Women’s Soccer:

US Women’s team overcame powerful Brazil by a close score of 1-0 and earned its third gold medal in four Games.

In a contest where both sides played rather cautiously, the USA was the lucky to get one in extra time.

The US were outplayed and overwhelmed for most of the night, but Carli Lloyd scored in the 96th minute to give the US the victory.

Brazilian coach Jorge Barcellos summarized his team’s misery: “We didn’t win a silver medal tonight; we lost a gold one.”

USA: Solo, Mitts, Rampone, Markgraf, Chalupny, Tarpley, Boxx, O’Reilly, Lloyd, Hucles, Rodriguez

Brazil: Barbara, Simone, Tania, Costa, Skarbo, Maycon, Daniela, Formiga, Ester, Marta, Cristiane

Mens Soccer:

Brazil beat Belgium 0-3 and won the bronze medal, little consolation for their loss to Argentina .

Diego opened the scoring in the 27th minute on a cross from Rafinha. Jo added one his own at the 45th minute and added a second goal in injury time.

Brazil was mostly in control, but Belgium had a few good chances of their own. Belgium’s Maarten Martens and Thomas Vermaelen came dangerously close to scoring, but could not convert.

Brazil once again came away empty in their quest for Olympic gold. They already have another bronze from Atlanta in 1996 and two silver medals from the 1984 and 1988 Olympics.

Ronaldinho said: “The bronze medal may not be important from the Brazilian’s point of view right now but in the future we will be proud.”

Brazil: Renan, Rafinha, Silva, Marcelo, Breno, Hernanes, Anderson, Ronaldhino, Ramires, Diego, Jo

Belgium: Bailly, De Roover, Vermaelen, Pocognoli, Simaeys, Haroun, Vertonghen, Martens, De Mul, Mirallas, Dembele

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The semi-final match between Argentina and Brazil was attended by the legendary player Diego Maradonna, who said that he never saw Brazil play this poorly. According to Maradonna Brazil didn’t have a chance to turn the match around, because their offense was nonexistence and Ronaldhino was a loner without support. He also criticized Brazil’s coach Dunga for being too cautious when fielding the squad for the match. Dunga’s coaching position is already under scrutiny and there is strong possibilities he may get fire.

Zenit St Petersburg’s striker Andrei Arshavin won’t be joining Premier League club Tottenham this season. According Zenit’s website, Tottenham didn’t meet their demands. Tottenham agreed on personal terms with Arshavin but the deal apparently fell through because of the high transfer fee.

Presently injured Bayern Munich striker Luca Toni should be available for Bundesliga match with Borussia Dortmund this weekend. Toni who joined Bayern last season and scored 24 goals in 31 matches, said recently that he is happy in Germany but wants to end his career in Seria A. In an interview for a German newspaper he said: “I think I will end my career in Italy. I am stuck on 99 goals in Italy and I would like to reach 100 in Serie A, but there is still a lot of time.”

Toronto FC midfielder Maurice Edu signed a five-year contract to join Glasgow Rangers in Scotland. The Rangers will pay MLS $5 million dollars in transfer fees but the deal is subject to getting a work permit for Edu. The 22-year-old Edu would join another American DaMarcus Beasley who is with the Rangers since 2007. Edu made his international debut for the United States in October 2007, making six starts.

Brazil and the USA will meet again in the final of the Women’s Olympic Soccer Tournament. The teams met three times in the last two and half months and the US won all three of them. That makes the 2004 Olympic champions a slight favorite to win. But according to Brazilian striker Cristiane, her team is ready for revenge. She said: Yes, everything is falling into place for that to happen. It seems like someone has written this story just for us.” The final will be televised at 9:00 am EST on the USA channel with the bronze-medal match on MSNBC at 6:00 am EST.

The Czech Republic returned to Wembley Wednesday for the first time since they lost to Germany at the Euro 2006. They faced England for the first time under the leadership of new coach Karel Rada.  The Czechs had more possessions in the opening minutes and Milan Baros opened the score in the 22nd minute. England upped the tempo, got more chances and Wes Brown headed one in from Beckham’s corner kick in the 45th minute. The Czech team started the second half with a bang taking the lead from Marek Jankulovski’s free kick in the 48th minute. Once again England had more goal scoring chances but couldn’t finish them. The Czech defense made a terrible mistake in extra time and Joe Cole’s goal gave the poorly playing host team a draw at last.

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Manchester United coach Alex Ferguson will have the services of striker Wayne Rooney for Sunday’s match with Newcastle. Rooney contracted a virus on the team’s trip to Africa last month, but is healthy and ready to play now. It was believed to be malaria according to some early reports, which was denied by the club. Ferguson now has at his disposal two strikers, but he will be without injured Cristiano Ronaldo.

There is a talk about Bruce Arena taking over LA Galaxy. He watched the match between Galaxy and Chivas and Thursday night with the club’s president and CEO Tim Leiweke. Galaxy parted early this week with coach Ruud Gullit and Cobi Jones filled in on an interim basis. Leiweke said, “I personally think he’s the best coach in the history of the league and we’d be lucky if we can get him here.” Arena’s last coaching job was with the NY Red Bulls were he resigned last November. The match ended in a 2-2 tie after Alan Gordon scored from a header in injury time.

The Olympic Soccer tournament continues Saturday with the quarter-finals and we should see a couple of interesting matches. 2004 Olympic champion Argentina will face a strong Dutch squad with names like Babel, Makaay or their leading scorer Gerald Sibon. Brazil against Cameroon will try to avenged their loss to this African team in the 2000 Sydney games. Cameroon knocked them out in the quarter-finals and went on to win the gold medal. In the other two matches Italy meets Belgium and Ivory Coast is facing Nigeria. Italy is a favorite in this match especially after Belgium’s biggest star Vincent Kompany left the Olympics for his Bundesliga team Hamburk SV.

Struggling Chelsea striker Claudio Pizarro was on loan to Werder Bremen, where he played in from 1999 to 2001. He than moved to Bayern Munich and in 2007 signed with Chelsea. But the 29-year-old Peruvian didn’t live-up to his reputation and became mostly a substitute during the last season. He appeared in 21 matches, scoring only two goals.

Major League Soccer expansion team the Seattle Sounders made their first big signing by getting Kasey Keller from Fulham. Keller was born in Washington state and started his soccer career with the Portland Timbers back in 1989. He played in England, Spain and Germany. Keller said: ‘When I started my career in Europe, I always said that I wanted to finish playing back at home in the US.” He represented the US in four World Cups, appearing 102 times for the national team.

After a US men’s team disappointing knock-out by Nigeria, the US Women’s team lived-up their potential and reached the semi-finals by beating Canada 2-1. The winning goal came in the 11th minute from Natasha Kai into the extra time.  The match was suspended for almost two hours because of lightning. The US team will now meet the underdog Japan who beat host country China. In the other semi-final match, tournament favorite Brazil will face Germany.

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The US Men’s Olympic soccer team is heading home after they lost to Nigeria on Wednesday by a score of 2-1. They were handicapped from the beginning after Michael Orozco got a red card for a needless elbow foul four minutes into the match. Not having Freddy Adu and Michael Bradley didn’t help either, but all the team needed was a tie. Nigeria opened the score in the 39th minute and added one more in the 79th minute. The US converted a penalty with two minutes to go in regular time. The Americans came close in the closing minutes but Nigeria, the 1996 Olympic champions managed to survive the late surge.

Frank Lampard has put speculations to an end about him leaving Chelsea. After 18 months of contract talks the 30-year-old signed a five-year extension and had this to say, “I feel for sure I’ve made 100% the right decision, for myself, for my family and for Chelsea Football Club.” Lampard was at one point linked with a move to Inter Milan and Barcelona.

Mario Balotelli who is considered to be one of the world’s best young talents, became an Italian citizen on Wednesday. His parents are Ghanaian immigrants, but he was adopted in 1990 by the Balotelli family. By Italian law he had to wait until he turned 18 to become an Italian citizen. He hopes that this will open door for him to the Italian national team. Nicknamed Super Mario, Balotelli joined Inter in 2007 making 11 appearances and scoring 3 goals.

Dynamo Kiev trashed their old rivals Spartak Moscow by a score of 4-1 at Spartak’s home field in Luzhniki Stadium. Spartak went ahead with a goal in the fourth minute, but Dynamo regained the rhythm and scored two goals before half-time. They added two more in the second-half and all but qualified for the Champions League. More results here…

Republic of Ireland coach, Trapattoni announced that Liverpool defender Steve Finnan has agreed to return to international soccer. Finnan was nominated for a friendly against Norway on August 20. The 32 year-old Finnan announced his retirement from international soccer early this year after appearing in 50 matches for the Republic of Ireland.

The Bundesliga kicks-off this weekend and its biggest signing is Bayern Munich new coach Jurgen Klinsmann who replaces Ottmar Hitzfeld. The opening match will pair old rivals Hamburg SV against Bayern Munich.

Bundesliga: Round one: August 15,16,17

Men’s soccer Olympic tournament finished on Wednesday with it’s group qualifying matches.

Cameroon, Brazil, Italy, Argentina, Nigeria, Netherlands, Belgium and Ivory Coast all qualified to the quarter-finals.

US team came close to qualifying, needing only a tie, but with only ten men they were no match for the Nigerian team.

Brazil and Argentina won their groups without losing a point and remain the tournament favorites.

August 13 results

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The US Men’s soccer team will need to draw or beat the very good Nigerian team to advance from their Group B. The US will have to do it without suspended Michael Bradley and  Freddy Adu. In the other Group B match the Netherlands will fight Japan for their chance to advance to the quarter-finals. The Dutch have to win to qualify, a rather surprising situation for them considering their strong squad.

The Community Shield match ended 0-0 in regular time, followed by a penalties shoot-out which went the Manchester United way. Portsmouth was  struggling and despite the striking duo of Defoe and Crouch they showed a disappointing performance. Coach Ferguson sent out a strong squad led by Gary Neville who finally saw some action after a lengthy recovery from an injury. Man Utd clearly missed their striker Ronaldo and Ferguson may have to come up with a solution to the team’s weakened strike force.

Brazil led by Ronaldhino showed no mercy and destroyed New Zealand by a score of 5-0. It took Brazil only four minutes to open the score from a header by Anderson.  Pato put in another one after the half-hour mark. Ronaldhino himself contributed two goals and Rafael Sobis added the fifth goal deep into extra time. Brazil leads Group C with six points from two matches without conceding a goal.

LA Galaxy coach Ruud Gullit and  president/general manager Alexi Lalas are out of a job as of Monday. According to Galaxy’s boss Tim Leiweke, the recent string of a seven-match win-less streak demanded action. Former Galaxy player Cobi Jones was named interim coach while the team looks for a new man to fill the post. LA Galaxy remains fourth in the Western Conference with 23 points.

Due to war conflict in Georgia UEFA decided to move the UEFA Cup match  between WIT Tbilisi and Austria Vienna to Rize in Turkey. War conflict between Russia and Georgia could also interfere with World Cup 2010 qualifier between Georgia and Republic of Ireland in September. Irish Soccer Federation asked FIFA to move the match away from the capital Tbilisi.

French Ligue 1 opened a new season over the weekend and Olympique Lyon looks like a title contender once again. Sunday’s comfortable 3-0 victory over Toulouse set them on track for a possible eight league title. Jean Makoun opened the scoring in the 12th minute from a free kick by Brazilian Juninho. Striker Karim Benzema added two goals in the second half.

Complete standings in Men’s Olympic soccer tournament after matches played on Sunday August 10.

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Another high profile European club was dumped out of the Champions League competition. Belarus Club BATE Borisov overcame 10-man Anderlecht in 2-2 draw on Wednesday. Yesterday the Glagow Rangers, this year’s UEFA Cup finalist, were defeated by the weaker FBK Kaunas from Lithuania. Rapid Vienna met the same fate, losing to unknown Cypriot’s Anorthosis Famagusta on 4-3 aggregate. Champions League will continue with a third qualifying round from August 12 to 27. The 16 winners of the third qualifying round ties join a similar number of automatic entrants in the 32-team group stage.

US Women’s soccer team lost their opening match at the Olympic Games to Norway by a score of 2-0. Norway scored two quick goals in the first four minutes Wednesday and never lost control of the match. The U.S. team, without injured leading scorer Abby Wambach, was sluggish and out of sync. They have two more games to go, facing Japan and New Zealand. The U.S. men’s team will face Japan on Thursday and you can watch the match on MSNBC at 4:55 EST.

The latest news from Cristiano Ronaldo’s camp confirmed his pledge Wednesday to stay with Manchester United for the coming season. But Ronaldo expressed his desire to join Real Madrid in future. Ronaldo said. “For some time what I wanted was for Manchester to have agreed to my transfer to Madrid,”  “Saying otherwise I would be fooling myself and others.” Alex Ferguson blames the Spanish club for too aggressive approach to the matter.

Despite a ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, upholding an appeal from top European clubs, Liverpool said that they have no intention of recalling their players from China.  Liverpool’s Javier Mascherano, Ryan Babel and Lucas Leiva are at the Olympic Games in Beijing to compete for their country. Rafa Benitez knows that taking them out of the tournament would probably make them upset and unhappy. It’s not known at this moment what other clubs will do.

FC Barcelona won an easy match on Wednesday night beating the NY Red Bulls 6-2 at a friendly in front of 38,152 fans at Giants Stadium. Barca coming out of Sunday’s 5-2 victory against Chivas de Guadalajara opened the scoring in the 17th minute from Hernandez. Eto’o added two goals and Rafael Alverz Marquez, Jeffren Suarez, Pedro scored one each. Seth Stammler and Jorge Rojas scored for the Red Bulls. Barca coach Josep Guardiola made 8 substitutions compared to 5 by New York coach Juan Carlos Osorio. It was the last friendly match for Barcelona on their North American tour.

The latest world soccer rankings published by FIFA on Wednesday showed Spain still holding top spot. Germany climbed from third into second changing places with Italy. Brazil meanwhile fell to number six, their lowest ranking in 15 years. Argentina is seventh, France twelfth and England fourteenth. USA occupied thirty first spot, second lowest ranking since being thirty fifth in 1997.

MLS continued over the weekend with 5 matches on Matchday 19.

The Dynamo Houston was without play-maker Dwayne De Rosario who was out due to yellow card, yet they reached the second place in the Western Conference with a win by goals from Brad Davis and Brian Ching.

Chicago Fire rookie Patrick Nyarko scored the winning goal against Chivas who were without suspended Ante Razov.

D.C. United beat the Wizards at RFK Stadium in a match where United was the dominating team with many chances.

The Los Angeles Galaxy are without a win in the MLS for two months and lost another to the dead last San Jose Earthquakes. When it looked like the match would end in a tie, Ryan Cochrane’s goal in the 90th minute gave San Jose the much needed three points.

FC Dallas went home with a precious victory from soccer crazy Toronto. Dallas’ Kenny Cooper scored two second half goals in a match where Toronto FC finished with only nine players.