We begin this week with a view of a cycling sprint finish from the winner’s perspective. Sounds like that would be “nothing,” but Marianne Vos didn’t take the lead until the last few meters:
Last 200m is strangely zen. RT @Bonnie_D_Ford Yowsers MT @velonews On-board footage from Vos final km/La Course. http://t.co/Igw8bPGtm7 … …
And another point-of-view video from a winning cyclist, this time from BMX women’s world champion Mariana Pajon.
Nibali cares not for your dropped call: Tour de France winner Vincenzo Nibali is a model of focus as he plows right through a spectator’s calling arm. And the spectator also keeps her focus, ignoring the cyclists, the motorbikes, the oncoming car …
And Phil Dalhausser and Sean Rosenthal made it a U.S. sweep on home sand …
The shots you don’t take: Compelling read on the need to take risks — pushing numbers up the field in soccer, swinging away in cricket — to get anywhere in sports.
On the other hand: Here’s a good strategy for getting out of an MMA fight without any blood or bruises: Tap out immediately.
Away win: U.S. wrestler Brent Metcalf came back from 6-0 down to beat Azerbaijan’s Magomed Muslimov at the FILA Golden Grand Prix in Azerbaijan. The key move, which earned four points to seal the tiebreaker for Metcalf, is at the 6:12 mark here:
USA Wrestling has the other U.S. results from that day and the next day, where the USA’s Elena Pirozhkova jumped out to a 7-0 lead in the final and held on with ease:
Comparisons: I think I’d rather be the Peyton Manning of bocce.
21 seconds in: “Hey, I just landed a punch! That felt really good!”
32 seconds in: “Hmmm, maybe I should’ve been in better position to take this-”
Guess the sport: An U.S. Olympian has finally completed the American Ninja Warrior qualifying course. We’ll give some hints: It wasn’t a gymnast (Paul Hamm and Morgan Hamm did pretty well on the Japanese precursor Sasuke), nor was it a medalist. Give up? Here’s the answer.
UPDATE: I missed Jarrod Shoemaker’s World Cup triathlon silver when I posted. Please forgive me.
This is a race recap of Olympian triathlete Jarrod Shoemaker's 2nd place performance in Jiayuguan ITU Triathlon… http://t.co/C5Vpb7l5oP
If you like full recaps of U.S. athletes in action or track and field in general, try TeamUSA.org and Daily Relay later in the evening. If you like pina coladas and getting caught in the rain … actually, I don’t like either of those things, so call someone else.
Bloody Elbow, always interested in MMA history, took advantage of the opportunity for a long conversation with Davie in which he pins his interest in pioneering mixed martial arts as his attempt to answer a question that had always stuck in his mind …
Who would win a fight between a wrestler and a boxer?
Twenty years later, we have the answer. Wrestler.
(Actually, we probably had it 19 years ago. We certainly had it by the time Randy Couture choked out James Toney.)
National youth championships in the USA are the most ludicrous thing I’ve ever heard in my life. Whoever thinks these up should be stoned. — Horst Bertl, Dallas Comets
What is the reason for having roses when blood is shed carelessly? It must be for something more than vanity. — 10,000 Maniacs, Eden
For something we shouldn’t be doing, we sure do national championships a lot. Teams and families travel thousands of miles to see just how cruel and heartbreaking this sport can be.
At the U.S. Youth Soccer championships today, I wound up standing behind a lot of parents from Legends FC, the Southern California powerhouse club that qualified four teams for nationals.
I shouldn’t sympathize with them. Their mission/vision statement reeks of arrogance and a results-first mentality. (To nitpick something else on their website, David Epstein’s The Sports Gene refutes the “10,000 hour” thing.) And they certainly didn’t seem like the underdog against NEFC Elite (Mass.).
But in the Under-14 girls championship, I was indeed caught up in hoping for the best. Perhaps it was because their parents, while certainly arguing the occasional call, were far from the most obnoxious parents I encountered this weekend. (From other fields: Seriously, how do you see your kid play more than 100 competitive games and still not know the difference between a free kick and a penalty kick?) Perhaps it was the cheering/screaming section of previously eliminated Legends teams from other age groups, which mixed a few original cheers along with one adapted from Remember the Titans. (Sub “Legends” for “Titans” …)
Or perhaps it was because they were playing terrific soccer. Possession stats for the game would be outrageously in their favor, and they were playing sharp passing combinations to set up shots that just would not get in the net. On the closest chance, off a deft combination between Alexandra Jaquez and Kaylee Ramirez, a shot was pushed up by the keeper in the middle of the box, and it floated upward in a long, slow arc before falling on top of the crossbar.
These games are tense and tight, and you could see it in the finishing. Players were exhausted from a week playing in the summer SoccerPlex sun. Late in the scoreless regulation time, a good Legends shot led to a rebound with the goal at least partially open. The shot skewed high.
Early in the first overtime, NEFC’s Taylor Sherman got the ball in the box, shielded it well, turned and fired. Goal.
I could see a Legends defender’s heart break on the spot. She held her arms up to her head until the next kickoff. After they cleared it again, her arms went to her head again. She was fighting tears while her team was trying to claw back an equalizer.
Instead, NEFC’s Marykate McGuire, the leading scorer in the U14 tournament, scored a second.
Legends wasn’t the only team to control play and still lose. It seemed to be a pattern. The U15 YMS Premier Xplosion (E. Pa.) forward combination of Murphy Agnew and Andrea Amaro dissected Jacksonville FC Elite’s defense throughout the second half and got closer and closer to the opening goal. Then Jacksonville scored on a corner kick at the other end. YMS got no closer.
The U16 boys Baltimore Celtic dominated the first half against Ohio Premier Eagles, then finally took a 1-0 lead. Unfortunately, they gave up a free kick, and the Eagles had the tournament’s leading scorer in Emmanuel Dapaa. 1-1. At least Celtic made it through on PKs.
So you can travel across the country (OK, Celtic only drove an hour or so), play great soccer, run into the ground … and lose on one play.
Why would you do this? Why put yourself through such cruelty? (Not to mention the expense.) As Natalie Merchant so elegantly sang, it must be for something more than vanity.
Not all of the games were beautiful. One coach seemed intent on violating every lecture I’ve ever heard on “joystick coaching” (“Go sideways! That way! Now pass!”) and his team’s griping tested the ref’s patience. A couple of teams resorted to hit-and-hope longball tactics a bit too easily.
Yet permeating everything at the SoccerPlex was a powerful love of the game. And a love of legitimate soccer skills.
All the families at the Plex were making large sacrifices on behalf of The Beautiful Game. I’ll forgive them a little bit of sniping at the ref and hope their kids soon forget their disappointment, remembering only their outstanding efforts and the friendships.
(But for future reference: A penalty kick is a one-on-one situation between a shooter and a goalkeeper, awarded for a foul in that big box thing.)
Summers are getting shorter all the time, aren’t they?
If you’re a soccer player or fan, they certainly are. My county’s school system only wrapped up its school year 30 days ago. And already, a lot of our local soccer teams have finished their seasons.
That’s the reality today for the W-League, WPSL, PDL and NPSL, which try to squeeze competitive seasons, national playoffs and the occasional cup competition into the 10 weeks or so between the end of the college academic year and the time their players are due back on campus for preseason training.
The teams all have different goals. Some are offshoots of youth clubs giving their oldest players another opportunity to play. Some are official or unofficial reserve teams for the pros. Some are Changing the Way You Will Think About American Soccer! That’s a tough task in a 10-game season. (Actually, Nashville FC’s grass-roots ownership plan is a noble experiment.)
There’s no such thing as parity. BCS Clash finished its NPSL season with a goal difference of -105. In 10 games. In the WPSL, Lion Soccer Club (known as Lions Swarm last year) lost a couple of blowouts and was dismissed from the league, with all its games recorded as 3-0 forfeit losses.
Attendance is erratic. Some NPSL teams play in utter obscurity, while Chattanooga FC drew 2,800 for a regional final. The PDL averaged 590 fans leaguewide, driven by nine teams with a median over 1,000. (See Kenn.com’s typically comprehensive figures.) The W-League, which Kenn notes as less of a marketing force than it used to be, had a few teams drawing over 400.
The USL operations (W-League, PDL) are generally sound from operations standpoint. The WPSL is far more chaotic. (“Skipped the playoffs in a dispute with the league” was my summary of FC Dallas in the power rankings two years ago.)
It’s not as if each player gets 10-12 solid games. These teams list anywhere between 25 and 40 players on the roster.
And in some respects, that’s good for players. They might have multiple responsibilities. Braddock Road’s W-League team was basically their Under-18 national (USYSA) title contender with a couple of key additions. Ashley Herndon scored a crucial goal for VSA Heat in the USYSA national championships this week, then another for the Washington Spirit Reserves in the W-League semifinals. VSA Heat played for (and won) the U-19 national title without her Saturday night. Where’s teleportation technology when you need it?
Want to make these seasons even shorter? That’s what would happen if college soccer plays a full-year schedule with a championship going into June, like college baseball.
That college reform plan probably won’t happen — personally, I’d love to see more meaningful spring soccer, but I’d wrap it up at the end of April. As chaotic as summer soccer leagues might be, they serve a valuable function, giving players another opportunity for elite play during their developmental years and giving a few adults (especially grad students) a chance to stay in the game. (Update: Some people are backing a college championship in May rather than June, and the schedule would start later in the summer.)
The problem with all of this — we’re obsessed with national competitions when they’re not necessary.
That mentality has seeped into youth soccer, too. Development Academy, ECNL (Elite Clubs National League), U.S. Youth Soccer national league, U.S. Club Soccer premier leagues and Super-Y League not enough for you? Form your own national league. We’re seeing that now with the formation of another national league, which SoccerWire commenters find quite amusing.
Several WPSL teams already played a national championship this summer, one that was also open to W-League teams. Now they’re playing the league championship.
So some teams are cramming two tournaments into the brief summer window along with league play. Some have been sitting idle for a couple of weeks.
Take away the insistence on national competition, and things get a lot simpler. One national cup per age group should be fine. Then teams can use the rest of their seasons with league play and perhaps a showcase tournament or two.
Think for a second about the talent on the field at last night’s Washington Spirit-Portland Thorns game. The teams combined to use 27 players. Ten players have made it to the field in a World Cup or Olympics. Six more could make their World Cup debuts next year. Five more played in a youth World Cup.*
That’s great for the fans. But it’s even better for the players. They’re improving, game by game.
These players could be tucked away in residency right now, doing beep tests and going up against the same opponents every day. Instead, they’re coping with new situations in a mix of players bringing different talents to the table.
The international mix helps. The two most accomplished current Canadian players, Christine Sinclair and Diana Matheson, were on the field — Sinclair wasn’t at her best but still hit the post once, while Matheson had a few sharp attacking moments and an assist. Then all six imports from outside North America were in good form:
– Lisa De Vanna (WAS) was a speedy pest down the left flank, nearly combining with Matheson on a brilliant scoring chance.
– Nadine Angerer (POR) showed every bit of veteran poise in goal, dominating the box on set pieces and coming out to sweep the ball away on a Spirit attack.
– Jodie Taylor (WAS) was responsible for that attack and a few more, including a quality finish that leveled the game.
– Stephanie Catley (POR) had a thrilling duel with U.S. phenom Crystal Dunn, assisting on the Thorns goal to Alex Morgan and playing solid defense while wearing out the grass on the flank.
– Kerstin Garefrekes (WAS) might have lost the speed to keep up with the Catleys and Dunns of the world, but she had a couple of moments of class that nearly stole the game for the Spirit.
– Vero Boquete (POR) had an off night. Most other players would call it a highlight reel, turning defenders in knots and scooping a ball over the defense to give Ashlyn Harris a nervous moment in goal.
“That’s what you need in this league,” said Portland’s loquacious coach, Paul Riley. “We didn’t have ’em last year, we didn’t have these foreign players. Now we’ve got some of the top players in the world here. It’s getting more like WPS was. They do bring something to the table. I think they add so much to the team, in practice even.”
In particular, the enthusiastic Riley gushed about Vero, who played for Riley with the WPS Philadelphia Independence, and Catley, a young Australian defender/midfielder/wherever she wants.
“Good decisions on the ball. She can tackle, too. And she’s just turned 20. Think about it — she’s a sophomore in college in our terms in America.”
Australia has already qualified for the World Cup, and Catley is getting a glimpse of a quicker style of play in the NWSL. Vero may finally get a chance to play in the World Cup next year, with Spain sitting atop its qualifying group, and she’s only getting better.
Then consider the effect of these players on Americans who are still on the upswing of their careers. Like Tobin Heath, the skillful Thorns midfielder who missed last night’s game with a knee sprain.
“I told Tobin Heath, if you want to be the Number 10 (playmaking midfielder) for the United States, this is the player you need to watch,” Riley said.
And the league is a learning experience for a player like Crystal Dunn. If you can’t see her quality, you need to consult a soccer coach or an optometrist. But she’s prone to rookie mistakes — a slip here, a bit of matador defense there, an ill-advised run out of position elsewhere. Better to have these teachable moments now than against Germany.
The U.S. depth in field players is growing with each game. Allie Long may have her Twitter detractors, but she was a strong midfield presence for the Thorns last night. Nikki Marshall limited De Vanna. Tori Huster limited Vero. Even if these players don’t make the national team, they’re helping by giving the U.S. players a good test every week. Last year, perhaps you could say a few teams in the league — especially the Spirit — fielded some players who looked out of place against a top team. Not in this game.
Then there’s the goalkeeping question, a dangerous discussion topic in women’s soccer circles. Last night’s game provided plenty of evidence for the cases for and against Ashlyn Harris’ national team future. She was stranded on the Thorns goal and had a couple of rough moments with her distribution. But without her saves, the Thorns win 3-1 or 4-1.
And she was just a little bit defensive when asked whether her play on the Thorns goal, where she came out partway, was “high-risk.”
“I don’t think I would really word it like that. You’re playing against the best striker in the world. To me, it was a great ball, and she dealt with it well. I wouldn’t go as far as to saying it didn’t work for me. I think I had world-class saves tonight, and that game could’ve been much different. So the way I see it is — yeah, I made a decision that may not have worked out in my favor, but I (freaking) got the job done.”
Then came a quote that is surely already being picked apart like the Zapruder film:
When you get so many balls played over the top and your back line’s not doing their job, at some point, you have to come out and relieve the pressure. There’s times where I came out and I intercepted passes, and there’s times that I won’t. There’s times where it’s going to be sketchy and hairy, but until our back line figures it out, we’re in sync and we drop as a line and we don’t create that big of a gap where people can just constantly toe-poke and run after us, we’re going to be beat. That’s something we’re trying to figure out now, but we don’t have the legs. This is coming off of a long week and a half of game after game after and travel, travel, travel.
Could it be better? Yeah, every game could be better. Could I learn from it? Yeah, every game I could learn something from it. At the end of the day, we got a point against a really good team, and we’ve just gotta move forward.
Another reason the Thorns provide a good learning experience: These days, they’re not aiming for the Barcelona-style possession soccer so much in vogue these days. They’re direct. Over the top and far away.
That doesn’t surprise Harris one bit:
Yeah, of course they’re direct. Look at the forwards they have. Why mess with the ball — get it in. These players running at you — it’s not fun. I can tell you that from experience. It put us under pressure. We couldn’t keep the ball. And that was part of our problem.
Going against these players — they want it. Alex Morgan was calling for the ball the entire game. And that’s the difference between her and a lot of other players. She wants (the ball) in all forms — in front, in behind — her movement’s insane. She’s going the entire game. We could learn something from that.
Don’t tell me players don’t care about these games. They’re learning experiences, but they’re learning experiences with far higher stakes than a U.S. friendly against whatever youngsters an international team decides to bring over to face the same old familiar faces in the latest Nike kits.
This game was vital for playoff positioning. Last year, the Spirit might have taken a moral victory over getting a draw with an in-form team like Portland. Not now.
“One point, I think, is a little disappointing,” Cross said. “We were both pushing for three points.”
That said, Spirit coach Mark Parsons is always one to take Eric Idle’s advice and look on the bright side of life, and he’s glad his team has the woeful performances out of its system.
“Sunday (a brutal 4-2 loss at Sky Blue) was not us. Today showed that we’re right up there with everyone.”
HIGHLIGHTS
Check the video for these moments:
FIRST HALF
6:50 Stephanie Catley plays it long for Alex Morgan, who splits the defenders. Ashlyn Harris comes out and winds up in no man’s land. Morgan finishes with a beautiful lob. 1-0.
19:30 Alex Singer makes a strong run up the left and beats two defenders to play a short cross to Jodie Taylor. The Spirit forward, with her back to goal, lays it back for Christine Nairn, who has scored some ESPN-worthy goals from distance this season but is well off the mark this time.
25:50 Direct ball for Taylor, but Nadine Angerer is out quickly to slide feet-first just outside the box to knock it away.
27:05 Another direct ball to Morgan, and Niki Cross does just enough to throw her off and force her shot into a tough angle. Morgan hits side netting.
27:50 Just highlighting a sharp example of good tactical runs. Lisa De Vanna cuts inside toward the middle of the field. Diana Matheson, who was in the middle, sprints ahead while De Vanna occupies the defense’s attention. De Vanna’s through ball is a bit too heavy.
29:25 Once again, it was a rough game for an NWSL ref, who actually managed to get in the way twice and broke up a Spirit shooting opportunity. But here, she did something right, correctly playing advantage after Tori Huster is fouled. The Spirit wind up with a good opportunity, but Taylor can’t quite finish it.
33:20 Morgan beats offside trap, goes 1-v-1 against retreating Harris. Harris pokes ball away, saves resulting (more difficult for Morgan) shot
39:20 Dunn lets Catley glide right past her, setting up a good chance for the Thorns.
SECOND HALF
45:25 A good example of the Spirit almost connecting but just taking a little too much time and not quite being in the right spots. They take a while to swing the ball wide to Dunn, who takes a good quick step to send in a cross, only to find no one anticipating it.
57:45 Watch Vero’s audacious scoop pass. Do any American players ever try that?
62:55 Catley beats Dunn, and the Thorns get a couple of chances in a 30-second sequence that ends with Christine Sinclair’s highlight of the night, a shot just off the post.
67:00 The Thorns defense loses track of Taylor, who takes a heavy touch past Angerer but finishes superbly. Assist to Diana Matheson. 1-1.
72:15 Why did Ashlyn Harris play this ball with her head? Making absolutely sure the ref doesn’t think it was a back pass?
77:00 Morgan rounds Cross, and the well-positioned Harris keeps it level with a kick save.
79:35 Lovely bit of skill from Kerstin Garefrekes, with the shot against longtime German teammate Nadine Angerer going just wide.
Unfortunately, the stream cut off before Garefrekes’ last shot nearly won it for the Spirit, and it wasn’t included in the highlight reel.
* Yes, I looked up every player in the FIFA database. World Cup or Olympics: Lisa De Vanna, Lori Lindsey, Diana Matheson, Ali Krieger, Kerstin Garefrekes, Veronica Perez, Alex Morgan, Christine Sinclair, Rachel (Buehler) Van Hollebeke, Nadine Angerer. Possible World Cup debuts: Vero Boquete, Crystal Dunn, Jodie Taylor, Stephanie Catley, perhaps Ashlyn Harris and Allie Long. Youth World Cups: Christine Nairn, Amber Brooks, Sarah Huffman, Nikki Marshall, Angie (Woznuk) Kerr
Dan Borislow’s larger-than-life reputation was so great that, upon hearing of his death this morning, I immediately thought I needed to get his side of the story. I was sorely tempted to text him, thinking I might get an entertaining response about a bunch of idiots declaring him dead when he had every right to be alive.
In this case, he would’ve been right. To pass away so suddenly and so young, with children just on the verge of adulthood, is a colossal injustice far beyond anything alleged in a Palm Beach County court document. And for someone like Borislow, who refused and ridiculed idle lifestyles, to pass away from a heart attack after a soccer game is a cruel contradiction for a man whose life was full of contradiction.
The first time I spoke with him was at his urging. I had just reported a development in his unraveling relationship with WPS, and I fully expected him to rip me a new one over the phone. Instead, I called and found a quiet, distracted guy who really just wanted to chat a bit.
He was a man who cared deeply about the women on his team who showed no regrets about scorching the earth under their flailing soccer league.
He was a man who enjoyed chatting with reporters but instilled a powerful code of silence among his players and others in his employ. Strong soccer-playing women would take great care to avoid saying anything about life as a magicJack player.
He was a smart man with a knack for making money, most recently taking $6.7 million in a horse racing jackpot, and yet he was prone to email outbursts that were barely coherent, picking fights with people over trivial things like placing required advertising boards at league games.
It’s safe to say he had issues with authority and would speak up for himself in court. He lost big when he tangled with popular website Boing Boing. A search of Palm Beach County court records shows a long list of traffic infractions, many of which he challenged. He has a couple of court cases, traffic and civil, still open.
He also enjoyed venting. My email was full of rants about U.S. Soccer, WPS and other women’s soccer figures. They got a little personal at times, but if you’ve read any of the court documents from the WPS lawsuit, you already get the idea.
And yet, he cared deeply about a couple of things. First was his family. Second was women’s soccer.
Early in our correspondence, I asked him if he had considered any relationship with youth clubs that had worked with the Washington Freedom as the pro team packed up and left town.
“I would do anything for youth soccer,” he replied.
If women’s soccer could have somehow harnessed his enthusiasm and willingness to support the sport without dealing with the controversies that surrounded him, the sport would have surely been better off. But that would never happen.
“Beau, if my wife can’t change me, no one will,” he once told me with a bit of a laugh.
And no one did.
My sincerest condolences to his family, and I hope his legacy will be to inspire others to take an interest in women’s sports and other underfunded outlets for talented people.
This week: A couple of U.S. teams won world championships (one official, one nearly official), and we had a track meet with a series of dizzying performances.
Don’t say I didn’t warn you: Remember when I did a few posts on the War on Nonrevenue Sports? (No you don’t, please don’t lie.) Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby, also a U.S. Olympic Committee board members, sees a post-O’Bannon suit future in which men’s Olympic sports are gone.
Best doping excuse: Want to know why athletes often claim they doped accidentally or tested positive because of a contaminated supplement? Because it happens. Just ask biathlete Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle.
What was the “soccer media” in 1996, when MLS first launched?
For the most part, it was Soccer America, Michael Lewis, Grahame Jones and a handful of people who managed to make soccer at least part of their beat work. At some news organizations, journalists managed to get some soccer coverage into their job descriptions alongside their other responsibilities — writing on other sports, copy editing, online producing, etc. IIRC, one “beat writer” was also his newspaper’s librarian.
From this pool of young, energetic people pushing the constraints of the 40-hour (ha!) work week to cover the sport we love, we got a lot of good content. ESPN had Jeff Bradley, whose connections were unmatched (yes, note the last name) and who had the writing skill to turn his passion into good prose. Sports Illustrated ran Grant Wahl’s insights online whenever he had a few spare moments. The Washington Post actually had a couple of voices — Steven Goff covering D.C. United, Alex Johnson writing “World of Soccer” online.
Being “The Soccer Guy” in your news organization was a good thing if you didn’t mind a little extra work. Knight Ridder Tribune let me crank out a weekly MLS column and other content. USA TODAY didn’t mind my soccer columns and original reporting.
But still, soccer stories were so unusual that a lot of us flocked to BigSoccer, where people would share links to the rare finds. BigSoccer, in the early 2000s, was the hub of soccer discussion online in the wake of the decline of the old North American Soccer mailing list. We didn’t have Twitter or a blogosphere.
Eighteen years later, things are a little different. Wahl is one of several soccer people at Sports Illustrated — Brian Straus, the hardest-working man in soccer journalism, joined him a while ago. ESPN first bought Soccernet, the go-to source for so much European soccer news in the early years of the Internet, then rebranded it ESPN FC, all with a strong cast of contributors.
The independent soccer media always survived as a labor of love. Now it’s thriving at sites like SB Nation.
The official site (disclaimer: I wrote a few fantasy columns for the management before the management before this one) has grown into a robust portal of soccer coverage, from personality-driven podcasts to tactical analysis far beyond anything we’ve seen here.
And that’s just print/online media. In the mid-90s, I always made sure my VCR would pick up the weekly hourlong Premier League recap that popped up on Home Team Sports (now Comcast Sports Net of the D.C./Baltimore area). Today? I’d watch Match of the Day on NBCSN, but I’ve usually seen it all already on a full morning of viewing.
So you can see why I was a bit surprised when I read a promotion/relegation piece that offered many supposed benefits of going pro/rel in the USA, while not addressing any of the reasons why that hasn’t been feasible to this point. Among the more interesting ramifications of going pro/rel:
– No more reliance on big, fast and strong players. (Because every relegation-threatened EPL team and all the League One strugglers play fluid, attractive football, right?)
– An open market rather than centralized soccer development. (Because Germany’s top-down approach funded by the FA is so much more of an open marketplace than having multiple elite youth soccer clubs in every region picking and choosing the best practices of U.S. Soccer, U.S. Youth Soccer, U.S. Club Soccer, AYSO and other alphabet-soup organizations, right?)
And then the fun one: “More expertise in our soccer media.”
That’s right — add in pro/rel, and you’ll get the same sycophantic, sexist, pressbox-cheering, transfer rumor-inventing “experts” you get in other parts of the world. Yay!
OK, that’s a generalization. But such journalists absolutely exist in the rest of the world. We’ll get them here soon enough. No need to rush.
Meanwhile, without pro/rel, we the soccer media have managed to expand exponentially. A few people are bound to know what they’re doing.
And no surprise, it’s from the 2002 Olympics. It’s the Utah Olympic Oval:
Several members noted the oval was the centerpiece of a recreational gathering place for Kearns residents, quite worthy of the investment.
“The oval is the heart and soul of our community,” agreed Eric Hutchings, a Republican legislator from Kearns and an Olympic Legacy Foundation trustee.
“This facility and the park that surrounds it mean everything to us. We hold our Kearns Hometown Days events there, our “Night Out Against Crime” events. Our big community meetings are in the World Record Lounge,” he added, referring to a meeting room whose name recognizes the oval’s reputation for having the fastest ice in the world. Seven of speedskating’s 11 existing world records were set in Kearns.
A few things you might have missed while waiting for Argentina to get a shot on frame:
BEST RECORD PERFORMANCE
Emma Coburn wanted the U.S. record in the women’s 3,000-meter steeplechase. Ethiopia’s Hiwot Ayalew just wanted a Diamond League win. The result: a terrific duel down the stretch, a world-leading time, and a record.
.@emmajcoburn breaks 3000m steeple American record
Duresport.com 