DC United Senior Vice-President Stephen Zack

In my second interview with influential, but beneath the radar figures in the U.S. soccer world, I asked D.C. United Executive Vice-President Stephen Zack 11 questions. Stephen has been twice honored as the MLS Marketing Executive of the Year and in 2006 received the prestigious Doug Hamilton MLS Executive of the Year Award.

U.S. Soccer President Sunil Gulati, CEO/Secretary General Dan Flynn and Professional Council Chairman Don Garber met with representatives from both the United Soccer League and the North American Soccer League in New York Dec. 6 to discuss the leagues' plans in 2010. "We had a productive meeting and the discussions will continue," said Gulati.

Burrito is tired of all this War of the Soccer Leagues between USL and NASL!
The latest comes from Burrito's compadre Kartik. It look like USL has sued teams for breach of contract!

Florida court documents filed on Tuesday indicate that the United Soccer Leagues have sued the Rochester Rhinos and two other clubs for breach of contract.

On the same day that Jeff Cooper, spokesperson for the newly proposed second division soccer league called the North American Soccer League (NASL), pulled out all the bells and whistles to announce their newest team, AC Saint Louis, the United Soccer League filed the first of what could be many lawsuits.

US and Canadian soccer supporters should hold Nike accountable for the mess it helped to create.

I think by now it's safe to say most of you are familiar with the story of Nike selling the United Soccer League (USL) to NuRock Holdings. However, there are still a lot of people playing catch up on this story.

Let's just get this over with and call 2010 "The Year of American Soccer History". Between club and country, things will all come together to bring about the revival of some old soccer memories,...

Plastic Carpet

2010 is upon us, which means that it's the time of year when we journalists, pundits, analysts, and/or columnists take stock of the year that has passed and provide you with our lists of the past years highlights and lowlights. So, to start things of for me, here is my take on the lowlights of the year that was in American soccer, in no particular order:

The Continued Presence of Plastic Pitches:

Nothing irks me more than watching a professional sport that is being played on a plastic pitch or field.

As you may know, American Soccer News has dedicated Twitter accounts for each of the 16 Major League Soccer teams. Some are more active than others, for various reasons. Some also have a much better following than others. Take a look at the standings (as of 8:30pm EST, Dec. 2):

1. LA Galaxy (730 followers)
2.

There's a new show available at the American Soccer Show website, or if you prefer, download it here. There's draw talk, strike talk, and USL/NASL meeting talk. DOWNLOAD the show SUBSCRIBE in...

As US Soccer's special "Professional League Task Force" lead by CEO and Secretary General Dan Flynn, sorts through this debate of 2nd division league control, I thought it might be helpful for everyone to go through the teams one by one as a guide. There have been many claims by both sides as to the teams they have slated to play in 2010.

So says L.E. Eisenmenger of the ever curious US Soccer Players website, in an interesting but rather speculative piece about the supposed lack of sophistication of MLS fans about the international soccer world, starting with the claim that "MLS fans may be unaware of international rivalries and even of the relationship between MLS and the National Team.

The love-hate relationship American soccer fans have with ESPN is legendary. The sports television behemoth (and I'm not sure even that word captures how much ESPN bestrides the world of American sports in the 21st century) is at once derided (too dumbed down in its coverage; too focused on the Beckham-cam) and desired (ratings are picked over with a Bigsoccer-sized toothcomb; HD coverage is drooled over) by fans for its coverage of the sport.

In a press conferance held today, Jeff Cooper, owner of the St. Louis team that will play in the proposed North American Soccer League (NASL), made several announcements.

The team will be called AC St. Louis. The logo is a Flame de Lis and has a clean look with the arch around the logo representative of the St.

The 2009 soccer year passes into history this week and a new year of soccer memories begin on Friday!

In another effort to churn out a weekly column using a tired, formulaic method, I present for your consideration XI personal highlights from my year in soccer:

I. Fulham's Run to the Europa League: In some ways, my support of Fulham is more pure than that I have for the Chicago Fire, Chicago Red Stars or even my current employer, the Milwaukee Wave.

The Edmonton Sun announced today that the Edmonton Drillers will be the new NASL team that will replace the Vancouver Whitecaps when they move to Major League Soccer in 2011. The Drillers were the name of the old NASL team that played in Edmonton from 1979 to 1982.

Vancouver president Bob Lenarduzzi has been saying for some time now that Vancouver was interested in putting together a pro development team.

As the debate between the Team Owners Association (TOA) and the United Soccer League (USL) rolls on, the US and Canadian soccer community seem to be starting to understand much better the relevance of this issue. But more importantly and for the first time, many are beginning to understand the importance of the US and Canada's 2nd division soccer league.

The day of the big World Cup draw has arrived and ESPN has big plans to cover the event with maximum fanfare. ESPN2 will provide three hours of coverage and will include usual suspects Harkes, Lalas and more to break down the action. It is fairly remarkable that we have reached the stage in American soccer where the World Cup draw rates a three hour presentation.

The United States Soccer Federation made their first official press statement regarding the league dispute between the Team Owners Association (TOA) and their proposed North American Soccer League (NASL) and the current standing 2nd division league which is run by the United Soccer Leagues (USL).

The statement may be important in the fact that the USSF is now publicly acknowledging the TOA and their league.

It's the time on the calendar when we take a look back at the year that was. We will have a few of these retrospectives over the next week, but the big story in American Soccer for 2009 was the introduction of the Seattle Sounders to MLS. The crowds kept coming (they grew), the local media coverage remained oustanding, and the Sounders continued to perform on the field.

U.S. Soccer has decided not to sanction either the USL or the NASL to operate a Division Two league in 2010:

The U.S. Soccer Board of Directors voted unanimously on Tuesday to not sanction either the USL or the NASL to operate a Division II professional league in 2010.

With yesterday's announcement that the Rochester Rhinos will be joining the yet to be officially sanctioned (new) North American Soccer League (NASL), further gloom undoubtedly spread over Tampa about the future of the United Soccer Leagues (USL).

The Rhinos are a classic franchise and should they and the other NASL sides not participate in USL for the 2010 season, the once vibrant professional division of the league will be reduced to a moderate number of small market clubs with limited followings.

I love US Soccer Federations press releases. I have every sympathy for why America's governing body cannot reveal much information on private and legally sensitive ongoing disputes, but there's something about the dry and cryptic teasers of information that amuse me to no end.

Mike Grella has had his ups and downs since signing with English League One side Leeds United out of Duke University, but his performance on Tuesday will certainly qualify as the highlight of his young career.

Leeds came on as a substitute in overtime and promptly scored two goals to help Leeds run away with a 5-1 FA Cup victory against Kettering on Tuesday.

Photo via Al Santos/DC Sports Box

If you are one of those American soccer fans who, in the post-MLS Cup lull of the last few weeks, watched the NCAA Division I men's and women's ‘College Cups,' I'm sorry. I fear that the games were the types of rough defensive affairs that won't deter soccer aficionados that look at the American college game with disdain (though I personally enjoyed watching).

* U.S. U-20 international Tony Taylor has signed a contract with Portuguese second division side GD Estoril, according to American Soccer News. He made 11 appearances for Thomas Rongen in 2009, including this past summer's U-20 World Cup, and recorded two goals (tied for the team lead) and four assists (most on the team).

Often times, the United Soccer Leagues are forgotten. Certain elements of the American soccer press behave as if nothing exists in professional soccer below the first tier MLS. It can be argued that USL has not done enough to foster relationships with the press, but deference towards MLS leads many writers to simply ignore USL lock, stock and barrel.

I'm all for MLS marketing to supporters as well as to spectators, and encouraging the culture of soccer that everyone who is reading this blog probably appreciates the value of already.

FC Dallas obviously have a serious deficit of such supporters, and given the success of Seattle's marketing campaign, they and many other MLS teams have wisely chosen to try to appeal more to your active soccer fan.

Just a heads up for those of you that enjoy the audio content as much (or more) than the written stuff: The American Soccer Show will be on the air live for a special post-World Cup draw edition...

England and the United States in the same World Cup group is a draw that is made of dreams for me. Not purely because I'm an American citizen and a British citizen, but because it'll shut a lot of people up. Whether that's the egotistical English journalists that feel that a game against the United States will be a pushover for England.

• Charlize Theron played the dumb blonde role really well. Much better than Sepp usually does...
• I freaked out when I thought the US had drawn Ivory Coast into their group. Thank you for silly rules FIFA! Or, should I thank @ConcacafJack?
• If the US doesn't advance out of its group, this campaign has been an absolute failure.

Now we go to apparel, where the guys at Bumpy Pitch are really doing it up. Everything from retro American soccer logos to clever phrases, these guys know style and soccer. If you want to get to know the cast better, read their blog, the Original Winger.

Big Story
A couple of months ago, we discussed the ongoing problem of the lack of coverage of MLS in American sports journalism, a problem only likely to get worse as print media digs its own grave (this was prompted by Richard Whittall's excellent discussion of the crisis).

I believe it was only really going to be a matter of time before things got real nutty with this whole USL/TOA/NASL/USSF mess. The Kartik Report found out this morning that the USL is suing the Tampa Bay Rowdies, Crystal Palace Baltimore and the Rochester Rhinos for breach of contract.

The three clubs had allegedly committed contractually to play 2010 in USL's First Division but instead opted to play in the yet to be sanctioned North American Soccer League.

When Jermaine Jones declared six months ago that he wanted to play for the United States, American soccer fans had ever reason to be excited.

Jones was a highly-respected midfielder in the German Bundesliga and seemed like a perfect fit to slide into central midfield alongside Michael Bradley.

Last night's first leg of the FMF Apertura Final was an incredibly entertaining affair. Monterrey behind Humberto Suazo, one of the top strikers in COMNEBOL came from behind to beat Cruz Azul 4-3. The second leg is Sunday, in Mexico City.

Suazo, who led COMNEBOL World Cup Qualifying in goals scored, could be one of the stars of next summer's World Cup.

I'll admit to not knowing a lot about this, but stay tuned as I learn more. My initial thought, generally speaking, is that the feud between the United Soccer Leagues and the new North American Soccer League is not good for soccer in the U.S. Does the pecking order go like this now?MLSNASLUSL2Premier Development LeagueCollege It [.

As there is nothing going on in American soccer right now I think we should all watch cartoons today. Have you seen "Something Something Something Darkside" yet? It's so great...much better than The Simpsons Movie.

Last show of the year, people. There's news and discussion of Donovan, Holden, and Beasley, plus an interview with an English footballer looking to play in the US and a rundown of the top five American soccer moments of 2009.
The American Soccer Show is part of the Champions Soccer Radio Network.

There's a new podcast on the American soccer scene that I'd like to recommend: Waiting for Gaetjens. You can get it from their website, WaitingForGaetjens.com, or subscribe to it in the iTunes Store here.
The hosts are Greg Lalas and Adam Spangler. Lalas is a columnist for SI.com, commentator for New England Revolution TV broadcasts, and Site Director for Goal.

On a few occasions during 2009, we have discussed soccer stories that are legal rather than business related. Because of sponsorships, contracts, television broadcast rights and a whole host of other reasons, the business and law are closely related in the sports world. Here then, are our top American Soccer legal stories of the year.