It’s “wait until next year” for the UT Longhorns, who crashed out of the NCAAs with a 4-0 drubbing at Florida State on Friday. The Horns were out-shot by a 29-5 margin, capping a postseason in which they were out-shot in all six games, including a 110-38 margin in the last four. Worth noting, of course, that they did win the first five of those games and that statistics are largely meaningless, but still … after finding at least two dynamic strikers in this year’s freshman class, to complement senior Kelsey Carpenter (thanks for a great four years), coach Petrucelli will be looking for improvement in the center third of the field in 2008.
There’ll always be an England … but not at next summer’s European Championships. They came into the last day of qualifying needing only a home draw to advance against a team with nothing to play for. So they gave up two early goals on two defensive howlers, then wasted a dramatic comeback, inspired by halftime sub David Beckham, and lost 3-2. How bad is that? The team they lost out to, Russia, only made it by virtue of a 1-0 squeaker over Andorra. … English club soccer, on the other hand, is alive and well: All four English entries had good days on the next-to-last day of Champions League group play; three are through to the final 16; Liverpool looks likely to join them, after their second straight lopsided win. Final games: Dec. 11-12.
This article appears in November 30 • 2007.