Soccer Championship

The San Diego Nomads won the 1987 Western Soccer Alliance Championship Sunday night with a 3-1 comeback victory over the San Jose Earthquakes in the league's playoff final. Nomad midfielder Steve Black tied the game on a header from a corner kick in the 53rd minute. After defender Mario Gonzalez put San Diego ahead for good in the 62nd minute, Black scored again in the 84th minute. The championship was the Nomads' first in two seasons in the league.

 A goal by Aaron Yeverino in overtime broke a 1-1 tie and gave Birmingham a 2-1 victory over Bell in the City Section Division I boys' soccer championship on Saturday at Contreras. Erik Villatoro scored to give Birmingham a 1-0 lead, but Bell tied it to force overtime. In Division III, Sun Valley won its third consecutive championship with a 2-0 victory over Mendez. In Division I girls, Granada Hills won in penalty kicks over Palisades.     Eric.sondheimer@latimes.com  

The United States on Friday was awarded the right to stage the third FIFA Women's World Championship, the soccer tournament to be played in five East Coast cities in June and July of 1999. The first championship was held in China in 1991 and won by the U.S. team, which finished third at the next championship, in Sweden in 1995. Australia and Chile also initially expressed interest in staging the 1999 tournament, but backed out once the United States' bid was announced.

For the first time in school history, L.A. Cathedral has won a Southern Section soccer championship. Daniel Huizar, Alberto Colin and Kris Nunez scored goals in Saturday night's 3-1 victory over Oak Hills in the Division 4 championship game. Cathedral improved to 26-1-1 on the season.   Eric.sondheimer@latimes.com  

Harvard-Westlake High goalie Cari Schwartz turned back Pasadena Poly attackers repeatedly Saturday afternoon during the girls' Southern Section 1-A Division soccer championship match. But less than five minutes into the first of two 10-minute overtime periods, forward Kim Rakow headed the ball out of Schwartz's reach to lead defending champion Pasadena Poly to a 1-0 victory before 300 at Gahr High in Cerritos. Schwartz, a three-year starter, finished with 10 saves, three of them spectacular.

Leeds United clinched its first English League soccer championship since 1974, beating Sheffield United, 3-2.

For the first time in school history, L.A. Cathedral has won a Southern Section soccer championship. Daniel Huizar, Alberto Colin and Kris Nunez scored goals in Saturday night's 3-1 victory over Oak Hills in the Division 4 championship game. Cathedral improved to 26-1-1 on the season.   Eric.sondheimer@latimes.com  

The United States qualified for the first world women's soccer championship by defeating Canada, 5-0, at Port-Au-Prince, Haiti. Michelle Akers-Stahl scored three goals for the U.S., which outscored opponents, 49-0, in five games during the qualifying tournament. The United States, champion of the North and Central American and Caribbean region, became the sixth country to qualify for the 12-team tournament, which will be played in China Nov. 16-30.

Los Angeles Baptist High clinched its third consecutive Alpha League soccer championship Tuesday by defeating Village Christian, 10-0, at home. Junior forward Scott Ellison scored three goals and senior forward Doug Brown had two for L.A. Baptist. David Fursman, John Lowe, Chris Bollier, Don Carlson and David Oh also scored one goal each for the Knights. L.A. Baptist, ranked third in the Southern Section 1-A, finished the season at 10-0-1 in league and 15-2-2 overall.

Boosted by Mexico's run in men's soccer, NBCUniversal's Spanish-language network, Telemundo, scored viewership records for Olympics coverage. Telemundo said Monday that 22.5 million viewers watched a portion of its coverage of the London Olympics over the 17 days. Saturday's highly anticipated men's soccer championship final, in which Mexico defeated Brazil, drew 3.6 million viewers -- a new record for an Olympics audience on Telemundo. The game, which attracted more viewers than programming on any other TV station in Los Angeles Saturday morning, also produced Telemundo's highest weekend day ratings for a soccer match.

Sixteen years after the end of apartheid, South Africa is at a crossroads. The country that was ushered into black majority rule by African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela has held four free and fair national elections since 1994, conducted a pioneering truth-and-reconciliation process, established a respectable multiracial judiciary and maintained a robust free press. The competence and integrity of successive ANC governments have been called into question, but not their fundamental legitimacy.

The Los Angeles Sol of Women's Professional Soccer announced Thursday that it is ceasing operations after one season. The Sol was one of the league's seven teams in the inaugural WPS season in 2009 but was underfunded and did not attract the crowds it expected to the Home Depot Center in Carson. One of the team's co-owners, AEG, has been trying for several months to sell its share of the team without success. The league hoped it had found another ownership group to take on the Sol, but that plan fell apart at the last minute.

Soccer's World Cup may be coming back to Southern California. The USA Bid Committee on Tuesday released the list of the 18 metropolitan areas that will be included in the bid book it will present to FIFA, soccer's world governing body, in hopes of winning the rights to the men's World Cup in 2018 or 2022, and Los Angeles-Pasadena was among the markets included. Jurgen Mainka, director of marketing and communications for the committee, said the group looked at a variety of factors during its eight-month study of prospective Cup sites.

The MLS Cup :: Galaxy vs. Real Salt Lake THE MATCHUP The all-time series between the clubs is as tight as could be. During the five years Real Salt Lake has been in the league, the teams have met 15 times and each has won five, with five draws, and Real has scored 24 goals to the Galaxy's 23. The Galaxy has not defeated Real Salt Lake since June 17, 2007, a 3-2 win at the Home Depot Center. Real has won two of the six meetings since, with four draws. THIS SEASON The teams met twice during the regular season, with Real Salt Lake coming away with a tie and a win. In the first meeting, May 6 at Rio Tinto Stadium, the teams played to a remarkable 2-2 draw.

Logic says that the Los Angeles Sol should win Saturday's Women's Professional Soccer championship game in Carson. Instinct says it will be Sky Blue FC of New Jersey. Logic says the Sol, which has the best record in WPS, the league's top goal scorer in Brazil's Marta, the league's No. 1 goalkeeper in Canada's Karina LeBlanc and is playing on its own Home Depot Center field, should prevail. Instinct says Sky Blue, which finished fourth out of seven WPS teams, had a losing record, went through two coaching changes in five months and dealt with turmoil on and off the field, can win. In other words, the 1 p.m. match is there for the taking.

The Sol blew an opportunity Wednesday to secure its bid to play host to the first Women's Professional Soccer championship game, losing to the St. Louis Athletica, 1-0, in front of an announced crowd of 4,841 at Home Depot Center. The Sol lost its first home game, meaning it will need a victory and a tie in its next three games -- all on the road -- to secure the only guaranteed spot in the Aug. 22 title game. St.