Fellow soccer bloggers Caught Offside yesterday offered up seven reasons why football (soccer) will never be a major success in the U.S. It got lost in all of the hullabaloo over Charlie Davies' accident but I wanted to take the time to address it now.
First things first: Caught Offside are wrong on all but one count, namely that the sport is not stat-intensive enough to become a major deal in the U. Click to continue reading...

The U.S. Men's National Team took an early lead, then gave up a quick equalizer before succumbing to the winning goal eight minutes from time in their World Cup qualifier at Estadio Azteca yesterday. The win by Mexico puts its national team back on track to qualify for the 2010 World Cup. The Yanks will probably still qualify anyway, but they would have loved to have managed a victory (or at least a draw) at the Azteca, a place where they have famously never won in 19 attempts. Click to continue reading...

In a move that will officially announced tomorrow, 19-year old U.S. Men's National Team striker Jozy Altidore (follow him on Twitter. While you're at it follow Soccer-Source on Twitter) will join Hull City of the English Premier League. Altidore's current club, Villareal, for reasons yet obscure do not see a need for the 6'3 player. Click to continue reading...

Yesterday's 5-0 drubbing suffered by the U.S. Men's National Team at the hands of archrivals Mexico in the Gold Cup final is, on paper, one of the worst results in U.S. soccer history. You need to go back to the 1950s to find a comparable scoreline in games played on U.S. soil: specifically, April 28, 1957 and a 7-2 loss to Mexico in Long Beach, Calif. Click to continue reading...

How bad of an idea was the Pan-Pacific Championship? Not even the locals care about it, according to the New York Times' soccer blog. I seriously don't get the point, not even (especially?) from a business perspective. It's a tiny market in the middle of nowhere. Not so fast, though. One blogger in favor is An American's View on Futbol/Football/Soccer and he refuses to pan the Pan-Pacific Championship. Click to continue reading...

Call this news of the weird, or something. Otto Pfister, head coach of Africa Cup of National finalist Cameroon (they play Egypt in the final tomorrow), told Germany's kicker.de he has been offered the job of U.S. Men's National Team coach. The job has been held by Bob Bradley for over a year. By nearly all accounts, Bradley has done a fine job. Click to continue reading...

One of this week's most blogged-about items was the English Premier League's plan to play regular season games overseas. Not surprisingly, most bloggers hated the idea: All Quiet in the East Stand titled its rant "The Day Football Started To Kill Itself." Football Corner wrote Premier League games abroad is not the answer" (they didn't say what the question was, but I get it; they hate the plan. Click to continue reading...

...or any other international friendlies. And neither should you. They're boring. We're talking about exhibition games here, okay folks? Nothing's at stake other than "bragging rights," which in this case comes down to nationalism. I don't like nationalism. It's caused too much trouble, including all of last century's most bloody conflicts. Click to continue reading...

The 2008 MLS season is fast approaching. Preseason rankings and expectations will arrive soon enough but Who Ate All The Cupcakes (the Yank version of Who Ate All The Pies, I presume) brings us their 2008 MLS Superlatives, styled after those really annoying yearbook contests they had in high school. Readers get to vote on a dozen categories (everything from "most popular" to "best dancer" and "best hair") and even suggest their own. Click to continue reading...

Michael Bradley scored two of Heerenveen's three goals in its shutout victory at DeGraafshap Doetinchem to push the Pride of Friesland into second place in the Dutch Eredevisie. Heerenveen's stint in second could be short-lived, however, as it has played two games more than the third- and fourth-placed clubs (that would be Ajax Amsterdam and Feyernoord Rotterdam), but so what? Click to continue reading...

One massive tournament I have not paid any attention to so far is the African Cup of Nations (I wish I could, but professional commitments and rooting interests in others leagues and sports have left me with very little room to maneuver). Luckily for me (and you), there is excellent coverage out there. Click to continue reading...

Welcome to the Baltimore Convention Center, site of the 2008 MLS SuperDraft. I am on the scene and will be updating the site with each pick so be sure to check back often. If you're here please drop me a line. Some gossip for Red Bulls fans to mull over: I heard its new coach, Juan Carlos Osorio (whom I ran into before. Click to continue reading...

I gotta be honest, I am not familiar with any of these names. Maybe that's because none of them are East Coast. Or maybe I'm just clueless. A potentially positive sign is that there are many midfielders among the group (midfield being one of U.S. teams' traditional weak points). Also only one goalkeeper, which is a position we don't actually need any help with. Click to continue reading...

Twenty-six year old David Yelldell, who currently plies his trade as the starting goalkeeper of German Regionalliga side Stuttgarter Kickers, has played a Cal Ripken-esque 68 straight games for a total of 6120 straight minutes. So says Germany's kicker magazine (no affiliation with the team) in a story it published on its Web site today. Click to continue reading...

If there's one thing there is too much of in today's world it's awards and awards ceremonies. I'm not just talking soccer, either. The damn things are everywhere. At my day job, it seems I spend half the year preparing for one awards "gala" or another, just so the publishing monkeys can get their jollies and pad their bottom lines. Click to continue reading...

Nineteen year-old Pasco, Wash., native Preston Zimmerman has been signed as a so-called Lizensspieler by his team Hamburg SV, according to a statement by the Bundesliga club. I'm not entirely sure what this means. The literal translation is "licensed player" so perhaps this means he's now a member of the first team, or is eligible for first team action? Click to continue reading...

VfL Wolfsburg head coach Felix Magath is preparing to rid his team of Berkeley, Calif., native Kamani Hill and Portuguese defender Alex. As a first step, Magath has cleared the pair from practice requirements and allowed them to "do as they pleased," including finding a new club, according to German news wire newsclick. Click to continue reading...

U.S. national team midfielder Michael Bradley has pulled off a dazzling feat, scoring three goals in 25 minutes of play in today's Dutch Eredivisie game between his club team SC Heerenveen and FC Groningen. The son of U.S. men's national team coach Bob Bradley scored in the sixth, 22nd and 40th minutes as his side won the game, 4-2. Click to continue reading...

"That I'm old, that's what that says."--Kasey Keller, responding to an interviewer's question about being the only member of the national team pool from the 1990 World Cup team. Keller said only "two or three guys deserved to be on that team." I think he was being pretty generous. I can't think of any other thanTony Meola. Click to continue reading...

We all know about Brad Friedel and Freddy Adu and all the guys on Fulham, but there happen to be many U.S. soccer players plying their trade in Europe whom we have not heard of. Yanks Abroad has a pretty definitive list--but it isn't exhaustive. Mine isn't either, but I combed the depths of various resources (www. Click to continue reading...

After going a goal down 25 minutes into their bwin league game against Academica de Coimbra, Benfica scored three unanswered goals, the third by Freddy Adu in the 93rd minute. You can watch Adu's goal here and elsewhere. It was a lovely shot from the right edge of the penalty area that went off the post. Click to continue reading...

Starting in midfield instead of his customary role at right back, Arlington Heights, Ill., native Jonathan Spector appeared to score his first career goal in the English Premiership. I didn't watch the game (thanks to not having GolTV, boohoo) but footballstats.telegraph.co.uk described it as a left-footed strike from the center of the penalty box into the bottom right corner of the net. Click to continue reading...

New York Red Bulls forward Jozy Altidore will be part of the 17-man roster that faces South Africa in Johannesburg Nov. 17, according to a statement by the club. The complete U.S. roster will be finalized following this weekend's matches in Europe and MLS with players reporting to camp on Nov. 12 in Johannesburg.
This is the first time that the 18-year-old has been called up to the senior side, but he has previously competed at the U. Click to continue reading...

Michael Bradley scored Heerenveen's consolation goal 20 minutes from time, as his team bowed out of the Dutch cup with a 3-1 loss at Amsterdam's ArenA earlier today. It was Bradley's fifth goal in 12 games for Heerenveen, including two each in Eredivisie and UEFA Cup competition. Not bad at all! I didn't watch the game (I have a day job, remember? And besides, it wasn't on TV in the U. Click to continue reading...

Yes, this again. Culture of Soccer had to go there. I don't know why, especially seeing as they base their arguments on a book that came out 12 years ago. Actually, check that: they don't really take a stand on this issue, choosing instead to just introduce these decade-old views and leave it to us to decide. Fair enough. So let's decide then. Ready? Click to continue reading...

I thought it would be interesting to have a look at these. I scoured through a few Web sites and found the following (yes I can read German):

• Outside of Switzerland's loss in the round of 16 at last year's world cup (which came on penalties after a scoreless draw with the Ukraine) it was the first time the Swiss team failed to score a goal since 2004, according to Zurich's Tages Anzeiger newspaper.

Click to continue reading...