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

We beat Canada. That’s good, but it’s far from all good. Lots of promise; lots of problems. I’m just not ready to accept that as the status quo. Why can’t the team play 90 minutes? Well, Sunday is going to awesome, even if we lose. I’ll be at the two friendlies here at Giants stadium tomorrow to help quell the anticipation.

The winner this week in grabbing the barometer’s attention goes to former New York Mets manager and present manager of the Chiba Lotte Marines of Japan’s Pacific League, Bobby Valentine. He thinks Japanese baseball is declining in popularity, wait for it, because soccer is growing so quickly.

He suggests that baseball is not connecting with the youth, continuing, “In the old days, dads would teach their kids to play baseball,” said Valentine. “But they are too busy now so the moms take the kids to the park and if they have a choice between baseball and soccer they teach the kids soccer and who can blame them?”

Ok, so that’s kind of just a joke. Really, the tip of the hat goes to Richard Justice for his column from Wednesday (see last post). Or Maybe this little piece - Save the Soccer Tacos - which was picked up by several national papers. Keep in mind, this is more or less the neighborhood the Mets ownership wants to put the second MLS franchise in New York.

Oh, and Barcelona signed some guy named Henry.

The rest of this weeks top hits are after the jump…

I’ve been drooling every since the Mets rumor broke, but I was hoping for more concrete info. To no avail. Alas, it looks like NYC is waiting until at least 2010 for its own MLS club, which may or may not include the ownership group that owns the Mets of Major League Baseball. But just the fact that there is talk once again is a great thing, especially when Commissioner Garber admits to a preference in putting a second team in NYC before the growing list of wishful cities that are presently MLS-deficient.

Some one is going to have to write a book about the South Africa World Cup. Or I am the only one fascinated by the trials and tribulations (don’t forget the doubting) of this story that began the minute the Cup closed in Germany? 1000 days to go!

Big Boy Blatter went on tour again, and Barcelona just played a friendly there against Mamelodi Sundowns in Pretoria, and is just one way South Africa is garnering attention. And there is some brew-ha-ha brewing over the TV rights.

I gave a tip of the hat, and now my wag of the finger goes to Tom Cruise, who is rumored to be preparing a bid to buy the LA Galaxy, though I find it hard to believe AEG would part with the team they’ve put so much work into. The Galaxy front office had no comment when I contacted them. No Surprise there. If this goes through, the purists will go crazy, no doubt; could he make an offer they can’t refuse. God Scientology knows he has the cash. But I feel confident it won’t happen. But it does beg the question for MLS: is all publicity good publicity?

Get to know the U20 team ahead of their send-off tour for their upcoming World Cup.

From my hometown paper comes this heart-warming story of a young lady battling a rare disease. Oh, she is one hell of a soccer player. The fact that the University of Georgia stuck by the teen and gave her a scholarship is pretty amazing to me in this day and age of cutthroat recruiting.

This could be a Diary Project here at TIAS, but instead, The Madison Record delivers a nice little piece about the growth of soccer in Madison, Wisconsin. It’s a good example of how local coverage might the future of both soccer and newspapers, both fighting for attention on the national stage.

And lastly, this little nugget in which a blogger gives five reasons why cricket croquet is a better sport than soccer and why Americans should be paying it more attention. Get in line buddy.