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

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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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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a nation turns its lonely eyes to you (photo credit: Dave Osborne)

On Monday, USSF officially announced a national academy as part of new initiatives in their development program. The press release announces, “In a move designed to improve the development environment for players throughout the country, the U.S. Soccer Federation has taken the initiative in formalizing a nationwide development academy slated to begin in the fall of 2007. The U.S. Soccer Development Academy will begin with up to 80 elite youth soccer clubs from around the country being selected to join the program.”

I’ve said it before, and I still believe it to be true. Nothing is more important to American soccer than youth development. There’s no lack of lively debate over what shape the youth systems are presently in, but no doubt coverage of said debate is lacking (at the time of this writing, none of the top outlets – ESPN, SI, NYtimes, etc - have even a mention of it on their soccer pages). The Toledo Blade does have a piece about Wal-Mart funding the refurbishment of a soccer complex for the Adelante Latino Resource Center and Latin Soccer League, and it’s no surprise that Stephen Goff, the lone ranger of on-staff soccer beat reporters, pays it some attention, but even that is at his Insider blog (not the Post’s true soccer page), and it’s from last week when the decision to launch the academy was being discussed.

Does anyone care? The fine print and what it all means is after the jump…
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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.

Red Bulls managing director says it’s billboards or players - alludes that you can’t have both

You know those times when if you would just sit and think about something - level headed without the emotion that comes unfettered with the human condition – the answer would probably come to you? It’s those times as well, when sometimes you just need someone to say something and then the practical reality triggers whatever it is in our brains that makes you say, “of course!” Well, I thought I had one of those moments reading Michael Lewis’ piece with Red Bulls managing director Marc de Grandpre. But then I sat and thought about it…
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The mainstream media is always a step behind when it comes to soccer, so it should come as no surprise the New York Times came to Harlem FC a few weeks after I did, highlighting the burgeoning club’s search for fields.

Updating the story, Executive Director Irv Smalls e-mailed me about his weekend, and I had to share it. After the jump, Irv adds more evidence to the mountain of proof that New York is an artesian aquifer waiting to be tapped. Didn’t you know - all the good stuff is underground.
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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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The MLS season is a few weeks old and writers are looking for headlines. While we can argue all season about the quality of play (how many times will I write that clause this summer?), there is no arguing with numbers, right? Hard numbers, the stand and be counted type, are like bricks in the face, unavoidable yes? It’s no doubt a big HUGE year for MLS. You could argue it’s the first year for MLS. After a decade of growth and the busiest off-season with the biggest influx of talent the league has ever seen, the time, if ever, might be now. There are new looks from strangers and harder stares from hardcore fans. Where will it all come down after November 18? I’d like to wait and see before making judgments, guesses, speculations, but for many writers on deadline (for an article or a bill), there isn’t that sort of patience. We need conclusions now damnit! Bring on the numbers!
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It was a weekend of sports – hunting soccer fields in Harlem, Red Bulls v Houston at Giants Stadium, and Braves v Mets at Shea. Alone, but not lonely, started my tour at Giants Stadium with thoughts of some grand comparison between MLS and MLB. It wasn’t to be, at least not for me. I watched most of the RBNY game as the only person on one side of the mezzanine level. Great view, no one kicking my seat. It was better than HD; I could get used to this. My press credential allowed me access to the entire stadium, making me free to sit where they weren’t even selling tickets. By rule, I don’t like press boxes. While I like to stop by to get all the press stat sheets and line-ups, watching from the box, especially at Giants Stadium where you feel as if you’re a mile above the field, is worse than watching on TV: it’s like you’re in the TV looking out. It sterilizes the experience, and since I’m there in great part to check out the crowd and the culture as much as the game, the press box acts as even more of a quarantine.
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