Archive for January 30th, 2012

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Canadians McNamara, Northey excel at USL Combine

By
Steven Sandor
– 01/30/2012

Josh Northey

There is no news yet of any Canadian-player signings or training-camp invites out of this past weekend’s USL Combine held in Bradenton, Fla. — but word is that two of the Canucks there set themselves apart.

University of Saskatchewan midfielder Josh Northey and Oakland University defender (and Toronto Lynx alumnus) Julian Konner McNamara reportedly made the strongest showings of the 12 Canadians who participated in the combine. USL general managers — as well as executives from other leagues, including MLS — were on hand to see more than 100 undrafted and unsigned prospects go through their paces.

Of the 12 Canadians there, seven came from universities from our side of the border. The University of Saskatchewan led the way, with three prospects heading to Florida from that school.The Huskies also produced striker Paul Craig, who scored the goal that guaranteed FC Edmonton a playoff berth during his rookie NASL season.
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Women’s soccer goes from high point to low: WPS suspends operations

By
Steven Sandor
– 01/30/2012

Less than 12 hours after women’s soccer hit euphoric heights in North America thanks to the CONCACAF Olympic qualifying tournament in Vancouver, it was brought crashing down to Earth Monday.

WPS announced that it will suspend operations for the 2012 season, claiming the legal costs of battling renegade owner Dan Borislow and his magicJack franchise were too much for the struggling league to bear. Already, WPS — down to five teams — needed special dispensation

And, no doubt, the suspension of WPS will have a massive impact on our Canadian women’s team as it prepares foe the London Olympics. Instead of being solely focused on improving the national side ahead of the Games, key players like Christine Sinclair, Candace Chapman, Lauren Sesselmann and Kelly Parker will have other pressing concerns — finding work. WPS announced that it plans for its five existing teams to survive when the league is scheduled to resume in 2013. But, it’s hard to find an example of a league that suspended operations and then came back to life. Usually, it’s the first step to… el foldo.
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Another Chilean heads to Canada: Aceval inks with TFC

By
Steven Sandor
– 01/30/2012

The Chile-Canada soccer pipeline keeps humming along.

On a day that former Chilean U-20 product and Colo-Colo prospect Yashir Pinto is expected to arrive on the FC Edmonton scene, Toronto FC announced the signing of veteran fullback Miguel Aceval.

Like Pinto, Aceval, 29, is a product of the Colo-Colo system. But he has played with various clubs in Chile and Uruguay, including four in the past four seasons. He was last at CD Universidad de Concepcion before making the deal to come to Toronto.
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Herdman says tactics, management to blame for U.S. rout of Canadian women’s team

By
Gavin Day
– 01/30/2012

John Herdman

It was over before all the fans were even inside B.C. Place to make it to their seats. The United States scored early and often in the first half en route to a thoroughly dominating 4-0 win over Canada to win the championship at the 2012 CONCACAF Women’s Olympic Qualifying Tournament.

Alex Morgan stole the show as the focal point for the American attack. Morgan scored twice and set up the other two goals as the full house of 25,427 fans that packed into the stadium were hoping for something special but in the end, the world’s top-ranked team and World Cup runner-up was at its absolute best.

It didn’t take long to silence the capacity crowd as Alex Morgan scored in only the fourth minute. Morgan showed off her fantastic pace as Abby Wambach flicked a high ball. Morgan gained a few yards on Shannon Woeller and Candace Chapman as she blew by them, gained control of the ball and went low to the right of Erin McLeod.
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Why is CSA sitting on announcement of men’s Olympic roster?

By
Steven Sandor
– 01/30/2012

Shaun Saiko... got the call almost two weeks ago, but CSA has yet to make an announcement.

The Canadian Soccer Association is still basking in the glow of a successful women’s CONCACAF Olympic qualifying tournament. But, at the same time, the CSA has made an absolute hash of the announcement of the men’s Olympic roster.

We know from various announcements (FC Edmonton sent out a press release about its three call-ups two weeks ago), Tweets (confirmation from Huddersfield keeper Simon Thomas) and interviews (Toronto FC’s Matt Stinson confirmed he got the call) that the players who are going to me invited to the preliminary camp in mid-March were contacted almost two weeks ago. Yet, the CSA has been eerily silent on announcing the roster. In fact, it’s being sat on like a state secret.

In the days of Twitter and Facebook, an organization can’t hope to call players, name them to a roster, and not have them talk about it. It’s silly to sit on the announcement of a roster for weeks.
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