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

SHIRT OFF MY BACK EDITION

USA 2, Mexico 2. Man those games are fun (even when the soccer aint so good, and it don’t count for nothin). Altidore scored what will be his first of many international goals (and mixed it up throughout his 90 minutes). Onyewu returned from his recent international doldrums with, yes, a perfect header, but he also hustled back and stood up the countering Mexicans seconds later (without a foul!). Bocanegra was the foul king last night, but he did manage to not make any of the major mishaps he has a tendency to oblige (and that have him out of the Fulham starting lineup?). Michael Bradley also committed some dumb fouls and continues to struggle with carrying his club prowess into the national team (it was painful to watch him for most of the night, but all of our European-based players looked tired, so we’ll give him the friendly pass). Considering we shoulda coulda won what was a game largely dominated by the speed and tenacity of the young Mexicans (we should all count our blessings that Giovanni Dos Santos played as few minutes as he did) in front of what seemed like 60,000 Mexican fans in Houston of all places, I guess a draw - a Mexican moral victory as it was called - is acceptable (as long as Bradley learned some things ((like bringing in a few more defensive backs?))).

My favorite part of the game and the rest of this week’s news are after the jump. For continuing updates on all the must-read stories, Follow TIAS at Twitter (see side panel at right).

banner photo courtesy of ISI Photos

Click HERE for the full story…

EDITOR IN CHIEF OF FUTBOL MUNDIAL IS BREAKING DOWN BORDERS,

WAITING FOR AMERICAN SOCCER TO CATCH UP

Robert Abramowitz has a drool-inducing resume: Television Commentator/Anchor - ESPN International (Latin America) & ESPN Deportes (US) - May 1994 – Present. Radio Commentator - NFL/Westwood One/Univisión Radio - November 2003-Present. Radio/TV Play-by Play/Analyst - New York Knicks - May 1996 – Present. Television Voiceover/HBO Sports - August 2001 – Present. And of course, Editor in Chief - Fútbol Mundial - May 2002 – Present.

And that’s just the stuff he is presently working on, to say nothing of his past. So, um, Robert might have a thing or two to say about Hispanics and American sports. You can find Part 1 of our conversation here; we pick up with the state of Futbol Mundial and FM USA after the jump. Click HERE for the full story…

A SPECIAL ACN EDITION

Like The Daily Show without writers, this is a different kind of barometer. Remember this amazing piece by Austin Merrill, former Associated Press writer in the Ivory Coast? Well, he’s back (in Africa), working on another story, and while soccer is not his focus, there just so happens to be a little tournament going on at the same time. I like to call it the Africa Cup of Nations. Austin was kind enough to take a break from reporting on subjects that really matter and write exclusively for TIAS a little slice of soccer life in Ghana. South Africa buying supporters? Check it out, after the jump. Click HERE for the full story…

DECORATED COACH SITS DOWN WITH FORMER STAR PLAYER SET FOR MLS BREAKOUT

I visited recently with Chicago Fire’s Bakary Soumare and his former coach Martin (Jake) Jacobson, both of NYC soccer dynasty Martin Luther King high school. Jake was the man who first spotted Soumare playing on a New York field soon after his arrival from France (where he grew up after moving from his birthplace of Mali), setting the course for where we now find the young defensive midfielder: fighting to fill the shoes of retired Chris Armas and weighing national team options. Click HERE for the full story…

one of the “top 100 freshman to watch” reflects on his transition from high school to college soccer

written by Steven Amaya

It’s been a crazy year, the transition from high school to college: new, harder classes; a new, more competitive team. Oneonta, where Hartwick College is located, though only a few hours away by train from where I grew up in Queens New York, felt like a different planet. I quickly learned that it is all about controlling fear. The fear of the rising level of play, the increasing responsibility in both soccer and school, the amount of distractions I encountered. Will I fit into the team, the school? Will I get playing time as a freshman? Can I take advantage of opportunity? It’s a lot of pressure, in the shadow of the soccer hall of fame no less. In my jump from high school to college soccer, just as in what seems my entire life, I have found my ability to manage fear to be the determining factor for excellence or failure. Click HERE for the full story…

SAVING THE SOCCER MAGAZINE. OR NOT

I woke one morning a few weeks ago to Ives Galarcep highlighting a few soccer magazines and noting he would come back regularly and begin summarizing them, maybe something like Slate’s handy Today’s Papers column.

I commented that I was planning to do this for American soccer magazines, and Ives had beat me to it. But then I realized he had left me a window because he chose all international magazines. Ives came back with this:

“I have to be honest and say I just don’t have time to read the American magazines. Whenever I get my hands on a Soccer America I will check it out but that’s about it. The new Major League Soccer magazine looks nice but the information in the first one I read felt so dated to me. I guess that’s my problem. For the most part I will have already heard most of what I will find in American magazines. I will leaf through them on occasion when at Barnes & Noble but have yet to find one that compelled me to take it home.”

I know that feeling. It’s the reason why I had been sitting on this ‘American soccer magazine review’ idea since first getting my hands on the inaugural issue of MLS magazine. What was that, in July? Click HERE for the full story…

a minor opportunity arrives with latest major league soccer club

The emerald city is in the process of losing a basketball franchise but gaining a soccer team… and a new Hollywood homer.

A few weeks ago, Drew Carey, part owner of the new yet-to-be-named soccer franchise, was in the broadcast booth at Seattle’s Qwest stadium during Monday Night Football on ESPN. For a couple of days in one American city professional soccer was part of the discussion.

But the discussion was short lived. MLS Cup quickly stole some attention. There was an expansion draft next. USL was at Soccerfest. And Thanksgiving threw in a bone. Or at least that’s what I thought (and would still like to believe). Click HERE for the full story…

forget everything you knew about hawaii. remember everything you love about soccer

That’s a picture of Hawaii. Looks cold, no? Maybe you knew maybe you didn’t: you can snowboard on Mauna Kea – that’s ‘white mountain’ in the islands’ native language – the 13,796-foot volcano on the big island which shares its name with the state. This blew my mind the first time I heard about it. Stop and think about it, and it makes perfect sense. Same goes with the time I ran into a protest near a popular beach on Oahu and learned that there is a nationalistic secession movement in Hawaii among the native community calling for the islands’ independence and the return of the Hawaiian Kingdom, which was toppled in 1893 by businessmen and politicians looking to control the booming plantation economy among other interests.

These surprises – the fact that I never learned these facts in or out of school – go to show it’s dangerous to just accept the postcard perception. It’s always good to take the time to look around; you never know what you might learn, what you might fall in love with. I think that’s something every soccer fan knows a little something about. You have to want to find soccer. And when you do, it has to be about you; while the atmosphere is changing, the likelihood remains that the great majority could not care less.

Which is why I was ecstatic to learn that filmmakers at Stryker-Indigo are working on a documentary about the history of soccer – more than 100 years of it - in Hawaii. The film, Pele’s Children - more than halfway finished and looking toward a 2009 release - is if nothing else an act of love. It is being made because the filmmakers want to make it. It’s a story both personal and universal. That combination represents the best of art and the best of sport.

I sat down over the phone with one of the project’s leaders, George Fosty, to get the story behind the film. Our conversation is after the jump. Click HERE for the full story…

2007 FOUND AMERICAN SOCCER IN SEARCH OF ITS HEAD

It started with the retirement of Brian McBride from international duty after the 2006 World Cup and has continued downhill to the incapable feet of otherwise able bodies.

The national team’s striker regression, however, highlights more than one team’s struggle to find a player fit for a role. Throughout the ranks of American soccer, the national team’s shortcomings up front lay bare the game-changing skills, mental and physical, still largely missing in America’s version of the global game. It reverberates throughout American soccer, making this the year of a headless beast. Click HERE for the full story…

It’s not exclusive to soccer or even sports. I think it has something to do with human nature, specifically fear and comfort-ability. How else can you explain the hegemony within the constant reshuffling of power positions inside USSF or the fact that it seems everybody who gets the jobs I want has a famous family or friend?

Yesterday John Hackworth was fired from his position as head coach of the U17 national team and residency program director. Today he was relegated/demoted/promoted to assistant coach of the US MNT and Development Academy Director. Given the incestuous maneuvering – Rick Reilly to ESPN/Dan Patrick to Sports Illustrated springs to mind of another reshuffling – what is really changing?

A Rose by any other name is stinking up the joint after the jump…
Click HERE for the full story…