Another date has been added to the David Beckham traveling show. The Los Angeles Galaxy will head to Minneapolis on Oct. 10 to face a yet-to-be-named opponent in the Copa Minnesota at the 64,000-seat Metrodome.
Copa Minnesota, organized by the USL’s Minnesota Thunder, is Beckham’s only scheduled U.S. visit to a non-MLS city in 2007, but it will mean Beckham and the Galaxy will play exhibitions on the road on back-to-back Wednesdays just one week before the last week of the MLS regular season.
[GOLD CUP ROSTER] Panama, the surprise runner-up at the 2005 Gold Cup, has called up Colorado Rapids striker Roberto Brown for the 2007 Gold Cup. Brown, who played on the 2005 team, was one of nine foreign-based players called up by Coach Alexandre Guimaraes. Panama faces Honduras, Mexico and Cuba in the first round.
[GIRLS HIGH SCHOOL RANKINGS] Undefeated Apex (N.C.) High School, the No. 1 girls team in the NSCAA/adidas spring rankings, faces New Berlin Wednesday in the semifinals of the North Carolina Class 4-A state championship. The Easterns winner faces the East Forsyth-Monroe Weddington winner in the state final. Top 20 girls teams to have wrapped up state titles include No. 5 Parkview (Georgia Class AAAAA co-champion), No. 12 Vestavia Hills (Alabama 6A) and Eastside (South Carolina Class AAA).
[BOYS HIGH SCHOOL RANKINGS] Greenville (S.C.) High School remained the top-ranked boys team in the NSCAA/adidas spring rankings. The Red Raiders won the South Carolina Class AAA state championship with a 3-1 win over Socastee to finish 27-0-0. The difference in the final was two Socastee own goals. Sebastian Velasquez scored the other Greenville goal. No. 2 McIntosh won the Georgia Class AAAA state final with a 2-1 win over Whitewater.
Unfortunately, when British soccer fans think of wealthy Americans buying English soccer clubs, they think of the hostile scenes that marked the takeover of Manchester United by the unwanted Malcolm Glazer family. Years later, the Glazers largely kept their noses out of soccer matters, and the animosity has lessened, though the allegory for many still […]
Red Bulls managing director Marc de Grandpre admitted that the noticeable dramatic dip in attendance at games in Giants Stadium is disappointing, but management isn’t pulling the panic button yet. At 9,867 spectators per game, The Red Bulls are averaging the worst home attendance in the New York franchise’s history and the second-worst average in […]
As he does every week, ESPN Soccernet’s Phil Ball gives his impression of the weekend in Spain — and what a weekend it was. From spectacular and unexpected one-sided thrashings to closely contested, edge-of-your-seat matches capped by late winners, it was a weekend showcasing everything that’s been so special about this season in La Liga. […]
After the five luckless months Javier Mascherano endured at West Ham United, it’s little wonder the Argentine says. “I find it unbelievable to be involved in this final.” Indeed, nothing could have been more unlikely. Toiling away in the Hammers reserves as a club takeover and two different management regimes passed him by, Mascherano in […]
Simon Kuper of the Financial Times gives writes entertaining portrait of AC Milan midfielder Clarence Seedorf, the man who after Kaka, perhaps, is most responsible for the Rossoneri reaching Wednesday’s Champions League final against Liverpool. “Well-meaning,” “intelligent,” self-righteous and supremely confident, Seedorf has one problem, according to his teammates: He won’t shut up. Former England […]
The New York Red Bulls drew another meager crowd (10,321) last weekend and has the second lowest attendance average. Bottom is Kansas City, which like New York is averaging fewer than 10,000 per game. New England’s Taylor Twellman didn’t connect in a 1-0 win over Houston, but remains atop the leading scorers’ list with six strikes. Trailing him are four players with four goals, Ken Cooper (FC Dallas), Maykel Galindo (Chivas USA), Clint Mathis (New York) and Chris Rolfe (Chicago). Mathis, who scored in the 4-0 tout of Columbus, has already scored twice as much as he did all last season for Colorado. In 2005, he scored three times for Real Salt Lake. For up-to-date MLS standings, schedules, leading scorers, attendance and goal-scoring averages …
[MAKING A LIST] Neven Subotic, an 18-year-old defender who represented the USA at the 2005 U-17 World Cup, became the youngest American to play in the German Bundesliga when he debuted for Mainz last weekend in a 5-2 loss to Bayern Munich. Subotic, a native of Bosnia, was discovered by the U.S. U-17 coaching staff playing pickup soccer in Bradenton, Fla. The youngest previous Bundesliga debut by an American came from Jovan Kirovski (age 20 in 1996 for Borussia Dortmund). Subotic’s appearance against Bayern came with Mainz already doomed to relegation to the Second Division for the 2007-08 season. He was one of six Americans to see German First Division action this season.
Despite posting a 31-17-16 regular-season record in 2005 and 2006 while playing the most skillful soccer in MLS, United hasn’t returned to MLS Cup. United 2007 again features a glittering array of attackers – Christian Gomez, Jaime Moreno, Fred, Luciano Emilio – yet last Saturday it beat Toronto, 2-1, with the bedrock basics it had drifted away from: hard tackles, tenacious defending, fierce marking.
“The paintball guns will be one of the weapons the riot police will use in case of fan clashes. They have the double aim of stopping trouble because they are quite painful as well as marking violent fans.”
— Athens police spokesman Panagiotis Stathis reveals security’s secret weapon against hooligans at Wednesday’s European Champions League final clash between Liverpool and AC Milan. About 50,000 Italian and English fans are expected. (Reuters)
[W-LEAGUE RESULTS] The Vancouver Whitecaps needed goals from Canadian internationals Jodi-Ann Robinson and Sophie Schmidt to overcome Seattle, 2-1, before 1,819 fans in their 2007 W-League opener. Erin Redwine had given Seattle the lead in the 25th minute.
[PDL RESULTS] The defending PDL champion Michigan Bucks opened their 2007 season with a pair of shutout wins. Khelli Dube scored twice and Nate Jafta scored a goal and added an assist in the 4-0 win over West Michigan. Doug DeMartin and Dube scored in the 2-0 win over Cleveland. St. Louis, Long Island and Carolina are the only teams that are 3-0-0.
[MAKING A LIST] Foreign nationals and foreign-born players dominated the German Bundesliga scoring charts. Of the players who ranked in the top 10 in First Division scoring, all but one was born abroad, including Germany national team strikers Kevin Kuranyi (born in Brazil) and Miroslav Klose (born in Poland). The only German-born player was 22-year-old Stuttgart sensation Mario Gomez, born in Riedlingen to a Spanish father and German mother.
[IRELAND ROSTER] Notre Dame’s Joseph Lapira, Soccer America’s College Player of the Year and the Hermann Trophy winner in 2006, joined the Ireland national team at Montclair State University in New Jersey, where it is preparing for the first of its two games on its U.S. tour against Ecuador on Wednesday at Giants Stadium. The Irish face Bolivia Saturday in Foxboro, Mass. Lapira led all Division I scorers with 22 goals during the 2006 season. Nicknamed the “Ragin’ Cajun,” the Louisiana product debuted with the PDL’s Baton Rouge Capitals on May 12 and is expected to train at Scottish club Aberdeen later in the summer before the start of his senior season at Notre Dame. Lapira, 20, qualifies to represent Ireland through his mother Kate.
During a press conference in which he reflected on his first season at Chelsea, Ukraine striker Andriy Shevchenko told reporters he’d like to play in Major League Soccer one day. “Soccer is growing in the US and I would like to be a part of that,” he said. “I played there last summer against the […]
To the surprise of no one, Owen Hargreaves will be moving to Old Trafford this summer from Bayern Munich. Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has been chasing the player for nearly a year now, and Hargreaves himself stated his desire to join the club. Bayern President Franz Beckenbauer said Hargreaves would move to the […]
Three MLS games into BMO Field’s much-lauded existence, and Toronto FC owner Maple Leaf Sports Entertainment already had to make emergency repairs. Before TFC’s 2-1 loss at home to D.C. United, several bolts and fasteners snapped, though MLSE removed the debris and Saturday’s match ended up going off without a hitch. It was the club’s […]
Following a series of decidedly poor performances, an undermanned New York Red Bulls side put together a comprehensive team effort to blow by the Columbus Crew at home on Saturday. Regulars Claudio Reyna, Ronald Waterreus and Hunter Freeman were all injured, while 17-year old Jozy Altidore was at his high school prom, but in the […]
Where or where will Carlos Tevez be next season? Chelsea is interested, so is Real Madrid, and there isn’t a thing West Ham United, his current, uh, employer, can do about it. Tevez representative (and part-owner, incidentally) Kia Joorabchian is set to meet this week with West Ham chairman Eggert Magnusson to discuss the player’s […]
AC Milan faces Liverpool in the European Champions final on Wednesday (ESPN2, 2:25 pm ET). Fox Sports en Espanol provides the Libertadores Cup second-leg quarterfinal action. Thursday Night MLS action pits New York against Chicago. Club America faces Pachuca in the two-leg Mexican league final, but television coverage is yet to be finalized.
[VIDEO] Defending champion Houston suffered through another shutout defeat as the Revs prevailed on a Shalrie Joseph goal. Juan Pablo Angel got his first MLS points in a Red Bull rout. FC Dallas extended its Western Conference lead by downing Real Salt Lake, for which Freddy Adu got his first goal. The clasico in Southern California featured a Landon Donovan goal. Jaime Moreno scored a milestone goal for D.C. United in Toronto. Colorado’s not doing it in its new home. Soccer America’s Ridge Mahoney recaps the weekend’s action
In Germany, Hannover 96 (Steve Cherundolo, 90 min.) missed a chance to clinch a spot in the Intertoto Cup, a path to the UEFA Cup, when it lost, 3-0, to FC Nuremberg. Kamani Hill was a 75th sub for Wolfsburg in its 2-0 loss to Werder Bremen. Wolfsburg finished three points above the releagtion zone. In the Second Division, Munich 1860 finished the season with a 2-2 tie with Erzgebirge Aue and in eighth place. Munich’s Gregg Berhlater went the full 90 while Josh Wolff was out injured. Wolff joined the team in midseason and played 10 games, scoring twice and assisting twice.
