Soccer

Nov 21 2011

First MLS Cup win for David Beckham

CARSON, Calif.—The Los Angeles Galaxy won the 2011 MLS Cup Sunday night, defeating the Houston Dynamo, 1-0, on a 72nd-minute goal by Landon Donovan off assists by David Beckham and Robbie Keane.

Beckham began the scoring sequence by heading the ball to Keane, who passed to Donovan, who put a right-footed shot from about nine yards out diagonally past goalkeeper Tally Hall just inside the right goalpost.

The 36-year-old Beckham played all 90 minutes, despite a previously undisclosed torn hamstring, sustained in practice Tuesday.

Sep 8 2011

The event features 24 teams representing 19 African countries and Jamaica

Three hundred eighty-four semi-professional and amateur soccer players representing 19 African countries were featured in the first ever African Community Soccer Tournament that saw Sierra Leone’s Leone Stars defeat Cameroon’s L.A. Lions 2-1 to capture the first ACST Cup title.

Sep 1 2011

Olympic gold medalist

On Sept. 7, 1971, Olympic gold medalist in soccer Briana Colette Scurry was born, the youngest of nine children in Minneapolis, Minn., to Ernest and Robbie Scurry.

The first few years of her life were spent in inner-city Dayton, Minn. But when the family’s home began to sink into the unstable earth beneath it, they moved to Anoka, a suburban area where soccer was a common pastime.

The Scurry family was the only African American family in a four-town radius, but Scurry never felt singled out.

Jasmyne A. Cannick  |   OW Contributor
Aug 24 2011

24 teams represent 20 countries

Jerriel Xavier Biggles  |   OW High School Intern
Jul 21 2011

Hidden in the hills, region

One young group of soccer-mined Angelenos may have had more than a passing interest in the Women’s World Cup matches held in Frankfurt, Germany.

This would be Region 1031 South Los Angeles Chapter of the American Youth Soccer Organization (AYSO), which covers Baldwin Hills to Windsor Hills. The region has been in existence for nearly eight years and is home to a league that is half African American and half Latino and was definitely impacted by the World Cup finals, which the United States lost to Japan in penalty kicks.

Across Black America

Here’s a look at African American people and issues making headlines throughout the country.
 

Alabama
Freeman A. Hrabowski, president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, will address the annual African American Business Council luncheon on June 28. Hrabowski, who is chairman of President Barack Obama’s Advisory Commission on Education Excellence for African Americans, has a national reputation for his work studying the performance of minority students in math and science. Hrabowski, named one of the 10 best college presidents in the country by Time magazine, was a child leader in the Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham in the 1960s.
 

Arkansas
The Liberty Counsel filed a motion and a brief in United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas seeking to intervene on behalf of a Concepts of Life crisis pregnancy center to defend against a suit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Reproductive Rights. The groups seek to impose a permanent injunction before the Human Heartbeat Protection Act goes into effect July 18. Liberty Counsel also filed a brief opposing the ACLU’s request for an injunction. The “Heartbeat” bill states that when a woman seeks an abortion at or after the 12th week, doctors must test for a fetal heartbeat before an abortion is performed and inform the pregnant mother that the child in her womb has a heartbeat. If a heartbeat is detected, a woman cannot have an abortion, except in cases of rape, incest, and if a mother’s life is in danger. “As we promised when the legislation was introduced, Liberty Counsel will defend this law without reservation for the people of Arkansas, born and pre-born,” said Matt Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel. “No right is more foundational than the right to life. Without life, all other rights are irrelevant,” concluded Staver.