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Morgan Freeman joins the fray for World Cup 2022 push
Thursday, Dec. 2, 2010 will mark the day that will determine if the United States of America gets to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup. The Los Angeles Galaxy's Landon Donovan will be making a presentation with the USA Bid Committee, and Academy Award-winning actor Morgan Freeman will be in person to help state its case.
The USA will be the fourth of the five bids to present on Wednesday in the hope of landing the 2022 World Cup. The FIFA Executive Committee will then conduct its final vote on Thursday at FIFA House (8 a.m. ET/5 a.m. PT), followed by the formal public announcement of the winning bid at 10 a.m. ET/7 a.m. PT.
Freeman, who is already a member of the US Bid Committee’s Board of Directors, will be joined for the presentation by US President Bill Clinton, US Soccer Federation president Sunil Gulati and Los Angeles Galaxy and American soccer star Landon Donovan. The presentations of each of the bidding nations will be streamed live on FIFA.com.
The official unveiling of the hosts of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups will be televised live on Thursday in the United States via ESPN, ESPN Deportes, Fox Soccer Channel, Univisión and CNN International (10 a.m. ET/7 a.m. PT).
Some Superlatives from the 2-1 defeat to Newcastle...
With the loss for LA, the Newcastle Jets win the inaugural Qantas Challenge.
The Galaxy are now 2-2-0 all-time against teams from the Hyundai A-League. They beat the Wellington Phoenix in 2007 and Sydney FC in 2008 while losing to Sydney FC in 2007 and now the Jets.
The Galaxy are now 0-2-0 all-time in Australia.
This was the Galaxy’s fifth and final international friendly of the year. They finished with a 2-2-1 record in those games, beating Puntarenas FC (Costa Rica) and Boca Juniors (Argentina) while tying CD Aguila (El Salvador) and losing to Real Madrid (Spain) and the Newcastle Jets (Australia). This was the only one of those games that was not played in Southern California.
Landon Donovan gave the Galaxy a 1-0 lead in the 7th minute, re-directing a Sean Franklin cross over the line from close range with his chest. That was his second goal in the club’s five friendlies this season, though he only played in three of them.
Chris Birchall was also credited with an assist on that goal.
Juninho nearly doubled the Galaxy lead two minutes later, but his long range shot was adjudged not to have crossed the goalline by the referees, though video replays later showed that it had.
Donovan Ricketts had to make his first save of the game a few minutes later, pushing a close range shot from Sasho Petrovski around his right post.
Petrovski eventually equalized for the Jets in the 29th minute, heading an Ali Abbas cross past Ricketts from close range, tying the score at 1-1.
Halftime substitute Labinot Haliti scored the eventual game-winning goal in the 53rd minute, shortly after coming on as a halftime substitute.
Chris Klein and Eddie Lewis each came on as substitutes, making the final appearances of their professional careers.
Newcastle Jets owner Nathan Tinkler offered to donate $5,000(AU) to HMRI for every goal scored in the game, meaning that $15,000(AU) was raised for the charity.
A total of 20 of the 22 players that made the trip to Australia played for the Galaxy, with only Brian Perk and Leonardo not seeing action.
Only A.J. DeLaGarza and David Beckham played the full 90 minutes for the Galaxy.
Tonight’s game was shown live on Fox Soccer Channel in the United States with a number of replays to be shown throughout the week. Click here for a complete schedule of broadcasts.
There was a sellout crowd of more than 23,000 at EnergyAustralia Stadium, which is in the process of being renovated. This was the Jets’ biggest home attendance of the season.
Bowen, USA Under-20s struggle in Torneo de Las Americas
The USA Under-20 national team struggled in the Torneo de Las Americas in Kennessaw, Georgia, losing in penalty kicks to Colombia (3-1) and Mexico (4-2).
The Galaxy's Tristan Bowen was involved in the only goal for the USA against Colombia, who teamed up with Sebastian Lletget to give the Stars and Stripes an early 1-0 lead before Colombia equalized in the 86th minute.
Bowen was an unused sub in the match against Mexico, which also went 1-1 through regulation.
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