Category: soccer

soccer

Tales of soccer survival: MISL’s Milwaukee Wave

Posted on by Beau Dure

For a few years, indoor soccer was the dominant form of the game in the United States, with more than 10,000 watching the hybrid of hockey and outdoor soccer. Serbian-born Preki carved out a nice career in the indoor game before going outside with MLS and proving that his skills translated to a bigger field without those pesky walls.

These days, the outdoor game is alive and well, and indoor continues on its own path. The MISL went away for a while, leaving two competing leagues that eventually came together and became the MISL again, except last year, when the league was the NISL. The PASL, which operates a pro league and amateur divisions, opted to affiliate with FIFRA. No, not FIFA, the custodians of the World Cup. The PASL actually has its own U.S. Open Cup, with the reborn San Diego Sockers (first version immortalized in this not-quite-Super-Bowl-Shuffle video) traveling to take on the Louisville Lightning this weekend.

Anyway: The Milwaukee Wave led Sunday’s MISL final 6-0 in the third quarter. Then came a three-point goal by Monterrey’s Chile Farias, quickly followed by a two-pointer to make it 6-5. La Raza took the lead late in the third, made it 9-6 in the fourth and tacked on an empty-net three-pointer for a 12-6 win. (Video highlights)

Not the way any player, coach or fan wants to end a season, but after what Milwaukee went through last year, the city’s soccer community still has plenty to celebrate.

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basketball, cycling, olympic sports, soccer, sports culture

Tuesday tribalism (and news, not all about Duke)

Posted on by Beau Dure

We’re Americans, with a capital ‘A’, huh? You know what that means? Do ya? That means that our forefathers were kicked out of every decent country in the world. We are the wretched refuse. We’re the underdog. We’re mutts! … We’re mutants. There’s something wrong with us, something very, very wrong with us. Something seriously wrong with us – we’re soldiers. But we’re American soldiers! We’ve been kicking ass for 200 years! We’re 10 and 1!

– John Winger (Bill Murray), Stripes

America may be the biggest and most powerful country the world has seen since Britain decided to quit naming most of the world after its monarchs, but we still love the underdog. No one’s making a movie about the big school with the great facilities that won the Indiana high school basketball championship as expected.

Once upon a time, Mike Krzyzewski and Duke were the underdogs challenging the long reign of Dean Smith and North Carolina in the ACC. No one had a clue of what was to come. True story: In a freshman dorm at Duke in the fall of 1987, someone said it was a shame we had all arrived after all the good basketball. And no one doubted it.

That’s changed a bit. The well-mannered runners-up with the unruly trend-setting crowd have become champions once, twice, three and now four times. By 2001, most people were sick of seeing Shane Battier on ESPN, no matter how likable and admirable the guy was. And seriously, what was up with that “Who’s your daddy Battier” chant?

Duke is also seen as a place of privilege, and as a standout Salon piece points out, Americans have mixed feelings about that. They’re not even consistent in how they apply that prejudice to basketball. Why would Duke be any more evil than Georgetown, another private school where the rent is a lot higher than it is in the crime-infested neighborhoods around Duke?

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basketball, cycling, soccer, tennis

Monday news: 1 week and counting, Coach K rumors

Posted on by Beau Dure

SportsMyriad is one week into its existence, and I’m keeping it in “soft-launch” mode for another day or two. The idea here is to do mostly original content, and that takes time to bring to fruition. When you’re still catching up on household things like paying taxes and trying to finish up an expense report for a former employer, that content doesn’t just spring up. And while you can’t tell from looking at it, I have put a lot of time into the “design” here.

Once I’m up to speed, you’ll still likely a get a weekday morning roundup. Like so …

NEWS

– Soccer: Sure, the big game had a couple of controversial calls each way, but Chelsea looked outstanding in winning at Old Trafford to leapfrog Manchester United and take first place in the Premier League with five games to play. Arsenal is still just three points back.

The lead also changed hands in Germany, with Bayern Munich beating Schalke. (AFP)

– Tennis: Andy Roddick took his first win at a “Masters 1000” tournament, the most recent name for the not-quite-majors, since 2006, beating Rafael Nadal in the semis and rolling past Tomas Berdych in the final. In an era dominated by Nadal and Roger Federer, Roddick should get full credit for trying everything he can to break the stranglehold. He even raised some money for Chilean earthquake relief over the weekend. The women’s winner in Key Biscayne: Kim Clijsters, who wiped out Venus Williams. (USA TODAY’s Weekly Net Post, a great roundup of the tennis scene)

– Cycling: Fabian Cancellara powered away from Tom Boonen for an epic win in the Tour of Flanders. Lance Armstrong, George Hincapie and Tyler Farrar all finished with the lead pack. AP says Lance was thrilled with his ride, but is anyone concerned that Lance had no teammates there? (VeloNews)

– Curling: Rough going for Pete Fenson and the USA so far at the World Championships. (USOC)

– Rowing: Cambridge shocks Oxford to win the Boat Race. (Telegraph)

THOUGHTS

– College basketball: Mike and Mike this morning were all over two stories, both affecting me as a loyal fan of my hometown and alma mater’s teams. First was Donovan McNabb to the Redskins, about which I have no useful comment. The second: NorthJersey.com reports, in an anonymously sourced story curiously buried on their site, that the New Jersey Nets’ incoming owner, Mikhail Prokhorov, is prepared to offer Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski between $12M and $15M per year to be coach and maybe GM.

A few reasons why Coach K would be unlikely to move:

1. He doesn’t need the money. If you’re a pro football player with 5-10 years of peak earning potential, then yes, you go to the highest bidder. If you’ve been coaching for more than 30 years and can go another 5-10, you’ve already accumulated enough money to do pretty much anything you want to do.

2. He loves where he is. Durham is his family home. He works with Duke’s business school. He loves being part of a campus setting.

3. He’s healthy where he is. This is a guy who has been through hip replacement already. Want to put him through 82 games (plus preseason and playoffs) of flying all over the country?

4. He has already won at the “highest level”? Even if you consider the NBA a higher “level” than college basketball — debatable, considering how different the jobs are — Coach K has already won at what he would consider a higher level than that. The patriotic West Point guy coached Team USA to an Olympic gold medal that recent history has shown is no sure thing. Once you’ve done that with pro players, what’s the point of trying to prove you can do that in the NBA?

Dick Vitale, who may love Duke even more than this two-time graduate does, quickly dismissed the idea. He won’t be alone.

And speaking of great 30-year runs … happy anniversary, R.E.M.

Update: Didn’t take long to get the official Coach K denial of interest.

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soccer

MLS Week 2 wrap

Posted on by Beau Dure

Houston 2, Salt Lake 1 (highlights)
– The best that can be said about Brian Ching’s injury is that he clutched his hamstring and not his knee. Non-contact injuries can be the worst.
– Real coach Jason Kreis opted for Fabian Espindola and newcomer Alvaro Saborio, though the goals are coming from midfielder Javier Morales.
– Agreed with the first penalty, with Jamison Olave making contact and pulling Geoff Cameron’s arm. Not so much the second. Minor contact on Luis Landin at best, highly embellished.
– But to give credit where it’s due: Brad Davis smashed both PKs past Nick Rimando, who has a well-deserved reputation as a PK-stopper. See Playoffs, MLS.

Los Angeles 2, Chivas USA 0 (highlights)
– Switch Edson Buddle from the Galaxy to Chivas, and the game could’ve been 2-0 the other way. Chivas blew several chances, some in comical fashion.
– The L.A. lineup: Juninho is lining up at attacking mid behind Edson Buddle, with Alex Cazumba left and Landon Donovan right. Is that the long-term set-up? Where would Beckham go?

Colorado 2, Chicago 2 (highlights)
– Mirror images cancel each other out, with classy foreign strikers Collins John (Chicago) and Omar Cummings (Colorado) scoring from the run of play, and American aerial threats with underrated feet Brian McBride and Conor Casey scoring PKs. Both teams lined up with an empty bucket in the midfield — Chicago’s midfielders were defensive-minded Logan Pause and Peter Lowry; Colorado’s were Jeff Larentowicz and Pablo Mastroeni. Both teams have good playmakers on the wings.
– The Marvell Wynne Central Defense Experiment, Week 2: John beat him in the air on a corner kick for the first goal, and Patrick Nyarko outran him on the right to set up the PK, though the call was harsh. He also got a yellow in the 22nd minute.
– 11,641 isn’t what you like to see for opening day attendance. Particularly when it’s sunny and the players are in short sleeves.

D.C. United 0, New England 2 (highlights)
– Kenny Mansally will surely get Goal of the Week and may also get Player of the Week, but if Preston Burpo doesn’t get a foot to Santino Quaranta’s freekick in the first half, this is a totally different game.
– Talk about the Revolution being “undermanned” is overrated. They were missing Shalrie Joseph, which is indeed a big loss, along with long-term wounded Taylor Twellman and Matt Reis. Darrius Barnes, working his way back from a hip strain, was a late sub. But D.C. played without Clyde Simms, Marc Burch and Bryan Namoff. Not that big a difference, especially when D.C. is the team trying to rebuild.

And the shocker of the week …

Seattle 0, New York 1 (highlights)
– Bouna Coundoul won a goalkeeping duel with Kasey Keller? (To be fair, Keller had no chance on the Red Bulls’ deflected goal, and he had a couple of stellar saves.)
– New York assistant Richie Williams was signed to a contract extension earlier in the week, then took over for Saturday’s game when Hans Backe fell ill. Williams has served two stints as interim head coach in 2006 and 2009, compiling a winning record of 3-2-3 in ’09.
– The Red Bulls snapped a 27-game winless streak in road games, and they did in front of the usual 36K in Seattle. Here’s the irony: The Red Bulls are finally playing on real grass at home, and they snapped the streak on the fake stuff.

My Player of the Week ballot: Bouna Coundoul first, Kenny Mansally second

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mma, olympic sports, rugby, soccer, tennis, winter sports

Friday headlines and the Weekend Watch

Posted on by Beau Dure

Not that those of us in the Mid-Atlantic will be inside on what’s shaping up to be a beautiful weekend …

HEADLINES

– Media: Best April Fool’s gag seen yesterday: ESPN to cancel Pardon the Interruption to expand Around the Horn to an hour, bring in more people sure to grate on your nerves and judge it with a decibel meter. (Sports Media Watch)

– Soccer: Houston came back to beat Real Salt Lake 2-1 with two penalty kicks in one minute, both against Jamison Olave. The second benefited from some embellishment by Luis Angel Landin, but RSL coach Jason Kreis is holding his tongue. In the second game of the night, Edson Buddle scored the only two goals in the L.A. superclasico as the Galaxy beat Chivas USA 2-0.

– Soccer: The biggest development in last night’s MLS games was the injury to Brian Ching, who’s essential to the Dynamo and very much in the forward mix for the World Cup. He fell hard, clutching his hamstring. Watch for updates.

– Swimming: As a teen, Chloe Sutton was one of the early U.S. success stories in the rough-and-tumble world of open-water swimming. Now she’s skipping college and winning in the pool. Interesting read on the winner of the 200m and 800m freestyle on day 1 of the Columbus Grand Prix yesterday. Universal Sports is airing the Grand Prix action. (USA Swimming)

– Rugby: Gotta love games decided on last-second drop goals. (AP)

– Soccer: Bobby Convey’s frustrations have boiled over in San Jose. (Mercury News)

– Soccer: West Ham is complaining that Fulham didn’t have its best players in the lineup in a loss to Hull, which is battling the Hammers in the EPL relegation zone. Hey, Dempsey played! (BBC)

– MMA: UFC’s June date in Vancouver, thought to be in doubt, has been confirmed. If you’re willing to pay expenses to send an MMA/Olympics writer back to Vancouver for a weekend, e-mail beau dot dure … (MMA Fighting Stances)

WEEKEND WATCH (all times ET)

A selective look at what’s going on …

All weekend

Curling – Men’s world championships, Universal Sports. 2006 Olympic bronze medalist Pete Fenson returns to Italy, and the Canadian Press frets that Canadian rookie skip Kevin Koe must open against against him.

Friday

1 p.m.: Tennis – Sony Ericsson men’s semifinal, FSN. Andy Roddick vs. Rafael Nadal in a matchup sure to draw more interest than the eventual final.

Saturday

7:30 a.m.: Soccer – Manchester United-Chelsea, ESPN2. Just the top two teams in the world’s biggest soccer league. Yeah, we know — Wayne Rooney will miss it.

9:30 a.m.: Soccer – Schalke-Bayern Munich, GolTV. Just the top teams in the world’s (second? third? fourth?) biggest soccer league.

12:30 p.m.: Tennis – Sony Ericsson women’s final, CBS. It’s a throwback – Venus Williams vs. Kim Clijsters.

12:30 p.m.: Rowing – The Boat Race. Yes, THE Boat Race. Oxford-Cambridge. If you know a legal way to watch, please drop us a comment. (AP preview, BBC preview)

9 p.m.*: Boxing – Did you have any questions after Roy Jones Jr. took a unanimous decision over Bernard Hopkins at RFK Stadium in 1993? Good news: They’re fighting again, just a few years beyond their peaks. *Main event will be after the Final Four games conclude. (USA TODAY preview)

Sunday

1 p.m.: Tennis – Sony Ericsson men’s final, CBS. Roddick-Nadal winner vs. Berdych-Soderling winner.

6 p.m.: Soccer – MISL championship, local TV and B2TV. Milwaukee Wave hosting Monterrey La Raza, which knocked out the Baltimore Blast in the semifinals. Milwaukee got a bye. (Milwaukee Magazine preview)

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soccer

Peter Nowak: We must break you

Posted on by Beau Dure

If you saw the MLS season opener, you saw one of two things, depending on your view of the world’s game:

1. A bunch of whiny Seattle players diving and moaning with pre-existing injuries.

2. A bunch of thuggish Philadelphia players knocking Seattle players to the turf.

We can’t really say Philly coach Peter Nowak, one of the league’s all-time best players, has been on the defensive about it. He’s very much on the offensive. If you can’t take a little bumping and kicking, he says, find another sport. From the Delaware County Daily Times:

“If you want to avoid contact, I would suggest badminton or curling or chess maybe. That’s how we play the game. This is a man’s game. If you want to compete, let’s compete.”

That’s a questionable comment on several levels:

1. Man’s game? Has Nowak ever seen the U.S. women play? No one should ever accuse them of a lack of toughness.

2. Some of us slipped badly the first time we tried curling. Some of us also plan to cover a bit of chess in our shiny new multisports blogs. And Olympic-caliber badminton will make anyone rethink definitions of athleticism. But fine, none of them are “contact” sports.

3. The fouls against Seattle looked like fouls from here, especially the only one that made the highlight video here:

Make no mistake — Nowak knows what he’s doing. He’s a sought-after coach for several reasons, and one is that he’ll stick up for his team. Before the season, he told me the Union supporters, who existed as a group before MLS was even close to awarding an expansion team, wanted to see passion, commitment and fight. His players will bring that, or he’ll yank them off the field. No doubt about that.

But since MLS is a man’s game, he might need to find some men who can play defense without landing a flying knee to the backside. And he knows that, too — he’s already shaking up his backline.

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mma, olympic sports, soccer, winter sports

Thursday: No fooling around here

Posted on by Beau Dure

Today’s headlines:

– Soccer: The U.S. women’s team beat Mexico 1-0. At least, we think that’s what happened. The snow made it a little hard to see. Can’t wait for U.S. Soccer to post the highlights. In the meantime, the Salt Lake Tribune story includes a photo gallery worth checking out. (U.S. Soccer match report)

– MMA: Kenny Florian took a comfortable third-round submission win to spoil Takanori Gomi’s long-awaited — probably too long, unfortunate — UFC debut in the main event at UFC Fight Night. Roy Nelson won the battle of big and tall against Stefan Struve, ducking under a punch from “The Skyscraper” and answering with a knockout shot. Florian and Nelson took the night’s submission and knockout bonuses, while Ross Pearson and Dennis Siver took the fight of the night honors. Jorge Rivera had the best overall performance of the night with a convincing win over Nate Quarry that didn’t last long into the second round.  (MMA Fighting Stances)

– Soccer: Not to judge a city’s politics from afar, but it looks like a one-week delay in a vote on the Houston Dynamo’s stadium deal has spawned a bit of petty sniping. (Houston Chronicle)

– Alpine skiing: You didn’t expect Bode Miller to make his mind about next season anytime soon, did you? (AP)

– Soccer: U.S. player Marcus Tracy expects to miss the rest of the club season in Denmark with a knee injury. (AP)

Today’s reads:

– Volleyball: Need to catch up with any of the 157 U.S. women’s players going to overseas club teams? They’re rounded up on one staggering roundup. (USA Volleyball – PDF)

– MMA: The toughest part of getting into the house on The Ultimate Fighter might be dealing with solitary confinement in a hotel before the first bout, according to this compelling blog entry from contestant Court McGee. (Sherdog)

– Soccer: Inside Minnesota Soccer compiled a comprehensive preview of the USSF Division II (shotgun marriage between USL and NASL) season, with one writer per team. Familiar names include Steve Ralston, Christian Gomez, Louis Crayton and Steve Cronin. Future MLS clubs Vancouver and Portland have kept a lot of players from year to year. Miami, which has Gomez and Abe Thompson, is trying to rival the MetroStars/Red Bulls for roster turnover. (Inside Minnesota Soccer)

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basketball, mma, olympic sports, rugby, soccer, track and field, winter sports

Tuesday’s headlines: Moscow mourns, Man U in Munich

Posted on by Beau Dure

– The Champions League continues today at 2:30 p.m. ET with Bayern Munich-Manchester United (FSN) and Lyon-Bordeaux (FSC), but Wednesday’s action will have a somber tone as CSKA Moscow takes the field two days after a subway bombing that killed 39 people. The club has asked to wear black armbands (Reuters). (TV listings – Soccer America)

– CSKA Moscow’s basketball team, where Americans Trajan Langdon and J.R. Holden have carved out long careers, is in action today in the Euroleague quarterfinals against Spain’s Caja Laboral. CSKA leads the best-of-5 series 2-0. (Euroleague)

– Back to soccer’s European elite — Chelsea’s Didier Drogba has a two-match European ban. (BBC)

– Break up the U.S. men’s rugby sevens, which beat Thailand 62-0 and will play in another Cup quarterfinal. Will the USA turn into a rugby power now that the sport’s in the Olympics? (USOC)

– Tony Benshoof is the Terminator of luge. He’s having back surgery and says he might return for another season. (AP)

– Dana White talks often about the Internet being the future of broadcasting, and maybe he’s not kidding: The Ultimate Fighter will have tons of archival footage and extras online. (FanHouse)

– South Africa’s Carter Semenya, whose gender is still in question, has not been cleared to run. (AP)

– The collection of strange Diego Maradona headlines continues: He was treated at a hospital after being bitten by one of his dogs. Are the media too obsessed with him, or is his life that strange? (Reuters)

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