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One of the most exciting new traditions of Major League Soccer is the Sueno MLS, a competition that allows professional soccer hopefuls to get a shot at their dreams. Los Angeles has been the latest location to choose finalists, and the finalists will join others chosen in Washington D.C. and Chicago for the finals at the Home Depot Center from April 9 to 12. The competition’s finals will be nationally televised, sure to draw the soccer faithful.

The finalists are chosen by the clubs participating, which are the Chicago Fire, D.C. United at the Los Angeles Galaxy. The four finalists from Los Angeles were chosen by coaching staff of the Galaxy, chosen out of the 24 players whittled down from the original 600 that showed up to try out. At the end of the day, Mikon Orellana, Hector Ramos, Javier Rodriguez and Cesar Silva all made the cut to compete in the finals. Fans can see if any of these make it to the big leagues with Los Angeles Galaxy tickets online.

Attacking midfielder Mikon Orellana is one of the younger players to make the finals at only 15 years old. He hails from Provo, Utah and had to drive nine hours to make the tryouts. Even with his long drive and young age, Orellana was easily picked out as a favorite by the Galaxy coaching staff. He is a native of El Salvador who is likely to have a bright future in soccer.

Left back Hector Ramos hails from Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico. He had to travel from Mexico in order to try out and stayed in Indio, California with his uncle during the tryouts, the same uncle that pushed him to try out. Ramos was taken by surprise at the level of talent at the tryouts, but he did enough to impress the coaching staff.
Center back Javier Rodriguez drove it that morning from Las Vegas, Nevada, meaning he left in the middle of the night to make it in time for the first day of tryouts and repeated the feat for the second day as well. If he was tired from his journey, it hardly showed as he was picked out early by the coaching staff. He is also a young star at only 16 years old.

It is little wonder that Anaheim, California forward Cesar Silva had interest in the Sueno MLS 2009, since a player in his club, Jorge Flores, is a past winner of the competition. They both played for the club Pumas DSP. Silva originally hails from Guadalajara, Mexico, where he played for Atlas Guadalajara’s youth program. This year, he was a freshman at Cypress Community College, where he finished the season with 13 goals.

This is the third year that the Sueno MLS has been in existence. Flores, a previous mentioned winner of the competition, now plays for Chivas USA. Last year’s FC Dallas winner, Gabriel Funes, played with the team’s juniors U-14 team and also played for a U-18 team in Argentina. Many of the finalists from previous years have also played with the team’s youth programs.

This article was sponsored by StubHub.com. Go to StubHub.com for Los Angeles Galaxy tickets and tickets to sporting events, concerts and theater productions.

The Kansas City Wizards may have suffered a tough 2-1 loss to the Colorado Rapids on March 28, but that doesn’t mean there are no reasons to celebrate. Goalkeeper Kevin Hartman’s four saves in the match gave him the title of all-time leader in saves in the MLS, a record he is only going to improve upon as the season continues. The four saves raised his total to 1,139 career saves, beating out former record holder Tony Meola. This record is the third record that Hartman holds in the MLS, as he also holds the records for wins with 138 and shutouts with 77. The Wizards may have a 0-2-0 record to start the season, but that is with stars like Davy Arnaud, Roger Espinoza and Josh Wolff all out. With the help of Hartman, they are sure to start the turnaround soon. Fans who want to see him play live can get their Kansas City Wizards tickets online.

Hartman was born in Ohio in 1974, but moved to Radford, Virginia when he was just four years old. It was there that he first started playing soccer with a co-ed team. Although the youth soccer community in the area wasn’t well-developed, Hartman’s inherent skill was undeniable. He also got help training with the players at Radford University. He moved to a much more developed player after moving to Palos Verdes, California in 1990. The competitive soccer scene there was thriving, making it the perfect place for Hartman to develop his skills. He played under Alan King at high school there, paving the way to college soccer at Cal State Dominguez Hills, where he played under coach Marine Cano. His success there led to a transfer to UCLA, where he played for Coach Sigi Schmid.

After spending three successful seasons with UCLA, Hartman entered the 1997 College Draft, where he was selected by the Los Angeles Galaxy in the third round as the 29th pick overall. By the second year, he was a top contributor for the team, leading the league with 22 games won in the 1998 season. In 1999, he was awarded the MLS Pepsi Goalkeeper of the Year. In 2000, Hartman tallied his first cap for the U.S. Men’s National Team when they played Jamaica in September of that year. He continued his incredible performances with the Galaxy through the 2006 season, grabbing multiple MVP honors with the team. Also in 2006, he had his first start for the U.S. Men’s National Team against Norway. In his career, he has tallied five caps.

The 2007 season marked Hartman’s first with the Wizards. In that first season, he didn’t miss a minute of play all season and was named to the league’s all star team. He finished with 253 saves. Last season, he again played in every minute and had the third most saves in the league with 163 saves. He was also tied for the most shutouts that season with 10. Only two games into the 2009 season, he has tallied nine saves.

This article was sponsored by StubHub.com. Go to StubHub for Kansas City Wizards tickets and tickets to sporting events, concerts and theater productions.

The World Football Challenge will come to the United States this summer, so you’d better be prepared with the right tickets, the right jersey and a few of the basic facts. For Americans, who will be too invested in baseball stats to afford much time for European soccer study, we have arranged a little cheat sheet below. Now you’ll look and sound like a real Premier League hooligan when you use your World Football Challenge tickets.

Club Basics
Chelsea Football Club, otherwise known as Chelsea F.C. or Chelsea, or The Blues, is an English Premier League soccer team based out of West London. Although Chelsea used to be one of the laughing stocks of the Premiership a few decades ago, in the mid to late 1990s the team sprinted to the top of the standings and found a good deal of success, both in their league and in international competition. Nowadays Chelsea is one of the most beloved (and most loathed by their rivals and the jealous types) soccer teams in England. They frequently secure the best and brightest soccer stars from the UK and around the world. In 2005 and 2006 they won the Premier League title.

Jersey Sponsor
Known colloquially as The Blues, Chelsea has a distinct all-blue (save for some white stripes and white socks) uniform. They’ve traditionally worn blue shirts, but they have alternate jerseys that are all-black and all-yellow. This will be hard for American sports fans to get used to, because in the states team colors usually stay mostly the same, although they add more white or gray when the team is home or away. The Europeans must know something about branding and merchandise sales that the Yankees don’t.

Chelsea could probably be fully sponsored by their owner, Roman Abramovich, a Russian oil tycoon and head of Millhouse LLC, reportedly worth somewhere just the other side of $10 billion (with a b), but they instead have a huge Samsung logo on their jersey tops. Samsung is a Korean business famous for many different things, electronics, heavy industry, construction, etc. The brand has a good reputation, and fits well with the club, so nobody should be embarrassed to wear a Chelsea jersey to the stadium come game time.

Star Players
John Terry - A defenseman and captain of the team, Terry is an English National Team veteran with many, many appearances. He’s a favorite for his smart, hard-nosed play and steady hand at the helm.

Frank Lampard - John Terry’s vice-captain, Lampard is an attacking midfielder most of the time. He has played with Chelsea since 2001 and leads the team in goals. He’s also a member of the English National Team.

Michael Ballack - A German National Team veteran, Ballack plays midfield and is one of the most recognizable players in soccer today. He earned a reputation as a good free kick taker while with Bayern Munich before joining Chelsea.

Bottom Line
If you’re looking to root for one of the hottest teams on the planet, you can’t go wrong with Chelsea. StubHub can get you to the stadium to see this fantastic soccer team in action, so buy tickets as soon as you can. Chelsea has a large fan following in the United States, so their games ought to be packed.

Brent Warnken wrote this article in association with StubHub. If you are looking for World Football Challenge tickets, sports tickets, theatre tickets, concert tickets, or any other kinds of tickets, StubHub.com is one of the best places to find them.

The World Football Challenge is coming to the United States of America this July, so you’d better be ready for all the action with a lucky club jersey, some tickets and all your facts in a row. While most Americans will spend the summer paying attention to the national sport, baseball, European soccer clubs get neglected at the expense of the more popular sports in the States. For that reason we’re here to help you get re-acquainted with one of the four clubs coming to the World Football Challenge, Inter Milan. StubHub can help you get the right World Football Challenge tickets before the games begin, and you’ll need to pull that lucky Inter jersey out of the closet by the time the games begin. Here are some cliff notes about Inter Milan.

Club Basics
Football Club Internazionale Milano, or Inter Milan to most English speaking soccer fans, is a professional A-league soccer team based out of Milan, Italy. AC Milan, another team in the World Football Challenge (Club America and Chelsea are the others), is based out of Milan, Italy as well. In fact, both clubs use the same home stadium, the San Siro. The two teams are fierce rivals, so the situation is comparable to a hypothetical baseball situation, where the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox both play in Boston and both use Fenway Park as their home. Things would get heated. Inter and AC’s rivalry much more intense than the Lakers and the Clippers, who share the Staples Center. Inter Milan has won numerous Italian League championships, several European club team championships, and are known around the world for attracting some of the most famous, most successful and most popular soccer stars on the planet.

Jersey Sponsor
Inter Milan have a unique uniform design. The jerseys have vertical black and blue stripes, except when the team is wearing their alternates jersey, in which case the jerseys look like an old England National Team jersey, all white with a red cross in the center of the shirt. The team’s jersey logo sponsor is Pireli, not Firelli, as their logo might seem if you don’t look too closely. Pirelli & C. SpA is a multinational company that’s headquartered in Milan. Although it’s invested in several businesses, the most famous Pirelli brand products are tires, technology and real estate. As far as brands go, Inter Milan could have picked a worse one to wear across their chests, as this company looks like a solid one. It’s also a good thing that the company is Italian, because you’ve got local pride with you when you wear the black and blue.

Star Players
Zlatan Ibrahimovic - One of the two highest paid soccer players in the world (the other being Kaka of AC Milan), Zlatan is a forward from Sweden who has a knack like few in the business for finding the back of the net. He plays on the Sweden National Team.

Adriano - A Brazilian National Team star, Adriano plays forward. In 2005 he had 28 goals in 42 appearances.

Patrick Viera - A French National Team member, Viera has been captain of Arsenal, one of the top British clubs. He’s also played stints for AC Milan and Juventus.

Luis Figo - A veteran Portuguese National Team member, Luis Figo is a famous midfielder and winger. He was named the European Player of the Year in 2000 and the FIFA World Player of the Year in 2001.

Hernan Crespo - A veteran member of the Argentinean National Team, Crespo is a pure striker who can still get a good knock on the ball when he’s in the game, although some of the young guns have stepped father into the spotlight these days.

Brent Warnken wrote this article in association with StubHub. If you are looking for World Football Challenge tickets, sports tickets, theatre tickets, concert tickets, or any other kinds of tickets, StubHub.com is one of the best places to find them.

The World Football Challenge is coming to the United States this July, 2009. In order to get you prepared for what should be an interesting, exciting and entertaining event in international sports, we’ve put together a cheat sheet about what you need to know before you go out and purchase your World Football Challenge tickets. StubHub can get your seat in the stands, but we’ll get your head in the game.

Club Basics
Club America, or Club de Futbol America, or simply America, is a Primera Division soccer club hailing from Mexico City. In terms of professional sports teams in America, Club America is pretty much the New York Yankees of Mexican soccer. They’re usually considered the richest team with the most glorious history (besides perhaps Chivas), and they are considered to have the largest following. But like the Yankees, Club America seems to at once be the most beloved and most hated team in Mexican soccer. They always seem to get the best players, they come from the biggest city, and some fans think they’re a bit too cocky. Something about the name Club America seems to exude the same kind of arrogance of similarly all-encompassing, nationalistic names like “Yankees” or “Patriots.” While it might seem like they’re a might bit too confident to claim to be THE football club for all of America, perhaps with their many, many international and Mexican first division championships, they deserve the title.

Jersey Sponsor
Cub America usually wears a bright yellow jersey with a huge BIMBO logo across the front and a smaller Coca-Cola logo below that. Bimbo is a large North American bakery chain that specializes mostly in bread. Combined with the Coke, you’ve basically got a decent meal on your chest if you get a jersey before you grab tickets at StubHub and head out to the game. As far as large jersey logos go, you could have a better connotation than Bimbo. Bread as a product is pretty stable, and you really can’t beat Coca-Cola when it comes to Americanization clout.

Star Players
Guillermo Ochoa - The Club America goalie is one of the team’s most famous faces. Going by the nickname “Memo,” he’s young and full of promise, already having played on the Mexican National Team in international competitions like the FIFA World Cup.

Pavel Pardo - The Captain of Club America, Pavel is a veteran of the Mexican National Team, and has played for Stuttgart in Europe before returning to America for $4 million.

Salvador Cabanas - One of the vice-captains on the team, Salvador has played for the Paraguayan National Team, and usually leads the team in goals. He’s also played for Chelsea, so perhaps there will be some bad blood when Club America and Chelsea FC meet on the pitch on July 26th. He was the South American Footballer of the Year in 2007.

Bottom Line
Club America will have a decided home field advantage when they play in the United States, so they’re going to have a lot of support throughout the World Football Challenge. The team will probably have several international soccer players on loan at the time of the matches, so they’ll be in peak form when the Challenge gets underway.

Brent Warnken wrote this article in association with StubHub. If you are looking for World Football Challenge tickets, sports tickets, theatre tickets, concert tickets, or any other kinds of tickets, StubHub.com is one of the best places to find them.