Coach Bob Bradley‘s 21-man roster to prepare for the USA’s Oct. 17 friendly at Switzerland is comprised of three MLS players and 18 European-based players, including three German-based players (Steve Purdy, Preston Zimmermann and Sal Zizzo) who have yet to play for their clubs’ first teams. Freddy Adu has a chance to make his second appearance for the full national team, for which he appeared once, in early 2006. Seven players on the roster are uncapped.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, What They're Saying
What They’re Saying
“No, it is me.”
— Eric Cantona upon being asked whether Zinedine Zidane or Michel Platini was the greatest French soccer player ever. (Daily Mail)
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
UEFA Cup Group Stage Draw
The following is the draw for the group stage of the UEFA Cup, in which three teams with Americans on their first-team squads are entered: Everton (Tim Howard), Brann (Ramiro Corrales) and AaB (Dan Califf).<
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OFF THE POST: Get rid of the refs?
Cheating on the soccer field would decrease if we got rid of the referees, says Gijs van Oenen, a professor of ethics, legal philosophy and social philosophy at Erasmus University in Rotterdam. According to Ode magazine, van Oenen theorizes that in soccer-sans-refs there would be more arguments at first, “but soon players would realize those arguments were solvable.” Because officials are merely stand-ins for the rule books, players would in their absence begin following the rules, figures van Oenen.
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
Don’t Bet Against Becks and Co.
After David Beckham limped off the field once again nearly a month and a half ago, L.A. Galaxy and league officials must have started looking towards next season: their publicity rainmaker would likely miss the rest of the season, and the Galaxy’s playoff hopes, already bad, looked even worse. And so it is — or […]
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
MLS Teams under-prepared for Cup competitions
Frank Dell’Apa of the Boston Globe says that Major League Soccer’s expansion plans are over-extending its teams, whose financial constraints keep them from having a big enough squad to handle mounting fixture lists. One obvious example is the Los Angeles Galaxy, which will have played 41 games this year not including the playoffs, and while […]
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
Imperfect Donovan is Still the Best
Several pundits have noted that Landon Donovan’s name seems to draw all kinds of reactions from American soccer fans. Many of these are equally ambivalent about the 25-year-old striker, who last week won an unprecedented fourth Honda U.S. Player of the Year award, but most, if not all, would begrudgingly accept that Donovan is the […]
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
Klinsmann Turns Down Coaching Jobs
U.S. soccer fans will recognize the attitude displayed by former Germany coach Juergen Klinsmann in a recent interview with the London Times. The Southern California resident makes it abundantly clear that he isn’t going to work on anyone’s terms but his own. Last April, then-Portsmouth football directorAvram Grant traveled to Klinsmann’s California home to try […]
Posted inCollege Soccer Reporter, Story
Larkin’s Log
[MAKING A LIST] At 10-0-2, No. 15 BYU has the best winning percentage of any team in NCAA Division I women’s soccer. The Cougars have only scored 14 goals in their 12 games, but they have dependable Katie Larkin to thank for much of their success. The junior from Draper, Utah, has scored 10 goals, nine of them game-winners. Remarkably, eight of the nine wins were decided by one goal.
Posted inCollege Soccer Reporter, Story
Soccer America Women’s Player of the Week
Sophomore midfielder Michelle Makasini, who scored three goals to lead the LSU to a 3-0 victory over No. 7 Tennessee on Friday night and a 1-1 draw with No. 18 Georgia on Sunday afternoon, is the Soccer America Women’s Player of the Week for games played Oct. 1-7.
Posted inCollege Soccer Reporter, Story
Soccer America Women’s Team of the Week
Canadian World Cup players Diane Matheson, who had the goal or assist on seven of eight goals scored by Princeton players in a pair of big wins, and Sophie Schmidt, who scored two goals in her debut as a forward off the bench for Portland in a 4-0 win over Oregon, were among the players named to the Soccer America Women’s Team of the Week for games played Oct. 1-7.
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Soccer America Men’s Player of the Week
UC Santa Barbara junior Chris Pontius, who scored four of five Gaucho goals in a pair of wins, is the Soccer America Men’s Player of the Week for games played Oct. 1-7.
Posted inCollege Soccer Reporter, Story
Soccer America Men’s Team of the Week
Alejandro Bedoya (Boston College), Robert Edmans (Virginia Tech) and O’Brian White (Connecticut) make their second appearances this season on the Soccer America Men’s Team of the Week. They were selected to the team of the week for games played Oct. 1-7.
Posted inCollege Soccer Reporter, Story
OBITUARY: Cal State Northridge’s Jay Singh (1987-2007)
Jay Singh, a 20-year-old junior whose coach called him “Beckham” for the way he could strike a ball, died unexpectedly Sunday night at his home in San Bruno, Calif. Singh was redshirting at Cal State Northridge after transferring from Loyola Marymount. According to the Los Angeles Daily News, the cause of death is still under investigation and results of an autopsy done on Monday would not be known for several weeks.
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Will Armas stay or go?
Galaxy midfielder Cobi Jones isn’t the only MLS original reconsidering his announcement to retire. Chris Armas, a former teammate of Jones in Los Angeles, has played the last 10 seasons with Chicago and might try to squeeze out one more. Maybe.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Stoitchkov picks win to say goodbye to Celta
Less than six months after quitting as Bulgaria’s national team coach to charge of Spanish club Celta, Hristo Stoitchkov has left the Vigo club.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
World Cup qualifying kicks off in Asia with revenge match
The United Arab Emirates gained revenge for its loss to Vietnam in the quarterfinals of this summer’s Asian Cup with a 1-0 win on the road Monday in the first leg of their first-round World Cup 2010 qualifying series, the first step in Asian qualifying for the South Africa finals. The only other team to lose its home leg was Palestine, a 4-0 loser to Singapore.
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U.S. U-17s dominate at Development Academy’s Fall Showcase
[VIDEO] The U.S. Soccer Development Academy’s Fall Showcase Weekend wrapped up on Monday at The Home Depot Center, where the U.S. U-17s ’90/91 team defeated the U-18 Richmond Kickers, 1-0, and the U.S. U-17 ’92 team beat the Kickers’ U-16s, 7-0. Jack McInerney led the ’92 team with a hat trick, and Stefan Jerome added two goals. The U.S. U-17 teams both swept both games at the Fall Showcase. The De Anza Force of Northern California was the only club to sweep all four games. Other teams to sweep both games were the La Jolla Nomads, Schulz Academy, Kendall Soccer Alliance and Crossfire Premier (U-16s) and San Diego Surf (U-18s). No club left Carson without at least a point for one of its two teams.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, What They're Saying
What They’re Saying
“Personally, I’m not ashamed because I see how in a short time they have made very good progress, because I have taken them away from their women, from their wives. We went to the [training] base, because women in soccer are a scourge. They do not understand that men need to work, that they have a hard job to do.”
— Dynamo Kiev coach Josef Sabo, upon being asked by a female reporter if his team’s poor early-season performances as defending champion were shameful. (Reuters)
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OFF THE POST: ‘He’s clocked him one in the jewels’
[VIDEO] Midfielder Joel Griffiths of Australian club Newcastle United Jets escaped with a yellow card for striking a linesman in a manner that one TV commentator described with “He’s clocked him one in the jewels” and another called a “short jab in the nether regions.”
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Phenoms included in U.S. U-18 squad for France trip
[ROSTER] Coach Thomas Rongen will be taking the U.S. under-18 national team to France Oct. 27-Nov. 4 as preparations begin to build a team for 2009 Under-20 World Cup qualifying. While the nucleus of the team consists of players who competed at the recent Under-17 World Cup in South Korea, Rongen selected several young phenoms.
Posted inSoccer on TV., Story
Soccer On TV
The Copa Sudamericana quarterfinals kick off on Wednesday. Thursday night’s ESPN2 MLS game pits FC Dallas against Chivas USA. European Championship qualifying continues this weekend, which is also when South American World Cup qualifying kicks off. South American qualifying games will be broadcast by Gol TV and are available pay-per-view on DishNetwork. Click HERE for info on DishNetwork packages.
(All times Eastern unless noted. TV programming is always subject to change. Check your local listings and soccerTV.com)
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
Poor Form Leaves Liverpool Manager, Captain Bemused
A bad week at Anfield was almost made worse on Sunday but for a last-minute equalizer from Fernando Torres against Tottenham. Earlier in the week, Liverpool fell 1-0 at home to Marseille in the Champions League; the Reds were on their way to another Anfield loss before $54 million man Torres headed home in the […]
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
Messi Wins Battle of Maradonas
In Spain, a few themes seem to be emerging: Real Madrid will continue to grind out results, Sevilla is not the team it was last season, and both Valencia and Villarreal still flatter to deceive. Barcelona, meanwhile, is very much the team to beat as the unstoppable Leo Messi continues to orchestrate win after win […]
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
Shevchenko Still Second-String at Chelsea
You can’t imagine that Andriy Shevchenko shed too many tears when Jose Mourinho departed Stamford Bridge, but if the last two matches are any indication, new manager Avram Grant rates the Ukrainian striker even lower than Mourinho. Sheva didn’t feature at all in the Champions League match against Valencia in midweek and was fourth-choice striker […]