Obama proclaimed the Galaxy as the “Miami Heat of soccer,” and specifically called out the teams three biggest superstars: Donovan, David Beckham and Irish forward Robbie Keane.  The President congratulated Beckham, age 37, for defying age and having one of his most successful seasons since coming to the United States.

“[It’s a] rare man who can be that touch on the field and also have his own line of underwear,” the President joked.

Following the ceremony, the team joined First Lady Michelle Obama and young students from around the country on the White House’s South Lawn to teach a soccer clinic.

The Galaxy finished the 2011 regular season with 19 wins and a league-high 67 points. In the playoffs, Donovan led the team with three postseason goals, including the single goal scored in the championship game against Houston. It was the Galaxy’s third time winning the MLS cup.

“Women’s football is opening up and developing right across the world,” Blatter said at the press conference. “That’s the social and cultural value of our sport.”

Event organizers put a lot of thought into the city choices for the 22-day event. Their intent was to showcase the varied culture of the country while also representing it physically. Three of the cities (Moncton, Montreal and Ottawa) are from Eastern Canada, one is from the Midwest (Winnipeg) and two are from the Canadian West (Edmonton and Vancouver). Notably missing from this list is Toronto, which declined the opportunity to participate in the Women’s World Cup as it will be hosting the 2015 Pan American Games.

The first Women’s World Cup was held in China in 1991 and has been held every fourth year since its inception. The 2015 World Cup will be the seventh Women’s World Cup but Canada will only be the fifth country to host the tournament. China and the United States have both hosted the tournament twice.

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“Unfortunately, they thought it would be better to have it in Qatar and play those games at 120 degrees in the middle of the summer,” Garber said Tuesday on a visit to Denver for an MLS board of governors meeting. “I’m not convinced that those games will end up being played in the summer, but at the end of the day, they made a decision that did not derail us from our goal. The plan is to still try to create a league that can compete with the other soccer leagues around the world in four or five different ways.”

Passionate soccer fans support and cheer on the MLS. The average attendance per game ranks seventh in the world, passing France and Holland.  In fact, soccer is the second-most popular sport for age groups 12-24.

In cities such as, Seattle, Portland, Toronto, Salt Lake City and Kansas City, MLS is largely popular.

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“Everyone who knows the laws of the game knows I should have done things differently, but that’s the life of a referee,” he said recently. “On the pitch I did my best. I shouldn’t have to apologize as mistakes are part of the game. Some players got emotional and behaved badly, but no one got killed. It’s important to put it into perspective.”

During the game three years ago, the Norwegian official turned down penalty claims during the second-leg tie at Chelsea’s home field, Stamford Bridge. Chelsea lost the game on a goal made by Andres Iniesta during injury time. According to the Chelsea manager at the time, Guus Hiddink, there were four missed penalties during the match: a shirt pull on Drogba by Eric Abidal, handballs by Gerard Pique and Samuel Eto’o, and a grab on Florent Malouda by Dani Alves.

Ovrebo has since retired from the international game, but said that he still occasionally receives death threats.

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“To be honest, we have to blame the referee,” said Emmanuel Adebayor, a striker for the Spurs. “I think we have done well and he has made a lot of mistakes and made a lot of wrong decisions.”

The referee Adebayor was referencing was Martin Atkinson. The Tottenham team lost to Chelsea 5-1.

“We were all disappointed,” Adebayor is also credited with saying. “How many goals scored this season were disallowed that were onside? To be honest, I’m just tired of it and everyone is talking about goal-line technology.”

The International Football Association Board, soccer’s rule-making body, will enter the final phase of testing for goal-line technology later this month. In March, IFAB narrowed the number of approved systems to two. The plan is to have one system approved and ready for use following a July 2 meeting.

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What exactly is miCoach? Similar to Nike’s Nike+, the program aggregates information taken from the players’ shoes and displays it on a tablet. Coaches will be able to access player stats in real-time including speed, acceleration and power output. Some opponents of similar software worry that access to such data could turn soccer from an instinct-based game into a numbers game and could push players beyond their capabilities.

The relationship between sports and technology has gotten stronger over the past several years. In February, Nike announced Nike+ Basketball, a service that includes a new line of sneakers with built-in smart chips that can relay how hard or fast a player is playing and how high a player is jumping. The data can be transmitted directly from the player to an iPhone application for tracking and recording.

On a broader level, the NFL utilized social media more than ever for this year’s Super Bowl XLVI. In Indianapolis, the site of the game, the NFL created a social media command center that could advise fans on everything from available parking spots to best sports bars.

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“Maybe if he had been given oxygen or proper medical care at the time of the incident, he could have stood a chance,” said Dr. Ajith Benedict Royan, a doctor at the hospital where Venkatesh was taken.

This death follows the near-death of another soccer player last week. On Saturday, March 17, 23-year-old Bolton midfielder Fabrice Muamba collapsed on the field during a FA Cup match against Tottenham. Doctors have reported that the player’s heart was stopped for a full 78 minutes before it began showing activity again. Medics tried unsuccessfully for 48 minutes to revive Muamba before he was taken to the London Chest Hospital. There, he was shocked with a defibrillator 15 times. Following what has been diagnosed as a cardiac arrest, Muamba likely survived because of the excellent emergency care he received. As of Monday, he was breathing independently and speaking; yet he still has a long road of recovery ahead of him.

Menezes will cut the squad down to 35 in June and will make his final selection on July 6. As a team, the Brazilian squad will play in the Olympic tournament held from July 26 to August 11. This means that players on the team who are also members of European club teams will miss their clubs’ pre-season camps. Missing pre-season training for a chance to win an Olympic gold (the only major prize in the world of professional soccer that the country has not won)? We say that’s ok.

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Present at the event were Windsor John, the Executive Director of Competitions of FAC and legendary players Mehdi Mahdaviki (Iran) and Tsuneyasu Miyamoto (Japan). The seeding for the draw was based on March’s FIFA/Coca Cola World Ranking, with Australia leading the other Asian teams. The teams will play their matches over the course of a year, beginning June 3 and ending June 18 2013.

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“It’s a work in progress,” Dempsy said about the victory. “I’d like to think that we’re closing the gap and hopefully we can do something special.”

American soccer has made advances in the past decade but has slipped in recent years. In 1990, the team made its first World Cup appearance in 40 years; in 2002 they advanced to the quarterfinals. In both the 2006 and 2010 World Cup tournaments, the team lost early to Ghana (first and second round respectively). Last June, the Americans lost to Mexico in the final of the CONCACAF Gold Cup, their regional championship. In July, the U.S. Soccer Federation replaced Coach Bob Bradley with Jurgen Klinsmann.

So does the win mean a change in luck for the team?

“Obviously as a coach you’re pleased because you see them progressing, you see young players stepping up and playing against these amazing, experienced Italian players who have won the World Cup and played big tournaments year in and year out,” Klinsmann, a former German national team star player and coach, said. “Obviously it was a big step for us.”

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