It seems to me most likely — indeed, inevitable — that a European league will be part of soccer’s future. We do already have the UEFA Champions League, which could be seen as such a league.
Posted inSoccer America Confidential, Story
No question who is Coach of the Year
Whether or not he makes his return to RFK Stadium Saturday a winning excursion against the team he led to three MLS titles and other crowns in four seasons, Galaxy coach Bruce Arena has no serious rivals for Coach of the Year honors.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Red Bulls’ shakeup finally begins
[MLS] Well, it finally happened. His team mired in a winless streak dating back more than three months, an apologetic Juan Carlos Osorio resigned as head coach of the New York Red Bulls. For the second time in four seasons, assistant coach Richie Williams has taken over as the interim head coach, this time for the remainder of the 2009 season.
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
Real Madrid Unloads Striker Negredo to Sevilla
Sevilla has signed striker Alvaro Negredo from Real Madrid to a five-year contract. Spanish media reports put the price tag at about $21 million. Negredo had played for the past two seasons at Almeria before being re-sold to Madrid last month as proposed in the terms of his original sale. Madrid has a surplus of […]
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
Toluca Hangs Onto Early Goal In Trinidad
Mexican club Toluca brought its top guns for the CONCACAF Champions League match Thursday against San Juan Jabloteh in Port-of-Spain. The move paid off as Toluca. Raul Nava scored in the ninth minute and the visitors held on for a 1-0 victory. Next up for Toluca is a trip to Washington, D.C., for a match […]
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
Leonardo Puts Pressure on Ronaldinho
“He’s getting better, he’s returning. It’s now or never,” AC Milan coach Leonardo said of Brazilian star Ronaldinho before the club’s league opener. “Now is his moment for Milan and for the national team.” The twice FIFA World Player of the Year’s form has slid noticeably since 2006. But Leonardo says he has seen encouraging […]
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
Onyewu Speaks About Adapting to AC Milan
During AC Milan’s preseason tour of America, newly signed defender Oguchi Onyewu sat down with the New York Times’ Jeffrey Marcus for an interview. Onyewu speaks candidly about handling the pressure of the big stage, his new team, and his identity as a person and player. He emphasizes his hunger to learn from this new […]
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
Sky Blue FC Take Storybook Season to Championship Game
Sky Blue FC, New Jersey’s Women’s Professional Soccer team, has achieved a remarkable turnaround this season, overcoming a last-place start, two coaching changes and injuries to its star forward. On May 25, nine weeks into the inaugural season of WPS, Sky Blue sat seventh – dead last – in WPS with a 1-4-2 record. The […]
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
UEFA Champions League Revenues Jump 33 Percent
The recession isn’t affecting the revenues generated by the European Champions League, the world’s most lucrative club competition. According to UEFA figures, the tournament will earn a record $1.55 billion in marketing and television revenues for clubs and organizer UEFA this season, a figure up 33 percent from last season. And this revenue stream isn’t […]
Posted inSoccer on TV., Story
Soccer on TV
Four of MLS’s seven weekend games take place on Sunday. On Saturday, the Galaxy’s David Beckham returns from red-card suspension when Los Angeles travels to D.C. United. The WPS’s first championship will be settled on Saturday.
Posted inCollege Soccer Reporter, Story
Exhibition season opens with interregional clashes
MEN’S NEWS … The 2009 men’s season doesn’t officially kick off until Sept. 1, but many teams will tune up with exhibitions over the next two weekends. Here are some top games on tap for this weekend:
Friday: Akron-South Florida, Virginia-George Mason, North Carolina-Georgetown, Duke-VCU, Tulsa-New Mexico.
Saturday: American-Maryland, SMU-Denver, Wake Forest-Liberty.
Sunday: West Virginia-Michigan, North Carolina-VCU.
* UC Santa Barbara, which faces Santa Barbara neighbor Westmont on Saturday, has lost one of its top scoring threats, Bongomin Otii, out for the 2009 season due to knee injury.
* The Soccer America Men’s Preseason Top 25 will appear in Tuesday’s Soccer America Daily, and the Soccer America Men’s Preseason All-Americans will be released a day later.
Posted inCollege Soccer Reporter, Story
Powers square off on opening weekend
WOMEN’S NEWS … The 2009 women’s season begins Friday. The weekend play is highlighted by four matches in which both teams are ranked in the Soccer America Women’s Preseason Top 25.
FRIDAY: #11 Virginia at #6 Penn State: The Nittany Lions are looking to break the Jeffrey Field record crowd for a women’s game set in 2006 (3,206 for Penn State-UCLA on opening day).
IN THE SPOTLIGHT: The game will mark the collegiate debut of Christine Nairn, who delayed her enrollment at Penn State to represent the USA at the 2008 U-20 World Cup. She has since become the first member of the U.S. world champion team to earn a cap at the senior level.
SATURDAY: #3 UCLA at #1 North Carolina: The game is a rematch of last year’s College Cup semifinal the Tar Heels won, 1-0, to send the Bruins home from the College Cup without a trophy for the sixth straight year.
IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Junior Kylie Wright will have to play a bigger role in the UCLA midfield following the departure of playmaker Tina DiMartino.
SATURDAY: #12 USC at #9 Texas A&M: The Trojans return to College Station, where they won the NCAA title two years ago. This will be the first-ever meeting between USC and Texas A&M.
IN THE SPOTLIGHT: With Olympic gold-medalist Amy Rodriguez having departed, junior Megan Ohai will be counted upon to spark the USC attack. She spent the summer with the U.S. U-23s, playing with USC goalie Kristin Olsen and Aggies Kristin Arnold and Bri Young.
SATURDAY: #24 Oklahoma State at #17 Colorado (Radio: KSBI, 780 AM). The match is a rare conference match to open the season. Both teams are expected to challenge for the Big 12 title with co-favorites Missouri and Texas A&M.
IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Shaye Marshall joins older sister Nikki Marshall, who was named to the Soccer America Women’s Preseason All-American team, in the Colorado lineup. Shaye, a freshman, made her presence felt in the Buffs’ final tuneup, earning an assist on the winning goal in the 2-1 exhibition victory over Northern Colorado.
* All but Boston College, Michigan State, Connecticut and Rutgers kick off their regular-season schedules this weekend:
Soccer America Top 25 Schedule
(BC and UConn meet Saturday in an exhibition. Rutgers scrimmages the University of Montreal Friday. MSU is idle.)
Posted inSoccer America Daily, What They're Saying
What They’re Saying
“I enjoy the role very much. Before the match I sit down in my room and work out a playlist. I have to change it every time. You don’t know these guys – they’re like dogs! They’re hungry for new songs and get angry if it’s the same stuff as the last game. So I mix it up and make sure everybody’s happy. I put some English music, some Brazilian, some R ‘n B, some dance. Now it’s part of the ritual before games.”
— Manchester United defender Patrice Evra, who serves as the team’s locker room DJ. (Telegraph)
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Revs silence the Sounders
[MLS] Seattle fans — 32,705 for a midweek game! — might want to subtitle their team’s 1-0 home loss to New England Thursday, “The Curious Decisions of Baldomero Toledo,” yet a more objective viewpoint would point blame in other directions.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Mexico’s Landin finally lands in Houston
[MLS] A team that has taken pride in winning titles with few foreign players and no Designated Players has changed tack. A long-rumored move of Mexican forward Luis Angel Landin to Houston has been completed. The Dynamo announced Thursday Landin, 24, will join the team on loan from Cruz Azul. He will be contracted until the end of 2010, with Houston accorded an option to acquire his rights.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Has the Sol turned cold?
[WPS] A month ago, it would have been hard to find anyone taking odds against the Los Angeles Sol winning the inaugural Women’s Professional Soccer title. But the oddities of the regular-season schedule (only three Sol games in the last six weeks) and playoff format (a bye for the regular-season champion Sol into the final) mean that the Sol will go in cold against red-hot Sky Blue FC (winner of back-to-back playoff games on the road) in Saturday’s championship game at the Home Depot Center (TV: Fox Sports Net, Comcast Sports Net, live, 4 pm ET/1 pm PT).
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Seven games that can shake up standings
[MLS PREDICTIONS] After thinning out its schedule in June and July to accommodate other competitions, MLS stages a full schedule of seven weekend games on the heels of two midweek contests. Most games feature teams placed close together in the overall standings, with only three games matching teams separated by more than one win. For all of Soccer America’s predictions, as well as TV viewing information, and to see how Ridge Mahoney fared so far this season …
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Biggest Italian Serie A deals
[TRANSFER WATCH] Nowhere has the downturn in the transfer market been more evident than in Italy’s Serie A, where only six permanent transfer deals exceeded $10 million in value. Juventus was the big spender, Inter Milan and AC Milan dealed modestly, while Fiorentina, Roma and Lazio spent little. Eight of the 20 teams did not import a single player.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Club-by-club summer moves
[ITALY] Oguchi Onyewu became the first American since Alexi Lalas to sign with an Italian First Division club when he joined legendary AC Milan as a free agent. Onyewu is one of four foreign imports for Milan, which hopes to unseat defending champion Inter Milan. For all the Serie A moves …
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Dempsey strikes from long range in Europa League
[AMERICANS ABROAD] Facing a fight for his starting job with the arrival of Irish veteran Damien Duff, U.S. midfielder Clint Dempsey came through with a goal on a 25-yard shot that helped Fulham win, 3-1, against Russia’s Amkar Perm in the first leg of their Europa League preliminary-round series.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Soccer America Women’s Top 25 Scoreboard (Sunday Aug. 23)
[COLLEGE] No. 2 Stanford clobbered Hawaii in Honolulu, 6-2, Sunday night to open its 2009 campaign. Sunday’s big loser was No. 15 San Diego, which was stunned by Cal State Bakersfield, 2-1. For all Sunday’s Top 25 results …
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
U.S. bid committee cuts list to 27 markets
[WORLD CUP 2018/2022] The USA Bid Committee seeking to bring the 2018 or 2022 World Cup to the United States has narrowed the number of stadiums it has under consideration to 32 representing 27 markets. Thirteen stadiums representing 11 markets, the majority of them college towns, were dropped from consideration.
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
Norwegian Laws Prevent Valencia From Wearing Sponsored Shirts
Spanish club Valencia was barred from wearing the sponsored shirts it typically dons when the club kicked off its Europa League playoff at Norway’s Stabaek on Thursday. “Despite intense negotiations over the last few days UEFA have taken this decision because of Norwegian restrictions … with regards to publicity (for online gambling),” the Primera Liga […]
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
Arabe Unido Stomps on Pachuca in Champions League
On Wednesday, Panamanian side Arabe Unido stunned Mexican power Pachuca 4-1 in Panama with an energetic and hungry performance. First-half goals from Orlando Rodriguez and Victor Mendietta were followed by second half goals by substitute Manuel Mosquera and defender Reynaldo Leyvin for the home side. American midfielder Jose Francisco Torres played 90 minutes in […]
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
Argentine Government Helps Support AFA With New TV Deal
The Argentine government has stepped in to help resolve the debt crisis hampering the country’s cash-strapped clubs that owe huge sums in wages to players and taxes to the government treasury. President Cristina Fernandez has agreed to pay the Argentine Football Association $155 million to broadcast matches on terrestrial television, more than double what the […]