The Minnesota Thunder Academy executive board removed Mark Abboud as the club’s technical director after he ordered the players on his under-12 Thunder East team to miss their penalty kicks on purpose so their opponents, the favored U-13 Thunder, could win, which happened.
Posted inStory, Youth Soccer Reporter
Clubs dominate at state championships
Beadling (Pennsylvania West), Brentwood Premier (Tennessee), Empire United (New York West), Minnesota Thunder Academy (Minnesota) and Seacoast (New Hampshire) were among the big winners at recent U.S. Youth Soccer state championships. For the results of the under-14 to under-19 boys and girls groups in Connecticut, Delaware, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New York West, Ohio North, Pennsylvania West, Tennessee and Wisconsin …
Posted inStory, Youth Soccer Reporter
Region IV finals set to begin
Five girls and three boys teams will seek to defend their titles at the US Youth Soccer Region IV Championships that begin Monday at the Lancaster National Soccer Center in Lancaster, Calif.
Posted inStory, Youth Soccer Reporter
Powers wins Gatorade national award
Dillon Powers, whose Andromeda team won the 2008 US Youth Soccer Under-17 national championship and led Plano Senior High School to the 2009 Texas Class 5A state championship, is the 2008-09 Gatorade National Boys Soccer Player of the Year.
Posted inStory, Youth Soccer Reporter
Derby County Wolves rank No. 1
The Derby County Wolves — the Michigan Wolves’ academy program sponsored by English club Derby County — is ranked No. 1 in both the U.S. Soccer Development Academy’s Under-17/18 and Under-15/16 age groups. For the Top 10 rankings, based on points per game …
Posted inStory, Youth Soccer Reporter
U-17s expand player search
The USA won its group at the Concacaf Under-17 Championship in style to qualify for the 2009 Under-17 World Cup, but Coach Wilmer Cabrera isn’t content to work only with players from that team that he has in residency in Bradenton, Fla. Of the 40 players called into a training camp, beginning Sunday at the Players Development Academy in Somerset, N.J., are 14 players who have not been part of U.S. Soccer’s residency program. For the complete roster …
Posted inYouth Soccer Reporter, Youth What They're Saying
What They’re Saying
“I’d come back here again, I don’t want to be anywhere else. I still want to make this facility work and if the economy hadn’t gone the way it did, we’d still be working right now.”
— American goalie Brad Friedel, whose Ohio-based Premier Soccer Academies, the first full-scholarship youth soccer academy in the United States, were forced to scale back operations because of the downturn in the economy. (Morning Journal)
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Ocean City pulls upset
[U.S. OPEN CUP] The Ocean City Barons became the first PDL team to beat a higher ranked team in the U.S. Open Cup when they beat Crystal Palace Baltimore of the USL Second Division, 3-0. In Wednesday’s other makeup game, USL2’s Real Maryland edged the Aegean Hawks, 1-0, in a game cut short by lightning.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, What They're Saying
What They’re Saying
“It was something I’ve been waiting for a long time. Something that I always dreamed about, playing with the national team and scoring with them. A great feeling.”
— Giuseppe Rossi, who was born in New Jersey and lived there until age 13 when he moved to Italy to join Parma’s youth system in 2000, on scoring his first goal for the Italian national team on Saturday in a 3-1 win over Northern Ireland. Rossi is at the Confederations Cup with Italy, which plays the USA on Monday. (New York Times)
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Another loss for Maradona’s Argentina
[WORLD CUP 2010 QUALIFYING] Argentina doesn’t like to play at altitude. After falling to Bolivia, 6-1, at 12,000 feet above sea level in La Paz in April, it traveled to Quito and lost to Ecuador, 2-0, at 9,300 feet above sea level. Coach Diego Maradona remained confident Argentina would qualify for the 2010 World Cup, but its lead over Ecuador for the fourth and final automatic berth in the World Cup 2010 finals was reduced to two points with four games to play. In Europe, former U.S. U-17 international Neven Subotic scored an insurance goal for Group 7 leader Serbia in the its 2-0 win at the Faeroe Islands.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Mexico hangs on Azteca
[HEXAGONAL] Mexico avoided the unthinkable but just barely. It got goals early in both halves from Argentine-born Guillermo Franco and Oscar Rojas and edged Trinidad & Tobago, 2-1, at Azteca Stadium to move into fourth place at the halfway point of World Cup 2010 qualifying in the Concacaf zone. Honduras remained third, behind Costa Rica and the USA, with a 1-0 win over visiting El Salvador.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
The USA’s winning formula
[HEXAGONAL] Qualifying for the World Cup is a relatively straightforward process: win all your home games and take the odd point on the road and you should go through. It’s been a winning formula for the USA in the last three Hexagonals, where three of the six teams advance to the finals. With that in mind, the USA’s entirely forgettable performance at Costa Rica is irrelevant. Winning its three home games and earning a point with a late comeback in El Salvador put the USA in reasonably good shape at the halfway point of Concacaf’s final round of 2010 World Cup qualifying.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Dynamo finds its groove
[MLS] To the critics of slow starts, which have been the rule rather than the exception since the team moved from San Jose to Houston, Dynamo players, coaches and fans reply thusly:
Posted inSoccerTalk with Paul Gardner, Story
Dunga’s Euro-Brazil Not a Joy to Behold
Brazil, of course, will qualify for the World Cup in South Africa. Of course — for a whole bunch of reasons: because it’s Brazil, because it has been present at every World Cup so far played (and no other country can match that), and because a World Cup without Brazil is simply unthinkable, it wouldn’t be a World Cup at all. And then, Brazil will be there on merit, because Brazil has more of the world’s great players and plays the sort of soccer that everyone loves to watch.
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
Qatar Out; Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and North Korea In Hunt
Qatar needed to win its final game to stay alive, but could only muster a 1-1 draw away at already-qualified Japan. Bahrain, which lost to Australia, needs only one point from its final home game against Uzbekistan to clinch third place in Group A, which would secure a playoff against the third-place Group B team. […]
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
Australia Maintains Perfect Qualifying Record
Australia maintained its unbeaten record in the final round of Asian World Cup qualifiers with a 2-0 win over Bahrain at the Olympic stadium on Wednesday. Despite making seven changes to the starting lineup, Australia maintained its impressive record of not conceding a goal in any of seven games so far in the last stage […]
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
The Most Annoying Things Coaches Say
Goal.com produced a list of the top 10 most annoying things coaches say. Our favorites: No. 9: “At the end of the day.” Every day ends, we know this. There is no need to tag this onto the start of a sentence. No. 6: “We showed character.” Translation: We played absolutely rubbish, the opposition hit […]
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
Analysts: Real Madrid Spending Not So Savvy
"Real Madrid's transfer market spending spree will inflate prices and wages and sets a poor example in a sport struggling with debt mountains and dwindling revenue in the deepest global recession for six decades," writes Iain Rodgers of Reuters. This week Real president Florentino Perez kicked of a wanton raid for the world's best players […]
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
Toronto FC Defends Pricey Real Madrid Visit
The Real Madrid friendly is causing real headaches for Toronto FC fans, notably regarding exorbitant ticket prices and the installation of real grass that the club hasn't provided its own team. Ticket prices will range from $140 to $215 plus other fees, though subscribers and those on the waiting list get a "loyalty discount" starting […]
Posted inSection 2 Around the Net, Story
Setanta Refused Lifeline
On Tuesday night, Setanta held an emergency board meeting to discuss efforts to stave off administration, or a legal procedure that allows a business in financial trouble to keep operating without being forced to sell off assets to pay debts. Setanta's founders Leanord Ryan and Michael O'Rourke are in talks with backers to secure financing […]
Posted inSoccer America Classifieds, Story
Soccer America Classifieds
Welcome to Soccer America Classifieds, Soccer America’s email newsletter connecting soccer companies and organizations to Soccer America members each week. Soccer America Classifieds feature soccer classified advertisements on the latest soccer job openings, soccer products and soccer opportunities. Read Soccer America Classifieds each Wednesday.
Posted inSoccer on TV., Story
Soccer on TV
In Friday’s USL action, Puerto Rico hosts Austin. Catch a full slate of MLS action on the weekend. The WPS Game of the Week features Boston and St. Louis. Also, the FIFA Confederations Cup starts on Sunday. The USA faces Italy on Monday. Look for updates in Friday’s Soccer on TV.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
MLS WEEK 12: Adjustments pay off
[TEAM OF THE WEEK] Players who reprised their former positions took center stage to help their teams win in Week 12 and head Soccer America’s MLS Team of the Week for Week 3.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
PDL and NPSL teams advance
[U.S. OPEN CUP] The Sonoma County Sol of the NPSL and El Paso Patriots and Chicago Fire Premier of the PDL were the lowest ranked teams to win games on Tuesday in the first round of the 2009 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup.
Posted inSoccer America Daily, Story
Former MLS players earn top honors
[USL TEAMS OF THE WEEK] Tyler Hemming, who helped lead the undefeated Charleston Battery to a win and a draw at Austin after earning his first cap for Canada earlier in the week, and Western Mass goalie James Thorpe, who had big games in wins over Crystal Palace Baltimore and Real Maryland, earned the USL First Division and Second Division Player of the Week honors, respectively. For the USL-1 and USL-2 Teams of the Week …