FRISCO, TX - On a night where two stars made their returns to the starting lineup after lengthy
injury layoffs, Seattle's Steve Zakuani and FC Dallas' Blas Perez each resumed their roles as key
difference makers.
NEWTON, Mass. – The Boston College women's soccer team kicked off the 2012 season in style,
cruising past Providence College on their way to a 3-0 victory in front of 831 at the Newton Campus
Soccer Field.
Senior Kristen Mewis, who was named to the Hermann Trophy Watch List earlier this week, led the
charge with a goal and an assist, while freshman McKenzie Meehan and junior Patrice Vettori also
scored.
New England's Kate Howarth scored twice before the interval but Western New York grabbed a
late equalizer to secure a 3-3 draw on Sunday at East Longmeadow High School.
Howarth's strikes in the 4th and 45th minute sandwiched teammate Morgan Andrews' 25th minute
goal in an inspired first half that also saw Adriana (8′) Meghan Klingenberg (20′) score for
the guests.
RICHMOND, Va. - The William and Mary men's soccer team opened the 2012 season in
the VCU Invitational playing Butler to a, 0-0, tie Friday night at the Sports Backers Stadium in
Richmond, Va. In only his second collegiate start, sophomore goalkeeper Bennett Jones registered
seven saves en route to posting his first career shutout.
Three goals in 10 minutes saw Spartak Moscow beat Fenerbahce 2-1 at home in a first-leg playoff
match, with striker Emmanuel Emenike on target against his former club. Emenike,
who joined Spartak last year after just two months at Fenerbahce, scored on 59 minutes Tuesday,
hammering the ball into the net after pouncing on a low left-wing cross from Dmitry Kombarov.
The Houston Dynamo defeated 10-man FC Dallas in the Texas derby on Saturday night, and they can
thank Adam Moffat for that.
Moffat scored the winner in Houston's 2-1 triumph over rivals FC Dallas on Saturay night in the
first match between the two at BBVA Compass Stadium. Moffat's goal, combined with Jair Benitez
being sent off in the second half, improved the Dynamo to 3-0-1 in their new stadium while
extending FC Dallas' current winless run to 10 matches.
After leaving the match on Sunday after a collision with Red Bulls 'keeper Bill Gaudette,
Sporting KC announced a day later that striker Teal Bunbury will undergo season-ending surgery on
Friday.
The injury occured just four minutes into the match, when Bunbury beat Gaudette to a ball just
outside the box, crossing the ball to Kei Kamara for an easy goal and 1-0 Sporting lead.
Herculez Gomez subbed on in the 66th minute for Santos Laguna in their 5-0 win over Aguila in the
CONCACAF Champions League group stage. Santos was ahead in the 6th minute when Darwin Quintero
scored. Quintero scored again in the 26th. Four minutes later, it was 3-0 from an Edgar Lugo goal.
Daniel Luduena scored Santos's fourth goal in the 41st minute, with Quintero finishing off his
hat-trick and the scoring in the 47th minute.
David Beckham rolled back the clock on Saturday night with a stunning 35-yard goal against the
Portland Timbers in a 5-3 LA Galaxy win
The former England star opened the scoring for LA with a stunning striker from 35 yards to
cancel our former Rangers striker Kris Boyd's opener:
Beckham then put the Galaxy ahead four minutes later with a trademark free-kick, Landon Donovan
made it 3-1 from the penalty spot three minutes later and Robbie Keane got in on the act just a
minute after that.
Toronto FC picked up three points in the only game on Major League Soccer's Wednesday schedule.
Vancouver got on the board first, with Darren Mattocks scoring in the 50th minute. Luis Silva
equalized for Toronto in the 68th minute and Torsten Frings put them in the lead four minutes
later. Vancouver's Darren Mattocks equalized a minute into stoppage time, with Terry Dunfield
pulling off the unlikely winner for Toronto in the 95th minute.
(Mattocks' Michael Jordan impression at 6:30 into the video above)
With a mighty leap, Vancouver's Darren Mattocks showed why he's one of MLS's most impressive
talents, scored a late equalizer and gave Toronto defender Logan Emory a headache. It started with
a pretty ridiculous long cross into the box that the 21-year-old Mattocks casually rode an
invisible elevator over both Emory and outstretched Toronto keeper Milos Kocic to head into the net
at the start of injury time.
Canadian's are celebrating Canada's birthday this weekend, and I took the opportunity of a long
weekend to go to Toronto and take my dad to watch Toronto FC v New York Red Bulls.
TFC has been one of the biggest disappointments in MLS this season and I was curious to see how
they looked under former New England assistant Paul Mariner.
The Rapids definitively needed a win and on Saturday night the team delivered a definitive
victory in eviscerating the Portland Timbers 3-0.
Colorado (7-8-1) scored early to take control and late to make it a rout in dismantle the
Timbers. Jaime Castrillon scored in the 18th minute and Conor Casey tallied four minutes later as
Oscar Pareja's offense finally showed signs of coming together.
The MLS match on Saturday night between Toronto FC and the New England Revolution held a special
significance for recently appointed Reds coach Paul Mariner.
Mariner, coaching just his third game with Toronto, served as an assistant for the Revolution
for six seasons (2004-09). His time with the Revs was spent under Steve Nichol, one of the most
successful coaches in league history.
Barcelona thrashed Sociedad, Real Madrid drew with Valencia, Betis won at Bilbao, Levante drew
with Madrid in the the Spanish Primera Division on August 19, 2012.
Athletic Bilbao 3-5 Real Betis
Real Betis took an early lead and never trailed at the Estadio San Mames. Betis jumped out to a
3-0 lead but Bilbao replied to level the match in the 75th minute.
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.
They left it late and made the fans sweat, but the New England Revolution scored with almost the
last action of the match to draw 2-2 with Toronto FC at BMO Field on Saturday night. The draw
improves the Revs record to 5-7-3, but leaves them still searching for their first ever win in
Toronto.
In front of a sellout crowd at PPL Park, Philadelphia Union began John Hackworth's tenure as
manager with all the intent, energy and attacking vigor that was previously lacking from their 2012
performances. The result however was no different as the home side's inability to convert chances
proved costly, as Chris Pontius' 78th minute strike stole all three points for DC United.
MISSED OPPORTUNITIES After the rains came down like a monsoon two hours before, sky's
blued and the weather was perfect-if not a little sticky for kickoff. And that's how it started for
the Fire. In the fourth, what turned out to be the best chance at goal in the first half was
squandered by the hesitation of new signing ÁlvaroFernandez.
The Revs never recovered from Stephen McCarthy's early injury after he collided with Ryan
Johnson on Saturday. (Photo: Kari Heistad)
Stephen McCarthy's early injury gave Toronto FC an opening to grab the lead and the New England
Revolution were never able to recover from the early 1-0 deficit as they fell to TFC at Gillette
Stadium on Saturday night.
If Terrence Boyd was hoping to enjoy a solid performance in his professional debut at the club
level, he did just that. And then some.
Boyd delivered a Man of the Match-worthy performance in Rapid Vienna's season-opening 4-0
victory over Wacker Innsbruck on Saturday, scoring twice and setting up another goal in the
rout.
Cue up the ostinato cello. It took Rapid Vienna forward Terrence Boyd all of four minutes to open
his Austrian Bundesliga account. Clip to come...- Greg Seltzer
Spain coach Vicente Del Bosque believes the first-half goals his side scored were key in
Sunday's 4-0 win over Italy in the Euro 2012 final.
Despite the Azzurri dominating proceedings early on, it was Spain who hit the front foot in the
14th minute when David Silva opened the scoring, before Jordi Alba raced out of defence and doubled
their lead four minutes before the interval.
Spain won Euro 2012 and, in doing so, proved that they are just too good. Winning a historic
three major tournaments in a row (Euro 2008, World Cup 2010 and Euro 12) is probably enough to
prove that statement alone, but the way they've done is what obliterates any stubborn arguments to
the contrary.
There was a chance at the half, but that all ended when Italy's third substitute, Thiago Motta,
yanked his hammy four minutes after coming on, at the hour mark. Thirty minutes of catching up to a
brilliant Spain's two-goal margin while a man don just ain't gonna happen, and the celebrations
began.
PLEASE NOTE: Add your own commentary here above the horizontal line, but do
not make any changes below the line. (Of course, you should also delete this text before you
publish this post.)
This article titled "Sweden v England: Euro 2012 – live!" was written by Jacob Steinberg, for
guardian.
This article titled "Euro 2012: France take their chances to see off disappointing Ukraine" was
written by Stuart James in Donetsk, for The Guardian on Friday 15th June 2012 19.03 UTC
A match that will be remembered for the extraordinary thunderstorm that led to the players
leaving the pitch after little more than four minutes and play being suspended for the best part of
an hour, ended with France cruising to a comfortable victory against a Ukraine side that never came
close to reprising the performance they produced against Sweden.
The Republic of Ireland's Euro 2012 dreams came to an end last night as they were soundly beaten
4-0 by Spain, while Italy's progression to the knockout stages is in doubt after drawing 1-1 with
Croatia.
Spain coach Vicente del Bosque went with a more orthodox line-up against the Irish, inserting
Fernando Torres into his starting line-up and Torres repaid his coach by scoring two goals, and
giving the type of performance that made Chelsea spend all that money on him 18 months ago.
Spain took a chance and started a plucky 28-year-old striker named Fernando Torres in their
second Euro 2012 Group C match against Ireland. This was a surprising decision considering his
inability to finish several golden scoring chances when he played the final 25 minutes of Spain's
1-1 draw against Italy -- something he's rumored to have done on one or two occasions over the
previous year and half for club and country.
The GPS Portland Phoenix came out on top of the Western Mass Pioneers, 3-2, in a game with more
twists than a Hollywood drama on Sunday afternoon at Deering High School's Memorial Field in
Portland.
The Pioneers (3-3-5, 14 points), fresh off an upset win over the then first place Ottawa Fury on
Saturday night, looked ready to continue their run of good form against the Phoenix (7-3-1, 22
points), who needed a win to take over first.
The Vermont Voltage finally have something to cheer about after a Bozidar Jelovac hattrick gave
the club their first win of the season, 5-3, over the Seacoast United Phantoms.
A disastrous start found the last place Voltage (1-8-2, 5 points) down 2-0 against the third
place Phantoms (5-2-3, 18 points), but led Jelovac's three goals Vermont came back to win 5-3 and
end their 10 game winless streak to start the season.
In a game that was really in their control throughout, the Sounders needed to come from behind
to beat that other Chivas USA, after two set pieces had the home team down 2-1. But as the first
team did on Saturday, so the reserves mimicked on Sunday, as Seattle picked up their second
straight come-from-behind reserve win with a 4-2 victory.
Demba Ba was back to his scoring ways again on Saturday, when he put Newcastle ahead in the
53rd minute with a tremendous goal, and although Spurs equalized through Defoe on 76 minutes,
Ben Arfa produced some of his brilliance four minutes later, to earn a penalty which he
converted, and that helped Newcastle win that first tough league game 2-1, after the Magpies had
been second best to Spurs in the first [.
The FC Dallas 18s have advanced to the 2012 Developmental Acadmey League Championship wiht a 3-2
win over fellow Dallas side Solar Chelsea SC to finish atop Group 2. Homegrown player Jonathan Top
scored twice in four minutes for FC Dallas in the first hale and centerback Mark Ashby score the
game winner in the 69th minute.
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 rain came to Donetsk last night, and by the end of the evening a dark cloud had settled over
Ukraines hopes of getting through to the quarter-finals of the European Championships that they are
co-hosting this summer. There had been murmurs that this team might not be capable of getting past
the first hurdle of the competition, but whatever negativity surrounded this team dissipated in the
course of forty-odd minutes last week as they came from behind to beat Sweden thanks to two goals
from Andriy Shevchenko.
Irish fans' delighful "just happy to be here" attitude was tested when their side played Spain
in their second Group C match and it did not go well for Ireland. Fernando Torres opened the
scoring just four minutes into what would be a 4-0 exhibition (Torres scored a second in the 70th
minute) that didn't stop the large number of Irish supporters from singing the horror away right to
the final whistle.
