Feilhaber's Goal sunk Mexico in the Gold Cup Final/SI.com

In the recent history of American Soccer no selection of a player to a major tournament squad has elicited as much controversy and quite frankly anger as last week's selection by Peter Nowak of Benny Feilhaber to the US Men's Olympic Team.

In two weeks, viewers in the U.S. will be able to tune in to ESPN and watch the future of American soccer. Almost a year after its founding, the US Soccer Development Academy -- consisting of 64 teams from across the country -- will showcase its best eight teams at U-18 and U-16 levels in front of the television cameras for its inaugural national finals.

Yet another barrier is broken by an American soccer player in Europe. This time, its not signing for a big club or playing in a Champions League final (which has yet to happen) but rather making news for being seen around town with a beautiful girlfriend. That's right folks, in the tradition of Lothar Mattheus, Francesco Totti, Gigi Buffon, and others, new Borussia Dortmund signing Neven Subotic is getting ink on the society pages in Germany with his girlfriend Lisa Ryzih.

Watching France labor to a goalless draw against Romania yesterday got me thinking about the debate on player development in the USA. Why?

Franck Ribery, that's why. As recently as the 2003/04 season, he was playing in the French third division and working as a construction worker, and he left Turkish club Galatasaray in 2005 after having gone four months without a paycheck.

A capacity crowd at Giants Stadium in New York were treated to an utterly boring scoreless draw between the United States and Argentina on Sunday night which proved, if nothing else, that there's only so much managers can learn from friendlies. Argentina didn't look interested in spite of playing for fifteen of the last twenty minutes [.

United States international Michael Bradley is currently attracting the interest of three English clubs. With Celtic also hot on his heels, Dutch club Heerenveen has stated that Bradley is available for transfer at the right price. Bradley is fresh off of the Olympics and is returning to Europe today.

L.E. Eisenmenger at American Soccer News has written an incisive review of MLS and its academy system. Find the article here.
For the first nine parts of our series on player development in the USA, go here.

Peter Nowak's decision to adjust his tactics (ironically enough in line with what most American Soccer Spot readers suggested the other day) shows a tactical savvy and willingness to take chances that many American coaches have quite frankly lacked in big competitions. Since the debacle of Steve Sampson 3-6-1 in the 1998 World Cup, American managers have implemented a very basic tactical structure one which is based on counter attacking and generally does not consider the strengths or weaknesses of the upcoming opposition.

Missed this announcement back in late May but it's worth posting now. From the St Louis Post-Dispatch:

In 1980, St. Mary's High senior Keith Meyer was honored by Parade magazine as its high school boys player of the year. This year's All-America team, which will be featured in the Parade Magazine in the Sunday Post-Dispatch, will include two area standouts ?

Pitch Invasion proudly welcomes a new contributer today. Mike Gumballhead will comment philosophically on pressing issues of world football whenever he is gripped by an overwhelming fever, as he was today by the Galaxy's latest shrewd move towards world domination. It's long been my suspicion that Alexi Lalas is a genius cunningly disguised as a ginger [.

The American Soccer Reader is reporting Dwayne DeRosorio who is one of the finest players in MLS history is being chased by FC Kobenhaven of Denmark. The club is the current home to DeRosorio's Canadian National Team mate Atiba Hutchinson....

What to be done about a slightly ignorant view of American Soccer.  Fight it with fact is what I say.  Soccerlens, a great footy site had an article written this morning listing the reasons Americans "suck" at soccer.  So if we do plan to combat this ignorance on the part of most of the world, [..

Standing in the middle of an energized crowd, Jozy Altidore rattled off autographs and posed for picture after picture. Even after most of the other stars who played in the Steve Nash/Claudio Reyna charity match in Manhattan's Chinatown, Altidore stood on the turf at Nike Field and signed and posed for fans eager to meet American soccer's most exciting young star.

The United Soccer Leagues has been a doormat to the MLS for too long.  They have allowed MLS to walk all over them.  MLS has taken multiple cities from the USL to put into their league and have not suffered any kind of legal troubles or image issues.  This has been a coup for MLS.  They [...]

I would like to welcome my Brothers In Arms - Soccer By Ives, This Is American Soccer, The Original Winger & The Offsides Rules. We are like a family! There's really no need to go anywhere else for your soccer news.

To read Part I, please click here.
The soccer blogosphere was alive this week with the sound of hooligans. Not literally, of course. It's not like I was sitting in front of my computer listening to "up to our knees in [fill in the blank] blood" or anything like that. Just that there was lots and lots (and lots) of talk about hooliganism, fan violence, security violence, etc.

Our long-running series on player development in the USA continues with the unlikely story of Jorge Flores. He is the 18-year-old Mexican-American who won Univision's "American Idol"-like tryout "Sueño MLS."
As The New York Times writes, Flores "was the most valuable player for his team at Anaheim High and played for a club team in nearby Santa Ana.

I'm getting my fix via the internet, not only in the game broadcast but the highlights obviously. Like this one - Men's Goals of the Day - August 7th or this one - Women's Goals of the Day - August 6th.

If you are interested in a look behind the curtain, then Adam Spangler at This Is American Soccer has the story as he interviews Michael Cohen, who overseas the production of Olympic soccer on the networks and cable channels and heads up the NBC Olympic soccer channel.

Most people in the US who follow soccer closely know that the U.S. Under-17 residency program in Bradenton, Florida has produced many of the best players in American soccer. They have seen the likes of Jozy Altidore, Freddy Adu and many other noteable names that are either in MLS or in Europe. U.S. Under-17 head coach [.

In order for Soccer to make it to the U.S. sports fan's main menu, it must play a schedule that has both sense and purpose.  An American professional soccer league must begin play every year 1-2 weeks before the Major League baseball season begins and it must end its regular season 1-3 weeks before the start of the NFL [.

  The indispensable American Soccer News had a good story on Don Garber's plans for MLS 2.0, which will be discussed later this year with the league's board. While Commissioner Garber deserves lots of credit for steering MLS away from the troubled waters that threatened its existence a few years back, the arrogance and hubris of [.

American Soccer, GolTV's weekly news and highlights show, aired its last show tonight, at least in its current incarnation. The show, which is arguably the best US-produced soccer show on television, is seeking a sponsor. Up until recently, US Navy sponsored the show, but now that their sponsorship has ended, it's hard to justify the show [.

Josh Wolff's return to the Kansas City Wizards and MLS in general is of particular interest to me.
First of all, I must admit that although I am a rabid American soccer fan, I'm at most a peripheral MLS fan. Some of that has to do with the fact that I live in Germany, and thus I am not putting on airs when I watch the Bundeslia and cheer for my local team, 1860 Munich (who unfortunately play in the 2.

Romeo bends it like Beckham

David Beckham's five year old son is following in his dad's footsteps, curving the ball into the net in a way that's almost identical to Becks' famous free kick.Romeo Beckham kicked the ball across the old block at an American soccer school, in David's signature style shot, which had the onlookers open-mouthed.

From one of the most knowledgeable writers in the realm of American soccer, Ives Galarcep, comes this comment:
"IVES- The D.C. stadium situation is arguably one of the ugliest running stories in the league. I'm not sure what MLS can do. The whole threatening to move the team thing to Maryland or Virginia and a good distance away from D.

American soccer fans keep constant vigil, waiting for signs that their beloved USA is creeping toward the moment when it casts off history's shackles and becomes a Great Footballing Nation. Generally, this watchful stance is expressed in excitement over new club youth-development schemes, national team performances ("we beat Guatemala again!

The Philadelphia supporters' group the Sons of Ben have over two thousand members and their team won't start play for two more years. Those following MLS closely have read a lot about them in recent times, as a year ago they had thirty-odd members and no team at all, playing an important part in giving [.

At the start of the Clausura 2008 season, few American soccer fans had heard of Michael Orozco. Now, though, he's become a part of the U.S. national team system and will represent the U.S. in the upcoming Summer Olympics.
And while he'll be away for perhaps one-fourth of the upcoming Apertura 2008 season, he will at some point go back ad try and reclaim a spot on the club.

Hey guys. The VMA's are about to air so I'm in dispose to say the least. I'm still trying to get the details but check in to TOR tommorrow to find out the death of an American soccer institution. Is it some old guy? Field turf? Single-entity? I can't say yet but thing's will never be the same.

With Philadelphia joining MLS as its sixteenth team, will the league be able to keep up standards on and off the field during such rapid expansion?

This week's show is now up as a podcast. You can listen to the show from here, via the On Demand player, or you can subscribe to the show via iTunes.

Plenty to talk about on this week's show.
* I give my thoughts on this week's five questions of the week.

* I breakdown a weekend of draws in MLS.

Missed this announcement back in late May but it's worth posting now. From the St Louis Post-Dispatch:

In 1980, St. Mary's High senior Keith Meyer was honored by Parade magazine as its high school boys player of the year. This year's All-America team, which will be featured in the Parade Magazine in the Sunday Post-Dispatch, will include two area standouts — SLUH's Tommy Meyer and DeSmet's Will Bruin.

Admit it, you probably gave up on ever seeing the answers to the last SBI Q&A session. It's okay, I don't blame you.

More than month has passed since readers submitted the last bunch of questions, but after a very busy July, I was able to knock out at least half of the record-setting batch of questions.

Sure we can take EPL cast-offs. And maybe bringing over another underwear model will get the women into American soccer.
You never know. Soccer moms could swing the election...

You might have heard of Philadelphia's Sons of Ben, the supporters' group without a team. They are, you see, very keen on MLS awarding Philadelphia an expansion franchise (currently hanging in the balance over funding), and they've attracted a lot of attention for their cause. They even showed up at the MLS draft this week [.

Marcus Storey, formerly of the University of North Carolina, the Columbus Crew and the Houston Dynamo, has signed with SV Wilhelmshaven of the German Regionalliga Nord (fourth division).
For details about the move, check out a story I wrote for American Soccer News.

Sorry about the lack of posting, my vacation was a good one, but it is now time to get down to business. These are the first rankings since the beginning of the North American soccer season. Please keep in mind that these are weighted against the results of last season.
1. Cruz Azul - Mexico
2.

There is no reporter who knows Landon Donovan better than Paul Oberjuerge. Paul, ex-sports editor and sports columnist of the San Bernardino Sun, covered Landon well before anyone else did, back when Landon was attending high school in Redlands. He did well to cover the local prodigy who went on to become the best American soccer player ever and continues to have a great relationship with Landon.

Everyone in Women's Professional Soccer is pulling for a US victory tomorrow both from a patriotic and a business perspective.
The prevailing thought is that a return to a world championship, if not world dominance, would provide a good kick start for WPS.
A gold medal for the US would certainly provide a boost for the League for all the obvious reasons, but i think it's also important to recognize that the League benefits if Brazil wins.

GOLTV EXCLUSIVELY DELIVERS LA LIGA SOCCER SEASON OPENERS LIVE FROM SPAIN ON AUGUST 31 North American Soccer Fans Score with Live 2008-09 Season Kickoff Coverage of Real Madrid vs. Deportivo and FC Barcelona vs. Numancia MIAMI, FL – August 25, 2008 – GolTV , the only live bilingual channel delivering 24/7 soccer, will air the much-anticipated La Liga [.