The Ref talks US v Brazil

From time to time, especially after U.S. Men's Team matches and other big games, the Ref chats with a seasoned USMNT observer -- the Samurai.

Samurai is familiar with the academy system and is a longtime watcher of the US team and club soccer.

Here is the conversation after the U.S. lost to Italy in the Confederations Cup.

Samurai : i was so depressed about the US game yesterday, but _____ pointed out some positives, and i didn't feel so bad

Samurai: he said US had some chances, just couldn’t finish, and he pointed out how Donovan took on a bunch of Brazilians in one run, and so did Dempsey

Samurai : maybe not in 2010, but by 2014, we should really start making some noise

The Ref : that Conor Casey was a bright spot

Samurai: yeah, he was.


The Ref : coulda been 3-2

Samurai : easily


The Ref : but I was depressed also

Samurai: Feilhaber took that shot really confidently, too


The Ref : that’s what I like about him and Casey. It's like they are hungry-- FIRE that ball in from under 20 yards


The Ref : like uhm, Giuseppe Rossi

Samurai : the US is going to have big fast kids coming up, too. ______'s not small, but when he goes to some of the U16 academy practices (they are '92s and '93s, and he's a '94), he's usually the smallest one by a good 6 inches


The Ref : that part is encouraging-- that there is not these one-offs like Dempsey coming out of US Soccer


The Ref : there are a lot

Samurai: the academy thing will help. now kids have somewhere to go, where colleges will recognize them. If they get recognized, they’re more likely to keep playing

Samurai : that's the key. Give the kids incentive to keep playing rather than just because they like it

The Ref : Eddie Johnson can tell them that they have to work a lot harder than the MLS to be in top shape for Europe clubs

Samurai: totally. and they need real confidence, which he seems to have lost

Samurai: Beasley too

Samurai: the other players are probably running circles around them in practice


The Ref : like Walcott on John Terry!

Samurai: the academy practices are so intense because they're constantly being pushed. so the ones that get through will be in great shape. I doubt the big MLS stars feel much heat in practices to keep pushing them

Samurai: the MLS still can afford to bring in players to push their stars, they're still bringing in players to be back ups

Samurai : see how Pearce left Walcott off the starting team, because he didn't do much in the previous game

Samurai: so when he did come in as a sub, they said he was electric

Samurai: that's what the players need, fear of not playing


The Ref : it seemed to have done the opposite to Beasley

Samurai: yeah, he probably realized he wasn't 'special'. he has good speed, but his touch and crosses aren't great. I bet those Rangers players all have great touch and can put the ball on a dime; they just might not be as fast as him

Samurai : when Beasley sees a sub crack a 30-yard shot on target, he probably gets disillusioned. I’ve never seen Beasley do stuff like that


The Ref : man this whole discussion should be a blog post


The Ref : like "today's trade" or something

Samurai: that's a great idea

The glory of winning on European soil

OK, so Gooch isn't doing too bad these days...

Welcome Back

We will be up and running again soon, in time for the prep for South Africa 2010

Why the U.S. is poised for soccer success

As measured by FIFA points, the U.S. seems to come fairly close to satisfying the criteria needed.

This is from a paper by Eva Marikova Leeds and Michael A. Leeds, given at the Eastern Economics Association Conference, February 2007, New York, NY.

Using OLS and Poisson regressions, we corroborate previous studies and find that success increases with income, population, and having hosted a World Cup competition. We also find that a country’s political institutions and colonial heritage affect its soccer performance. In particular, being a wealthy democracy adds greatly to soccer performance. We also find that the success of a country’s club teams is a good predictor of the national team’s success. We conclude that club success reflects a nation’s willingness and ability to finance soccer success.

The full link can be found here:
http://www.holycross.edu/departments/economics/RePEc/spe/Leeds_Soccer.pdf

Claudio Who?

Let's officially do an about-face on Landon Donovan. His goals, all three of them, were superb.
We had our doubts, especially after an anemic World Cup in Germany, that he could change a game.

On Sunday, he wasn't wandering around mopping up for the midfield so much as he went and grabbed that game to call his own. Has to make one feel better about the future of the U.S. Men's team scoring ability. Landon, You're L.A. and all, but you're the top player on the squad, and we will say it.


GOOD: Attacking midfield, Landon Donovan. Beasley and Dempsey actually moved the ball forward. That's been too rare of late, unfortunately.

GOOD: Feilhaber and Bradley. Good play all around.

BAD: TV coverage. The state of replay on ESPN2. How about a shot of whether the Ecuador strikers (or the U.S. ones in the first half) were offside? And Dave O'Brien. C'mon man, baseball starts soon, go there and get your kicks.

BAD: Those blue jerseys with white pin stripes looked like the cheapest ones in the Adidas' catalog. And this a Nike team!

Ratings for the U.S. win over Mexico

From U.S. Soccer:

ESPN2's broadcast was the most-watched U.S. game in the team's history, outside of the World Cup and World Cup qualifiers. The network earned a 0.7 household rating, which translates to 1.1 million viewers and comes on the heels of the network’s impressive 2006 World Cup ratings. Even more impressively, the game averaged a 1.0 rating during the final 15 minutes as the USA iced the victory.

On Univision, the match also set records with more than 6 million total viewers. The U.S. victory was the No. 2 most-watched Spanish-language sports cast in history, beating every Super Bowl among Hispanic Adults 18-49, Men 18-49 and Total Viewers.