Category: soccer

soccer

Style points: Why everything you think about the present or future U.S. soccer mentality is wrong

Posted on by Beau Dure

Soccer America’s Best of American Soccer 2010 has a terrific profile of FC Dallas coach Schellas Hyndman, whose breakout year in 2010 is just a small part of his compelling story.

His background is one reason why I’ve found the stereotypes of U.S. soccer in this otherwise interesting BigSoccer thread, which popped up in response to my ESPN piece on Claudio Reyna’s quest to overhaul U.S. youth development, so frustrating. The stereotypes say U.S. coaches are all about finding athletic players and aren’t interested in having decent touch on the ball or other soccer skills. If players have creative flair, it’s coached out of them.

Sure, you could find plenty of examples in which that’s true. But you can also find plenty of counterexamples.

In the 1990s, before and just after MLS launched, the most influential coaches in the USA were college coaches. And if you look at that group, you see so many exceptions that you start to wonder about the rule.

Start with Hyndman (SMU 1984-2008), who came to this country from China via Macau. He is a martial arts master who applies that discipline and focus (but not its kicks and punches) to the possession style he learned on a long sojourn to Brazil.

Then you have Argentina-bred George Tarantini (N.C. State 1985-2010), who recruited playmakers such as Tab Ramos but surrounded him with bruisers who were masters at off-the-ball, away-from-ref’s-eyes physicality. (Tarantini also coached a Cuban refugee named Albertin Montoya, who is also featured in the Soccer America year in review after coaching FC Gold Pride to fleeting glory.)

U.S. coach Bob Bradley (Princeton 1984-95) works far harder at building ties within his team than he does at winning over fans with bravado on the field or in press conferences. That gives him a reputation of being a prototypical overcontrolling U.S. coach. Yet he’s sensitive to overcoaching — check this funny anecdote from Time magazine (HT: Stan Collins) in which Bradley suggests to his daughter’s coach that he tone down the yelling, and the coach smacks him down because he’s just a “parent.”

We haven’t even mentioned yet that two of the most successful MLS coaches are Bruce Arena (Virginia 1978-95) and Sigi Schmid (UCLA 1980-99), neither of whom fits the mold. And their thoughts on soccer aren’t similar to those of Steve Sampson (Santa Clara 1986-93), who unleashed the 3-6-1 on the World Cup in 1998 for better or for worse.

Not all of these coaches are popular among the hard-core fans who want to see the USA play like Spain. Some of them have used negative tactics from time to time. But they’re hardly a group that can be painted with one brush.

Neither are the players they’ve developed. For all the talk of U.S. coaches focusing on big galoots, the prototype for ball-winning defensive midfielders was Richie Williams, who is roughly 10 inches tall.

Perry Kitchen was a highly sought-after prospect from Akron, where Caleb Porter is the latest “it” guy in the college ranks whose team plays the “right” way, and yet he walked straight from the MLS draft podium to a grilling from Paul Gardner over how often he fouls. Which mold does he fit?

The U.S. player who drew the most attention over the past 10 years has been Freddy Adu. He’s not big. He’s not even fast, though Cobi Jones memorably suggested that he try to use his speed rather than tricks.

Some people claim Adu was never that good, though everyone from Ray Hudson to European clubs to the U-17 defenses he shredded may differ. Some say Peter Nowak, not exactly a “U.S. coach” at that point in his career, coached his improvisational flair out of him and undermined his confidence.

Not I’m surprised to see BigSoccer conventional wisdom contradict itself. Despite evidence to the contrary, BigSoccer posters are convinced U.S. coaches prefer the big brutes. Another BigSoccer meme suggests the U.S. would be much better if it could convince its athletes to choose soccer over football and basketball. Most of those “athletes” are considerably bigger than the typical soccer team.

The overriding point is this: The USA is a large, diverse country. Its coaches and players come from different backgrounds and offer different talents.

That explains Arena’s skepticism in the most pointed quote in my ESPN story. He says this country is simply too big and too diverse to develop one particular style that fits all.

And so it surely must be folly to suggest that the USA already has one particular mindset without even trying to impose one. Right?

1
olympic sports, soccer, track and field, winter sports

Midweek Myriad: Fretting over Freddy, winter winners, soccer challenge

Posted on by Beau Dure

Time for another Midweek Myriad, also known as “stuff that happened while I was at Disney World.” I’ve saved the most serious item for the end, which is either “building suspense” or “burying the lead.”

SOCCER: Americans move at transfer deadline, with only 1 of 4 going in the “right” direction

U.S. fans longing for more Americans to succeed in Europe are thrilled that Michael Bradley is leaving Bundesliga bottom-dweller Borussia Moenchengladbach on loan to mid-table Premier League club Aston Villa, though playing time is far from assured.

More worrisome are the players making what ambitious folks would consider something less than a “lateral” move. At ESPN, Jeff Carlisle worries that Jozy Altidore and Eddie Johnson are following the same career path of loans without upward progress. Carlisle doesn’t even mention Freddy Adu, who is mentioned in a similarly downcast piece by Soccer America‘s Paul Kennedy.

Altidore’s move isn’t bad, really. He’s not seeing time at Villarreal, and he gets to hop into a title race in Turkey with Bursaspor. The snag is that the club also signed Scottish striker Kenny Miller.

Johnson is a few years older and settling into Championship-level soccer. Nothing really wrong with that, and no one’s looking to him as the future at forward for the U.S. national team these days. He’s on loan from Fulham to Preston North End trying to save the club from relegation.

The stunner is Freddy Adu, who quietly went on loan to Rizespor in Turkey’s second division. Even Adu’s harshest critics would’ve had a hard time predicting that he’d be so low on the European club ladder at age 21. I’d say Freddy has to set the Turkish second division on fire to put his career back on track, but in Turkey, the fans usually set the fires.

What’s strange is that no one can really tell us why Adu’s career has taken such turns in the past couple of years. For a while, his European misadventures were easily explained — he couldn’t break into the lineup at Benfica, and he was in a terrible situation in Monaco with an American-education club chairman who brought him in without seeing if the coaching staff had any interest. But we don’t know why Greece’s Aris lost interest in him or why he couldn’t latch on anywhere else in this transfer window.

And this just in (HT to Grant Wahl): Robbie Findley, newly transferred to Nottingham Forest, may be out three months.

SOCCER: NASL, fans damn the torpedoes

The NASL is undaunted (see Brian Straus story) over an initial rejection of second-division sanctioning and the need to start a Carolina team from scratch after previous owner Selby Wellman, a leading figure in the NASL breakaway, was unable to find a a supplemental or replacement investor. The RailHawks trademark sold on eBay for $14,999.

NASL fans also are undaunted, releasing a letter to U.S. Soccer complaining about the lack of D2 status. Kenn Tomasch calmly shredded the letter, mostly by reminding NASL fans that you have to play a few seasons, or at least a few games, before boldly proclaiming yourself a model of stability.

TRACK AND FIELD: Millrose Games surprises

– Ethiopia’s Deresse Mekonnen ended Bernard Lagat’s domination of the mile.

– Jamaican sprinters were a step ahead of the Americans in the men’s and women’s 60.

– The USA shot put train keeps rolling: Youngster Ryan Whiting upset Christian Cantwell, Reese Hoffa and Adam Nelson.

Recaps from the New York Times and Universal Sports, plus full results. (Big round of applause for the Millrose site for putting its results on one easy-to-read page rather than making us click for every event. Take note, track and swimming organizers.)

In less entertaining indoor track and field, some U.S. athletes went overseas after sleeping on the floor at JFK and lost to other international “teams” at the Aviva International in Glasgow. The biggest upset was a repeat from last year, with Britain’s Jessica Ennis beating Lolo Jones in the 60-meter hurdles.

MORE MYRIAD HEADLINES

– Winter X Games: Shaun White, Lindsey Jacobellis and Kelly Clark are still really, really good at snowboarding. The only surprise in that trio: Clark landed a 1080. Nick Baumgartner upset Seth Holland in the men’s snowboardcross.

– Soccer: Ridge Mahoney points to a major issue that could derail the Cosmos-to-MLS train: the league’s lucrative adidas deal. (Update: Grant Wahl, who has done the most extensive interview on the Cosmos to date, says the club has prepared to go adidas if it gets into MLS. Ridge’s piece is still worth reading as a reminder of how much power adidas wields.

– Handball: Olympic champion France keeps rolling, winning another men’s world title with an extra-time win over Denmark. Spain edged host Sweden for third, and Croatia beat my buddies from Iceland for fifth. All close games in the world championship of the sport that have the highest popularity-to-English-language-coverage ratio in the world. (AP)

– Figure skating: The highlight of the U.S. Championships in my beloved former hometown of Greensboro was Alissa Czisny’s remarkable comeback from afterthought status to win a battle of three former national champions. Christine Brennan, who has stuck with the sport through thick and thin, has the analysis.

– Ski jumping: Not sure what to make of the fact that Sarah Hendrickson has been at the forefront of a strong U.S. showing in international competition this year but managed only 18th in the World Junior Championships.

– Luge: No stunning world championship for the USA’s Erin Hamlin this year. She finished 14th. (AP)

– Freestyle skiing: Hannah Kearney’s World Cup moguls win streak stands at five heading into the World Championships in Park City.

– Cyclo-cross: Katie Compton took second in the World Championships. Holding this event in cold mud just seems especially cruel.

– Wrestling: Olympic champion turned Biggest Loser competitor Rulon Gardner is still hawking a 1 1/2-pound sandwich and challenging people to eat it with fries and a massive drink in 20 minutes. Maybe Rulon’s hoping to match legendary competitive eater Takeru Kobayashi, who is still skinny. (AP)

Last and not least …

At BigSoccer, Bill Archer has annoyed a lot of Canadian fans, and they have the prerogative not to be Bill’s buddies.

But aside from my own “Bill’s a good guy once you get to know him” story, I can say this — if you care about the sport, you should be reading Bill’s blog. I’ve yet to see anyone else in the Americas, from basement bloggers to professional journalists, do as much work in compiling disparate reports on the issues of FIFA, CONCACAF and other international soccer bodies. I would say to my fellow journalists — Bill is doing what we should be doing.

This piece on the utter travesty of Qatar’s Asian Cup final is a prime example.

If someone can offer valid reasons why organizers locked the gates before kickoff, separated families and brought out the riot police, fine. Let’s hear from them. But let’s not act as if this isn’t news.

We the American soccer media/blogosphere shouldn’t be moving on so quickly from FIFA’s extraordinary World Cup decisions to an exclusive focus on the MLS preseason or slobbering all over the latest EPL transfers. My challenge to all of us: Keep watching FIFA and Qatar. If Qatar is an absolutely unsuitable host for the Cup and FIFA is an unsuitable guardian for the game, these things can be and must be changed. Silence won’t get it done. If Al Jazeera can talk, so can we.

8
mind games, mma, olympic sports, soccer, tennis, winter sports

Midweek Myriad: Marta, Nadal, handball, 1260s, etc.

Posted on by Beau Dure

One of the joys of following a hundred sports or so is that you’re not stuck dissecting the Super Bowl to the point that it becomes joyless. Instead, we have all this:

– Marta signs with Western New York. A WPS shocker. Good news from a media point of view because it means more of us will be paying attention to veteran Rochester reporter Jeff DiVeronica, who jokes on Twitter that Marta will push him up to 1,000 followers.

The conventional wisdom would be that Marta would sign with The Club Formerly And Still Partially Known As The Washington Freedom But Also With Magic Jack In The Name (TCFASPKATWFBAWMJITN) so that Dan Borislow would have a marquee player to market in South Florida and perhaps somewhere in Washington once the team hires marketing and sales staffs and finds venues in which to play. Instead, Borislow has given us the best WPS smack talk in the league’s brief history, via Our Game: “This came as a total surprise. I am glad she will be playing in the league. She will discover we are the team to beat, so I hope she is at the top of her game when she plays us.”

For all the talk in MLS about “Rivalry Week,” maybe we should be circling the calendar for TCFASPKATWFBAWMJITN’s visit to Rochester.

– Nadal loses. And it’s a pity. Tennis could use a Grand Slam charge from the charismatic, humble Spaniard, but an injury has derailed his Australian Open campaign. Nadal didn’t want to use the injury as an excuse, but he wasn’t fooling opponent David Ferrer. Class acts all around. (NYT)

– Winter X Games time. And the NYT notes that several more X sports may be joining the Winter Olympic program. No word on women’s ski jumping, though that sport has a better-defined set of rules and so forth.

The Summer Olympics might be too big. The Winter Olympics aren’t, and it’s hard to begrudge slopestyle its place. But if the IOC adds the X sports without women’s ski jumping, the excuses will ring hollow.

– Handball heaven. It’s only $20 away. At least the highlights are free, so I was able to scout semifinalist France in their win over my buddies from Iceland in a rematch of the 2008 Olympic final. (Dan Steinberg also enjoyed covering that team in Beijing and linked to my highest-read blog post ever.)

Iceland plays Croatia for fifth place on Friday. The semifinals the same day: France-Sweden, Denmark-Spain.

– Also this weekend:

  • Cyclocross World Championships. The muddier, the better.
  • U.S. Figure Skating Championships, in my former hometown of Greensboro.
  • Luge World Championships. U.S. sliders not having a particularly good year.
  • Paralympic Athletics World Championships.
  • Millrose Games.
  • Strikeforce: Middleweight and welterweight title fights, plus Herschel Walker.
  • Final weekend of Tata Steel chess classic, where U.S. player Hikaru Nakamura shares the lead in an elite group.
1
olympic sports, soccer

What it takes to make a pro women’s sport work

Posted on by Beau Dure

I’m surprised no one within Google’s almighty reach has invented the word “entitleninement.” A couple of generations into the Title IX-fed growth of women’s sports in the USA, we’re still seeing a few patronizing attitudes.

The College Sports Council often resorts to disingenuous arguments about the impact of Title IX. Internationally, we see many more opportunities for women in Olympic sports, yet women’s ski jumpers have been kept out of the Olympics with arguments ranging from the condescending to the absurd.

Yet the CSC makes a few legitimate points as well, and it takes pains to distinguish its fight to save men’s sports from a fight to deny women opportunities. And within women’s sports, and Olympic sports as a whole, we’re seeing more of a realization of the difficulties of building and maintaining pro competition.

All of which makes softball player Jessica Mendoza’s post for ESPNW rather curious. She explains why she and other U.S. national team players have decided to concentrate on building a pro league rather than playing for the national team, which no longer has an Olympic presence every four years.

The key paragraph:

As much as I want to see softball return to the Olympic Games, there is something this sport needs even more: an opportunity for women to play softball for a living. Not as a side job. Not just recreationally. Instead, they should be able to make a living playing the sport they love so dearly. Softball players shouldn’t have to stop playing at age 22 because there are so few opportunities out there. And they shouldn’t have to live abroad, like basketball players did in the pre-WNBA era, because only other countries’ pro leagues are willing to pay them to play. I have seen more and more women in other sports (snowboarding, basketball, tennis, BMX and golf, to name a few) create opportunities to play for a living because of the professional opportunities they, and sponsors, have created. My dream now is to create these same professional opportunities for every young softball player out there.

That’s ambitious. But is it realistic?

Mendoza cites Billie Jean King as a mentor and gives a brief history of the women’s tennis movement that has proved so successful. Snowboarding also has women’s stars alongside men’s stars, and many Olympic sports have women whose fame and fortune hardly lags their male counterparts. Think Lindsey Vonn, Michelle Kwan, Allyson Felix, Dara Torres, Kerri Walsh, etc.

But at the same time, the LPGA is limping along. Women’s soccer is trying to re-entrench itself in a smaller niche. And most women’s basketball players still go overseas in the WNBA offseason because they’re not raking in the dough while the league tries to keep the ship steady in the USA.

Softball deserves better than it got from the IOC, which has made a mockery of its supposed gender-equity aspirations. But after covering the WPS draft last week in a mid-sized convention room with no players present, I’m not sure I could be bullish on another women’s sports league starting from scratch. And you won’t see any soccer players this summer turning down an invitation to the World Cup to give 110 percent for Sky Blue FC or magicTalk SC / Washington Freedom. WPS made it to a third season only through a couple of owners’ determination to persevere and a couple of new owners’ enthusiasm for moving up to the highest level and, in the case of MTSCWF, promoting a brand name.

If National Pro Fastpitch succeeds, it’ll need either a few benefactors who believe in some combination of the sport itself and the opportunity to get some marketing/self-satisfaction from attaching brand names to it. It won’t succeed merely because that would be the fairest outcome for 22-year-old college softball standouts who somehow deserve a chance to devote themselves fully to their sport. Plenty of people have talents that can’t pay all the bills — in Olympic sports, mixed martial arts, music, creative writing, art … even journalism.

The question will be: How many professional softball players can the USA support? In women’s soccer, we can easily support a national team of 25-30 full-time players, and we’re working on pushing that number to a couple hundred. In beach volleyball, both men’s and women’s, the AVP’s demise has reduced the opportunities so that just a couple of elite teams playing internationally have much of a chance.

Creative solutions can help. Americans are lucky to have college scholarships to provide training environments and an education. Sometimes, an employer like Home Depot comes up with a program to give Olympians flexible jobs to let them work and compete.

Nothing wrong with aiming for full-time professionalism. But staying open to creative business plans will surely increase pro softball’s chances.

9
soccer

Beckham and the remnants of condescending England

Posted on by Beau Dure

Most Americans love England in some respect. They might be Monty Python or Doctor Who fans. They might think London is lovely. They might admire the country’s love affair with a sport that spreads to four professional leagues and scores of semipro and amateur leagues all wrapped up in a neatly organized pyramid. They might think the English are generally better educated and more reasonable, though that could be a stereotype that fails to account for, say, booing an opponent’s national anthem.

What we don’t like the English insistence that, as great-great-grandchildren of the people who wrote soccer’s rules and successfully exported them to the world, they must know better than we do. About everything.

That insistence has faded. The Premier League is built on foreign talent and, in many cases, foreign coaches. American players in particular are much better respected today than they were 15 years ago.

Yet we see vestiges of it on the Web, along with vestiges of all other prejudices. Just check the comments on Paul Gardner’s Soccer America piece quite rightly questioning why David Beckham wants to drag his long-battered body over for a couple of months of being knocked around in the Premier League.

The commenters — clearly unaware that Gardner is himself English and was writing eloquent pieces about FA Cup finals before they were born — don’t address Gardner’s points. They simply refuse to believe that “someone in America” would dare to criticize anyone as brilliant as Beckham.

One doesn’t have to have been raised on Match of the Day and disgusting meat pies to understand the following:

1. A minor point: Beckham would actually be a good candidate for an Olympic overage spot, just as Brian McBride (a player the English might recall) lent his experience to the 2008 USA squad.

2. For those who clearly didn’t read the piece before commenting: The issue is not that Beckham has been limited by playing in a low-quality side. The issue is that Beckham takes off on these loans and comes back injured from playing too many games. He’s not young. He needs to give his body a break. And regardless of what you folks think about MLS, Beckham thought enough of it to sign a contract and pledge himself to playing here, and it’s high time he lived up to his words.

3. For Patrick Cormac — this may seem petty, but if you’re going to complain about education, you should consider spelling “nouveau” correctly. And you should realize that whatever complaints people have about Gardner, he’s not exactly “nouveau.” One of his most brilliant pieces is an account of the 1953 “Matthews final.” A first-hand account.

4. For Jeff Jefferson — Americans did not invent the word “soccer.” The English invented that word to distinguish the game from other codes of football. Americans aren’t alone in calling it “soccer.” Say “footy” in Australia, and you’ll be greeted by a gaggle of men chasing after an oblong ball and trying to maneuver it through three giant posts at either end of a massive oval.

Frankly, it appears that these folks could use an education not just about the realities of the game in the USA but the history of the sport as a whole. Perhaps they should start with Gardner’s book The Simplest Game.

Gardner, in his decades in this hemisphere, has come to the position that the USA should take more inspiration from the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries in the Americas than from Europe, particularly as the USA becomes more Hispanic through immigration. His critics would say he belabors the point. But if you’re going to base your entire response on an appeal to authority, you’re going to lose.

0
cycling, mind games, mma, olympic sports, soccer

Myriad most popular

Posted on by Beau Dure

I’ve crunched a few numbers to figure out pages that drew at least 0.1 percent of my total page views for the year. (The percentages are slightly lower than they should be due to some extraneous stuff in the stats — scripts, other ways of reaching a page, etc. — so 0.1 may actually be 0.15 or so.)

Here are the top pages, with an unofficial category added to show the post’s topic. You might notice a pattern.

MMA 1.6 /2010/11/the-ultimate-fighter-season-12-episode-8-its-a-trap/
MMA 1.43 /2010/06/the-ultimate-fighter-season-11-episode-10-iceman-1-crab…
MMA 1.32 /2010/05/the-ultimate-fighter-season-11-episode-9-if-only-tito-c…
MMA 1.31 /2010/04/the-ultimate-fighter-season-11-episode-4-the-doors-of-p…
WCSoc 1.1 /2010/04/the-marketing-of-landon-donovan/
MMA 0.94 /2010/04/the-ultimate-fighter-season-11-episode-5-epic-struggle/
MMA 0.9 /2010/04/the-ultimate-fighter-season-11-episode-3-not-that-there…
MMA 0.85 /2010/05/the-ultimate-fighter-season-11-episode-8-wild/
MMA 0.82 /2010/10/the-ultimate-fighter-season-12-episode-6-choke-choke/
MMA 0.81 /2010/04/the-ultimate-fighter-season-11-episode-2-get-off-my-bac…
MMA 0.81 /2010/09/the-ultimate-fighter-season-12-episode-2-bruce-decoy/
WCSoc 0.79 /2010/05/1994-2010-world-cup-rosters-usa-getting-better/
MMA 0.79 /2010/10/the-ultimate-fighter-season-12-episode-7-kos-gets-a-bre…
MMA 0.79 /2010/03/the-ultimate-fighter-season-11-episode-1-14-fight-whirl…
MMA 0.78 /2010/05/the-ultimate-fighter-season-11-episode-7-medic/
MMA 0.73 /2010/09/the-ultimate-fighter-season-12-episode-1-fight-x14/
MMA 0.67 /2010/05/the-ultimate-fighter-season-11-episode-6-overwork-pays-…
MMA 0.64 /2010/10/the-ultimate-fighter-season-12-episode-4-maturity-rocks…
WCSoc 0.56 /2010/09/world-cup-economics-and-skepticism/
Oly 0.54 /2010/08/beach-volleyball-hitting-another-ebb-in-usa/
WPSoc 0.48 /2010/09/wps-seasons-change-freedom-advance-scurry-says-goodbye-…
General 0.4 /2010/05/friday-myriad-ufc-giro-and-a-field-of-their-own-in-wps/
MMA 0.36 /2010/06/the-ultimate-fighter-season-11-semi-finale/
WPSoc 0.35 /2010/11/why-the-washington-freedom-should-not-collapse/
MLS 0.34 /2010/05/mls-week-10-the-meek-shall-inherit/
General 0.34 /2010/07/friday-myriad-up-all-night-for-aussie-rules-mma-le-tour…
MLS 0.33 /2010/05/mls-week-9-east-shifts-back-to-ohio/
General 0.32 /2010/06/monday-myriad-marry-lolo-beat-phelps/
MMA 0.3 /2010/04/bellator-nets-nice-ratings-despite-uneven-distribution/
MMA 0.3 /2010/05/the-curse-of-fedor-former-opponents-faring-poorly/
MMA 0.3 /2010/05/ufc-113-rua-rules-koscheck-controversy-and-the-case-for…
General 0.29 /2010/07/monday-myriad-no-soccer-withdrawal-here/
MLS 0.29 /2010/08/announcing-the-mls-ratings-project/
General 0.28 /2010/06/friday-myriad-enjoy-the-usa-ghana-game-for-what-it-is/
WPSoc 0.27 /2010/05/how-two-wayward-wps-investors-could-hurt-the-u-s-womens…
Cycling 0.27 /2010/07/tour-stories-schlecks-angry-stomach-lance-on-vacation-t…
General 0.26 /2010/03/welcome-to-sportsmyriad/
Chess 0.25 /2010/04/why-this-world-chess-championship-is-so-exciting/
General 0.25 /2010/06/friday-myriad-french-finals-final-cup-tune-ups/
WCSoc 0.25 /2010/05/alejandro-bedoya-stealth-marketing-and-the-u-s-world-cu…
MLS 0.25 /2010/05/mls-eight-worthy-playoff-teams-pre-cup/
USSoc 0.25 /2010/04/throwing-open-the-u-s-open-cup/
Cycling 0.24 /2010/05/floyd-landis-confession-lets-no-one-off-the-hook/
General 0.24 /2010/06/friday-myriad-usa-england-ii-liddell-franklin-i-track-f…
WPSoc 0.24 /2010/05/marons-world-tour-loans-to-africa-teams-in-iceland-and-…
MLS 0.23 /2010/04/mls-week-5-no-sleep-til-seattle/
MLS 0.23 /2010/11/a-modest-mls-playoff-proposal/
WPSoc 0.23 /2010/12/selling-wps-tickets-with-no-staff/
General 0.23 /2010/09/are-sports-monopolies-necessary/
MLS 0.23 /2010/07/mls-fans-shut-the-up/
General 0.23 /2010/07/friday-myriad-morning-tv-friendly-soccer/
MMA 0.22 /2010/05/judging-the-rashad-rampage-ufc-conference-call/
General 0.22 /2010/06/friday-myriad-world-cup-by-day-mma-by-night/
MMA 0.22 /2010/09/the-ultimate-fighter-season-12-episode-3-tyson-for-tea/
Cricket 0.22 /2010/07/my-fractured-relationship-with-ian-bell/
IntSoc 0.22 /2010/04/book-review-a-beautiful-game/
General 0.22 /2010/04/friday-myriad-europa-but-no-pirate-twins/
General 0.21 /2010/05/monday-myriad-sparkling-play-in-wps-short-sighted-decis…
General 0.21 /2010/03/tuesdays-headlines-moscow-mourns-man-u-in-munich/
IntSoc 0.21 /2010/04/what-makes-a-soccer-game-change-besides-messi/
General 0.21 /2010/03/randy-couture-kimbo-slice-and-lacrosse-closer-than-you-…
General 0.21 /2010/05/monday-myriad-world-series-of-poker-schedules-around-wo…
MLS 0.2 /2010/08/panic-at-rfk-olsen-replaces-onalfo-with-d-c-united/
WCSoc 0.2 /2010/07/fifa-world-cup-2011-announces-mascot-a-cat-an-elegant-c…
MMA 0.2 /2010/11/defending-koscheck-the-standing-up-for-his-guys-theory/
General 0.19 /2010/05/friday-myriad-i-see-italy-i-see-france/
MMA 0.19 /2010/12/the-ultimate-fighter-season-12-semis-everything-zen/
General 0.19 /2010/03/welcome-to-sportsmyriad/feed/
MLS 0.19 /2010/05/mls-week-7-seattle-sets-the-bar/
MLS 0.19 /2010/10/colorado-1-0-columbus-squander-squander-squander/
MMA 0.18 /2010/05/whats-on-ufc-114-culture-clash-at-mandalay/
Oly 0.18 /2010/11/2012-medal-projections-old-cold-war-battles-jamaica-hea…
Chess 0.18 /2010/04/world-chess-championship-delayed/
General 0.18 /2010/05/monday-myriad-twenty20-just-not-cricket-injury-free-gir…
Oly 0.18 /2010/05/live-diamond-league-debut/
WCSoc 0.18 /2010/05/book-review-chasing-the-game/
USSoc 0.17 /2010/09/immediate-questions-after-the-usl-bombshell/
General 0.17 /2010/04/the-perils-of-predicting-prospects-futures/
General 0.17 /2010/05/friday-myriad-must-be-better-than-thursday/
MLS 0.16 /2010/07/mls-still-not-sturdy-enough-to-wish-for-another-teams-d…
Tennis 0.16 /2010/06/isner-mahut-and-wimbledon-triumph-of-will-or-failure-of…
MLS 0.16 /2010/08/mls-in-the-silverdome-raise-the-roof-yall/
MMA 0.16 /2010/10/the-actual-cause-for-concern-beneath-the-brock-lesnar-p…
USSoc 0.16 /2010/10/does-the-usa-need-a-no-10/
MLS 0.16 /2010/11/settling-all-mls-dilemmas-in-one-easy-fix-maybe/
MMA 0.16 /2010/05/the-ultimate-fighter-quarterfinal-catchup/
General 0.15 /2010/06/the-frustrations-of-free-lance-blogging/
WCSoc 0.15 /2010/07/record-low-for-world-cup-scoring-still-in-sight/
WPSoc 0.15 /2010/07/game-report-freedom-0-red-stars-0/
USSoc 0.15 /2010/08/there-is-no-try-adu-or-not-adu/
General 0.15 /2010/05/monday-myriad-trash-talking-backfires-in-chess-order-re…
WPSoc 0.15 /2010/10/wps-best-xi-and-the-evolving-u-s-womens-national-team/
Oly 0.15 /2010/04/lashawn-merritt-male-enhancement-and-unanswered-questio…
WPSoc 0.15 /2010/04/wps-welcomes-the-sound-of-sponsors-in-season-2/
General 0.15 /2010/04/thursday-no-fooling-around-here/
MMA 0.15 /2010/10/the-ultimate-fighter-season-12-episode-5-nam-better/
General 0.15 /2010/03/tuesdays-headlines-moscow-mourns-man-u-in-munich/feed/
General 0.14 /2010/05/friday-myriad-diamond-debut-four-soccer-trophies-on-the…
General 0.14 /2010/08/friday-myriad-epl-madness/
MLS 0.14 /2010/04/mls-week-4-cool-is-a-rule-but-bad-is-bad/
MLS 0.14 /2010/06/twitter-tabloids-and-landon-donovan/
WPSoc 0.14 /2010/04/wps-week-1-best-womens-league-ever/
WPSoc 0.14 /2010/07/freedoms-misfortunes-touch-gold-pride-too/
USSoc 0.14 /2010/07/u-s-open-cup-and-why-lower-division-teams-are-happy/
General 0.14 /2010/04/monday-myriad-bolt-flies-while-u-s-nets-wins-in-tennis-…
MLS 0.14 /2010/05/mls-week-6-how-long-can-red-bulls-surge-last-before-cra…
Poker 0.13 /2010/07/paralympic-poker-player-cashing-in/
MLS 0.13 /2010/06/mls-marquee-matchup-real-salt-lake-and-r-e-s-p-e-c-t/
General 0.13 /2010/04/friday-myriad-get-your-track-shoes-and-chess-pieces/
MLS 0.13 /2010/04/whats-better-about-the-dynamos-new-stadium/
General 0.13 /2010/07/friday-myriad-not-out-of-our-league/
WPSoc 0.13 /2010/09/briana-scurry-bids-farewell/
MMA 0.12 /2010/04/could-judges-have-botched-the-aldo-faber-fight/
MLS 0.12 /2010/11/the-big-mls-playoff-and-schedule-announcement/
WPSoc 0.12 /2010/05/wps-bompastor-goes-mindless-solo-reviews-dave-matthews/
WPSoc 0.12 /2010/07/womens-soccer-small-world-wouldnt-want-to-paint-it/
WCSoc 0.12 /2010/11/time-to-transition-to-a-post-fifa-world-or-world-cup-an…
MLS 0.12 /2010/05/mls-eight-worthy-playoff-teams-pre-cup/feed/
WPSoc 0.12 /2010/12/mad-about-the-freedom-place-the-blame-on/
General 0.12 /2010/08/friday-myriad-bolt-vs-gay-silva-vs-sonnen-dps-vs-dps/
MMA 0.12 /2010/08/mma-not-pro-wrestling/
MLS 0.11 /2010/11/is-mls-too-physical/
MMA 0.11 /2010/04/thursday-bring-on-bellator/
MLS 0.11 /2010/09/player-ratings-d-c-united-columbus/
MMA 0.11 /2010/11/the-ultimate-fighter-season-12-episode-9-1-1/
MLS 0.11 /2010/07/concacaf-the-mls-graveyard/
Oly 0.11 /2010/08/diamond-league-gay-pearson-upset-bolt-jones/
Oly 0.11 /2010/08/womens-ski-jumpers-the-phoenix-of-olympic-sports/
USSoc 0.1 /2010/04/tales-of-soccer-survival-misls-milwaukee-wave/
Chess 0.1 /2010/05/after-alleged-world-title-blunderfest-chess-world-turns…
Oly 0.1 /2010/08/diamond-league-the-pen-penultimate-meet/
Oly 0.1 /2010/06/can-four-woman-beach-volleyball-make-a-comeback-if-gabr…
General 0.1 /2010/07/who-are-you/
WCSoc 0.1 /2010/09/world-cup-economics-and-skepticism/comment-page-1/
Rugby 0.1 /2010/07/bledisloe-bash-begins-in-tri-nations/
USSoc 0.1 /2010/08/why-dont-we-have-a-soccer-blog-like-this/
General 0.1 /2010/04/wednesday-now-officially-renamed-messiday/
MLS 0.1 /2010/09/player-ratings-chicago-toronto/
Cricket 0.1 /2010/08/a-curse-on-cricket/
Darts 0.1 /2010/07/phil-the-power-taylor-prepares-once-more-for-battle/
WCSoc 0.1 /2010/06/virtual-viewing-party-usa-england/
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mma, olympic sports, soccer

SportsMyriad’s 2011 plans

Posted on by Beau Dure

So you’ve opened all the presents and thought, “Well, that’s nice, but what I really want is to know what SportsMyriad is planning in 2011. We’ve seen nine months of erratic updates and programming. What now?”

Basically, you’re going to see three big content initiatives:

1. 2012 medal projections. The goal is to be FiveThirtyEight.com for Olympic sports, though Nate Silver is a brilliant stats wizard and my last big mathematically hurrah was AP Calculus, all of which I’ve forgotten.

2. MLS team guides. A mix of facts and subjective analysis (or idiotic opinion, depending on what you think of it) for all 16 teams. I mean 18. 19? Anyway — look for that in March.

3. More MMA. Expect The Ultimate Fighter recaps to continue through Season 13, along with some other occasional content. My next book will be on MMA, and I expect to keep writing on a free-lance basis here and there.

And I’ll have occasional posts on this and that, mostly as time and info permit.

4
soccer

Mad about the Freedom? Place the blame on …

Posted on by Beau Dure

Yes, WPS and Washington Freedom fans, I hear you. BigSoccer hears you. The transitional staff hears you. You’re sad that the name may change and that the team may play games in (or eventually move to) South Florida. You’re frustrated that the new owner is talking of upgrading the team to win a championship while having no staff to participate in a free-agent market that has seen much of the team move elsewhere.

What I can tell you is that WPS and former Freedom personnel always stress the same thing in their conversations: Without new majority owner Dan Borislow, this team wouldn’t exist. The league might not have made it to Season 3.

If the doomsayers are correct and 2011 proves to be a sad farewell to what’s left of the Freedom, the blame should fall on the Washington region itself.

Not on the fans, who have supported the team reasonably well given the long drive up I-270 to the Soccerplex. The blame should fall on anyone who had the wherewithal to invest in the team … and didn’t.

It’s not as if this region has no money. Some of the suburbs are the richest towns in the country that can’t be skied or sailed into. Visit sometime, and I’ll drive you past some houses whose mortgage payments make Marta’s paychecks look like sofa change.

But when it comes to soccer, the rich folks and the businesses don’t step up. Ask D.C. United, which really needs a local investor to help out Will Chang, who has put his heart, soul and wallet into the team from across the country. The most prominent local company to step up with United is Volkswagen, the German automaker with a U.S. operation in exurban Herndon, Va.

Washington’s other pro sports teams feature one of the best owners in sports (Capitals/Wizards owner Ted Leonsis, who made his fortune with AOL) and worst (he shall not be named). Leonsis loves his community as much as any owner in the country, but we can’t ask him to buy and finance everything in town.

Two possible reasons why the Freedom eventually turned to an out-of-town savior:

1. Unwillingness to be associated too closely with “Washington.” Everyone wants to live here; no one wants to admit it. The rest of the country hears nonstop chatter from political candidates pledging to change Washington, the supposed cesspool on the Potomac. The region has plenty of big local businesses — contractors, lobbying firms, finance companies, tech firms, etc. — but they make their money nationally.

2. As Kenn Tomasch will surely stop by and point out — this isn’t charity. A lot of investors want to see return on their money.

Maybe Borislow can make his new direction work. If he does, all Freedom fans can do is lament the fact that no one felt strongly enough about the Washington Freedom to help a deeply rooted 10-year-old club turn the corner as it was.

8
soccer

Selling WPS tickets in transition (updated)

Posted on by Beau Dure

In working on a story that I’ll likely publish somewhere between now and Christmas (just in time for no one to see it), I was told by several people that the Washington Freedom were conducting business as usual for the moment.

Nothing was set in stone in terms of changing the name from the Freedom to magicTalk FC, incorporating the name of new majority owner Dan Borislow’s new product. Mark Washo, who had spent the last couple of years as Freedom GM/president, had announced his departure to work for Playbook Management International, was still running the team on an interim basis. The club’s Super-Y League teams went to the North American finals in Florida a few weeks ago and cleaned up, with all four teams making their age-group semis, one falling in the final and two winning the big trophy.

Then late last week, Jeff Kassouf passed along word that the Freedom had laid off their remaining staff.

So, hypothetically, if you wanted tickets for WPS games in the Washington area as Christmas presents, how would you order them? Or how would you contact the team with other questions?

You could order season tickets online, though you may wonder about ordering a 12-game package given all the open talk among league and team officials about splitting the 2011 season between Maryland and Florida. If you call, you’ll find the voice mail system still offering to connect you with account executive Tim Albee or other departmental contacts. Then if you dial the operator, you hear this:

“Experius — may I help you?”

And they’ll kindly transfer you back to the Freedom switchboard if you so choose.

Experius is a company founded by John Hendricks, the Discovery Channel magnate who founded the WUSA and the Freedom. He and his wife, Maureen, sold a majority share of the Freedom to Borislow this fall.

The Freedom roster, meanwhile, is a considerable state of flux — Ashlyn Harris, Allie Long and Cat Whitehill are among those who have gone elsewhere.

Will anyone be in place before the holidays? During? Before next month’s draft?

Updates:

1. There is indeed a transitional staff in place. Some staffers who have been laid off will continue working for the next couple of weeks. So if you order something from the Web site (scarves, shirts, etc.), you should get it.

2. Borislow says the team will give pro-rata refunds for games not played in Maryland. Full refunds will be offered.

3. This from Borislow: “The team will be significantly upgraded and we expect to win the Championship this year.”

7
soccer

Explaining the World Cup vote using ‘NewsRadio’

Posted on by Beau Dure

Having failed in my effort to explain the World Cup vote using When Harry Met Sally, I’ll now explain it using a scene from NewsRadio in which Dave (Dave Foley) is England, the USA and Australia, while Bill (Phil Hartman) is every FIFA voter who claimed to be voting for said countries.

In this episode, all employees secretly told Dave they were voting for him as news director. The results: Lisa (Maura Tierney) won a unanimous vote.

Bill: Lisa and you were both strong candidates. There was really no way to choose between you two.
Dave: Then why did every single person vote against me?
Bill: Joe voted using a random number generator. Beth voted against you because Lisa gets fewer phone calls and doesn’t like coffee. Matthew is a lifelong Republican, so he had no choice.
Dave: And why didn’t you vote for me?
Bill: I still think I did. I guess this is one of those things we’ll never know the full truth.

You can also watch the non-embeddable video or get the Season 4 DVD, which is probably the best of the show’s excellent run.

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