Urso, King representing U.S. in U-17 World Cup
Do you wonder why Asia is getting all the big soccer events these days?
With the FIFA 2007 Women's World Cup right around the corner in China, the FIFA U-17 Men's World Cup begins next week in South Korea.
The U.S. team includes two midfielders from Illinois, Kirk Urso of Lombard and Brendan King of Naperville.
Urso attended Glenbard East High School and played for the Chicago Sockers before going to the U.S. Soccer Residency program in 2005.
King played for Benet Academy in Naperville and is committed to play for the University of Notre Dame upon his graduation from the Bradenton Academy. King also played for the Chicago Magic.
Goalkeeper Josh Lambo also played for the Chicago Magic.
The U.S. played Tajikistan on Monday night, then faces Tunisia on Thursday and Belgium on Sunday in group play. All of the games can be seen on ESPNU, and the game against Tunisia can be seen on ESPN2, albeit at 2:45 a.m. CDT.
The U.S., which has been in every U-17 World Cup since its inception in 1985, finished fourth in 1999 with a team that included Landon Donovan, DaMarcus Beasley and Bobby Convey.
SuperLiga: Few, and certainly even fewer Americans, like to see soccer games decided by penalty kicks. But the end of the Houston-Pachuca SuperLiga semifinal did show just how dramatic a shootout can be.
Houston played Pachuca to a 2-2 tie and played all but 12 minutes with a man disadvantage after defender Patrick Ianni was ejected. On Houston's fourth kick, Brian Ching hit the left post.
On the fifth attempt Joseph Ngwenya tried to dribble a shot in, hoping Pachuca keeper Miguel Calero would make a dive one way or the other. Instead, the ball bounced off Calero's chest, and the Mexican keeper waved his forefinger at Ngwenya to suggest "Not today you don't."
Meanwhile, David Beckham showed his stuff in the L.A. Galaxy's 2-0 win over D.C. United in the other SuperLiga semifinal. His goal off a free kick, when seen from behind Beckham, showed the English superstar doing exactly what he does best.
Beckham also provided a tremendous long assist on a goal by Landon Donovan, that reached the Galaxy midfielder in stride after somehow sneaking under the legs of a United defender.
The Galaxy-Pachuca final is Aug. 29, and the winning team gets $1 million.
Dueling superstars: Maybe this superstar strategy that MLS is employing will actually work.
Two days after David Beckham's free kick goal against Houston, Cuauhtemoc Blanco of the Chicago Fire put in a free kick from 25 yards out, sailing the ball from left to the far right upper corner in a 2-0 win over Real Salt Lake.
Spider-man: From Soccer America comes the story of Pablo Salinas, a forward with the Bolivian club The Strongest, who celebrated a goal by donning a Spider-man mask. He was immediately red-carded.
Sponsorship stories: Five of the 13 MLS teams now have sponsorship banners on their jerseys.
The Houston Dynamo signed a deal with Amigo Energy and will sport an Amigo logo on the front of its jerseys. The Dynamo, owned by AEG, reportedly will receive more than $7 million in the agreement.
Other MLS teams that are identified by their jersey sponsor (the way most European clubs are) are the Los Angeles Galaxy, Chivas USA, Real Salt Lake and Toronto FC. The New York Red Bulls are owned by their corporate sponsor and display the company logo as well.