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

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.

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…
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photo from fulhamfc.com

It wasn’t virtuosic, but that’s not Clint Dempsey’s game. Not yet anyhow, but it might not be too far down the road, because hard nose to the highway is this kid’s manner, and it showed on Saturday as he had a head (or foot) in each of Fulham’s 3 goals to tie Tottenham, one of the stronger teams (on paper) in the English Premier League. I can’t think of a more apt weekend for his production, as Clint is the definition of work, effort, labor.

It begs the question, as we celebrate the nation’s hard workers - most productive in the world they say - which American has had the best single-game perfomance?

As I prepare to find some individuality under what will surely be a media free-for-all this weekend as Beckham and the Galaxy descend on New York, I can’t help but think, what about the Red Bulls?

RBNY must be happy with Beckham’s American resurrection arriving last night, leaving just enough time to sell the remaining 20,000 or so tickets for Saturday’s game (Can they beat the Pele/Cosmos U.S. Soccer Record of almost 78,000 from 30 years ago - the stadium reportedly can hold 80,242)?

But are they happy with their team? Juan Pablo Angel has had an American resurrection of his own this season, and Altidore has progressed and will continue to do so until he leaves for Europe, and then there is the rest of the team. And then there is Reyna.
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Text Portrait of David Beckham by Ralph Ueltzhoeffer

30 years ago yesterday, August 14th, Pele and his Cosmos played in front of nearly 78000 fans at the Meadowlands during their NASL game against the Fort Lauderdale Strikers. It’s routinely called “the largest crowd to see a soccer game in the U.S.” It dawned on me as I was reminded of this fact on Pardon the Interruption last night – Wilbon did take it to Tony for badgering soccer. Horrah WIlbon! – that we have the conincidence of welcoming David Beckham to the same location so close to that anniversary.

The speculation and comparisons could run rampant – Can Beckham draw more fans being just one – but the announcement yesterday that Beckham will play in the SuperLiga match tonight between the Galaxy and DC United (10pm EST, Telefutura) is putting his (and tri-state area fans’) weekend plans into doubt.
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The MNT Player Pool is grab bag of who-knows-what. ISI photos for ussoccer.com caught this player pool in Venezuela during Copa America.

GOALKEEPERS- Tim Howard, Marcus Hahnemann. DEFENDERS- Oguchi Onyewu, Steve Cherundolo, Carlos Bocanegra, Jonathan Spector, Jay DeMerit, Jonathan Bornstein. MIDFIELDERS- DaMarcus Beasley, Clint Dempsey, Benny Feilhaber, Michael Bradley, Pablo Mastroeni, Bobby Convey. FORWARDS- Landon Donovan, Josh Wolff, Charlie Davies, Kamani Hill, Sal Zizzo.

There are very few MLS inclusions for the August 22nd friendly against Sweden in Sweden. It’s not at all surprising given the European location, but the fact that our best players are over there in increasing numbers is only going to continue to create rosters like this one. The usually split down the middle squad will continue down this path of a weighty European ratio.

Bradley’s two cents, my pennies, and whatever you want to chip in are after the jump…
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Freddy Adu has played his last Major League Soccer game for what would appear at least the next five years, which is the reported length of his deal with Portugese Super Liga club Benfica. I’ve long supported Americans playing abroad, so I’m happy to see Freddy get his chance.

But it’s just not that simple.
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And so it begins. National and international news outlets have climbed aboard the Beckham regurgitation train, with articles spewing out from even the most soccer abstinent outlets, transcribing the same story we’ve heard since Beckham first signed with the Galaxy. Nothing new to report – have you heard of this little league in the U.S. called MLS? – so no weblinks, but there was one piece that had some interesting stats, which just begged for a pick-your-number game. The stats, and your best guess are waiting after the jump…

late add: ok, one link to a story that is not regurgitation: Chelsea’s stars on the Beckham madness heading into their friendly with the Galaxy.
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party # 1

What are we at? Is this the 3rd, 4th, or 5th coming out party for Freddy Adu? Now before you start throwing darts, let me preface all of this with… Freddy is a fine player who didn’t ask for a first surprise party, much less however many have since followed. But that isn’t a conversation killer. Plenty of questions exist, most of them unanswerable by anyone, anything, except for maybe the feet of Freddy. And they aren’t talking very often.

While there are no answers, we have - from the intelligent commenters on this website, to any number of articles that have been making it rain since his hat-trick performance - plenty of questions.

The short list after the jump…
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From the series, The Dodo and Mauritius Island, Imaginary Encounters, 2004. Harri Kallio.

This post has taken me longer to put together than a lot of posts. And it’s just names on paper. And it’s exactly why I don’t do this stuff, almost ever. After the jump is my best 11, with just enough explanation to leave my words wavering in the wind. Get in your shots while the getting is good!
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