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

So after a week where my (at least partially) irrational dreaming of walking to a soccer stadium in Manhattan as I did for baseball games in San Francisco, Hockey in Vermont, and every sport imaginable in graduate school at Florida, the barometer is aiming today at bringing me back to reality. Thankfully a US MNT friendly is on the docket, and it has me focused on the fact that people can say what the will about the US MNT – FIFA ranks Ecuador at 24 and the US at 30 – our ladies have the world’s attention, moving into the top spot. How much reality any of those numbers hold is up for serious debate.

In past weeks leading into international matches, the attention was overwhelmingly in favor the US MNT (playing Mexico helped that no doubt last go-round), but with the MLS season so close the nod to the best stories this week stays domestic. All after the jump.

Besides anticipating the upcoming friendly in which we finally get a home game after the away game in Arizona, the rumor mill is still turning with more believe-what-you-will transfer issues. New England continues to be the provenience for pushing its best players away. Shalrie Joseph is new Dempsey in that regard, though it appears the North Atlantic is not in Joseph’s near future. Right now, he just wants off the Revolution, as its reported he’d happily go to any other MLS team. Kraft, as he is known to governs the Patriots in the NFL, is taking his frugality into MLS: apparently only $15,000 is what stands between the two parties.

Joseph, always one to fight for what he believes in, should be more attractive than one Cuauhtémoc Blanco, also known for his fighting, and who is attached to a rumored move to Chicago. After swirled rumors about Zidane and now Blanco, I’m looking for Scottie Pippen to dress for the Fire this season. Chicago is, after all, his kind of town. When will American pro soccer get off its love affair with washed up stars and start seeing the forest from the trees. It should be the product on the field, not in the press kit, that MLS should heed. I’ve never seen a league worry more about names than players. One thing, however, that came to mind and that MLS has on the other professional American sports, is the fact that players could be arriving from other countries throughout the year as transfer windows open and close. So look for these kind of rumors to fill up the breaks in action all season long. It adds a bit of anticipation and ‘what-if’ fodder that most leagues leave for the off-season – yet another advantage for the world’s sport.

The best piece of the week goes to Soccer America’s Ridge Mahoney, if that’s his real name anyway. After all the bickering over contracts and Blanco, it was nice to have an in-depth look at some of the players that will actually be on the field this year, and what they could mean for the MLS game. It’s a midfielders story, and there should be more focus on this topic, no matter the names involved, but lets not forget we need a striker or two as well.

The story that hardly received any headlines this week came from a US Soccer press release, outlining the 2006-7 U.S. Soccer Player Outreach & ID Program. While it sounds as if it could be some sort of immigration plan, the program, albeit relatively small at this point, is aimed specifically at locating and nourishing youth players that may have passed under the radar of traditional American youth soccer systems. In recent months, more than 375 players tried out throughout South Florida at six separate sessions before the 76 players were invited for the final event. Over the last year about 1000 players from outside the system were given a chance to prove their worth, and while that is a minuscule number in the greater scheme of things, given we’re talking about a federation that drags its feet on almost every decision – interim coaches anyone? – it’s at least a start. The strong and fast development of our national, regional, and local youth systems and the infrastructure that provides the resources, needs to be given a higher priority.