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

ANTICIPATION EDITION

Though everybody else noted it and moved on, I’m not content with the week’s expansion coverage. More on that next week. I was wanting to get it out this week, but due in no small part to the exciting weekend we have in front of us, getting some answers has been difficult. So to the weekend I guess.

Jose Mourinho’s appearance in our nation’s capital has me wondering what the buzz is on the other side of the Atlantic for the MLS Cup. You’d figure, like me and the NBA, that if they were going to pay attention at all, the final might be the game to watch. God loves a final.

A personal request for anyone heading to D.C. (unfortunately I won’t be making the trip) - ask Mourinho to name a player from each of the two teams. Think he could do it?

This weekend wraps up the 2007 seasons for both club and country. In the coming weeks TIAS will look back to figure out how we move forward. But we need to wrap this week up first.

Is anyone more excited for the MNT in Africa than the MLS Cup? For once, I must side with club over country, but I’m not doubting the international friendly could end up being more entertaining than the MLS final. After all, The US MNT is offering us something new (if Bradley plays the fresh faces), while the Cup will be a rematch of last year’s horrid final.

But it is a final, and it doesn’t have to be a repeat of last year beyond the nicknames. I’m cautiously optimistic. New England, for one, seems ready to get the bridesmaid label removed. Shalrie Joseph will be key versus the league’s best defense. With injuries to Ching, and with Clarke out, that defense will be Houston’s key to winning championship. I can’t help but think if Houston were to have all it’s players Twellman and his purse would be sent home trophy-less again.

If we’re lucky, it will be the best of both worlds: a ferocious final where everything is put on the line and a feisty friendly where America’s future is put in the starting line-up.

St. Louis Blues. They may not be getting a MLS team this year or next or in 2010, but the Gateway to the West is preparing as if they are, consolidating their youth clubs in what is a historic first for youth soccer in the United States. Of course this got no pub from any sizable source. Thanks Be then for our youth soccer guru Robert Ziegler who has the must read of the week.

Ziegler breaks down the historic move that goes deeper than just youth soccer by noting “more than 250 travel teams will be under the same organization, sharing a set of fields around the area including more than a dozen new fields at the central complex in Collinsville. These will be in the shadows of an 18,500 seat stadium that will serve as the centerpiece of the 400-acre development project, including commercial and residential areas. So there’s no worry about the youth and pro arenas competing with one another, because for the first time in this country, they will truly be one and the same.”

MLS should factor in moves like this into their expansion decisions, and so put St. Louis on top of the list.

Take That. Here is a curious column by Steven Wells in the Guardian’s sports blog. He attacks some US soccer journalists from a pre-World Cup event last summer in Germany before going off on sports journalism as a whole. If you can get past the loose attribution of some damning quotes, there is some worthwhile discussion to be had, as there was thanks to Andrea Canales who picked up the discussion at Sideline Views.

This should be nothing new for readers of tias. I even got a few e-mails with a link to this article with notes reading “this should be right up your alley.” Is my loathing that obvious? Answer: yes; a career writing novels from the mountains of Montana might be my only savior.

It is always good to keep these discussions alive. We live in a world where the individual feels so powerless, these issues are often picked up just to be dropped (”well, I tried”). At some point it does become unproductive finger-pointing, and in those moments I’d rather let actions speak louder than words. We can’t spend all our time being ombudsmen. Eventually, there would be no alternative reporting. And that is the best way to combat the problem.

Change. Andrea Canales has an article at US Soccer Players dot com on another topic that should never be forgotten: the need for diversity in American soccer. She points to the hiring of Gullit, and his hiring of Cobi Jones as an assistant, as landmark progress. Impossible to disagree. I’d like to note that Andrea is often one of the first - and often the only one - who addresses touchy subjects a lot of writers avoid.

Sigh. It had to be noted. After a season in which we saw relatively little from the maestro, Grant Wahl returns to basketball. Maybe one last piece – please, god, not another mailbag – after the MLS Cup.

Vote or Die. U.S. Soccer has their ‘best of 2007’ nominations up. For the first time ‘best soccer blog’ is a category, and tias is humbled to be included as a finalist alongside some stiff competition.

I’ve mentioned Andrea twice today. Make it three. Her and Luis’ work at Sideline Views surprisingly did not get the votes to make it on the list. More east coast bias?

Now we could debate this for a long time - professional soccer writers versus soccer fans? What makes something a blog? - but what has dawned on me in the past, making for a standing dream of mine, and is laid out in plain view with this list of finalists, is the fact that each blog offers something unique. Maybe it’s coverage of a team from fans (DCenters, Through Ball); maybe it’s inside sources and breaking news (Goff); maybe it’s sports-talk discussion (Galarcep); maybe it’s behind-the-scenes of your national team (MNT and WNT blogs); maybe it’s a comprehensive database of all the day’s news and stories (du Nord). Thing is, there is room for everybody because everybody delivers their niche. Sure there is some cross-over, but some of even this edited list are so different it’s impossible to compare them. Bring them all together and you’d have a team to destroy all competition, the jewel of the internet, if you will Mr. Lalas. Barry Diller knows what I’m talking about. Who’s in?