Goals of the Week
A few GotW round-ups for you. First off we have Romain Poyet (2:06) with a stunner of a volley for Brest. 101greatgoals.com has a top ten list, with the goal of the week going to Pavlyuchenko for being on the receiving end of Gareth Bale magic against Inter. Of course, we all know the best goal of the week was Fernando Torres’ second against Chelsea. Let’s walk through it together: 1) Ashley Cole dispossessed in the middle. Yes. 2) Meireles finding Torres early so he can iso against Ivanovic (Everybody is a Lucas apologist these days. Lucas still can’t make the smart pass to start a break.) 3) Torres turns inside. Fakes a shot. Fakes a shot. Fakes a… shoots! 4) During the slo-mo replay you can see John Terry helplessly try to extend his go-go gadget neck to block the shot, while Petr Cech does his buddha impression. 5) While Torres celebrates, the camera cuts to Cech watching the Spaniard and smiling. He’s probably wondering why the other 18 goalies in the EPL haven’t been posterized by El Nino this year.
Union
Amobi Okugo has been called up to represent the US U-20 national team for the Torneo de las Americas in Georgia.
Members of the Union will participate in a litter cleanup along I-95 and Highland Ave. this Saturday as part of an effort to clean up Chester, PA.
Alejandro Moreno was called up to represent Venezuela in their friendly at Ecuador next week. Moreno started each of Venezuela’s last two matches, playing 72 minutes in a 3-1 win over Bolivia and 67 in a 2-2 tie with Mexico.
Danny Mwanga has been named Soccer America’s MLS Rookie of the Year. The Oregon State athletics website tells us that Mwanga is the first Beaver to go #1 in a professional draft since Terry Baker was the first pick in the 1963 NFL draft.
PPL Park will host the Rugby Collegiate Championship Invitational next June. Sixteen college teams will compete in a round-robin format. This should be very, very awesome and I hope to be there.
College
Stanford received the number one overall seed for the Women’s College Cup. Penn will play Penn State in West Virginia. The best group of the first two rounds has to be in Milwaukee, where Marquette plays Central Michigan and Milwaukee plays Wisconsin. Thatsa latta Wisconsin in one place.
Charlotte was announced as the #1 seed for the A-10 Men’s soccer tournament, to be held November 11-14 in Charlotte, NC. La Salle is the #2 seed, Temple is #3 while Saint Joseph’s failed to make the 6-team tourney.
International
Roberto Baggio, famous in America for being the goat of the 1994 World Cup, won the Peace Summit Award for his charity work and efforts to free Aung San Suu Kyi, the pro-democracy leader of Myanmar.
Didier Drogba has been diagnosed with malaria but still plans to play on Wednesday against Fulham.
Stuart Holden continued his fine run of form in the middle of the Bolton midfield. The Wanderers dispatched Tottenham 4-2.
Marcus Hahnemann was better than 10 of the 11 Manchester United players on the pitch Saturday, but Ji-Sung Park put two behind the American goalie as United eeked out a victory thanks to a mysteriously long 4 minutes of extra time in the second half.
Brad Friedel and Clint Dempsey faced off over the weekend as Aston Villa and Fulham tied 1-1. Dempsey and company peppered Friedel with shots, but as we all know, Friedel is magic.
Title image via Guardian.co.uk
Happy rugby is getting a featured play in the Delaware Valley but if they ass up the pitch a PPL Park I’m taking it out on Eli.
The Collegiate Rugby 7s tournament will features a very different style of competition from the typical 15 player variety of the game. With only 7 players on a side, 7 minute halves and a full size pitch to work with, 7s rugby is fast, entertaining and should leave the pitch in much better condition than a traditional match. All the best skills will be on display in the second annual edition of this tournament (played last year at Crew Stadium in Columbus).
This is the style of rugby that will be featured in the next summer Olympics and should be a nice teaser for fans that are new to the sport. Many of the players on display at this tournament will have their eyes set on earning call ups to the US Eagles(the United States national rugby team) for both international 7s and 15s competition.
Yeah, that’s great Eli. I’ve got my eye on you – Don’t screw up the pitch.