This Is American Soccer, US Soccer, MNT, WNT, and MLS - Tackling the subject of Soccer in the US, and worldwide.

I think there was more media there than any soccer event I have ever been to. And throughout all the coverage you’re gonna see the only thing I can say I got that they don’t is this photo. It’s a keeper.

I’m gonna go with the annotated photo story for this one, because that’s sort of the hand I was dealt. Seated on the ground behind a goal isn’t the best place to watch the game, but it gets you some good camera angles. And from the looks of it–I mean people I knew from glossy magazines were there–you’re going to be hearing plenty about it. I’m hoping someone writes it up as a real game story. That would be fun to read. So on to the Steve Nash Foundation Charity Classic presented by (I didn’t recognize the logo on the t-shirt)…

(UPDATED WITH BEST VIDEO YOU WILL SEE OF THE EVENT)

—- Click HERE for the full story…

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I don’t care for the comedy of Ray Ramano. It’s just not my thing. I’m more of a David Cross/Patton Oswalt kind of guy. I can watch the same Seinfeld episode a thousand times, but new episodes of The Simpsons can’t hold my attention.

Comedy might be the most subjective medium of all the creative arts. Because looking at the award tally, not to mention the pop culture award du jour that is a Simpsons guest appearance, it appears everybody indeed loves Raymond. I’m just not one of them.

Sports broadcasting isn’t that much different. He’s got one of the plum jobs in broadcasting for FOX, but I can’t stand Time McCarver (re: thanks Deion Sanders). I love the measured intelligence of Joe Simpson. I really don’t care for Dick Vitale. Lots of people seem to love him (and he’s got a pretty good gig himself) but I’m just not one of them. And I don’t like the comparisons between him and GolTV’s Ray Hudson. Sure, they are both, um, individuals to say the least, and share a radical emotion for the sport they love, but Vitale paints the most mundane statistics not with a brush, but with a paint grenade of hyperbolic emotion. It can be a source of comedy, but you won’t find yourself laughing with (or at) him.

Hudson’s commentary, unlike his opinion, is harder to pin down, though he’s not afraid of pulling the pin on a grenade or two . You of course have the metaphor bombs, but watching an entire game with GolTV’s team delivers the give-and-take that finds moments of brotherly bickering in an Abbott and Cosetello frame that sets it apart like the best local baseball broadcasts over the course of that lengthy season. You’re not just waiting for the next explosion, you’re smiling, getting argumentative, and yes laughing, sometimes all at once, as if you’re watching the games with your crazy uncles. At its worst GolTV’s broadcasts with Ray Hudson are silly, over the top nonsense. At their best, it’s a soccer sitcom as the team captures the essence of the beautiful game in the broadcast booth. Click HERE for the full story…

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DECORATED COACH SITS DOWN WITH FORMER STAR PLAYER SET FOR MLS BREAKOUT

I visited recently with Chicago Fire’s Bakary Soumare and his former coach Martin (Jake) Jacobson, both of NYC soccer dynasty Martin Luther King high school. Jake was the man who first spotted Soumare playing on a New York field soon after his arrival from France (where he grew up after moving from his birthplace of Mali), setting the course for where we now find the young defensive midfielder: fighting to fill the shoes of retired Chris Armas and weighing national team options. Click HERE for the full story…

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one of the “top 100 freshman to watch” reflects on his transition from high school to college soccer

written by Steven Amaya

It’s been a crazy year, the transition from high school to college: new, harder classes; a new, more competitive team. Oneonta, where Hartwick College is located, though only a few hours away by train from where I grew up in Queens New York, felt like a different planet. I quickly learned that it is all about controlling fear. The fear of the rising level of play, the increasing responsibility in both soccer and school, the amount of distractions I encountered. Will I fit into the team, the school? Will I get playing time as a freshman? Can I take advantage of opportunity? It’s a lot of pressure, in the shadow of the soccer hall of fame no less. In my jump from high school to college soccer, just as in what seems my entire life, I have found my ability to manage fear to be the determining factor for excellence or failure. Click HERE for the full story…

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2007 FOUND AMERICAN SOCCER IN SEARCH OF ITS HEAD

It started with the retirement of Brian McBride from international duty after the 2006 World Cup and has continued downhill to the incapable feet of otherwise able bodies.

The national team’s striker regression, however, highlights more than one team’s struggle to find a player fit for a role. Throughout the ranks of American soccer, the national team’s shortcomings up front lay bare the game-changing skills, mental and physical, still largely missing in America’s version of the global game. It reverberates throughout American soccer, making this the year of a headless beast. Click HERE for the full story…

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special to tias, a guest column by Ryan O’Hanlon

“American soccer” seems to be a redundant term. Is the United States just trying to be different from the rest of the world? Is this a metric system situation? Australia kicked soccer to the curb in 2004 when it officially announced that ‘football’ was the proper nomenclature. New Zealand and South Africa still commonly use the term soccer, but I’m beginning to think ’soccer’ is more than just a word. It represents how the game is played, especially here in the United States. Watch any game, whether MLS, Division 1, or even the US National team, and soccer is what you get - a sport that relies on physical strength, speed, and supreme conditioning over tactical acumen or technical skill.

Soccer can still be the beautiful game, but too often it is the waiting game. Click HERE for the full story…

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Men’s National Team Roster vs. Switzerland. Basel, Switzerland. October 17, 2007

GOALKEEPERS (3): Marcus Hahnemann (Reading FC), Tally Hall (Esbjerg), Chris Seitz (Real Salt Lake)
DEFENDERS (7): Carlos Bocanegra (Fulham FC), Steve Cherundolo (Hannover 96), Dan Califf (Aalborg BK), Jay Demerit (Watford FC), Oguchi Onyewu (Standard de Liege), Heath Pearce (Hansa Rostock), Steve Purdy (1860 Munich)
MIDFIELDERS (7): Freddy Adu (SL Benfica), DaMarcus Beasley (Glasgow Rangers), Michael Bradley (SC Heerenveen), Maurice Edu (Toronto FC), Benny Feilhaber (Hamburger SV), Eddie Lewis (Derby County), Danny Szetela (Racing Santander)
FORWARDS (4): Clint Dempsey (Fulham FC), Robbie Findley (Real Salt Lake), Preston Zimmerman (Hamburger SV), Sal Zizzo (Hannover 96)

A quick reaction and then straight to the always thorough USSF press release after the jump…
Click HERE for the full story…

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“To nobody’s surprise, Brazil proved to be in a different class against the U.S.”

That’s the ESPN headline still up at soccernet regarding the recent friendly between our men’s national team and Brazil’s. I never in a million years thought the same could be said for our women.

But here we are. Yet totally surprised.
Click HERE for the full story…

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In one of those last minute moves that makes me cringe, US WNT coach Greg Ryan has decided to start veteran goal keeper Briana Scurry in place of Hope Solo for the ladies World Cup semi-final game against Brazil. Scurry is unbeaten against Brazil and coach Ryan said something about her quick reflexes and tricky Brazilians.

It screams of over-thinking, but at this late stage, I’m just going to hope pray it works out. Because in tomorrow morning’s game (8am EST), a valiant loss isn’t going to be acceptable as it was with the men in their friendly Clash of Champions.

Steve Goff has more details from China.

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Brad Friedel talks to TIAS about his effort to develop American youth

Every professional soccer player who wants to be the best is going to Europe to play. In the past, for American kids who dream to be that player some day, there hasn’t been too many options to help the initial growth. Since 1999, 40-odd kids annually win the lottery if they are selected to USSF’s Bradenton Residency Program, located at IMG Academies, the private campus that charges upwards of $50,000 a year for non-scholarship club players to hone their skills on the fields next to those of USSF and the U17 US MNT. That’s it; that’s the list. You have summer camps and clubs innumerable, even ones under the muse of Beckham, but as for full time soccer instruction integrated into academic education, Bradenton was it.

Not anymore. We’re not building the world’s tallest skyscraper here, but former US and present Blackburn goal keeper Brad Friedel made a huge splash this fall when his Premier Soccer Academies in Cleveland, Ohio, welcomed their first full time residency student/players.

If competition breeds quality, this can only be good…
Click HERE for the full story…

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