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

greenwich village resident outlines a major league vision for manhattan’s pier 40

In just ten days, the brand new and beautiful Red Bull Arena will finally open to soccer fans with a sold-out exhibition between Red Bull New York and Brazil’s famed Santos football club. New Yorkers will hop on the PATH train and in about a half-hour arrive at the Harrison, NJ, based stadium without most of the problems of traveling to the Meadowlands, the previous home of RBNY and the now defunct Giants Stadium.

But for many who live East of the Hudson River, the biggest problems still remain. Will the best soccer stadium in the country be able to draw fans across the river? Can a building straighten out a mismanaged franchise with a history of failure? Will there be a honeymoon, and if so, how long will it last?

RBNY has its new home, but another structure’s future also places the city’s soccer future in the wind. Pier 40, one of the largest and most-used sports facilities in Manhattan, is in dire need of rehabilitation. Just as with RBNY, many plans have failed. But Greenwich Village resident Patrick Shields thinks he has the answer. An ambitious answer… Click HERE for the full story…

The treasure is not always what it seems. Didn’t Jack T. Colton teach us anything? It’s not a shiny, Tiffany-made cup. It’s not a three-day party of networking and one-night stands. It’s a moment where truth and disbelief bleed into the surreal. It’s a band on parade with a madcap leader out front. It’s the fans and all the swag they buy, creating a cohesive gang of support whereby the entire stadium is a supporters group. It’s the stadium with as many images of Sounders as Seahawks. It’s the Emerald City itself–the temporary end of the yellow brick road until there is proof that it can be extended. Seattle didn’t pave the way for American soccer, and stadium banners be damned it didn’t save MLS, but it steamrolled every obstacle so far in the adolescent league’s path (well, there is that one little munchkin about the turf).

So when the tears crept toward my eyes and memory transported me back to the banks of the Thames, I knew I found what I had been seeking. The sousaphones swirled around me like a tornado, the drums hammered me with their thunder.

Tap Tap Tap. Tap Tap Tap. There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home. Click HERE for the full story…

Four days in Mexico City and nothing to complain about. Well, there is that one thing. And as a new friend told me after the US MNT lost 2-1 to Mexico at Azteca, these photos would look a lot better if we won…

But as should have been obvious in the previous post, there is more to life than winning. Click HERE for the full story…

Steve Nash and friends throwdown for the showdown in chinatown, take 2

It’s never as good as the first time. The rain, the grand stand bleachers, the wet turf, the steady cam man on the field, the crane cam hovering over the crowd. What was an underground experiment last year became the mainstream mainstay as Steve Nash and Claudio Reyna hosted their 2nd annual Showdown in Chinatown to benefit each of their namesake charities. The line-ups, tweaked a bit from last year, will star in a Fox Soccer Channel documentary about the game.

That’s not to say it won’t be the best sporting event all summer in New York City. Standing over Thierry Henry’s shoulder while he watched the first half from the bench is not something one takes lightly. It was a mid-eighties Michael Jackson moment for some, which is why this event will forever be, no matter how many times they play it, a once in a lifetime experience. Click HERE for the full story…

Discovered at the age of 10 in New York. In an elite American residency program in Pennsylvania at age 11. Three seasons at FC Metz youth academy in France at 13. A year in Italy as an amateur on AS Livorno’s reserves at 17, followed by a spell in Scotland at St. Mirren.

A soccer vagabond by the age of 19, Devann Yao is now back home in New York, and that’s where he wants to stay. What’s a kid got to do get a little attention around here? Click HERE for the full story…

U.S. 2, MEXICO 0. AND NOW MILES TO GO BEFORE I SLEEP

The wind was angry that night my friends, the only real surprise to a script (and score) U.S. Soccer has written before. Both countries added roughly the same ingredients, but only the U.S. looked to stir it up, even holding the ball better than anytime in recent memory.

Two goals and strong midfield play didn’t seal player of the match for young Bradley. It was the kind of night where nearly everything went right. There were a few breakdowns and Coach Bradley made the obvious subs–Ching wore out and Kljestan added less than his best. Given the opponent, I’d only ask for Torres instead of Clark, but the newfound possession game alone left fans with joker smiles after the game. “We might have turned a corner tonight,” one fan mused.

And god love Tim Howard

photo story after the jump…

Click HERE for the full story…

There is always something beyond the immediate. After every win there is a loss. Even when you win the championship, eventually you fall. That’s life. But try telling that to a team of high school boys celebrating their day in the bright ligts of the big city after bringing home yet another title to Martin Luther King high school.

So after what was proclaimed MLK Soccer Appreciation Day Coach Martin Jacobson crammed a whole life into a single soccer season. “Like life,” he said. “it’s the end that counts. And we ended up pretty well.” Click HERE for the full story…

So you think you can be a professional soccer player?

Keyvan Heydari thought he could too. Almost did. Now some 20 years after he first tried, after he covered six World Cups (starting with Mexico 1986) as a journalist and broadcaster, after he contributed to outlets such as NPR, The Miami Herald/El Nuevo Herald, The Washington Post, L’Equipe, La Gazzetta dello Sport, Paris Match, Univision, ESPN, Gol TV and Telemundo, not to mention a couple of soccer books published in Italy… he wants another shot.

After the jump, Heydari delivers part 3 of his exclusive dispatches from a place where, yes, even a 45-year-old has a chance to live the dream. Click HERE for the full story…

(this is all five parts of the story in its entirety)

Ron Isley croons from the stereo of the Audi A6 Quattro Clint Dempsey purchased from sports agency-mate Ryan Nelsen. “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 are 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….”

Click HERE for the full story…

PART 3

Lance Dempsey now coaches soccer in North Carolina. Seeing the game from the other side of the sidelines gave him a new respect for the work his older brother put in. “My parents sacrificed a lot,” he tells me. “But I don’t want it to sound like something crazy, like we were homeless, like Clint was the focus of the family. My parents did what any good parents would do. They helped all of us. Clint put in a lot of work.”

That work began as is typical among siblings, with the younger brother trying to keep up with his older brother. Ryan, now 30, has five years on Clint, whose feet were firmly placed in the elder’s footprints at a very young age. The boys took to the free form and constant flow of soccer over the traditional family favorites, football and baseball. The Dempseys weren’t initially a soccer family and Nacogdoches didn’t have anything similar to a club team. The boys played pick-up games in their largely Hispanic neighborhood, learning from their peers without coaching or structure. They ran through the house and school hallways with their favorite soccer jerseys on.

Click HERE for the full story…