USA Women get smoked

For all those wanting to know my opinion on the US debacle it is this...Greg Ryan should be fired immediately and any players over the age of 30 need to be cut from the team. His decision to change goalkeepers was not the reason we lost, but it was a terrible one. Quite frankly I am embarrassed at how outplayed we were by the Brazilian women who just put on a show. Some of their players are more technically gifted then any player the Americans have ever produced. It is now clear that the rest of the world has caught up to the US women and they need to have some drastic changes take place in the program to make sure we stay at the high level we are all used to. Our philosophy of boot it forward to our strikers is never going to work anymore, we need to have skillful players in midfield who can work the ball up field with good movement and passes. Most good teams are able to cope with our giant forwards now by employing a good sweeper to intercept those passes or to blatantly foul to stop any scoring threats we create. I would expect a brief overhaul of the program before the Olympics next year. Lets hope we learn from our mistakes.

Seattle Soccer

I am sorry to report this morning, but Major League Soccer has somehow talked Seahawks owner Paul Allen into investing in the league. Seattle will be the next expansion franchise in 2009 and will play their games at Qwest Field. This will bring the total amount of teams in the league to 15 with more on the way. Also, since Allen owns the stadium he assumes all the risk of the franchise along with his co-partners in the deal. So the team will not have to pay a ridiculous amont for rent like MLS teams in NY and KC have to. Note all the sarcasm in this post due to all my "American Football friends." This should be a very successful franchise especially since the Sonics will be long gone soon as well.

I also predict that St. Louis will have a franchise start in either 2009 or 2010 and Philadelphia should follow after that. The league will then eventually be at 18 teams by adding its 18th franchise to either Las Vegas or another NY team by 2012.

The Women

For those of you that aren't paying any attention "99% of Americans" the women's National Team qualified for the world cup quarterfinals! The event is taking place in China and as of yet there have been no signs of players ripping their top off after a goal...but there is still time! The US takes on the not so mighty Brits on Saturday for a chance to land in the semi's and the game is live on ESPN2 at 8:00 AM...

Youth Development

Here are a couple of emails that are from my conversations with the soccer columnist from last week...sounds like he is going to elaborate more on what he and I talked about. He also published my email on the website ussoccerplayers.com, below is his last email to me followed by my comments to him from last week...


Hi Brian

Thanks for the compliments Brian. No guarantee, but I will probbably write next week's column on what can, and can't be done.

From me to him last week:

I appreciate you writing back, and I do agree with your comments below. I want more than anything to beat the top soccer countries on a consistent basis. But how do you propose getting from point A to B. I honestly have no idea because of my lack of knowledge in this area...the only thing that I can look at is the fact that we have players now playing integral roles on European leagues and getting consistent playing time. It is my opinion that if any strong American player is not getting consistent first team action in Europe then they need to be on an MLS team, this is how our players develop right now. But I believe it has to be Major League Soccer that gets us to that next step. I wish all teams would start putting a stronger emphasis on the development of youth in their community, I believe New York really is the only progam doing this consistently right now. However I have no doubt in my mind that we will eventually figure it out...I don't know when that will be, but coming from my background and seeing the game develop first hand over the last 30 years gives me the confidence that it will happen. When I first started playing the game back in '84 at the age of 6 I was being coached by clueless Americans in a small town with no professional league or professional National team. Now there are more players and exposure then I could have ever thought possible, and if you want to be a professional then you have a better opportunity now than ever before. I also think its up to people like you and I to continue to get the word out on how awesome our sport is. I took 6 others with me to the US vs. Brazil game on Sunday and all they did before the game was complain about why the game was being played the same day as the NFL's first weekend. But they all ended up having an awesome time and probably will never forget the experience. Anyway, regardless of the topic, I Iove ussoccerplayers.com and look forward to all the columns from you, Ian, and the rest.

Take care

Glenn Davis blog

This is another one of my favorite soccer columnists...he is also a soccer commentator for ESPN and HDNET and former professional player.


http://www.glenndavissoccer.com/

Columnists response

Check out the response from the soccer columnist I emailed a few days ago...he says that we aren't producing players of Brazilian caliber, however this is something that just does not happen overnight. I believe we are on our way to producing quality soccer players and you just have to look at how much better our team has become in the last decade. Our quarterfinal finish in the 2002 world cup was a major accomplishment and has given us something to build on through the next decade...however youth development does need to be more of a focus in terms of actual soccer "development" and not over coaching...slowly but surely we are getting rid of the football clipboard parent coach that has no clue what they are doing, our kids should be aloud to develop in a true soccer environment and one that allows them to use their imagination and develop good technique. I believe that Major League Soccer will have a huge impact on our development throughout the next 20-30 years, and their focus on youth teams that are sponsored by the parent club should produce highly competitive players for the MLS club and our National team.


I agree with a lot of what you wrote. Matters have improved in many ways, and we are far more competitive than twelve years ago. But you did not address my central cliaim: our youth system is not producing technically gifted players; we still have not produced even one world class outfiled player. We could debate whether the Brazil bar is too high, but I think we would agree that the goal is to be among the elite, which means being able to conistently beat the Argentinas, Italys, Germanys, and Frances of the world. And we will not be able to that unless without technically accomplished players. I realize that Rome was not built in a day, but one would hope that after 30 years and tens of millions of kids coming through our system, we could produce one player who was as good as Diego or Julio Baptista.

Thanks for your comments,

Mr. Beckham

I couldn't resist writing a post about this PR disaster...although obviously a coup signing by MLS they have screwed everything up along the way since he got here in early July. And don't even get me started on Alexi Lalas the GM of the LA Galaxy, he had no idea what he was getting into. With that said I have no sympathy for those who bought tickets to a game and then were ticked off when Beckham made a no show. That is their problem and if they were a true fan of the game they would have realized that the product on the field is still good without him. So sit down in your seat and shut up...he is going to be here for 5 years. Catch him the next time he is in town, but until then cheer on your own team.

US is 0-5 in the last 5 games

Yeah, well no need to panic on this one...this is another story making headlines that is aggravating me to no end. First of all the first 3 losses were all at Copa America where we barely even had a JV team playing against the likes of Argentina, Paraguay, and Columbia. Yes I was a little disappointed that we didn't bring a stronger team but we had no other choice. The US had just spent the last 5 weeks winning the Gold Cup and the players on that roster had to go back to their club teams...remember they are the ones footing the bill. Now the loss to Sweden a few weeks ago was disappointing , but mainly because both teams forgot they were playing a soccer game...it was a scrimmage in my opinion. However the loss to Brazil showed way too many positives to be considered a disappointment. Next up is Switzerland in Europe...this will be another good test for us and I predict a 1-1 draw...

Ives Galarcep Blog

This is one of the best soccer blogs I know of. If you are a fan of the game you will love his posts...


http://njmg.typepad.com/sbi/

Soccer Columnists

Most are good but some are really bad, here is an email I sent to a soccer columnist today. I was responding to an article he wrote on why the US has not produced a player of "Brazilian" skill...enjoy!



Come on now...you can't seriously write that you believe we aren't going to be a great soccer playing nation until we start producing the types of players like KaKa, Ronaldinho...ect. If you could name me one other country that does then I wouldn't be writing this. It is baffling to me to read all the articles from the so called American soccer journalists out there the last couple of days saying that we are just no where near the type of team of a Brazil. What country is? Seriously? Argentina just got trounced in the final of Copa America with a Brazil B squad...almost every other country is beaten routinely and has been for decades by the Brazilians. No other country produces the type of player they do. As Americans I know we are supposed to think that we should be the best at everything but you need to have more of a glass half full perspective. At least we now have players that can have an impact on a game individually and are some of the most athletic soccer players in the world. We play with a certain style (albeit mostly on the counter) but we are quick and organized and for the most part can beat any given team on any day save Brazil/Argentina/France...also I love the comment you made (And they still don't appear to be that much closer to competing with the Brazils of this world.) I honestly didn't know that there is more than one Brazil...moral of my story is-have a little patience and look at the bright side of things. We have more exposure in this country from the media than at any other time, you can find a game any day of the week on TV, MLS is somewhat thriving, things are changing in youth development finally...but we aren't going to beat teams in the top 10 of the FIFA rankings consistently for several years. Soccer in this country is slowly but surely making consistent progress and I am happy with that...also if you were to somehow get the US team from '95 to play against the one from '07, there would be no contest. I would bet on the current roster of players to win 3-nil.

The first post!

Hello all, I have never done this before but am acting on the advice of my wife...basically I just want to start a blog for people to read and post comments about soccer in any nature. I feel that the current state of the game is pretty respectable in this country and want to add in my own perspective from time to time. I recently attended the US vs. Brazil match in Chicago and came away very impressed with our effort and with a little luck we could have pulled out better result. I will soon post more of my opinion on the game Sunday and also my thoughts on the sport in general.