Soccer archive

Manchester United were maintaining a dignified silence on Wayne Rooney today amid claims the striker wants to leave Old Trafford.

Rooney is said to be furious at the comments of manager David Moyes, who during an interview last week appeared to indicate he regarded the 27-year-old as back-up to last season's top scorer Robin van Persie.

Moyes, who is currently in Sydney for the side's clash with the A-League All Stars, is not thought to be happy about the situation, believing his comments have been taken out of context.

Nevertheless, he can hardly deny saying them nor dispute they have gone down incredibly badly with Rooney, whom sources told Press Association Sport is "angry and confused" about his treatment.

As far as the 27-year-old is concerned, he is at the peak of his career and has no intention of playing second fiddle to anyone, or being reduced to the rank of a squad player.

With four Premier League titles and a Champions League winner's medal to his name, Rooney does not believe he has anything to prove at United.

Yet he feels as though he has been put on trial by Moyes at a time when he should be concentrating his efforts on recovering from the hamstring injury that saw him sent home from United's pre-season tour within hours of landing in Thailand on Thursday.

The injury has also ruled Rooney out of Sunday's clash at a sold-out ANZ Stadium.

After months of speculation about his future, and no statement of intent to stay from the player, it is now clear that unless there is some major repair work undertaken, Rooney will be leaving.

The manner of United's response is the first major test for Moyes and chief executive Ed Woodward since they replaced Sir Alex Ferguson and David Gill respectively at the beginning of the month.

It has not exactly been a brilliant 24 hours for the Red Devils, who were immediately rebuffed in their attempt to sign Cesc Fabregas from Barcelona.

United only lodged a STG26 million ($A42.92 million) bid for the former Arsenal captain on Monday afternoon.

Within 24 hours, Barca manager Tito Vilanova was claiming Fabregas had told him he wanted to stay at the Nou Camp.

"I'm aware there have been offers. I had a conversation with him and he told me that he wanted to continue here and that he didn't want to go to another big club," said Vilanova.

"He wants to succeed here."

However, United have not been put off, with the club privately aware Fabregas might well be receptive to the move, which would make him a central figure at Old Trafford.



Soccer: Man United keep quiet amid Rooney claims - Sport - NZ Herald News

In case anybody had not quite got the message yet, a succession of well-briefed former Manchester United players lined up in Sydney on Thursday to firmly reiterate the English champions would not be selling Wayne Rooney.

United's Premier League rivals Chelsea said on Wednesday they had been rebuffed after making a cash bid for the unsettled England striker, who returned early from the Asia-Pacific tour to have treatment on a hamstring injury.

Manager David Moyes avoided the question altogether in a scripted Q&A at a lunch in the city and it was left to former players Bryan Robson, Denis Irwin and Dwight Yorke - dressed in club blazers and ties - to trot out the party line.

"David Moyes has said Wayne Rooney isn't for sale and as far as we're concerned that's the end of it," former England and United captain Robson told reporters.

"I don't think its been a disruption to the squad, they're getting on with training," he added.

"Unfortunately Wayne got the hamstring strain ... but it hasn't been a distraction for the other boys."

English media reports said Rooney was 'angry and confused' after Moyes, who replaced Alex Ferguson at the end of last season, suggested last weekend he would be second choice behind Dutchman Robin van Persie next season.

Rooney joined United for 27.0 million pounds ($40.83 million) in August 2004 and has since made 402 appearances for the club, scoring 197 goals and winning five league titles and the Champions League.

The 27-year-old has two years left of a contract that earns him a basic salary of around 250,000 pounds ($378,100) a week.

Former fullback Irwin, who played at United for more than a decade under Ferguson, repeated Robson's line almost word-for-word before adding that, personally, he would like Rooney to stay at the club.

"He's a fantastic player, he's scored a rack of goals for us so, yeah," the Irishman said.

Former United striker Yorke prefaced his comments by saying he was happy to talk about "anything else but Rooney" but did say Moyes would have to put his own stamp on the squad, even if it meant dispensing with crowd favourites.

"When a manager comes into a tough job like Manchester United, he has to make tough decisions," he said.

"David Moyes will have to do it his way and us as players, ex-players and supporters just have to trust him. That's why he's in that position."

The trio, speaking as club ambassadors ahead of Saturday's match against an A-League All Star XI in Sydney, were equally united in welcoming the prospect of Spanish midfielder Cesc Fabregas moving to Old Trafford.

United vice chairman Ed Woodward has returned to Europe and the British media have linked his premature departure from the tour to United's bid to wrest the former Arsenal player away from Barcelona.

"I think Fabregas is a fantastic player and I hope he's playing for Manchester United next season," Robson said.

"I hope Ed is successful, if that's what he's gone back to England to do."




Y! SPORTS

It's a very busy weekend for soccer fans living in the United States. The US Men will be in action, and other Gold Cup matches will also take place. Multiple channels will feature the return of Liga MX, and several big-name clubs will be participating in friendlies. The ESPN3/Watch ESPN service will also join in on the fun, showing live games every day this weekend.

All times listed below are ET

Live soccer games on US TV July 19

beIN Sport: Two live games will begin this station's weekend. Dinamo Moscow will play against Anzhi Makhachkala at 11:55 am. Werder Bremen vs. Ajax will begin at 2:15 pm. That second match will also be available live on beIN Sport en Español.

GolTV: Leones Negros will play against Estudiantes Tecos at 9:30 pm.

ESPN2/ESPN Deportes: Both stations will show Querétaro vs Monarcas de Morelia at 8:25 pm.

ESPN Deportes: Xolos de Tijuana vs Club Atlas de Guadalajara is scheduled to kick off at 10:25 pm.

Live soccer games on US TV for July 20

FOX Soccer: Who needs sleep on the weekend? Manchester United will play against the A-League All-Stars at 5:25 am. Two Gold Cup games will be featured later on in the day. Panama vs. Cuba will kick off at 3:30 pm. Mexico vs. Trinidad & Tobago will follow at 6:30 pm. Those Gold Cup games will also air on Univision. Panama vs. Cuba will also be shown on Univision Deportes.

beIN Sport: It's a day of friendlies on beIN Sport. Indonesia vs. Liverpool will begin at 9:25 am. Hamburg will take on Bayern Munich at 12:25 pm. Lechia Gdansk vs. Barcelona will begin at 2:30 pm. Those last two games will also air live on beIN Sport en Español.

beIN Sport en Español: This station will show FC Augsbourg vs. AS Monaco at 9:55 am.

GolTV: Ballenas de Galeana vs. Cruz Azul Hidalgo is scheduled to start at 5:00 pm.

UniMas: Cruz Azul vs. Monterrey will take place at 6:00 pm. Univision Deportes will also show this match live.

Univision Deportes: Chiapas FC vs. Veracruz will kick off at 7:55 pm.

Telemundo: Club Leon will play against Atlante at 9:00 pm.

Live soccer games on US TV for July 21

FOX: US Soccer returns to national TV on Sunday. The United States will play against El Salvador at 3:30 pm. Univision and Univision Deportes will also show this match live.

FOX Soccer: Tune into this station at 1:30 pm for a NWSL match. Western NY Flash will play against Sky Blue FC at 1:30 pm. Later that evening, Honduras will play against Costa Rica at 7:00 pm. That Gold Cup game will also air live on Univision and Univision Deportes.

beIN Sport/beIN Sport en Español: Both channels will show Telekom Cup games at 10:40 am and 12:25 pm. The teams involved in those matches were not yet known as of the posting of this piece.

GolTV: Four live games will air on GolTV on Sunday. The Malaysia All-Stars will play against Chelsea at 9:45 am. Galatasaray vs. Malaga will begin at 1:30 pm. Atletico PR will take on Corinthians at 3:30 pm. Fluminense vs. Vasco finishes the channel's day at 5:30 pm.

ESPN Deportes: Puebla will play against Pumas UNAM at 12:50 pm.

Univision Deportes: Coverage of Pachuca vs. Toluca will begin at 12:55 pm.

As always, remember to check your local listings for channel availability and also to learn about games airing via tape-delay and replay on all of the channels mentioned in this piece.

For more: Check FOX Soccer schedule, beIN schedules, GolTV schedule, ESPN schedule, Univision schedule, Telemundo schedule



Y! SPORTS

The All Nations Cup that begins next week is a kind of amateur, mini-World Cup for the Northwest — a soccer tournament that draws thousands of fans to watch amateur teams representing nations from all over the world.


“Have you ever heard of the kingdom of Champa?” asks Sam Hassan. “Have you heard of Oromia or Kurdistan ?”

His questions rise above the rhythmic thwack of a neon-yellow soccer ball being kicked down the field behind him. “Well, they all play for us,” he said.

By “us,” Hassan means the All Nations Cup . It’s a local soccer tournament that draws thousands of fans to watch amateur teams representing nations from all over the world.

Think of it as mini-World Cup for the Northwest — an opportunity to gather people from diverse backgrounds around a universally beloved game. It’s also an impressive display of the size and diversity of international communities in our region.

“We are the biggest and most important, dynamic and diverse ethnic event in the whole Northwest,” says Hassan, who took over organizing the 11-year-old festival in 2008. “We have more than 30 languages spoken.”

Many of those languages were being spoken on the bleachers at Shoreline Stadium on Wednesday night. The Cup begins next weekend, but representatives from many of the 24 participating teams were here for a drawing to determine the first-round matches. The rust-colored track and bright-green turf glow a little in the growing dusk as pingpong balls (representing teams) are dropped into a plastic baseball hat for the drawing.

“Brazil or Iran ... are either of them here?” asks Sean Snyder, coach of the English team, as he opens the proceedings.

Over the course of the next half-hour, the pairings are announced: Mexico vs. Italy, Japan vs. Russia, Gambia vs. Guatemala, Ukraine vs. USA, Palestine vs. England, etc. The match announcements elicit groans, confident smiles or stony-eyed resolve.

“I’m half-Palestinian and half-English so we’re going to be torn,” jokes Tareq Abu-Rish who works for Amazon.com by day and is the Palestine team captain.

For Team Palestine, which printed up their Palestinian flag-themed “All Nations Cup 2013” T-shirts three months ago, the tournament is also about community building.

They take the training seriously, practicing three times a week, organizing mock matches and working with a fitness specialist. But what they are more likely to brag about is that they had the most supporters in the stands last year.

“Soccer is simple,” says Mohammad Kaddoura, one of the team managers. “But when you look at it, it really brings the whole community together.”

As you might have guessed, bringing together representatives from so many different nations can also be complicated. Hassan, who is from Brazil, boasts that he could teach geopolitics after five years of organizing the All Nations Cup.

There was the time he says he received a slew of angry emails because the event allowed a “Team Kurdistan” (there is no official country called Kurdistan). Or the time a group of people who carried Russian citizenship, but identified as ethnically Turkic asked if they could play for Turkey (they could).

Just Wednesday evening, Team Palestine asked if they could have their games scheduled around the religious fasting some of them are doing in honor of Ramadan. The answer was yes.

Hassan, who sometimes signs his emails with more than 50 different words for “cheers,” is proud of the complex community the tournament represents.

Asked if there are any particularly exciting matches this year, Hassan answers like the diplomat he’s become. They will all be “beautiful, good and tough competitions,” he said.

In case you were thinking that the game takes a back seat to community building, think again.

When asked if the All Nations Cup is a serious athletic competition, Hassan barely manages to hide his offense. “I’m from Brazil. I’m not going to put on a soccer tournament that sucks,” he said.

To find out for yourself, visit the tournament’s schedule at: allnationscup.org

You really couldn't blame Juergen Klinsmann if he grabbed a microphone, walked out to the center circle at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore before Sunday's Gold Cup quarterfinal, and shouted "I told you so!" to the sellout crowd and national TV audience.

We certainly all deserve a reminder that we never should have doubted him.

When Klinsmann took over as coach of the U.S. national soccer team two years ago he said it would take time to turn things around. Yet when the U.S. struggled to get out of the preliminary round of World Cup qualifying last year, then lost its first qualifier this year, those calls for patience were met by calls for his head.

Good thing no one listened. Klinsmann's team has lost just once since then, going 9-1-1 and taking a U.S.-record eight-game winning streak into Sunday's match against El Salvador.

Along the way the Americans won in a snowstorm in Colorado and in near 100-degree heat in Utah. They won on grass, on artificial turf and on grass placed over artificial turf.

They won with offense — scoring six goals twice — and with defense, shutting out six opponents. And they won four straight with Landon Donovan and four straight without him.

What they haven't done, however, is defeat a top-shelf opponent. Apart from one-goal wins over "B" teams from Germany and Costa Rica, the U.S. hasn't beaten a team ranked in the top 40 globally since last August's 1-0 win over Mexico in a friendly.

And that, as much as anything else, probably explains why Klinsmann isn't about to gloat just yet. Although the U.S. sits atop the table in its World Cup qualifying tournament with four games left and is the only nation to enter the Gold Cup's knockout round with a perfect record, the team remains a work in progress.

"My personal way of doing things is always I want to see where the next level is," Klinsmann says. "And soccer is so fascinating because it's continually growing. There's always something next, next, next.

"You can never sit back based on what you did in the past. If you think about the past you've already lost a day."

That's why Klinsmann has used the Gold Cup primarily to prepare for the future. The tournament started less than three weeks after the June round of World Cup qualifiers, so Klinsmann gave most of his first team the summer off, turning the Gold Cup into a kind of tryout camp for unproven international players such as Joe Corona and Chris Wondolowski, who are trying to win a spot on the World Cup team, and for World Cup veterans such as Donovan and Oguchi Onyewu, who are trying to win back a spot.

The plan couldn't have worked better, with Wondolowski scoring six times and Donovan four, helping the not-ready-for-prime-time players to 17 goals in their four victories. And for Klinsmann, winning eight straight games with two totally different teams is proof his patient approach and his insistence that everybody buy into his "total football" concept was the right one.

"It tells us that the mentality in our national team environments starts to change," he said. "We develop that attitude that every day is serious, it's about work, it's about business. We have to learn in our environment that you can't switch off in a game against Belize on a free kick or against Cuba on a counter break.

"You have to be alert, you have to be awake. We can't get too relaxed, too confident, too easy on things. That winning streak now has shown that change of culture."

Compare Klinsmann's improved situation with that of embattled Mexico Coach Jose Manuel "Chepo" de la Torre, whose slumping team needed 23 shots to get one goal in Saturday's 1-0 Gold Cup quarterfinal win over tiny Trinidad and Tobago.

Unbeaten in the third round of World Cup qualifying in 2012, Mexico has won only once in six matches this year — which offers something of a cautionary tale for Klinsmann.

Getting too relaxed or too confident is probably the only way his team can lose against El Salvador, which won just once in group play and hasn't beaten the U.S. in 21 years. But Sunday's match starts the knockout stage of the Gold Cup and that has sharpened the focus of both the coach and players.

"In the group stage, you don't always play teams that set a high benchmark for you," midfielder Alejandro Bedoya says. "We know that with the elimination stage you only get one shot so the mind-set is totally different now."

Adds goalkeeper Nick Rimando: "The focus definitely changes knowing that any little mistake can cost you the tournament. You have to be extra prepared."

Sounds a lot like what Juergen Klinsmann has been saying all along.




Patience pays off for Juergen Klinsmann and his U.S. soccer team - latimes-com

American soccer lost a giant over the weekend with the death of Phil Woosnam, former commissioner of the North American Soccer League (NASL). He was 80.

The Welsh-born Woosnam will be remembered by many as "the father of American soccer." He presided over the growth of the league, helped start the iconic New York Cosmos franchise and was instrumental in bringing superstars like Pele, Franz Beckenbauer and Johan Cruyff to the astro-turfed fields of the United States.

Along with Lamar Hunt and his good friend Clive Toye, Woosnam helped push the "foreign game" into prominence and laid the groundwork for Major League Soccer and the current growth of soccer in the US.

Before coming to the States in 1966, Woosnam had a 16-year professional career with Manchester City, Leyton Orient, West Ham and Aston Villa. He also played 17 games for the Welsh national team.

Like many of his fellow Brits – a subject detailed brilliantly in David Tossell's book Playing For Uncle Sam – Woosnam crossed the Atlantic to help jumpstart US soccer and to make a little extra cash.

He was hired to manage the Atlanta Chiefs but ended up playing as well, and scored the first-ever goal for the franchise. He led the Chiefs to the NASL title in 1968, and also coached the US national team before being named commissioner of the NASL in 1969.

It was here that Woosnam made his mark, building the league into a powerhouse in 1970's.

He and Toye were adamant about establishing a strong team in New York, and the Cosmos – as remembered in the documentary film Once In A Lifetime – drew massive crowds to the New Jersey Meadowlands to watch Pele, Beckenbauer, Carlos Alberto and Giorgio Chinaglia.

Under Woosnam, the league expanded into the Pacific Northwest, a brilliant move which is still paying dividends. The Portland Timbers, Seattle Sounders and Vancouver Whitecaps were successful clubs in the '70's and all three are model franchises in the current-day MLS.

And of course, the signing of Pele can be seen as a precursor to the audacious and expensive move that brought David Beckham to Los Angeles and helped spread the gospel 30 years after the legendary Brazilian did his North American pied piper act.

The explosive growth of the NASL waned in the 1980's and many blamed Woosnam for over-expansion and inflated salaries. He left his post in 1983 and after receiving US citizenship, lived in the Atlanta area during his later years. He was involved with the World Cup bid in 1994 and was elected to the United States Soccer Hall of Fame.

Many younger MLS fans know little of the NASL and what it did for soccer in the US. It would behoove them to read, even if its just on Wikepedia, about Hunt, Toye, Pele, the Cosmos and Phil Woosnam.



RIP Phil Woosnam "Father of US Soccer"

Shaken by three deaths and a car crash that has left a budding star with critical injuries, a South Florida soccer community has gone to its strength: teamwork.

"It has been amazing to watch how these young kids handled it, with how devastated they were," said player development director Eric Eichmann of the tragedies that have befallen the Greater Boca Youth Soccer Association in the past few months. "But they persevered."

After the January death of the association president from cancer, two teenage players died — one in a fall off a roof, another from suicide. And earlier this month, a third player suffered a traumatic brain injury in a crash.

Wednesday, Boca United and the Boca Raton soccer community will gather for a fundraiser for star center-mid Renan Mendes, 17, who has remained hospitalized since the July 4 collision, and for the family of recreational player and referee Kaleb Holcombe.

Holcombe, 19, died July 10 from injuries he suffered on Independence Day in a fall off a roof, his family said. Meanwhile, a 5-K run will be held in Coral Springs in August to honor Bailey Leal, 17, who took her own life on May 21, Leal's family said.

Eichmann said: "This transcends soccer. This has rocked us back on our heels."

There are life lessons that can be learned through the game of soccer, he said.

"But in the end, the biggest positive thing we teach is to set goals and then how to handle disappointment," he said.

Arty Birnbaum's death was expected. The president of the Greater Boca Youth Soccer Association for the past 20 years, he had had cancer for some time before he died Jan. 10 at the age of 61.

But the unrelated deaths of Leal and Holcombe came as a shock.

"She was the center of everything, the anchor of the family," said Cesar Leal of his daughter, a junior at Stoneman Douglas High School who was a Broward All-County team selection three years in a row. "There was something going on with her that we didn't see, and that she didn't share.

"I don't understand it yet. I probably never will understand it."

Leal died soon after returning home from a college tour with her father that took them to Princeton University and Dartmouth.

The same week she died, the under-17 girls team that Leal captained was scheduled to play in a prestigious tournament in New Jersey, said Eichmann, the squad's coach. The team voted to play, said Eichmann, and did well, wearing arm bands with Leal's initials and No. 24.

"They did not give up," said Eichmann, 48, a former U.S. national team player. "That was a quality Bailey displayed."

Holcombe, who had just completed his freshman year at the University of Central Florida, was at a friend's house when he slipped and fell from the roof. His father, John Holcombe, said he was told by his son's friends that Kaleb was preparing to jump into the swimming pool below.

Suffering severe head trauma, Holcombe died six days later at Delray Medical Center.

Many of his organs were donated, said John Holcombe, including a kidney that went to a cousin in Texas.

"He was nothing but a joy his entire life," said Holcombe of his son, a graduate of Boca's Olympic Heights High School who played in the GBYSA recreational league and was widely known for the distinctive Mohawk haircut he wore for most of his life.

Thirty minutes before Holcombe was taken to the hospital emergency room, Mendes arrived by ambulance from the crash site at I-95 near Palmetto Park Road. The families met in the waiting room of Delray Medical Center.

After six days in a medically induced coma, Mendes is now alert and working to improve his speech and writing ability. He is active, and kicking a soccer ball in the hospital gym.

"It's crazy what's happened," said Renan's 16-year-old brother Joao Mendes, a West Boca High School junior and soccer player who now spends his days with his brother in the rehabilitation center at Memorial Regional Hospital South in Hollywood. "It's too much for one year. But we're all close in the soccer community. That helps."

Joao Mendes Sr., a house painter, and his wife Joelma also spend their days in the hospital with their son. "He needs us now," Joao Mendes Sr. said. "But we are confident he will fully recover."

John Hurst, who took over the Greater Boca Youth Soccer Association presidency after Birnbaum's death, said of the past few months, "We've had a very sad, tough first half of the year. It changes your attitude, changes the way people think and feel about sports and life."




Boca Raton soccer club rocked by deaths in season of heartbreak - South Florida Sun-Sentinel-com

FOX 5 has learned D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray will announced a preliminary deal Thursday morning on a new soccer stadium for D.C. United.

It would be a 20,000-plus seat stadium built on Buzzard Point across South Capitol Street from Nationals Park.

The plan is dependent on a land swap. The District of Columbia would give developer, Akridge, a property from the city inventory in exchange for the site of the new stadium at Buzzard Point.

One source familiar with the deal tells FOX 5 the front runner for the swap is the Reeves Center at 14th and U Streets in Northwest.

D.C. United would pay to construct the stadium at a cost estimated at up to $150 million.

Under the terms of the initial agreement, D.C. United would get a long-term land lease, a chance to develop retail along Half Street, SW, and receive property tax incentives from the city.

The D.C. Council would still have to approve the project and the public would also have a chance to weigh in on the proposed stadium.

Read more: Deal reached for new DC United soccer stadium - DC News FOX 5 DC WTTG
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D.C. United and city officials signed an agreement for a new $300 million soccer stadium. The city and the team would split the cost of the stadium, which is tentatively scheduled to open in 2016 in an industrial section of southwest Washington. D.C. United, which plays in RFK Stadium, had considered relocating to suburban Maryland, Virginia or Baltimore.

The North Atlanta Soccer Association 12 Elite II team won the U-19 girls national title on Sunday in its third go at the US Youth Soccer National Championships at the Overland Park Soccer Complex in Overland Park.

The Kennesaw, Ga., team won 2-1 over the Southern California Blues-Dido, who had defeated NASA on Friday in the final round-robin match.

It was the last chance at a national title for both teams, whose players will go their separate ways for the college seasons.

And that’s what helped NASA in its final game together.

“We knew that this was the last time we will ever step onto the field together,” NASA’s Bria Washington said.

Even NASA’s Caroline Waters, a U-18 player filling in for the U-19 tournament, knew what was on the line.

When the score was scoreless at the end of regulation play, Waters had one thing on her mind: “We have 30 minutes left as a team. Better make the most of it.”

Waters found herself in a good position and took a shot, like her teammates told her. Waters hit it as hard as she could and waited. When the ball found the back of the net, she couldn’t believe it.

“I was freaking out,” she said afterward, still ecstatic. “I was kind of in shock.”

Kelsey Nix added another goal about six minutes later, giving NASA a 2-0 lead going into the second 15-minute overtime period.

Jocelyn Blankenship put So Cal on the board in the second minute of the second overtime, but it wasn’t enough.

The overtime periods came after a competitive period of regulation play. The Blues struggled early in the first half, when NASA maintained possession. Play evened out during the second half with numerous opportunities for both teams. So Cal nearly saw its first goal when Jennifer Stanley’s shot hit the crossbar in the 81st minute. Blues goalie Naomi Willett was also challenged with two one-on-one breakaways.

But NASA held on and won its first national title.

“It couldn’t have happened a better way for them,” coach Dave Smith said. “It’s well-deserved, they’re great kids.”

NASA had very little training before the nationals, due to college schedules. The team played in the Georgia State Cup and the Region III Championships before coming to the National Championship Series.

“The fact that they’ve been together for so long probably filled in the holes for the lack of training that we had at times,” Smith said.

Five NASA players, including Washington, are headed to Georgia, where they can share more memories together.

But for those players who attend other Southeastern Conference schools, their NASA teammates are now opponents.

It’ll be a change for the NASA family, but Washington doesn’t seem too worried: “It’s going to be really competitive. Hopefully we can stay focus on the field and not talk and distract each other.”

Read more here: Now or never: Georgia team wins U-19 national soccer title - KansasCity-com

Yesterday, the U.S. Men's National Team beat Panama, 1-0, to clinch their fifth Gold Cup. It was a strange match because it was a tough match. Panama never looked a threat, but they packed everyone behind the ball and were able to keep the Americans from scoring for almost 70 minutes until substitute Brek Shea tapped in the game's only goal. Only Costa Rica, in the final match of the group stage, were able to hold U.S. Soccer to a single goal. But they won that, too, as well as four other matches in the Gold Cup, and five more before leading up to the tournament, and are now riding an 11-match winning streak. And that is strange.

The United States is dominant right now, and is for the moment clearly the best team in CONCACAF. And that's great and all, but before we start booking tickets for the World Cup final, let's talk about what this victory means. On the surface, it means very little. CONCACAF is a federation full of lots of hardy, baddish teams, and even though the United States advanced through the tournament with our B-team, the only teams that should've offered trouble—namely Mexico and Costa Rica—also kept most of their best players at home. It would've meant more if the Americans didn't win.

But how they blew through the tournament, easily, sexily, is worth talking about. Because after watching the national team play six times in 19 days, patterns start to emerge and narratives start to form. And though the results are early, this does not look like your father's USMNT. Jürgen Klinsmann came in promising something different from the team we've seen for decades, and we finally saw it—for the first time in what feels like forever, the Americans were an attacking team. In every single match, the United States dominated possession, playing forward-moving, free-flowing soccer against lesser opponents. They pinned other teams back into their own half, and either scored at will, or wore teams down until the breakthrough finally came. It was beautiful and weird to watch.

The United States has long been a scrappy, counterattacking team that advanced in international tournaments solely through hard work and well-timed breaks. There was always frustration that Americans couldn't play the beautiful game beautifully, but you need two things to play attractive, attacking soccer: a willing coach and capable players.

For a while, we didn't have the players. Our squad didn't have the creativity or the talent to do possess, to break down defenses. It wasn't their fault, per se, but it sucked to watch, and only added to our American Soccer Inferiority Complex (ASIC). But then one day, we did. Michael Bradley and Jermaine Jones are the engines in the midfield, though both, and Bradley especially, have the ability and desire to get forward and score goals. Dempsey keeps evolving, rivaling Donovan for "best American player of all time" honors. Jozy Altidore decided sometime last year to score goals all the time.

And for the first time ever, U.S. Soccer also has a manager in Klinsmann who's pushing a translatable German style of play, defending through possession, attacking with flair, and pushing for more goals once the team's gotten the first. He said from the start this is what he was going to do, but just months ago, it felt like his reign would end in disaster. The Sporting News published a report earlier this year alleging that Klinsmann had lost the locker room. German-born players were apparently beefing with Americans ones, and players spoke off the record about Klinsmann's failings. And then they started winning. They beat Germany (the B-team, to be sure) in a friendly, all but qualified for the World Cup, and were already on a five-game winning streak going into this tournament. The Gold Cup roster was obviously completely different, but the players kept passing, and attacking, and scoring, and winning. It looked (kind of) like the same team.

This means the entire pool—not just the starting 11, or just the Gold Cup squad, but all of the players—bought into Klinsmann's style, and that style's working. The Americans look dangerous now in a way they never have before. They always have been able to counter, and that's not going to change anytime soon, but now they look like they can bully lesser opponents off the pitch, and maybe look better sides in the eye.

The Gold Cup also helped clarify the futures of three major questions marks on the roster, none bigger than Landon Donovan.

This winter, Donovan took a break from soccer for the first time in 15 years to relax and visit Cambodia as the United States played vital World Cup qualifying matches. And though he owes his country and his national team and his national team's fans nothing, and certainly no more than he's already given, the Gold Cup was a tournament of redemption for the ex-captain. He's statistically the best American to ever play the game, but he still had a lot to prove, a fact made obvious when USMNT manager Jürgen Klinsmann selected him for the Gold Cup team. Donovan's a legend, and he had to spend the tournament playing with the usual team's bench, the guys on the periphery trying to make the final squad. And he responded the way you want to see a star respond in that situation: like he didn't belong there.

Has he ever played so well? Of the 20 goals the Americans scored, he scored five himself and assisted on seven more. He split the Golden Boot, which awards the tournament's highest goalscorer, with teammate Chris Wondolowski and Panamanian Gabriel Torres, but ran away with the Golden Ball, or the MVP award. He was an A-player among B-teams, and the question now will be where to play him with Jozy Altidore, Clint Dempsey, Graham Zusi, Fabian Johnson and the rest of the U.S.'s first XI. But he'll be out there.

All the players, Donovan included, were playing to impress Klinsmann, so it was fascinating to watch stocks rise and fall throughout the tournament. Wondolowski, for example, started th

On Monday, the day after Real Madrid arrived in Los Angeles, about a thousand soccer fans waited for hours in the sun along a sidewalk at UCLA just to catch a fleeting glimpse of superstar Cristiano Ronaldo and his teammates as they whisked by in golf carts before entering a practice facility closed to the public.

This adoration is nothing new for Ronaldo in Southern California. Nor for his team, Real Madrid, which Forbes ranks as the most valuable sports franchise in the world at $3.3 billion.

Ronaldo and Real Madrid have spent part of the last four summers here, leading annual barnstorming tours on the eve of the European league season. It's soccer's equivalent of baseball's spring training — only instead of training in Spain, Italy or rainy England, many of Europe's top teams come to the U.S., where they find warm weather, excellent facilities and lots and lots of money.

Seven European teams will play this week in the International Champions Cup tournament, which will stop at Dodger Stadium on Saturday for a doubleheader featuring Real Madrid, Everton of the English Premier League, Italy's Juventus and Major League Soccer champion Galaxy.

The Galaxy and Real Madrid will open their tournament schedule by facing one another Thursday in Phoenix (7 p.m. PDT; TV: ESPN, ESPND; radio: 1150, 1330). Other teams in the tournament include Italy's AC Milan and Inter Milan, Spain's Valencia and Chelsea of the Premier League, who will play in San Francisco; Indianapolis; East Rutherford, N.J.; and Miami.

But those clubs are hardly the only ones summering in the U.S. More than 20 foreign soccer teams, including Mexican league champion Club America, Italy's Roma and former Brazilian champion Cruzeiro have trained or played in the U.S. since the start of July, drawn by guarantees that range from more than $2 million a game for iconic clubs such as Chelsea and Spain's Barcelona, to $500,000 for lesser-known teams such as second-tier British club Wigan Athletic.

Add to that a mushrooming fan base and a bevy of major corporations eager to spend millions on partnerships, and a preseason training camp or tournament in the U.S. can prove quite lucrative.

But these visits can fatten more than just bank accounts. When the Premier League's Manchester City played friendlies in St. Louis' Busch Stadium and New York's Yankee Stadium in May — selling out the first game in 20 minutes — club officials said the matches were an important part of their efforts to shore up a U.S. fan base now larger than the team's following in England.

"It's much more of a medium- to a long-term fan-building strategy," says Diego Gigliani, Manchester City's director of marketing and fan development. "We know our fans are more and more not in the [United Kingdom].

"So rather than just watch us on TV or consume the content that we're able to sort of generate online, there's really nothing like physical contact with players in tangible ways."

And when London's Tottenham Hotspur, one of the Premier League's most popular teams, toured the U.S. last summer club officials credited that trip with helping to reinvigorate what was an already active fan base.

"A preseason tour enables us to give something back to these fans while also providing potential new fans an opportunity to get to know the club," says Aidan Mullally, Tottenham's senior manager for international business development. "From a Tottenham Hotspur perspective, players such as Gareth Bale, Clint Dempsey and Mousa Dembele have helped build a reputation among U.S. fans that we are a club that plays an attacking and entertaining style of soccer and fans want to go and watch that. The success of our U.S. tour in 2012 demonstrates this."

But if these international soccer tours are popular with the fans, they can be taxing for the players. Manchester City, for example, toured four continents in as many months since the Premier League season ended in May. And Chelsea, which played an exhibition in the U.S. in the spring, then went to Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia before returning to the U.S. last week for the International Champions Cup tournament.

"The postseason is now about tours, trips," says Chelsea striker Fernando Torres, who also played with the Spanish national team in June's Confederations Cup in Brazil, adding another trip and another continent to what was supposed to be his off-season.

"We went to Asia. Now the United States. When the season ends we have in my head that we can't rest, we're going to have more tours, more games, we're going to play football on other continents. And that's just part of football today," says Torres. Over the last three years he's averaged more than a game a week — with league games, tournaments, World Cup qualifying and exhibitions — a heavy workload typical for top international players.

"If it was ideal we'd prepare ourselves in another way," Torres says. "But I think all the teams … have a similar schedule. So it's not an excuse."

In addition to reaching out to fans, the tours also give teams a chance to woo major U.S. companies, who have become increasingly active in European soccer. NBC paid $250 million, and outbid Fox, for the right to air as many as 380 Premier League games in the U.S. in each of the next three years. Worldwide, the league's games are estimated to reach 4.7 billion viewers in 212 countries, reportedly earning it more than $8.3 billion in rights fees over the next three years and making international goodwill tours a vital part of the league's global marketing.

In Spain, where teams cut their own deals, Real Madrid and Barcelona each earn a reported $182 million from TV rights annually, one reason the teams rank first and third in Forbes' list of the world's most valuable sports franchises. Barcelona has an estimated value of $2.6 billion, considerably more than the Dodgers' $1.6-billion valuation.

And that pot of gold keeps getting bigger throughout Europe. Chevro

It's August, and that means European soccer leagues are beginning their seasons! Multiple international competitions will be featured on US TV during the first weekend of the month, as will some Major League Soccer action.

Remember to check the ESPN3/Watch ESPN schedule. That service is offering games on Saturday and Sunday.

All times listed below are ET.

Live soccer games on US TV for August 2

FOX Soccer Plus: Don't forget about FSP just yet. The station will show Partick Thistle vs. Dundee United at 2:40 pm.

beIN Sport/beIN Sport en Español: Both of these channels will show Barcelona vs. Santos at 3:00 pm.

GolTV: Ajax will play against Roda at 2:00 pm.

Live soccer games on US TV for August 3

FOX Soccer: One late-night International Champions Cup match will air at 10:30 pm. The opponents of LA Galaxy were not yet known as of the posting of this piece. ESPN Deportes will also show this game live.

FOX Soccer Plus: Celtic will host Ross County at 12:10 pm.

beIN Sport: Queens Park Rangers vs. Sheffield Wednesday will kick off at 9:55 am. Tottenham Hotspur will play against Monaco in a friendly at 12:25 pm. The Trophee des Champions, PSG vs. Bordeaux, will begin at 2:40 pm. The final two matches listed here will also air live on beIN Sport en Español, and the Trophee des Champions will also be shown on Univision Deportes.

ESPN Deportes: Back-to-back Emirates Cup games will air in the morning. Galatasaray vs. Porto begins at 8:55 am. Arsenal will host Napoli at 11:00 am. An ICC game will begin at 7:55 pm (teams TBD).

NBC Sports Network: Sporting Kansas City host New York Red Bulls in a battle of two top MLS East clubs that will start at 6:30 pm.

Univision: América vs. Atlas will begin at 6:00 pm.

UniMas: Monterrey will play against Toluca at 8:00 pm. San Jose Earthquakes host Chivas USA at 10:00 pm. That MLS game will also air live on Univision Deportes.

Univision Deportes: Veracruz will play against Cruz Azul at 6:00 pm. Pachuca vs. León follows at 8:00 pm.

Live soccer games on US TV for August 4

FOX Soccer: Back-to-back ICC games will be shown at 4:00 pm and 6:30 pm (teams TBD). ESPN Deportes will also show those games live. Portland Thorns will play against FC Kansas City at 8:30 pm.

FOX Soccer Plus: Hibernian will take on Motherwell at 8:10 am.

GolTV: Flamengo will play against Atletico MG at 3:00 pm. Gimnasia y Esgr. vs. River Plate follows at 5:10 pm.

ESPN Deportes: Napoli vs. Porto begins the morning at 8:55 am. Arsenal vs. Galatasaray follows at 11:00 am. Monarcas de Morelia vs. Xolos de Tijuana will begin at 2:00 pm.

UniMas: This channel will have Guadalajara vs. Atlante at 6:00 pm.

Univision Deportes: UNAM will play against Tigres at 1:00 pm. New England Revolution vs. Toronto FC will air at 7:30 pm.

As always, remember to check local listings for channel availability and to learn about games airing via tape-delay and replay throughout the weekend.

His picture looms large above the streets of Manhattan, heralding NBC Sports’ $250 million push into live coverage of English Premier League soccer games. “Every Match. Every Team. Every Week.” reads the billboard above a Sbarro restaurant on the street corner below.

But unless every news outlet in London and Madrid has it wrong, Gareth Bale, the man on that billboard, will no longer be a player in the Premier League by the time kickoff arrives Aug. 17. Real Madrid is closing in on a transfer that will cost the Spanish giant a world-record fee to buy him from Tottenham Hotspur.

The figures are being crunched as you read this. Joe Lewis, the Spurs’ chief shareholder, is reportedly coming out of his base in the Bahamas to meet Real’s president, Florentino Pérez, to haggle over the final terms.

It will cost no less than $130 million for a swift, straight cash deal, or upwards of $150 million if Madrid wants time to pay or for the deal to include some kind of player exchange, with Real’s Portuguese defender, Fabio Coentrão, or its Argentine winger, Ángel di María, among the names being discussed.

If that sounds alien to American ears, it must be pointed out that this is the way the world moves soccer talents around.

And, in another move that might be a minor blow to the NBC coverage, Clint Dempsey, by far the most effective outfield American player in European soccer these past five years, has just signed up to return to the States.

Last Friday, Dempsey and Bale were teammates at Tottenham. Today Dempsey belongs to the Seattle Sounders of Major League Soccer, and anytime after tomorrow Bale will be in the Spanish capital.

That’s the soccer merry-go-round, and that’s life for two good, gifted pros.

At 30 years of age, Dempsey slipped quietly out of the Premier League, with Seattle paying a fee in the region of $9 million for the Texan. It also committed to an annual salary of slightly less than that over a four-year contract.

Good for Clint. His mix of energy and guile has been a more than reliable asset, first for Fulham and then Spurs. While there is gas in his tank, do not rule out his making guest returns to an English team — say Everton — in the M.L.S. off-season.

Bale, however, is in another league. He turned 24 in July and is at the top of his game. When Pérez wants a player, history has shown that he will break every record in history to get him.

Cristiano Ronaldo? He cost £80 million, or about $123 million, when Real bought him from Manchester United in 2009. Just 28, Ronaldo still has plenty of goals to add to his extraordinary total of 175 in 167 games in the all-white uniform of Madrid.

Ricardo Kaká? The multitalented creative player cost €66 million (now about $87 million) in the summer of 2009. Kaká is a little older than Ronaldo at 31, but now that his previous boss, Carlo Ancelotti, has become the coach at Madrid, he is likely to figure in this coming campaign — if his body can just hold together for a season.

These two sums are just for the registration of the player. Wages come on top of that and are negotiated as more tens of millions of dollars (or euros or pounds).

It is being written that Real Madrid will put together a starter’s contract worth about $250,000 a week for Bale, which is comfortably double the wage limit that Spurs prudently sets for its star players.

Where do we get all these figures, which, after all, are negotiated in private and usually stay private between the buyer, the seller and the athlete? Well, where Madrid is concerned they often leak out through Marca, the sports daily that is said to be Real’s Madrid’s first point of negotiation when it desires a player.

Openly touting for another club’s player isn’t in the fair play guide, and Pérez usually goes by the book. He has, though, plenty of mouthpieces out there.

One by one, Real Madrid’s established players, led by captain Iker Casillas and deputy captain Sergio Ramos, have spoken out on how good it would be to have Bale on their side.

Then Ancelotti came out and said, in answer to media questions, that of course Bale would be a great addition to the team. The coach then added that he cannot speak about this, but that negotiations were under way.

We have known that throughout the European summer. Another of the great Galácticos signed by Pérez is Zinédine Zidane, and he, now very much a spokesman and adviser to the president, has been vocal for months in saying that Real and Bale are a perfect fit.

Are they? Gareth Bale is outstanding by British standards, and has looked that way since he was spotted playing as a kid in his native Cardiff in Wales. His speed and touch, especially with the left foot, marked him as a budding talent who at the age of 9 was courted by the English club Southampton.

At 14, he clocked 11.4 seconds in running 100 meters. At 16, he made his debut for Southampton’s senior side, making an instant impact with his greyhound speed and (something we have tended to see less of recently) an ability to bend free kicks like Beckham.

Temperament was his only drawback. He still to an extent broods for Wales. Though Spurs took him to London in 2006 for a fee that by increments totaled £7 million, the real Bale, with confidence to match his physical attacking power, became consistent only after he turned 21.

His skills are not greater than those of Cristiano Ronaldo, but imagine the pair alternating wings at the Bernabéu in Madrid. Bale must adapt to a new style, a new language and living in the Spanish capital with his longtime girlfriend, Emma Rhys-Jones, and their baby daughter, Alba.

There will be no ego problem from him, but there might be some from Ronaldo if he has to share top billing. Speaking of billing, who next will be NBC’s poster boy for Premier League soccer, post-Bale?


www-nytimes-com/2013/08/05/sports/soccer/05iht-soccer05-html

A 17-year-old soccer player in Utah, whose punch out of anger over a penalty call ultimately killed a referee, pleaded guilty to homicide on Monday and was sentenced to three years in a juvenile detention facility, prosecutors said.

The teen, a goalie whose name has been withheld because of his age, became upset and punched the referee in the face after he penalized the teen for shoving an opposing player during a game in suburban Salt Lake City this past April.

Referee Ricardo Portillo was hospitalized for treatment of what were initially thought to be minor injuries, but an examination later showed he had suffered more substantial head injuries. He then lapsed into a coma and died at a Utah hospital one week after the attack.

The teen was charged in May with homicide by assault. In exchange for his guilty plea, prosecutors dropped a push to try the teen as an adult.

"For us, this case was always about trying to recover some measure of justice for Mr. Portillo's family and to convey with no uncertainty to the young man the degree of disruption and loss caused to this family, to his family and to the entire community," Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill told Reuters.

The case made international headlines and raised questions about violence in youth sports. As part of the plea deal, the teen admitted that he killed the referee and agreed to the three-year sentence the judge ultimately recommended.

"To paraphrase, he told the judge he was frustrated and hit Mr. Portillo in the head, causing his death," Gill said.

The teen will be required to have a photograph of Portillo, 46, on his wall and to write weekly letters to the referee's family to tell them of his efforts toward rehabilitation, Gill said.

Officials with the American Youth Soccer Organization (AYSO), the country's largest soccer association for players aged four to 18, have said they were not aware of another such incident in the history of youth soccer in the United States.

Portillo had been refereeing a match put on by La Liga Continental, which is not affiliated with the AYSO.



Y! SPORTS

Central Florida's two top mayors have agreed to a deal that could put a new $85 million stadium downtown and bring a Major League Soccer franchise to Orlando.

A $94.5 million package also includes spending tourist taxes to complete the $503 million performing-arts center, as well as increased funding for renovation of the Florida Citrus Bowl. And it pumps millions more into marketing for the tourism industry.

Mayor Teresa Jacobs outlined a framework for the complex pact in a letter to county commissioners Thursday. Jacobs and Mayor Buddy Dyer will announce the agreement Friday after tourism leaders review it.

"We're supportive of this approach," said Dyer's spokeswoman Heather Fagan. "We think this is a win-win-win for all the partners involved."

City and county staff still will have to work out details of the plan during the next several weeks, Jacobs' memo says, before it's brought to both sets of commissioners for review, public hearings and final votes.

Until now, winning Jacobs' support was crucial because all the projects rely heavily on funding from the county's lucrative tourist tax. Under the deal, however, the city would likely issue bonds, putting at least some of the borrowing risk on Orlando taxpayers.

Dyer has coveted the chance to land an MLS team and had already started buying millions of dollars' worth of land for it downtown.

The deal includes a crucial $20 million pledge for the stadium that's contingent on Orlando landing an expansion team. Officials with Orlando City Soccer, a minor-league team, have said a new stadium is essential to bringing MLS to Central Florida.

Jacobs' "framework" also includes:

•An additional $25 million, spread across five years, to boost tourism marketing. The county already budgeted $36 million next fiscal year to Visit Orlando, which promotes local tourism.

•A $25 million payout to get the stalled second phase of the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts completed. Jacobs had pledged this earlier this year, and if boosters meet certain fundraising thresholds, it should allow them to complete the complex by 2018.

•The Citrus Bowl is already slated for $191 million in renovations. But it would get an additional $12 million, which boosters say enhances its chances of landing more premier sports events.

•An additional $10 million in convention-center improvements — on top of $187 million in upgrades planned during the next five years that the county had already approved.

•A separate $2.5 million would be earmarked for sports-marketing efforts to attract major events. That effort would be handled by the Central Florida Sports Commission through Visit Orlando.

Of the various proposals, the only organized opposition has emerged around the soccer-stadium plan.

Orlando City Soccer President Phil Rawlins has said the stadium and a pro franchise would bring increased economic benefits, notably through attracting visitors to events such as an MLS All-Star game or other matches involving internationally recognized teams.

Televised games would increase Orlando's global brand and help attract the burgeoning Brazilian visitor market to the city, said Rawlins, who could not be reached for comment Thursday night.

The team owners say they would pay what is now estimated to be a $70 million franchise fee and put $30 million toward the stadium. The rest of the $85 million would come from a mix of city and county funds, though the city's financing options are still being worked out.

Critics have openly worried about that lack of detail. They have argued the team should play in a renovated Citrus Bowl or be required to put in more of its own money on any new venue.

Doug Head, president of the bipartisan watchdog group CountyWatch, said its members are skeptical that stadiums ever deliver on their economic promises. Some activists worry that the stadium would displace residents of the downtown neighborhood of Parramore.

Tea-party and Democratic activists have teamed to oppose the soccer stadium as Citizens Against Corporate Welfare.

But Head and others say there's a growing sense that what the public thinks doesn't really matter.

"A lot of people have gotten the feeling that the elected officials are in the pocket of the individuals who are behind this," Head said before Jacobs' memo was released. "The public just gives up because they are going to do what they are going to do. Resistance is futile."


Deal reached on Orlando pro soccer stadium - Orlando Sentinel

Italy forward Pablo Osvaldo could face the country of his birth in Wednesday's friendly against Argentina as the two old rivals meet for the first time in 12 years.

World Cup hosts Brazil will attempt to keep the momentum going after their Confederations Cup win in June as they visit Switzerland in another of the nearly 50 friendlies being played on the first international date of the season.

There are several neighbourly clashes with England meeting Scotland at Wembley, Belgium hosting France in Brussels and Sweden entertaining Norway in Stockholm.

Other teams will be travelling much further, including world and European champions Spain, who face an exhausting round trip to steamy Guayaquil to play Ecuador, and Uruguay, who travel half way around the world to visit Japan.

Uruguay's trip will at least give striker Luis Suarez a break from his troubles at Liverpool, where he has been told he must apologise to his team mates before he will be welcomed back into the squad following a failed bid to move away.

Victor Genes will make his debut as Paraguay's fourth coach in only two years as the South Americans visit Germany in Kaiserslautern.

The former under-20 coach replaced Gerardo Pelusso who quit in June after a 2-1 home defeat to Chile kept the 2010 World Cup quarter-finalists bottom of the South American qualifying group for the 2014 finals in Brazil.

Beleaguered Mexico coach Jose Manuel de la Torre badly needs a win against Ivory Coast in New York following his side's disappointing CONCACAF Gold Cup exit against Panama while the United States, who won the tournament, visit Bosnia in Sarajevo.

European clubs frequently complain about the August date, which is played before many domestic leagues have kicked off, and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, president of the European Clubs' Association, once described the games as "nonsense matches."

Rummenigge is Bayern Munich's CEO and is hardly likely to be pleased that two of his club's players, Thiago Alcantara and Javi Martinez, have been included in an experimental Spanish squad for the trip to South America.

WORLD CUP

Italy's meeting with Argentina in Rome is the pick of the crop.

The two teams met in four successive World Cups between 1978 and 1990, the last of those games ending in a heart-breaking semi-final defeat for hosts Italy with a Diego Maradona-inspired Argentina winning on penalties after a 1-1 draw.

Their only meeting since then was Argentina's 2-1 win in Rome in 2001 when Osvaldo was still a teenager living in Buenos Aires.

Osvaldo, who has scored three goals in eight appearances, has been recalled by Italy for the match, having previously fallen foul of coach Cesare Prandelli's code of ethics.

The 27-year-old was dropped from the Confederations Cup squad after getting into a public row with AS Roma interim coach Aurelio Andreazzoli during the Italian Cup final against Lazio in May.

Born in Buenos Aires, Osvaldo was raised at Huracan where he made his professional debut and moved to Italy as a 20-year-old to join Atalanta.

He qualified to play for Italy through his great grandfather and became the latest in the long line of oriundi, as foreign-born national team players are known, when he made his debut in 2011.



Y! SPORTS

The European online gambling industry has seen growth like no other. One reason for the success of many online operators is their ability to partner with other organizations to promote their products.
Bwin.Party Digital Entertainment has recently announced it will be the premier sponsor for top football club Olympique de Marseille. The three year contract was finalized early this week for Bwin.Party Digital Entertainment to become the official online betting and gaming partner with the club. Bwin.Party has a number of partnership deals already with clubs such as RSC Anderlecht, FC Bayern, Real Madrid, Juventus Turin and English legends, Manchester United.

Norbert Teufelberger, the Chief Executive Officer of Bwin.Party Digital Entertainment, commented on the latest arrangement with the well respected European football club.
"We are proud to establish this partnership with Olympique de Marseille, one of the oldest and most successful clubs in France and Europe," he said. "Today's announcement means that we are now partnered with six of the greatest clubs in European football, enabling us to offer our customers an unparalleled range of online and real world offers."

Olympique de Marseille is the only club in France to ever have won a UEFA Champions League event and the team has also won France's top football league, the Ligue 1 title an incredible nine times.
The sponsorship arrangement details include a number of initiatives involving fans of the club will be made available, such as giving supporters the chance to train with the championship team and travel to Champions League events. Bwin.Party Digital Entertainment will use the sponsorship agreement to introduce its product line up on the Olympique de Marseille's digital and social platforms, and will also develop online and offline co-branded events and products. Bwin.Party will benefit from stadium branding, while the development of social games and mobile applications are also ready to roll out later on.


Online Gambling Firm Bwin.Party to Sponsor Olympique de Marseille

Is the Pope Catholic?

We'll vote yes on that one.

But what you may not know is the Argentine-born pontiff is also a big soccer fan, so it was hard to say who got the bigger thrill Tuesday when the pope met soccer god Lionel Messi at the Vatican.

Francis, an avid supporter of the Buenos Aires team Saints of San Lorenzo, welcomed the national teams of his native Argentina as well as Italy ahead of their much-hyped friendly Wednesday in Rome.

The players on both teams received a private audience with Francis in the Apostolic Palace after which the pope sidestepped the question of whether he gave a papal blessing to either team.

"It will really be difficult for me to root, but luckily it's a friendly match," he joked.

The so-called Soccer Summit had its serious side, too. Francis stressed that athletes, for better or worse, are role models, especially for children. And he urged the players in attendance Tuesday to use their influence responsibly.

"Dear players, you are very popular," he said. "People follow you, and not just on the field but also off it. That's a responsibility."

The message got through to Messi, who will miss Wednesday's match with injury.

"Respect for others and the opponent is the basis of everything, on the pitch as in life," he said. "We footballers, for our part, can spread [the Pope's] message and satisfy his request by always playing a beautiful game," he said.

According to the Associated Press, Italy's Mario Balotelli met with Francis alone, the only player to do so. Balotelli, who is black and has been the target of fans' racism, spoke with the pope in a small room off the sumptuous Clementine Hall where the audience was held.

A Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Ciro Benedettini, told the AP that Balotelli looked ''emotional'' after their talk but that the player declined to say what he discussed with Francis.

The pope warned the teams about the violence and money often attached to the game.

"Football has become a business -- take care that it does not lose its sporting nature," said Francis, who frequently attended matches with his family as a boy. Hopefully, he said, "we'll see families in the stands again."

The pope, who has accumulated a collection of soccer jerseys since since being elected pontiff, received two more Tuesday with each team presenting him with a national team shirt with his name on the back.

Then he asked both teams for one more thing: that they pray for him.

"So that I, on the field upon which God placed me, can play an honest and courageous game for the good of us all," he said.

That plea moved Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon.

"That's a sign of his great humility," Buffon said. "He's warmed up the hearts again of all the faithful who might have drifted away."



Soccer fan Pope Francis meets Lionel Messi at the Vatican - latimes-com

US Soccer Players – Only in American soccer would we be feigning excitement when a broadcaster commits to under delivering. Sure, there are probably more flattering ways to take NBC Sports Soccer Group coordinating producer Pierre Moossa's comments to Sports Illustrated's Richard Deitsch. In the piece, Moossa says "our coverage is going to be very simple: We are going to get out of the way and just cover the game and the league properly."

It's an open question on both sides of the Atlantic for what that really means. Repeating the last names of players is the cliché of English soccer commentary, and there are enough examples of English broadcasters encouraging the talent they employ to try something closer to what you'd expect from a major American network's coverage. Nobody operates in isolation anymore, and the contemporary model has little choice other than to embrace a variety of influences.

What that means for the coverage of established leagues by foreign outlets is a very good question. We're still firmly in the era of English voices for English sports in the United States, and NBC's Premier League coverage operates with that precedent. In an interview with Philly-com's Jonathan Tannenwald, former MLS player and current NBC Sports soccer reporter Kyle Martino addressed that, saying "I think that little dance is a delicate one that everyone has tried to do. So far NBC has done such a good job of getting that right, and for them to give me the nod as the sole American voice on the broadcasts is a tremendous honor, and something I'm going to take very seriously."

It seems clear to Martino that there might not be a 'right' that suits everybody, but when will that ever be the case? It's trying to reach the median that's the trick for all mainstream broadcasters, especially for properties that are still trying to identify with the mainstream. NBC Sports' predecessor in the Premier League business in the United States, Fox, tried to mainstream its coverage by using its over-air broadcast network, and NBC is following suit. That, more than anything, is the major step for the club game in the United States. That's the situation for everything from the Champions League on Fox to Major League Soccer on NBC, pushing the game into the easiest possible access.

Step 1: Do you have a television?
Step 2: Turn it on.

From there, it really is putting the game in context. NBC Sports is the latest to say the right things, but we've seen the attempts to turn the Premier League into an extension of 'Cool Britannia.' That relic of the late 90s needs David Beckham in a Manchester United uniform to have a chance at working. In 2013, English soccer isn't a lifestyle brand, it's a sport - one marketed among many others. That's the mindset that has the best chance of avoiding the traps associated with trying to build a soccer-specific audience in the United States at the level the investment requires. We've also seen the attempts to follow the template of other popular American sports with what we'll politely refer to as mixed results.

It's not just a marquee league with an established brand like the EPL. It's also the basics, like highlights shows. All of the networks interested in soccer are trying to figure out the best format for showing clips from across soccer, and again the proof of success is in getting people to watch. FS1, ESPN, and NBC Sports Network aka NBCSN are all trying unique takes on the studio show, and again that requires picking and choosing from what's already available from UK and US sources along with attempts at innovation. Though that should mean different looks for the shows, it also means at least one of them is likely to get it wrong.

Again, this also isn't new territory with Fox and ESPN both with a long history of trying to attract an audience for soccer-specific programming that isn't broadcasting games. Both of those networks trying again is enough of an indication of how difficult finding the right mix is.

For its part, NBCSN isn't isolating itself with one rights package. They're broadly committing to soccer and other sports in competition with Fox and ESPN, all three with dedicated channels and programming blocks attempting to show that soccer will work given the proper promotion. All of them are looking for an answer, one good enough to strengthen the ratings. That's nothing new for how to produce soccer programming that Americans might want to watch.


Watching Soccer In The States | US Soccer Players