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

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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The entertainment guide (how fitting?) at the Evening Standard is reporting, without direct quotes mind you, that David Beckham is having second thoughts about joining MLS after his recent recall to fame in Europe. Imagine that.

Normally, I wouldn’t even bother with this, but after a weekend where one of my alma maters’ got a coach to come back after he not only announced he was leaving, but signed a contract with another team, nothing is impossible.

I finally figured out why the general American public criticizes soccer for its lack of scoring: there is little else to get excited about. I’m talking about soccer not football. Someday, maybe the worst player from a MLS team’s starting eleven will be equal to the skill of the best today, but the MLS game on the whole is still a work in progress, where it is difficult to see a polished product - a team - from the individual pieces yet to be fit together. And if it’s not polished, how can we expect people to pay to watch it? You can see top level high school soccer for free, and on a beautiful Mother’s day Sunday in front of less than 8,000 fans at Giants Stadium the Red Bulls played Colorado’s Rapids, I would have rather watched MLK high school play. The passion, the beauty, the team if not the individual skill, would be there. It was not there for Red Bulls v. Rapids. Both names were a misnomer. Colorado was anything but rapid, and the Red Bulls had no wings.
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It’s a slow week. Searching on-line for Grant Wahl’s return to soccer only takes up so much time. What, the US might be a back up plan for 2010 World Cup? Surprise! Guevara has personal conduct issues? What? When did that story break? Wow, what an original best XI you came up with. It looks like the other 4,000 i saw. What’s that, Beckham is coming? Beckham is coming!

The MLS grind is beginning to take shape, and all the whispers, rumors, and innuendo are slowing as actual soccer takes presadence. Or not. American soccer fans are like New York Yankee fans: discuss amongst yourselves.

Can you tell I’m about to take a tangent? It’s just that I’ve never been that interested in the daily quote-factory that is most sports writing or the college humor that blogs feel is their only schtick. Nothing inherently wrong with it. Sell ads around the idea of guys getting their girlfriends to write a website name across their bare stomachs and then volunteering it up to said ad-sellers for free. Really, I’m not judging – not soccer anyway. any time a writer gets paid to cover soccer, an angel gets its wings. It’s just not me, so sometimes, you got to go where your heart is (at least until the New York Times hires me as their Red Bulls beat writer). Which is why I’d like to highlight an article in the Wall Street Journal from the weekend, which besides a passing mention of Mia Hamm, has nothing to do with soccer. One day, if soccer succeeds in this nation and girls begin scrawling MLS across their bellies, it might have a lot to do with soccer. So don’t say I didn’t warn you.
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Chicago Fire signed on a Mexican personality that also happens to play a little soccer and the general prognosis seems to be – here we go again – that Blanco will draw crowds in force to his games. It’s said of nearly all the recent Designated Player signings in one way or another: they put butts in the seats. So, ok, while Blanco might pull in a few of his countrymen - though even that looks suspect - and Beckham no doubt will draw some rubbernecking, are you buying it. Are you buying a ticket just to see Claudio Reyna play?
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