Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Abby Wambach, Hope Solo, magicJack, Major League Soccer, Marta, U.S. National Women's Team, USL, W-League, Women's Premier Soccer League, Women's Professional Soccer, Women's United Soccer Association
Women’s Professional Soccer, home to such top U.S. internationals as Abby Wambach and Hope Solo and Brazilian star Marta, folded, four months after the league cancelled its 2012 season in hopes of returning in 2013.
League officials cited an ongoing battle with the owner of the Boca Raton-based club magicJack as the primary reason for the decision, but WPS also had been plagued by a lack of capital and low attendance (3,535 average in 2011). The league limped through its last season with six teams, all of them on the East Coast.
The demise of WPS leaves the U.S. with two second-division women’s circuits, the USL’s W-League, which has 30 teams, and the 67-team Women’s Premier Soccer League, which broke away from the W-League in 1997. [May 18]
Comment: To those who think they can succeed where the Women’s United Soccer Association (2001-2003, R.I.P.) and WPS failed, please don’t step forward unless and until you have the right formula and the financial muscle to weather years of struggle, a la Major League Soccer. (Note: Financial muscle means more than the $100 million the WUSA lost during its brief lifetime.)
These vain attempts only sully the sport of women’s soccer in the eyes of the general public and undermine what is one of American sports’ few ongoing feel-good stories, the U.S. National Women’s Team.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: 1994 World Cup, adidas, Chester, China, Chivas Guadalajara, EverBank Field, Glasgow Celtic, Jacksonville, Levi Strauss, Nike, Paraguayan National Team, Paul Gardner, PPL Park, Queens Park Rangers, Scotland, Striker, U.S. National Men's Team, U.S. National Women's Team, Warner Brothers, World Cup Pup
Clint Dempsey, in the USA's new garb
Striker, in his previous life as a rugby player
The reformed Striker
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: 1974 World Cup, 2002 World Cup Korea/Japan, ABC, American Caesar, Cosmos, Eric Wynalda, Ferruccio Valcareggi, Fox Soccer Channel, Giorgio Chinaglia, Haiti, Henry Kissinger, Julie Foudy, Lazio, Mick Jagger, Naples, National Soccer Hall of Fame, New York, New York Cosmos, North American Soccer League, Pele, San Diego, Seattle Sounders, Serie A, Soccer Bowl '82, Steve Ross, Tulsa Roughnecks, Waldo, Warner Communications
Giorgio Chinaglia, the fiery Italian who scored the goals that powered the New York Cosmos to four North American Soccer League titles during the league’s glory days, died at his Naples, FL, home of complications from a heart attack. He was 69.
After leading Lazio to its first Serie A title and playing for Italy in the 1974 World Cup–where he infamously flipped off coach Ferruccio Valcareggi while being substituted during the opener against Haiti–Chinaglia was signed in 1976 by the Cosmos, who sought a sure-fire goalscorer to pair with Pele.
While the Cosmos got about $20 million’s worth of publicity from the $5 million signing of Pele the previous year, Chinaglia proved to be a bargain when it came to production on the field. He scored 193 goals in 213 regular-season games before he retired after the league’s second-to-last season in 1983. That was an NASL record, as were his 49 playoff goals. Seven of those came in an outrageous 8-1 humiliation of the Tulsa Roughnecks in 1980 as he set post-season records for goals in a playoff game and goals in a single post-season, 19. He also holds the records for most goals in a season, 34 in 30 games, in 1978, and total points, 79, set that same year, thanks to his 11 assists.
Elected to the National Soccer Hall of Fame in 2000, Chinaglia later found himself an exile in his adopted country after a group he was involved with was accused by Italian authorities of price-fixing in the attempted purchase of his former club, Lazio. [April 1]
Comment: There are soccer fans here who remember Chinaglia as the American Caesar. With his outsized ego, Chinaglia was made for New York, the swingin’ ’70s and the Cosmos, who could number among their followers Mick Jagger and Henry Kissinger. He marked his arrival by saying of Pele, who showed up in 1976 late and out of shape, “He’s just another player I’ll have to carry until he gets fit.” He also had the good sense to become close with Warner Communications supremo Steve Ross, the Cosmos’ part-owner and biggest fan. More important, Chinaglia backed up his bluster by becoming the NASL’s greatest scoring machine. A classic poacher, some of his goals were pretty, some not so. His final notable goal was typical: In San Diego, he bundled the ball into the goal with his thigh during a goalmouth scramble to give New York a 1-0 victory over the (original) Seattle Sounders in a forgettable Soccer Bowl ’82.
What soccer fans of all ages here will remember is the Giorgio Chinaglia whom ABC teamed with former U.S. star Eric Wynalda as in-studio commentators during its coverage of the 2002 World Cup in Korea/Japan. Many of those games aired in America during the wee hours, but the Giorgio-Waldo Show proved much more potent than black coffee in keeping viewers awake with their running game of thrust and parry. Doing most of the thrusting was Wynalda, who played gleeful, smart-alecky high school student to the completely humorless but unflappable social studies teacher Chinaglia, and the result was classic TV. The two parted ways as Chinaglia went on to host a satellite radio show while Wynalda, paired with Julie Foudy for the ’06 World Cup, became a bit more buttoned down in recent years as studio host for Fox Soccer Channel. There hasn’t been an on-air duo like Waldo-Chinaglia, and we soccer viewers are the poorer for it.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: 2008 Beijing Olympics, 2012 London Olympics, American Outlaws, Andres Flores, Athens, Bill Hamid, Brian McBride, Canada, Chile, Clint Dempsey, CONCACAF Gold Cup, CONCACAF Olympic qualifiers, El Salvador, FIFA Women's World Cup, FIFA World Youth Championship, Freddy Adu, Honduras, Jaime Alas, Joe Corona, Kansas City, Landon Donovan, Lester Blanco, Los Angeles Times, Major League Soccer, Mexico, Nashville, Rose Bowl, Sam's Army, Sean Johnson, Spain, Sydney, Terrence Boyd, Tim Howard, U.S. National Team, U.S. National Under-20 Team, U.S. National Women's Team, Will Kuhn
The United States surrendered a goal by Jaime Alas four minutes into added-on time, giving El Salvador a 3-3 tie in Nashville that knocked the Americans out of contention for the 2012 London Olympics. The Salvadorans finished atop their first-round group and advanced along with Canada to the semifinals of the CONCACAF Olympic qualifiers in Kansas City, where they will face Mexico and Honduras with two berths in London on the line. The U.S., at 1-1-1, landed in third place.
After taking a lead on a goal by Terrence Boyd in the first minute, the U.S. was sent reeling by goals by El Salvador’s Lester Blanco and Andres Flores in the 35th and 37th minutes. Boyd scored an equalizer in the 65th minute and Joe Corona, whose mother is Salvadoran, put the U.S. ahead, 3-2, three minutes later with a header off a cross by captain Freddy Adu, who had also set up Boyd’s second strike.
The Americans, however, couldn’t hold off the relentless Salvadorans. On a quick counterattack, Alas’ seemingly harmless 25-yard shot squeezed under U.S. goalkeeper Sean Johnson, who had replaced the injured Bill Hamid (ankle) in the 39th minute. [March 26]
Comment: A disturbing setback, coming as it does on the heels of three other American stumbles in regional or world championship competition over the past 12 months. A year ago, the U.S. National Under-20 Team gives up a second-half goal against the run of play and is eliminated by host Guatemala, 2-1, in the quarterfinals of the CONCACAF qualifiers for the FIFA World Youth Championship. In June, the U.S. National Team scores twice early, only to give up four unanswered goals to Mexico in the CONCACAF Gold Cup final at the Rose Bowl. The following month, the U.S. National Women’s Team is unable to protect a one-goal lead in regulation and again late in overtime and loses to underdog Japan on penalty kicks in the FIFA Women’s World Cup title match in Germany. And now this.
It’s no time for Sam’s Army and the American Outlaws and their brethren to panic, of course. The U.S. women, despite their confounding defeat at the hands of Japan last summer, are still No. 1 in the FIFA World Rankings. And with CONCACAF’s 3 1/2 berths up for grabs, the U.S. men head into 2014 World Cup qualifying this summer with perhaps the two most accomplished attacking players in their history, Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey, still in their prime. For the U.S. men, however, it would have to be concluded that, given the U-23s’ disappointing loss to Canada and tie with El Salvador in Nashville, there are no wholesale reinforcements on the horizon.
On the eve of the Olympic qualifiers, MLS spokesman Will Kuhn was on message, telling the Los Angeles Times, “It’s a strong statement about our league and the development of young players that the Olympic tournament–a reflection of the strongest young players in each country–includes so many that are on our clubs. It draws a lot of attention to the natural progression of our league. The level of play keeps advancing each year. The Olympics gives an opportunity for lots more people to see that progress.” We’ve heard that sort of thing from MLS for several years now, but it might be time for the league to tone down the rhetoric.
If there’s been progress, it hasn’t be reflected in the play of recent U.S. U-23 teams. The 2000 U.S. men’s Olympic team qualified for Sydney, where it went 1-0-2 in the first round, defeated Japan on PKs in the quarterfinals, lost to Spain, 3-1, in the semifinals and bowed to Chile, 2-0, in the bronze-medal game–their best showing in an Olympic soccer history that goes back to 1924. In 2004, the U.S. failed to make it to Athens, the decisive blow a humiliating 4-0 loss to host Mexico in the CONCACAF semifinals as the locals taunted the Americans with chants of “O-sa-ma, O-sa-ma.” Four years later, the U.S. reached the Beijing Games, where it went 1-1-1 and failed to advance to the quarterfinals.
No one wants to see a return of the 1980s and ’90s, when young American players had two hopes: star in college, then head to Europe, where there might be an opening with a Scandinavian club or a German regional division side. And there’s no denying that since 1996 MLS has become an international springboard for several top native sons, from Brian McBride to Tim Howard and Donovan and Dempsey. Nevertheless, if the Olympics are some kind of reflection on the improvement of MLS, that progress has been decidedly uneven.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Chicago Fire, ESPN, FC Dallas, Fiorentina, Italian Serie A, Major League Soccer, MLS Commissioner Don Garber, MLS Cup, Montreal Impact, NBC, New England Revolution, New York Red Bulls, North American Soccer League, Philadelphia Union, Toronto FC, Univision
This Saturday, Major League Soccer will kick off its 17th season, tying it with the old North American Soccer League (1968-84) as the country’s longest tenured national pro soccer league. With the addition of its 19th club, the expansion Montreal Impact, the league will play 323 regular-season games, 17 more than in 2011. The climactic MLS Cup is scheduled for Saturday, December 1, making this the league’s longest campaign in its history. And for the first time, every match will be televised, thanks to ESPN, Univision, new partner NBC and various Canadian networks. [March 7]
Comment: Another set of milestones for a league that a dozen years ago was in danger of falling flat on its back, but for those who care about what goes on down on the field, perhaps we’ll see some improvement in the standings, where wins and losses are in danger of being surpassed by ties, draws and deadlocks.
Last season, with 18 MLS teams each playing 34 regular-season games for a total of 306, a whopping 106 of those matches ended in a tie. That’s 34.6 percent, or more than a third. The New York Red Bulls and Chicago Fire registered 16 draws apiece, breaking the record of 14 set the previous season by FC Dallas. Toronto FC and the Philadelphia Union were next at 15, and another nine teams posted 10 draws or more. In fact, 11 teams finished with more ties than victories, including all those who made up the bottom nine.
Is there a trend in place? In 2010, in a 16-team MLS, only three clubs hit double digits in ties, and just one club, the New England Revolution (5-16-13), had more ties than wins. Teams each played 30 games that year and they racked up 58 draws–24.1 percent of all results.
To a disdainful general American public, soccer and ties are almost synonymous. But compare MLS with the Italy, the land where, as popular perception would have it, the scoreless tie was invented, and games are so tight, oftentimes so negative, that the players walk onto the field hoping for that one, blissful penalty-kick call. Yet in 2010-2011, Serie A’s 20 clubs, each playing 38 matches, had 97 ties in 380 games–25.5 percent, just more than a quarter of all results. Half of the teams tied at least 10 games, led by Fiorentina, with 16.
“We’re not going to eliminate ties from Major League Soccer, but we have way too many ties and way too many zero-zero ties,” MLS Commissioner Don Garber told the Newark Star-Ledger in July, as the draws were piling up at an alarming rate. “What could we do as a league to make it more valuable for a club to play to win every game as opposed to playing for just a point? We’re looking at what those initiatives could be. And that is a league initiative.”
[For the record, Commissioner, of those 106 ties last year, 27 were scoreless.]
What’s troubling here is that not only has MLS not taken concrete steps to reverse the trend (meaningful player bonuses for victories, perhaps?), it has offered little in the way of explanation beyond praising its parity and competitiveness.
MLS is catching up with the rest of the world when it comes to intimate stadiums and boisterous followings, thus creating in many cities the home-field advantage factor that was so missing in the league’s first decade. As a result, however, is MLS also becoming yet another league in which teams are more than happy to escape most road games with a single point? If that’s the case, it’s all the more reason for the league to take the necessary steps to foster a climate in which those large, loud and loyal followers go home happy on a more regular basis.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: adidas, Algarve Cup, Argentina, Arsenal, Azzurri, Belgium, Borrusia Dortmund, Brussels, Cesare Prandelli, Clint Dempsey, Colombia, CONCACAF Gold Cup, Copa America, Denmark, England, FIFA Confederations Cup, Genoa, Germany, Gianluigi Buffon, Italian National Team, Juergen Klinsmann, Juventus, Mexico, Miami, Nike, Portugal, Sebastian Giovinco, Serie A, Spain, Stadio Luigi Ferraris, Terrence Boyd, Tim Howard, U.S. Cup, U.S. National Team, U.S. National Under-23 Team, U.S. National Women's Team
The U.S. National Team upset Italy, 1-0, in a friendly at Genoa’s Stadio Luigi Ferraris to post its first victory over the Italians in 78 years. Clint Dempsey rolled a shot from the top of the penalty area past the outstretched hands of goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon in the 55th minute and the Americans, behind some stout defending, held on for their fourth consecutive win under new coach Juergen Klinsman. [February 29]
Comment I: The triumph was described in many quarters as historic, and given the fact that the U.S. went into the match with a 0-7-3 record against the Azzurri and had been out-scored, 32-4, over those 10 matches, the feat was indeed historic. Italian commentators no doubt shrugged it off as an aberration. Dempsey’s goal, they no doubt pointed out, came against the run of play–decidedly. Italy out-shot the U.S., 19-4, and would have had more had the pesky Sebastian Giovinco and mates not been flagged for offside nine times (to the USA’s zero), mostly on hopeful balls lofted over the U.S. back line. Italy also had the edge in corner kicks, 8-2, and Buffon was forced to make only one save to U.S. ‘keeper Tim Howard’s seven, which included a clutch kick-save in the fourth minute. This also wasn’t a full-strength Italian squad; neither could it be said of the U.S., but while the Americans remain sorely lacking in depth, Italy coach Cesare Prandelli could trot out a starting lineup heavy on players from Juventus, at the moment Serie A’s second-place club. Moreover, all would agree that a better look at reality came in the teams’ last meeting, at the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup in South Africa, a competitive match in which Italy took the U.S. to school in a 3-1 win that left the Americans’ hopes in that tournament on life support.
So was this upset truly meaningful? If so, the U.S. in recent years has enough such moments to fill a history book, starting with the 2-0 win over Mexico in the 1991 CONCACAF Gold Cup semifinals, and followed on a semi-regular basis by England 2-0 at U.S. Cup ’93, Colombia 2-1 at the 1994 World Cup, Argentina 3-0 at the 1995 Copa America, Brazil 1-0 at the 1998 Gold Cup semifinals, Germany 2-0 at the 1999 FIFA Confederations Cup, Portugal 3-2 at the 2002 World Cup, and the biggest of all, World-Cup-champion-to-be Spain 2-0 at the 2009 Confederations Cup semifinals.
The best way to describe what happened in Genoa is to suggest that the U.S. further cemented its reputation as a team capable of anything at anytime, an erratic opponent who’s a no-win proposition for the world powers. Why should they relish facing an opponent they’re expected to beat when, on the odd day, they’ll fall victim to grit, fitness and just enough skill to get the job done? At the same time, this giant killer can’t get past the mid-level teams on a consistent basis, as it demonstrated in its 1-0 loss to Belgium in Brussels in September, Klinsmann’s third match in charge.
What may have been most noteworthy about Italy 0, U.S. 1 is that Klinsmann stuck his neck out and agreed to have the game scheduled at all. He rolled the dice in Genoa and won with a conservative 4-5-1. His 4-4-2 may come and go, depending on the opposition and the circumstances, but it’s clear that he intends, as he’s said, to pull the Americans out of their “comfort zone” and tap into the bravura and blue-collar characteristics that made the U.S. job so appealing to the German in the first place. In sum, Klinsmann with nothing to lose, the fellow hired to be the anti-Bob Bradley.
Comment II: Klinsmann’s boldness crossed a line when he substituted a spent Jozy Altidore with Terrence Boyd. a striker who has yet to work his way from the Borussia Dortmund reserves into the club’s first team. Boyd was clearly a fish out of water, and it can be gently said that he was lucky not to be shown a yellow card for a high foot a few minutes into his 11-minute cameo. A 21-year-old kid making his debut against Italy in a one-goal game? There are limits.
Comment III: It’s been nearly 20 years since Nike took over for adidas as the national teams’ outfitter, and it still hasn’t gotten it right. The same company that has repeatedly ruined Brazil’s classic jersey–and those of the countless other national teams and prominent clubs it has come to sponsor–dressed the U.S. for its Italy match in something that could best be described as a bad version of Arsenal in navy blue. In fact, it simply looked like the Americans had their sleeves ripped off, revealing their white long underwear. Fortunately, the U.S. played better than it looked, sartorially speaking.
Comment IV: On one day, the U.S. National Women’s Team routed Denmark, 5-0, in Portugal in its Algarve Cup opener; the U.S. National Under-23 Team blanked Mexico’s U-23s, 2-0, in Dallas in an Olympic qualifying tune-up; and the U.S. National Team shocked Italy, 1-0, in a friendly in Genoa. Oh, and the Mexican National Team bowed to Colombia, 2-0, in a friendly in Miami.
It won’t take away the sting of a day like June 25 last year, when Mexico thumped the U.S., 4-2, at the CONCACAF Gold Cup final … but for American fans, it doesn’t hurt.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Argentina, Brazil, Copa America, England, fourth substitution, International Football Association Board, Laws of the Game, penalty kick, professional foul, Surrey, triple punishment, vanishing spray
The 126th annual general meeting of the International Football Association Board–world soccer’s official rule-making body–will be held March 3 in Surrey, England.
Among the eight proposed amendments to the Laws of the Game on the agenda are a proposal for a fourth substitution to be allowed for overtime matches; a new text to clarify what action should be taken if a dropped ball is kicked directly into the opponent’s goal; and a new text to address the so-called “triple punishment” (ejection and one-game suspension of a player who tries to stop an obvious scoring chance with a professional foul, plus the awarding of a penalty kick against that player’s team.)
Also to be discussed are an update on experiments involving additional assistant referees and the use of “vanishing spray” to mark where defending players can stand or form a wall on a free kick. [February 1]
Comment: This get-together probably won’t generate as much interest as a special meeting the IFAB may convene July 2, when it could make a decision regarding the future of goal-line technology and the use of additional assistant referees. It’s in Surrey, however, where board members will consider technology that makes sense.
Vanishing spray has been used in top-level matches in Brazil and a handful of other countries the past few years, but it arrived on the world stage last summer when it was used at the Copa America in Argentina.
Very simple: When necessary, the referee steps off 10 yards (9.15 meters) from the spot of a free kick to the opponent’s goal, then pulls a small can out of his pocket and sprays a line to mark how close the defending team can form a wall. Any encroachment is there for the world to see, and the white line created disappears in 45 seconds.
Best of all, unlike goal line technology and its not-so-distant cousins, like video review of everything from offside to penalty-area dives, vanishing spray will lead to nothing beyond vanishing spray.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: 2012 African Cup of Nations, Chelsea, Cote d'Ivoire, Didier Drogba, Egypt, Elephants, England, Gabon, Gervinho, Herve Renard, Holland, Ivory Coast, Kalusha Bwalya, Libreville, PSV Eindhoven, Stophira Sunzu, World Cup, Zambia
Zambia defeated Ivory Coast on penalty kicks, 8-7, following a scoreless draw in Libreville, Gabon, to capture the 2012 African Cup of Nations.
The emotional final came down to two misses from the spot by Cote d’Ivoire. In the tiebreaker, after 14 consecutive conversions, a Zambian save and Zambian miss, Arsenal’s Gervinho, a standout during the three-week tournament, misfired for the Elephants and Stophira Sunzu bured his try to give Zambia its first African crown. Back in the second half, Ivory Coast had a chance to settle matters when Gervinho was brought down in the right side of the box, but Chelsea star Didier Drogba botched his PK attempt.
On the Zambian bench was the country’s soccer chief, Kalusha Bwalya, who had hired current coach Herve Renard. In 1993, Bwalya, then a member of PSV Eindhoven, was due to fly from Holland to Africa to play for Zambia in a World Cup qualifier when all of his teammates were killed in a plane crash off the coast of Libreville. Three days before the 2012 final, Bwalya and Renard led the current Zambian squad to a Libreville beach, where they said prayers and scattered flowers. “There was a special spirit with us,” said Renard, a Frenchman, later. “It was written in the sky.”
Zambia came into the tournament as 40-1 longshots while the heavily favored Ivorians, who won the 55-year-old competition back in 1992, went home having gone six games without a loss and without conceding a goal. [February 12]
Comment: Over the din of the silly turmoil in England concerning its captain and coach, over the din of the very real turmoil in Egypt (winners of the previous three African titles) that threatens that country’s ability to field a national team, 2012 has produced a feel-good story, and we haven’t even reached mid-February. For more, scroll down to “Zambia’s Chance for a Bit of Closure,” January 21.
