|
Ned Grabavoy
Ned Grabavoy (born July 1, 1983) is a retired American professional soccer player who played as a midfielder. He is the technical director and lead soccer operations director for the Portland Timbers. Career Youth and College Grabavoy played his youth soccer with the Chicago Magic Soccer Club under coach Mike Matkovich from U12 through U19. Grabavoy's U16 Chicago Magic team was credited with winning the Chicago Magic Soccer Clubs first National Youth Soccer Club Association Championship in 1999. Grabavoy attended Lincoln-Way Central High School where Grabavoy received in 1998 and 1999 an All-American Award by the National Soccer Coaches Association and led the Knights to two straight Illinois State Class AA Championship games. Grabavoy was the recipient of the Gatorade 2000-01 National High School Player of the Year Awarded and named the NHSCA National Senior Athlete of the Year award. Grabavoy played three years of college soccer for Indiana University Hoosiers men's socce ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joliet, Illinois
Joliet ( ) is a city in Will County, Illinois, Will and Kendall County, Illinois, Kendall counties in the U.S. state of Illinois, southwest of Chicago. It is the county seat of Will County. At the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the city was the List of cities in Illinois, third-largest in Illinois, with a population of 150,362. History In 1673, Louis Jolliet, along with Father Jacques Marquette, paddled up the Des Plaines River and camped on a huge earthwork mound, a few miles south of present-day Joliet. Maps from Jolliet's exploration of the area showed a large hill or mound down river from Chicago, labeled Mont Joliet. The mound has since been flattened due to mining. In 1833, following the Black Hawk War, Charles Reed built a cabin along the west side of the Des Plaines River. Across the river in 1834, James B. Campbell, treasurer of the canal commissioners, laid out the village of "Juliet", a corruption of "Joliet" that was also in use at the time. Just before t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
USL Premier Development League
USL League Two (USL2), formerly the Premier Development League (PDL), is a semi-professional developmental soccer league sponsored by United Soccer Leagues in the United States and Canada, forming part of the United States soccer league system. The league features 113 teams for 2022, split into sixteen regional divisions across four conferences. USL League Two is headquartered in Tampa, Florida. Ventura County Fusion are the current champions, having defeated Long Island Rough Riders 2–1 in the 2022 USL League Two Championship game on August 6, 2022. Competition format USL League Two is divided into 4 conferences (Eastern, Central, Southern, and Western), comprising 16 divisions. The league season runs from May through July, with the playoffs decided through July and August. All teams play a regular season schedule of 14 games, seven home and seven away, within their division. Playoffs The USL2 playoffs see division winners and each conference's best second-place finisher ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2009 Major League Soccer Season
The 2009 Major League Soccer season was the 14th season of Major League Soccer. The season began on March 19 and ended with MLS Cup 2009 on November 22 at Qwest Field in Seattle. Expansion team Seattle Sounders FC debuted as the league's 15th franchise and were the second in MLS history to qualify for the MLS Cup Playoffs. Real Salt Lake won their first MLS Cup by defeating the Los Angeles Galaxy in a penalty shootout. Changes from the 2008 season The following changes were made since the 2008 season: * Seattle Sounders FC began play as an expansion team in the Western Conference. * Two teams signed shirt sponsorship deals: ** Xbox 360 Live became the shirt sponsor of Seattle Sounders FC. ** Amway Global became the shirt sponsor of the San Jose Earthquakes. * The top two teams from each conference will qualify automatically for the playoffs (down from three). In addition, the next four highest point totals, regardless of conference, will also qualify (up from two). * Sigi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2005 Major League Soccer Season
The 2005 Major League Soccer season was the tenth season of Major League Soccer. The season began on April 2, 2005, and concluded on November 13, 2005 with the first Supporters' Shield victory for the San Jose Earthquakes and a second MLS Cup victory for the Los Angeles Galaxy. Changes from 2004 Season *At the previous MLS Cup, two new expansion franchises were announced to start play in 2005, Real Salt Lake (based at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City, Utah) and Club Deportivo Chivas USA (based at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California). *Because there were now more teams in the west than in the east, the Kansas City Wizards moved to the Eastern Conference. *The Dallas Burn re-branded as FC Dallas. 2005 in Summary The New England Revolution and FC Dallas began the year as the league's dominant teams, especially when Dallas acquired Carlos Ruiz in a trade after Landon Donovan returned from a disappointing stint with Bayer Leverkusen and wanted to play with his homet ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Major League Soccer
Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada—since the 2023 season. The league is headquartered in Midtown Manhattan. Major League Soccer is the most recent in a series of men's premier professional national soccer leagues established in the United States and Canada. The predecessor of MLS was the North American Soccer League (NASL), which existed from 1968 until 1984. MLS was founded in 1993 as part of the United States' successful bid to host the 1994 FIFA World Cup. The inaugural season took place in 1996 with ten teams. MLS experienced financial and operational struggles in its first few years, losing millions of dollars and folding two teams in 2002. Since then, developments such as the proliferation of soccer-specific stadiums around the league, implementation of the Desi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2021 NWSL Abuse Scandal
Throughout the 2021 National Women's Soccer League season, allegations of abuse surfaced in multiple teams across the National Women's Soccer League in the United States. As a result, five out of the 10 teams then in the league had head coaches resign or be fired, with league commissioner Lisa Baird also resigning due to the scandal. A later investigation led to four of these coaches receiving lifetime bans from league employment, and several other coaches and executives receiving lesser discipline. Timeline In July 2021, OL Reign announced that head coach Farid Benstiti had resigned, with the club stating that it had "great respect for Farid’s talents and all he brought to the organization." Later that year, it was reported that Benstiti had resigned following a number of complaints of abuse, including having disparaged players' nutritional habits and fitness. Later that month, NJ/NY Gotham FC announced that general manager Alyse LaHue had been fired following an investigatio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gavin Wilkinson
Gavin Wilkinson (born 5 November 1973) is a former New Zealand footballer who served as general manager and President of Soccer for the Portland Timbers from 2009 to 2022. Prior to this position, Wilkinson was manager of Portland Timbers in the United Soccer League before their promotion to Major League Soccer beginning with the 2011 season. As a player, he was known as a strong leader and defender. Playing career Club career Wilkinson played defence for with the USL Portland Timbers from 2001 to 2006, adding assistant coach duties in 2005 and 2006. Wilkinson retired as an active player and was named Head Coach and General Manager for Portland Timbers in September 2006. During the 2009 season, he directed the Timbers to the Commissioner's Cup as the regular season champion and a league record 24 game unbeaten string (14-0-10), smashing the previous record of 16. International career Wilkinson played for the New Zealand national football team, the All Whites and collecte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
FIFA World Youth Championship
The FIFA U-20 World Cup is the biennial football world championship tournament for FIFA members’ men's national teams with players under the age of 20. The competition has been staged every two years since the inaugural tournament in 1977 when it was hosted by Tunisia, under the tournament name of FIFA World Youth Championship until 2005. In 2007 the name was changed to its present form. The current title holder is Ukraine which won its first title at the 2019 tournament in Poland. History In the twenty-two tournament editions staged, eleven different nations have won the title. Argentina U20 is the most successful team with six titles, followed by BrazilU20 with five titles. Portugal U20 and Serbia U20 have both won two titles (with the latter winning once as Yugoslavia U20), while Ghana U20, Germany U20, Spain U20, France U20, England U20, Ukraine U20 and Russia U20 (as the USSR U20) have won the title once each. A corresponding event for women's teams, the FIF ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United States Men's National Soccer Team
The United States men's national soccer team (USMNT) represents the United States in men's international soccer competitions. The team is controlled by the United States Soccer Federation and is a member of FIFA and CONCACAF. The U.S. team has appeared in eleven FIFA World Cups, including the first in 1930, where they reached the semi-finals to finish third, the best result ever by a team from outside UEFA and CONMEBOL. They returned in 1934 and 1950, defeating England 1–0 in the latter, but did not qualify again until 1990. As host in 1994, the U.S. received an automatic berth and lost to Brazil in the round of sixteen. They qualified for the next five World Cups (seven consecutive appearances (1990– 2014), a feat shared with only seven other nations), becoming one of the tournament's regular competitors and often advancing to the knockout stage. The U.S. reached the quarter-finals in 2002, and controversially lost to Germany. In the 2009 Confederations Cup, the Ame ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2014 MLS Expansion Draft
The 2014 MLS Expansion Draft was a draft for the Major League Soccer expansion teams New York City FC and Orlando City SC that took place between November 19 and December 10, 2014. The first two rounds of the draft (which were known as the 2014 MLS Dispersal Draft) were held to distribute players who were formerly contracted with Chivas USA, which was dissolved by the league in October 2014 shortly after the end of the 2014 MLS season. As determined by a "Priority Draft" that was conducted on September 24, 2014, Orlando City SC selected first in the expansion draft, which was held via conference call A conference call is a telephone call in which someone talks to several people at the same time. The conference call may be designed to allow the called party to participate during the call or set up so that the called party merely listens into ... at 2:00 pm Eastern Time Zone, EST (UTC-5) on December 10, 2014. The order of the dispersal draft was conducted through a random weight ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2007 MLS Expansion Draft
The 2007 MLS Expansion Draft was held on November 21, 2007, and is a special draft for the Major League Soccer expansion team San Jose Earthquakes. They made 10 selections from a pool of players from current MLS clubs. Format * Only one player may be selected from each team, three of the league's 13 current teams will not have a player selected. * Teams will be allowed to protect 11 players from their 28-man rosters. Generation adidas Generation Adidas is a joint venture between Major League Soccer and U.S. Soccer aimed at raising the level of young professional soccer talent in the United States. The program, sponsored by Adidas, offers professional-ready players in the U.S. ... players are automatically protected, though players who are graduated from the program to the senior roster at the end of the 2007 season are not. * Each team may only leave one senior international player unprotected. Players are considered SIs here based on their age for the 2008 season, not the 2007 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
MLS Cup
The MLS Cup is the annual championship game of Major League Soccer (MLS) and the culmination of the MLS Cup Playoffs. The game is held in November and pits the winner of the Eastern Conference Final against the winner of the Western Conference Final. The MLS Cup winner is awarded the title of league champion. MLS uses a playoff tournament following the regular season to determine its annual league champion, a method common to every other major North American sports league. This format differs from most soccer leagues around the world, which consider the club with the most points at the end of the season to be the champion; MLS honors that achievement with the Supporters' Shield. A U.S.-based team that wins the MLS Cup is awarded one of the country's four berths in the following season's CONCACAF Champions League. The three Canadian teams of MLS can only qualify for the Champions League through the Canadian Championship—if any of them should win the MLS Cup, the Champions ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
