Columnist Nick Green has written 100 Percent Soccer
since 2005. A
native of England, he began writing about soccer in
the mid-1980s and in 2000 permanently exchanged a seat
in the stands for one in
the press box. He lives six miles from Carson's Home
Depot Center, home of the Los Angeles Galaxy, Chivas
USA and the training headquarters for U.S. Soccer.
Married to a long-suffering soccer widow, he has a cat
named Pele.Friday College Gameday & More
The UCLA women's team plays at 7 tonight at Drake Stadium (kick off was pushed back an hour to accommodate TV in the Pacific Northwest, although there's no local broadcast) against Portland with a place in the final four at stake.
The two teams are arguably the hottest in the country right now with the Bruins taking a 16-match winning streak into the game, while the Pilots have won 11 in a row.
The Daily Bruin has a preview.
Tickets are $10 adults and $8 for youths and students.
The USC women face the tall order of beating West Virginia on the Mountaineers' home turf today in their bid for a place in the final four.
The Daily Trojan has a preview.
David Beckham continues to wow the Kiwis in advance of Saturday's game against the Wellington Phoenix.
He'll impress even more if he can duplicate the goal he scored against Sydney:
Meanwhile, ESPN has announced it will televise the Euro 2008 draw at 6 a.m. Sunday on ESPN2.
The draw details:
The draw will place the 16 teams, set to compete in the 2008 championship for Europe’s national teams, into four groups of four teams. Austria and Switzerland automatically qualified as hosts and the remaining 14 teams are broken into four pots and will be drawn from each pot into one of the group. The winner of EURO 2008 will represent the UEFA at the 2009 FIFA Confederations in South Africa where the U.S. Men’s National Team will represent the CONCACAF region having won the 2007 Gold Cup in Summer.Pot 1: Austria (host), Greece (defending champions having won Euro 2004), Netherlands, Switzerland (hosts).
Pot 2: Croatia, Czech Republic, Italy, Sweden.
Pot 3: Germany, Portugal, Romania, Spain.
Pot 4: France, Poland, Russia, Turkey.
ESPN will air all 31 games from the June 7 through June 29 tournament.
Finally, FIFA has announced its three World Player of the Year finalists.