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

When Soccernet’s main story of the week is about Fro Adu, and Sports Illustrated dot com leads with a video game review, you know it’s a slow week for soccer. The summer schedule is coming together, however; the US MNT plays Argentina in Copa America’s first round on June 28. Mexico has Brazil first. Not exactly easing in the ‘guests’ of the tournament. There will be nothing easy at all come midsummer as a crowded schedule and its conflicts with MLS and European preseason will have the US MNT likely fielding two very different teams for the Gold Cup and Copa America. Jeff Carlisle wades through the mess. The critical give and take for the week continues after the jump…

More news out of South America has famed Argentina hooligans las barras bravas selling their expertise abroad. Apparently, some Mexicans are interested. Calling Sam’s Army: I’m not saying we absorb the “use of weapons and methods for extorting money from club directors and players,” but our “terrace chants” could use a little work.

Frank Dell’Apa took the opportunity to give soccer the Black History Month treatment, glossing over a story that I think was due a bit more time and research (which ironically fits the mainstream media’s treatment of black history month). And of course it was buried in soccernet’s files as du Nord’s Bruce McGuire pointed out. I traded a few emails with Bruce about the piece after reading his positive review. I had to talk this one out, because I was disappointed by the piece. Given the headline, you’d think it is an article about Giles Heron, who besides being the ‘Black Arrow’ for Celtic way back when is also the father of one of my favorite musicians and writers, Gil Scott-Heron, but it really wasn’t. It was nice little fluff history piece that Dell’Apa waved away with phrases such as, “Heron’s life does warrant at least a chapter in someone’s book, though that would take some concentrated researching.”

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Umm… is not that your job Frank? He phoned this one in, which would be fine when it’s a midseason game report, but this subject deserved more time and some, um, I don’t know, concentrated researching. There’s a photo caption hailing Beasley as part of the black players presently making a mark on the game, but neither Beasley nor anyone else from today’s game is mentioned in the text. There is no time at all given to the present tense, except to throw in the black coaches question, which I think every sportswriter holds in his back pocket for a slow day. Maybe you learned a new name or two, a trivia question is answered, but there was no story, nothing to really take home. And too bad, this could have been a wonderful piece. Moving on…

Most of the news this week is obviously about the upcoming MLS season (and the midseason tournaments), and Steve Davis has an agreeable piece running down the good and bad within MLS. Lately, I see a consensus forming on a lot of these issues, only problem is, MLS and USSF brass aren’t in on it. Just like our US MNT, it’s time for some new blood, new leaders, and especially someone out front who can get it done.

More often than not these days there is a saddening move in all of journalism toward these packaged lists. Call me crazy, but while they can work in some cases such as Davis’, I’ll take a well-researched 5,000-word story over this crap any day. Pick one of the topics Davis gives a number to, and work it out. With some TADA! concentrated researching. It’s as if the news outlets are moving toward blog formats and their armchair antics (yep, that’s me) when I wish it was the other way around (I’m trying).

But maybe you aren’t like me – and some concentrated research from the industry says most aren’t – maybe you’d rather get your information in a snarky, steel cage match ala Deadspin and the entirety of the sports-talk world. Well then you’re psyched for the no holds barred match between Kristian Dyer and Jeff Bradley. This is so unfunny, it makes me laugh… and then cry.

The only reason I save this for last, is that it isn’t an American soccer story. As far as soccer stories go, in fact, this is likely as un-American as possible, in that who could imagine the US closing out fans from a soccer stadium. Getting them in is hard enough. Otherwise, this would be front and center, because it is another fine piece of prose from Grant Wahl, who apparently got to take a break from examining the college basketball bubble to head over to Italy to find out what it was like to watch a Serie A game without spectators. See, go to your story and you might actually have one to tell (without numbering your paragraphs).