Support for FC Richmond soccer coach and former William and Mary player, Ian Stowe who is battling a tumor continues to come from all areas of the soccer community. Today the Richmond Kicker organization announced they will hold a benefit exhibition match to support #stowestrong.
From Kickers Press Release:
RICHMOND, VA – (Friday, February 10, 2012) – In support of Ian Stowe's battle with cancer, the Richmond Kickers and The College of William & Mary are pleased to team up for a benefit exhibition match on Friday, March 23.

StoweStrong
By Pat McStay
The Virginia soccer community was hit hard a few weeks ago when William and Mary graduate and FC Richmond youth soccer coach, Ian Stowe was diagnosed with Germinoma, a type of germ cell tumor typically resulting from a failure of germ cells to migrate properly in the body.

Former U.S. defender Harry Keough, who passed away Tuesday, was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame in 1976.

The U.S. Soccer community mourns the loss of former U.S. defender and National Soccer Hall of Famer Harry Keough, who passed away Tuesday at the age of 84.

Photo by ISIphotos.com

The U.S. Soccer community lost a legend Tuesday, as Harry Keough, a national team captain during the memorable 1950 World Cup and a member of the National Soccer Hall of Fame, died at age 84.

Keough was one of the last surviving members of the 1950 team that beat England, 1-0, in what is considered to be one of the greatest upsets in all of soccer.

In the past four preseasons Lamar Neagle grew from trialist to veteran player for Seattle Sounders FC. In talking to the player who during the split sessions trained with the veterans Neagle smiled as he noted his path, his responsibility as a veteran and the need in every training session to compete for minutes on a deep squad.

Any number of products try and connect with soccer fans through official partnerships, event activation and commercial spots. Typically, soccer related marketing is part of a much larger general interest campaign. Based in the Pacific Northwest, Sports energy drink Golazo bucks that trend by focusing on the game of soccer.

A name familiar to the Minnesotan soccer community has been appointed to the top coaching position with the NSCAA (National Soccer Coaches Association of America). Ian Barker, former MYSA Director of Coaching and currently Region II US ODP Assistant Head Coach and Macalaster College Men's head coach has been named Director of Coaching for the [.

Photo by Howard C. Smith/ISIphotos.com

It's been a bit of a whirlwind year for Richie Williams, but he has landed in a spot of extreme importance in the U.S. Soccer community.

Williams was named U.S. Under-17 national team coach on Tuesday, a position that also entails overseeing the federation's residency program in Bradenton, Fla.

Less than two years after its construction was completed, PPL Park was awarded its first MLS All-Star game, the league announced on Wednesday.

The game has been scheduled for July 25th at 8:00pm ET and will be televised on ESPN2 and Galavision. An opponent has not been announced.

The soccer specific stadium, which has a capacity of 18,500, is the home grounds of the Philadelphia Union, who entered the league in 2010.

Photo: Paul Rudderow

It's official, PPL Park will be the site of the 2012 MLS All-Star Game on July 25.

The opponent, "a renowned international club," will be announced at a later date.

MLS Commissioner Don Garber, Philadelphia Union CEO Nick Sackiewicz, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter and Chester Mayor John Linder were on hand at the press conference at Philadelphia's City Hall on Tuesday morning for the announcement.

The southeast Wisconsin soccer community has been in mourning in the past few weeks, with the passings of Bill Riche and Friedrich "Fritz" Weiler.

Riche, a longtime referee in the Milwaukee area, died Sunday at his home in Brown Deer. He was 60. Riche also was the referee assignor for the Milwaukee Kickers for many years and an instructor for referee courses.

Episode 06: Soccer and SOPA

In this episode, Ginge discusses how the controversial SOPA and PIPA bills currently in Congress are dangerous legislation that could have far reaching implications for the soccer community here in the United States.

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Meet the Mohegan Warrior
By Shane Badger
I had a chance Tuesday evening to catch up with Elliot Fauske the Lancers sharp Defensive midfielder, dubbed the Mohegan warrior by his fans in the Cavalry supporters club for both his hair style and his tendancy to scalp the ball from his opponents feet.

PPL Park could soon show itself off to the North American soccer community, as the Philadelphia Union's game day home is one of two finalists for the 2012 MLS All Star Game. A league source informs the Brotherly Game that PPL Park and Sporting Kansas City's Livestrong Park are the last of a group of stadiums, which included the Vancouver Whitecaps' BC Place and the Montreal Impact's Saputo Stadium, but "nothing [is] firm" yet.

I'm currently running for Secretary of the NSCAA. The election winner will be announced at the annual business meeting at the NSCAA Convention in Kansas City on Friday, Jan. 13, so as we're getting closer to the event, I thought it would be good to share my answers to the 12 questions the NSCAA asks each candidate to file.

I never know quite what to make of the Cosmos, the Poltergeist that never stops haunting our domestic soccer community.

I plan to write more about that in the near future. For now, I'll just pass along something interesting that MLS commissioner Don Garber just said.

Garber was talking to myself and Marc Stein, co-host of our weekly radio show/podcast, Soccer Today.

I lost a friend and a mentor on Monday when Bob Jordan passed away due to a heart attack. Bob, and his efforts on behalf of first the Pershing Generals and later the Glendale Falcons, was the impetus for my efforts here. Without his support and assistance, I would not have been able to pull it off.

Perhaps only in the nonrevenue-producing universe of collegiate men's soccer would Creighton University, a small Jesuit college in Nebraska, be considered a more desirable destination than the University of North Carolina.
But that is essentially what the highly regarded Elmar Bolowich said when he stunned the soccer community last February with his decision to leave Chapel Hill after 22 years as coach and with the Tar Heels building toward a potential second N.

Le Toux's turkey cupcake. (Photo: Courtesy of Sebastien Le Toux)

A Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours from all of us at the Philly Soccer Page. Here are a few more holiday messages from the Philly soccer community:

Sebastien Le Toux: "Happy turkey day everybody!

Monday ESPN announced former U.S. national team member and D.C. United player John Harkes has been replaced in the analyst booth by Taylor Twellman.
The network said Monday "we informed John Harkes that ESPN will not renew his contract." ESPN also said it "is leaving the door open to John working with the company in the future on other soccer properties.

It seems like only yesterday to me when former Real Madrid, Man Utd, and England midfielder David Beckham was introduced to the soccer community in the USA with great pomp and circumstance befitting an idolized movie star but here we are, five years later, following the Galaxy's 1-0 win over the Houston Dynamo in the MLS Cup Final yesterday, on the brink of bidding farewell to the biggest star name to play in Major League Soccer to date.

Photo by Howard C. Smith/ISIphotos.com

By AVI CREDITOR

CARSON, Calif. -- Standing atop the winner's podium following MLS Cup is nothing new for Los Angeles Galaxy coach Bruce Arena and Houston Dynamo coach Dom Kinnear. Whichever one gets the opportunity to do that again following Sunday's final, though, will make history in the process while further etching his name in U.

By Eric Beard

The idea of community, however tangible or intangible, real or imagined, flourishes at the very core of football. Without fans, football doesn't exist. Similarly, without readers, AFR would have died a long, long time ago. Conversation is the greatest source of sustenence in the beautiful game.

The International Soccer League's modest but successful start in 1960 had made waves in the American soccer community. Its twelve team league eleven of them imported from overseas, alongside the New York Americans (who weren't really American at all) saw Brazil's Bangu beat Scotland's Kilmarnock in a final of impressive quality, 25,440 fans attending the game at the Polo Grounds in Harlem, New York City, broadcast on network television.

Photo Credit: Denna RoyIn September, fueled by months of drought and high winds, wildfires swept across Central Texas destroying thousands of acres of forest, parks, farmland, and homes. Thousands were evacuated and many lost their homes. Many, nationwide, opened their hearts and wallets, to aid the victims of some of the nation's, and most definitely, Texas' most deviating wildfires in 2011.

Brian O'Connell of ESPN Boston brought up in his piece from yesterday that this Saturday at Gillette will conclude the Revs' season (at least at home) with their annual awards night. The awards that will be given out include MVP, Defender of the Year, and Humanitarian of the Year. So, this got me to thinking: just who might be the most likely candidates for this year's awards?

Wayne Rooney's three-game suspension that rules him out of the Euro 2012 group stage has become a polarizing story in the English soccer community.

Rooney's automatic one-game ban was extended to three for violent contact by UEFA following his kick of a Montenegrin player during England's final Euro qualifying match.

By Jon Levy The Yanks' one-nil victory over a mix-and-match Honduras squad this weekend didn't inspire passionate feelings of indomitable hope or incredulous consternation, and that's probably a good thing. The summer of 2011, the summer of everything for the national teams took the American soccer community on a ride we won't ever forget, but [.

A happy day in the city the Free Beer Movement calls it's HQ, Austin, will welcome a soccer team once again. It's been nearly a year since the former club-that-shall-not-be-named skipped town in nearly the middle of the night and, well, as much as we try to push it into the dark recesses of our minds, it still haunts us.

Last week the Chicago Fire announced a new academy partnership with Indiana United. There are a couple of goals in this relationship and what we as fans can expect to see come out of this arrangement. For starters, you have the obvious idea of opening up a new metropolitan area for Chicago Fire player development.

Most folks in the soccer community have more t-shirts than they need. But trust us, here is one you need to add to your collection.
It's the Megan Rapinoe hair tee!
They are going fast, but it's still available on ussoccer.com, as well as the U.S. WNT game tomorrow night and Niketown in Portland.

The online soccer community is abuzz with recent statements from Commissioner Garber (courtesy of Steve Davis), that MLS has raised its expansion fee for a 20th team to $100 million for the New York market. According to Davis' article, the league remains focused on New York for team 20, but has not set a timetable for that expansion.

The US isn't exactly known for its soccer fans but with the World Cup last year viewership is on the rise. Even though you may have a www.direct.tv satellite package that gets you all the games at home you might want to venture out to one of the country's best soccer pubs if any are nearby. Here are three of our favorites.

Yesterday a good friend of VASoccerNews and former D.C. United Goalkeeper, Mike Ammann of 24/7 GK, asked us to help spread the word for this very important program.
Please join us in our Saves for Malia program to support our friend and teammate, Malia Juszcyk in her fight against stage 4 Neuroblastoma.

This blog covers the soccer media, so we would be remiss if we didn't note the premature and sad passing of FC Dallas broadcaster Bobby Rhine. Only 35 years old, Rhine spent more than 10 years with the Dallas organization, as a player, front office memeber and broadcaster. From the team website: "It is an extremely sad day in the history of FC Dallas," said Doug Quinn, President and CEO of FC Dallas.

Today the soccer community is mourning the loss of a legend. Bobby Rhine passed away at the age of 35. His influence on the soccer community in the Dallas area was and is immeasurable. I was not lucky enough to call him a personal friend but I tell you what the man never forgot who I was. My family first met him when my daughter was taking camps at FC Dallas.

Photo by ISIphotos.com

Bobby Rhine, former FC Dallas player front-office figure and broadcaster, passed away Monday evening of a heart attack at age 35.

Known as a hardworking, geniune and caring individual to those who worked with him or played against him, Rhine's passing at such a young age has stunned the U.

Just heard on World Football Daily that Bobby Rhine, former FC Dallas player, face of that franchise, TV commentator, Around the League contributor and all-around good guy has died of a sudden heart attack while vacationing with his family. He was 35 and leaves his wife and two daughters.

The charitable efforts of professional sports leagues and teams are typically overlooked by their fans, yet they are an important component of the community outreach programs in which almost all leagues are involved. In addition to providing a way to give back to the community, local charitable efforts often provide teams with an outstanding opportunity to connect with fans and potential fans.

Today marks 2 years of 3four3!

When I first started, the idea was really just to get my thoughts on paper, flesh them out and refine them over time. I thought I would systematically deconstruct all the issues I saw with the sport in the U.S., and methodically build up solutions.