World Cup 2010 South Africa

The Texas Tech soccer team announced its spring schedule Monday afternoon, which features five matches away from Lubbock, while the Red Raiders will play one home match on April 7th when they host New Mexico at the John Walker Soccer Complex.

“The spring is a crucial time in our sport– and a very important one for this team in particular with the veterans we return and the excellent class we have coming in,” head coach Tom Stone said. “Foundations can be built this time of year in a way that gives you a great edge in the fall season. We will be going at it hard from day one and play a spring schedule that will challenge us to keep improving.”

Texas Tech is coming off one of the best campaigns in school history finishing the 2011 season with a 10-7 record and a fourth place finish in the Big 12, which was the highest conference finish in school history.

Texas Tech returns 20 players who saw action last season and accounted for 75 percent of the team’s minutes. The returning players include All-Big 12 Second Team selection and unanimous All-Big 12 Newcomer Team selection Jaelene Hinkle along with All-Big 12 Newcomer selection Victoria Esson.

Two years after he was shot in the head at close range in a Mexico City bar, Paraguayan soccer player Salvador Cabanas is set to attempt a comeback with a third-division club in his home country.

The club, 12 de Octobre, is seeking approval from Cabanas’ doctors and will eventually contact the Mexican club America about a transfer.

Cabanas was playing with America when he was shot on Jan. 25, 2010, in a bar in an upscale neighborhood in the Mexican capital. A bullet fragment remains in his skull because doctors decided it was too risky to remove.

As part of his therapy, the 31-year-old player has trained with the national team, but few expected him to return to competition.

U.S. Soccer

EPL gets first U.S. live network telecast

NEW YORK (AP) — Without much fanfare, soccer will take another big step into the American mainstream this weekend when Manchester United’s game at Arsenal becomes the first English Premier League match to be televised live by a U.S. over-the-air network.

“To do this 10 years ago, had we put to the affiliates that we wanted to take the time to show a soccer game, we would have been either laughed at or it would have been a violent and an immediate rebellion,’” said Fox Sports Chairman David Hill, who is putting the match on his main network.

These days, EPL games are more common on television in the U.S. than in England. In the homeland of soccer, the 3 p.m. (10 a.m. EST) Saturday games are blacked out to protect attendance of matches in the lower leagues, which may sound somewhat familiar to NFL fans in cities like Jacksonville and Cincinnati.

In the United States, pretty much every game is available if a fan is willing to channel surf cable broadcasters Fox Soccer, Fox Soccer Plus and ESPN2, or look at online services foxsoccer.tv and espn3.com. Many games also are broadcast on the Spanish-language cable networks of Fox and ESPN.

Fox is ramping up with this weekend’s broadcast: While Fox Soccer is available in 41 million homes, its over-the-air network is received in 114.7 million.

“I think Fox is taking a bold step,” said former CBS Sports President Neal Pilson, who runs his own media consulting firm. “The commitment that Fox has made to soccer, interestingly enough, is based on the world game rather than the game that is played in the United States. I think research and audience-gathering information indicates there is considerable interest in worldwide professional soccer, particularly coming from England.”

Top European divisions, especially the Premier League, have better, faster players than Major League Soccer, stars with the highest salaries who attract the most attention. The gaps in talent and revenue, while closing, are still huge — sort of like the difference between the NBA and basketball leagues in Italy and Turkey.

So before U.S. sports start each weekend, increasing numbers are turning their TV sets early to watch matches from England.

Live games and premieres of recorded EPL games on Fox Soccer have averaged 142,000 viewers this season, an 8 percent increase from 2010-11, according to Nielsen Media Research. ESPN2′s viewers are up 12 percent to 299,000.

That’s small compared to the numbers generated by the replays Fox experimented with earlier this season on its main network, when games on Sept. 18, Oct. 2 and Nov. 20 were each seen by about 1.6 million viewers. All three followed live telecasts earlier in the day on Fox Soccer.

Fox started the cable soccer network in 1996, when it was known as Fox Sports International, and has steadily intensified involvement in the sport, adding the premium channel Fox Soccer Plus two years ago.

The over-the-air Fox network televised the European Champions League final for the first time in 2010, drawing 1.6 million viewers for Inter Milan’s win over Bayern Munich, and the audience increased to 2.6 million last May for Barcelona’s victory over Manchester United.

Those matches are among the most-watched in the world, behind only big games at the World Cup and European Championship. Sunday’s 11 a.m. EST game at London’s Emirates Stadium is just a league match, one of 38 for each club during a season that stretches from August until May.

On Feb. 5, Super Bowl Sunday, Fox’s main network will televise what it calls “the game before the game,” Chelsea’s match against Manchester United at London’s Stamford Bridge starting at 11 a.m. EST.

“People have been saying since the beginning of time in the U.S. that soccer is the sport of tomorrow, yet tomorrow never comes,” Hill said. “We’re not saying that’s ever going to take over. It’s never doing to dominate, it’s never going to replace college football or any sports, but it’s going to grow over the next 10-20 years to an incredibly strong niche.”

Fox Soccer’s average viewership is a fraction of the 2.8 million for the big network’s Saturday Major League Baseball coverage during the 2011 regular season, the 2.7 million for NBA coverage on ESPN and TNT this season and the NHL’s 317,000 average on Versus/NBC Sports Network.

Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore thinks his clubs’ preseason U.S. tours in recent summers also have helped boost interest. And unlike Italy and Spain, which schedule their best matches for weekend nights, the EPL benefits from time slots that largely don’t conflict with American sports.

“U.S. sports fans seem to be getting into soccer more and more,” Scudamore said. “The Premier League is perhaps the most compelling soccer completion on offer right now — hugely competitive with star players and clubs that are truly global in their standing. It has to start with the sporting side, because if that’s not right then all the timing, marketing and commercial factors don’t mean a thing.”

The presence of U.S. national team players in the EPL has helped to boost ratings.

“You have Americans making a difference in the biggest league in the world,” Fox Sports General Manager David Nathanson said. “We are putting a bet that not only interest in the sport will grow, but that the Americans playing at the highest level will continue to flourish the way Tim Howard and Landon Donovan have,” he said, referring to a pair of Americans starring for Everton.

American soccer interest spiked during the 2010 World Cup and last year’s Women’s World Cup, both on ESPN. After the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, Fox takes over U.S. broadcast rights for 2018 (Russia) and 2022 (Qatar).

Fox hired studio host Rob Stone from ESPN, and he makes his debut this weekend after heading over to England, where he conducted a 45-minute interview with United manager Alex Ferguson, who rarely sits for one-on-ones. Piers Morgan, a huge Arsenal supporter, will be part of the pregame show.

Since Nathanson became head of Fox Soccer two years ago, the network has improved its production values. It now creates its own graphics. For Sunday’s game, it will use the audio feed of News Corp. affiliate Sky Sports in Britain with top announcers Martin Tyler and Alan Smith, rather than the international feed created by IMG’s Premier League Productions.

English soccer has had higher production values than most of its European counterparts — better-known broadcasters, more games in high definition, higher quality preview and recap shows.

Television has driven sports for decades, and European soccer has the type of audience demographics TV executives covet. For last May’s Champions League final, Hill said the average age of viewers was under 35, and they were affluent, educated and tended to be urban.

The landscape for sports on U.S. television no longer stops at the shores of North America.

“Sports fans are really becoming more of a global marketplace,” Nathanson said. “If you’re a sports fan, it’s hard to not to know who Lionel Messi is, or who Wayne Rooney is.”

The U.S. women’s national soccer team will attempt to qualify for this year’s London Olympics with a roster nearly identical to the one they had for last summer’s dramatic run to the World Cup final.

In this July 10, 2011 file photo, Abby Wambach (left) and Hope Solo celebrate winning the the quarterfinal match between Brazil and the United States at the World Cup in Dresden, Germany.

By Marcio Jose Sanchez, AP

In this July 10, 2011 file photo, Abby Wambach (left) and Hope Solo celebrate winning the the quarterfinal match between Brazil and the United States at the World Cup in Dresden, Germany.

Enlarge

Led by star forward Abby Wambach and goalkeeper Hope Solo, the U.S. women open qualifying against the Dominican Republic on Friday, Jan. 20, in Vancouver.

The U.S. team will feature one new player: Forward Sydney Leroux who last week was the No. 1 pick in the WPS draft, taken by the Atlanta Beat. Leroux, 21, is a Vancouver native who moved to the USA before high school.

PHOTOS: Hope Solo’s 2011 in pictures
MORE: Wambach predicts medal haul for USA

U.S. coach Pia Sundhage was hoping to find fresh talent for the Olympic run.

“That would change the atmosphere a little bit and that would change the environment,” she said last month during a training camp in California. “I’m big on small changes, because then we will not take things for granted.”

The U.S. team is switching to a 4-2-3-1 formation, in which Wambach will be the one starting forward. Leroux and fellow forwards Alex Morgan and Lauren Cheney are likely to get playing time either as substitutes or as additional forwards if the team reverts to a 4-4-2 formation.

The U.S. team’s biggest challenge in group play figures to be its final group game, against Mexico on Tuesday, Jan. 24. A loss to Mexico in qualifying for the 2011 World Cup sent the U.S. team on a second-chance route through Italy.

For Olympic qualifying, there are no second chances. The USA must make the final in Vancouver, scheduled for Jan. 29, to qualify for London.

The U.S. women won gold at the 2008 Olympics.

Akron forward Darren Mattocks was selected second by the Vancouver Whitecaps in the MLS SuperDraft on Thursday, and in doing so, they chose the most complete player available in the two-round draft.

Mattocks was the 2011 Mid-American Conference Player of the Year. He will be reunited with former UA teammate Michael Nanchoff, who was the eighth overall selection of the Whitecaps a year ago. Mattocks and Nanchoff were both starters on the Zips’ 2010 National Championship squad.

“”"”The drafting of Mattocks continues Akron’s run of SuperDraft picks.

In the past six years, UA head coach Caleb Porter, who is also head coach of the U.S. Under-23 Men’s National Team, and his staff have produced 13 MLS draft selections, including a record seven draftees a year ago. Nine were taken in the first round.

Entering the day, just two schools — Wake Forest (16) and Maryland (13) — had produced more SuperDraft selections since 2007. In all, 14 former Zips — including undrafted Montreal Impact goalkeeper Evan Bush — will suit up for an MLS team next season.

Mattocks, who was a 2011 Hermann Trophy semifinalist, is the fourth UA sophomore to be drafted in as many seasons, following Steve Zakuani in 2009, Teal Bunbury in 2010 and Valentin in 2011. The native of Portmore, Jamaica, finished second in the nation with 21 goals, which was the third-highest, single-season total in school history.

Zakuani was the highest player to be drafted from Akron, going No. 1 overall in 2009.

The expansion Montreal Impact selected Duke forward Andrew Wenger with the first overall pick.

The Hermann Trophy winner as the top NCAA player, Wenger was the Atlantic Coast Conference Defensive Player of the Year last season and Offensive Player of the Year this season, finishing with 17 goals and eight assists.

Mattocks is a speedy Jamaican who wound up at powerhouse Akron because he wanted to acclimate himself to playing in colder weather. He will certainly get that opportunity in Vancouver.

Vancouver President Bob Lenarduzzi said his decision was easy once Montreal made its pick.

“It’s been the consensus that the top two were Wenger and Mattocks,” Lenarduzzi said. “We just needed Montreal to make up their minds. All along you sort of jokingly ask what they’re going to do, but they never were going to tell me anything.”

Ethan Finlay of Creighton was chosen by Columbus with the 10th overall pick.

UCLA midfielder Kelyn Rowe went third to New England, followed by UC Santa Barbara’s Luis Silva to Toronto FC and Maryland forward Casey Townsend to Chivas USA.

Arsenal’s record goal scorer
Thierry Henry was named on the bench for his highly anticipated
return against Leeds United in the FA Cup third round at the
Emirates stadium on Monday.

Henry, 34, who plays for Major League Soccer club New York
Red Bulls, made 370 appearances for Arsenal from 1999 to 2007
and scored 226 goals.

The MLS club agreed to loan the former France forward, who
won the 1998 World Cup and 2000 European championship, until the
end of February before the new season starts in March.

Arsenal announced the short-term loan deal on Friday with
Henry saying manager Arsene Wenger had asked him to help during
the absence of Gervinho and Marouane Chamakh at the African
Nations Cup.

The ball, kicked routinely by the goalkeeper for the Everton soccer team, soared through the night sky at Goodison Park in Liverpool, England, bounced once — and weirdly — and landed in the opposition’s net. From roughly 100 yards, a goalkeeper had scored a goal. In a soccer game. In one of the world’s best professional leagues.
The goalkeeper, Tim Howard, declined to celebrate. What he had done was remarkable — he understood that. But it was also embarrassing. He evidently understood that, too. It had happened to him.

“It’s not a nice place to be,” Howard told reporters in Liverpool after the game, referring to his counterpart, Bolton’s Adam Bogdan. “I’ve been there — a long, long time ago.”

A goal like Howard’s — scored from a distance roughly the length of an American football field — had happened once before in the 20-year history of the English Premier League. Goals somewhat like it have been scored in other professional leagues, in college games and in recreational league games, too.

But not often. And no one connected to those moments — the scorers, those scored upon, those there to witness them — tends to forget. Ever.

The list of goalies who scored goals in any sport — hockey, lacrosse and others — makes for an odd, enduring subcategory of rare athletic accomplishment.

In the history of the N.H.L., for instance, 11 goalies have scored a goal. Of course, that has always happened once the opposing goalie has left the ice. No goalie has scored with their rival still manning his position, oversize pads, glove and stick at the ready.

It is believed that the first goalie to score a goal in a professional game was Michel Plasse of Kansas City in the Central Hockey League, who shot the puck the length of the ice into an empty net in the final minute against Oklahoma City on Feb. 21, 1971.

“I was just trying to clear the puck out of there,” said Plasse, who died in 2006. “It was a hell of a shot!”

On six occasions when N.H.L. goaltenders have scored, the goalie got credit for the tally merely because he was the last to touch the puck before an opponent accidentally put it in his own net.

“It was a cheesy goal,” said Chris Mason of the Nashville Predators after being credited with such a goal in 2006. “I don’t even like counting one like that as a goal.”

But five other times, an N.H.L. goalie actually shot it all the way down the ice, à la Plasse. Ron Hextall of the Philadelphia Flyers was the first on Dec. 8, 1987, and the second during a playoff game on April 11, 1989. Evgeni Nabokov of the San Jose Sharks was the most recent, on March 10, 2002.

Martin Brodeur of the Devils has been credited with two goals in his career. The first he shot into an empty net in a 1997 playoff game against his hometown Montreal Canadiens.

“I was freaking out — it was unbelievable,” Brodeur said.

Goalies have scored at least 14 goals in the 24-year history of the National Lacrosse League and its predecessor, the Major Indoor Lacrosse League, the wintertime professional box lacrosse circuits whose games are played on the floors of ice hockey rinks. In each case, the ball was shot into an empty net.

The glory of scoring as a goalie brims over on a lacrosse message board titled “Have You Ever Scored Playing Goal???”

“I have done it once in a 4 year career — it was the most amazing thing I have ever done in my whole life,” said a correspondent named CStan10GK. .

“The best one was a side arm snipe from around midfield (indoor),” wrote another named Gardinerkeepa00, “the ball hit the other goalie in the dome and hit under the crossbar, I felt kinda bad, but it was sweet.”

“One look at me and you’ll know I didn’t run up the floor and score,” said Pat O’Toole, who, with the Rochester Knighthawks, became the first goalie in the lacrosse league’s history to score a regular-season goal, in 2001, and a playoff goal, in 2003, both on long shots into empty nets.

O’Toole and other box lacrosse goalies wear about 50 pounds of protective equipment.

But in a career spanning the 1960s and ’70s, Buff MacCready, a goalie in the summertime Ontario box league, scored 15 goals, usually by hulking up the floor in full gear and joining the attack during regular play. He wound up with 608 career assists.

It has happened only a handful of times in collegiate field lacrosse. But in those cases the goalie has run most of or all the way down the field and scored on the opposing goalie.

Looking ahead to the headlines of our game in 2012, here’s where much of the domestic U.S. soccer news will come from, everything from the awesome to the awful and points in between:

1. World Cup qualifying: The analysis of all things Jurgen Klinsmann through his first five months in charge won’t amount to a hill of German beans once the United States wades slowly into World Cup qualifying this summer. Because, truly, only two things matter in the ultimate rating of his performance: qualifying for the next World Cup and subsequent performance upon arrival at Brazil 2014. That’s really it. The Americans enter semifinal round qualifying in June, and we’ll know by this fall whether they have advanced into final stage qualifying. (They almost certainly will.) If Klinsmann and Co. cruise with aplomb, then the troubling offensive struggles of his initial friendlies will be gladly forgiven. If not …. well, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. As for the semifinal round, Antigua and Barbuda (one team) is not a threat. Guatemala, where the United States has won only once in 20 years, and Jamaica are the semifinal round “threats,” such as they are.

2. As Jurgen Klinsmann’s World Turns: Has there ever been a more compelling, more intriguing figure in U.S. Soccer? (Especially considering the guy wasn’t born here and never played in a U.S. shirt!) Opinions already are all over the place on the pricey U.S. men’s national team coach, who may be an inspirational visionary completely reshaping the way U.S. Soccer’s developmental model works. Or, he may be an impractical dreamer whose ideas just don’t mesh with reality. We’ll see. Either way, his first full year in charge will surely churn and burn with headlines and chatter, on everything from playing style to his quirky personnel selections. Especially those quirky personnel selections, although his more inclusive January camp roster did finally allay a few concerns, at least.

3. Women’s Olympics, a shot at redemption: Remember how the U.S. quest last summer for the Women’s World Cup ended? Remember Abby Wambach’s dramatic strike (and Ian Darke’s breathtaking call) in the quarters, and how things looked under control in the final — until it all got away from them against Japan? Well, Wambach, Hope Solo, coach Pia Sundhage and the rest of the American women sure do. So the buzz will be about redemption and missions unaccomplished at Germany 2011. The Women’s Olympic tournament, unlike the men’s version, is the same cast of Women’s World Cup characters. So the United States, Japan and Brazil (the usual suspects) probably will be favored. Wambach, Solo, Marta, Homare Sawa and Kelly Smith (the usual suspects) are the likeliest to shine individually in London. (Oh, the U.S. must still qualify. That happens in Vancouver at the end of this month. Don’t sweat this one; Sundhage’s team is a virtual shoe-in to advance into the 12-team field in London.)

4. Men’s Olympic qualifying: We can surely debate the true value of the men’s Olympic Soccer Tournament — an event permanently assigned consigned to coach class while the regal World Cup hogs up the first class seats. Still, in terms of exposure for young U.S. talent, for the emerging reputation of U.S. Olympic coach Caleb Porter (one of the domestic game’s bright young minds) and in terms of awareness for certain national team programs around the world, the Olympics have meaning and should be instructive. First, of course, the U.S. has to get there. Regional qualifying in late March and early April is here in the U.S. From there, the Olympics in London will be a headline maker, starting with the selection of three over-aged players. Fairly or unfairly, it all becomes a bigger story if the U.S. bites the big one and somehow fails to arrive into London.

5. Comings, goings and up-and-comers in the U.S. talent pool: The U.S. soccer fan is always looking for the next Tab Ramos, Claudio Reyna or Kasey Keller. (We’d love to discover our own little Leo Messi, but first things first.) So everyone will be interested to see whether Brek Shea can improve on his 10-goal MLS season. Of course, FC Dallas can’t keep such a talent forever, so every transfer window from here forward will be rife of speculation around the winger’s next address. Same for young striker Juan Agudelo — assuming he ever gets a starting spot for the Red Bulls. German-born youngsters Danny Williams, Tim Chandler and Fabian Johnson could emerge as game-changers, but may also continue to be a source of low-boil consternation if Klinsmann keeps turning up more of these so-called “passport” players. Also worth watching are the Steady Eddies of the Yanks Abroad brigade. At age 28, Clint Dempsey is hitting his tiptop prime, and his terrific Fulham campaign will only escalate talk that he has outgrown quaint little Craven Cottage. Will summer 2012 finally bring the big move? Meanwhile, Brad Guzan (still Tim Howard’s heir apparent, right?) is making good on his big chance at Villa Park, which could help catapult him into a better situation professionally. And Brad Friedel, now 40, will have to retire sooner or later? Won’t he?

6. The “older” side of town in MLS: It seems odd to speak of “older” MLS markets. But the league, about to begin its 17th season, is a scruffy little puppy no more. As such, some of these “older” franchises need to get with the program. In D.C., the problem has never been franchise commitment or desire, but merely a matter of where the heck to play? MLS commissioner Don Garber continues to lament the fiscally untenable situation, and owner Will Chang is surely loath to keep pouring money into a sinkhole forever. Something’s got to give, so it’s a story that bears watching. Just north of there, everyone outside of the Kraft family wants the New England Revolution to discard ill-fitting Gillette Stadium and to put more money into the team already. There was some movement, at least, in 2011 in a front office restructure. Whether that was just cosmetic or a tip to more substantive moves ahead, only time in 2012 will tell.

7. “Bienvenue à Montreal!”: Only the biggest dreamers could have imagined how successful Major League Soccer’s most recent five franchise additions (Toronto, Seattle, Philadelphia, Portland and Vancouver) have been at the gate. Sellouts are the norm. So are waiting lists for season tickets, and the energy of these firecracker new franchises are driving Major League Soccer 2.0 to places unseen over the first decade (like the new TV deal with NBC networks that kicks in this year). This year Montreal becomes No. 19 in MLS and signs point to similarly robust revenues and go-go attendance figures. Along similar lines, league HQ’s continued reach for a second New York franchise deserves monitoring. Meanwhile, yet another swell MLS facility opens, this one in downtown Houston; 15 of 19 teams will now pass and trap inside grounds constructed primarily for MLS play.

8. Whither Women’s Professional Soccer?: The day will come, perhaps, when a women’s professional soccer league will thrive gracefully here rather than limp along in a perpetually tenuous state. But that day probably won’t be in 2012. Just last month U.S. Soccer’s board of directors granted conditional approval to sanction the wobbly WPS as a Division 1 professional league for 2012. With that, the five remaining clubs — yes, just five — can now plan for a 2012 season. Alas, that counts as progress. (Actually, real WPS progress was seen in 2011 in shedding that ridiculous magicJack situation and its impossible owner, so there’s that.) For 2012, efforts to broaden stability and status (or a final, fateful spiral going the other way) will continue to make news. So will any more inflammatory Tweets or comments from WPS-attached Hope Solo, who for better or worse has become the face of U.S. women’s soccer.

9. FIFA silliness, sorry-ness and ongoing shenanigans: FIFA scandal and corruption is hardly just a domestic story. But the scope of the sliminess means some icky tentacles do stretch into the United States. The FBI is now involved (never a good sign) according to numerous reports out of Europe. And American official Chuck Blazer, one of our country’s longtime power brokers in world soccer, is knee-deep in the whole messy mire, initially as a whistle blower and now as a possible target of the probes. Blazer has stepped down as CONCACAF general secretary, but we’d be naive to believe we’ve heard the last of all this.

10. Bye-bye, Beckham? One thing we can count on for 2012 is a rapid resolution to this one. When David Beckham, 36, wrapped up his gimpy hamstring six weeks ago and guided the Galaxy to an MLS title, most analysts saw his stateside departure as a fait accompli. Recently enriched Paris Saint-Germain seemed the impending last stop of the Brand Beckham express. But every day that goes by without a splashy announcement out of PSG seems to portend good things for the Galaxy, which hopes to keep Beckham’s swerve and verve attached to the Home Depot Center for another year, at least. The January transfer window is now open, so if PSG (or any moneyed suitor, for that matter) is going to make a big move, it needs to happen pronto — if only so we can stop wondering how L.A. is going to erect its championship defense and start worrying more about what the wayward Red Bulls might do.

Goalkeeper Hope Solo threw out the first pitch at a Chicago Cubs game and competed on “Dancing With the Stars.” And six other members of the U.S. women’s soccer team — a group that captured the nation’s imagination and was the runner-up in the Women’s World Cup this summer in Germany — were invited to the White House to play soccer with first lady Michelle Obama.

Women’s soccer hasn’t been this hot in the U.S. since Brandi Chastain put her jersey back on.

Yet in the what-have-you-done-for-me-lately world of American sports, it’s what the national team does for an encore in the Olympic Games next summer in London that will determine how long the public’s love affair with it will last. And it could go a long way toward determining the sport’s long-term growth prospects as well.

“It’s really easy to kind of rest on your laurels when you’ve had an experience like the World Cup. But we didn’t win,” said forward Abby Wambach, one of three finalists for the FIFA women’s player-of-the-year award and the first soccer player — male or female — to be voted the Associated Press’ athlete of the year. “So it makes people want to work that much harder.

“If we can bring home the gold, we’re going to give this sport another platform to continue to grow.”

Before we look ahead to next summer, let’s take one more look back at the last one, when, during an eight-day period in mid-July, the U.S. women played two of the most exciting matches in international soccer history.

First, the short-handed Americans beat Brazil on penalty kicks in the World Cup quarterfinals, narrowly avoiding elimination when Wambach’s header — one of four goals she scored in the tournament — tied the match with seconds left in overtime.

Then, in a final that was just as long and nearly as stirring, the U.S. and Japan traded goals in overtime before Japan triumphed on penalty kicks.

The results of both games led newscasts and stopped baseball games. Fans packed bars to watch the final, which drew the largest TV audience in U.S. history for a women’s match played outside the U.S.

“We came back and Times Square was just full of fans for us,” midfielder Heather O’Reilly said. “We did a circuit of talk shows and it was just really cool to see those clips of the bars just exploding. We could really, truly see the impact that we made.

“It didn’t really matter if it was women’s soccer, men’s soccer. The sport was enhanced and that was really cool. [But] the challenge is to stay in that sports fan’s conscious. We can’t just be that Brazil game and then forget about us.”

That brings us back to next summer — and the run-up begins next week when the U.S. team gathers at the Home Depot Center for its final training camp ahead of the Olympic qualifying tournament at Vancouver, Canada, in late January. The U.S. must finish in the top two in its group, which includes the Dominican Republic, Mexico and Guatemala, to advance to the semifinals, where it must win again to reach the final and clinch a berth in the London Games.

None of that should be a problem. Sundhage said if you liked the World Cup, you’ll love the year ahead even more.

“The journey has been absolutely wonderful. Exciting. And I think we improved our game tremendously. It will be even better going forward,” said the coach, who has lost five of 82 matches since taking over the U.S. program in 2007.

How long the U.S., ranked No. 1 in the world by FIFA, can continue improving is uncertain. The Americans have long been the dominant power in women’s soccer, winning two of the first three World Cups and three Olympic gold medals in four tournaments, finishing second the other time.

On the plus side, 15 of the 31 players Sundhage invited to training camp are younger than 26, which would appear to bode well for the future.

On the negative side is the plight of the Women’s Professional Soccer league, which was expected to play an important role in keeping the talent pipeline flowing, yet continues to struggle for funding and credibility three seasons after its founding. Last month, it needed a waiver from U.S. Soccer’s Board of Governors to remain a Division I league after the Florida-based magicJack franchise was disbanded because of ownership problems. That left WPS with five teams, three fewer than required for Division I status.

“There’s a place for women’s professional soccer here in America,” said Solo, who played alongside Wambach with the magicJack team. “[But] the equation has to work out. You have to have the right investors … the right people to run a league.

“Unfortunately, we don’t have that.”

O’Reilly is more hopeful, thinking that another successful summer for the U.S. women’s team will help make WPS not just necessary, but also relevant.

“It’s very crucial, very important for the growth of the game,” she said of a women’s professional league. “It’s a great product, as you saw this summer. People do love this game and they love the way that the women can play.

“It’s just about getting people to buy tickets.”

Every December, European leagues follow a familiar ritual: They play their final set of games on the weekend before Christmas and then stick the Gone Fishin’ sign on the door.
Italy’s Serie A and Spain’s Liga go on hiatus for nearly three weeks until Jan. 7. France’s Championnat returns a week later. Germany’s Bundesliga takes off for a full month. And Russia’s Premier League trumps them all. It stopped on Nov. 27 and won’t be heard from again until early March—a full three months off. As Napoleon might say, you don’t mess with winter in that part of the world.

The one European exception is the British leagues: England and Scotland. When everyone else takes a breather, they don’t just keep playing. They actually play more.

In addition to the regular weekend matches, they also work on Dec. 26—Boxing Day, a national holiday—and either New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day, depending on the calendar. This can mean—and has meant—four games in nine days, which is pretty brutal for teams that normally play on the weekends and once during the week, at most.

It’s not just a case of Britons doing things to be different from the rest of Europe, like driving on the left side of the road. This is a full-fledged tradition that makes economic sense. Unlike civilians, soccer players are off during the summer. Why should they also enjoy a chunk of vacation during the holidays? With kids off school and adults off work, there’s a ready-made audience waiting to be entertained. Why lose those potentially lucrative home dates?

Then there’s the popular socio-economic theory that states that gorging yourself on soccer after you’ve feasted on turkey is part of a master plan for social control.

The reason most games in England and Scotland kick off at 3 p.m. Saturday dates to something called the Factory Act, which was passed by the British Parliament in 1850. It codified the 60-hour work week and stipulated that all factories, mines and mills had to shut down by 2 p.m. Saturday. Faced with the prospect of millions of workers idling on the streets—perhaps boozing, fighting or, worse, plotting to overturn the state—soccer provided a welcome diversion. The 3 p.m. kickoff gave Britons just enough time to wash up and get down to the stadium, ensuring they’d be off the streets until nightfall. Sundays, of course, were reserved for church, and the liquor stores, like all shops, were generally closed by law until 1994.

Soccer around Christmas was seen as part of this same sport-as-the-opiate-of-the-people theory. Instead of munching on leftovers and drinking all day on Dec. 26, men (and it was mostly men) would be traveling to watch soccer, perhaps with their kids in tow. The same logic applied to Dec. 31 and Jan. 1: A soccer match either slowed down New Year’s drinking or cured a hangover.

While it’s a compelling notion, the real reason is probably much simpler. It’s the same reason you watched the NFL on Christmas Eve and the NBA on Christmas Day: money. The millions sitting at home in a food coma provide a perfect captive audience for television. For those who want to get out of the house, away from the mother-in-law, a soccer match is a natural fit. The Premier League understands this as well as anyone, which is why it has scheduled games in eight of the 10 days between Dec. 26 and Jan. 4.

But there’s another benefit in this globalized age of soccer. The Premier League is already the most popular in the world, but at this time of year, it has the stage all to itself, which further drives business. Fans in other nations have nowhere else to get their fix. It’s the Premier League’s time to shine.

Is there a downside to this soccer extravaganza? Successive England coaches, most notably Sven Goran Eriksson, who was in charge from 2000 to 2006, have complained that it hurts the national team. By the time the summer tournaments roll around, like the World Cup or European Championship, English players are exhausted and underperform. Eriksson pointed out that every country that has won a major tournament since 1966, the last time England won anything of note, has had the benefit of a winter break—and Germany, the best European performers, traditionally has the longest hiatus among major nations.

Clearly the idea has its merits. It doesn’t take a conditioning guru to figure out that some downtime can only do an athlete good. Indeed, of the 109 players who appeared in the final of the World Cup or the Euros since 2004, just 15 did so after a long and grinding Premier League season. That would suggest the lack of a winter break doesn’t just explain England’s underachievement but also affects foreign players plying their trade in the Premier League.

And yet there’s a flipside: The lack of a winter break doesn’t seem to harm English clubs in European competitions like the Champions League or Europa League, which continue well into May. In fact, English clubs have been among the most successful in those tournaments. Unless you believe a player is fine in May but succumbs to fatigue a month later, it’s hard to blame the winter break.

While it may make economic sense and probably would please many supporters, don’t expect Europe’s other major leagues to emulate England. The idea of a winter break is entrenched not just for the players but also for referees, media, league officials and fans. Nobody is likely to budge any time soon.

And this, once again, leaves the English in splendid isolation, hogging the world’s soccer limelight. Which is the way they like it.

‘Twas the day after Christmas and all ‘cross the field, every creature was stirring and no parking would yield.

In what has become a Dec. 26 tradition, San Gorgonio’s boys and girls soccer tournaments kicked off Monday morning at the massive San Bernardino Soccer Complex across the street from San Gorgonio.

On Day 1 of the three-day event, 15 fields were utilized and 86 games were scheduled for the four tournaments: boys and girls varsity and junior varsity.

It is the 15th year for the girls tournaments, the ninth year for the boys varsity and the first year boys JV teams have been included.

“We asked the boys coaches last year how many wanted to bring JV teams and a bunch of them did,” San Gorgonio athletic director Matt Maeda said.

Etiwanda girls varsity coach Jason Montgomery has brought his team to the tournament the last few years after formerly going to tournaments in Orange County.

“This is a good tournament with good competition for us,” Montgomery said. “And it’s very well-organized.”

Montgomery was taking a break between his team’s two games on Monday. He was able to spend some time with his nine-months-pregnant wife Tommy, who is scheduled for a C-section on Wednesday morning to deliver the couple’s second child.

Tommy Montgomery, who was Tommy Hart when she played at Alta Loma, is the co-coach at Hesperia. She still was there on Monday, coaching her team in its

first day of the tournament as well.

“She wants to coach the first two days, then we go in at 5:30 a.m. on Wednesday (for the C-section),” Jason Montgomery said.

The tournament offers a rare chance for Montgomery to watch his wife’s team in action.

“I’ll probably watch some of it,” he said. “I watch a lot of it already. (But) this is a great tournament if you love soccer.”

Los Osos boys coach Gerard Solorzano had taken his team to other tournaments before, but likes coming to the tournament to see some different teams.

“We get to see some teams from the High Desert, the Low Desert, teams we don’t get to see the rest of the season,” he said.

Maeda, formerly San Gorgonio’s girls soccer coach, started the event as a girls tournament 15 years ago. As big as it’s gotten, it isn’t as big a money-maker for the San Gorgonio soccer programs as you might think.

He said 60 to 70 percent of teams’ entry fees pay officials and about 10 percent pays for use of the complex, which is city-owned. Another five to 10 percent goes for awards.

Since the complex is city-owned, San Gorgonio gets none of the concessions: food or parking. So that leaves a net profit of about $7,000-8,000 between the two tournaments.

“It’s not as much as you think, but every bit helps,” Maeda said.

Montgomery and Solorzano were two coaches who appreciate the tournament but wouldn’t be against a couple of changes.

First, they’d like to move the first day to Dec. 27, to give players an extra day to physically – and mentally – prepare. They also aren’t big fans of the 30-minute halves (as opposed to regular 40-minute halves) that are used for the first two days, or four games of the varsity tournaments.

Maeda, who spent part of Monday watching his son Kevin play for the Citrus Valley JV, said beginning on Dec. 26 allows for two rain days and they could still finish on Friday.

For about 10 of the 15 years, there have been no problems with weather and none are expected this year.