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

American soccer is going global, and it has nothing to do with Germany, unless we’re talking Bundesliga and Keller. Our country’s trade deficit doesn’t translate to soccer, where our exports greatly outweigh our imports. While it hurts on some level to see the players go, you understand that they want to play for, with, and against the best, where they can get better and earn higher salaries. If you can accept this (and everyone should at this point because it means a stronger US MNT even if it detracts from MLS), that only leaves one question: how do I follow DaMarcus Beasley’s PSV or Onyewu’s Standard Leige? As we wait for what I would like to think are inevitable changes - players and broadcasts will be venturing Stateside in the future - we’re still left with a gap to fill now.

Enter Yanks Abroad, who beat everyone to that gap, and have been filling it (while emptying their bank accounts) ever since. YA stands with a small group as one of those things you come across, and just love it. It fits you; it gives you what you need. It’s first love; it’s perfect; it’s, a wait-why-didn’t-I-think-of-that kind of moment. One could argue the writing leaves a little bit to be desired - as with any news service, the information overload and daily grind of deadlines, not to mention understaffing, doesn’t always allow for fine prose - but the YA guys have done an immense service to American soccer fans, and I give them the biggest compliment you can get in the world wide web: signing up for the e-mail newsletter. With a strong business model, they could eventually, someday, you never know, reap financial gains, allowing more time for quality while not skimping on the quantity. And who doesn’t want to get paid to go to soccer games, European club teams no less?

With the Diary Project, my goals have been to capture a moment in time for American Soccer. With any adolescence, we have this teetering maturity that in any consecutive moments is infantile and full grown. With every answer there are two more questions. You’ll never quite sure who will show up for the next game or the next year. The light at the end of the tunnel is a strobe light, on-off, on-off quicker then you can count. It’s a constant cycle of consumption and growth, purging mistakes, missteps, and malcontent. In short, you pay your dues. You scrape and crawl without apology to the next test, and then work even harder. The story of Yanks Abroad is the same as our nation in that degree. Success is not granted. There is also a symbiotic relationship between the two, As goes US soccer, so goes Yanks Abroad, because without yanks abroad, there is no Yanks Abroad. It will be interesting to see what kind of variable MLS will play, in buildiing American soccer, in polishing players for European games (and YA reports), and maybe one day in closing the trade gap.

Rich poor win lose grow fade away? You just can’t say right now for US soccer, so we take a moment to look around so we will know from where we came. Thanks to Chad Winger, Mark Flannery, Rich Fidler and Greg Seltzer for the document. Their moment is after the jump.

Three Americans walk into a pub in Amsterdam - a programmer, a college student and an architect. After a few seconds of surveying the scenery and noting the approximate male to female ratio of 40 to 1, a thickly-accented Dutch woman’s voice from deep inside the smoky pub calls out.

“Jhou ist American, ja? I give you zomezing. Come with me please!”

Then, out from the darkness, appears the owner of the voice - one of the most amazingly beautiful and curvaceous women the three Americans had ever seen…

No, this is not the beginning of another crude fraternity joke, nor the retelling of the tale of a sordid night in the Red Light District, but rather the beginning of an American success story, where a group of young Americans combined various talents brought the information-starved US soccer fan their daily dose of European fare.

So what of the busty brunette in Amsterdam?

As it turned out, the three Americans - Chad Winger, a self-employed programmer hailing from tiny Ojai, California and living in Florence Italy; Brian Schoenfelder, a university student in London; and Rich Fidler, an architect from Columbus, Ohio – happened upon a US Soccer Federation party the night before the US faced Holland at the ArenA in February of 2004. If it wasn’t for that girl, we would not have stayed. She and her equally tantalizing blonde sidekick handed us free Budweisers, and we were hooked. Those young ladies were very good at their job.

After getting over the irony of sitting in a European pub drinking American beer, we struck up conversations with fellow fans also in town for the match. Understandably, most in attendance, like Winger and Schoenfelder, were ex-pats who had made the trip to the Dutch capital for a rare chance to see their beloved national team play live.

As the conversations progressed, a gap emerged in the soccer knowledge between two distinct groups. While the US-based fans had no problems discussing the on-field exploits of Landon Donovan or then-Chicago Fire speedster DaMarcus Beasley, they seemed lost when it came to players such as Eddie Lewis or Gregg Berhalter. They could rattle off a few facts or memories from national team appearances, but asking them where Preston or Cottbus were located drew blank stares.

Many a beer, by then proper European lager, and many an argument later, a frustrated voice jokingly blurted out, “I’m just gonna start a magazine so all you people back home actually know who is playing for us,” without much of reply from anybody.

In the weeks following the match, Winger ruminated before finally phoning Fidler and asking, “Remember that junk about starting a magazine about US players in Europe?”

“Yeah, of course; it was Budweiser. I wasn’t drunk, man.”
“Well what did you think about that idea?”
“Let’s do it.”

And with that, Yanks Abroad was born.

Maning the Niche

Phone calls were placed; a staff solidified. Phillip Foose, another programmer, lived in London; Mark Flannery, a Virginia native teaching English in Montpellier; Floridian Charlie Cole lived in Oslo, Norway. Perhaps most importantly, Greg Seltzer, a freelance soccer writer in Amsterdam joined up.

The plan was simple: Make a website. try to get some players to talk to them, get to the games, write it all up objectively. And hope. To be fair, none of us had any delusions of grandeur at the beginning. We figured at the very least, it would be fun to go to some games and maybe a few people would find the Website.

In June of 2004 we began scribbling news. To be completely honest, nothing original was written, but we felt we needed actual content to launch the site, which was officially scheduled for August 1. In June, most major European leagues aren’t playing games, so those early days were filled with extensive coverage of the Norwegian Tippeligaen, the only active league. Though we realized that it would elicit a collective yawn from fans back home, we saw it as the perfect opportunity to work our way in.

Cole was the first to write our unique Press Box Reports (PBR), filing our maiden report from Mellos Stadion for the Norwegian Cup game between Moss FK and Brian West’s Fredrikstad. Soon afterwards we announced that Robbie Russell would be leaving minnows Sogndal for perennial Champions League participants Rosenborg. At the same time, Cole continued to scrape around the Norwegian scene by filing further FFK matches. Summer transfers began, and Flannery happened upon the news that Alexander Yi was leaving Belgium, while Oguchi Onyewu was heading to Standard Liege. We were slowly learning the ropes.

After the Website launched on July 7, 2004 with Cole’s European reports, we started to report on the US MNT march to Germany. Our first international PBR covered the qualifier against Grenada from Columbus Crew Stadium. A month later, we were at Soldier Field in Chicago when European foe Poland came calling.

Aside from Seltzer, no one on the young staff had ever been in a press box, let alone for a qualifying game. Crash courses in AP Style and heavy editing began to polish nervous press-box rookies’ first drafts. If you act professional, you are professional. That is what they were told, and while first drafts weren’t always pretty, the writers were enthusiastic and intent on improving. Despite slim financing, we were determined to create something beyond an amateur, fan Website.

Champions League in France and Italy, Premiership in England, UEFA Cup in Belgium, FIFA World Youth Championships in Holland, FIFA Under-17 World Championships in Peru, US winter camp in California, and even third flight Regionalliga in Germany. YA was there. Before long the natural high of filling reports turned into a race for the scoops. Our rag-tag crew started scooping the big-money competition. Sanneh back to MLS… Gibbs to Feyenoord… Lewis needs an appendectomy… O’Brien leaves Ajax… Hamburg win Feilhaber race… Spector to join Charlton…. It felt as if we were scoring goals on Buffon, Cech and Kahn.

YA went from amusing novelty to trusted conduit. Whisper inducing strangers at foreign language post-game press conferences became accepted colleagues. Press credential requests became mere formalities, players more accessible. Club officials and executives were not only happy to help, but began wondering aloud how their organization was viewed in America and how they could work with YA in order to raise their profiles Stateside. Staffers began regular national US radio appearances. European team and fan Websites linked to our stories. The official PSV magazine asked for an interview. The New York Times, Sky Sports, ESPN UK, and the BBC began quoting us.

In less than five months, YA went from 250 page views a day to almost 14,000. Today, less two years from its inception, traffic routinely breaks 30,000. When we break a big story, spikes upward of 45,000 are common.

It sounds simple, but of course, none of this happened without…

A Few Bumps Along The Way

“Who are you,” was always the first question. Bobby Convey’s presentation press conference at Reading and receiving phone calls from Brad Friedel would come, but it took some time. In the beginning, we would call a team to request an interview. They had no clue who we were, so we had to prove ourselves to every team. For example, Arsenal wanted us to send them a copy of our magazine before they would talk to us. Of course we didn’t have a magazine. It was only after we sufficiently satisfied their concerns that they allowed us into the press box and press conferences.

Finances were always, and still are, in the back of our minds. We spent half the rent on international phone bills and were forced to find creative ways to convince our wives or girlfriends that going to East Hookenshnippel to watch a third division Dutch game was really a good thing. Though we now have a little more leeway with an online store and the occasional auction, if not for the staff continually dipping into their own pockets, YA would have ceased long, long ago. Included in this are the numerous writers and editors that help out for next to nothing in return. The list is long; they know who they are. When all is said and done, we have no money, but we have a product we are proud of. We just believed Soccer in the United States needs what we had to offer, and we were determined to let nothing stand in our way.

That was until Mexico City, and YA’s darkest moment.

Though we had proper accreditation for the US-Mexico clash at the Azteca Stadium, some unscrupulous stranger decided he would use YA’s name to get past security and into the press box, where he proceeded to make a nuisance of himself. Following the match, the same guy crashed the Mixed Zone waving a Sharpie pen and photographs in the face on any player he could find.

Needless to say, the US Soccer Federation was not happy. Rumors circulated through the media about our supposed conduct. It wasn’t pretty. Facing a permanent ban from covering the US MNT, we eventually proved our innocence and cleared our name. Though the relationship remains touchy at times, the bewildering incident still serves as a reminder that our existence is not guaranteed. We had to earn it, and will continue to do so.

Next

While Yanks Abroad has become much more than we expected, there is much more to do. Multimedia interviews, match trackers, live chats and message boards are on the horizon, maybe even television. Our ultimate goal, of course, is to have a Yanks Abroad writer at each game in which an American participates. Not bad for a dozen or so amateurs (now 21 professionals).

We’re Joe Six-Pack with a media pass. We’re the guys who stay up until five in the morning watching MLS streams on the internet. We’ll be there when the next Jay DeMerit comes from out of nowhere and we’ll be there when the old guys hang up the cleats. We’ll be there when Beasley scores his next Champions League winner or when Tim Howard flubs another save. We’ll be on hand whenever it is that Freddy Adu makes the move and we’ll report the next time one of our boys flops and returns to MLS. We’re the guys who defiantly believe that the United States is on the way to becoming a major power in world soccer, and we intend to document it.

Most importantly, we’ll simply be there. And for that, you can thank a busty young brunette in an Amsterdam pub.

follow the action at www.yanks-abroad.com