s referee chief announced refs will be ousted for "serious" errors.

[OFF THE POST] Mark McGregor‘s career appeared to be over. Released by League Two club Port Vale in April, the 31-year-old failed to impress during a trial with Mansfield and was looking at a bleak, club-less future.

[MLS] The New York Red Bulls signed Venezuelan defender Gabriel Cichero, a 24-year-old defender who has played for Venezuela’s Deportivo Italia, Bulgaria’s Vihren Sandanski and Uruguay’s Montevideo Wanderers.

[VIDEO] A crowd of 38,152 at Giants Stadium watched Spanish giant Barcelona thump the New York Red Bulls, 6-2, in a friendly on Wednesday. Barcelona was up 3-0 within the first 24 minutes.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has upheld the appeals filed by FC Schalke 04, SV Werder Bremen and FC Barcelona, who were protesting FIFA’s orders to release players – Rafinha, Diego and Lionel Messi, respectively — for the men’s Olympic tournament, an under-23 competition. But it seems unlikely that Barcelona will demand Messi to return from China and the German clubs have already given the Brazilians permission to stay in China. FIFA President Sepp Blatter, however, said the decision could have dire consequences in the future.

The U.S. men’s national team dropped to No. 31 in the FIFA world rankings, its lowest placing since being at No. 35 in October 1997.

Longtime European contender Anderlecht was knocked out of the UEFA Champions League when the Belgian club fell to BATE Borisov of Belarus in the second round of qualifying. Another surprise was Cypriot club Anorthosis Famugusta’s win over Rapid Vienna. For all the results …

[TRANSFER TALK] After a fifth-place finish in the Premiership last season, there was talk that Everton could break into the big four and fight for a place in next year’s Champions League.

Soccer will continue on Thursday morning with live coverage of the USA-Japan men’s game on MSNBC and delayed coverage on Universal HD at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. ET. Soccer will also be available on various NBC networks, including USA, CNBC and Telemundo. Complete soccer coverage will be available on the NBC Olympic Soccer Channel and online at nbcolympics.com. Check with your television provider for the availability of the NBC Olympic Soccer Channel.

MEMBERSHIP ALERT: Soccer America apologizes for the delayed and imperfect delivery of yesterday’s special edition of SoccerAmericaDaily with coverage of Wednesday’s women’s action. A special edition with U.S. Olympic soccer coverage will appear each day during the Olympics that a U.S. team is playing, so look for our coverage of the USA-Japan men’s game later today. For fans not wishing to read our coverage until after they have watched the game, the subject line of these e-letters will begin “Special Olympic Edition.”

[RECAP] New U.S. coach Pia Sundhage asked that her players be more unpredictable, and unpredictable they were. After three wins over Norway by the margin of 12-1 in the last 10 months, who would have predicted the outcome of Wednesday’s Olympic opener in Qinhuangdao? For a recap of the game, Soccer America’s player ratings, reaction from the American press and more …

[MY VIEW] Wednesday’s start to the Olympics for the U.S. women recalled their dramatic collapse in the semifinals of the 2007 Women’s World Cup 10 months earlier. The Chinese venue was different, Qinhuangdao instead of Hangzhou, but the result was the same. The 4-0 loss to Brazil snapped Greg Ryan‘s 51-game unbeaten streak as U.S. women’s national team coach and led to his ouster. Wednesday’s 2-0 loss to Norway ended Pia Sundhage‘s honeymoon that was a 21-0-1 record in 2008 and was no less shocking. At least, Sundhage has a minimum of two more games to rehabilitate the Americans.