23 Sep 02

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Space City Shootout 2002
The first-ever WUSA game in Houston (Washington Freedom vs. Atlanta Beat) will be Saturday, October 19 at Rice University Track/Soccer Stadium. Pregame fan fest begins at 3 pm, kickoff at 5 pm. Players scheduled to appear include Mia Hamm, Briana Scurry, Siri Mullinix, Cindy Parlow and Abby Wambach.

Tickets are on sale now at the Rice ticket office, online at
http://www.hwsa.org, at all Soccer 4 All locations (beginning Wednesday), at the Fiesta on I-10 west at Blalock, and the Fiesta on Bellaire at Hillcroft.

Keep in mind the Rice soccer venue is fairly cozy (5000 capacity), so there's a good chance the game will sell out. Get your tickets now. If your club would like purchase a large block of tickets, let me know -- I can arrange to bring them to your next meeting or event.

Also on sale are WUSA soccer clinic packages for girls & women: $35 gets you a game ticket, a Tshirt and a 1-hour clinic with licensed soccer coaches and a couple of WUSA players. There will be two clinics on game day: one for ages 8-15 (10-11 am), the other for ages 16-60+ (11 am - noon). Clinic packages are only available online (see link above). Limit 100 per clinic.


English Premier League ... in the Village
Brian O'Neill's (5555 Morningside in the Rice Village) is now showing the English Premier League. Upcoming games include:

Monday 09/23/02 2 pm Fulham v Chelsea
Tuesday 09/24/02 1:30 pm Depotivo La Coruna v A.C. Milan
Saturday 09/28/02 9 am Charlton Athletic v Manchester United
11 am Leeds United v Arsenal

Other games may be available upon request. Check out the schedule at
http://www.BrianONeills.com.


Soccer in the Sunday Chronicle
Every Sunday the Houston Chronicle features a soccer column by Houston's own Glenn Davis, the broadcast commentator for the Dallas Burn as well as 12 World Cup games for ESPN last summer. The column is posted online at
http://www.chron.com/content/chronicle/sports/soccer/index.html. Let the Chronicle know that you like regular soccer coverage by emailing sptletters@chron.com.


MLS playoffs
The quarterfinals of the MLS playoffs begin this week with a best-of-three series for the eight playoff teams. Chicago (7) vs. New England (2) will be aired live on espn2 on Thursday, 6:30 p.m. Regional broadcasts will be announced sometime Monday for the other 3 matches:

(5) Colorado @ (4) Dallas
Wednesday, Sep. 25
7:30 pm

(6) Columbus @ (3) San Jose
Wednesday, Sept. 25
9 pm

(8) Kansas City @ (1) Los Angeles
Wednesday, Sept. 25
9:30 pm

For more info, see
http://www.mlsnet.com/content/02/mls0922posched.html


2002 US Women's Cup on TV
The annual 4-team tournament begins Sunday, Sept. 29 as the US takes on Russia in New York at 3 p.m. (TV TBD). Then, the American women face Australia on Oct. 2 (6:30 pm, espn2) and Italy on Oct. 6 (1 pm, espn2) in North Carolina.

Coach April Heinrichs will use these game to evaluate the player pool in preparation for the 2002 CONCACAF Women's Gold Cup, which will serve as the USA's qualification tournament for the 2003 Women's World Cup in China. The Gold Cup will be held from Oct. 27-Nov. 9, 2002 at four venues on the west coast of the United States and Canada.

For more info, see
http://www.ussoccer.com/news/fullstory.sps?iNewsid=22136&itype=