Chivas USA’s Flores, UCLA’s Perk, Stephens Named to U-20 World Cup Roster

Here’s the full squad:

goalkeepers – Sean Johnson (Central Florida; Lilburn , Ga. ), Josh Lambo (FC Dallas; Middleton, Wis. ), Brian Perk (UCLA; Rancho Santa Margarita)

defenders – Gale Agbossoumonde ( Miami FC; Syracuse, N.Y. ), Kyle Davies (FC Dallas; Danville, Calif. ), Aaron Maund (Notre Dame; Dorchester, Mass.), Ike Opara (Wake Forest; Durham , N.C.), Anthony Wallace (FC Dallas; St. Petersburg, Fla.), Sheanon Williams (Unattached; Boston)

midfielders – Danny Cruz ( Houston Dynamo; Glendale, Ariz. ), Mikkel Diskerud (Stabak; Oslo, Norway ), Dilly Duka (Rutgers; Montville, N.J.), Jorge Flores (Chivas USA ; Anaheim), Jared Jeffrey (Club Brugge; Richardson, Texas ), Brian Ownby (Virginia; Glen Allen, Va.), Dillon Powers (Notre Dame; Plano, Texas), Michael Stephens (UCLA; Naperville, Ill.)

forwards – Sam Garza (Denver; Highland Village, Texas), Peri Marosevic (FC Dallas; Rockford, Ill.), Brek Shea (FC Dallas; College Station, Texas), Tony Taylor (Jacksonville; Jacksonville , Fla.)

There’s no room for Chivas USA’s Gerson Mayen though.

Every game of the tournament from Egypt will be shown on an ESPN-branded channel.

The U.S. opens against Germany Sept. 26, faces Cameroon Sept. 29 and finishes group play against South Korea Oct. 2.

The best U.S. finish: fourth in 1989 with Kasey Keller in goal.

Tournament home page.

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Waiting for the Weekend: Live and Local

Click the link to the right for the complete, exhaustive listing of soccer on TV this weekend.

But here are my picks for the best of the games followed by a listing of the local games in and around L.A.

TV best bets Saturday:
4:30 a.m. ESPN2 Chelsea-Burnley
9 a.m. Fox Soccer Channel Manchester United-Arsenal
11:30 a.m. FSC AC Milan-Inter Milan
5 p.m. KVEA CD Guadalajara-Pachuca
8 p.m. ESPN2 Galaxy-Chivas USA

Sunday
7 a.m. Everton-Wigan Athletic
2:30 p.m. FSN WPA All-Stars-Umea IK

Local games
Women’s soccer
3 p.m. today McAlister Field UCLA-Mexico
1 p.m. Sunday Matador Field Cal State Northridge-Oregon State
3 p.m. Sunday McAlister Field USC-St. John’s
5 p.m. Sunday George Allen Field Long Beach State-UCLA

Men’s soccer
4:30 p.m. today Matador Field Cal State Northridge-UNLV (first 50 CSUN students through the gates get a free T-shirt)
8 p.m. Saturday HDC Galaxy-Chivas USA

Thursday Scoreboard
Women’s soccer –
Cal State Northridge 3 Loyola Marymount 0
Cal State Dominguez Hills 0 Vanguard 1

Meanwhile, the men’s program at Harbor College is gearing up for the season.

Finally, this has little to do with soccer, but 18 breweries will be serving up 10 4 oz tastings of their products for $20 Sunday at the inaugural Torrance Block Party, which includes a craft brew festival in Old Torrance. That’s where I intend to beat the heat Sunday.

More details are here.

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Chivas USA Roster Update: Cuesta Added, Vaughn Waived

Young Columbian defender Yamith Cuesta is available for Saturday’s derby against the Galaxy after receiving all the necessary clearances, while long-injured defender Lawson Vaughn (who made just seven starts last year and none so far this season) was waived and midfielder Sasha Victorine, yet to recover from a concussion suffered two weeks ago in practice was placed on the DL at least until Oct. 2.

Oh, and defender Jim Curtin already on the DL since Aug. 14 had arthroscopic surgery on his left ankle Wednesday in Santa Monica. He’s out 12 weeks, so he’s pretty much done for the year.

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U.S. MNT WCQ Squad Named, Rolling Hills Estates’ Rogers on Squad

In addition to Columbus Crew midfielder Robbie Rogers, uncapped former Galaxy striker Robbie Findley was also called up for the games Sept. 5 against El Salvador in Salt Lake City and Sept. 9 in Trinidad & Tobago

Here’s the full 24-man squad U.S. Coach Bob Bradley named today for the qualifiers:

goalkeepers – Brad Guzan (Aston Villa: 5/3 SO), Tim Howard (Everton FC: 12/7 SO)

defenders – Carlos Bocanegra (Rennes: 22/3), Jonathan Bornstein (Chivas USA, 2/0), Steve Cherundolo (Hannover: 19/0), Jay DeMerit (Watford: 3/0), Clarence Goodson (IK Start: 1/0), Chad Marshall (Columbus Crew: 2/0), Oguchi Onyewu (AC Milan: 17/1), Jonathan Spector (West Ham: 2/0)

midfielders – Kyle Beckerman (Real Salt Lake: 0/0), Michael Bradley (Borussia Mnchengladbach: 11/4), Ricardo Clark (Houston Dynamo: 6/0), Clint Dempsey (Fulham: 18/4), Benny Feilhaber (AGF Aarhus: 2/0), Stuart Holden (Houston Dynamo: 1/0), Robbie Rogers (Columbus Crew: 0/0), Jos Francisco Torres (Pachuca: 5/0)

forwards – Jozy Altidore (Hull City: 9/5), Conor Casey (Colorado Rapids: 5/0), Brian Ching (Houston Dynamo: 16/6), Charlie Davies (FC Sochaux: 3/2), Landon Donovan (Los Angeles Galaxy: 31/11), Robbie Findley (Real Salt Lake: 0/0)

*numbers indicate all-time World Cup Qualifying caps/goals

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Parker Pain as Chivas USA Chokes

Last night was apparently a good night to skip watching Chivas USA get thrashed 4-0 by an unReal Salt Lake and head to a screening of The Damned United at Sony Studios in Culver City although I did think checking in four times (parking lot security, visitor’s center, screening room guard and finally screening room PR flak) and getting the car trunk searched on the way out to boot (sorry, English humor) was more than a little excessive.

Still, the movie was superbly acted and compelling even for those of us who remember Brian Clough’s infamous 44-day reign at Leeds United (I’ll have more on the film when it opens) and it doesn’t appear you can say the same for the Chivas USA-RSL game.

Not the best way for Chivas USA to prepare for Saturday’s SuperClasico showdown with the Galaxy.

And you have to feel for young backup goalkeeper Lance Parker, who was on the end of his second consecutive 4-0 drubbing (he let in three in the first 30 minutes, including one in the first minute, on his MLS debut Aug. 8 against Colorado).

This time Parker “only” allowed three of the goals after coming on at halftime to replace Zach Thornton, still bothered by a right quad strain, but a second nightmare can’t do his confidence much good with the game against the Galaxy looming. Former Galaxy striker Robbie Findley did his old team a favor by scoring the final two RSL goals in the last five minutes of regulation time.

Read the game story here.

Said Chivas USA Coach Preki:

“In all fairness, before the second goal comes I thought we were okay, the momentum was on our side. But we don’t get anything out of that, and we made a mistake on the second goal and after that it was all downhill.”

That’s it after a 4-0 drubbing?

Wonder what Clough, king of the compelling quote, would have said?

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Tuesday Kicks

Final shots for the day:

*Sol defenders Brittany Bock and Stephanie Cox and midfielder Shannon Boxx were among 26 players called into Pia Sundhage’s 12-day USWNT camp that begins Sept. 21 at Home Depot Center. Bock gets her second call-up of the year after also making the U.S. roster for the May 25 game against Canada in Toronto she was forced to miss after suffering a heel injury in training the day before.

Sundhage has the luxury of calling in several other WPS players for a look including Washington Freedom midfielder Lori Lindsey (1 cap), Sky Blue FC midfielder Yael Averbuch (2), uncapped Chicago Red Stars midfielder Brittany Klein and Sky Blue FC defender Meghan Schnur.

The squad: goalkeepers – Nicole Barnhart (FC Gold Pride), Ashlyn Harris (North Carolina), Hope Solo (St. Louis Athletica)

defenders Brittany Bock (Los Angeles Sol), Rachel Buehler (FC Gold Pride), Lori Chalupny (St. Louis Athletica), Stephanie Cox (Los Angeles Sol), Amy LePeilbet (Boston Breakers), Heather Mitts (Boston Breakers), Megan Schnur (Sky Blue FC), Cat Whitehill (Washington Freedom)

midfielders Yael Averbuch (Sky Blue FC), Shannon Boxx ( Los Angeles Sol), Tina DiMartino (FC Gold Pride), Tobin Heath (UNC), Angela Hucles ( Boston Breakers), Brittany Klein ( Chicago Red Stars), Lori Lindsey ( Washington Freedom), Carli Lloyd ( Chicago Red Stars), Heather O’Reilly (Sky Blue FC), Leslie Osborne (FC Gold Pride), Megan Rapinoe ( Chicago Red Stars), Kacey White (Sky Blue FC)

forwards Lauren Cheney (UCLA), Amy Rodriguez ( Boston Breakers), Abby Wambach ( Washington Freedom)

*BTW, the Sol’s Camille Abily scored the winner from the spot in France’s 2-1 win Monday over Iceland at the European Championships. The scorer of the other: none other than Washington Freedom’s Sonia Bompastor.

*New Columbian Chivas USA defender Yamith Cuesta,20, on loan from Colombian side Expreso Rojo was/is scheduled to arrive at LAX tonight and join the team after receiving a visa.

*BTW, I usually skip these press releases, but I couldn’t resist this one. Chivas USA players Jorge Flores and Bobby Burling will promote Clamato juice this coming weekend at local stores (1-2:30 p.m. Saturday for Flores at the Wal-Mart at 8500 Washington Blvd., in Pico Rivera and 2 p.m.-3:30 p.m. Sunday for Burling at the Food 4 Less at 5100 N. Figueroa St., L.A.). Do they stand next to a huge mountain of Clamato juice? Hand out samples? Make a mean bloody mary? Or just have shoppers wondering who these guys are loitering near Clamato juice?

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Which is Southern California’s Team – the Galaxy or Chivas USA?

The trivia question was prompted by an item in the Chivas USA game notes for the July SuperClasico I scoured Monday as I researched today’s column.

Chivas USA claims nine players on its roster who were either born or grew up in Southern California:
Jonathan Bornstein (who was born in Torrance and grew up in Los Alamitos)
Chukwudi Chijindu (Fontana)
Jorge Flores (Anaheim)
Dan Kennedy (Yorba Linda)
Sacha Kljestan (Huntington Beach)
Gerson Mayen (Los Angeles)
Ante Razov (Los Angeles)
Sasha Victorine (Corona)
Cesar Zamora (Sylmar)

Three of these players – Bornstein, Razov, Victorine – played college soccer at UCLA, while Dan Kennedy played at UC Santa Barbara. In addition, Texas native Bobby Burling played college soccer at Loyola Marymount.

The Galaxy claim eight players with local connections:
Tristan Bowen (Van Nuys)
Landon Donovan (Redlands)
Sean Franklin (Palmdale)
Leonard Griffin (Palmdale)
Bryan Jordan (Temple City)
Jovan Kirovski (Escondido)
Eddie Lewis (Cerritos)
Josh Saunders (Lake Forest)

Franklin played college soccer at Cal State Northridge, while Griffin and Lewis did the same at UCLA. However, the list above rises to nine players if you count Long Beach-born Alan Gordon, who grew up in Arizona.

Hmmm. How to break the tie?

Well, Assistant Galaxy Coach Cobi Jones grew up in Westlake Village, played soccer at UCLA and spent his entire MLS playing career with the Galaxy.

So does that make the Galaxy Southern California’s team?

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Tuesday’s Column: Tables have Turned for Galaxy, Chivas USA

Read the SuperClasico preview column here.

For those not attending in person, the game is also on at 8 p.m. Saturday on ESPN2.

Updated: Sky Blue FC announced this morning that player-coach Christie Rampone guided the club to the WPS championship over the Sol Saturday in Carson while almost three months pregnant.

From the club’s press release:

Rampone, who is nominated for a number of WPS awards – Defender of the Year, Coach of the Year and Sportswoman of the Year, which will be announced Saturday evening before the WPS All-Star Game – is due in late March. She is targeting a June return for the next WPS season. She is also projected to resume her U.S. National Team duties as captain next summer.

Rampone has experience coming back from pregnancy. She took most of 2005 off to have her first child, daughter Rylie, who was born on Sept. 29 of that year. She made her return to the U.S. National Team lineup just 112 days later against Norway at the Four Nations Tournament in China, starting and playing the first 67 minutes. In July, she underwent emergency laparoscopic surgery due to a ruptured ovarian cyst, returning to the Sky Blue FC lineup two and a half weeks later.

“It’s been a eventful year to say the least, but the timing of this pregnancy is perfect because I was able to finish off this amazing first season and hopefully get back in time to make a major contribution to Sky Blue FC in 2010,” said Rampone. “There is a tradition among some U.S. National Team players to time pregnancies right after the Olympics. But I wanted to support, and be part of, the first season of Women’s Professional Soccer.”

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