Seattle failed to register a single shot on target throughout the duration of 120 tense minutes in Toronto at the 2016 MLS Cup final. However, with Stefan Frei in goal, getting a shot on frame from open play simply wasn’t necessary.
Rest in peace Carolina RailHawks. Rest in peace NASL (yet again). At a press conference on Tuesday, December 6th, RailHawks owner Steve Malik announced his vision for the club that has been building for nearly a year.
The Carolina RailHawks have been a staple in the North Carolina region for the past decade — they’ve provided the closest thing to top level soccer in the area along with a unique brand. The Raleigh-Durham region is a hotbed for youth development and collegiate soccer, continuously feeding the RailHawks roster and academies.
It’s about that time again! U.S. Soccer has announced this year’s nominees for the 2016 U.S. Soccer Awards. The Player of the Year award is the highest honor a player can receive in the United States. The award for Male Player of the Year dates back to 1984 and 1985 for the Female Player of the Year. Tune in to ESPNFC on December 11, 2016 to find out who takes home this year’s title.
The College Cup has finally arrived in Houston, home to this season's semifinals and final, and Stanford looks poised to become only the second team to win repeat championships. The last team to do it was Indiana in 2003 and 2004. With their defeat of Louisville in the quarterfinals, Stanford will now play the ninth-seeded University of North Carolina in the semifinals on Friday night.
Stanford vs. University of North Carolina | Friday, 8:45 PM ET | ESPNU
NYCFC striker David Villa is the 2016 MLS MVP. The Spanish striker scored 23 goals and contributed four assists to his club's most successful season (out of two seasons) to date.
Interestingly, the four leading MVP vote-getters play in the Eastern Conference, and three in New York: Villa (NYCFC), Bradley Wright-Phillips (New York Red Bulls), Sacha Kljestan (Red Bulls) and Sebastian Giovinco (Toronto FC).
It’s official: MLS will have a first-time Cup champion on Saturday. The MLS Cup winner will be either the Seattle Sounders or Toronto FC, both teams making their MLS Cup debuts. The two sides will meet in the 21st MLS Cup on December 10, 2016.
Both clubs boast massive fan support that has, to varying degrees, suffered since arriving in MLS. After two straight years of huge player investment and stadium upgrades, Toronto enter as the favorites at home and under the majority of the pressure.
Adidas unveiled a women's soccer cleat earlier this week, which is a weird thing to say because we kind of figured they already had those. That is no excuse for our ignorance, though. We should have asked somebody.
(Seriously though, it took y'all until now to figure out that maybe women should have cleats that are actually, like, FOR women?)
The point is, there is a soccer cleat specifically for women and the commercial for it is very good and cool, and it features USWNT defender Becky Sauerbrunn.
Before we get to the game, can we just talk about the atmosphere in Toronto last night? That was one of the best atmospheres for a sporting event I have ever seen. It was raining, but also smoky because Toronto fans kept setting off flares in the stands.
Honestly, we didn't know Canadians could get that rowdy. Good for them.
The atmosphere was good and the match, if anything, was even better. This was not a well-played soccer game. It was, however, a good soccer game, in terms of total chaos and excitement. Here's what happened:
It’s been unpredictable in the Women’s NCAA Division I and Division II soccer tournaments, and we still have some time left to enjoy these crazy games. The semifinals are up next.
Division I
Beginning with the USWNT’s infamous defeat to Sweden at the quarterfinal stage of the 2016 Summer Olympics, proceeding to the Under-17’s inability to advance from the group stage of the U-17 Women’s World Cup and now ending with the U-20’s defeat to North Korea at the sem