Soccer | featured news

Los Angeles Galaxy star David Beckham will be leaving the team after its MLS Cup game December 1, team officials announced Monday.

English Premier League soccer games will move to NBC from Fox and ESPN next year under a new deal announced Sunday night.

Britain's government has written to European soccer authorities demanding "tough sanctions" against Serbia after racist chants - including monkey noises - were heard at an international match with England on Tuesday night.

A year after blowing two leads in losing to Japan in the World Cup championship game, the USA women's soccer team was once again the best on the planet, and they wept at the power of it all.

They talked about redemption for months on end, and now it's here, the pending denouement of a script fit for Hollywood. With a 4-3 semifinal victory against Canada late in the second period of extra time Monday, the U.S. women's soccer team advanced to play Japan for Olympic gold. The Americans also get a shot at payback for the island nation's victory on penalty kicks in the World Cup last summer.

Police lost a set of keys at Wembley Stadium last week but security was not compromised at the London Olympic soccer venue, officials said Monday.

Soccer powerhouse Manchester United is expected to launch its IPO in New York as early as next week, for pricing in early August, after earlier attempts in Hong Kong, Singapore and the UK.

Manchester United filed for an initial public offering in the United States on Tuesday, a move that would return the English soccer team to the public markets. The club set a preliminary fund-raising target of $100 million to determine registration fees. It had previously hoped to raise about $1 billion in either Hong Kong or Singapore. Manchester United had traded on the London Stock Exchange before Malcolm Glazer, an American who also controls the Tampa Bay Buccaneers football team, took the company private in a $1.45 billion buyout in 2005.

Just like clockwork, Spain's "tiki taka" passing game tore Italy apart. The World Cup champions controlled the play Sunday in the European Championship final, as they usually do. They moved the ball up the field with short pass after short pass, as they usually do.

Despite an embarrassment of rested riches, Germany came up short against Italy, who moves on to the final in Kiev against Spain.