American Soccer News

Playoff SuperClasico, in photos

ASN Staff — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 12:43:03 +0000

ASN's Craig Bennett was at Home Depot Center Sunday evening gathering photographic evidence from the return leg of the LA Galaxy v Chivas USA playoff matchup. (Read the match report).

Proceed to the photo gallery.

All photos ©ASN/Craig Bennett, 112575 Media Inc. To see more of Craig's work check out his Web site.

Quote of the week: Preki

ASN Staff — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:06:02 +0000

“The Galaxy made one play.”–The extent of Chivas USA head coach Preki’s reaction to his team’s 1-0 loss to crosstown rivals LA Galaxy Sunday night. With the loss, Chivas made its fourth straight first round playoff exit. After the final whistle a visibly irate Preki appeared to have words with Galaxy midfielder Demo Kovalenko, though the two were quickly separated.

Cunningham, EJ, Dax get call for Slovakia friendly

ASN Staff — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:37:12 +0000

U.S. Men's National Team head coach Bob Bradley's 22-man roster for the friendly at Slovakia on Nov. 14 contains several surprising names, perhaps none bigger than Eddie Johnson's. The former Kansas City Wizards striker hasn't been on a USMNT roster in more than a year. Other surprising names included FC Dallas' Dax McCarty and Jeff Cunningham.

Visit ASN's USMNT page for the full roster.

Gale Agbossoumonde expected to sign Sporting Braga

ASN Staff — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:50:39 +0000

U.S. U-20 Youth National Team defender Gale Agbossoumonde is expected with Portuguese topflight side Sporting Braga as early as Wednesday, Nov. 11..

Read on at ASN's 'Over There' page.

Victories by Dynamo, Galaxy sets up reunion of old friends in Western Conference final

ASN Staff — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:55:00 +0000

After Real Salt Lake’s stunning upset of Supporters’ Shield winner and defending MLS Cup champions Columbus Crew Thursday, the favorites prevailed in all other playoff matchups over the weekend. It took overtime before Brian Ching’s inspired effort broke a scoreless deadlock and put the Houston Dynamo past the pesky Seattle Sounders in Sunday’s first game. In Los Angeles, David Beckham and Landon Donovan worked their magic to establish a play that would lead to a 73rd minute penalty kick, which the Galaxy captain coolly converted. Sunday’s results set up a showdown between the Galaxy and Houston, old acquaintances from when the Dynamo were the San Jose Earthquakes. The meeting will take place Friday at the Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif.

The Chicago Fire will host the Eastern Conference final against Real Salt Lake after the Fire prevailed against New England on Saturday night.

Donald Buckholt attended the Houston-Seattle match at Robertson stadium and filed the following report. He also supplied player ratings for the victorious Dynamo.

Ivan Yeo was on hand at the Home Depot Center to witness the Galaxy’s victory. Here is his report.

Chicago Fire torch Revs, advance to second straight Eastern Conference final

jtobin — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 17:44:33 +0000

A nifty second half goal by Cuauhtemoc Blanco gave the Chicago Fire the goal it needed to advance past the New England Revolution in a hard fought Eastern Conference semifinal at Toyota Park Saturday. With the victory Chicago advances to the Eastern Conference final for the second straight year where they will host Real Salt Lake next week.

Jeff Tobin reports from Bridgeview, Ill.

Or skip right to the Fire player ratings.

One and done for defending champs

kali — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 04:20:42 +0000

The defending MLS Cup champion Columbus Crew saw their season end at the hand of Real Salt Lake tonight after losing the return leg of the Eastern Conference semifinal 3-2 at Crew Stadium. The early exit will be a tough one for Crew fans to stomach, as the team successfully defended its Supporters’ Shield title and was heavily favored entering the match-up with RSL, who only sneaked into the playoffs on the final matchday.

Get the Crew match report version here.

ASN’s Kali Korbis posted the RSL version here.

One year ago in American Soccer News

ASN Staff — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:18:07 +0000

The Chicago Fire routed the New England Revolution 3-0 in the return leg of the Eastern Conference semifinals to advance 3-0 on aggregate (ASN, Nov. 7, 2008).

The 3-0 score was one goal higher than ASN’s chief Fire pundit had predicted on the eve of the match. With the victory, Chicago finally reversed a multi-year streak of exiting the playoffs at the hands of the Revs. Things did not go as well for the Fire in the Conference Final at Columbus, where two quick Crew goals right after halftime ended Chicago’s season. This year, Chicago and New England meet yet again in the Conference semis. The Revolution hold a 2-1 edge from the first leg at Foxboro, Mass. The return leg takes place Saturday night.

The Courtship of Cristiane

mwkajdas — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:40:08 +0000

FIFA announced the 10 finalists for its 2009 Women's World Player of the Year Award last week and half of them—Marta, Cristiane, Sonia Bompastor, Kelly Smith and Abby Wambach—played last season in Women's Professional Soccer. In spite of her accolades, however, only one of these WPS players, Cristiane, did not have her WPS option picked up for next season and still remains out of contract. So which, if any, WPS team will win the hand (and foot) of Cristiane?

Michael Kajdas looks at each one to ascertain their chances.

Quote of the week: Frankie Hejduk

ASN Staff — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 19:25:17 +0000

“It doesn’t really change too much. We have to win at home and that’s what we wanted to do anyways.”–Columbus Crew defender Frankie Hejduk on his team’s loss to Real Salt Lake in the first round of the Eastern Conference semifinals.