Random News from around the globe 2011

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American Samoa had played 30 men’s soccer matches since starting
international play in 1994. It had lost all 30, by a combined score of
229-12, and was tied for last in the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.].

On Tuesday, the tiny, unincorporated [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] finally broke through, defeating [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], in a prequalifying match for the 2014 World Cup.

The American Samoa defense was bolstered by Johnny Saelua, who is
believed to be the first transgender athlete to compete in a World Cup
qualifying match. Saelua is part of the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], biological males who identify as a third sex that is widely accepted in Polynesian culture.

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Six members of the Etoile Filante soccer club died in a bus accident on
Saturday in Togo and 25 people were injured, said a spokesman for the
country's soccer federation.

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Ohio Wesleyan beat Calvin, 2-1, on Saturday night in San Antonio [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]. The title was the second for Ohio Wesleyan and its coach, [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.],
who earned his 608th career victory in the final. That set a record for
the most wins by any coach at any level in college men’s soccer.

But the championship, and the milestone, do not begin to tell the story of the Battling Bishops’ week in Texas.

Ohio
Wesleyan arrived in San Antonio on Wednesday, and the first thing the
players and coaches did was head out for a meal. While they ate, someone
broke into the team’s two rented vans, which were parked outside the
restaurant. Less than an hour after leaving the airport, they [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] from their soccer balls to their homework.

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Finally, Stanford got the ending right. After going unbeaten before
falling in the last two Women's College Cup finals, the Cardinal capped
another unbeaten campaign with a 1-0 victory over Duke to capture its
first NCAA Division I title Sunday at KSU Soccer Stadium in Kennesaw,
Ga.

The "heading the ball causes damage to the brain" issue continues. This time: a study in the New York Times.

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The researchers found, according to data they presented at a [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
meeting last month, that the players who had headed the ball more than
about 1,100 times in the previous 12 months showed significant loss of
white matter in parts of their brains involved with memory, attention
and the processing of visual information, compared with players who had
headed the ball fewer times. (White matter is the brain’s communication
wiring, the axons and other structures that relay messages between
neurons.)

I just thank the gawds above for Abby Wambach's parents never telling her to not head the ball.

Her messed up neurons are fabulously wrapped by a wonderfully skilled skull!

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UEFA President Michel Platini is confident there was
nothing suspicious about Lyon’s 7-1 win over Dinamo Zagreb in the Champions
League.

“I have no doubts whatsoever about the integrity of the match or the
competition,” Platini said after a UEFA executive committee meeting on
Thursday. “I believe in this competition and I believe in the integrity of the
players in this competition."

UEFA’s gambling fraud detection system has not detected any suspicious
betting patterns.

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"We have to reduce our expectations of England and we have the players to do it" – STEVE McCLAREN

"It's
a huge honour to wear the number seven at Liverpool. I think about the
legends: Dalglish, Keegan and that Australian guy" – LUIS SUAREZ

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An Englishman Abandons the Beautiful Game for the NFL; Like a Chess Match—With Violence

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Former Atalanta captain Cristiano Doni and 16 other
people have been arrested across Italy in an ongoing investigation into
soccer match-fixing and illegal betting.

“This is not the end, but just a starting point,” Cremona prosecutor
Roberto Di Martino said Monday. “Let’s hope it’s a starting point in
cleaning up the beautiful game that is football. One of the suspects has
admitted that these operations have been going on for over 10 years.