After the night Nick Rimando had in goal for Real Salt Lake, there's no question he'd like to
have one moment back.
Rimando, who saved a Brad Davis penalty and a point-blank Will Bruin header late in the second
half, committed a foul on Mac Kandji that led to a last-second penalty, one that Colin Clark
converted to give the Houston Dynamo a 1-0 victory over RSL at BBVA Compass Stadium Thursday
night.
Orlando City entered the playoffs as the heavy favorites to claim the USL Pro championship. They
had done so in 2011 and ramsacked through the regular season this year en route to securing
homefield advantage throught the postseason.
The San Antonio Scorpions were minutes away from walking out of St. Petersburg, Fla. with a big
2-1 victory that would have ensured they stayed in first place atop the NASL standings.
Unfortunately for them, the Tampa Bay Rowdies ruined those plans.
The Rowdies scored twice in the final few minutes of their dramatic match with San Antonio, and
they claimed a 3-2 victory that seemed improbable to the 2,559 Rowdies fans that endured the rainy
conditions at Al Lang Stadium on Saturday night.
The San Jose Earthquakes have made it a habit all season of producing goals late in games to
snatch points. They did it again on Saturday, and this time the late-game heroics helped them grab
first place in the Western Conference.
Chris Wondolowski delivered an 84th-minute goal to give the Earthquakes a 2-1 victory over RSL
at Rio Tinto Stadium.
szólj hozzá: Manchester City vs QPR 3:1 GOALS HIGHLIGHTS
It took Manchester City just 15 minutes to break the deadlock through Yaya Toure but it wasn't
till injury time that City secured all three points. Bobby Zamora got an equaliser midway through
the second-half but that was shortlived as Eden Dzeko put City back in front 3 minutes later before
Carlos Tevez secured the points deep into injury-time.
Newcastle to dominate Aston Villa - originally posted on Soccerlens.com
Newcastle look a cracking bet at 1.62 with bet365 and Betfred to beat Aston Villa at St James'
Park.
Alan Pardew's men Newcastle have lost just one of their last 11 Premier League home games (W8 D2
L1), whereas Villa have won none of their last nine away matches (W0 D4 L5) a run which started
with defeat at this ground.
Southampton 0-2 Wigan Athletic Premier League 25 August 2012
Playing in their first home game in the top tier in seven seasons, the Saints were looking to
give their fans something to celebrate. However, an impressive display by visitors Wigan spoiled
the party and gave Roberto Martinez's side a deserved victory.
szólj hozzá: Arsenal vs Sunderland 0:0 HIGHLIGHTS
Arsenal began life without RVP today with Lukas Podolski leading the line before being replaced
by Olivier Giroud but neither could break the deadlock against an organised Sunderland side. Could
be a long season for the Gunners fans.
Out-of-favour striker Andy Carroll capped a comfortable 3-1 victory for Liverpool over Bayer
Leverkusen in their final pre-season friendly before they kick off their Barclays' Premier League
campaign.
It took just three minutes for the home side to break the deadlock at Anfield through youngster
Raheem Sterling.
Apparently, there's some small sporting event kicking off in London (we've sent our top
reporters T.Cleverly and R.Giggs to check this out), but on the other side of the world, United are
in pre-season. Already having thrashed Amazulu 1-0 with Kiko Macheda's goal, and a 1-1 affair with
Ajax Cape Town, this match notched the level into serious.
Lucas Leiva made his comeback from injury as Liverpool played out a 1-1 draw with Toronto FC in
Brendan Rodgers' first game in charge.
The appropriately named Rogers Centre was the venue for the start of the new Liverpool manager's
reign, and there were plenty of positives to take from an intriguing encounter in Canada.
Manchester United are a top priced 1.91 with Betfred and Paddy Power to get their season off to
a flying start with victory over Everton at Goodison and look bankers to do so.
Robin van Persie is in the squad after completing his ÂŁ24m move from Arsenal in time, and the
thought of him linking up with Wayne Rooney is a mouth watering prospect.
The phrase "you make your own luck" is an overused one and it is perfectly possible to argue
that luck, by its very nature, is random. There can be little doubt, however, that England rode
theirs in Donetsk last night, scrambling their way to a single goal win which confirmed a slightly
unlikely looking top place in their group with a little room to spare.
Sporting Kansas City did something Wednesday night that no team across any level of U.S. Soccer
had been able to do in the last four years: Defeat the Seattle Sounders in the U.S. Open Cup.
Sporting Kansas City captured its second U.S. Open Cup in franchise history, outlasting the
Sounders in penalties 3-2 after a 1-1 draw through regulation and extra time and ending the
Sounders' hopes of becoming the first team to win four straight tournament titles.
Summer had finally arrived in the Pacific Northwest after a dreary June that only was exceeded
in dreariness by the Sounders performance over the same period of time. Seattle Sounders have not
won a match in their last ten fixtures, they have managed to gather 5 points, 4 of those on the
road, despite their inability to to win all 3 points.
Week 17 brought plenty of goals and spectacular finishes. We had late game drama in New England, a
convincing win by DC, and a California Classico that shocked and entertained us late Saturday
night. It was a match-up so heated and contested that even the San Jose Mascot got dragged into the
drama.
The Colorado Rapids continued their losing ways on Saturday night, and even a home game at
Dick's Sporting Goods Park could stop the bleeding.
The Seattle Sounders pushed Colorado's losing skid to six matches after Osvaldo Alonso scored a
second-half winner to lead the Sounders to a 2-1 victory.
D.C. is once again in sole possession of first place in the Eastern Conference, with the
Montreal Impact being their latest victim.
United cruised to a 3-0 victory over the expansion Impact in front of a season-high crowd of
18,302 at RFK Stadium on Saturday night. Chris Pontius scored his third goal in two games after a
great dribbling effort just before halftime, and Robbie Russell and Hamdi Salihi each found the
back of the net in the second half.
The Ottawa Fury headed first to Connecticut on Friday and then to Western Mass on Saturday
hoping to extend their lead at the top of the PDL's Northeast Division. What actually happened was
quite the opposite.
After being upset 2-0 by CFC Azul (4-3-4, 16 points) Friday, the Fury suffered another
disappointment, falling 1-0 to the Western Mass Pioneers (3-2-5, 14 points) in Ludlow on Saturday
night.
Stalemate: any position or situation in which no action can be taken or progress made; deadlock.
Yep, that sounds about right doesn't it? Saturday night in Foxboro was just that in the form of a
soccer match. Columbus parked the bus and got ten men behind the ball and looked to counter, and
the Revolution defense continued to improve, resulting in a 0-0 draw.
England falter on penalties once more as Italy make last four - originally posted on
Soccerlens.com
England players and fans have been subjected to penalty heartache once more, as the Three Lions
were eliminated from Euro 2012 on spot-kicks by Italy on Sunday night. After no goals in 120
minutes of play the game was decided from 12 yards, as Ashley Young and Ashley Cole missed their
efforts to send the Azzurri through.
On a day when Germany captain Philipp Lahm matched Thomas Hassler and Jurgen Klinsmann's record
of 13 European Championship appearances, he also scored a fantastic opening goal to give his side a
deserved 1-0 lead at half-time.
The Germans dominated the proceedings throughout a highly one-sided opening period but were
somewhat wasteful in their failure to open the scoring until the 38th minute.
Ronaldo heads Portugal into the semi-finals - originally posted on Soccerlens.com
Thursday night saw the commencement of the business end of the Euro 2012 tournament, with
Portugal overcoming Czech Republic 1-0 to become the first team to make the semi-finals. Cristiano
Ronaldo's winner with ten minutes remaining separated the sides, and the Iberian nation will now
face either France or Spain in the last four.
There's something quite satisfying about seeing a top class player live up to the hype at a
major tournament be it Maradona in '86, Zidane at '98 or (the Brazilian) Ronaldo in '02. And while
the world's number one player, Lionel Messi, is yet to explode all over a World Cup or Copa
America, his nearest rival, Cristiano Ronaldo, is starting to hit those stratospheric heights at
Euro 2012.
Cristiano Ronaldo converted a late header to help Portugal claim a scrappy 1-0 win over Czech
Republic and progress to the UEFA Euro 2012 semifinals.
In a toughly contested match between Group A winners Czech Republic and Group B runners-up
Portugal, the latter created more chances but thanks to the heroics of Petr Cech, they could only
score once.
Germany starlets Lars Bender and Mats Hummels have reflected proudly on a day when the former's
match-winning strike allowed Joachim Low's side to claim all nine group stage points.
With Denmark holding the Germans to a 1-1 draw as late as the 80th minute, Bender stepped up to
break the deadlock and send the Danes packing home from Euro 2012.
Russia entered their final group stage match needing just a draw to secure qualification. That
seemed like a given to most considering how well the first-place team had looked offensively at
Euro 2012.
No one told Greece that.
Greece eliminated Russia from the tournament in stunning fashion, pulling out a 1-0 victory
courtesy of a first-half stoppage time goal from Giorgos Karagounis on Saturday.
Danny Welbeck scored off an inventive back-heel flick with his back to the goal mouth in the
78th minute to snap a 2-2 draw and cap off a frenetic second half in England's 3-2 victory over
Sweden that eliminated the Swedes from the tournament and put England in a very advantageous
position to advance to the knockout stage.
Spain's title defense is off to an underwhelming start.
The reigning Euro champions were held to a 1-1 draw with Italy on Sunday in a Euro 2012 Group C
opener that was full of frustration for the Spanish side. Italy scored first through a finish from
Antonio Di Natale in the 61st minute, but Spain leveled the scored when Cesc Fabregas netted three
minutes later.
Denmark's noble attempt to overcome their difficult group draw ended in disappointment as they
lost 2-1 to Germany in their final Group B match, preventing them from advancing to the knockout
rounds after taking four points in their matches against Portugal and the Netherlands.
Denmark kept the Germans at bay for much of the match, but an 80th minute Lars Bender goal ended
the deadlock the Danish had been clinging to since Michael Krohn-Dehli equalized five minutes after
Lu-Lu-Lu Lukas Podolski's 19th-minute opening goal.
Before Tuesday's trip to Guatemala City, a 1-1 draw might have seemed like an acceptable outcome
for the U.S. national team. The Americans, after all, knew they would be facing a hostile
environment and desperate opponent. But as it turned out, the result left much to be desired.
Mallorca and Málaga occupy the top two places in the Liga after earning slender 1-0 wins
against Real Sociedad and Real Zaragoza respectively. Their stay at the summit may not last long as
a host of teams, including Barcelona, play later in the weekend, but both are enjoying an unbeaten
start to the season.
Last night's match was frustrating, right? The New England Revolution roared out to a 3-0 lead
by the 21st minute, but by the 47th, it was a 3-3 deadlock. Sometimes it feels like this team
invents new ways not to win.
Be that as it may, last night's big storyline was the return of Shalrie Joseph, and what a
comeback he had.
In a game of very few chances, albeit the ones that did come fell Arsenal's way, the Gunners only
took a single point from their opening home game against Sunderland. Although Arsene Wenger praised
the team's spirit, he felt that they lacked a few things needed to break the deadlock. Wenger said
after the game: [.
RICHMOND, VA – (Thursday, August 9, 2012) – The Richmond Kickers return to Richmond City
Stadium this Saturday, August 11 to host the Harrisburg City Islanders in the regular season home
finale. Admission is just $10 for the whole family before 6:00 p.m. as the Kickers and Union First
Market Bank present FAMILY FEST.
Both the Lille manager Rudi Garcia and Mathieu Debuchy have spoken out yesterday, on the transfer
deadlock of the French International right back, but what they have to say seems nothing new, and
Lille seem to be continuing to drag their feet, and hope that Mathieu will still be with the
French club at the start of the season.
Calen Carr had not start for the Houston Dynamo in more than a month, but he made up for lost
time on Wednesday night, scoring both goals in another Dynamo victory at BBVA Compass Stadium.
Carr scored two goals, set up by Will Brian and Brad Davis, to topple Sporting Kansas City,
2-1.
photo courtesy of Rob Kinnan/Carolina RailHawks/Atlanta Silverbacks
By FRANCO PANIZO
If Eric Wynalda learned one thing in his debut with the Atlanta Silverbacks, it is that he has
some work to do.
The Carolina RailHawks spoiled Wynalda's debut game in charge of the Silverbacks, as they picked
up a 2-1 victory at WakeMed Park in North Carolina on Tuesday.
Barcelona star Lionel Messi continues to cement his place among the legends of the game and not
just as one of the best players in the last five years. Messi has won everything on the club level
but some critics have argued he must win the World Cup to be considered as one of the best
ever.
