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

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…

“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…

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…
Click HERE for the full story…

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.
Click HERE for the full story…

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.
Click HERE for the full story…

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…
Click HERE for the full story…

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.
Click HERE for the full story…

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.
Click HERE for the full story…