Morning all, welcome to the blog.
By the time you read this, Perth Glory coach Dave Mitchell will hold a testing session for his players and a "midseason" review with the good fellows of Perth's sports media.
What that means, FP doesn't know, but presumably it won't be any different than the usual Glory presser. Click to continue reading...

Arsenal are a rather special team, for many reasons. Manager Arsene Wenger has been in the job for more than a decade, which is an achievement in itself. In a day and age whereby managers come and go like candidates to be Sir Alan Sugar's apprentice, 10 years in the job deserves a gold medal. Secondly, [. Click to continue reading...

. Video Highlights England V Belarus 2 for Crouch , 1 for Phillips originally appeared on ø Soccer & Football Blog - Premiership News ø on October 14, 2009. Click to continue reading...

South Korea's Cultural Center in Vietnam has asked that a friendly between Vietnam's U23s and South Korean club Chunnam Dragons be held on October 20 instead of 21.
Eighteen players of the South Korean club are expected to land in Hanoi on October 18 for the friendly at My Dinh Stadium in the capital. Click to continue reading...

Photo By Jeremy Olson - www.digitalgopher.net

At half time of Minnesota Golden Gophers home opener at Elizabeth Lyle Robbie Stadium Stadium on Friday evening, Cat Parkhill, freshman starting goalkeeper for the team, was honored in a ceremony.

The presentation in front of 987 home fans honored Parkhill for being the first Golden Gopher in history of the Minnesota Soccer program to play in International competition.

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Photo By Jeremy Olson - www.digitalgopher.net

At half time of Minnesota Golden Gophers home opener at Elizabeth Lyle Robbie Stadium Stadium on Friday evening, Cat Parkhill, freshman starting goalkeeper for the team, was honored in a ceremony.

The presentation in front of 987 home fans honored Parkhill for being the first Golden Gopher in history of the Minnesota Soccer program to play in International competition.

Click to continue reading...

That's right ... this will be our last post in this here YNT Blog, as the brand new ussoccer.com launched this afternoon. You can still find archived blog entries here, that highlight everything from the 2007 FIFA U-17 World Cup through the launching of the Development Academy and the 2008 Beijing Olympics, not to mention silver and gold medal efforts at the FIFA U-17 WWC and FIFA U-20 WWC, respectively. Click to continue reading...

The Guardian readers submitted some good stuff this week. I got to do the podium finish again.
3. Bronze medal
2. Silver medal
1. Gold medal
Click to continue reading...

From the San Jose Earthquakes Front Office, the team announced today that the team has signed the captain of the El Salvador national team Ramon Sanchez. Per league and team policy, terms of the deal were not disclosed. He will be added to the roster pending the arrival of his ITC.
"There have been a number of successful players in Major League Soccer from El Salvador and we think that Ramon has the ability to make an impact here also," said General Manager John Doyle. Click to continue reading...

Too much good stuff from the Guardian readers in this one. So we have a podium finish, in reverse order.
3. Bronze medal
2. Silver medal
1. Gold medal
Click to continue reading...

So, on the topic of club crests: Apparently I'm not the only person who spends time staring at people's chests. (It's okay for me, though. I'm female. You, on the other hand, should probably watch yourself.) Congratulations to our Gold Medal performer, Peter Katsiris, and thanks to everybody for playing. Click to continue reading...

The Guardian readers were too good with this one. Three placers this time.
3. Bronze medal
2. Silver medal
1. Gold medal
Click to continue reading...

USA Basketball celebrates win over Spain (2008)
Just last summer the USA dominated Spain to win the Gold Medal at the Beijing Olympics.
Unfortunately, the sport played on that August day in China was basketball.
Do the Americans have a chance against the best footie team in the world? Click to continue reading...

U.S. Women's National Team coach Pia Sundhage named her 18-woman roster for the Olympic tournament in Beijing (ASN, June 23, 2009).

Nine players on the roster were members of the U.S. team that won the gold medal four years ago in Athens, Greece, including team co-captains Christie Rampone and Kate Markgraf.

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The ink was barely dry on their one record breaking contract to snag Kaka when Real Madrid turned around and destroyed their own previous transfer record and purchased Christiano Ronaldo from Man U for £80m. No need to link to a specific article, it's all over the news, hell, it made NPR this morning.

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The JB Marine teams wrapped up their 2009 tournament season this month with top finishes.

The 97 girls team headed to the Capital Soccer Club Spring Season Finale in Jefferson City, May 9-10, with high aspirations. Competing in the U12 8v8 bracket, the 97 girls dominated all their pool games and headed to the final with a perfect 3-0 record.

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Heather Mitts is a left back starting for the Boston Breakers in the new WPS league. Mitts has earned 100 caps with the U.S. Women's National Team (USWNT), a gold medal in the Beijing Olympics, and featured colorfully in several magazines.

From running with the bulls in Pamplona, Spain, to her views on collegiate soccer, a possible future in broadcast journalism, and being ESPN's "Sexiest Female Athlete," Mitts runs the gamut in an interview prior to her May 17th home match with the Washington Freedom at Harvard Stadium.

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Her Story: Michelle Akers should very arguably be a top� 2 player on this list, but I like her here at #3. She grew up in Washington State and was a four-time All-American at UCF. In 1985, she was one of the first ever members of the WNT and she would remain with the team until the turn of the century.

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ESPN's Eric Neel wrote an outstanding piece on Mike D'Antoni, the head coach of the New York Knicks of the NBA.
D'Antoni is one of the league's most respected coaches, having strung together 60 win seasons in Phoenix and helped Coach K as an assistant with Team USA as they won the gold medal in the most recent Olympics. Click to continue reading...

Her Story: Geez, you know the WNT has had some amazing players when Tiffeny Milbrett can't crack the top five.� Milbrett grew up in Oregon and played her college career� at Univ. of� Portland.� In fifteen years with the WNT, Milbrett established herself as a dangerous attacking player.

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Her Story: Shannon MacMillan is one of the most overlooked WNT members because she wasn't one of the ladies to emerge as a star at the 1999 World Cup (though she was a "super sub"). She grew up in California and won the NCAA Player of the Year Award at Univ.

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Her Story: You can't make a list like this without including Brandi Chastain, the author of the most pivotal moment in US WNT history. She grew up in California and played her college years in that state. She was first capped by the Lady Nats in 1991, and I don't think she has technically retired from US Soccer since.

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FSC and WPS lucked out on Sunday - for once, the league's flaws gave us a white-knuckle thrill ride. The only downside was that the home team lost. Another league or network would have stooped to showing horrified and shocked Gold Pride fans crying tears of disbelief, but WPS doesn't do negative yet. Click to continue reading...

I added a new site to my links:  She's a Baller - all things having to do with women's b-ball.  In the course of doing that, I saw the sad news that Kay Yow has died at age 66, after a long battle with Breast cancer. Yow had a record of 737-344 in 38 years [...] Click to continue reading...

HollyCornblog is back on line and sent along some photos of what it was looking like in her world yesterday. Here's a beauty! In the meantime, I had the occasion to drive over toward the Monadnock region of NH (actually Antrim, Peterborough, Greenfield, etc.) and was absolutely shocked at the devastation. Click to continue reading...

As good as he's been, this could finally be Kun Aguero's "breakout" year. Freshly 20, he was the third leading scorer in La Liga last year. Won the Gold Medal at the Olympics with Argentina this summer as well, scoring two against eternal rivals Brazil in the process. Now he's got 3 Champions League goals [. Click to continue reading...

My WNT article about their upcoming tour is up. As I was writing the article, though, I couldn't help but muse on the what-if scenarios.
What if Greg Ryan hadn't made the goalkeeper switch? What if the USWNT had only lost to Brazil by a goal, and without the team issues that followed Ryan and other team leaders deciding to ostracize Hope Solo? Click to continue reading...

This morning's post will likely be quick, as I've gotta make 2 dozen sandwiches for some soccer-game tailgating by 7:30 AM.  But enough about me! On Truthdig I came upon this Palin Perspective from John Dean (yes, that John Dean).  Basically he argues, rather damningly, that were a sitting President in the position of having to [. Click to continue reading...

The USWNT, along with other US Gold Medalists, will be on Oprah today ... whenever Oprah is on in your world.  I do not know whether coaches are included or not ... but am guessing that, if invited, Pia would not turn down this one! It sounds like Abby is getting out and about more.  [...] Click to continue reading...

Something is coming to the mysterious island of faith and melancholy, to the indifferent streets, from the fort to the city, from the sacred waters of the Caribbean, to the Central Park where rest the bones of Jose Marti.
The ancient Chevys that run by a miracle, the balconies where the women watch, the neighborhoods that time forgot, with people who have yet to show much passion for soccer. Click to continue reading...

I'm happy to see that the Bay Area (San Jose, to be specific) will be joining the WPS for the 2009 season.  "Play kicks off in the spring of 2009, with WPS teams based in the Bay Area, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New Jersey/New York, St. Louis, and Washington, D.C. The league will expand [...] Click to continue reading...

The Olympics were such a great experience. I hope all of you had the chance to watch a lot of it. I was watching sports that I've never watched before, just because it was the Olympics. I'd never usually watch badminton or team handball, but I did over the last few weeks.
Wasn't Michael Phelps just amazing? Click to continue reading...

Olympic gold medallist Javier Mascherano will almost certainly be plunged into Liverpool's tough away Barclays Premier League game at Aston Villa on Sunday.
The match has added spice after the summer of disagreement between Villa boss Martin O'Neill and Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez over the drawn-out saga of Gareth Barry's on-off move to Anfield. Click to continue reading...

With another great week in football that saw its end with a great match between Manchester United and Portsmouth, I look back at all that made it special.
This week started early with a game between DC United and the New England Revolution. This match comes after New England lost to San Jose 4-0 and DC beat Colorado 1-0. Click to continue reading...

This was my footie weekend. Fo' Sho'. Need proof? Well, I will be glad to share it . . . .

#1 - ARGENTINA WINS THE GOLD!!!!!!!

In what was widely considered the best footie game of the Olympics, the Biceleste faught through Nigerian pressure and African style heat to win the Gold Medal.

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