Off the Crossbar

The Ref talks US v Brazil

2009-06-27T19:04:00.001-04:00

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

2009-06-26T21:26:00.002-04:00

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

Welcome Back

2009-06-10T20:59:00.002-04:00

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

2007-03-26T12:35:00.000-04:00

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?

2007-03-26T10:35:00.000-04:00

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

2007-02-10T10:39:00.000-05:00

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.

Roster announced for the US-Mexico game Feb 7

2007-01-25T13:05:00.000-05:00

GOALKEEPERS (4) – Joe Cannon (Los Angeles Galaxy), Matt Pickens (Chicago Fire), Troy Perkins (D.C. United), Matt Reis (New England Revolution)

DEFENDERS (9) – Chris Albright (Los Angeles Galaxy), Bobby Boswell (D.C. United), Jonathan Bornstein (Chivas USA), Jimmy Conrad (Kansas City Wizards), Todd Dunivant (New York Red Bulls), Bryan Namoff (D.C. United), Michael Parkhurst (New England Revolution), Dasan Robinson (Chicago Fire) Eddie Robinson (Houston Dynamo)

MIDFIELDERS (7) – Kyle Beckerman (Colorado Rapids), Brian Carroll (D.C. United), Ricardo Clark (Houston Dynamo), Joshua Gros (D.C. United), Sacha Kljestan (Chivas USA), Justin Mapp (Chicago Fire), Pablo Mastroeni (Colorado Rapids)

FORWARDS (6) – Kenny Cooper (FC Dallas), Landon Donovan (Los Angeles Galaxy), Eddie Johnson (Kansas Cit y Wizards), Nate Jaqua (Los Angeles Galaxy), Chris Rolfe (Chicago Fire), Taylor Twellman (New England Revolution)

A little-known aspect of the Beckham-MLS signing

2007-01-18T14:00:00.000-05:00

The guys over at Yanks-Abroad have nailed it. Are there really going to be more Europeans coming over to play in the U.S.?

But tell me, how many top European players are going to sacrifice top paychecks in England, Germany, Italy and Spain to play in front of 20,000 on a hot and humid New York City evening in July?

A remote chance of playing in the CONCACAF Champions Cup or a legitimate shot of playing in the Champions League (probably the best tournament in the world of ANY sport)?

Lets face it, even with the new rule, MLS will still be as likely to attract old, nearly has-been soccer players as it ever has before. They just have the ability to pay them better (are you listening, Ronaldo?).

Beckham signing and the death of the MLS

2007-01-11T12:31:00.000-05:00

Who got the better deal, Fulham paying $4 million for Clint Dempsey or MLS shelling out $150 million for Beckham?

Fulham. No doubt about it. Beckham’s signing is the death of the MLS.

Quick quiz: Who said this:

"I didn't want to go out there at 34 years old and for people to turn around and say he's only going there to get the money. It's not what I'm going out there to do.

"I'm going to hopefully build a club and a team that has a lot of potential. I think that is what excites me."

A) Lothar Matthaeus

B) Yuri Djorkaeff

C) David Beckham

The answer is D) all of the above.

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LONDON (AP) - David Beckham will leave Real Madrid at the end of the season to join the Los Angeles Galaxy of Major League Soccer in a five-year deal believed to be one of the richest in sports history.

Why the World Cup is important, reason #315

2007-01-03T08:49:00.000-05:00

An 89% TV market share in France for the semifinal against Portugal, that's why ---

French commercial broadcaster TF1 attracted record TV ratings in 2006, in large part due to the success of its World Cup coverage.

TF1 broadcast 98 of the top 100 programmes in France in 2006, one more than in 2005 and its best annual result since 1991.

The top audience figure of the year was for the World Cup semi-final match between France and Portugal on July 5 which brought in 22,2 million viewers and a 76.7 per cent audience share according to Médiamétrie figures, beating the 21.4 million TF1 brought in for the final of Euro 2000, between France and Italy.

The peak for the France-Portugal match registered at 25.1 million viewers, an 88.5 per cent share.

US Men's roster for training for Denmark, Jan. 20

2007-01-03T07:41:00.000-05:00

Roster By Position

GOALKEEPERS (4) – Joe Cannon (Los Angeles Galaxy), Troy Perkins (D.C. United), Matt Pickens (Chicago Fire), Matt Reis (New England Revolution)

DEFENDERS (11) – Chris Albright (Los Angeles Galaxy), Bobby Boswell (D.C. United), Jonathan Bornstein (Chivas USA), Danny Califf (Aalborg BK), Jimmy Conrad (Kansas City Wizards), Todd Dunivant (New York Red Bulls), Bryan Namoff (D.C. United), Michael Parkhurst (New England Revolution), Heath Pearce (FC Nordsjælland), Dasan Robinson (Chicago Fire), Eddie Robinson (Houston Dynamo)

MIDFIELDERS (10) – Kyle Beckerman (Colorado Rapids), Brian Carroll (D.C. United), Ricardo Clark (Houston Dynamo), Clint Dempsey (New England Revolution), Joshua Gros (D.C. United), Sacha Kljestan (Chivas USA), Justin Mapp (Chicago Fire), Pablo Mastroeni (Colorado Rapids), Brian Mullan (Houston Dynamo), Pat Noonan (New England Revolution)

FORWARDS (6) – Kenny Cooper (FC Dallas), Landon Donovan (Los Angeles Galaxy), Alecko Eskandarian (Toronto FC), Nate Jaqua (Los Angeles Galaxy), Eddie Johnson Kansas City Wizards), Chris Rolfe (Chicago Fire)

FIFA axes staff after Mastercard decision

2006-12-12T10:48:00.000-05:00

FIFA announced Monday that it has fired its director of marketing and three other employees in the wake of a ruling by a New York judge earlier this month that credit card company MasterCard can sponsor the 2010 and 2014 World Cups.

MasterCard sued football's ruling body over the way sponsorship rights were awarded earlier this year, arguing that FIFA had signed a deal with rival Visa in April and ignored the fact that it had first refusal on hosting the 2010 and 2014 World Cups.

FIFA is currently considering lodging an appeal against the December 7 decision but has already decided that its director of marketing & TV division, Jerome Valcke, and three other employees in the division have to go.

Stories are here and here

Highlights of the Euro 2008-ESPN deal

2006-12-11T10:35:00.000-05:00

Highlights of the agreement:

TELEVISION AND RADIO RIGHTS
· United States: ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN Classic will combine to present exclusive live coverage of all matches, including the title match on ABC, June 29. Additional coverage will include highlights show on match days, unlimited re-air rights across all networks and media platforms, magazine programs, and UEFA EURO 2008™ Final Draw. ESPN Deportes will be the exclusive Spanish-language network for EURO 2008 in the United States. The network will feature separate Spanish-language studio highlights show on match days, and Spanish-language editions of the EURO 2008 Final Draw, magazine programs and match re-airs.

· Exclusive radio rights in U.S. (ESPN Radio, ESPN Deportes Radio or via a sub-license in the region)
· Canada: Exclusive coverage of all matches in English (TSN) and French (RDS); 30-minute pre-game and 15-minute post-game shows on English-language telecasts; and other ancillary programming listed above.

1 Latin America Territory: Coverage of all matches and other ancillary programming listed above across ESPN, and regional networks ESPN Dos and ESPN+.

NEW MEDIA RIGHTS
ESPN360 – ESPN’s growing interactive and customizable broadband service will simulcast one live match per day (except ABC matches). In addition, matches will be available on-demand following the telecasts.
Mobile ESPN Publishing – ESPN’s wireless content licensing business will offer in-progress UEFA EURO 2008™ video clips, in-progress slide shows, highlight packages, scoring updates.
ESPN.com, ESPNSoccernet.com and ESPNDeportes.com – Dedicated UEFA EURO 2008™ sections featuring live match coverage, highlights and video news reports, columns, match previews, player profiles and real-time data.

A column on US Soccer's coaching approach that just about gets it right

2006-12-09T07:42:00.000-05:00

This column nails it, mostly. Nothing against Bradley, but this deal should be about taking US Soccer to the next level, not being a marketing puppet for the MLS.

Some choice excerpts:

"That giggling the Americans are hearing? It's coming from Italy, Brazil, Germany, France and England. If you want to be a powerhouse, it starts with finding somebody — not just anybody — to run the show. Now."

"Instead, the Americans proved again they're second-class citizens of the soccer world. Not only did U.S. Soccer not seal the deal with Klinsmann after five months, they couldn't decide on anybody."

"Most important, Klinsmann would have generated interest with Americans whose soccer knowledge begins and ends with David Beckham. He's good-looking, intelligent and articulate, and just look what he did for his home country. After decades of repressing even the slightest hint of nationalism, the Germans broke loose with a monthlong bender of jubilation and pride."

Good news, Euro 2008 coming to Stateside TV!

2006-12-09T07:33:00.000-05:00

As long as it's not up against the NBA draft or NASCAR pre-race commentary, or ice-dancing, ABC will put it on the air!

NYON, Switzerland - ESPN and ABC will televise soccer's 2008 European Championship under an agreement announced Friday by the Union of European Football Associations.

All 31 games will be televised in the United States: two by ABC and the rest by ESPN, ESPN2 or ESPN Classic. The tournament will be played in Austria and Switzerland from June 7-29.

"We continue to see the appeal of soccer in America growing, and particularly when comes in a time of the day that's unique and not up against U.S. sports prime time," ESPN International executive vice president Russell Wolff said.

Set the calendar for So. Africa, June 11 to July 11

2006-12-07T10:14:00.000-05:00

Fifa has announced that the 2010 World Cup in South Africa will take place between 11 June and 11 July.

World football's Executive Committee has also decided to keep the qualifying format from the last World Cup so the host's place is guaranteed.
In addition, there will be places for 13 European countries, five Asian and Oceania teams, and a total of eight for South America and the Central American region.
The bidding process for the 2014 World Cup was also officially opened after the two-day meeting.
This will be held in South America, with Brazil as favourites, after a decision in May 2002 to rotate the competition on a continent basis.

The votes show it all- Klinsi needs to build a US team, not the MLS!

2006-12-05T10:27:00.000-05:00

From Fox Soccer's Web page:

Klinsi it is ! (so far)

2006-12-05T10:13:00.000-05:00

German legend to lead U.S. Soccer

Jamie Trecker / Fox Soccer Channel
Posted: 3 hours ago

Jürgen Klinsmann will be named head coach of the U.S. men's national team within two weeks according to a number of well-placed sources with knowledge of the deal.

Germany earns 56 million euros from World Cup

2006-12-04T08:08:00.000-05:00

Not too shabby.....

BERLIN, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Germany's World Cup organising committee earned a net profit of 56.5 million euros ($75 million) and will hand the money to the football association (DFB) and professional league (DFL), the DFB said on Wednesday.

The DFB announced at a news conference that the World Cup organising committee had total earnings of 140 million euros from the tournament -- it turned over 40 million euros directly to world governing body FIFA and paid 44 million euros in taxes.

DFB president Theo Zwanziger said in Frankfurt that the 56.5 million earmarked for the DFB and DFL would be divided and the DFL would use its share for "measures that serve the public good".

FIFA ousts Iran for interference

2006-11-24T11:26:00.000-05:00

ZURICH (Reuters) - FIFA said on Thursday it had suspended Iran from all international soccer activity because of government interference in running the game in the country.
The move comes just five months after Iran took part in the World Cup finals in Germany and a week after Iran sealed their place in the 2008 Asian Cup finals, winning their qualifying group by beating South Korea 2-0 in Tehran.

US FIFA ranking slide continues

2006-11-23T07:25:00.000-05:00

The next coach/manager has quite a task ahead....

US Checks in at 31st in Latest FIFA Rankings

USSoccerPlayers (November 22, 2006) -- The United States fell two spots to No. 31 in the latest FIFA rankings, published on Wednesday. It marks the first time since June of 1999 that the US hasn't been included in the top 30.
A record of 0-1-2 at the 2006 World Cup dropped the US out of the top 15 in FIFA's rankings this past summer. However, the team's inactivity since losing 2-1 to Ghana on June 22 has contributed to their drop in the rankings. Though the US is still without a head coach since parting ways with Bruce Arena in July, they will face Denmark in an international friendly on January 20 at the Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif.

Looks like Jose Pekerman will be the new US coach

2006-11-20T14:12:00.000-05:00

AP has a story from Friday....

Former Argentina coach Jose Pekerman is on the verge of taking over the United States national team.
According to the U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati, a deal is only being held up by some minor stumbling blocks.
"We did not sign the contract yet, but it just lacks some details," Gulati told Mexican newspaper La Opinion on Friday.

Sunil on the search for the new U.S. coach

2006-10-30T15:23:00.000-05:00

Comments from U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati.

On the search for the new head coach (13 people interviewed so far!):

"I'm not going to deny we've talked to Klinsmann."
"There is still four to five people were are still talking to, most of them are coaching teams currently. Some of that is changing as the MLS playoffs wind down. "
Some candidates are coaching internationally.
No one has been given an offer.
Announcement to come late November-early December.
Person has to be successful and have the ability to sell the game, speak some Spanish.

Here is who it isn't going to be: Guus Hiddink, Arsene Wegner, Felipe Scolari

Oh and the US will be playing in the Copa America, where they haven't been since 1995.

"Clearly the [World Cup] results emphasize ... that we need to get involved in some additional competition," Gulati said.

All You Fakers

2006-10-25T13:09:00.000-04:00

The shocking extent of cheating, gamesmanship and diving and that blights professional football has been laid bare when FIFA revealed that more than half of the players treated on the pitch during this summer's World Cup were not actually injured.
As the Premiership and Europe's other top leagues try desperately to find ways to cut down on the game's greatest modern curse, a report from FIFA's chief medical officer has revealed a cheating culture at the highest level of the game.
"Fifty-eight per cent of the players who were treated on the pitch during the 2006 World Cup eventually turned out not to be injured," confirmed FIFA.

Forces are gathering outside the gates of Castle Blatter

2006-10-16T11:29:00.000-04:00

Reuters is reporting that FIFA's six continental confederations will meet before December's scheduled FIFA executive committee meeting to draw up proposals for how they would like to see FIFA run -- gaining themselves more autonomy in the process.

The move could result in a dilution of FIFA's powers in enforcing their decisions globally, according to the administrator who spoke to Reuters on the condition of anonymity.