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

PART 1

Ron Isley croons from the stereo of the Audi A6 Quattro Clint Dempsey purchased from sports agency-mate Ryan Nelson. “You fool one day you’re here and then you’re gone.” But before the beat drops, before UGK’s Pimp C and Bun B have a chance to trade verses about making the most of the Texas youth they were dealt, before we’re even out of the parking lot of Dempsey’s apartment, we’re out of the car.

Across the street private preparatory school blazers tossed to the sidewalk, tiny fists on fragile arms flail like loose garden hoses. “What the…. Should we break up that fight?” Dempsey asks without a glance to me, his big black eyes fixated on the fracas as if he already has his answer. “Sure, your town your call,” I tell him beginning to crack open the passenger seat door. We jump out of the car stopping traffic on the bustling two-lane road in London’s Wimbledon neighborhood. The dozen kids, no older than 12 maybe 13, turn toward us as we approach, taking notice of the bigger boys calling out, “Hey, what are you….”

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losing effort maybe not the only lesson for american soccer at the olympics

In the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, China came home with 59 medals (28 gold), good enough for 3rd place in the medal count behind Russia and the United States, the latter of which had 91 (36 gold) and dominated the games as has become the summer ritual every four years.

In 2000, the Chinese took home exactly one medal in the Olympic sports of track and field, swimming, rowing, sailing, and canoe/kayak. There are 119 medals available in those sports, all of which the USA excels at. When China found out Beijing would be the 2008 Summer Olympic host city, the nation set forth “project 119″ to take some of those medals and add to their traditional domination in other obscure Olympic sports such as table tennis, badminton, and gymnastics, and hopefully and finally knock the USA off the medal count top spot for the first time in decades. (Russia on the other hand appears it would rather challenge the U.S. and its Allies on the geo-political instead of athletic stage).

In 2004 China took home 63 medals (32 gold) behind the U.S.’s 102 (36 gold). As of Monday at 9pm EST the count for 2008 stood at China 67 (39 gold), USA 72 (22 gold). Economist and bookmakers alike have China winning both the overall and gold medal count. Now that’s how you do national program initiatives.

In the face of this Chinese emergence under Project 119, I couldn’t help but think about our little development initiative, the United States Soccer Federation and Major League Soccer’s “Project 40,” now Generation Adidas, which was meant to develop young American players with the original goal in 1997 being to win Olympic gold on way to taking home the 2010 World Cup. How’s that working out? A Slower road, no? Nobody said communism doesn’t have its mobilization advantages.

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An audio clip from Luis Bueno of his SuperLiga interview with Pachuca’s Jose Francisco Torres reminded me that I need to get back on the trail of Michael Orozco. Like Torres, Orozco is an American-born soccer player plying his trade in Mexico. Unlike Torres, Orozco has been wearing the national shirt of the U.S.

I haven’t been able to make that happen just yet, but I did in my search come across a gentleman named Hugo Salcedo, a name I remembered from a New York Times article from the 90’s—which I found heading into my early TIAS feature on Martin Luther King Jr. high school.

Hugo has been around the block. He works for FIFA; he worked for the U.S. Olympic Committee (and played soccer in the Olympics), for MLS in development, received the 2008 Jerry Yeagley Award from NSCAA (Coaches Association), and has a son who played and now coaches at UCLA. And it turns out he helped young Orozco find his way. He continues to do so for other players.

I spoke to Salcedo this past April and saved the transcript in case I was able to get a hold of Orozco. That hasn’t happened. But the SuperLiga over the weekend got me thinking about the growing Mexican-American contingent again. And after hearing the Bueno-Torres interview, I revisited my talk with Salcedo. The torn-apart/love-hate feelings of having American youngsters play in Mexico and FOR Mexico, rushed right back into me. Love it or hate it, it’s a situation worth following, even if SuperLiga can’t get past Telefutura broadcasts and disgruntled press releases. Click HERE for the full story…

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…

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 Tim 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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…
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