Dallas Related Soccer Articles and News by Soccer DFW

Keller jumps ahead of defending state champ Carroll

nico van thyn — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 15:40:29 GMT

Christian Perkins is only a sophomore at Keller High, but he was aware of how much Friday night's 2-1 victory against Southlake Carroll meant to his team. Perkins scored both goals for the Indians -- in the 18th and 25th minutes -- and Keller held off the Dragons' comeback attempts in a District 7-5A game at the Keller ISD Stadium.

"It's really exhilarating to beat them," Perkins said moments after Keller's postgame huddle broke up. "They won the national championship last year, and the state championship. They're a big rival for us. They're everybody's biggest rival."

It's not the caliber of the Dragons' undefeated Class 5A state champs of a year ago -- this team is 6-4-3, 1-1 -- but Keller coach Jason Bates was happy that his team, at 2-0 in the district (and 5-3 overall), became one of the targeted teams in 7-5A.

"The district is always very tight, so every district win is a big win," Bates said, "but we had a little bit of a grudge with them. They knocked us out of the playoffs last year, so we wanted to come out and prove ourselves a little bit. Obviously we did that. It was fun."

In a game that started an hour earlier than scheduled because of the threat of rain and lightning, Perkins' first goal came when he took in a timely throughball from fellow forward Brandon Castro down the middle and got behind the Carroll defense.

"It was a one-on-one with the keeper," Perkins said. "He came out and I tapped it around him."

On the second goal, Perkins was on the right side when he collected a cross from Jackson Weddle "from 18 yards out. I was right at the penalty spot; the goalie missed the ball and so did another guy and I got it through there."

Carroll coach Greg Oglesby said "they scored a good goal on the first one; they broke us down. The second goal was just a lucky bounce, caromed off a player and he knocked it in."

Those goals offset a 32nd minute strike by Carroll's Winslow Horne, "a laser beam from 40 yards" as Oglesby called it. "The keeper was off his line a bit, so he had no chance."

The second half was a standoff, with Keller goalie Richard Mayse picking off several Carroll free-kick and long-chip attempts that were on goal and, most spectacularly, making a last-second punch of a dangerous free kick by Walker Beasley that ended up hitting the crossbar and went over the top of the net.

Oglesby also liked the play of his goalie, Turner Roberts, who kept the Dragons in it by stopping no fewer than four strong point-blank shots. "He had a very good game," said Oglesby. "Neither goal was his responsibility, really."

Bates also credited the strong efforts of Castro, whose strength and speed helped him make several strong runs that threatened the Keller defense, and Jared Poling. Poling played an outside midfield position in the first half, then up front to start the second half and finally dropped back into the defensive midfield for the game's last 20 minutes.

"Castro has been hurt, so we had to limit him a little bit tonight, but we had to go with him," Bates said. "He did very well. He's very dangerous and he's slippery for a big guy."

"Both teams fought very hard," Oglesby said. "... We hit a post in the first half, hit the crossbar in the second half. So we had some good chances to score. At the end of the day, they put two in and we put one in." And he noted, "I think they were excited."

"It's very competitive [in the district]," Bates said. "It was a competitive game."

ead more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/02/03/3710547/keller-jumps-ahead-of-defending.html#storylink=cpy

US Women to hold public training session Friday in Frisco

staff — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 20:09:24 GMT

The US Womens National Team will be holding a public traning session on Friday at FC Dallas Stadium from 11am to 12:30pm in Frisco. The East Gate of the stadium will open at 10:30am and admission is free. Fans wishing to attend the open training session are requested to register by logging onto this site to RSVP: http://www.ussoccer.com/Forms/021012-WNT-Public-Training.aspx.

The American Women will face New Zealand on Saturday at FC Dallas Stadium in what will be the first Women’s match following their successful Olympic Qualifying campaign where they scored 38 goals en route to a first-place finish. Kickoff is at 3pm.

The game marks the first time the WNT will face New Zealand since the 4-0 win in the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. It is also the first time the US Women return to Texas since May 2007. They are unbeaten in Texas and has only lost once to New Zealand in eight meetings, their first matchup in 1987.

More than 16,000 tickets have already been sold for the match, and tickets are still available through ussoccer.com, by phone at 1-800-745-3000 and at all Ticketmaster ticket centers throughout the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex (including Walmart and Fiesta stores).

US Soccer will send out additional information about the session, stadium access points, parking, etc., via email 24 hours prior to the event to those who RSVP. All training times and locations are subject to change.

Local Area Boys College Soccer Signings for 2012

staff — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 10:45:24 GMT

Here are the local North Texas area boys high school players who have signed letters of intent to play college soccer next year. Congratulations to all the boys heading on to the next level of soccer! The 2012 boys college soccer signings list:

AIR FORCE
Blake Elder from Keller Central    HS and Solar Chelsea
Ryan Ward from Frisco Wakeland HS and Dallas Texans

AKRON
Alfred Koroma from Southlake Carroll and Solar Chelsea

ARMY
Cody Guerry from South Kent School and Dallas Texans

AUSTIN COLLEGE
Caleb Walters from Allen HS

BRADLEY
J.T. Kotowski from Keller HS and Dallas Texans

CARNEGIE MELLON UNIV
William "Connor" Webb from JJ Pearce HS and Solar Chelsea

CENTRAL FLORIDA
Mason Miller from Lake Highlands HS and Solar Chelsea

COLORADO SCHOOL OF MINES
Joe Haines from McKinney Boyd HS and Dallas Texans

DENVER
Chandler Crosswait from LD Bell HS and Solar Chelsea
Reagan Dunk from Lake Highlands HS and Solar Chelsea

DUKE
Zachary Mathers    from Keller HS and Solar Chelsea

FLORIDA GULF COAST
Aaron Guillen of FC Dallas

HARVARD
Mark Ashby from Denton Ryan and FC Dallas

HOLY CROSS
Kevin Wright from McKinney Boyd HS and Dallas Texans

HOUSTON BAPTIST
Diego Gutierrez    from Frisco Centennial    and Texas FC
Michael Greenfeld from Mansfield HS and DFW Tejanos

KENTUCKY
Caleb Richardson from FM Marcus and Dallas Texans
Jacob Speed from Mansfield and Dallas Texans

MARYLAND
Michael Ambrose of FC Dallas

MEMPHIS
Owen Kalis from Jesuit College Prep and Dallas Texans

MICHIGAN STATE
Zachary Bennett    from Plano HS and USSDA Solar Chelsea

MIDWESTERN STATE
Sylvester Contreras from Irving Nimitz HS
Jake Miller from DFW Tejanos
Javan Toledo from Prosper HS and Andromeda

NEW MEXICO
Nicholas Rochowski from Flower Mound HS and FC Dallas

NORTH CAROLINA
Daniel Garcia from WT White HS and FC Dallas

NORTHWESTERN
Cole Missimo from Prestonwood Christian and Solar Chelsea

OLD DOMINION
Ryan Condotta from Keller HS and Solar Chelsea
Geoff Hill from Wakeland HS and Dallas Texans
Andre Reyes from FM Marcus HS and Dallas Texans

PROVIDENCE
Dalton Eudy from Jesuit and Solar Chelsea

SMU
Brenden Lee from Frisco Centennial and Solar Chelsea
Murphy Short from Lake Highlands HS and Solar Chelsea

SOUTHWESTERN BAPTIST DII
Gavin Bryant from North Crowley HS and DFW Tejanos

ST EDWARDS UNIV
Adam Bonville from Coppell HS and Solar Chelsea
Collin Cullum from FM Marcus HS
Ryan Dendinger from Jesuit College Prep and Dallas Texans
Phillip Ellis from Coppell HS
Nick Krueger from Flower Mound HS

UC RIVERSIDE
Ashkan Khosravi    from Plano West and Dallas Texans

UT DALLAS
Robby Castetter from Keller Fossil Ridge and DFW Tejanos
Brian Martinez from Rockwall HS
Michael Matthews from TCA-Addison

UT TYLER
Reed Casterlin from Arlington HS
Matt Smith from FM Marcus HS

WEST TEXAS A&M
Gunner Day from Bethesda Christian and DFW Tejanos
Andrew Monaghan from Keller HS and DFW Tejanos

WEST VIRGINIA
Kyle Underwood from Aledo HS and Dallas Texans

WOFFORD
Connor Copeland from Mansfield Legacy and Andromeda

Check here for the national D1 mens college signings list

Academy players miss Keller's signing day event

brent shirley — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 10:30:17 GMT

A quartet of soccer players gathered Wednesday afternoon at the Keller Soccer Association building to finalize their scholarships on National Signing Day. Earlier during school hours, Keller High School football players and other athletes were at a school-sponsored signing ceremony.

A new USSF rule prohibits its academy players from high school level competition in order to accommodate the organization's 10-month schedule. Because club tournaments attract college scouts and scholarship offers, J.T. Kotowski (Bradley University signee), Kyle Pujats (St. Edward's), Zach Mathers (Duke) and Ryan Condatta (Old Dominion) had to pass on the UIL game.

"Obviously I had to play academy," said Kotowski, who lettered for three years at Keller. "Even though I wanted to finish my high school career, there's no exposure collegiately if you play just high school." Keller schools athletic director Bob DeJonge said Wednesday's district activities were for athletes who participate in school-sponsored sports. "I applaud those players for their success," DeJonge said. "But the process that we go through for having scholarship signing day ceremonies are for kids who are currently in our programs."

After making their decision, the four Keller seniors, with 12 varsity letters between them, have had to answer constant questions from classmates who think they abandoned their team.

"People say we've already committed to playing for these colleges, why don't we just quit the academies and play high school," Mathers said. "But those college coaches want to see us play at the highest level possible as long as they can."

The situation is frustrating for area coaches as well, who lost much of their top talent to the three big Dallas academy teams: Solar, Andromeda and the Texans. "All of the boys who are actually playing for Keller right now, all they hear about and see written is about the academy players," Keller coach Jason Bates said. "The kids who left made their choice."

The players' parents disagree. "These kids are students first, and you have to make good grades for an opportunity at a scholarship," Jim Pujats said. "I don't think that was taken into consideration at all. That's what's most disappointing."

"In a few years, the issue will dissipate, as players will commit to an academy and never play at the high school level. For now, however, the split is fresh. It's not the kids fault that they had to make that choice." Solar coach Kevin Smith said. "For their development in soccer, choosing academy was their best move. There's nothing we can do to change it. It's the new rules we have to go by. I don't think it's right that they can't go sign their letters of intent after giving three good years to their school. But there's no win-win. There are two sides and the kids are caught in the middle."

Brek Shea and Blas Perez arrive at FC Dallas training camp

staff — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 21:24:19 GMT

Newly acquired forward Blas Pérez and returning midfielder Brek Shea were excited to arrive for FC Dallas preseason camp on Monday morning and no one was happier than manager Schellas Hyndman to finally have them.

“It’s been kind of interesting situation because we’ve had so many players not here or injured,” Hyndman told MLSsoccer.com on Monday. “Now that we’re starting to get the players in, the level of practice is raising and there’s more excitement. It’s fantastic.”

Both players competed in last week’s friendly match between the US and Panama in Panama City, and both were given time off to recover before Monday’s session. Hyndman is aware that Shea has had little rest this offseason following the team’s 48-game campaign in 2011.

“I even said to Brek, ‘If you need more time, let me know,’” said Hyndman. “He’s been non-stop since last year. He had the national team call-up, went to Arsenal, had another national team call-up and now he’s back at training.”

Despite the offer from his manager, Shea was ready to join the team on Monday morning. The midfielder, who had a breakout season in 2011, expressed that he felt great physically and denied having heavy legs entering camp. In fact, he spent extra time on the field after practice, working to improve his close range finishing touch.

“I think I need to improve on everything I do,” said Shea. “You look at one of Arsenal’s top players, Robin van Persie – he’s still telling me that he needs to improve on things. You can never be satisfied or you’ll fall off quickly.”

Monday also marked the beginning of the Blas Pérez era in Dallas. Pérez joins the team having played last season with Club León of the Mexican second division, scoring 19 goals in just 23 starts. The club targeted Pérez for his individual skills as a striker, but the Panamanian was quick to point out the need to gel with his new team.

“I’m happy and motivated,” Pérez said through a translator. “I’m ready to do things the right way and play together as a group.”

The 6-foot-1 forward flashed his skills as a deadly finisher in his first training session, showing both power and accuracy with his right foot from distance, as well as his creativity from close range. With Shea and midfielder Fabián Castillo providing excellent service to Pérez in drills, it’s easy to envision a dangerous FC Dallas attack in the coming season.

“They are great players who are very talented,” said Pérez of his new teammates. “As we come together as a group, I think we are going to have a great chance to win a title.”