Soccer Notes

The name of the newest USL PRO team in Sacramento, CA, is Sacramento Republic FC. The club, which will begin play in the 2014 season, has hired National Hall of Famer Predrag Radosavlijevic (Preki) as its first head coach. Preki made 28 international appearances for the U.S. MNT and is the only MLS player to have won the MLS MVP award and MLS scoring title twice. He is a former MLS head coach with both Chivas USA and Toronto FC….Antigua woes continue. Antigua Barracuda FC, which is playing all of its USL PRO games on the road this season, fell to 0-20-0 with a 6-0 loss to the San Jose Earthquakes Reserves. They gave up a Brad Ring goal in the second minute of play in that loss. They have been outscored 72-8. Antigua Barracuda FC is comprised mostly of Antigua and Barbuda national team players……Former U.S. youth international Conor Doyle has been assigned to D.C. United by way of a weighted lottery. Doy[show_disconnected][show_to accesslevel=’Subscriber’]le, 21, has been loaned to MLS by Derby County, where he played 23 games since 2010. His time on the field has been challenged by a series of ankle and hamstring injuries. Chivas USA acquired American-born center back Jaime Frias on loan from Chivas de Guadalajara….Veteran center back and World Cup veteran Clarence Goodson, 31, who played collegiate soccer at Maryland, has signed with the San Jose Earthquakes of MLS. Goodson was the #7 overall pick of FC Dallas in 2004, and was selected by the Earthquakes in the 2007 MLS Expansion Draft. The Quakes have held his MLS rights ever since, even while he spent three years apiece with Norwegian side IK Start and Danish side Brondby…..Former U.S. MNT captain Carlos Bocanegra has found a home in Major League Soccer, debuting for Chivas USA in a 1-0 victory over Toronto FC which broke a 14-game Chivas winless streak…..Three U.S. Women’s National Team players, Abby Wambach, Alex Morgan and Crystal Dunn, were nominated for 2013 ESPY awards, but none came away with a trophy. Wambach was up for the Best Record-Breaking Performance, Morgan for Best Moment for her header in the 123rd minute of the Olympics against Canada, and Dunn for Best Female College Athlete…..U.S. Women’s National Team midfielder Lauren Cheney married NBA point guard Jrue Holiday on July 8 in California. Holiday was recently traded by the Philadelphia 76ers to the New Orleans Pelicans….The Washington Spirit became the first team in the National Women’s Soccer League to fire it’s head coach. On the heels of a string of five straight shutout losses, head coach Mike Jorden got the hook after a 4-0 loss to the Western New York Flash. He was replaced by Mark Parson, who was coaching the Spirit reserves in the W-League. Footnote to that is the NWSL team has only won once this season, while the Reserves have advanced to the W-League playoff semifinals……Mario Rodrguez, who started for Tab Ramos’ U-20 MNT in the Under-20 World Cup, has switched German teams, moving from Kaiserslautern’s U-19s to Borussia Moenchengladbach’s U-23s on a two-year contract. He helped Kaiserslautern to second place in the German Youth Cup……When U.S. midfielder Alejandro Bedoya, 26, was called up for the CONCACAF Gold Cup it was rumored that he was on the verge of moving from Sweden to the Netherlands to sign with Dutch Eredivisle club FC Twente. He played with Helsingborg in Sweden last season, where he scored five goals in 11 games. If he makes the move, it will be his fourth European club since turning pro out of Boston College…Sporting Kansas City has locked in Peter Vermes as its head coach and technical director through 2017 with a new contract extension…..Former University of Virginia standout Brian Ownby, on loan to the Richmond Kickers from the Houston Dynamo, has been named USL PRO Player of the Week after scoring the game winner in a 2-1 victory over the Los Angeles Blues that moved the Kickers to within one point of the top-ranked Orlando City Lions. The goal also kept Richmond’s unbeaten streak alive at 19 games.