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

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?

Beckham lines up a free kick. So many they were, I can’t remember if this one went in or not.

It’s late late Saturday night. After 48 hours following David Beckham around New York City, did you think I wasn’t going out after the game? No, not with Beckham, but that’s nice of you to assume. Now to this crazy game… Click HERE for the full story…

HARLEM YOUTH SOCCER CLUB’S 15 MINUTES OF FAME, HANDED DOWN BY DAVID BECKHAM, WILL LAST LONGER WITH THE CONSTRUCTION NEXT YEAR OF A “WORLD CLASS” SOCCER FIELD IN THE BOROUGH

David Beckham and Ty Harden arrived in Harlem an hour early for the soccer clinic created for 30-or-so lucky FC Harlem under-12’s. The Red Bulls’ Juan Pablo Angel and Jozy Altidore, stuck in traffic, arrived about an hour later. Which was a good thing, because after experiencing first hand the blood thirsty papparazzi in action, I don’t want to think what would have happened if it was the other way around.

The photographers were crazier than the fans, and arguably outnumbered them. And there I am with my little Pentax Optio point-and-shoot in a sea of Canon SLR Cameras with lenses the size of my leg. Size has its priviledge. They got their HD, zooming close-ups and I muscled my little guy in there for what you’ll find after the jump. I now know, just a taste, of what it must be like to work for TMZ. I’ve never seen anything like this, but that had nothing to do with any of the soccer… Click HERE for the full story…

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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A MUST READ: An in-depth look - from the Washington Post STYLE section !!! - with a lengthy feature, photos, audio, and video of one of the finest, if not THE finest, supporters group in the country, United’s Barra Brava. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, DC has done just about everything right except win every game.

Thanks to Steve Goff at the Insider for the screen-shot of the front page of the Style section

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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RBNY players with Steve Nash (standing, 4th from left) and one of his several summer soccer teams

Well, it was the Central Park Conservancy employees that were bullish on Tuesday in Central Park’s Sheep Meadow, but the Red Bulls couldn’t say they should not have known better. What it added up to was a lot of standing around and not much else.

many more photos and what did happen after 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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That’s Wonka Wash spelled backwards

So I began David Beckham’s first game thinking I’d count the number of times his name was uttered during the broadcast, but then I lost count around 237. In fact, and in part because I had very little interest in watching last night’s game between the Galaxy and Chelsea, I had all sorts of cheeky statistics I was going to produce. But then depression sat in. 234, 235, 236…

Oh god help us (patience is a virtue). God help ESPN (We don’t need no water, let the damn thing burn!). God help their announcers (dancing marionettes tangled in the company line)…
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MLS expansion has come sooner than I thought it would. San Jose gets its Earthquakes back in 2008, giving the league 14 teams. Refilling a once (fairly) proven market seems like the safe choice, the right choice if you have to expand the league, but do you have to? Do you want to? There’s a lot more to this than it would first appear, and before I launch into a tirade about diluting an already weak player pool, I feel like I need to revisit the arguments here. 2010 is likely the next time we’ll have this topic in the headlines, so let’s see if we can’t figure it out.
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