Word: soccers
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Roman Abramovitch, the George Steinbrenner-like owner of the big London soccer team Chelsea, so prized Ghana's exquisite midfielder Michael Essien that he splashed out 36 million pounds to pry the man loose from the French league champions, Lyon. Essien was worth the money, his presence on the pitch helping Chelsea to the Premiere League championship...
...came on an OG - an own goal - grazie Italy. Although the U.S. was able to put Italy's vaunted defense under pressure, they were unable to finish. "Once we get into their third of the field, the crosses have to be better," says Reyna, looking ahead to Ghana. In soccer this is known as the final ball, and it hasn't been there. The U.S. will also need to get more players on the end of those crosses - "more numbers in the box," says Reyna. Some better shooting would hurt either...
...Italy, an astounding crowd of Americans outshouted the usually fervent Italian tifosi. It was something of a revelation about support for the game in the U.S. A large crowd of Americans are expected in Nuremberg, a city that is rife with U.S. history of a vastly different sort. U.S. Soccer has sold more than 20,000 tickets to this tournament, while U.S. fans bought another 5,000 directly from FIFA, soccer's ruling body. That's more than for all the other non-U.S. World Cups combined. The U.S. fans, organized by a group called Sam's Army, have...
...soccer team's likely elimination from the World Cup is not the only thing putting Japan on edge these days. Mounting evidence that North Korea may be preparing to test-fire a missile has shaken the country far more seriously. On Sunday night, Japan's Foreign Minister Taro Aso said during an evening talk show that Japan would consider imposing economic sanctions immediately, and request that the U.N. Security Council take action, if North Korea decided to test a missile. Any test would violate a voluntary North Korean moratorium on long-range missile tests, Aso said, adding that protest from...
...rare territory. "I've never experienced that," Arena said after the game. "We've trained 11 versus 10 but never 10 versus 9." This particular disadvantage required maximum effort from all the U.S players - it's a lot of space to cover on a 130-yard soccer field. "Claudio was fantastic, he had a great game," said Arena of his captain, Claudio Reyna, who marshaled the U.S. team with a combination of smarts and aggression, picking apart Italy's midfield with his passing. Despite the manpower shortage, the U.S. still managed to defend and attack in numbers. Arena inserted DaMarcus...