Another ex-Akron Player Flaunting His Skills in the MLS

Over the weekend, Dillon Serna became the most recent in a long list of former University of Akron players to make a splash in Major League Soccer.

In the diminutive midfielder’s case, it was via one of the goals of the season in the American top flight. Minutes into the second half, with his team down 1-0 after a goal from D.C. United’s Luis Silva in the 12th minute, Serna latched onto a header from Joshua Watts and from 30 yards out beat Bill Hamid with a powerful, dipping strike that found its way over Hamid’s head and into the bottom corner of the net.

Unfortunately, United would come back to even the score and eventually win 4-2, heaping on another slice of misery for the Rapids, currently seventh of nine teams in the Western Conference standings. Regardless of the result, what will linger on from the match for suffering Colorado supporters is the magic of the 20-year-old Serna and his potential as a future star for the club. Since his debut in 2013, the Brighton, Co. native has already amassed over 20 appearances with the first team.

Ironically, Serna is just the latest in what seems like a conveyor belt of talent coming out of Akron. The first notable Zips alum to appear in MLS was Kiwi defender Cameron Knowles, who appeared four times with Real Salt Lake from 2005-2006 before moving to the pre-MLS Portland Timbers for three years and eventually finishing his brief career with the Montreal Impact.

Since Knowles almost a decade ago, there have been over 20 other players who spent time at the university prior to starting their professional careers in the top flight. Some of the more familiar names include Teal Bunbury (New England Revolution), Steve Zakuani (Portland Timbers), former Red Bulls stalwart midfielder Siniša Ubiparipović and recent Tottenham Hotspur signing and United States international DeAndre Yedlin. Two others, Perry Kitchen of United and Darlington Nagbe of the Timbers, led Akron to its first ever NCAA title in 2010, with the Liberian later receiving the Hermann Trophy as the best player in college soccer for the year.

If Serna can keep scoring goals — he has three so far in 2014, along with three assists to put him among the Rapids’ top three players in production — then Akron, Colorado and American soccer fans can only be optimistic about the youngster’s future.

Peach of the Week #51: Millar Caps Off Wonderful Goal in Liga MX

It’s been a long while since I’ve updated thanks to a summer-long internship with ESPN. But, I’m back with bundles of storylines and a host of wonderful goals to share!

The first POW honor since the group stage of the World Cup was rightly earned by Chilean midfielder Rodrigo Millar, who capped off a wonderful team play to even the scoreline in what was eventually a 4-2 victory for  Atlas over Chiapas in Liga MX.

The 30-year-old has not gone unnoticed in his homeland, collecting just under 30 caps with the Chilean national team since 2002. This past summer, Jorge Sampaoli included him in his provisional 30-man squad for Brazil for his strong showing in an otherwise mediocre Atlas side that finished 15th and 12th in the past two seasons, respectively.

Before moving to Mexico in 2013, el Chino was rarely accustomed to the struggles he has faced with his new club. The staple of a highly-successful Colo-Colo squad which won four league championships between 2007 and 2009, Millar’s dynamic midfield play won him the most illustrious individual award in his country in 2010: Chilean Footballer of the Year.

Peach of the Week #50: Lionel Messi Saves Argentina at the Last Gasp

http://vimeo.com/98817547

There have been so many wonderful goals the World Cup this past week as the second round of fixtures wrapped up. Perhaps only by a wee distance, however, does Lionel Messi’s Argentina-saving strike against Iran edge out the rest.

It was always assumed that the diminutive Rosarian would be the lynchpin of his country’s attack in Brazil. But few probably expected Messi’s two strikes at the World Cup to be the difference between Argentina entering their last match qualified rather than in need of a result against Nigeria.

The 27-year-old has led the tournament in touches through two matches and is always trying to get onto the ball for a side that despite having the strongest attack in Brazil has only managed two goals from open play (one own goal against Bosnia in opening match). In the 2013-14 club season alone, Segio “Kun” Aguero (28 goals, 9 assists), Angel di Maria (11 goals, 26 assists), Gonzalo Higuain (24 goals, 11 assists), Rodrigo Palacio (19 goals, 7 assists) and Ezequiel Lavezzi (12 goals, 2 assists) were some of the most lethal forwards in Europe.

Messi, despite failing to win a single title with Barcelona for the first time since 2007, managed 41 goals and 11 assists in a season that was riddled by injury.

As he illustrated with this magical curler against Iran into stoppage time, Messi is nevertheless one of very few men at the tournament who is capable, with a mere flick of his boot, of deciding a match.

One thing is certain, unless the rest of the Argentine squad get their act together, it will be very difficult for the team to book a dream final against eternal rivals Brazil next month. But, that type of press is what Messi has always lived for, isn’t it?

Peach of the Week #48: Fredy Guarin Steps Up for Colombia in Friendly

In his country’s final friendly in the build-up to the World Cup, Fredy Guarin showed that Colombia may not be as dependent on a still-injured Falcao as everyone assumes.

The Inter Milan midfielder scored a long-range golazo in the 89th minute of a 3-0 blowout of Jordan, which surprisingly qualified for the AFC-CONMEBOL World Cup playoff in 2013 only to be walloped 5-0 in aggregate by Uruguay. Guarin has been considered one of the more promising Colombian players of the last generation, though he has often struggled to make good on the tagline.

The 27-year-old made his breakthrough with Porto, where he played from 2008-12, before being transferred to the Italian giants for €11 million in 2012. This past season, Guarin featured more than any of his fellow midfielders under Walter Mazzarri, making 35 appearances across all competitions as the team finished fifth in Serie A. He has been with the national team since 2006.

Colombia is in arguably the third weakest group at the World Cup, behind Group F and H. The Cafeteros will kick off against Greece on Saturday afternoon and are joined in Group C by Ivory Coast and Japan.

Greatest Goals of the World Cup: Phenomenal Run from Saeed Al-Owairan in USA 1994

Although Saudia Arabia has failed to find any success internationally since finishing second at the 2007 Asian Cup, there once was a time when the Green Falcons were the dominant force in Asian football.

The height of the nation’s prowess was the late 1980s and early nineties, when it won three Asian Cups (1984, 1988, 1996) and finished second in 1992, losing a 1-0 final to Japan. As a result, it was hardly a surprise when the team qualified for its first World Cup at the 1994 tournament.

Buoyed by a squad that contained arguably the greatest players in their soccer history, including the most capped, Mohamed Al-Deayea (172) and Mohammed Al-Khilaiwi (163), and all-time leading goalscorers, Majed Abdullah (71) and Sami Al-Jaber (46), Saudia Arabia stormed through qualifying and landed in Group B alongside Beligum, Morocco and the Netherlands.

In one of the tighter groups of the Cup, the unheralded Saudis opened up with an exciting, but ultimately disappointing 2-1 loss to the Dutch. However, the team found itself on the verge of qualification to the Round of 16 after overcoming Morocco 2-1 in its second match.

That is when Saad Al-Owairan made history against Belgium to not only earn the team a place in final 16, where the Green Falcons would lose 3-1 to eventual third-place finisher Sweden, but score a goal that would earn himself the nickname, “Maradona of the Arabs”.

The Europeans had won their first two matches by a 1-0 scoreline and just needed a draw against the Saudis to advance. However, in only the fifth minute of play, Owairan picked up a lose ball 30 yards from his own goal and raced down the field à la Diego Maradona in Argentina’s 2-1 win over England in 1986 to score a phenomenal solo effort that was enough for a slim victory.

The goal was ranked sixth on FIFA’s Goal of the Century list and won Owairan the AFC’s Asian Footballer of the Year award.

However, the player hit a downward spiral following his newly-acquired fame — the worst of it a one-year prison term after being arrested for drinking in public during Ramadan — and despite scoring 24 goals in 50 appearances for the national team and being called-up for the 1998 World Cup never again reached the same heights as ’94.

Peach of the Week #46: Long-Range Goal from Irish-American Wonderkid Shane O’Neill

In a 3-0 demolition of the Montreal Impact, Colorado Rapids’ youngster Shane O’Neill scored his first goal as a professional soccer player.

The 20-year-old defender hit the back of the net in the 58th minute, catching a deflected effort at the top of the penalty box and rifling it in to become the second academy product to score for the Rapids this season, after Dillon Serna in a loss to the Seattle Sounders last month.

O’Neill has already made 37 appearances for the club and his debut in 2012 came with grand expectation after he was named the Colorado High School Player of the Year in 2011. Months later, the center back chose to turn down a scholarship at the University of Virginia for a place in the Rapids’ senior squad. The Irish-born United States under-20 international has not disappointed, earning a starting spot for club and country in less than two seasons as a professional.

Apparently, O’Neill had placed a bet with fellow defender Chris Klute that the first to score would get an Xbox game from the other, so he now has that to look forward to along with the potential of a future call-up to the U.S. senior national team following the World Cup.

The youngster has not always been the best when it comes to friendly gambling, as a lost bet to the Sounders’ DeAndre Yedlin during the Super Bowl saw him eat a geoduck, arguably the nastiest bit of seafood in the Pacific Ocean.

Peach of the Week #45: Robin van Persie Rips a Goal against Ecuador

As the World Cup inches closer, qualified nations are fitting in friendlies to prepare themselves for what lies ahead In Brazil. As coaches try to chisel and rearrange their squads to determine which 23 players will be on the plane to South America, these friendlies are often the last chance for players to make their marks.

But, it is not always the players fighting to make the World Cup squad that shine, as Dutch veteran Robin van Persie showed in the Netherlands 1-1 draw with Ecuador over the weekend. With his team down 1-0 in the 37th minute, the 30-year old striker took down a wonderful 40-yard pass on his chest and smashed a trademark volley to even the scoreline.

The Dutchman has not enjoyed the best club season, scoring only 18 goals in 28 appearances across all competitions as Manchester United finished seventh in the Premier League table and won no silverware. Last season, Van Persie arrived in Manchester following a £24 million transfer from Arsenal, where he played for eight seasons and captained the side after Cesc Fabregas’ transfer to Barcelona, and finished as the league’s top goalscorer.

Although the Netherlands’ squad in Brazil will look much different than four years ago in South Africa, Van Persie and his fellow Dutch will once again be looking to stake a claim as one of the world’s better footballing nations. Along with Spain, who they lost to in extra-time in 2010 final, the Dutch will be joined by Chile and Australia in Group B.

Fast forward to 2:10 for the build-up to the goal!

Greatest Goals of the World Cup: Archie Gemmill’s Magic Feet in 1978

It was perhaps the most noteworthy goal of minimal significance to be scored at the 1978 World Cup.

With Scotland on its way out of the tournament, needing to defeat the 1974 finalists Netherlands by a three-goal margin in order to move into the second round, miniature midfielder Archie Gemmill popped up to give the nation the faintest bit of hope.

Already up 2-1 thanks to goals from Kenny Dalglish and a Gemmill penalty kick, the Scots advanced down the field with just over twenty minutes left to keep their World Cup dream alive. Outside of the area, Gemmill picked up the ball and dribbled splendidly past three Dutch to find himself one-on-one with the keeper. Cleverly, the midfielder blasted a shot over and through the onrushing Jan Jongbloed to make it 3-1 in the 68th minute.

Three minutes later, Gemmill played his part in another goal; this time it was for the Netherlands, however, as a deflection off his leg flew in past Alan Rough to make it 3-2. The match would end by the same scoreline and Scotland were eliminated, while the Dutch once again reached the final, where they fell 3-1 to host nation Argentina.

The 5 ft. 5 playmaker would play for the national team until 1981 and fully retired from professional football after a three-year reunion with Derby County in 1984 (Gemmill had won two First Division titles and a Charity Shield with the club in the mid-1970s). He coached briefly, with his second and last gig coming as Scotland u-19 manager from 2005-2009.

Gemmill’s son, Scott, would also enjoy a a successful playing career and was capped for Scotland on 26 occasions before retiring in 2007. He is currently the manager of the nation’s u-19 selection team.

Peach of the Week #44: Franco Brienza Lights Up AC Milan with Long-Range Golazo

For the third week in succession, an episode of racism overshadowed what was an otherwise highly-emotional and entertaining football match.

Two weeks ago it was the now viral banana-throwing incident between Villarreal fans and Dani Alves of Barcelona, then last week a handful of Atletico Madrid fans aimed monkey chants toward Levante players. And on this occasion, Italian football, which is too often the breeding ground for improper, discriminatory behavior from fans, witnessed its own banana-throwing controversy as AC Milan traveled to face Atalanta with their hopes of European competition next season on the line.

On the field of play, sensible fans were treated to an intense meeting between two teams that have each struggled for consistency all season.

Coincidentally, it was an own goal that put Milan ahead, before German Denis leveled the scored with a penalty-kick goal.

In the 95th minute, twice-capped Italy international Franco Brienza decisively put Milan’s slim continental aspirations to the sword with a ludicrous long-range strike that settled the scoreline 2-1 in Atalanta’s favor.

Despite the phenomenal skill shown in the goal, the veteran winger has only been an occasional contributor this season and is rarely heralded after a career that has seen him rise through the ranks at Palermo, where he played for eight years as the team rose from Serie C1 to Serie A, to three-year stints with Reggina and Siena.

This goal will at least ensured that he’s remembered a little better than before.

Greatest Goals of the World Cup: Argentina’s Tiki-Taka Rips Open Serbia in Germany

What better way to countdown the month leading up to the World Cup in Brazil than by turning back the clock on some of the greatest goals of the competition’s history.

We kick off this little series of historic golazos than with none other than Esteban Cambiasso’s sensational finish for Argentina’s second goal of a 6-0 victory over Serbia and Montenegro at the 2006 World Cup.

On as an early substitute for Lucho González, the Inter Milan midfielder capped off a 24-pass move with a wonderful finish past Dragoslav Jevrić for the South Americans’ second goal of the evening. It was tiki-taka’s finest moment two years before Pep Gaurdiola was credited with its invention at Barcelona.

On that evening in the Veltins-Arena, Argentina scored another four goals for a resounding 6-0 victory over the World Cup debutantes.

La Albiceleste went on to reach quarterfinals of the tournament, where the team fell in penalty kicks to Germany. Cambiasso was not as lucky on that occasion, missing the decisive spot kick to hand the hosts a 1-1 (4-2) triumph.

With former international teammate Javier Zanetti in his final season before retiring from professional football, Cambiasso has recently  taken over the captain’s armband at Inter, where has has been a stalwart in midfield since his arrival in 2004.

Despite his consistently impressive club form over the years, the bald-headed maestro has rarely featured for Argentina after the dismissal of coach Alfio Basile in 2007. He has not been called up to the senior squad since 2011.