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

This is not an American soccer story, but I wanted to give some light to it. Of all the learning experiences I have had in my life, nothing was more enlightening than international travel. More than any institution, seeing the world for yourself and taking the opportunity to learn about new people, cultures, nations, regions, continents, brings unparalleled focus to that often asked, but ephemeral question: what is the meaning of life?

Soccer can help.

Talking to US Soccer’s U-17 head coach John Hackworth this weekend, I suggested during our conversations that his players are lucky to be in the residency program, not just because of the unsurpassed soccer training, but because of the life opportunities the kids are presented with, none greater than the far-flung travel inherent in international soccer. Most people never get such opportunities in their entire lives, he countered.

Although travel offers up, it cannot hammer home education. It is in the receptor to follow through, just as a teacher might warn a derelict student. Likewise, maturity is not something delivered, but context can be, and with context, for a person or place, the education that spawns maturity is possible. Travel gives you context to understand, and for me, this is what Dave Zirin finds while watching soccer on Chile’s killing field.