NYT>Soccer

Major League Soccer is desperate to find its place among sophisticated soccer fans, especially expatriate Mexicans.

Clint Dempsy scored in the 40th minute to lift the United States national team to a 1-0 win over Cuba. It was the national team’s first visit to Cuba since 1947.

A movie chronicling the Homeless World Cup through the eyes of seven players and was a selection at the Sundance Film Festival, will be broadcast on Wednesday.

The Women’s Professional Soccer league plans to add at least two more teams for 2010 and will hold drafts nationwide.

Ryan Babel scored in the 77th minute Saturday as host Liverpool beat Manchester United, 2-1, ending an eight-game winless run against its rival in the English Premier League.

The drivers who work at Valera Global, an executive transportation company, come from many different countries but share a common bond through soccer.

Robbie Rogers scored 19 seconds into the second half to help the Columbus Crew beat the Red Bulls, 3-1, on Thursday night.

Since the Argentine midfielder Juan Pietravallo joined M.L.S. in July, the Red Bulls have become an emerging contender for the league title.

Abby Wambach is hoping to be ready to play for the Washington Freedom in April, when the seven-team W.P.S. is scheduled to begin play.

Everything is in place in Utah, where Real Salt Lake will open the newest playground in the M.L.S., Rio Tinto Stadium, with a game against the Red Bulls on Oct. 9.

Fernando Torres scored two goals to lead Liverpool to a 2-0 victory over its cross-town rival Everton in the English Premier League on Saturday.

After eight years and many delays, the first pieces of steel for Red Bull Park went into the ground last month.

For the coverage of U.S. World Cup qualifying matches, it’s all about the quality of the broadcast, rather than whether the games will be available at all.

The home-field advantage is more entrenched in soccer than in perhaps any other sport. To lose at home is viewed as an unacceptable result by fans.

Sven-Goran Eriksson didn’t speak Spanish and had never set foot in Mexico when he was hired to coach the country’s national soccer team.

Maurice Edu has been a professional soccer player for only two years, but it has been a rapid rise for the 22-year-old midfielder.

Jamison Olave scored for Real Salt Lake and Dave van den Bergh for the Red Bulls at the new Rio Tinto Stadium in Salt Lake City. Nearly all 20,000 seats in the $110 million stadium were filled.

The wave of confidence that washed over the Red Bulls during a winning streak has been replaced by the pressure of three straight losses and the approaching postseason.

Brazil’s first truly national soccer museum is a reminder in this soccer-mad nation of how Brazilians became the most successful footballers the world has known.

The United States has slipped in the world’s eyes in this millennium, but in the world’s most popular sport, soccer, the United States has actually moved up a notch or two.