Ventura County Fusion - Southern California Soccer

LOCAL BOYS TO PLAY ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE TEAM

LOCAL BOYS TO PLAY ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE TEAM

Fusion plays Everton FC at Home Depot Center, Tuesday 24^th July

Ventura County Fusion of the USL Premier Development League will play against Everton of the English Premier League at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California at 3:00pm on Tuesday July 24^th, 2007. Everton has brought its top twenty players to the United States for pre-season training, the same players that will likely take them into the 2007-2008 season when it kicks off on Saturday August 11^th.

The Everton squad includes England internationals Phil Neville, Andy Johnson and James Beattie, U.S. international goalkeeper Tim Howard, and others such as Australian World Cup star Tim Cahill, $8-million summer signing Phil Jagielka and the well traveled Spaniard Mikel Arteta. The Fusion squad includes Jason Leopoldo, Dylan Riley and Diego Barrera of Thousand Oaks, Liam Leonard of Camarillo, Gabe Gonzales of Santa Paula, Alejandro Carmona and Bryan Hill of Oxnard, and John Alcaraz of Santa Barbara.

Fusion Head Coach Graham Smith, who helped arrange the fixture through his contacts with Everton boss David Moyes, said, “This is a great honor for Fusion. Our players have dreams of playing professionally and this will give them the chance to see for themselves what it’s like to play against top pros from the toughest league in the world. What a thrill and what an opportunity for them.”

Everton, who finished 6^th in the EPL last season, play Real Salt Lake in Utah on Saturday July 21^st and then head out to the West coast for a period of intensive fitness training before returning home to face Werder Bremen on July 31^st. Everton Coach Moyes felt that his players could use an extra game to break the routine and asked Smith if he could find a team to play against. Fusion’s schedule lent itself perfectly to Everton’s needs. Fusion ends its regular season on Friday night July 20^th and depending on final standings hopes to enter post-season Regional playoffs the following weekend.

About Everton FC:

Andrew Johnson joined Everton in 2006 from Crystal Palace for £8.6m ($15-million). In the 2004/2005 season he was the top English goalscorer in the Premiership and was rewarded with his first England call-up against the Netherlands on February 9, 2005.

Mikel Artete was Everton supporters’ Player of the Season and Players' Player of the Season in 2006. The skilful central midfielder has played with Barcelona, Paris St. Germain, Real Sociedad and Glasgow Rangers

England striker James Beattie arrived at Goodison Park in January 2005 for what was then a club record fee of £6 million ($11-million).

Phil Neville collected six Premiership titles, three FA Cups, a Champions League winners' medal and a World Club Cup title with Manchester United before moving to Everton.

Tim Howard played in the U.S. with the MLS Metrostars before making 77 appearances for Manchester Utd and moving to Everton.