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---- Editor's Corner ----

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Beer for Bier on the way! Potomac Soccer Wire is throwing a fundraiser for Bier FC to help fund their trip to Seattle for the USASA Over-30 National Championships. The event will be at Ireland's Four Courts in Arlington on Wednesday, July 25th from 7PM till? There will be a cover, raffles, silent auctions, and hopefully several sponsors at the event, all to help cover the team's approximate $20,000 price tag to make the trip. USASA and local soccer associations have helped a bit, but the team is far below half the funds it really needs for the honor of representing our region. Stay tuned to this section for more, but MARK YOUR CALENDAR. Interested event sponsors, cash contributors, silent auction item donors, and celebrities willing to appear, please email editor@potomacsoccerwire.com and we'll put you in touch with the right people.

Word is the South American soccer federation is miffed at the U.S., and I couldn't be happier! Sending a B - or even C - team to Copa America might be the best PR move anyone at USSF has ever pulled off, and should finally be the tipping point where the United States is no longer seen as second class in world soccer. Instead of talking about how the U.S. just isn't yet at the level of Argentina, Brazil, or other world powers, we now have the world complaining that we didn't bring our A game to compete against these teams! Just a few short years ago, few outside the U.S. even knew more than three active American players at all, let alone who our A, B, or C players might be. This signals to me that the world EXPECTS the U.S. to be a good team, and that's why I love this move by the Federation. It put them on record with their expectations once and for all. Let's just hope we get invited back in the near future.

The extensive Super Y-League regular season scouting process and subsequent SYL ODP National Camps comes to a head Tuesday, July 10 when the Super Y Select 90's and 92's embark on a life altering, 13 day pilgrimage into the heart of soccer in Germany. Ahmed Sheta (Select 90) and Jacob Doyle (Select 92) of the Northern Virginia Royals are on the team.

The Gold Cup final between the US and Mexico on Sunday June 24 drew more than 5 million viewers on Univision, and the semi-final on Telefutura the previous Thursday evening between Mexico and Guadeloupe outdrew every other show on television between 10 and 11pm. Overall on that Thursday night, TeleFutura outdrew NBC, CBS, ABC, the CW, and Telemundo, among men aged 18-34, in English and Spanish.

Four hundred thousand spectators flocked to the six stadiums for the 16 group matches played on the first four days of the U-20 World Cup in Canada, making the tournament the biggest single sporting event in Canadian history. Total ticket sales for the 52-match tournament passed the one million mark two days ago. The current record for a FIFA U-20 World Cup is the 1,155,160 tickets sold in Mexico 24 years ago.

Nice piece in the Washington Post about the Freedom. The team practices behind a family's house in Boyds while waiting - and hoping - for the rebirth of women's pro soccer.

Interesting tidbit in a London paper about Michelle Wie and Freddy Adu - claiming they're both over the hill before they even started to climb.

More coverage on the Youth Soccer Regionals in the Washington Post.