VANCOUVER, B.C. – Former Canadian international and Vancouver Whitecaps FC Director of Soccer Operations, Bob Lenarduzzi, is in Victoria today to receive the Order of British Columbia.
Bob Lenarduzzi has been a Vancouver sports icon for over two decades, excelling as a player, coach, and general manager. Over his career, he has represented Canada at World Cup and Olympic levels. As a player and coach with the 86ers, he won four straight Canadian league championships, making him the most successful coach in Vancouver professional sports history. He was twice named Canadian Soccer League’s coach of the year. He has also spent countless hours promoting and fostering soccer in Canada, running numerous youth camps and clinics.
The eighth edition of the CONCACAF Gold Cup™ will take place in a record seven stadiums in six cities across the USA from 6-24 July. The 2005 event features more games in more cities than ever before will once again crown the region’s top national team.
Group A, the first of three First Round Groups, which will be based in Miami’s Orange Bowl, contains Central American Qualifiers Honduras and Panama, Trinidad & Tobago from the Caribbean and one of two guest teams, Colombia.
In Group B, playing games in Seattle’s Qwest Field before moving to the Gillette Stadium in Foxboro near Boston, includes Central American champions Costa Rica, both Canada and the USA from North America and Cuba from the Caribbean.
Canada’s Katie Thorlakson, has been nominated for an ESPY Award. The ESPY Awards were created by sports channel ESPN in 1993 and are presented for Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly. The 2005 ESPY Awards will be held at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles for the fourth straight year. Past venues include the MGM Grand (2000-01), The Paramount at Madison Square Garden (1993-94) and Radio City Music Hall (1995-99). [cast your vote] Thorlakson, who plays college soccer for Notre Dame, was chosen as the 2004 Soccer America Women’s Player of the Year. The forward finished her junior season with 70 points (23 g, 24 a), placing herself in the company of UNC’s Mia Hamm and Lindsay Tarpley and Santa Clara’s Mandy Clemens as the only players to reach 23 goals and 23 assists in one season. She tallied 27 points (9 g, 9 a) in Notre Dame’s nine postseason games, setting a new Irish record for points in one postseason. She broke Anne Makinen’s record set in 1997 (19 pts: 8 g, 3 a) with a goal in ND’s 2-0 win over Connecticut (Nov. 20). She led the Irish to the national championship.
Ottawa, Ontario – Canada’s Women’s World Cup Team will play the United States at 3:00 pm ET on Sunday, June 26 at the Virginia Beach Sportsplex in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
Eighteen players have been selected for the friendly including veteran Charmaine Hooper who has been capped 121 times for Canada.
The Vancouver Whitecaps are impressively represented with seven members listed on the roster; Sasha Andrews (Edmonton, AB), Randee Hermus (Langley, BC), Kara Lang (Oakville, ON), Andrea Neil (Vancouver, BC), Sophie Schmidt (Abbotsford, BC), Katie Thorlakson (Langley, BC), and Brittany Timko (Coquitlam, BC).
In their last encounter, Canada suffered a 1-0 loss in a friendly played in Nashville, Tennessee on July 3, 2004.
Fans can follow the game live on ussoccer.com’s MatchTracker.
Ottawa, Ontario – L’équipe canadienne féminine de Coupe du monde affrontera les États-Unis, dimanche le 26 juin à 15 h 00 (heure de l’Est) au Sportsplex de Virginia Beach, en Virginie.
Dix-huit joueuses ont été sélectionnées pour ce match amical, incluant le vétéran Charmaine Hooper, qui compte 121 sélections pour le Canada.
Les Whitecaps de Vancouver ont sept représentantes au sein de l’alignement : Sasha Andrews (Edmonton, AB), Randee Hermus (Langley, C.-B.), Kara Lang (Oakville, ON), Andrea Neil (Vancouver, C.-B.), Sophie Schmidt (Abbotsford, C.-B.), Katie Thorlakson (Langley, C.-B.), and Brittany Timko (Coquitlam, C.-B.).
Ottawa, Ontario – Canadian Men’s World Cup Team head coach Frank Yallop today named his 19-man roster for the Gold Cup training camp and international friendly against Honduras on July 2 at Swangard Stadium. He also released his official 23-man roster for the Gold Cup. Only players from the 23-man roster are eligible for the competition. “These 19 players are the ones I plan to use during the tournament,” said Yallop. “If we have to make any changes then we can bring in another player from the 23-man roster. The camp will allow us to get some of our players who have not played in a while get closer to game shape. The game against Honduras will be a perfect warm up for us as it gives us another CONCACAF opponent.” Yallop has selected two USL First Division goalkeepers in Montreal’s Greg Sutton and Vancouver’s Mike Franks as his two goalkeepers. Sutton earned a shutout against Northern Ireland in his last game on February 12, 2005. Franks marks his return to the senior squad for the first time since the 2001 Confederations Cup. He attended a development camp in Florida earlier this month.
Ottawa, Ontario – The Canadian Soccer Association today named Peter Montopoli, effective August 8, 2005 through to August 31, 2007 as Event Director for the upcoming FIFA U-20 World Cup. “I am delighted to be able to welcome Peter Montopoli as Event Director of the FIFIFA U-20 World Cup, FIFA’s second largest event,” said CSA President Andy Sharpe. “Peter is an innovative and internationally recognized Marketing Executive with over 20 years of sport leadership knowledge and success. He has extensive Event Management experience with Basketball Ontario, Basketball Canada and for the past 12 years with Skate Canada. At Skate Canada he was responsible for the creation and implementation of all strategic and operational business plans for the Events and Marketing division including growing an internationally acclaimed Skating event and sport marketing business (250% over a five year period), as well as leading an $18M World Championship. Trusted and well respected, Peter has a reputation for building long term, win-win partnerships within the sporting and business community.”
The Canadian Soccer Association is seeking the services of a full-time Manager, Media Relations, beginning July 18, 2005.
The position requires a bilingual, dynamic individual with extensive media relations experience and strong writing skills, who is able and willing to travel. A soccer background would be an asset.
The main responsibilities of the position involve maintaining day to day relations with national and international media, writing all CSA media releases and game reports, providing on site media support for most CSA home games and working in close partnership with the CSA web site administrator to promote national team players and games.
The position calls for a person with good interpersonal skills who is willing to work in a team-oriented environment. The individual will work at the CSA head office in Ottawa.
Applications for this position must be received by June 17, 2005. Only those candidates who receive an interview will be contacted. Please fax your applications to 613-237-1516 or email them to employment@soccercan.ca.
Ottawa, Ontario – Canadian Men’s National Team head coach Frank Yallop today named his roster for the upcoming training camp to be held in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida from June 4-9. Yallop has selected the majority of his players from the Canadian USL First Division teams with six players from the defending champion Montreal Impact, three from the Vancouver Whitecaps and one from the Toronto Lynx. The Impact players selected include goalkeeper Andrew Olivieri, defenders Adam Braz and Gabriel Gervais, midfielders Mesut Mert and Patrick Leduc and forward Ali Gerba who was acquired from Toronto last week.