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

In preparing for an interview, I reached out to GolTV in order to determine the progress if any on getting the all-soccer-all-the-time channel started by Uruguayan soccer legend Enzo Francescoli in the line-up on Time Warner Cable in Manhattan–where I live and where there is as yet no GolTV, no Setanta, just Fox Soccer.

They offered me an interview with their Chief Operating Officer, Rodrigo Lombello. So before we sit down with the station’s most famous voice, let’s spend a few minutes with the man pulling the strings. Click HERE for the full story…

D.C. is talking about it. Toronto is in the cross-hairs. Chicago does better without it.

New York still not really getting it.

It was a beautiful Sunday on Memorial Day weekend in New York City (I assume it was the same in North Jersey). Blanco and a quality Chicago Fire team were on hand to battle out the upper half of the Eastern Conference. Three points could give some swing in the standings.

There was even more potential drama, but I don’t expect the casual fan to understand the whole Bradley, Osoria, Conde, Marmol connections. And it is all about that elusive creature, the casual fan, don’t ya know? Click HERE for the full story…

“You goin in,” a Fulham fan asked a Portsmouth rival from the line at Fratton Park’s visitors gate? “Of course,” the hefty Pompey supporter said smiling, his PFC jersey stretched to the brink over his belly. “Once in a lifetime isn’t it?”

Yes sir. My first two English Premier League games go down as not just historic for me, but for Fulham as well. My week in England comes to a close, but Fulham and its American quintuplets will be in the Premiere League next season, thanks to the greatest ugly win I have ever seen. (Reading and Derby County’s American players were not as lucky). Click HERE for the full story…

Fulham v Birmingham City. Saturday 03-May-2008 3:00 pm.

Riverside Stand. Block X Row 2 Seat 11.

I’m a little lost for words. But not tears. It was unexpected. But taking my seat in the second row 20 yards up the sideline, the crowd singing and smacking their Clap Banners, I kind of lost it, a boy welcomed to the bosom of the mother he never met.

Click HERE for the full story…

Gotham Hall, Midtown Manhattan. The 2008 Streets To Fields black tie gala put on by MLS W.O.R.K.S. and the U.S. Soccer Foundation to “celebrate the sport of soccer in the United States” donated proceeds to Harlem Youth Soccer “to help build a soccer field for its players and develop an after-school soccer and leadership training program.” The New York Times reported that $300,000 was raised by the very unpublicized event. David Beckham gave “the award to the man,” in his words, honoring Pele for his lifetime achievement in supporting American soccer. A leadership award went to Phil Anschutz while the philanthropy award went to freshly minted New York Governor and Harlem-born David Paterson. Presidents Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush showed their support through pre-taped videos.

Behind all the glitz, glamor and sculpted ice there was a reason for this banquet. Full feature to come on the whirlwind year in the life of Executive Director Irv Smalls and the biggest little club in New York. For now, a photo story to wet your appetites.

Click HERE for the full story…

FOR L.A. SOCCER WRITER LUIS BUENO, THE INTERSECTION OF AMERICAN SOCCER AND HISPANIC GEOGRAPHY IS NOT NEW. IT IS IN HIS BLOOD.

“Throughout the nation men and women, forgotten in the political philosophy of the Government, look to us here for guidance and for more equitable opportunity to share in the distribution of national wealth… I pledge myself to a new deal for the American people. This is more than a political campaign. It is a call to arms.”

-Franklin Delano Roosevelt, from his 1932 presidential nomination acceptance speech.

This could be soccer’s New Deal. Like President Roosevelt’s national program after the Great Depression, a move toward integrating soccer across American demographics might too bring relief, reform, and recovery to the people players of the United States American soccer. But will it be able to triumph over the roadblocks?

While I have been watching the deal go down in Harlem the last few weeks, Culture of Soccer editor David Keyes has been in Southern California and returns to TIAS with part two of his west coast swing. We heard from Andrea Canalas a few weeks ago and now turn our attention to her partner in blog, Luis Bueno. From the coincidentally appropriate setting of Sueño MLS tryouts in Los Angeles, our correspondent sits down with Bueno to learn about his path to soccer journalism and discuss the cross cultural attention (and tension) that is budding throughout Mexican and American soccer. Click HERE for the full story…

“But back windows aint much good for looking out. I never did like looking backwards no how. I always did believe in looking out front–looking ahead–which is why I’s worried about Rodney: What do you reckon’s out there in them streets for that boy?”

-Langston Hughes from The Sweet Flypaper of Life, a photo story about a family living at 113 West 134th Street in 1955 New York.

The home of FC Harlem is just a few blocks and more than a half century away… Click HERE for the full story…

SOCCER JOURNALIST ANDREA CANALES TALKS TO TIAS

ABOUT HER LIFE, WORK AND THE BATTLE BETWEEN THE TWO

Some things just make too much sense not to do them. Such was the case with setting up an interview with Andrea Canales, our first lady of soccer journalism and a writer not afraid to address subjects most media won’t. In a world where sports stories are essentially written before they happen – by men I might add - Andrea remains open to where a story takes her, even if those are dangerous waters. Even if those waters have nothing to do with soccer.

She’s written plenty of uncontroversial stuff as well, for just about every soccer publication imaginable. And it’s usually as the only woman on the masthead. I had so many questions for her. Problem is, she’s in Los Angeles; I’m in New York and at the point where I really try to avoid depending on phone interviews for a feature. So for more than a year I’ve wanted to get Andrea on TIAS.

Enter David Keyes. You may know David from his work over at Culture of Soccer, a blog that if you’ve spent any time at you know I love. One day David pushed off from his east coast home to anthropology grad school in southern California. To make a short story even shorter: for most of you reading this (and our work) it should be obvious why both David and I had interest in speaking with Andrea and why I am more than thrilled to have David interview her for his first contribution to TIAS. Their conversation is after the jump. David will be back in the coming weeks to address the second half of the Sideline Views crew, Luis Bueno. 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…

EDITOR IN CHIEF OF FUTBOL MUNDIAL IS BREAKING DOWN BORDERS,

WAITING FOR AMERICAN SOCCER TO CATCH UP

Robert Abramowitz - that’s him on the right before the Mexico-Iran game in Cologne, Germany, at the 2006 World Cup - 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. But first, let’s get to know him. Part 1 of our conversation is after the jump, with future installments coming as soon as I figure out how to transcribe all the Spanish off the recorder. Click HERE for the full story…