Gatorade National Girls Soccer Player of the Year: Morgan Brian
Gold Medalist and Two-Time Gatorade State Girls Soccer Player of the Year Cat Reddick Whitehill Surprises Standout with Elite Honor
In its 26th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, The Gatorade Company, in collaboration with ESPN RISE, announced Morgan Brian of Frederica Academy (St. Simons, Ga.) as its 2010-11 Gatorade National Girls Soccer Player of the Year. Brian was surprised with the news in a meeting with her teammates by Atlanta Beat (Women’s Professional Soccer) and former U.S. Women’s National Team defender Cat Reddick Whitehill, also a two-time Gatorade State Girls Soccer Player of the Year.
“It felt great to surprise Morgan with the Gatorade National Girls Soccer Player of the Year award and welcome her into one of the most prestigious legacy programs in high school sports,” said 2004 gold medalist Cat Reddick Whitehill. ”Gatorade has been on the sidelines fueling athletic performance for years, so to be recognized by a brand that understands the game and truly helps athletes perform is a huge honor for these kids.”
As the recipient of the 230th Gatorade National Player of the Year trophy to be awarded since 1985, Brian becomes the first student-athlete from the state of Georgia to earn Gatorade National Girls Soccer Player of the Year honors. Only three other Georgians have earned Gatorade National Player of the Year recognition in any sport—highlighted by NBA superstar Dwight Howard of Southwest Atlanta Christian Academy (2003-04, Atlanta) and 2011 WNBA Draft No. 1 pick Maya Moore of Collins Hill HS (2006-07, Suwanee). Read more
Monarcas Morelia Crowned Champions of 2010 SuperLiga US-Mexico Soccer Club Tournament
2-1 Victory Over New England Revolution Puts Morelia Over the Top in the Eight Team Tournament
Grupo Salinas, a group of dynamic, fast-growing and technologically advanced companies deeply committed to the modernization of the countries in which they operate, founded by Ricardo Salinas (www.ricardosalinas.com), is proud to announce the 2-1 victory of its Monarcas Morelia (www.fuerzamonarca.com) squad against the New England Revolution in the final match of the SuperLiga US-Mexico soccer club championship.
The SuperLiga debuted in 2007 as a competition to bring together top teams of the Primera Division of Mexico and Major League Soccer (MLS) of the United States, the top divisions in each country. To date, the tournament has been won by Mexican clubs in three occasions, with the sole MLS victory by the New England Revolution in 2007.
This year’s tournament featured Monarcas Morelia, Puebla, Pumas and Pachuca from Mexico’s Primera Division and New England Revolution, Houston Dynamos, Chivas USA and Chicago Fire from MLS.
The first round was held July 14-21 in Houston, Carson, CA; Foxborough, MA and Bridgeview, IL. The knockout round included a 5-3 win by New England over Puebla in penalty kicks on Aug. 4 at the Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, and a 1-0 win by Monarcas Morelia over Houston at the Robertson Stadium in Houston on Aug. 5.
Monarcas Morelia also was awarded the purse of $1,000,000 for winning the championship. Monarcas Morelia striker Miguel Sabah, who also plays for the Mexican National Team, was the leading scorer, with four goals for the tournament.
Following the victory, Ricardo Salinas sent a special congratulations to the team through Twitter (@RicardoBSalinas) and Facebook, lauding the passion and effort exhibited in the victory.
adidas and Major League Soccer Extend Partnership
New Agreement Will Shape Future of Soccer in North America
adidas and Major League Soccer announced an extension to their strategic partnership agreement aimed at further elevating soccer in the United States and developing opportunities for young players. The partnership extends adidas’ position as the official athletic sponsor and product supplier for the MLS through 2018.
Core to the new agreement is a dedicated focus on youth development and programming to help shape the future of the sport in North America.
“The United States is a breeding ground for athletic talent and we need to ensure our homegrown athletes have viable opportunities to play soccer at the highest level,” said Patrik Nilsson, president, adidas America. “We need to accelerate the model for soccer development in North America to attract and keep elite talent engaged and excited about professional opportunities in the sport. We share a long-term vision with MLS to develop the game and are excited to foster the next generation of American soccer stars.”
adidas has been a partner of MLS since the league’s inception in 1996. In 2004, adidas and MLS announced an exclusive partnership agreement that named adidas the official athletic sponsor and product supplier, outfitting all league teams and supplying the league’s official match ball. Read more
Record-Breaking Kick-Off for FIFA.com With 265 Million Page Views on 15 June
With fans around the world excitedly cheering on their teams, FIFA announced another record for visitors to its website FIFA.com. On 15 June, 265 million pages were accessed by nearly 10 million visitors, when Brazil beat Korea DPR in their debut game. This builds on the total of 1.6 billion pages accessed by nearly 53 million individuals on FIFA.com in the first two weeks of June – a record in itself.
By comparison, a total of 48 million unique users visited FIFA.com over the entire four weeks of the 2006 World Cup. The previous daily record was set on 22 June 2006 when tournament winners Italy played the Czech Republic and generated 250 million views.
Beyond FIFA.com itself, FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter is making a major impact with his comments on Twitter. His page, http://www.twitter.com/seppblatter, launched on 10th June, is now one of the fastest-growing on the social networking site, with his vuvuzuela tweet attracting followers at a rate of 9 per second.
The free FIFA.com Club now welcomes over 4 million registered users from around the world, 14% of them women, who interact, comment and win prizes, while more than 300 million Virtual Panini stickers have been ‘glued’ into place and 633,000 fans have tested their knowledge with the site’s Trivia game.
Italy’s captain Fabio Cannavaro has proved a durable idol: the most popular photo on the site remains the shot of him triumphantly holding aloft the World Cup Trophy in 2006.
ESPN Deportes travels to Spain for coverage of La Liga’s El Clasico
Unparalleled coverage across multiple platforms all week from Madrid, Spain
Continuing its extensive multi-platform coverage of the 2009-2010 season of Spain’s La Liga, ESPN Deportes travels to Spain to provide live television, radio and online coverage of El Clasico – Barcelona vs. Real Madrid, Saturday, April 10 at 4 p.m. ET from the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium in Madrid. In addition to coverage on ESPN Deportes and ESPN Deportes Radio, ESPN3.com will also offer live coverage in English and Spanish.
Television commentary will be handled by Jorge Ramos and Michael Laudrup (play-by-play) and World Cup champion Mario Kempes (analysis) in the television booth and Martin Ainstein reporting from the pitch. Radio coverage will be lead by La Liga commentators Fernando Palomo (play-by-play) alongside Hernan Pereyra (analysis).
PROGRAMMING HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE:
– More then 15 hours of La Liga-related programming across ESPN Deportes brands all week-long;
– At least 10 on-air commentators (hosts, analysts, reporters, contributors) live from Santiago Bernabeu;
– SportsCenter (M-F; 11 p.m. ET and 2 a.m. ET) – F. Palomo will be reporting all week long from the Nou Camp in Barcelona, while Martin Ainstein will follow Real Madrid, reporting from Valdebebas and Santiago Bernabeu. On Friday, April 9, SportsCenter will have special coverage from Bernabeu featuring segments with Jose Ramon Fernandez, M. Kempes, M. Laudrup, and F. Palomo;
– Los Capitanes (M-F; 3-4 p.m. ET) – in anticipation of the match, the network’s newest commentary program will feature special reports from Barcelona and Madrid throughout the entire week;
– Cronometro (Spanish-language original version of Pardon Interruption; Friday, April 9 at 7:30 p.m. ET) will feature show co-host J. Fernandez live from Madrid joined by David Faitelson from the Bristol studios;
– Jorge Ramos y su Banda (Mon. April 5 – Friday, April 9, 4-7 p.m. ET) – ESPN Deportes Radio soccer talk show simulcast on ESPN Deportes TV will include contributions from site from F. Palomo and M. Aistein.
– Fuera de Juego Weekend Edition (Friday, April 9 at 8 p.m. ET) – the network’s international soccer show will be completely dedicated to El Clasico featuring reports from Madrid and Barcelona from F. Palomo and M. Ainstein;
– ESPNdeportes.com: Commentary and analysis including those from on-site reporters, live chats, previews, video highlights, photo galleries, polls, special reports from ESPNdeportes.com Spain-based soccer correspondent Ivan Vazquez, plus content via ESPN Mobile Properties. During the match, the site will also provide audio stream of the match and feature GameCast with real-time commentary and statistics.
On match day, ESPN Deportes’ coverage will kickoff at 2:30 p.m. ET, with a live, 30–minute special edition of SportsCenter featuring contributions from J. Fernandez, M. Ainstein and M. Laudrup from Santiago Bernabeu, followed by a one-hour Fuera de Juego Pregame show. Fuera de Juego will lead into game telecast at 4 p.m. ET. Radio coverage will begin at 3:30p.m. ET with a 30-minute pregame show and feature a 30-minute post game show at the conclusion of the match.
El Clasico coverage is part of ESN Deportes’ season-long coverage of Spain’s La Liga. This season, ESPN Deportes will provide exclusive Spanish-language coverage of more than 95 La Liga regular-season matches live. ESPN3 – ESPN’s live sports broadband network – will stream at least 114 matches, including simulcast of all 95 ESPN Deportes matches live in English. ESPN2 will televise select matches.