From Soccer America The final six teams in the 32-team World Cup 2010 field will be determined today four in Europe, one in South America/Concacaf and one in Africa necessitated by the tie between Egypt and Algeria in their qualifying group. For a look at all six games, with television information and predictions .

Click to continue reading...

STARTERS
On Thursday Toronto FC is expected to name Preki as their new head coach.
dN
Incredible quote from Real Salt Lake head coach Jason Kreis on his teams tough regular season: "I was very overconfident. I think I added to what was a little bit of an underlying thing on the team that we were a bit overconfident going into this season. Click to continue reading...

The friendly between the US Men's National Team and Slovakia, being played in Bratislava, Slovakia will be broadcast live on Fox Soccer Channel and Galavision beginning at 9:00 am.

After earning a place in the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the U.S. Men's National Team sets its sights on raising the bar for the World Cup in South Africa, which is now a mere seven months away.

Click to continue reading...

Missouri State Bears, F Capone, R Hennessey & H Melugin

The 19th-ranked Missouri State men's soccer team (12-3-2, 7-1-1) will face the Evansville Purple Aces (11-7-1, 5-4-1) in the semifinal round of the MVC Tournament on Friday, November 13. Kickoff at Cownie Soccer Complex in Des Moines, Iowa, is set for 3:30 p. Click to continue reading...

Missouri State Bears, F Capone, R Hennessey & H Melugin

The 19th-ranked Missouri State men's soccer team (12-3-2, 7-1-1) will face the Evansville Purple Aces (11-7-1, 5-4-1) in the semifinal round of the MVC Tournament on Friday, November 13. Kickoff at Cownie Soccer Complex in Des Moines, Iowa, is set for 3:30 p. Click to continue reading...

18 wins from 18 games, and the Akron Zips are the top-ranked team no matter where you look in the collegiate ranks. NSCAA and Soccer America both have the Zips on top, and the latest RPI released this week concurs. Having answered every question asked of them during the regular season, Akron now has a chance to run the table all the way to a NCAA championship.

Click to continue reading...

18 wins from 18 games, and the Akron Zips are the top-ranked team no matter where you look in the collegiate ranks. NSCAA and Soccer America both have the Zips on top, and the latest RPI released this week concurs. Having answered every question asked of them during the regular season, Akron now has a chance to run the table all the way to a NCAA championship.

Click to continue reading...

-
- In addition to this site, try the combination messageboard and quasi-blog QPR Report Messageboard. If your're interested in constantly-updated QPR-related news; QPR nostalgia; and eclectic items of broader football interest: QPR Report Messageboard is there for you. All opinions welcome! Click to continue reading...

• Soccer America says 2009 MLS avg attendance down 2.6%. w/o Seattle would be down 9 percent. (MLB for comparison, down avg 6.7%) via @TIAS: #
• BEARS Men's Soccer to Hold Food Drive at Sunday's Match against Drake http://bit.ly/s7YlQ via @MissouriStBears #
• NCAA Women's Midwest Rankings Released: 1 Grand Valley, 2 NKU, 3 Indy, 4 Quincy, 5 Bellarmine, 6 Saginaw.

Click to continue reading...

The MLS playoffs will begin Thursday when the Seattle Sounders FC host the Houston Dynamo (TV: ESPN2 and ESPN Deportes, live, 9 pm). According to Soccer America (I haven't bothered counting) of the 11 games, 10 will be available on national television five on ESPN2 and ESPN Deportes, three on Fox Soccer Channel and Fox Sports en Espanol, one on TeleFutura and MLS Cup 2009 on ESPN and Galavision.

Click to continue reading...

The MLS playoffs will begin Thursday when the Seattle Sounders FC host the Houston Dynamo (TV: ESPN2 and ESPN Deportes, live, 9 pm). According to Soccer America (I haven't bothered counting) of the 11 games, 10 will be available on national television five on ESPN2 and ESPN Deportes, three on Fox Soccer Channel and Fox Sports en Espanol, one on TeleFutura and MLS Cup 2009 on ESPN and Galavision.

Click to continue reading...

No surprise there, then: in a tanking economy where even the nation's most popular league, the NFL, has had trouble selling tickets and Major League Baseball's attendance fell 6.9%, it's not a shock to learn that as Soccer America reports, MLS' attendance fell overall by 2.9% in the regular season just concluded, falling from 16,460 in 2008 to 16,037.

Click to continue reading...

MLS PLAYOFFS
Who you pickin' to win in this round?
dN
Steve Davis at Soccernet gives us an initial preview of the teams who made the playoffs.
dN
Greg Lalas at Sports Illustrated is pretty fired up about the LA-Chivas series!
dN
First Round playoff matches, home and away series:
1st Leg
WESTERN CONFERENCE
-Thu Oct 29
Seattle Sounder FC (3) v Houston Dynamo (2) - 9pm central on ESPN2
Venue: Qwest Field - Seattle WA
-Sun Nov 1
Chivas USA (4) v Los Angeles Galaxy (1) - 4pm Central on ESPN2
Venue: Home Depot Center - Carson CA
EASTERN CONFERENCE
-Sat Oct 31
Real Salt Lake (4) v Columbus Crew (1) - 5pm Central on Direct Kick
Venue: Rio Tinto Stadium - Sandy UT
-Sun Nov 1
New England Revolution (3) v Chicago Fire (2) - 12pm Central on FSC
Venue: Gillette Stadium - Foxborough MA
dN
2nd Leg
EASTERN CONCERENCE
-Thu Nov 5
Columbus Crew (1) v Real Salt Lake (4) - 7pm Central on ESPN2
Venue: Crew Stadium - Columbus OH
-Sat Nov 7
Chicago Fire (2) v New England Revolution (3) - 7:30pm Central on FSC
Venue: Toyota Park - Bridgeview IL
WESTERN CONCERENCE
-Sun Nov 8
Houston Dynamo (2) v Seattle Sounder FC (3) - 2pm Central on Telefutura
Venue: Robertson Stadium - Houston TX
-Sun Nov 8
Los Angeles Galaxy (1) v Chivas USA (4) - 6:30pm Central on ESPN2
Venue: Home Depot Center - Carson CA
MLS
Brian Strauss of Fanhouse comments on commissioner Don Garber's appearance last night on Fox Football Fone In. Click to continue reading...

The team kicks off their group stage matches today against Spain. The game is at 1pm Central time and can be seen on ESPNU, Galavision and ESPN360.com.
dN
Paul Kennedy of Soccer America tells us about some of the top players on this USA team.
FIFA.com with a preview of the USA team. Click to continue reading...

Major League Soccer suffered a loss to it's coaching community this past week when Paul Mariner resigned from his position with the New England Revolution to take a similar position with Coca-Cola Championship club Plymouth Argyle.
Soccer America's Ridge Mahoney outlines his significance in New England, as well as in MLS. Click to continue reading...

According to Soccer America's Ridge Mahoney, Watford and United States National Team defender Jay DeMerit will need surgery to repair his injured left eye. DeMerit was returning to fitness from a groin pull that caused him to miss the September World Cup Qualifiers when he scratched his cornea. That scratch led to an infection that has kept him out of action with blurred vision in that eye. Click to continue reading...

The Beez.
Soccer America has highlighted Wizards defender Matt Besler in their latest Rising Star profile. Besler tells about the shoes he wears, rates his college experience and gives information on the best coaching advice he has received, among several other things. Check it out. Click to continue reading...

Jordan Hoffman (14) congratulates Kyle Windmuller following his goal

The Missouri State men's soccer team (7-3-2, 2-1-1) got an early goal from Paul Paradise en route to a 3-1 victory over visiting Oral Roberts (6-5-1) at Plaster Field today. Paradise scored in the fourth minute of play as he headed in a free kick serve from Edin Sabic. Click to continue reading...

Jordan Hoffman (14) congratulates Kyle Windmuller following his goal

The Missouri State men's soccer team (7-3-2, 2-1-1) got an early goal from Paul Paradise en route to a 3-1 victory over visiting Oral Roberts (6-5-1) at Plaster Field today. Paradise scored in the fourth minute of play as he headed in a free kick serve from Edin Sabic. Click to continue reading...

• Alex Riggs, Missouri State Bear's, recognized as Goalkeeper of the Week by Soccer America ~ http://bit.ly/ojC0n #
• Hey Patrick Carver, a solid performance in Bahrain has New Zealand a game away from WC2010 ~ http://bit.ly/xkIAc via @FIFAWorldCupTM #
• Drury men's soccer now #3 in nat'l rankings, highest in program's history.

Click to continue reading...

• Alex Riggs, Missouri State Bear's, recognized as Goalkeeper of the Week by Soccer America ~ http://bit.ly/ojC0n #
• Hey Patrick Carver, a solid performance in Bahrain has New Zealand a game away from WC2010 ~ http://bit.ly/xkIAc via @FIFAWorldCupTM #
• Drury men's soccer now #3 in nat'l rankings, highest in program's history.

Click to continue reading...

STARTERS
The last time the USA was in Honduras was late March of 2001. And while many things in American soccer have changed in just 8 years, others have stayed remarkably the same. The game that night was only shown in America via Pay Per View. (Sound familiar?) So, via the glory of Big Soccer, 8 of us lost souls met up in a basement in St Paul. Click to continue reading...

STARTERS
Can't wait to see many of you next Wednesday in DC. Drop me an email if you are going.
TEAM USA
Michele Kaufman of the Miami Herald with an article on the teams preparations for Honduras.
dN
Kaufman also writes about coach Bob Bradley and son Michael. Click to continue reading...

DEDICATION
Today's episode is dedicated to the Edgar & Eric, the Jomfru brothers.
STARTERS
Real Salt Lake owner Dave Checketts is teaming up with Rush Limbaugh to bid for the St Louis Rams of the NFL.
TEAM USA
Frankie Hejduk, left fullback Columbus Crew, has been added to the roster. Click to continue reading...

Bob Bradley is being dealt a dilemma for the final two World Cup qualifiers for the CONCACAF region - win 1 and your in, but with a number of players sitting on yellow cards, if any of them accumulate another card in a US loss in Honduras on Saturday, they would not be able to play in the all-important final qualifying match against Costa Rica the following week. Click to continue reading...

Most coaches of younger youth players spend most of their training sessions with countless drills, and then finish their session with a 'scrimmage'.
At this age, most of the training session should be 'scrimmaging', replicating the game and giving them opportunities to play.
Soccer America's Mike Woitalla wrote a great article the other day in where he references that scrimmages shouldn't just be for 'dessert'. Click to continue reading...

FOR THE THIRD TIME, THE Dallas Texans are first in Soccer America's girls rankings. Click here (http://www.socceramerica.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.showArticleHomePage art_aid=34361) to read... Click to continue reading...

ABOVE: University of Colorado goalkeeper Kara Linder clears the ball on Friday against Nebraska. Linder was named defensive player of the week for the second time this season. (Photo by George Tanner/ColoradoSoccerNow.com) BELOW: CU defender Quinn Krier was named the Big 12's newcomer of the week.

Click to continue reading...

1) Shalrie Joseph for MVP? It seems like all the forces are converging and settling on him after his player of the week performance. Today alone, there were three articles touting his candidacy from Ives Galarcep (Soccer By Ives), Ridge Mahoney (Soccer America), and Kyle McCarthy (Goal.com).
He has a lot of things going for him. Click to continue reading...

Paul Kennedy of Soccer America previews the United States Under-20 team as they head into the FIFA Under-20 World Championships.
Rongen's U-20s are surely the least fancied U.S. team to play in the world championships in a generation. A core of each U-20 team comes from the U-17 team two years earlier, but the 2007 U. Click to continue reading...

CONCACAF CHAMPIONS LEAGUE
Some teams enter Round 4 this week in do-or-die mode! The big teams in desperate need are Houston, DC and Saprissa. Another loss for them and it will be very tough to come back. Then you have teams like Columbus that owe Cruz Azul some serious pay back for a 5-0 asskicking down in Mexico City. Click to continue reading...

Chester Stadium currently under construction. (Photo via Philadelphia Union)

Lots of attention lately has been given to the start of next season for each club. It mainly seems to boil down to two clubs that are causing the league to redo the start of the season schedule every other day.

Both Toronto and 2010 expansion club Philadelphia seem to have their own issues going on.

Click to continue reading...

The University of Denver's Alex Tarnoczi, above in a scrimmage against Stanford, was named to Top Drawer Soccer's National Team of the Week for the week ending Sept. 13. (photo by George Tanner/ColoradoSoccerNow.com)

Another roundup of notable news from the beautiful game in this beautiful state.

Click to continue reading...

By TRAVIS CLARK

In an attempt to increase the following and coverage of men's collegiate soccer -- the biggest producer of MLS talent to this point -- welcome to a new series on the Division I game. Nearly all the prominent MLSÂ rookies in 2009 came after a successful stint in the collegiate ranks, with Akron, Maryland, UCSB, and Wake Forest produced some of the best rookies this season.

Click to continue reading...

By TRAVIS CLARK

In an attempt to increase the following and coverage of men's collegiate soccer -- the biggest producer of MLS talent to this point -- welcome to a new series on the Division I game. Nearly all of the prominent MLSÂ rookies in 2009 came to MLS after a successful stint in the collegiate ranks, with Akron, Maryland, UCSB, and Wake Forest producing some of the best rookies this season.

Click to continue reading...