Soccer America Archives

[USL-1] The latest Brazilian star acquired by Miami FC is 39-year-old defender Junior Baiano, a starter on Brazil’s 1998 World Cup runner-up team.

[OFF THE POST] Swiss club Basel fined its goalkeeper Franco Costanzo for grabbing a teammate by the hair on the field but allowed Argentine to keep the captain’s band.

[U.S. WOMEN] Two-time gold-medalist Lindsay Tarpley is sidelined after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in her right knee during training with WPS’s Chicago Red Stars last week. She joins a group of nine current U.S. pool players who have suffered ACL injuries. Surgeries generally require 8-10 months for a full recovery.

[WORLD CUP 2018/2022] Philip Anschutz, a founding investor of Major League Soccer who had at one time owned six of the 10 MLS teams through his sports and entertainment company AEG, has join the board of directors for the USA Bid Committee, which is striving to bring the World Cup to the United States in 2018 or 2022.

[TELEVISION WATCH] How big is the Mexico-USA showdown in Azteca being treated? For the first time in the 30-year history of ESPN, it will offer a live pre-match show for a soccer event it is not televising.

League play began in Germany, where defending champion Wolfsburg opened with a 2-0 win over VfB Stuttgart, and France, where titleholder Bordeaux crushed promoted Lens, 4-1. For all the results in Belgium, France, Germany, Mexico, Netherlands and Turkey …

The Los Angeles Galaxy moved closer to returning to the MLS playoffs after a three-year absence, winning, 2-1, at New England and moving into second place in the Western Conference. For all the MLS results, standings and leading scorers …

[MLS] Six of the seven MLS players on the USA’s roster for Wednesday World Cup qualifier in Mexico fared well over the weekend, especially Landon Donovan, whose ninth goal of the season was a golazo, and Conor Casey, who hit a hat trick for Colorado.

[WPS] The Washington Freedom clinched a playoff berth on the final weekend of the Women’s Professional Soccer regular season when it beat Sky Blue FC, 3-1, Saturday at the Maryland SoccerPlex. Sky Blue earned a playoff spot the next day when the Boston Breakers, needing a win, fell to the Los Angeles Sol, 2-1. The results set up a Freedom-Sky Blue rematch Saturday in the first round of the WPS playoffs.

[USL-1] Portland and Carolina moved into a tie for first place in the USL First Division, one point ahead of Charleston. In the week’s big match, the Timbers beat visiting Charleston, 3-1, before  9,477 fans. Guinean Mandjou Keita scored one goal and set up Alex Nimo and Ryan Pore for the others.

[UNDER-17 WORLD CUP] Despite a reign of terror brought on last month by the extremist Muslim sect known as Boko Haram, the 2009 Under-17 World Cup will go on in Kano, where the USA will face Spain on Oct. 26 and Malawi on Oct. 29 before moving to Ijebu-Ode to close out the first round against UAE on Nov. 1.

[REAL MADRID TOUR] Real Madrid put its new Galacticos on display for the first time in North America, but the Spanish club’s old hands did the bulk of the scoring in wins over Toronto (5-1) and D.C. United (3-0).

[AMERICANS ABROAD] A handful of the Americans on the U.S. roster for its World Cup qualifier against Mexico on Wednesday saw league action last weekend, in Germany and France (whose 2009-10 seasons got underway), and in Denmark and Mexico.

[MAKING A LIST]  D.C. United-Real Madrid and Barcelona-Guadalajara weekend exhibitions drew crowds of 72,368 and 61,572, respectively. They make it six crowds over 70,000, nine over 60,000 and 13 over 50,000 this summer.

[AMERICANS ABROAD] Striker Kenny Cooper scored 17 minutes into his debut with German Second Division club 1860 Munich, which opened the season with a 2-0 win over TuS Koblenz. “The Ami was simply Super,” according to German daily Bild.