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

From Irv Smalls (back, center, with the shaved head in the above photo), Director of FC Harlem:

On Saturday Dutch soccer star Edgar Davids and his street soccer team from the Netherlands, Monta, paid a visit to FC HARLEM’s travel teams. ESPN filmed the piece on the handball courts at Jacob Schiff Playground. The Harlem community turned out to watch our FC HARLEM LIONS learn some tricks from some of the best free style players in the world before taking them on in a small-sided 4v4 game. FC HARLEM players held their own, In fact Monta and Edgar were so impressed with a few of our high school players they invited some of them to play on Sunday against the NIKE Futsal Team, going as far as to inquire about their availability to travel with them!

I was unable to attend the fun this weekend, but Irv was nice enough to share a few photos after the jump. Every league, director, coach, and parent out there should be watching this guy…
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A few weeks ago - if you didn’t know before – we were all reintroduced to a certain American soccer player when reporter Steven Sandor of Sun Media noted an Arsenal scout in the press box at a recent Toronto FC game. The report alluded to said scout’s apparent interest in Chivas USA Goal Keeper Brad Guzan, and the article quickly forgets about the scout (which he lead the piece with??) and meanders on about American goal keepers abroad.

Guzan is quoted in the piece, saying, “I’m only 22 years old. I know I have a long career ahead of me.” Funny thing, that Arsenal scout could have said the same thing. He’s only 23. He also could have said the same thing when he was a player, but that would have been wrong.

That Arsenal scout is Danny Karbassiyoon, the youngest American player to score a goal in English club competition (a game-winner for Arsenal, assisted by Cesc Fabregas, in the 90th minute of a Carling Cup game no less), and one of the more unfortunate injury stories of recent American soccer history.

A standout youth player in Virginia. A meteoric rise through Arsenal’s reserve squad only to be released by the club. Stints followed with the English clubs Ipswich Town and Burnley. Offers came in from the Iranian National Team. And then the wheels came off; the knee just wouldn’t spin with the engine. Retired at age 22.

Why Sandor decided to write another column on the popularity of American goal keepers in England, I’ll never know, but I should thank him along with Arsenal’s communications department in helping me track down Danny. And of course, I have to thank Danny for taking the time out of his busy schedule to speak with TIAS over the phone from his parents printing shop in Roanoke, Virginia, and for sharing some photos from his personal collection.

How’s the knee? How’s the scouting? What is he looking for in youth players? Did he really announce his retirement on Facebook? All those answers and more after the jump in this TIAS exclusive…
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tias exclusive

FILMMAKERS TAKE SOCCER DOCUMENTARY HOME. SCREENING FOR FILM’S SUBJECTS

When I first met Roger Bennett, he was standing in front of the East side Manhattan cinema where the film he created with Director Christopher Browne and fellow producers Alexander Browne and Michael Cohen, Sons of Sakhnin United, was about to be screened by the open-minded if a bit elitist Tribeca Film Festival patrons. Roger nor his Arsenal-tattooed colleague Cohen waiting with him seemed to be nervous. This wasn’t the world premiere, and the euphoria of finishing the film, getting it into the festival, and receiving rave reviews was all the satisfaction they needed.

Taking the film to Jerusalem, however, was a different story. A makeshift screening in a coffee house in Sahknin, complete with mayor, mullah, and Abbas Suan in attendance would prove even more nerve-racking.

Roger was kind enough to share his once in a lifetime experience with TIAS. And what with England and Israel facing off in a Euro 2008 qualifier on Saturday, there is no more perfect time to reflect on the realities of soccer in Israel.

The filmmaker’s adventure in screening is after the jump…
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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…

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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Under the guise of allowing the youngsters to play and letting Bradley look at his boys, I’m not addressing Copa America today. I think I said everything I needed to say in the last post (Keller starting? Players playing their way off the team). So I’m here today to give you something else, far from the back and forth between the USA haters and apologists. Although it is a back and forth…

Toronto FC’s rocket launch aside, arguably no other team has created a soccer atmosphere like DC. Maybe it was always meant to be – for reasons you’ll see below – but you can’t overlook the outreach methods taken by the team, the media, and their fans. The team signed players to represent the various immigrant communities in nation’s capital – almost as if the roster was in ratio with the region. The media, from local cable to its national newspaper, The Washington Post, assigned coverage. The internet wasn’t far behind. Post copy editor turned beat reporter Steve Goff entered the blogosphere, following what was already healthy world wide work from supporters’ groups and fan sites like DCenters.

In journalism, there is this idea of convergence, bringing all the available platforms and technology together in order to maximize things like dissemination and market share. The same term could be used for American soccer, USSF, or a MLS club. Offer everything in hopes of attracting everybody. There will always be hits and misses, but it wouldn’t be hard to argue that no one has a better track record than United.

Continuing to mine the microcosm of American soccer that is the growth rate and/or fate of the professional soccer writer, we turn our attention to Mr. Goff, his Washington Post, and their Soccer Insider blog. Steve joins the discussion after the jump…
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The popularity of the Houston Dynamo has helped bring some attention to the sport there.

“Kind of neat, huh?” Those are the words Houston Chronicle sports columnist Richard Justice used to end his column yesterday regarding the ‘club or country’ question that invades soccer like no other sport. The phrase is a perfect proposal for Justice, a writer and sometime television and radio guest, who in this world of sports talk insanity where two guys yelling at each other goes for journalism is a beacon of honest reportage and sincere opinion.

Richard is not a soccer guy, but he’s long been one of my favorite baseball writers (I’ll apologize right now if this sounds like some lauding celebrity profile, but…). He delivers the occasional scoop, but more importantly, he knows what he is talking about and presents it in an entertaining and professional manner, safe for all viewers in a world where journalists are increasingly coming forth with extreme volume if not some lame schtick suited for a PG-13 crowd. He even maintains this persona when placed in the shark tank that is any number of ESPN’s programs.

Not that he is alone in that department, but it’s been downsized in the last few years like Milton at Initech, in turn raising the profiles of writers like Justice to those of us who want our ‘eyes and ears’ to stay the course and avoid the express train to talking-head fame, and nights out on the town with “you’re with me with, leather” or ”lemme know”.”

Now, maybe Richard is a wild man who just keeps his indiscretions far from blogger eyes, but he does not have a catch phrase or a penchant for prescribing nicknames, and I love him for it.

So imagine my surprise yesterday when I came across his column in the Houston Chronicle – a paper, I might add, that has some of the most thorough soccer reporting in the nation. Richard Justice on soccer? I had to know how this happened. How often do top-level, mainstream columnists, who aren’t soccer writers, cover the sport? You know, without it being a complete hack job or rag fest? It took a little convincing – “Adam, I’d talk to you about almost any topic other than soccer. I just don’t have enough knowledge on the topic” - but finally Richard obliged me a few questions.

After the jump, Richard Justice on soccer. Kind of neat, huh?
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Ives at the helm during last year’s World Cup opening match between Germany and Costa Rica

After lunch at a brew pub, which has become my soccer office of late in Times Square, New Jersey Herald Red Bulls beat reporter Ives Galarcep expressed his slight hesitation in participating in a profile about himself, in that he would incite criticism for his lack of being a soccer player, and as he put it, “I’m not nearly as interesting as Jack Bell or Grant Wahl.”

Not one to cast off Ives’ opinions, which I’ve come to greatly respect over the years, I considered it, and then cast it aside. Ives might be more interesting. As he remarked on his blog, he doesn’t have photos of himself with Pele or Ronaldinho, but what he has is the day-in day-out life of a fulltime soccer writer, something Jack and Grant can’t say. So, for that reason only, Ives has something to share that is rare. And we should all pay attention, because as Ives goes, so goes our soccer coverage. Will his paper continue to cover soccer? Will his newspaper… continue? None of those answers are crystal clear.

What is clear, however, is that Amado Guevara is no fan of Ives. Just one day after our meeting, in which one of the topics we addressed was the unique relationship between beat reporters and the players they cover, Guevara banned Ives from his media circle for some critical columns he wrote about the Honduran striker. Just another day on the beat. At least Clint Mathis and him are friends again (keep reading).

For one of the first times in print, the coveted life of an endangered species is exposed. OK, I didn’t spend three years waiting for images of a snow leapord in the Himalayas, but soccer beat reporters, they’re no less a fascinating breed.
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New York Times’ Jack Bell with FC Barcelona’s Ronaldinho.

If a publication came to you and said you could write a story about Ronaldinho but you’d have to pay your own way to Barcelona, what would you say? Ok, easy question. What if you had been a journalist and editor for more than two decades covering soccer from the Cosmos to the MLS? Would your answer be any different? For New York Times Jack Bell, passion has to trump payment from time to time.

It’s a problem in American soccer journalism. It goes along with the naysayers of my Red Bulls ticket give-a-away plan: if you start giving it away for free, who is going to pay for it? More than the fact that there is only so much news to go around to so many writers, the editorial powers that be contend a market is not there to demand it. They’re not wrong, but they’re not exactly right either.

Bell’s Ronaldinho story became one of nytimes.com’s most-read stories after it was posted, but it isn’t any easier for him to get soccer stories published (it’s a bit easier when you have a name like George Vecsey). If you’re like me, you believe a news outlet like the New York Times has an obligation to cover American soccer, even if only on-line, even if behind the veil of the pay-to-play Times Select.

It turns out that pay-to-play goes for some writers as well, a situation I’ve been on losing side of with some of the top outlets in journalism, garnering responses like, “We’d be happy to publish the work if it’s good, but we can’t pay you for it.” It should be no surprise that money talks, but during my hour-long conversation with Jack Bell over lunch in Times Square, I was surprised to learn a veteran of the genre would face the same obstacles.

Our conversation, including his thoughts on the Times’ treatment of soccer and many other subjects are after the jump, along with a few photos from inside Ronaldinho’s house that were passed up by the Times and are now a TIAS exclusive…
Click HERE for the full story…