Daily news roundups / Featured

17 year old retires, Clinton stumps for USA soccer

Toronto FC’s second round pick Zachary Herold has been forced to retire at age 17 due to an abnormally thick heart muscle. He had 15 U-17 National team games under his belt and will be honored this Saturday before kickoff.

For Bob Bradley, Princeton will always feel like home. Sort of like Robbie Findley and the bench?

You can cancel your flight to Detroit this weekend because the Green Soccer Bowl has been canceled. What started off as a tournament between Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Malaysia and Puerto Rico was scaled back to a youth team tourney with a Malaysia/Kenya friendly as headliner. Now the entire event is kaput. But take heart Detroit: Your non-existent MLS team already has as many wins as the 2009 Lions.

MLS Commissioner Don Garber continues to push the New York Mets to invest in soccer rather than hockey. The Mets want to build a new stadium next to Citi Field but are waffling between an MLS franchise and an arena for the NHL’s Islanders. Hey Donny, meet me at camera three: The Red Bulls have a gorgeous new stadium and can’t fill it up for a rivalry game against the Union. The Mets have a gorgeous new stadium and have seen attendance decline 7,000 per game since last year. The Knicks couldn’t get worse if Whoopi Goldberg was named coach. Have you ever been to New York? There’s a lot of stuff to do there already. Let’s start thinking outside the Big Apple a bit, bucko. Now get back in there and go Commission some things!

Chivas USA travels to Temescal Canyon High School on Sunday for its first “Practice in the Community” of the year. The team holds a full first team practice in front of fans then hangs around for autographs and photos.

Herculez Gomez is excited about being named to the 30-man USMNT squad. We’re excited too, Herculez. Mostly because you are a striker not named Brian Ching.

Bill Clinton visited a youth soccer clinic in Harlem yesterday in his role as honorary chairman of the committee trying to bring the 2018 or 2022 World Cup to the United States. When asked why soccer was catching on in America Clinton said, “It’s less expensive than football, it can encompass more people, and you can see here it’s open to men and women, boys and girls.” When asked to follow up Clinton’s vacuous politically correct statement, 10-year old Whitney Gibson explained: “I get to kick the ball in the net and then I get to score points.”

Jozy Altidore told David Beckham to expect a 3-0 US win when their respective sides meet in the World Cup June 12. Nothing else of note here except this summary of Altidore’s skills by Yahoo! writer Martin Rogers, “Altidore has improved since he moved to Europe, adding power, speed and game intelligence to his repertoire.” Really, Martin? What the heck was in his repertoire before? Card tricks and a quick wit?

Thierry Henry denied reports that he had signed a pre-contract agreement with the New York Red Bulls (what is a pre-contract anyways? Is it a contract to sign a contract? Is it like telling the waiter I’ll order waffles when he comes back, or is there something more substantial?) Despite a report from SI that “sources in Barcelona” (the city or the club?) say Henry will be in New York after the World Cup, the French striker insists he won’t deal with his future until late July.

Not much WPS news today, but this L.A. Galaxy blogger put the Philadelphia Independence 2nd in his power rankings behind FC Gold Pride. Just to even things out, here are the Official Philly Soccer Page Top Two for this week:

1. Philadelphia Independence

2. FC Gold Pride

Your move, blogger.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*