Category: soccer

soccer

World Cup qualifying: Is there another way?

Posted on by Beau Dure

Mexico is in the World Cup, and Egypt is not. And that seems unfair.

It’s not that simple, of course. One incorrect meme making the rounds: Egypt won seven games and Mexico won only four. Actually, Mexico won 10, sweeping all six of their third-round games to get to the Hexagonal.

Still, we can shake our heads at the notion that Mexico feasted on New Zealand in a winner-take-all playoff while Egypt’s reward for a perfect round-robin was a playoff with Ghana. Shouldn’t we give teams more of a fair shake?

Sure. And we can also turn the last stage of World Cup qualifying into a worldwide spectacle. And clean up a few things along the way. Here’s the proposal:

1. Bag the early playoff rounds for the minnows in Africa, Asia, Oceania and CONCACAF. Cut the small teams out of Europe’s group play. Go to a Davis Cup system in which the minnows play in zones, with the winners advancing to a promotion/relegation playoff against teams that finish last in qualifying.

2. Make six-team groups the norm. Have four in Africa, six in Europe, two in Asia/Oceania and three in the Americas (see below). The top team in each of these 15 groups automatically qualifies for the Cup, along with the host nation. (That’s 16 teams.)

3. The last-place team in each group faces the promotion/relegation playoff against the best of the minnows.

4. The second-place and third-place team in each group, along with the Oceania winner, advances to a global playoff round. That’s 31 teams. Add one more wild card: The highest-ranked team that hasn’t already advanced. Seed these teams into eight four-team groups. These groups would play single round-robins. Each team gets one home game, one away game and one neutral-site game. Top two in each group (16 total) make the Cup.

ADVANTAGES

– We’re not tallying up goal difference against San Marino as a possible tiebreaker.

– The rest of the world has achievable goals. The World Cup final (the technical term for the 32-team extravaganza) may be out of reach, but promotion might be attainable. And the best of the minnows would still have a chance to face the sharks in meaningful playoffs.

– Last-place teams have incentive to play out the string.

– Standardization. No more unfair comparisons across groups to determine the best or worst second-place finisher in Europe.

– The qualifying process doesn’t drag out forever. It’s 10-13 games for everyone.

– More teams can earn spots in intercontinental play, so the continental quotas will be less meaningful.

– More teams get a second chance to qualify.

– Those neutral-site final games would be immense.

CONSIDERATIONS

– It’s a shame to lose the grand 10-team double round-robin in South America. It’s also unfair to cut South America down to one six-team group. One alternative: Have an eight-team group with the top two automatically advancing.

– Dividing the initial groups among continents will always be controversial. To see who could be in the main qualifying pool and who could be out under this scheme, let’s use the FIFA rankings — they’re flawed, but they’ll give us a rough idea for this hypothetical. We’ll say it’s 2018, so Russia gets the automatic bid as host.

Main pool

Includes a few ranking numbers to show which teams we’re getting. For Europe and Africa, the last six are split off with slashes.

Europe (6 groups): Spain, Germany, Portugal, Italy, Switzerland, Netherlands, Belgium, Greece, England, Croatia, Ukraine, France, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Denmark, Sweden, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Serbia, Romania, Scotland, Armenia, Turkey, Hungary, Austria, Iceland, Montenegro, Norway, Wales, Albania, Slovakia (overall rank: 60) // Israel (62), Finland (64), Ireland (67), Bulgaria (76), Poland (78), Belarus (82)

Americas (3 groups): Argentina, Colombia, Uruguay, Brazil, USA, Chile, Mexico, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Panama, Peru, Honduras, Cuba, Paraguay, Bolivia (69), Haiti, Trinidad and Tobago (79). (If you prefer the Elo rating, substitute El Salvador and Jamaica for Cuba and Haiti.)

Africa (4 groups): Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Algeria, Nigeria, Egypt, Cape Verde Islands, Mali, Tunisia, Cameroon, Burkina Faso, South Africa, Libya (63), Senegal, Guinea, Zambia, Sierra Leone, Morocco, Togo (77) // Gabon (80), Congo DR (83), Congo (84), Uganda (86), Angola (89), Ethiopia (93). (If you prefer Elo, then put Benin and Kenya in place of Sierra Leone and Congo.)

Asia/Oceania (2 groups): Iran, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Uzbekistan, Jordan, UAE, Oman, New Zealand (91), China (93), Saudi Arabia (99), Qatar (103). (Elo would argue for Kuwait ahead of Qatar.)

Top Zonal Pools

Europe: Only 16 countries left, so everyone on down to San Marino should get into the mix. Top teams: Macedonia (84), Northern Ireland (90), Azerbaijan (95), Estonia (96), Moldova (97), Georgia (101), Lithuania (102), Latvia (119).

Americas: For now, it’s all CONCACAF, starting with Jamaica (81), Dominican Republic (88), El Salvador (91), Antigua and Barbuda (109), Canada (114), Guatemala (115). We could make three four-team groups by adding Grenada (130), Suriname, St. Kitts and Nevis, Guyana, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Puerto Rico (152).

Asia/Oceania: Two groups from Kuwait (106), Iraq, North Korea, Tajikistan, Bahrain, New Caledonia (122), Lebanon, Afghanistan (129).

Africa: Four good four-team groups out of Botswana (98), Benin, Niger, Liberia, Zimbabwe, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Burundi, Kenya, Mozambique, Malawi, Tanzania, Namibia, Rwanda, Sudan, Gambia (134).

Third tier

Americas: Belize (157) and 14 teams ranked 160 or worse.

Africa: Lesotho (138) is the best of the 14 remaining nations, some of whom will struggle to field teams due to political reality.

Asia: This could be tricky — 28 teams, including some globally significant nations such as Philippines (133), Syria (135), Thailand (142), Vietnam (158) and Indonesia (162). And is India (148) really that bad, even with a substantial percentage of the world’s population?

Oceania: Tahiti (141), Solomon Islands (171) and the other seven teams could play off for an Asia/Oceania playoff spot.

ALTERNATIVES

– Add one more group per continent for a total of 19. The winners (19) and the host nation take the first 20 spots in the Cup. Then the second-place teams go to the playoff round, along with the five highest-ranked third-place teams. That makes six groups of four, and the top two in each (12 total) go to the Cup. The advantage there is that more teams will be in the main qualifying pool. The disadvantage: We have to use the rankings to decide among third-place teams.

– Single-elimination, FA Cup or U.S. Open Cup-style! Wouldn’t be fair, but it’d be fun!

3
soccer

Single-Digit Soccer: Parental habits develop early

Posted on by Beau Dure

This weekend, I coached a U8 All-Star team in a tournament here in suburban Northern Virginia. The kids were rambunctious but fun, and I saw a few glimpses of good soccer emerging.

They say this is a vital age for developing good habits rather than poor habits that will be hard to break. I think that’s true. But perhaps moreso for parents (and coaches) than for players.

The parents on my team were terrific. They got their kids everywhere they needed to be, on time. They put together a wonderful photo album and brought plenty of snacks for everyone. No one had any ridiculous demands. I surely didn’t hear everything they yelled in the course of the game, but I didn’t hear anything silly.

So let’s talk about some of the other teams, from what I witnessed and what I heard from other coaches:

– A U10 girl had the ball in her own half under no pressure whatsoever. A parent was maybe 10 feet away, yelling “Kick it hard!” She did, and it went about 15 yards to midfield before rolling out of play. “Good job!” the parent yelled.

– Some parents and coaches ran the length of the sideline during games to offer their high-volume input. One team’s coaches ran directly in front of my clubmates on their half of the sideline and blew vuvuzelas when their team scored. Somehow, this game didn’t end up in a massive viral-video brawl, for which I credit my clubmates. (The same club had another All-Star team with out-of-control parents, but they apparently forgot their horns.)

– U10 boys game: Player was offside by 10 yards, not called. Our club’s keeper tried to make the save and broke his wrist in the ensuing collision. Ref let play continue until the other team scored. Our club’s team also had four guys come off the field with injuries after uncalled fouls. (The opposing club, incidentally, is a D.C. United affiliate. But this is house league, so I don’t think you’ll see these kids injuring opponents in a Developmental Academy game down the road.)

– Similarly, a U8 coach was stunned to learn from the ref, a coach and parents that his players were totally out of control.

– U8 players and their coach practicing headers. (On a really, really good team — they have no house league, so this is basically a “pre-travel” team that does nothing but practice 2-3 times a week and play “pre-travel” events. But they’re nice people, and my goodness, some of their players have fantastic skills. You can tell they play more pickup soccer in a week than most suburbanites play in a year.)

It’s a strange tournament in the sense that I can’t imagine U.S. Soccer being thrilled with the game setup — five-a-side, no goalkeepers and big goals. So one of our club’s parents was lamenting the soccer on display — kids just slamming the ball toward that big goal while a coach yelled to kick it hard.

But it was fun. It’s different from our usual house-league soccer (five-a-side, smaller goals) and the pre-travel/academy/crossover league (six-a-side, goalkeepers). And I’m not sure that’s a bad thing.

A lot of U8 players lean toward magnetball — everyone gathered around the ball. This tournament may have taught them the value of keeping heads up and spreading out. (Those were the only two lessons I tried to get across in two weeks of practice: “Head up” and “Spread out.” I was tempted to add “Can’t lose,” but first of all, I don’t think they’ve seen Friday Night Lights. Second of all, you actually can lose. Third, it’s not that funny.)

From a coaching perspective, I walked into a dilemma with one player. A common complaint in youth-soccer circles is that parents and coaches try to discourage dribbling and make kids pass it. I had someone with the best one-on-one dribbling skills I’ve seen. And sometimes one-on-two. When it got to be one-on-three or one-on-four, it was hard not to notice the teammate standing wide open in front of the goal, and it was hard not to be a little frustrated when he finally lost the ball without attempting that pass.

But I think the kids are learning. We saw some beautiful goals — a couple on clever passes, a couple on terrific individual efforts, a couple on loose balls, and a couple of pure accidents. We didn’t magically turn players into technically and tactically sound soccer players, but they made progress.

So what do we do about the adults?

1
soccer

DNQ: U.S. youth soccer teams hitting a wall

Posted on by Beau Dure

Can we draw any conclusions from the USA’s failure to qualify for the U-17 Women’s World Cup? Or is the USA simply a victim of soccer’s cruelty? (We did say soccer karma doesn’t exist, except perhaps to see Real Salt Lake past Los Angeles last night.)

The statistics rounded up at Soccer America defy reason. In four qualification tournaments, the USA has outscored its opponents 103-3 and never lost a game. But the team has twice tied in knockout games, and each time, they’ve been eliminated on penalty kicks, yesterday by Mexico. So that’s two out of four U-17 Women’s World Cups that have taken place without the most accomplished country in women’s soccer.

“Maybe the U.S. women need a Developmental Academy like the men,” came one of the responses on Twitter last night. Perhaps. But things aren’t so good on the men’s side, either. The U.S. men’s U-17s lost in the CONCACAF quarterfinals to miss out on all four qualification spots. That’s the first time the U-17 men have missed out. The U-20s made it this year after missing out in 2011, which was the first time that had happened since 1995. The U-23s have failed to qualify for two of the last three Olympics, not even getting out of the group stage on home soil last time.

By comparison, the women have done well. The U-20s have won two of the last three World Cups.

On the whole, we have this strange paradox: As the country has grown more serious about herding its best youth players into elite national environments — the U-17 men’s Bradenton residency, the men’s Developmental Academy, the women’s Elite Clubs National League — the USA has fared worse in international youth tournaments.

Coincidence?

Partially, sure. Other factors include the growth of soccer elsewhere. On the women’s side, the USA’s growth is helping other countries — as Soccer America pointed out, the Mexican goal scorer and goalkeeper who eliminated the USA yesterday both play for the ECNL’s Texas Rush.

We can’t draw too many conclusions on the women’s side. The U-20s are fine. The U-17s have just had curious failures in penalty kicks, which old-school coaches often call a “lottery.” Sure, perhaps the U-17s should never let a game with Mexico get to that stage, but it’ll happen sometimes. Ask the senior women about their last World Cup qualification.

The men’s side is more puzzling. The USA used to round up a bunch of high school and college kids for these tournaments. They got a couple of semifinal and quarterfinal appearances in World Cups and the Olympics. Then nothing beyond the round of 16 since 2007.

It’s still not enough evidence to suggest something is systematically wrong. A bounce of the ball here or there can be the difference between a semifinal World Cup run or failure to qualify at all.

But it’s enough to suggest there’s no easy answer. Bradenton, the Academy and the ECNL aren’t going to produce champions through the sheer fact of their existence. It’s going to take rare talents, coached with care.

Systems don’t win championships. Players do. Or they lose and get an experience that will hopefully prepare them for better futures.

1
soccer

D.C. United has lost the plot

Posted on by Beau Dure

This is the first year I’ve been a Northern Virginia resident and attended no D.C. United games. It wasn’t anything personal — there’s no reason for me to be in the pressbox any more, and the Spirit and youth soccer took up so much of my time that I had little left over. But I would’ve gone to the season finale if not for a conflict.

I did attend an open practice for area youth coaches, and I was impressed with Ben Olsen. He had a good sense of humor about his situation, and he gave engaging explanations of what they were trying to do in practice. (I don’t think he recognized the guy who wrote a USA TODAY feature about him and interviewed him for an MLS book, but that’s OK. I’ve been keeping a low profile.)

The interesting part about seguing from “sportswriter in the pressbox each week” to “local youth soccer dad and prospective ticket-buyer” is that I see the sales operations. A lot. They come out to our coaches’ meetings with special offers. They call me and ask how I’m doing and if I want to come back out to a game sometime. (I turn around and ask if they’ve read my book, but I always have good conversations with them.)

D.C. United has a lot going for it. The youth programs are on solid ground, and they’re actually producing pro players. They’re well-established in the community, so much so that they may actually be able to pull off this massive land-swap thing to get a real stadium built in Washington, where the regional politics are about as easy to navigate as the asteroid field in The Empire Strikes Back. They have a terrific sponsor in Volkswagen.

The only problem is the team. It’s not very good.

And though it’d be nice to get Chris Pontius to stay healthy for a while, this isn’t a mere stretch of bad luck. It’s a solid decade of really bad personnel moves.

The team has responded with a lot of front office changes. Today, they made more.

So they finally got rid of the people in charge of the roster? Nope. Doug Hicks, one of the most respected communications and marketing people in the business. Aprile Pritchet, a D.C. United office mainstay who worked on community relations. And Sarah Lerner in communications.

Let’s make one thing clear. The fan base does seem alienated. But they weren’t alienated by Hicks, Pritchet and Lerner. They were alienated by Franco Niell, Gonzalo Martinez, Gonzalo Peralta, Jose Carvallo, Ange N’Silu, Danny Allsopp, Cristian Castillo and scores of others players who have floated through RFK Stadium in the past six years. (In some cases, the players were OK but were misfits — Hamdi Salihi isn’t bad at all, and Steve Guppy was perversely wasted on the wing banging crosses into tiny “target” forwards.)

D.C. United’s leading scorer this season? Three players tied with three goals each. Little wonder the club finished at 3-24-7.

Ben Olsen has a legitimate case to stay on as coach. He somehow got this gaggle of secondhand parts to win the U.S. Open Cup.

But the club is firing people who built the D.C. United brand while keeping those who have failed to build a competent team? That’s supposed to bring back fans to make the stands bounce for the remaining years at RFK?

How?

1
soccer

A few questions and answers on ‘Enduring Spirit’

Posted on by Beau Dure

Stumbled into a few questions and comments on Enduring Spirit and figured I’d answer them here. Feel free to ask more — I’m easy to find. Also, check out my Q&A from earlier in the week with Caitlin Murray.

Will the book be available on (Nook, Apple, PDF, print, stone tablets)?

The Nook edition is up now. It’s on its way to the iBookstore and Kobo. I may look into Google Play as well. If I do anything in print, it’ll be a limited-edition thing. I could see trying to combine it with more photos so that it would have added value for people who already shelled out the $5.99 for the ebook, but that’ll cost more — photographers have every right to be paid for their work.

Speaking of photos, what’s your deal with that cover, anyway? Why pick on Alex Morgan?

I’m not. I don’t. Alex Morgan picked on me after I joked about U.S. women’s national team players expecting favorable calls from refs, which is her prerogative. As I said at the time she shot back at me on Twitter, I think she’s a great player and a future U.S. captain.

I picked this photo because (A) it’s the photo that drew the most attention during the course of the season and (B) it shows the defiant resilience of this team, standing up for itself against the best in the world.

When I designed the cover, I did so with the intent of drawing attention to Diana Matheson’s face. I wasn’t drawing attention to the name “Morgan” on the jersey — at one point in the process, it was obscured, and I didn’t even realize it was there in the final edit.

But you hate Portland!

No, I really don’t. If you read the book, you’ll find the Thorns draw a lot of flattery. They’re a class organization.

Why didn’t you do more analysis?

Interesting question, and perhaps I miscalculated. In reporting the book, I tried to take out the Heisenberg/Schrödinger/quantum physics observer effect and make myself part of the scenery. I dreaded the notion that people might act differently because I was on the field. (A few people have assured me that they were the same whether I was around or not.)

In writing the book, I figured people wanted less of me and more of the players. And I figured people might want to draw their own conclusions on what happened. It’s really not up to me to tell you whether Ashlyn Harris’ comments were fair to Mike Jorden. If I felt I had additional information that wasn’t readily available, I gave it.

But I might have been wrong. If you’ve read the book but still want my take on something, let me know.

Were you worried about losing credentials if you wrote something negative?

Not really. I have no idea what I’m doing in terms of coverage next season, but I think it’s fair to say I won’t be making serious money doing it.

Why didn’t you go into more detail on (Topic X, Y or Z)?

In most cases, that’s what I have. The Spirit kept some things in the locker room, like a lot of teams do. Women’s soccer teams are especially guarded in my experience. Hope Solo’s career of public statements is the exception that proves the rule.

I know there are plenty of people who think they know some behind-the-scenes information that wasn’t in the book. In some cases, I also heard that but couldn’t verify it. In other cases, it’s utter bunk. To give one example: A team that has an openly gay captain isn’t steering away from gay players. That’s nonsense. I can’t really go into more detail because we generally honor players’ rights to private lives (see the hand-wringing over whether to “report” the Abby Wambach-Sarah Huffman wedding when players were openly talking about it on public social media).

In some cases, I was able to press for more detail. Ken Krieger was willing to talk about players’ desire to bring him in to help out.

But in general, I wasn’t in investigative mode. The goal of the book was to capture the spirit (sorry) and sacrifice of soccer players trying to build a new team and a new league while being paid tiny salaries. I tried to get to know each player, and I’d like to think I was somewhat successful in doing that and getting across a little bit of their personalities. Controversies arose, of course, and I did what I could to explore them. In a lot of cases, there’s a lot less controversy than some fans think. I spent a lot of time talking with players and coaches on topics that didn’t make the book because there just wasn’t any substance to write about.

Not always, of course. Perhaps someone from a different vantage point can come in and get more dirt about the coaching change. That’s fine. A variety of voices is always better than one.

So why WAS Mike Jorden let go?

I think the players’ perception was that he wasn’t adequately preparing them for games. Was that reality? I don’t know. I didn’t look at his game plans, and a lot of elite-level game-planning is going to go over my head, anyway. But that’s the kind of perception that essentially becomes the reality. If players don’t think they’re being prepared, they’re not. That could be Jorden’s fault for not doing a great game plan, it could be Jorden’s fault for not communicating it well, or it could be that players were just tuning him out for whatever reason.

I wouldn’t judge Jorden too harshly. Even the best coaches in the world get fired sometimes. He hadn’t had much trouble in his previous coaching gigs, and people speak well of his integrity.

What about the other coaches?

I never got much of an answer on why Kris Ward was let go. Players seemed to like him — he was warmly greeted on a couple of returns to the SoccerPlex. I think they wanted a fresh start and felt it would be best if Mark Parsons came in without anyone left over from the previous regime other than Lloyd Yaxley, who was clearly well-liked as the goalkeeper coach and could also help out elsewhere.

I didn’t do much to find out the story on German Peri. He wasn’t around that often when I was there, and I didn’t see much interest in finding out why he was dismissed with Jorden and Ward.

One aside I’ll toss in: NCAA rules prevent someone from being a college assistant coach and a pro assistant coach. That’s ridiculous, and it’s affecting multiple people associated with the Spirit. Hayley Siegel is virtually a player/coach in the organization, but she can’t be officially recognized as such as long as she’s also at Georgetown. Add that to the list of Jay Bilas’ complaints with the NCAA.

Who was the funniest player on the team?

Emily Fortunato, the trainer. Closely followed by Conny Pohlers.

But why do you really hate Portland?

Because CPC stopped wearing her hats.

No, seriously — I don’t. Read the book and see for yourself.

Any other questions?

1
soccer

‘ENDURING SPIRIT’ IS OUT

Posted on by Beau Dure

kindle-spiritThe book is only at Amazon for now. But you don’t need a Kindle to read it! Amazon offers apps for every platform you might possibly have — tablets, phones, laptops.

Over the next few weeks, I will be working to make it available on other ebook platforms. I declined Amazon’s exclusivity offer, which includes a couple of incentives, so that I would reserve the rights to publish it elsewhere.

I might do a print version at some point, but it would be a limited run. If you have any thoughts on what might make a print version worthwhile, let me know.

The good news is that the ebook is only $5.99.

I thanked 91 people by name in the acknowledgments at the end of the book, but I could’ve gone on and on. Thanks to everyone who has taken an interest in this book along the way, and I hope you enjoy it.

2
soccer

‘Enduring Spirit’ excerpt: Game 1 prep

Posted on by Beau Dure

The book is still on pace to be released Oct. 15, though after yesterday’s malware and erotica incidents, it might be Kindle-only for the first few days. I will still release it on other formats.

Today’s excerpt includes part of the entries for two days as the Spirit prepared for its first game at Boston. (Yes, I saw the feedback from people who wanted something more soccer-related. Enjoy.)

Wednesday, April 10

Warm weather had finally arrived at the SoccerPlex. And still Chantel Jones was wearing long sleeves, not wanting to scrape up her arms on the sand lurking beneath Field 5’s grass.

The competition was no longer within camp. The players had all earned their spots on the team. The focus was now the Boston Breakers. Before warmups, Mike Jorden used some cones to demonstrate a few points about Boston and their likely starting formation. Players also realized they had another source of information in Jasmyne Spencer, who had been in camp with the Breakers. After a bit of chatting, the consensus was that the midfield and the backs were vulnerable. Given the presence of Sydney Leroux up front and Heather O’Reilly on the wing, that seemed to be an obvious conclusion just by process of elimination.

Kris Ward put the team into a 1v1 drill, with the attacker trying to beat the defender and then the goalkeeper. Lori Lindsey screamed at herself after missing; Kika Toulouse was unhappy with her own defending. Caroline Miller was sharp, as was the predatory and clinical Tiffany McCarty. From the goal, Chantel Jones quipped to her former ACC rival McCarty that she was getting flashbacks.

The roster was complete, but still far from full strength. Candace Chapman and Robyn Gayle sat out the first phase of practice. Colleen Williams had at last been cleared for a little bit of activity and immediately reminded everyone what they were missing with a few powerful finishes, but after a few minutes, she was back with the trainer in distress and frustration.

Gayle joined the fray in the scrimmage, with Jorden admonishing her to take herself out if anything hurt. She was able to get wide, but her teammates had trouble finding her.

The highlight of the short-field, small-numbers scrimmage: Jasmyne Spencer, one of the shortest players in the game, looped a header over a bemused Lloyd Yaxley.

The Spirit players still barely knew their own capabilities, much less those of the Breakers. Diana Matheson summed up what she knew about Washington’s first opponent:

“They’re in Boston, they’re called the Breakers,” Matheson said. “I know the Canadians on the team.”

“All the teams are a little bit up in the air right now,” she conceded.

Friday, April 12

The last practice at home before the first road trip was intense.

Lori Lindsey spoke up as the defense ran through a ball-movement drill. “Are we gonna talk about that?” she yelled toward the coaches. The question was Kika Toulouse’s positioning. “If that’s HAO (Heather O’Reilly, the national team veteran Toulouse would likely face on the wing), she’s going to get in there all day,” Lindsey protested.

The water break turned into a tactics discussion. Players held six separate conversations about positioning.

The team quickly went over free kicks. Five players lined up as a wall. “That’s the five in the wall?” Ashlyn Harris asked. Yes, came the reply. “With that height?” she asked with some disdain. Diana Matheson, posing an obstacle of barely 5 feet at one end of the wall, laughed a little.

By this point, it was clear Alina Garciamendez would not be joining the Spirit. A release from the Mexican federation listed the 12 Mexican players who would be in the league, including the as-yet-unreported Teresa Worbis for the Spirit. But it also mentioned four players who would not join their NWSL teams. One failed to finish rehab from an injury. Two others flunked physicals. And Garciamendez chose to sign with Frankfurt after finishing her education at Stanford.

So other than Worbis and “Unnamed Euro,” the practice included everyone who was going to play for the Spirit in the foreseeable future. And everyone was facing reality.

Ali Krieger summed it up: “Now it’s like, ‘You know what? This is real. This is really happening. We have a game on Sunday, and we have to bring it.’”

The national team defender had seen some improvement since her departure for national team duty. And she didn’t care about preseason results, thinking back to how little they meant in WPS.

“The year New Jersey (Sky Blue) won, they lost every single preseason game. Those preseason games were a great test. Everyone needed to play. Not many of those players may play during the season. They’re test games, they’re friendlies. You beat teams 8-0, that’s not fun either. So these tests are really good for us.”

Krieger was still a relatively young player but had more club experience than most of her national teammates. She had played for several incarnations of the Washington Freedom, including the WPS team on a brief loan in 2009. She had spent most of her professional career with Frankfurt in Germany.

Frankfurt is a perennial power in Germany, with wealthy ownership willing to pay a full-time professional salary for most players. Some had other jobs, out of necessity or affectation. But she was happy to play at home — or at least within commuting range.

“I’m in Northern Virginia. I feel it’s healthy for me to live away from the workplace. My friends live in the area where I am now. It’s really nice to get away and have a social life. I always want that part of my life to always be there. So I have work and soccer in one place. It’s nice to have some separation and live outside of this area.”

0
soccer

‘Enduring Spirit’ excerpt: Charades

Posted on by Beau Dure

The book Enduring Spirit: Reviving Professional Women’s Soccer should be available Oct. 15, barring any last-minute editing questions or complications with converting my draft to e-book format. By popular demand, I’ll make sure it’s available somewhere other than Amazon, though it’ll go to Amazon first.

Over the next week, I’ll release a couple of excerpts. Here’s one.

Friday, July 5

The bus wasn’t evil this time. A couple of players used the overhead sleeping compartments — Diana Matheson had trouble climbing up but had plenty of room to stretch out. Conny Pohlers was eager to watch Wimbledon on the satellite TV, but with Novak Djokovic and Juan Martin del Potro’s match stretching for nearly five hours, the team tossed in a few episodes of Modern Family.

This was the one road trip of the season in which I would stick with the team the whole time. With Lori Lindsey’s encouragement, I said hello to the team when we got on the bus and reminded them what I was doing. Most players tuned out, but Chantel Jones was quick with a couple of questions. I told her Colleen Williams had suggested a title.

“What was that?”

“Sexy Soccer,” I said.

“Sexy FOOTBALL,” Ashlyn Harris admonished, clearly preferring global terminology over Americanized alliteration.

Mark Parsons was staying busy. He and Lloyd Yaxley worked their way through some videos on the bus. His scouting gave him confidence that he imparted on the team at a brief practice on the sweltering field on the fringe of New Jersey suburbia. “I could not feel better about how this is set up,” Parsons said in a practice that emphasized the positive.

Harris may have grown up in Florida, but she was no fan of the 90-degree heat and high humidity. “It’s so hot,” she moaned to Ali Krieger in the hotel lobby before practice. “I already feel sick.”

She also wasn’t a fan of the artificial turf on which the Spirit was training in the midst of a complex, like the SoccerPlex, that had several grass fields. “My feet are burning,” she muttered as she trudged off to work with Yaxley and Chantel Jones.

But the grass was long and apparently off-limits. And Parsons thought the turf, much more forgiving than the Dilboy Stadium carpet, was pretty good for the technical training they were doing. They were working on turning before the pass arrived so they’re in better position to play the ball. Not trapping THEN turning. He said they’ll clean it up over a couple of weeks.

And Harris got into the swing of things when the teams played a modified scrimmage at the end of practice. She loved seeing a chip from Diana Matheson and kept encouraging her teammates.

Pohlers raced back to the bus after practice, trying to catch the rest of the Wimbledon men’s semifinal. But Andy Murray had already won the fourth set and the match.

The team dinner drew unanimous approval. A modest-looking Italian place served superb salmon, chicken and pasta to a happy team.

Most of the players and coaches had asked very little about how I reached the point in my career at which I thought following a soccer team around would be a good idea. Parsons was an exception, asking me tons of questions about my soccer background and my career. I was happy to talk, but then I was the last person with food on my plate. Conny Pohlers, clearly ready to get back to the hotel, started teasing me about never finishing my dinner. I gulped down my food, and we left.

That evening, Parsons held a meeting free from any talk of tactics or technique. It was team bonding time.

First up was an exercise of finding words that best described the team and its goals. It looked like a corporate exercise usually imposed on baffled or jaded employees, but the team was into it. Holly King offered “resilient,” which several people misheard as “Brazilian.”

Harris, always in intense in games and focused in practice, showed a softer side. She considered the team a family and gave an emotional speech about how important that sentiment was.

And Harris’ words inspired a new team catchphrase: “Family! Together! We will fight!”

Then Harris got back to her competitive instincts in a raucous game of charades, with Parsons providing movie titles to act out. The goalkeeper was up first and may have bent the rules, grabbing a prop to use as an eye patch. Her team immediately got it: “Pirates of the Caribbean!”

Ali Krieger had a tougher task. She let her hair down and pranced around like a beauty pageant contender. Her team didn’t get it. Two other teams yelled out for the steal: “Pretty Woman!”

Colleen Williams and Jasmyne Spencer connected easily. Williams mimicked a free kick. Spencer: “Bend It Like Beckham!”

Parsons raised the ante with a speed round, in which each team would do as many movies as possible in a limited time, and the veterans heated up. The normally reserved Candace Chapman used much of the available floor space for some animated acting, and Kika Toulouse quickly got three of Chapman’s assigned films. Lori Lindsey let loose a “BOOM, BABY!” after getting Snow White from Chantel Jones’ clues. Diana Matheson got her team into the final with a convincing portrayal of the Titanic sinking.

Pohlers was eager to participate, making up her own titles in between rounds. But when the time came for her to go, she stuck with typing and drawing a computer with her hands. The film was The Notebook. She was unaware of the English word “notebook” when not followed by “computer.”

The final teams:

– Lori Lindsey, Tori Huster, Holly King, Lindsay Taylor, Chantel Jones

– Diana Matheson, Colleen Williams, Jasmyne Spencer, Lupita Worbis.

Parsons made it winner-take-all. Whoever guessed first would win the title for her team.

Krieger and Harris volunteered to be the actors. Each veteran drew hearts in the air, then turned as if beginning a swordfight.

Chantel Jones shouted the winning word.

“BRAVEHEART!”

0
mind games, soccer

Diskerud vs. Carlsen: Analysis

Posted on by Beau Dure

Give Mix Diskerud credit for challenging the best chess player of this or possibly any age, Magnus Carlsen. Here’s the video and a quick analysis:

Diskerud is given 7 minutes to play. Carlsen has 1. Even for a grandmaster, that’s not much time.

And Diskerud tries to take advantage of that with some passive play and counterattacking. Maybe that’s what we should expect from a Norwegian/American soccer player, though Jurgen Klinsmann might not approve.

Still, such tactics could work over the chessboard in a situation like this. So Diskerud’s tentative early move of a3 (the pawn all the way to the left up one square) could work … if he defends intelligently. He can make things complicated for Carlsen so that the soon-to-be world champion may run out of time.

Alas, he does not. He fails to castle, leaving his king vulnerable in the center. And then he inexplicably plays Rh3, giving up his rook.

He also musters little of a counterattack other than Bh6, which is nothing but a one-move annoyance that leaves Carlsen’s rook on a better square, anyway.

Diskerud does one more thing that plays into Carlsen’s hands. His hand hovers over the piece he plans to move, and then he moves and slowly touches the clock. His slow hands and telegraphed moves essentially give Carlsen more time. If Diskerud kept his hand on his chin, then quickly whipped his hand over the board to move and hit the clock, Carlsen wouldn’t be able to think about his response until his own clock was running.

All that said — it’s Magnus Carlsen. He’s going to win.

So when does Carlsen face Diskerud on the soccer field?

(Programming note: Yes, I’ve done very little on the blog while working on the Washington Spirit book. I may do more quick hits like this, but really, until the book is done, don’t expect much. Then it’s 2014 projection time!)

0
soccer

American Outlaws and old-school U.S. soccer collegiality

Posted on by Beau Dure

The controversy about the American Outlaws and the upcoming USA-Mexico game in USA-Mexicoville (also known as Columbus) has gone through three stages:

1. Multiple reports said Outlaws from Seattle had basically taken over planning crowd activities for the USA-Mexico game. Columbus fans, who take special pride in their quadrennial duties of welcoming Mexico to a stadium with a history of inglorious moments for the visitors, were miffed. Many other U.S. fans were miffed on their behalf.

2. The Outlaws, backed by U.S. Soccer, said it was all much ado about nothing. All incorrect. Internet rumor and hearsay.

But before you could say “This reporter promises to be more trusting and less vigilant in the future” (a Simpsons quote I swear I almost tweeted as soon as I saw the denials), people were calling b.s. That leads us to …

3. “Hey, if you’re going to deny something, you’d better be sure you took care of the witnesses.”

Dan Loney has summed up the situation quite well, and Bill Archer chimed in with some informative comments from his own digging around.

So as you’ve probably guessed, I’m a bit skeptical about the conclusion that this was all misinformation. Perhaps it was a misunderstanding, inasmuch as Columbus fans could reasonably be expected to interpret the conference call and other communications of the past month as anything other than, “Yeah, we’re going to tell you guys how to do things.”

And I’m with Dan in the sense that the whole notion of having “capos”  feels artificial to me. Maybe I was harsh when I suggested that it was one step away from having cheerleaders. Maybe I wasn’t.

I can draw one parallel to college basketball. The crowd at Duke’s Cameron Indoor Stadium went significantly downhill when it started to rely on “cheer sheets.” Sure, a few things were pre-planned — the Twinkies tossed on the floor upon Dennis Scott’s introduction didn’t magically appear in the ancient arena. But the best cheers sprang organically from the crowd, and Duke fans of my (long-ago) era took pride in that. Funneling a crowd’s creative power through a handful of know-it-alls in the crowd just dulls the creativity.

But something else is getting lost — something more specific to soccer.

In the mid-90s, soccer fans in this country were all in the same boat. The sport was derided, and supposedly intelligent media folks would all tell you this country would never support legitimate pro soccer.

The Internet was helping fans come together. My first experience meeting serious soccer fans was on the North American Soccer mailing list, where people shared A-League and USISL match reports along with some debate over the issues of the day.

And yes, we had plenty of issues. U.S. leagues were experimenting with every manner of rule change under the sun. Teams that fouled too much in the USISL would concede an in-game shootout attempt. Kick-ins, bigger goals and incomprehensible bonus points in the standings were all on the table.

We also had a couple of agitators, most notably the guy who ran a site with the novel concept of rounding up satellite TV listings so people could actually find soccer games to watch — maybe an A-League game on a regional network or Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan on some obscure channel. Valuable public service, but it’s safe to say he made his share of enemies on the list.

The reason he stands out is that the rest of the conversation was collegial. People argued rule changes — and, yes, promotion/relegation came up. But we knew we were all trying to maintain a foothold for the sport in a hostile environment. That was a group effort. List members would argue for traditional European systems, then drive to an Atlanta Ruckus game.

Perhaps I’m overromanticizing, or perhaps I’m channeling Grumpy Old Man. But I think we’ve lost a bit of our belief in common goals. And our sense of history. Or perhaps our sense that supporter culture should debated and discussed among the grass roots, not enforced from the top down.

1