The Onion Bag

The most important matches will be played this evening in the CONCACAF Women’s Olympic Qualifiers. The US Women’s National Team will face Costa Rica at 8 pm (EST). The winner of that match will earn a spot in the 2012 London Olympics. That match is followed by the semifinal playoff between Canada and Mexico, a match which might prove to be more interesting than US vs. Costa Rica (the US being heavy favorites). Canada has a sharp squad. They are fast and can put the ball in the net. I’m favoring Canada for the win tonight and earn a spot in the Olympics, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Mexico makes it an extremely close and tense match.

Both matches will be streamed live tonight on CONCACAF TV. You’ll have to register, but there’s no charge.

The tired youth soccer coach doesn’t get a break in the winter nor does he want one. The winter season is all about improving the team for league performance in the spring. So one night a week he drives his son to an indoor training facility where he spends 90 minutes working out with professionals. Then he spends another night pounding the wood floors of the the elementary school gym exhorting his gaggle of 8 and 9 year olds to “spread out! Stop knocking each other over! This isn’t Rugby, for crying out loud!”

Other evenings he reads soccer books. He studies his Coerver manuals and fills out matrix forms with coded symbols representing the series of warm-ups and work-outs he thinks will turn his rowdy bunch of third graders into a cohesive, attacking side — a true goal scoring machine. He’s ever hopeful as he scours YouTube for instructional videos which will show him the proper way to execute a “slap stepover 360 pullback feint.” Then his son juggles a size one ball into the living room and says, “Hey pop, look! I can do the Rinaldo!” A lamp comes crashing to the floor. He smiles indulgently. “Good work, son.”

When it gets late and he wants to relax, he puts a match on his TV. He pours a beer and settles into the couch to watch the professionals do what they’ve trained a lifetime to do. Dynamic geometry and dazzling one-on-ones. That’s what he wants to see. “Which team are we routing for, Pop?” asks his son. “Both of them. I want to see some good football; that’s all.” But the boy wants to pick a winner. “I think the blue team will win,” he says when Maicon curls the ball across the field depositing it with pinpoint accuracy at the feet of Wesley Sneijder.

Savings and loan. January is the off-season for the US Soccer fan. The MLS is just gearing up for spring play which starts in early March. Meanwhile, the rest of the world plays football. The Europeans play in the cold, the pouring rain, and in thick fogs that roll into the stadia making it nearly impossible for goalkeepers at the opposite ends of the pitch to see each other. The spectacle of all-weather play is streamed to our televisions screens, a stop-gap until our own boys of summer take to their home pitch.

Across the pond, the English whine about “semi-retired” players passing their golden years in some MLS club returning to the Premiership on loan. Thierry Henry is back with Arsenal. Temporarily, of course. On loan. One American podcast commentator asks, “Why aren’t Red Bull fans angry?” Why should anyone be angry? It’s a game, after all. Who wouldn’t want to see Thierry Henry put a few in the net against Man U on Sunday?

Landon Donovan is doing his annual loan stint at Everton. And it appears that Edson Buddle (remember him from the USA’s 2010 World Cup run?) will be joining Everton as well. Temporarily, of course. And Irish footballer Robbie Keane, who made the MLS Cup run with Beckham, Donovan, and the rest of the LA Galaxy crew, will be joining Aston Villa. Temporarily, of course.

And few of us here in the US are worried by this loaning out of “MLS players” to the Premiership. If the English Premier League clubs need help in the form of MLS off-season loans, then we’re more than happy to help our British friends. The clock is ticking though. You’ll only have them until March. Make it count.

While I’ve been confidently telling my friends that the Cosmos will be entering the MLS soon, “…not next season, but maybe the year after that…” the club has been subverting my fantasy of having an alternative to the New York R*d B*lls to cheer for. According to an article in Big Apple Soccer, there’s no guarantee that the Cosmos will become the 20th MLS team, and it appears that little progress is being made toward that goal — at least none that we (fans) can see.

I’m priming my kids to become Cosmos’ fans. I ordered Cosmos jerseys and Cosmos soccer balls for the girls and my son and we passed the warm Xmas afternoon kicking our logo emblazoned balls around sporting our new logo emblazoned jerseys. Patrick shouted enthusiastically that “I’m going to play for the Cosmos when I grow up.” I didn’t try to explain that entry into the MLS is by no means certain.

But the MLS isn’t the only league. And the Cosmos did field a U23 team to play an “exhibition season” with the Premier Development League (fourth tier), the same league the Long Island Rough Riders compete in. Which leaves me in a bit of a quandary as to who to support, Rough Riders or Cosmos U23? Not that it matters since actually seeing a match played by either side will be difficult since PDL matches aren’t likely to be televised, and the Rough Riders’ play at a stadium that’s about 45 minutes from my house (not impossible, but it’s still a hurdle). And then there’s the fact that I have a bad taste in my mouth about the Rough Riders since one of their U9 teams stomped our U9 boys 9-0 in a tournament match (their goalee even scored against us).

I’ve got a few months to decide since the PDL 2012 season won’t kick-off until May.

Cosmos. I mentioned yesterday that Saudia Arabian Sela Sports has bailed out the Cosmos (buying them) and paying the club’s debt to Blau Weis Gottschee (a youth soccer organization). Dave Martinez on Empire of Soccer reports that Sela Sports representatives met with MLS Commissioner Don Garber. Here’s some info about Sela Sports:

Sela Sport is a major worldwide sports company with offices in New York, UK, Hungary and Saudi Arabia. According to news reports, Sela Sports represents a number of athletes, both retired and current players, including former Brazilian and Cosmos captain Carlos Alberto, ex-Bulgarian and Chicago Fire great Hristo Stoitchkov, among others.

The company spent more than a reported $40 Million in an attempt to help secure a bid for the World Cup and has represented the Saudi Arabian National Team for the past six years. Sela Sport also has partnerships with several Saudi professional clubs. [from “Will The New York Cosmos Ever Join The MLS?” in Soccer Nation, 6 November 2011]

Evidently, the Cosmos bid to enter the MLS isn’t as developed or far along as I thought. The Cosmos brand, clearly, is worth something, but interpreting Garber’s comments before the MLS Cup: the MLS wants another club in New York, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be the Cosmos, just the club with the most money. But we knew that’s how it was going to go.

The 20 spot. The MLS will add a twentieth team at some point. The Cosmos are not the only contender. According to ESPN Florida, clubs in St. Louis, Atlanta, Miami, and Orlando City are wooing the MLS.

I just purchased a new book to read, Soccerhead: An Accidental Journey into the Heart of the American Game (2006, North Point Press). The reviews look pretty good and the author, Jim Haner, appears to be a kindred spirit. Here’s a quote from a review that caught my eye:

…the best coaches at the youth level coach the least. The most important point, and this is relevant to all youth sport, is that it should be fun. Period. [from All Things Futebol, 19 August 2010]

That pretty much sums up how Joe and I approach coaching the Strikers.

When I looked up the WPS the other day, I thought it was odd they only had 5 teams. You’d need 6, at least for a decent number of matches. So after a little poking I came up with this on Soccer365: “WPS Shuts Down magicJack.”

In a move that many expected, WPS terminated the franchise rights to the South Florida-based magicJack team on October 27. Unlike the other four teams that have folded for financial reasons during the past three years—Los Angeles Sol, FC Gold Pride (San Francisco Bay Area), St. Louis Athletica and Chicago Red Stars—magicJack was jettisoned by the league to put an end to the turmoil caused by magicJack’s owner Dan Borislow. Read more…

The article goes into some detail about Borislow’s mismanagement of the team. magicJack had some familiar names in women’s soccer: Abby Wambach (who took over as play-coach after the Women’s World Cup last summer), Shannon Boxx, Megan Rapinoe, Christie Rampone, and Hope Solo — all stars of the Women’s National Team.

The WPS (according to the article) will likely add another team (operating out of Connecticut) to the league to replace magicJack.

I’ve been keeping an eye on the New York Cosmos as the club gears up to enter the MLS in the indeterminate future. Recently, the club’s leadership stepped down to make way for a new ownership group to take over. According to an article in Big Apple Soccer (see “All Paid Up” by Michael Lewis, 28 November 2011), the Saudi Arabian organization Sela Sport are the new owners of the Cosmos.

You can find the details in Lewis’ article, but what interested me was the focus on the Cosmos’ youth program. It’s easy to forget that these big, historic clubs have well developed and successful youth programs.

In the US, there is Women’s Professional Soccer, a league made up of five teams, all East Coast teams, and with the exception of the Atlanta Beat, all in the northeast. There are two leagues that comprise the second tier of women’s soccer: the USL W-League (the Long Island Lady Riders play in this league and dominated their division in 2011) and Women’s Premier Soccer League (WPSL).

The USL W-League is made up of 27 teams in four divisions. The WPSL consists of 63 teams in 10 divisions. Another Long Island team is the Fury, associated with Long Island Academy, a men’s NSPL team based in Hempstead. The Fury played its 2011 home matches at Aviator Field in Brooklyn.

Women (and men) play at the amateur level in leagues organized by the United States Adult Soccer Association (250,000 player / members) and US Club Soccer. US Club Soccer appears to be associated with the USL family of leagues. Long Island Women’s Soccer League is affiliated with the East Region of US Club Soccer. The LIWSL (in 2011) had 6 teams (one based in Stony Brook).

I found a nice summary of how the MLS competition schedule will change next season. With Montréal Impact entering the Eastern Conference, there will be an odd number of teams (19). The best change is the elimination of the wildcard playoff spot. The top five teams in both conferences will qualify for the playoffs. It was a little strange this year to see New York (in their wildcard capacity) playing the LA Galaxy in the Western Conference semifinals.

Friday morning I took to the pitch and played an informal match, Blue vs White, with other adults whose children are involved in the Rocky Point Youth Soccer Club. I played a little on defense and then volunteered to act as goalkeeper. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I made mistakes, but I also stopped the ball several times and the feeling was incredible. It was the first time in my life to ever play the sport that I most enjoy watching.

After the match I was chatting with Joe about what options we over-40 soccer enthusiasts have for playing our favorite sport. That prompted me to start researching the state of soccer in the US.

Our kids winter league starts in one week, so I don’t have much time, but I thought you might be interested in what I’ve found out. Maybe you already knew this, but there are a lot of soccer clubs in the US.

Soccer leagues in the Americas. Everyone’s heard of the MLS, Major League Soccer. It’s the top tier of professional soccer in the US. But the MLS isn’t the only soccer league in the US, there are (at least) four others: the North American Soccer League, the USL Professional Division, the USL Premier Development League, and the National Premier Soccer League. [For a more complete overview of organized soccer league structure in the US, see “American Soccer Pyramid” in Wikipedia.]

The National Premier Soccer League (NPSL) could be considered a fourth tier league, the MLS being the first tier. The other fourth tier league is the USL Premier Development League (PDL). Between the NPSL and PDL they account for a large number of (essentially amateur, pre-professional) soccer teams. Over a hundred teams competed in 2011 league play in the NPSL and the PDL including the Long Island Rough Riders, a club based in Huntington, New York. Given that Huntington is only a 45 minute drive from my house, if I’m serious about supporting the “local brand”, then the Rough Riders could be my team.

The USL Professional Division (or USL Pro) is the third tier of American soccer, consisting of 12 teams in 2 conferences. Organized for its inaugural season in 2011, this league features another team based on (technically) Long Island: FC New York plays in Queens, at St. John’s University’s Belson Stadium.

The North American Soccer League (NASL) also debuted in 2011 with 6 teams. The league will expand to 8 teams in 2012. Montréal Impact, who played in the 2011 season, will move up to the MLS for the 2012 season.

Over the coming week, I’ll post more information about American soccer. It’s not just a men’s sport. Women’s leagues are quite popular. More about that later.