SOCCER WORLD

Mexican women soccer team’s coach Leonardo Cuellar said Friday that his team is aiming to earn its pass for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games and it started off well on Wednesday by defeating Jamaica 8-1 in the Pre-Olympic tournament.

Mexico won its first game in Group A of the North, Central American and Caribbean Confederation (CONCACAF) Pre-Olympic Tournament and Cuellar highlighted on Friday his team’s commitment and determination to earn a pass for the Olympic Games.

“All this is possible due to the girls’ determination, aggressiveness and good be haviour to do what was planned,” Cuellartold Xinhua.

Cuellar said that now his players have to think about their game on Sunday against their counterparts from the United States.

The games are being played in Mexico’s northern state of Chihuahua in Ciudad Juarez city.

Read More

CLEMSON — Clemson University women’s soccer player Katie Vogel has been invited to the U.S. Under-20 Women’s National Team training camp. The sophomore midfielder from Marietta, Ga. will be competing for a spot on the 26-player roster for the United States’ Under-20 National Team with hopes of advancing to the FIFA U-20 World Championship in Chile in November of 2008.

.

Read More

JUAREZ — The Benito Juárez soccer stadium in Juárez, with freshly watered turf and newly painted white lines, will be the site of one of the biggest sports events to take place in the region — the Olympic Games selection for women’s soccer for North America.

Starting today, six North American national teams, including the U.S. and Mexico teams, will battle for two spots in the Beijing Olympics.

Kevin Cross, UTEP’s soccer coach, and his team won’t miss it.

“The entire team is going,” Cross said. “It’s the top women in the world in soccer. It’s a unique opportunity to watch high-level soccer. It’s our chance to learn something and have a blast watching it.”

Miner center midfielder Anoop Josan said watching the tournament would be motivating for her and her teammates.

Read More

Spring football remains the most hazardous college sport, although the NCAA has worked hard to reduce player injuries.

You have to look no further to see this spring football injury phenomenon than BYU’s spring football camp on Thursday, when linebacker Terrance Hooks tipped a pass from Brenden Gaskins intended for Luke Ashworth. Hooks battled to get his hands on the ball, leaping up twice as the ball caromed around. He crashed the turf with the interception, but tore his patellar tendon in his knee. Hooks will be out six to eight months.

Hooks’ injury occurred despite BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall’s major efforts to limit contact and take-down tackles during spring. Hooks was injured in a non-contact drill during a no-contact practice.

Mendenhall planned a 50-play scrimmage on Friday but limited that to just over 30 plays as a precautionary move to protect the health of his players.

Read More

Things are thought out a little different at Clayton.Paul Hoelscher, the girls soccer coach, said his team isn’t focused on a set number of wins or losses. Instead, the Greyhounds are focused on the process of playing good soccer.”Soccer is a funny game,” Hoelscher said. “You can play really well and not win.”The Greyhounds played well last season, going 15-4, before losing to John Burroughs 2-1 in districts in overtime.If things go their way this season, the Greyhounds could compete with any team in their loaded district (which includes Burroughs, Mary Institute-Country Day School, Ladue and Westminster).Leading the attack are a pair of dynamic forwards in senior Sonya Girarda and junior Olivia Hayes.Girarda possesses a rare kind of speed and quickness that’s tough to defend. She netted 15 goals and passed out 10 assists last year.Hayes is strong on the ball with all the technical skills you could ask for, which is why she scored 28 goals to go with eight assists.

Read More

It hasn’t been brought up. No one is talking about it.Brian Haddock said his Nerinx Hall soccer team isn’t thinking about last year’s heartbreaking, penalty kick loss to Lafayette in the Class 2 sectionals.The Markers, 21-2 a year ago overall and 4-0 in Metro Women’s Athletic Association White Division play, were thisclose to returning to the final four for the first time in three years.Instead, they watched as Lafayette celebrated.Haddock said he hasn’t heard a peep about it.”I think teams play for seniors,” he said.As good as last year’s version was, this Marker team could be even better.Nerinx returns five of its top seven scorers from last season, including midfielder Julie King. The senior blur scored a team-high 16 goals and assisted on six others.She’s joined in the attack by seniors Colleen Marty (nine goals, one assist) and Allison Dragues (11 goals, five assists) and junior Katelyn Frederickson (11 goals, five assists).

Read More

When Cameron Lindsay helped Blackburn Rovers youth soccer team to a rare win over rivals Liverpool, team management knew they had something special on their hands.

In the next game, they didn’t let him play so other teams wouldn’t get a glimpse of the newest great hope for New Zealand soccer.

And within a short time they offered the 15-year-old trialist from the North Shore a four-year contract.

“I knew it had gone well, but I never expected a contract like that,” Lindsay told the Weekend Herald before flying to the UK to sign terms.

“I couldn’t believe it. I was stoked.”

The Northcote College student will leave behind his parents Ken and Janice and join the Premier League club in July.

The scale of the contract is understood to be the largest signed by a teenage Kiwi soccer player.

Read More

A hepatitis outbreak hit the Brazilian soccer team Internacional, sidelining five players who are now banned from any contact with teammates.

The team said the liver disease probably spread from player to player in the locker room, most likely through shared water bottles.

Internacional, a former club world champion, said the five players will need to rest for about three weeks before resuming training.

.

Read More

Sherye Trickett-Lammers has been appointed as the new member of the Northland Public Library Authority Board representing Bradford Woods. She replaces Dr. Thomas Perkins, whose term expired.

She is vice president of Vaughen’s Price Publishing Co. and recently retired from North Allegheny School District, where she was a sociology teacher and department head at North Allegheny High School. She lives in Bradford Woods.

• For the second year in a row, Anne Farrell has been named the top volunteer for the St. Barnabas/Valencia Woods Auxiliary.

Ms. Farrell, a resident of The Village at St. Barnabas in Richland, volunteered 126 hours during 2007. Duties consisted of showing guests to their seats at Kean Theatre, wrapping presents for nursing home patients and helping at St.

Read More

The Ottawa Fury Soccer Club is delighted to announce that 14-year old striker Abraham Donzo has been invited to pay a second visit to the Academy program of English Premier League side Everton Football Club. Abraham who spent two weeks late last year training with the academy players of the English Premier League side will spend his March Break in Liverpool, England.

Abraham, a Grade 9 student at Colonel By High School arrived in Canada in September 2005 from Liberia. Now in his third season with the Fury, Abraham has played for the U15, U16 and U17 Boys Super Y-League squads under coaches Jason Whiting, Steve Spence and currently Klaus Linnenbruegger. He was previously a member of the Eastern Ontario Regional and Ontario Provincial squads.

.

Read More