The news wires are now full of player profiles, match reports, you name it, as the US women's soccer team gears up for its gold medal match versus Brazil on Thursday morning. This team is living up to the Nike Women's World Cup hype of several months ago ... the greatest team you've never [...]SHARETHIS. Click to continue reading...

The Coppa Italia tournament already started 10 days ago with first round matches between the clubs at Lega Pro (Serie C) level and below. Two weeks ago, American striker Gabe Ferrari played 47 minutes as Perugia topped Lumezzane 1-0 to earn a berth in the second round. But Perugia's Coppa Italia campaign came to an end this weekend as Ferrari saw 71 minutes of action as Perugia fell to Serie B side Ascoli 3-1. Click to continue reading...

Now the real circus begins as news items slowly leak out about teams interested in American defender Oguchi Onyewu. After interest from PSG came out of Paris a few days ago, this afternoon Eurosport is stating that Lazio has renewed its interest in Gooch. Like a number of Serie A clubs, they are in the market for a central defender but this is the first time Onyewu has been mentioned since January. Click to continue reading...

Michael Phelps broke Mark Spitz' gold medal record last night -an amazing feat, indeed. I don't know about you, but I find such milestones diminished by the hype ... the marketing ... the hoopla ... the commentary. The events and the raw footage about the events is enough. The look on Michael [.. Click to continue reading...

OK, I'm not afraid to admit it, when the US lost in the Olympics to Nigeria the other day, my secret thought was:


"Man, I can't get enough of that Natalie Coughlin...."

Er, um, I mean, my OTHER secret thought was "Well thank you Petr Nowak for delivering the coaching job I always expected of you. Click to continue reading...

I'm still reading a lot of complaining about Orozco's red card, most recently Fullback, who remembered some particularly dubious anti-US officiating by Wolfgang Stark, who sent Orozco off.  And almost immediately after the game, Ives, being more mild-mannered, wrote:

Orozco can't throw an elbow of any kind, but the referee did not have to give a red card that early in the match.

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I don't know about you, but somehow today, this just makes me think of Petr Nowak.



And then there's this one, which kind of summarizes the whole US Soccer effort, now doesn't it:

(Background music: Sportscast intro)

Newscaster: And right now it's time for athletics, and over to Brian Goebells in Paris. Click to continue reading...

...but am not a good enough writer to communicate. Here you go, I suggest checking it out.

He's right you know. Commentator Marcelo Balboa said during the Dutch telecast something to the effect of "get your yellow card suspension over with now before the quarterfinals" I have to respectfully disagree. Click to continue reading...

I got up early again to rev up the DVR and watch the US take on Nigeria. The US needed a win or tie against a good Nigerian squad. I'm ready, I'm pumped. What happens next? The worst thing possible, the thing I didn't want to see, heartbreak...

A red card in the 4th minute. Michael Orozco makes a stupid mistake and elbows a Nigerian player while tussling for a ball. Click to continue reading...

Wow, wow, wow. Even the Phillies' loss has not dampened my amazement and feeling of great good fortune. The USWNT is through to the quarterfinals (not too surprising) and has won their group (pretty darn surprising) and is starting to score some goals (excellent news). To date, five different people have scored, [. Click to continue reading...

I wasn't too thrilled with his performance in Qualifying or the first two games, and figured he was just nervous. But now I think he may have been planted by the FMF to sabotage us. They knew we'd be so thrilled to have a kid choose the US over Mexico that we wouldn't care if he was actually good or not.

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While their countrymen battle for advancement in the Olympic Games over in China, two young Americans are preparing themselves for the upcoming Italian soccer season.

Gabriel Ferrari, on loan from Sampdoria to Perugia, seems to be settling in well already seeing 75 minutes of playing time in this week's 3-2 preseason win over Catania. Click to continue reading...

LIke the commentator said, Marvell Wynne may have done the work on the flank, but it's only as good as the finishing. So my question is, just where has that left foot been all year Stu-boy? And, you do plan to bring it back to the States with you when you get back, right?

Right?
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If you are surfing to this blog, you probably saw the USA squeak by Japan 1-0 to open up the Olympic tournament for the Stars and Stripes. A fair result could have been 2-1 for Japan, which created more dangerous chances than our boys and demonstrated more fluid passing and coherent defense.

I'll delve into this more later but here are a few quick bits:

Brian McBride - Battled hard as always but there was seldom anyone available for the second ball. Click to continue reading...

I am going to do my best to recreate the "magic" of the 2002 World Cup by waking up early tomorrow morning to catch the US vs. Japan. No, not 3 am early, but maybe 5:30 so I can start up the DVR and see the entire match before heading to work. We'll see if my ambitions match my ability.

Check out today's US Soccer Studio 90 post. Click to continue reading...

US Soccer posted the schedules for both Men's and Women's Olympic soccer on NBC. I am happy to report you don't have to get the special NBC Olympic soccer channel to watch all the games, so long as you do have cable.

The US kicks off their Olympic journey Thursday...yes in two days!

Aug. Click to continue reading...

I've got a chicken or the egg question for you. Was it former DC United head coach Piotr Nowak who infected current DC United head coach Tommy Soehn, or Soehn who infected Nowak? Or are they both suffering from acute Kasper-Payne-itis? The reason I ask is this: the roster for the Olympic team is starting to resemble the one we're currently alternating between lambasting and ruing here in Click to continue reading...

Post-1994 World Cup: Breaking Into First Division Soccer

After the 1994 World Cup in which the US team showed great progress from 1990, the European soccer establishment started to notice two things; that the Americans do indeed play soccer and that a few more of their players are worth signing. Click to continue reading...

During the second field inspection, I asked a strapping young member of United's communications department if he had an explanation as to why they're insistent upon continuing the game, considering it was already a longer delay than we had on June 4. He said he didn't have an "official" response, but that the league policy is to see as many games as possible played to completion.

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Yanks Abroad reports that Landon Donovan's agent failed to deny a Sky Sports report concerning a possible move by the American to the EPL.

They then report this:

Donovan was recently quoted by the English media giant as saying, "The older I get and the more I play, the more I'm yearning for that highest level I can play at.

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Peter Nowak named his sqaud for the Beijing Olympics. The team includes several current and former MLS players. Real Salt Lake, Toronto FC and Houston Dynamo are all losing 2 players to Nowak's Olympic roster while the Columbus Crew, Chivas USA and the New England Revolution will be missing a single player to Nowak during the Olympics.

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I knew England had a number of soccer leagues in a hierarchical structure where teams could be promoted and relegated between them. But I never knew it was made up of 24 levels, 140 leagues, 480 divisions, and over 7000 clubs. If England can manage to promote and relegate teams within 24 levels, why can't we [. Click to continue reading...

Not too long ago the US Olympic team was made up of exclusively college players. 1996 was the first year of MLS and MLS players did make that team. Since 1996 the Olympics have been a goal of American MLS based players looking to move up to the first team if they haven't already made a spot for themselves. Click to continue reading...

Parents and coaches often get tunnel vision with youth soccer based on the national association their kids register with. You just don't realize there are other national soccer associations out there. As far as I knew, there were four national youth soccer associations under the USSF/US Soccer umbrella: USYSA, AYSO, SAY, and US Club. Click to continue reading...

Hot young Maryland prospect Chris Agorsor proved again last week why he could be one of the most exciting young prospects in US Soccer, helping his team win the Development Academy U-17/18 championship at the Home Depot Center in southern California. Jaime Cardenas of the LA Times has a great writeup on the tournament here. Click to continue reading...