"Three years ago this was all a desert," say's Jerry, a Grande Sports World employee who gesticulates by sweeping his hand across the landscape of where the sports complex and it 8 soccer fields now set firmly planted in the sandy soil of Arizona. Grande Sports World, now a destination for preseason training for MLS [.

Hooligans in Rochester Have a Ball
By: Shane Badger
The Rochester chapter of the American Outlaws (AO) sponsored the first annual Western New York Soccer Supporters Ball, held at Matt Wambach's infamous Back Nine Grill in Rochester, New York Saturday evening.

The standard of American collegiate soccer has grown in leaps and bounds over the past 10 years, and are now becoming a home for top international imports to ply their trade.
J.R. Eskilson of Goal.com writes of how international imports arriving in the collegiate game here in the US is changing the landscape of the game.

I don't watch ESPN really outside of soccer coverage but apparently they had TT on there the other day to talk about the scourge that is concussions, which is not to be confused with the issue of cons cussin'. The former is a big issue on soccer fields the world over while the latter is largely an issue within penitentiaries.

Every so often, we like to take a look around the web to see how local newspapers are covering soccer in the United States. This was an extremely interesting time to take a look, given the rare soccer controversy that became a big story (Rafa Marquez's scathing comments directed to his own teammates), on some of the national sports websites.

Thievery. Robbery. A mugging.
The crime rate is high in Morelia, and that doesn't stop from extending onto the soccer fields there.
Estadio Morelos was site of one of the biggest non-violent crimes in Morelia's recent history. On Tuesday, the Galaxy had a goal and a victory stolen from them.

Thievery. Robbery. A mugging.
The crime rate is high in Morelia, and that doesn't stop from extending onto the soccer fields there.
Estadio Morelos was site of one of the biggest non-violent crimes in Morelia's recent history. On Tuesday, the Galaxy had a goal and a victory stolen from them.

November 19 might prove to be more than just the jumping off point for annual rivalry games at PPL Park between Villanova and Delaware.

According to the Delaware Online, Villanova is looking at the game as a possible jumping off point for their possible conference move.

Villanova coach Andy Talley called the Nov.

Standing water near or sometimes in fields was not uncommon after torrential rain falls. Photo by Kyle Hanson

The largest youth soccer tournament in the western hemisphere, Schwan's USA CUP, will wrap up on Saturday with semi-final and championship games. The tournament, held at the National Sports Center in Blaine, Minn.

Standing water near or sometimes in fields was not uncommon after torrential rain falls. Photo by Kyle Hanson

The largest youth soccer tournament in the western hemisphere, Schwan's USA CUP, will wrap up on Saturday with semi-final and championship games. The tournament held at the National Sports Center in Blaine, Minn.

I may be late to the show, but the "Sucker for Soccer" images on the Behance Network are beyond fantastic. Special thanks to PRC, the lady who designed my site's wicked header, for sending me the link. And for those of you who are especially dense, like things repeated three times, or prefer a link at the end of a sentence, you can check out these wonderful pics right here.

From the Joplin Globe JHS Athletic Boosters lose sources of income in tornado

When the roof of Kaminsky Gymnasium collapsed during the tornado that struck Joplin on May 22, the Joplin High School Athletic Boosters lost tens of thousands of dollars of equipment that had been donated to the athletic department in recent years.

Valley Field at Marquette University is ready to host its first game of 2011 Finals Week between Weston FC and CASL Chelsea FC Academy. So ready, in fact, that the inviting and plush green grass requires a little extra help to safeguard from the ominous threat of seagulls.
Apparently, the seagulls that are drawn to Lake Michigan are also drawn to large areas of open space like, for example, soccer fields.

The Sun-Sentinel.com of Fort Lauderdale posted a short story last night that the FAA has agreed to a 6-month extension of the lease of Lockhart Stadium to the Broward County School District.

As reported here earlier this month, Strikers president Tim Robbie was confident that a deal could be struck with the FAA and that the NASL team located in Fort Lauderdale and who use Lockhart for games and training sessions, would be staying put.

To encourage active play, GoGo squeeZ is partnering with Kick It, the nation's largest 3v3 soccer competition, to provide a healthier snack option to soccer fields at over 60 locations.
GoGo squeeZ is the first squeezable, re-sealable, 100 percent fruit applesauce snack. The packaging has a built-in straw, and requires no refrigeration, which means no cooler, spoons or mess, whether on the field or off.

The Hanifl Fields Athletic Park in Hugo, Minnesota has now officially opened and is being used by both the White Bear Soccer and the Mahtomedi Soccer Association. According to an interesting article in Twin Cities.com, the park is located at 137th Street North next to the city's public works building.

Tonight's game against the Vancouver Whitecaps kicks off at 7:30 p.m. at Home Depot Center (live on Fox Sports West) with both teams hoping to do better than the scoreless draw they managed to accomplish last month in Canada.

It will be an uphill battle for the Whitecaps, the game coming a day after Vancouver fired their coach.

TAKE YOUR GAME TO THE NEXT LEVEL. IMPROVE TOUCH. LEARN SKILLS AND TACTICS. HAVE FUN!

When: June 6 – 9 for boys and girls
Ages 6 to 10 – 5:30 until 7:30
Ages 11 – 16 – 6:30 until 8:30

Where: Nixa Community Center Soccer Fields

Who: Nixa Soccer Club is a not for profit organization dedicated to developing competitive youth soccer players and coaches in Nixa and the surrounding communities.

NEW YORK, NY Consistent with US Club Soccer's goal of providing a vehicle through which clubs can offer life-long soccer to their members, the organization has announced the formation of the National Adult Leagues U-20 Division. US Club Soccer's National Adult Leagues is a program comprised of high-quality, competitive and low-cost local leagues for [.

LAS VEGAS, Nev. About 6,000 teen soccer players will be in Las Vegas for a holiday weekend tournament featuring 332 teams from 26 states and seven foreign countries. The Las Vegas Mayor's Cup International Showcase runs Friday through Monday for players ages 14 to 19. It's being touted as the largest youth soccer tournament [.

More and more clubs, schools communities are installing artificial turf for their soccer fields. The benefits are obvious in terms of maintenance and year-round use. However, one question that keeps coming up is "are these fields safe for the players?" The concern is that players are at risk of knee and ankle injuries by playing on the "plastic stuff".

According to a recent article on FAUOwlACCESS.com, Dan Borislow may finally have a location in Florida to play home games as magicTalk SC.
From FAU website:
FAU Soccer Stadium was completed as part of a 10-year development program to create five on-campus soccer fields in conjunction with the Greater Boca Raton Beach Tax District.

By JOSE M. ROMERO

PHOENIX -- Closer to the big city, a couple of Major League Soccer teams are getting work done on a complex of soccer fields in frigid Arizona.

Yes, it's been record cold these days in the Valley of the Sun, but that isn't stopping Sporting Kansas City and the Columbus Crew from training at Reach 11 West, about 25 to 30 minutes due north of downtown Phoenix.

The proposed North American Soccer League team in San Antonio ran into more hurdles this week. Gordon Hartman's team Soccer for a Cause has been trying to gather support to find the $8 million he says he needs from the city and county to build a stadium on STAR Soccer Complex, a stadium he hopes to have built in time when his proposed team starts play in 2012.