Soccer archive

The Creighton Men's Soccer team has been ranked first nationally in this week's National Soccer Coaches Association of America poll, released Tuesday afternoon. Creighton (4-0-0) is also ranked first in the national polls released by Top Drawer Soccer and College Soccer News.

It's the first time since Sept. 10, 2013 the team has been atop the NSCAA poll, and eighth week in program history.

Creighton went 2-0-0 last week, defeating CSUN (2-1) and then-No. 13 UC Irvine (4-0) to soar past UCLA and Virginia.

Additionally, BIG EAST foes Providence (No. 18) and Georgetown (No. 25) both claimed spots in the top-25. Sunday's foe, Michigan State, dropped from No. 22 to out of the poll despite a pair of victories last weekend.

Creighton also retained the No. 1 spot in the NSCAA Great Lakes Region poll this week. Six of the top 10 teams in those rankings hail from the BIG EAST.

In addition to the team accolades, junior forward Fabian Herbers repeated his spot on Top Drawer Soccer's Team of the Week (Men’s Team of the Week: Sept. 8 | College Soccer). Herbers had two goals and two assists to lead CU to two wins. It's the sixth time in his career he's earned the honor from Top Drawer Soccer.

The No. 1 Bluejays return to the pitch on Sunday at 1 pm Central when they visit Michigan State (3-1-0).

As a result of the unfolding FIFA bribery scandals, its president Sepp Blatter was suspended for 90 days, CAF president Issa Hayatou being the longest serving vice-President on FIFA's executive committee emerged as the acting FIFA President. Also suspended were UEFA President Michel Platini, Chung, a former FIFA vice president, was found guilty of breaches relating to South Korea's failed bid for the 2022 World Cup, the FIFA's Secretary General Jerome Valcke. The ban was issued by the Independent chairman of the Adjudicatory Chamber of the Ethics Committee. Sepp Blatter has however appealed against this ban. We await the outcome of his appeal.

Sepp Blatter is appealing against his 90-day ban from football. Fifa will hold an emergency meeting on 20 October in Zurich. I think Sepp Blatter's time to step down is now!!

Major League Soccer have confirmed they will start trialling the use of a video referee in friendly matches with the view to design a system that can be operable across football worldwide within 12 months.

FIFA, faced with mounting pressure to catch up with other professional sports who have adopted the use of video-officiating, earlier this year rejected an application from the Dutch FA (KNV😎 to run their own trial.

MLS, however, plans to circumnavigate FIFA's block on trials by staging them in 10 to 15 non-competitive fixtures at the end of October. Officials in the U.S. have said that the trial will focus on reviewing decisions in three areas; penalty kicks, red cards and the awarding of a goal.

"In all those cases, there is a natural stoppage," Jeff Agoos, MLS vice-president of competition, told The Times.

"Our findings show there is ample time to give information to the referee. Depending on the incident, there can be from 40 seconds to well over a minute, plenty of time to review a decision."


Read more: Major League Soccer plans video referee trial - ESPN FC

That's a great idea no more complaining.

After celebrating the U.S. women's national soccer team's 2015 FIFA World Cup victory at the White House today, veteran Abby Wambach, 35, announced plans to retire.

Wambach, who is the leading international scorer for both men and women, said she will step away from the game after the team's the final four games of thier victory tour. The match against China in New Orleans on Dec. 16 will be her last match.

Wambach has appeared in 252 international matches and has scored 184 goals.

Wambach has also been an advocate for women's soccer and women's sports in general.

"While we still have more work to do for women's soccer, after bringing the World Cup back to the United States this summer, I'm feeling extremely optimistic about the future of our sport. It's been an amazing, wonderful ride, and I can't wait to see what the next chapter of my life brings," she said in the statement. :thumbsup

Kobe Bryant made this observation on Friday night, after the Lakers’ loss to OKC, but it’s very, very interesting and worth highlighting here.

Bryant was asked about a nifty bounce pass between the legs of Kevin Durant, and he chalked it up to playing soccer as a kid, which he believes helps him see his sport as a more intricate series of moving parts than is typically taught in basketball.

“It’s a really complicated answer, but in America, basketball is really taught in twos — one-two pick-and-roll or a give-and-go or something like that,” he said. “Playing soccer growing up, you really see the game in combinations of threes, sometimes fours and how you play within triangles and how you [move] on the opposite side of the field and working on the backside.

“So you see things in multiple combinations and growing up and playing that, my eye and my brain became accustomed to seeing those combinations of threes and fours versus ones and twos.”

It’s an intriguing theory, and I want it to be legitimate because it’s so simple and logical. Soccer, with so much more space and so many more players, and no timeouts and not much resembling set plays, requires players to think multiple steps ahead and to be aware of what’s going on even outside their field of vision. Geometrically, it’s not just about getting the ball where you want it—it’s about what happens after that. Not just passes, but combinations of passes.

Is there anything to it? No one but Kobe knows how Kobe’s brain works. But as evidence, he offered up the San Antonio Spurs, who “have nothing but Europeans over there that grew up playing soccer.”

And what do you know?


Soccer Betting



Kobe Bryant Says Soccer Helps Him See Basketball Differently Than Most Players

Former United States Women's Soccer Team star Abby Wambach was arrested early Sunday morning and charged with allegedly driving under the influence in Portland, Oregon, according to reports.

The soccer star — who retired just months ago after leading the American team to victory in the Women's World Cup — was pulled over at around 2:00 a.m. local time in Portland on Sunday morning.

Multnomah County Sherrif's officers arrested her after field sobriety tests, and took her to Multnomah County Jail, where she was later released on her own recognizance.

Obviously, these decisions are always, always bad — get a designated driver, or call an Uber, people.

We're just happy nobody was hurt and it doesn't appear as though there were any accidents.

Oakland Raiders owner Mark Davis wasn’t the only prominent sports figure who made a pitch to the Southern Nevada Tourism Infrastructure Committee on Thursday morning.

Soccer legend David Beckham and Davis teamed to push forward plans to build a $1.4 billion, 65,000-seat stadium that could ultimately bring the Raiders to Las Vegas.

Beckham was in attendance to provide a different perspective on the use of the stadium, which is being proposed by Las Vegas Sands Corp. and Majestic Realty. Beckham has a business and promotional relationship with Las Vegas Sands’ properties in China.

The former Manchester United standout made the committee aware of the possibility of bringing European soccer clubs to Sin City for summer exhibition matches that could fill up the stadium and turn into weeklong festivities.

“To bring a great organization like the Raiders is incredible, but it’s bigger than that,” Beckham said. “It’s about the MLS (Major League Soccer) coming here, it’s about bringing in the biggest European teams like Manchester United.”

Tim Leiweke, the former president and chief executive of AEG, took it a step further by telling Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman, who is part of the committee, that the stadium could bring a MLS franchise to the city. Goodman has long wanted the MLS in Las Vegas.

“Major League Soccer and the mayor know this better than anyone. She’s been pursuing it for a very long time, God bless you,” Leiweke said. “You’ve had one issue here: a stadium. This resolves that issue. And there is a qualified, quantified ownership group that’s prepared to step up and help you chase an MLS franchise.

“You’re not the only one out there. As (MLS) Commissioner (Don) Garber will tell you, there are a lot of cities now chasing those last four franchises. But with your stadium, with this ownership group and with the might and support of the Raiders, you will never have a greater opportunity to have an MLS team.”

The American soccer league is looking to expand to 28 teams by the end of the decade. MLS stands at 20 teams after adding Orlando City SC and New York City FC this season. The league expands to 24 in the next few years with guarantees to Minnesota, Atlanta and a second team in Los Angeles.

The MLS is making progress on bringing an expansion team to Miami, of which Beckham and Leiweke are owners.

Sacramento, St. Louis, Detroit, San Diego, San Antonio, Cincinnati and Austin, Texas, have expressed interest in getting one of the final four bids for a franchise.

“Las Vegas Mayor Goodman has always been a strong supporter of bringing a Major League Soccer expansion team to the city,” said Dan Courtemanche, the MLS executive vice president of communications. “We will continue to monitor Las Vegas as a possible MLS expansion market in the future.

“The interest in Major League Soccer expansion is at an all-time high. The demand for more teams is another strong indicator of the league’s continued growth and overall interest in our sport.”

A prospective ownership group has yet to approach the league office with a plan to bring MLS to Las Vegas, according to Courtemanche.

Goodman jokingly asked Beckham during the meeting to join her in getting an MLS team to Sin City. Beckham made it clear he was committed to Miami.

Beckham’s Miami team is on hold until it finds a stadium. The former Los Angeles Galaxy midfielder recently found land for his stadium after two years of failed attempts.

“Great things take time, and I’m starting to realize that, especially over the last few years since we announced our ideas in Miami,” Beckham told the SNTIC. “So I understand that it takes time. What you have at the end of it is something that is so special.”





David Beckham makes pitch to bring soccer to Las Vegas | Las Vegas Review-Journal

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha is concerned with online soccer betting during the EUFA Euro 2016 soccer tournament during June 10-July 10 and has instructed authorities concerned to take legal actions against the gamblers as well as gambling operators.

Government spokesman Maj-Gen Sansern Kaewkamnerd said on Saturday that the prime minister was fully aware that cracking down on the gamblers amounted to solving soccer gambling problem at the end of the cause but the measure was necessary to deal with the bad habit.

The prime minister, said the spokesman, was particularly concerned with Thai youths being tempted into gambling during the popular soccer tournament which might impact on their studies and health.

The prime minister also took note of the importance of the role of parents in educating their children to distance themselves from gambling and also the role of the media in reporting on the negative effects of gambling on consistent basis.

July 3 In China's eastern city of Hangzhou, Mr Li could barely watch as Portuguese striker Cristiano Ronaldo lined up a penalty kick in a finely-balanced Euro 2016 group match against Austria. Li had reason to be nervous: he had bet tens of thousands of yuan on Portugal to win.

With 10 minutes to go in the game in Paris, Real Madrid star Ronaldo hit the post, the game ended in a draw, and Li lost the money he had bet using Tencent Holdings Ltd's popular messaging app WeChat.

Amid a surge of Chinese interest in global soccer, a side-effect has been a record spike in illegal gambling online, prompting multi-million dollar busts by police on betting rings, and tech giants like Tencent and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd cracking down on gambling activity on their apps.

"There are so many gamblers, groups and platforms during the European Cup, though, that I think it's really hard to find all of them," said Li, who asked only to use his surname as most gambling online in China is illegal.

Li said he used a private chat group on WeChat, where most of the betters were friends. Winnings were distributed via bank transfer, Alibaba-linked Alipay, WeChat or 'red packets', digital versions of traditional envelopes stuffed with cash.

In the run-up to the UEFA European Football Championship final in Paris next Sunday, Chinese police say they have seen a surge in illegal gambling online. In a single bust last week, police in southern Guangdong arrested 147 people and froze funds worth nearly 100 million yuan ($15 million).

Alibaba and Tencent acknowledge the issue and have anti-gambling systems in place to spot illegal behaviour.

Ant Financial, the Alibaba affiliate which operates Alipay, has a three-tiered system to spot gambling, with computer systems analysing user behaviour and a line of human checks.

"If we find suspicious accounts, then we are going to freeze the account directly. It only takes a few hours from the first to the last step," said spokeswoman Miranda Shek, adding the firm was looking to add more anti-gambling staff.

Reiterating a previous statement, Tencent said it is doing more to stamp out gambling on its platforms like WeChat, including restricting groups suspected of gambling behaviour and punishing individual account holders. It said it has put limits on more than 8,000 WeChat groups, and has limited the payment and 'red packet' capabilities on more than 6,000 accounts.

SOCCER BOOM

A soccer investment boom in China has helped propel interest in the game. Chinese firms have invested in overseas clubs, player agencies and media rights firms, and global soccer stars have moved to China in multi-million dollar deals.

"With the European Cup everyone's betting on soccer, but also over the last couple of years China's soccer market has developed rapidly. Big investments and star names create a real lure," said Hu Naijun, an assistant professor at the University of Science and Technology Beijing.

The organizer of an online gambling group, who only gave his name as Bao, said he and four other organizers had a pot of 5 million yuan ($750,706) and that dozens of people would join for each game.

"In one night there will be millions placed in bets," he said, adding it had become a lucrative business. "For the final, we'll probably go to Macau or Hong Kong and spend the whole week in the presidential suite."

Li says he's still backing Portugal - who are through to the semi-finals - for Euro 2016 glory.

"I often can't watch, my heart just can't take it, I feel nervous at every chance. Especially when Ronaldo missed the penalty - I almost passed out," he said.





China soccer boom sparks online gambling craze | Reuters