Union

The Union may not have made the playoffs in their first year, but the Captain Califf is already focused making it there in their second year. Says Califf, should the Union fail in that goal, "I wouldn't say it'd be a disaster, but it'd be pretty poor if we can't make the postseason next year.

Aalborg newcomer Chris Rolfe slipped his first goal in Denmark past ol' Roy Carroll just past the half hour, and it was enough to beat Odense BK and move the club tentatively into third place (which holds a Europa League berth).I'm on the lookout for the clip and maybe a better photo while I'm at it.

Soccer City at Night

South Africa takes on Colombia this evening at Soccer city. Yes, Bafana Bafana vs Colombia is going put 70 000 people in the newly refurbished stadium and the rest of the nation glued to their television sets.

Kickoff is at 8.30 tonight, when the 34th-ranked nation in the world, Colombia takes on Bafana Bafana, who are now ranked 83 ( up seven places).

The trials and tribulations of this ‘New Germany' at the World Cup so far have been nothing short of surprising. In a similar fashion to the past two tournaments, they entered the fray as a team that had been written off and not expected to progress deep into the latter stages of the competition.

Seattle Sounders have won the US Open Cup in the last two years

The Seattle Sounders have defended the US Open Cup title they won in 2009 by defeating the Columbus Crew by two goals to one on Tuesday and gain a berth in the CONCACAF Champions League qualifying rounds for the 2011-12 season.

By Chris Ballard
Let's face it; the MLS playoff system this season has been less than ideal. When the Eastern conference final is contested between two teams nominally from the west, you know something has gone wrong somewhere. In other sports, the playoff procedure has been determined for quite some time and everybody - fans, teams, journalists - know what each team has to do to make the post-season.

Where did Chelsea lose the plot? Things were fine up until last week when the Blues seemed to have been unstoppable. They were on course for a quarter final berth in the Champions League and they were also sitting pretty on top of the EPL standings. How things change.

Chelsea now lie 3rd in the league and rumours have it that Ambrovich will sack Ancelotti if he fails to bring the Premiership title to Stamford Bridge.

Two state players will conclude their unique high school soccer experience by playing for a national championship before returning home to start their college careers.

Milwaukee's Edson Crepso and Menomonee Falls' Joey Tennyson helped the Shattuck-St. Mary's (Minn.

Solid catch from Ashlyn Harris over Alex Morgan as Heather Mitts defends
That's how Pia Sundhage described today's training when she gathered the players together before beginning practice. The U.S. team warmed up with some passing patterns, played a ball possession game, did some crossing and shooting and then played 8 v.

Photo by ISIphotos.com

The U.S. women left it late, but in the end got a win and a valuable away goal, defeating Italy 1-0 in Padova. Alex Morgan scored in stoppage time to send the U.S. back to Chicago with the edge.

While the U.S. did well to limit Italy's chances on the offensive end -- the Azzurri registered no shots on goal for the game -- they were inefficient in creating good scoring opportunities of their own, save for Morgan's last-gasp winner.

By Ollie Irish

Until this week, Luis Suarez was best-known as the dirty Uruguayan bastard (© ITV) who used his hand to cheat plucky Ghana (and, by association, the whole continent of Africa) out of a World Cup semi-final berth. Now he'll also be known as the dirty Uruguayan bastard who chomped the shoulder of PSV's Otman Bakkal.

Thanks to Negar Mottehedeh, and via a post from Enduring America, here are two videos from a January 6th game between Iran and Singapore, during which Iranian fans chanted anti-government slogans "Ya Hossein, Mir Hossein," in support of opposition leader Mousavi in the 1st video, and "Marg Bar Dictator," ("Down with the Dictator,") in the second.

Injury time, Anfield Road end, penalty kick. But while seven days ago it nudged Rafael Benitez and Liverpool towards the precipice, last night the same scenario gave confirmation they are not willing to surrender their campaign without a fight.
Last week's FA Cup exit to Reading, followed by the dramatic but damaging draw with Stoke City, had prompted the Anfield manager to admit their clash with Tottenham Hotspur represented a make-or-break encounter in his team's season.

Paul Scholes strike leveled this pulsating Carling Cup tie and gave the Old Trafford side the advantage on away goals. Manchester United were good value for their lead and they had Shay Given at full stretch on a number of occasions.

A Michael Carrick shot from six yards appeared to seal the victory with a quarter of an hour remaining but a Carlos Tevez strike appeared to taking the tie to extra time but a goal from Wayne Rooney in injury time gave United the win.

Bob Bradley was named the National Coach of the Year by the U.S. Olympic Committee on Wednesday. The honor goes to the top coach among U.S. national team coaches in all sports.

Bradley earned the honor after guiding the U.S. men's national soccer team to a Confederations Cup Final, Gold Cup Final as well as first place in CONCACAF World Cup qualifying.

SAINT LEO, Fla. - Saint Leo University head women's soccer coach Ged O'Connor has announced the addition of five new players for the 2010 season as they submitted National Letters of Intent committing to attend SLU during the last signing period. One tranfer and four incoming freshmen, the additions include one goalkeeper, two forwards, one midfielder, and one defender who will add to an already deep, talented and experienced squad.

Detroit United scored the game's only goal in the final 15 minutes as it beat Ann Arbor United 1-0 in the Michigan Open Cup final Sunday afternoon in Saline, Mich., earning a trip to Wisconsin for a USASA Region II first-round match against the Milwaukee Kickers.

The Kickers will play host to Detroit United at
2 p.

Bill "The Wall" Gaudette earned his second shutout of the year as the Puerto Rico Islanders won a berth in the semifinals of the 2010 CFU Clubs Championship Cup with a 3-0 win over Racing de Gônaïves (Haiti) in the 2nd leg of their 2nd Round match.

Josh Hansen scored 2 goals (8′ & 49′) and David Foley scored the 3rd goal (38′) of the game.

In what can only be described as a bizzare series of events, Hamburg have sacked coach Bruno Labbadia only three days before the club's Europa League semi-final second leg tie against Fulham.
After failing to make home advantage tell in Thursday's first-leg 0-0 draw against the Cottagers, Hamburg were drubbed 5-1 at Hoffenheim on Sunday.

Eddie Johnson provided the fireworks with help from Freddy Adu in an upset of Olympiacos, improving their chances of clinching a Champions League berth.

The Puerto Rico Islanders learned Wednesday that they have been drawn to play the Los Angeles Galaxy of Major League Soccer in the Preliminary Round of the 2010-2011 CONCACAF Champions League, which is set to begin in July.

The draw conducted Wednesday by deputy general secretaries Ted Howard and Italo Zanzi at the confederation's New York headquarters set the Preliminary Round pairings and matchups for the Group Stage.

Liverpool midfielder Steven Gerrard believes that Manchester City winger Adam Johnson has proved in training that he is worthy of a place on the plane to South Africa despite not yet playing for England at full international level.
The former Middlesbrough man has been an impressive top flight force since his £8 million move to Manchester City, fully proving his ability to take the step up from the Championship to the Premier League.

As everywhere you look, someone is giving their opinion on the England game the other night and how that affects our chances of lifting the World Cup, I thought we'd give ours.

Quite frankly Mexico were the better team. But there a few things to remember, this was our first friendly, our players are tired and carrying little niggles after a long season.

"So tell me Roberto, have you signed him?". White Hart Lane boss convinced that Stamford Bridge man has agreed a deal with unnamed club.

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Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp says he would like to sign out-of-contract Chelsea midfielder Joe Cole but feels he has agreed to move elsewhere.

Sam Krenzien (Wauwatosa West) came through when his FC Milwaukee team needed it most.

The UW-Green Bay recruit scored all four goals, the last two in the final 15 minutes, as FC Milwaukee's Under-17/18 team pulled out a 4-3 victory over the Chicago Fire Sunday at the Toyota Park practice field in Bridgeview, Ill.

By Darshan Joshi, writing from Sydney, Australia

Every four years, the World Cup brings about the bamboozling and rather shocking rise of several sides who really shouldn't have done as well as they eventually did.

In 2002, we had Turkey and South Korea in the semi-finals, where they fell victim to (eventual winners) Brazil and Germany respectively.

It appears that the vuvuzela horns have finally been silenced.

Not because FIFA stepped in and confiscated the annoying instruments, but because of Bafana Bafana's unfortunate performance earlier today against Uruguay. The hosting nation struggled to find any positive pace over the course of the 90 minute match and following a late penalty that saw their keeper sent off for a rough tackle, the match and the tournament was likely over for the African squad in a matter of moments.

After a dreary start to the World Cup, the favorites bounced back earlier today with a comfortable 2-0 victory over Honduras and after two matches Spain has the goal differential advantage over the side that recently beat them, but a tougher final match in Chile who basically sealed a knockout round berth with two victories out of two so far in the tournament.

World Cup 2010 has been a challenging tournament for fans of the beautiful game. There have been beautiful goals, incredible teamwork and wonderful stories. But there has also been injustices and, at the end of the day, the sport of soccer has been tarnished.

Whether it's Luis Suarez cheating to prevent Ghana from securing a quarter-final berth, or Frank Lampard being denied a well-deserved equalizer against Germany, or the two goals called back, or the two goals that the United States scored fairly but were pulled back, or Argentina's blatantly offside goal against Mexico, and so on and so forth, the reality is that the game of soccer has serious problems that need to be corrected or it'll risk turning people away from this sport.

Game report and video courtesy of Steve Ole Olson of Southwest Missouri's Soccer Resource

The MN Thunder defeated the Springfield Demize this evening 1-0 on an 83rd minute penalty kick scored by Mark Heath Preston. The spot kick was the result of a foul on Ben Sippola as he nutmegged his defender on the right side before running into the box and being tripped.

The Chicago Fire, with two Wisconsin players on their roster, will play Cal Odyssey for the U.S. Soccer Development Academy Under-15/16 championship Friday night at the Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif. Kickoff is set for 9 p.m.

Defender David Caban (Kenosha Tremper) appeared in all three pool-play matches for the Fire (16-6-11), starting in a 2-1 win over the Chicago Sockers and a 2-0 victory over D.

Allez Leroux!

The U.S. U-20 WNT rebounded from a 1-1 draw with Ghana in its 2010 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup opener with a rousing 5-0 victory over Switzerland today. The win puts the USA in good position to qualify for the quarterfinals heading into the July 21 meeting with South Korea in Bielefeld.

THE RACE FOR THE TITLE

At last, we have the final results in and here is my predictions on who will be getting sloshed the most at the end of the season.

Villa
It's been a bit of mad one down Villa way this week and to predict the outcome of their season is a toughy.

The Philadelphia Independence traveled to Piscataway, New Jersey, to face defending WPS champions Sky Blue FC on Sunday, a team that they had beaten in their three previous encounters. A win for the Independence would have solidified their hold on second place behind league leading FC Gold Pride, critical for the expansion team's post-season plans because the second place team gets an automatic play-off berth as host in the semi-finals.

Expectations have risen around US Soccer after a successful World Cup campaign this past summer, and as we head towards a cycle for the 2014 World Cup, the hiring of Bob Bradley shows a commitment towards moving our team towards a standard that includes contention for a round of 16 berth.
George Vecsey of the New York Times writes of how Bradley is the right coach for the US team, and the right move for US Soccer.

Photo by ISIphotos.com

Real Salt Lake became the first Major League Soccer team to clinch a berth in the CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinals after registering a 1-1 tie against Toronto FC at BMO Field on Tuesday night.

Javier Morales converted a free kick to help erase a 1-0 Toronto lead and push RSL back to ten points in Group A.

The Columbus Crew missed its chance to clinch a place in the CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinals on Wednesday night, suffering a 2-1 loss to Guatemalan side CD Municipal.

Former Los Angeles Galaxy forward Guillermo "Pando" Ramirez scored both goals on a rain-soaked night to help Municipal move to within a point of the Crew for a berth in the Champions League quarterfinals with a match remaining.

Bongani Khumalo, a South African international and 23 year old central defender, has signed £1.5m to move to Tottenham in the January transfer window (subject to receiving a work permit. Bongani is currently playing with SuperSport United in the domestic South African football league, and played every World Cup match for South Africa during the summer (including scoring against France in the final group stage game.

BY ADAM SERRANO

There's only one ticket left to be punched for Toronto and MLS Cup.

The Los Angeles Galaxy take on FC Dallas in the Western Conference Final with the right to play the Colorado Rapids on the line. The Galaxy are looking to make it to back to the Cup Final for the second year in a row, but once more a team from the Lone Star State stands in their way.

Chelsea scouts have been keeping tabs on Palermo youngster Armin Bacinovic, according to reports in Italy.
The 21-year-old has impressed this season from his defensive midfield berth and his agent has admitted a list of clubs are now tracking his progress.
It has been reported Chelsea scouts were in attendance when he played 69 minutes for Palermo in their hard-fought 2-1 victory at Cesena at the weekend.