SOCCER WORLD

BAHRAIN’s national soccer team received a major financial aid yesterday when the Prime Minister Shaikh Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa ordered the allocation of BD1.2 million for the team’s preparations for the upcoming 2010 World Cup qualifying round. General Organisation for Youth and Sports president Shaikh Fawaz bin Mohammed Al Khalifa delivered the good news to the members of the team during a training session last night at the Bahrain Football Association grounds in Riffa.

Shaikh Fawaz said the amount will be benefited for the team’s two-week training camp in Austria which starts tomorrow.

At the camp, Bahrain will play against several European clubs as part of their preparations for the final qualifying round which gets underway on September 6. Among top teams whom Bahrain will face are Bundesliga side Schalke, Stoke City of the English Premiership and Czech Republic’s Sigma Olomouc.

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But for the fact that many of these matches were sell-outs in more intimate soccer specific stadiums, this number could have been much higher. How impressive is this stat? This number is about a 1,000 fans shy of the combined average of the gate that the Houston Dynamo and D.C. United have drawn on the road this year.

Last year’s fixture in New York was the highest attended stand-alone game in MLS history and contributed to the Galaxy’s league-high road attendance average of 28,035. With a visit at the Red Bulls this weekend, that number for this year will surely climb higher. Already, Red Bull has sold 42,000 seats for Saturday’s game, almost triple the average of their home gate to date.

The pre-sale of tickets in New York is mirroring the turnout last year to the point that the New Jersey Sports & Exposition Authority is prepared to once again staff the game like a NFL event.

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The club will be making its third trip to Minden next week, when it will take on a skeleton crew of the Douglas High boys soccer team Monday at 7 p.m. and Thursday at 7 p.m. at Douglas High School.It’ll be mostly kids coming back for their senior year and maybe a couple guys from last year state runner-up team, Douglas soccer coach Milko Vasquez said. They usually bring a talented team from Germany, but we had a pretty good team last year too, so hopefully well give them a good game.That’s all you can ask for.Admission is free for both games.Minden will be the third stop on the German club’s tour, following Redlands, Calif., and Yosemite. The club will head to San Bruno, Calif. after spending a week touring Carson Valley and the outlying area.Their itenerary hasn’t really changed much over the years, Christen said.

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A Santa Barbara soccer club is ready to take on the world at an International soccer tournament in Norway. For a second straight year, the Santa Barbara United will be participating in the world’s largest youth soccer tournament that features 1,500 teams representing 30 countries. The 13-14 year-old girls will be the only team representing the United States and along with playing in some intensely competitive games against teams like Kenya and China, the girls will also get the chance to learn about other cultures and make long-distance friendships. The team is still looking for donations to help fund the once in a lifetime trip. If you’re interested in helping out, you contact Melinda Staveley at 805-448-3484. .

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The 57-year-old former Real Madrid coach agreed to a two-year contract Tuesday that should see him guide the European champion through to the 2010 World Cup.

Del Bosque has already hinted that he would not tinker with the attractive style of play that led Spain to its first major trophy in 44 years last month with to a 1-0 victory over Germany in the Euro final.

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The native of North Vancouver, BC, played his youth soccer with the North Shore Selects, and has earned tryouts in England for Chelsea FC’s reserve team and Newcastle United’s U-18 team.

Porter, 18, scored five goals and recorded one assist in 10 matches for the PDL team. Porter, who was born in Toronto, Ontario but now calls Mississauga, Ontario, his home, was also a member of Canada’s U-17 national team.

The six-foot, 160-pound midfielder was a member of both the Erin Mills Soccer Club and Mississauga Soccer Club last year.

Vancouver Whitecaps FC Residency is based out of the Whitecaps Training Centre at Simon Fraser University (SFU), with the majority of the players attending Burnaby Central Secondary School. The roster now totals 19 young stars, including 12 members from Canada’s 2007 U-17 national team, as well as Jamaica’s 2007 U-17 national team captain.

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Coach Andy Schulten wasn’t sure his St. Xavier soccer team could start and stay at the top of those polls all season long.

“I started feeling a lot of pressure this year thinking these guys didn’t understand, they didn’t know what it takes,” Schulten said. “But they won me over.”

And the top-ranked Tigers did as expected and won the boys’ state soccer title 5-1 over Clark County in front of 2,310 at Toyota Stadium.

St. Xavier finished the season unbeaten and dominant, outscoring opponents 145-13.

The Tigers, who won their eighth state title, became just the third team in the last 30 years to finish undefeated. City rival Trinity did it last in 1998.

Schulten thinks his club should be considered among the best of all time.

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Juventus was the only other major soccer team to play Vietnam in a friendly match, when the powerful Italian club visited in 1996.

The announcement of the match comes weeks after Vietnam President Nguyen Minh Triet urged visiting Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to boost bilateral cooperation in soccer.

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Within the email, players are asked to indicate the years they played for the Club and the team on which they played.

The Hermosa Beach Soccer Club extends its gratitude to its generous 2007/2008 sponsors: Del Amo Construction (DelAmoConstruction.com), Elliott/Drinkward Construction (ElliottDrinkward.com), TomatoBank, N.A. (TomatoBank.com), Coastline Steel (CoastlineSteel.com), Quality Seafood (QualitySeafood.net), SCS Engineering Inc (SCSEngineering.com) and FFI Soccer Magazine (FFISoccer.com).

The Hermosa Beach Soccer Club (www.HermosaBeachSoccerClub.com) was founded in 2000. Located in Los Angeles’ South Bay, HBSC is home to men’s Premier, Over-30 and Over-40 teams as well as a women’s Premier team. .

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The man who coached the Knights indoor soccer team earlier this decade will be on the sidelines for a brand new varsity team at the school.

The 41-year-old has been selected as the head coach of the new women’s soccer team at Niagara College.

He will also coach the women’s indoor soccer squad, replacing former bench boss Lou DiLorenzo.

DeChellis is no stranger to the game of soccer. He’s been coaching for about 20 years and is currently in charge of the under-14 elite boys team at the Welland Soccer Club and the Niagara District under-12 boys team. He coached the Knights men’s indoor side from 2000 to 2004, then left because he took on more responsibility at the club.

Before becoming a coach, DeChellis was a player at the college level.

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