Soccer News & Views

A highlight of the recent Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue was a photo spread featuring US World Cup team member Alex Morgan .The soccer star was pictured wearing only body paint and a smile. 

The 22-year-old striker, who graduated from the University of California, is a member of the 2012 Olympic Team, which will attempt to repeat its gold medal performance from the 2008 Beijing Games. 

Morgan was the youngest player on the 2011 World Cup silver medal winning squad, which lost to Japan in the dramatic overtime final.

Appropriately, her team in the Women's Premier Soccer League is the Western New York Flash.

Two San Diego-area high schools, Bishop’s of La Jolla and San Diego Crawford, played a Division IV playoff game last Tuesday. The two squads tied 3-3 in regulation, so the game went to penalty kicks, with each team making 18 out of 21 shots, before darkness set in.

As a result, the game was postponed until Wednesday with still no winner.   

Finally, on the 49th penalty kick taken during Wednesday’s overtime (the 50th penalty kick overall) Bishop scored and Crawford missed on its final attempt to once again tie the game.  

Matt Harris, who scored the final goal of Bishop's La Jolla's two-day shootout victory, said afterwards:  "All of us were so nervous on every kick.  Any kick could have been the end.  All of us were holding our breath."