Stoke City FC will be the second Barclays Premier League side to face Sporting Kansas City at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park following the visit of Newcastle United in July of 2011. In 2010, Sporting Kansas City defeated Manchester United by a 2-1 scoreline in front of over 52,000 fans at Arrowhead Stadium.

“We look forward to welcoming Stoke City during their preparation for the 2012-13 Premier League season,” Sporting Club CEO Robb Heineman said. “Kansas City continues to be a destination for international soccer matches and this will be another opportunity for us to showcase Sporting Kansas City and LIVESTRONG Sporting Park this summer.”

Ticket prices begin at $20 and are on sale via Ticketmaster.com or at the LSP Box Offices. Parking at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park is free for all Sporting Kansas City home matches.

Man City will clinch its first top-level league title in 44 years with a win, while QPR needs at least one point (or a Bolton Wanderers loss or tie at Stoke City) to be assured of remaining in the EPL.

Manchester United, which plays at Sunderland, must do better than Man. City does against QPR to overcome City’s current edge in the tiebreaker which is an 8 goal differential.

There’s also a battle for the third and fourth UEFA Champions League berths among Arsenal, Tottenham and Newcastle United. (The third-place team earns qualification for the group stage, while the fourth-place team heads to the qualifying stage.)

SURVIVAL SUNDAY
8:30 – Manchester City vs. Queens Park Rangers (ESPN2/3)
9:00 – Chelsea vs Blackburn (Speed)
9:00 – Bolton Wanderers vs Stoke City (Fox Soccer+)
9:00 – Tottenham v Fulham (Fox Soccer)
9:00 – Manchester United vs Sunderland (FX)
9:00 – West Brom vs Arsenal (Fox Sports Midwest)
9:00 – Liverpool vs Swansea (Fuel TV)
9:00 – Everton-Newcastle United (FoxSoccer2Go)
9:00 – Norwich City-Aston Villa (FoxSoccer2Go)
9:00 – Wigan-Wolves (FoxSoccer2Go)

It is the all-important semifinal stage where a win qualifies the U.S. for the 2012 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup in Azerbaijan. A loss would relegate the team to the third-place match, where the winner of that game would earn the third and final CONCACAF berth to the World Cup.

U.S. forward Summer Green (pictured) has nine goals in the tournament through three games, already matching the U.S. record for a U-17 World Cup Qualifying stage set by forward Lindsey Horan at the 2010 CONCACAF U-17 Women’s Championship in Costa Rica. Green will have two more games to eclipse Horan’s mark starting in the semifinal against Panama

$20/month or $170/year after that. Check it out now if you’ve been curious. You have until February 26th.

Here’s the upcoming schedule, which includes Rugby matches if you’ve got some bud’s involved in that game.

Contrast that to the game Friday night at the Home Depot Center where at best it was half-full and of those that were there, many were supporting the visitors.  10 years later, much has changed for American soccer fans.  We have unprecedented coverage of games on ESPN, with great production and announcers.  Soccer news is all over the Internet and even appears on SportsCenter and other mainstream media outlets.  When the US National Team plays, twitter is abuzz about the game.  Yet despite unprecedented coverage, people in Southern California refuse to attend, or better yet support our National Team.

Why US Soccer continues to put games in LA is baffling.  If they were short of funds, you could understand playing Mexico at the Rose Bowl or Coliseum would make sense from a financial standpoint.  But playing these games, in a half-full Home Depot Center makes no sense when there is demand for these games in other cities.  They could make more money and have a much friendlier crowd in pretty much every other city in the country.  Yet games are played at the Home Depot Center with tiny crowds and marginal support.

There are so many better candidates to host the National Team.  Portalnd sells out their stadium and gets larger crowds then what US Soccer got in LA for reserve team matches.  Seattle can always pull in a large Pro-American crowd.  Kansas City has the nicest stadium in the country, and has one of the largest supporters groups, American Outlaws Kansas City.  It is also close to other large American Outlaw groups that travel well from Des Moines and Omaha.

Although the result didn’t matter last night, in a year’s time the US will begin qualifying for the World Cup.  It is time to play games only in places where we can have a large Pro-American crowd and sell out the stadium.  Kansas City provided a great atmosphere 10 years ago and did it again last summer.  If US Soccer were smart, it would set up shop in KC.

Klinsmann is one of the greatest strikers to ever play the game and someone the players can look up to.   No past National Team coach in recent memory has had the playing career or experience that Klinsmann had.  He won the World Cup with West Germany in 1990, and at a minimum, our young strikers Jozy Altidore, Juan Agudelo, and Teal Bunbury should improve under his tutelage.   All 3 of these players are very young, a little raw, but with a lot of physical ability.  We’ve never had a world-class striker on our roster, and while the three players named above may never have the technical skill to develop into one, they can become great players under Klinsmann’s guidance.  With his accomplishments as a player, it will give him instant credibility with the current team.

He has also had a lot of success as a coach, leading Germany to a 3^rd place finish at the 2006 World Cup.  Following a disappointing Euro 2004, Germany named Klinsmann their head coach. The Germans had an aging squad, and needed to interject new players and new tactics.  Klinsmann elevated many young players into the starting line-up and also had the team play an attacking style.  The team played with an attacking flare that up to that point had rarely been seen from German teams.  This is very similar to the challenge facing him today with the US.

With the job openings at the Youth National Team Level, Klinsmann will have the opportunity to shape US Soccer for the considerable future.  Because of a pretty fortunate draw in World Cup Qualifying, Klinsmann will have at least the next 18 months to experiment with new young players and tactics without risking progression to the final round of qualifying.  It will be exciting to see who is brought into the team.  The goal should be bringing in players that can start in 2014, not necessarily the best players at the moment.

The turnaround will not be overnight and there will be a lot of growing pains in the future but finally US Soccer has shown a commitment to someone who has a vision for developing a world-class program.  For the first time in a year, there is excitement surrounding the future of the National Team, something Bradley could not do.  Hopefully, the hiring of Klinsmann is not 5 years too late.

SATURDAY, July 16
COLOMBIA-PERU, Quarterfinal (live) 2:55 pm.
ARGENTINA-URUGUAY, Quarterfinal (live) 6 pm.

SUNDAY, July 17
BRAZIL-PARAGUAY, Quarterfinal (live) 2:55 pm.
CHILE-VENEZUELA, Quarterfinal (live) 6 pm.

World Cup Watch Party at Farmers Gastropub by James Radke

Pre-game broadcast begins at 1:00 pm. Kick-off is scheduled for 1:45 pm.

The US defeated Japan twice in exhibition matches in May, played on the East Coast. University of Illinois head coach Janet Rayfield scouted those games and put together the following Match Analysis of those games. Will we achieve a similar result Sunday? Share the excitement with us at Farmers!

By the way, did you hear the team won Best Play at the Espy’s?

CHICAGO (July 14, 2011) – The U.S. Women’s National Team woke up in Germany this morning to the news that they won Best Play at the ESPY Awards on Wednesday night for Abby Wambach’s header in the second minute of stoppage time in the second and final 15-minute overtime period of the FIFA Women’s World Cup quarterfinal against Brazil. Wambach’s dramatic goal, the latest in Women’s World Cup history, forced the match into penalty kicks, where the U.S. went on to win the penalty shootout and earn a place in the semifinal against France.

WEDNESDAY, July 13
7:00 pm – NEW ENGLAND-MANCHESTER UNITED – ESPN2/ESPN3.com

SATURDAY, July 16
9:00 pm – LOS ANGELES-REAL MADRID – ESPN2/ESPN3.com

MONDAY, July 18
9:00 pm – VANCOUVER-MANCHESTER CITY -ESPN3.com

WEDNESDAY, July 20
10:00 pm – REAL MADRID-CHIVAS -ESPN3.com

Photo by Jack Gruber, USA TODAY Staff

Quarterfinals
In the first bracket, Germany who finished atop Group A will face Group B runner-up Japan, and Sweden Group C winner will face Group D runner-up Australia. In the second bracket, England Group B winner will face off against neighbor France who were runner-up in Group A while the United States, Group C runner-up will face off against Brazil the Group D winner. All games will be covered live on ESPN and ESPN3.com.

The Guardian offers a nice roundup of the four matches and if you need a reminder of the strides the game has made, check out Jennifer’s post looking back to THAT game (USA/Brazil, 2007).

Here’s the schedule for the Women’s World Cup quarterfinals:

Saturday July 9th
10:30 am – England vs. France
1:15 pm – Germany vs. Japan

Sunday July 10th
5:30 am – Sweden vs. Australia
10:00 am – Brazil vs. United States

The Semifinals are July 13th and the Final will be July 17th.

I’ll be at Maria’s for the game, enjoying a cold beverage and a late lunch. On a side note, the photo I used on this post has been drawing hundreds of visitors a day to this site since the World Cup started. Searches related to swedish women’s soccer team, sweden women’s soccer, swedish women’s soccer, and swedish women soccer team show this image as the first in Google Images. Sweet!

WINNER TAKES GROUP C: The USA will have trained in Wolfsburg for three days before the Sweden match, the result of which will determine the Group C winner. The USA needs a win or a draw to take to the top spot while Sweden needs to win. Both teams won their first two matches by shutouts, but the USA scored five goals while Sweden scored two, giving the USA the edge in goal differential which is the first tie-breaker to determine placement in the group.

While the USA and Sweden are both through to the quarterfinals, their opponents and venue are still to be determined based on the result of the final Group C match. Should the USA win the group, it will travel to Augsburg near Munich to face the second place team in Group D. Should the USA finish second, it will travel back to Dresden – site of its first match of the Women’s World Cup – to face the winner of Group D. Brazil is almost certain to win Group D while Norway and Australia will play on July 6 for second place. Australia needs just a tie to claim second while Norway, which suffered a 3-0 loss to Brazil that badly impacted its goal differential, needs to win. No matter where the USA finishes in Group C, its quarterfinal will take place on July 10.

The Argentinian national team-which is led by Sergio ‘Checho’ Batista-begins their journey with the goal of winning, for the first time in 18 years, while Bolivia is now ready to play and would be satisfied to reach the second round, something that has not happened since 1997, when the team reached the final and lost to Brazil in Bolivia. The Argentine motivation for this game, in particular, is to avenge the 6-1 thrashing they suffered from the Bolivians in La Paz, during the South American qualifiers for the World Cup in South Africa-2010.

However, Argentina approach Copa América less in hope than trepidation

Suddenly, there are no certainties. The relegation of River Plate last Sunday, an event that seemed impossible and yet in hindsight looks inevitable – a slow motion slither of nine games without a win at the end of the season as the cliff edge got closer and closer – has had a profound effect on the mood of Argentinian football. If something as seismic as River being relegated can happen, who knows what the Copa América, which begins on Friday, might bring.

Games are being broadcast on Telefutura and Univision but it also appears that YouTube will be streaming games live. Check out YouTube/CopaAmerica for team previews (see Argentina below) and games.

July 1 – Argentina vs. Bolivia (TeleFutura, 8:30 pm ET)
July 2 – Colombia vs. Costa Rica (Univision, 2:30 pm ET)