After a tough start against Spain the United States' U17 side was able to stack up 1 0 wins against Malawi and the United Arab Emirates. The United States will advance after securing second place in their group. A skillful side that is able to move the ball around and keep possession, the United States kids have drawn criticism from some for lacking a clinical finishing edge, but they seem to excel at moving the ball around (something we haven't been able to say about many US sides).

Click to continue reading...

Well, this one was certainly much better than the last against Germany. The fabulously named Dilly Duka's goal (0:58) was a thing of (deflected?) beauty.

Click to continue reading...

Now that Schellas has his leader on the field I think the next move that the team makes is going to show where this team is going. This was the link that Schellas has said he was looking for. This was the link that was supposed to make this team his. Now if he goes out and gets another "older" player we can see just how short sighted this team is.

Click to continue reading...

The U-23's played their second match against the Olympic hosts, resulting in another draw, though this time there was some scoring to be seen. Robbie Rogers, Patrick Ianni, and Charlie Davies accounted for the USA's trifecta of tallies. Match report here. A pair of dissapointing results, but Nowak has time to iron out the issues with [. Click to continue reading...

Ok folks finally a lot to talk about and I am back. -Lets kick things off with our younger representatives of the U-17 division who put in a great showing at the Nike Friendly matches in Florida. They lost their last match to Turkey 2-0, but finished with a 2-1-0 record, beating the likes of [...] Click to continue reading...

Hard to believe that just around the corner is 2008, that leaves us only two more years 'till 2010. This past weekend the USA just passed their last friendly test of 2007 and in the New Year many different challenges will await them. Let's look back and look forward at the same time in some sort of [...] Click to continue reading...

It happened today. The moment every U.S. soccer fan and supporter has been waiting for since that summer night about a little over a year ago when Jozy Altidore first scratched the surface. It was honestly pretty random if you weren't a hardcore. Watching the Red Bulls game, this 16 year old kid gets [...] Click to continue reading...

They slipped, they stumbled, and they fell. They were relentless. Not once during this match did any USA player quit, no matter how ugly and disheartening the soccer was. As USA supporters, we had seen this all too many times before. Most recently, the last time Bob's boys took the pitch in Europe, [...] Click to continue reading...

I often find myself looking deep into the future to the year of 2010. It is so far yet so close. With qualifying already starting in various regions of the world, the focus of the football world and soccer country will be on the year 2010 in South Africa. One of the most intriguing [...] Click to continue reading...

The Player of the Year event is a bookend that provides a good opportunity to evaluate what we have seen over this past national team calander year. With the Sweden camp for January already being talked about, it also gives the opportunity to look into your crystal ball and try to get a sense [...] Click to continue reading...

The recent rumblings in the USA soccer community have been caused by a few interesting quotes from Bob Bradley's press conference at the Home Depot Center for the player of the year award, won by Landon Donovan if you give a crap about those kind of things. Anyways, Bob said that he had been in contact [...] Click to continue reading...

Gulati preaches about the possibility of the 2018 cup comming to America. I think, and it is increasing every day, that this country is more and more ready to embrace the World Cup than ever before. We were a brilliant host country in '94, but we were sort of just there to provide the stadiums. [...] Click to continue reading...

They were released from the handcuffs, let free in the wild, and told to make it happen. The fruits of their labor are just now beginning to show. Clint Dempsey was always a great MLS player, and a good national team player. In the summer of 2006, he took the next step, regardless of [...] Click to continue reading...

I always think, especially for friendlies, that it takes a few day to process all of the "what mattered" and "what didn't", because it is truly just one game, that counts for basically nothing. A few days have now passed since the Brazil friendly and there are a few things I noticed. For one, Team [...] Click to continue reading...

Germany is a killer for the United States in knockout roudns of World Cups. Sure, this does not compare at all to 2002, but its a decent way to start a post. The USA lost 2-1, the 1 being another Mykell Bates goal, to the Germans this morning. All in all you could say [...] Click to continue reading...

They did it. Who knows how, but they did. Now come on down and see what you have won.... ...A shiney new knockout round game against Germany! (ooh aaaaah) Some prize right? Deffinatley going to be a tough fixture, but they put themselves in this place (and they know it) and now it is time to [...] Click to continue reading...

During the USMNT's recent trip to Europe for the friendly with Sweden, USSF president Sunil Gulati and head coach Bob Bradley met with former Real Madrid coach Fabio Capello in London to discuss "international and American soccer". About a month ago the rumor was flying about Capello "being in talks" for a job in the states. [...] Click to continue reading...

We already know Gros' season is possibly done. I'd be much happier if his career were done. Today.

Think about the following statement:

"When Josh heads the ball with proper form and heads it with his forehead, he doesn't have a problem," head trainer Brian Goodstein said. "It's any time his head rotates that he has a problem.

Click to continue reading...

I offer this poignant quote from Back To The Future 3(awesome movie btw) to one Jozy Altidore, who according to a writer at Yahoo sports, is the future of US soccer. I happen to agree with him that the 6'1 175 pound 17 year old, could in fact become the world class striker that american soccer fans have yearned for so long. Click to continue reading...

As I looked over the roster for the upcomming friendly with Sweden one thing really stood out. The clubs our Americans are playing at have become an unmeasurable amount better in a very short time. I know that may seem obvious but it is truly quite remarkable the increasing quality the Yanks abroad are now [...] Click to continue reading...

Looks like both of these moves are going to go through. Today Derby sucesfully obtained a work permit for the USA's Gold Cup hero Benny Feilhaber. Sound like Commander Bob helped by writing a referance for his boy Benny to gain his permit. Feilhaber is expected to join the club soon after their debut [...] Click to continue reading...

A few news items today... -Peter Nowak was officially announced as coach of the U-23 Olympic Squad for the 2008 games in Bejing as expected. I got to thinking of the squad a little bit more and another player I really want to see is Stuart Holden (the American (sorta) Beckham). I say sorta [...] Click to continue reading...

Ives Galarcep at the Herald News is reporting that United States U-20 midfielder Danny Szetela has agreed to a contract with serie a giants A.S. Roma. Just yesterday I posted a transfer bit about Lazio looking to wrap up a deal for Danny, but now it seems their city rivals the Gillarossi decided it was them [...] Click to continue reading...

According to the Soccer Insider himself Steven Goff, Peter Nowak may be coaching the Stars and Stripe's young Americans in the 2008 Olympics in Bejing.. The Olympics is a primarily U-23 competition, but each team is allowed to field three players over the age of 23, like possibly 'Dinho for the Samba Boys. This is [...] Click to continue reading...

The Yanks will make the hike up to Azteca to partake in a deathly intense exhibition (nothing with these two is friendly) with El Tri on September 9th. The team's friendly schedual for the year is actually looking really good... Aug. 22 Sweden Ullevi Stadium (Goteborg, Sweden) 2:30 p.m. ET FSC / Galavision Sept. 9 Mexico [...] Click to continue reading...

The American Youth already stepped up once this summer in Canada, now it's time to go even younger, and possibly deeper, into the talent pool. The U-17 World Cup is comming up, and because of that fact it is time to educate the public of this fine website on some of the most interesting prospect's names [...] Click to continue reading...

Freddy Adu is travelling to Portugal to finalize his transfer to S.L. Benfica. Finally. Adu is set to become an Eagle for $550,000/yr for 5 years plus housing, car, and goal bonuses. His base salary is just about what he is currentley making in the MLS, this tells me that money is deffinatley not [...] Click to continue reading...

The first of the tremendous U-20 bunch to sign his European contract is not Freddy, or Danny Szetela, but somewhat surprising stand out Sal Zizzo. The deal runs for three years and will pair Sal with fellow right-sided yank Steve Cherundolo. Always good to have a fellow yank to look out for you. Steve [...] Click to continue reading...

Today, through a story put out by the Salt Lake Tribune, we learned that Freddy Adu to Benfica may be closer to happenning then some of us thought. It seems Adu's agent requested some extra days off for Freddy from Salt Lake so he could presumably work out his European transfer. The story [...] Click to continue reading...

Today, through a story put out by the Salt Lake Tribune, we learned that Freddy Adu to Benfica may be closer to happenning then some of us thought. It seems Adu's agent requested some extra days off for Freddy from Salt Lake so he could presumably work out his European transfer. The story [...] Click to continue reading...

Don't get me wrong I am happy that Becks is here in the US. Its' great that soccer is getting all this press - it's a very good thing. The game needs more of it and Becks can bring it however; I think we need many more high profile players. Hopefully, the players will follow and the media surge gets bigger and more fans come out to the games.

Click to continue reading...

...for I am in a soccer dream. If you have yet to realize, let me bring something to your attention. Right now, as I write, we are in one of the most monumental times in American soccer history. Take a second to soak that in. I'll get to all of the parts that [...] Click to continue reading...

That's really all that needs to be said to garner attention. I don't care if we are talking a U-10 American girl's rec. side beating one from Brazil; that is still impressive. But we are talking the U-20 World Cup here, a tremendous achievement. First and foremost I must say that in level of [...] Click to continue reading...

Copa America is done, with nothing to show for it. Really nothing. Charlie Davies sorta kinda impressed me for a bit tonight, but I just haven't seen enough. No young guys really stepped up. That is most dissapointing. No one even really impressed at this "tryout" of ours. Only two [...] Click to continue reading...