Landon Donovan, one goal shy of becoming the all-time US scoring leader, leads a young group of 26 players that will begin training camp tomorrow ahead of a Jan. 19 friendly with Sweden.
Donovan's 34 international goals in 96 matches have him level atop the US career scoring list with Eric Wynalda, who played 106 US matches from 1990 through 2000.
Donovan, a 25-year-old forward for the Los Angeles Galaxy, is the experienced leader in a US lineup that features 20 men with 10 or fewer caps, seven of them seeking their first appearance on the national team.
Most of the US lineup comes from Major League Soccer teams that are now idle, but three players from Scandinavian clubs whose leagues are on a winter break will also report to camp.
Aalborg BK captain Dan Califf, who played in triumphs over Swiss and South African squads, is joined by SK Brann's Ramiro Corrales, out of the US fold since 2004, and AGF Aarhus striker Jeremiah White, seeking his first cap.
The camp allows US coach Bob Bradley to study talent that could help the US squad when qualifying for the 2010 South Africa World Cup begins in June.
"This is the beginning of a very important year for the national team and we are looking forward to continuing the work of 2007," said Bradley, who went 12-5 with one drawn in his first year in the job.
The US will play host to Mexico on Feb. 6 and play a second-round qualifying series in June against either Barbados or Dominica.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later