Category: soccer

soccer

MLS Week 10: The meek shall inherit

Posted on by Beau Dure

Highlights and oddities of the week:

– The bottom two teams in the league won, and the two target forwards not in Bob Bradley’s U.S. plans scored goals.

– My Player of the Week vote lurched from Javier Morales (RSL) to Stefan Frei (TFC) and to Danny Mwanga (PHI) before landing with Shalrie Joseph (NE).

– Revolution goal-scorer Zack Schilawski’s name was spelled SHILAWSKI on the back of his jersey.

– MLSSoccer.com did a profile last week on pool goalkeeper Kevin Guppy, who usually trains with the Galaxy but has been with Chivas USA as the backup while Dan Kennedy is injured. Funny timing. Zach Thornton picked up a red card against D.C. United and will be suspended, so unless Kennedy’s ready to go or the Goats pick up another keeper, Guppy is set for a start. He didn’t play against United because all three subs had been used, forcing defender Dario Delgado into the net to face a PK.

– New England already is using a third-string goalkeeper, Bobby Shuttleworth, after a horrific injury to Preston Burpo.

– The Red Bulls, dealing with a rash of injuries, have tumbled from first in the East to almost out of the playoff spots. Going rapidly the other direction: defending champion Real Salt Lake.

– The Galaxy faced their biggest test of the season, traveling to East leader Columbus without Landon Donovan and Edson Buddle. The Crew had their national campers, Chad Marshall and Robbie Rogers, back in the lineup. It’s official: No one can beat the Galaxy.

Lineups, notes, etc.

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soccer

How two wayward WPS investors could hurt the U.S. women’s national soccer team

Posted on by Beau Dure

If you want to know the difficulties U.S. women’s soccer would face if WPS disappeared, ask Canada.

The Canadian national team that faced the Washington Freedom last weekend was called together from all corners of the globe. American college soccer, WPS, the W-League, the Bundesliga and Scandinavia. The lack of cohesiveness showed, and the result flattered the visitors. Canada tied the Freedom 3-3, getting the two goal they needed for the tie while the Freedom’s defensive subs were getting acclimated. The balance of play went to the WPS side, not the national team.

“This looked like the first time the team was together,” said Canadian coach Carolina Morace, a pioneer of the game who scored 105 goals for Italy.

Morace sees several reasons for the disjointed play, one rather simple: “Unfortunately, we don’t have the league in Canada. And for us, this is a big problem. If you don’t play every Saturday or Sunday, you can’t have the rhythm of the game.”

Canadian goalkeeper Erin McLeod played for the Freedom in the friendly between her club and country, but she shared Morace’s frustration.

“Aside from Brazil, we’re the only team in the top 10 of the rankings without a domestic league,” she says. “It’s challenging. We’re spread all over the world. To get everyone together is difficult financially.”

A few days later, Canada fell from 10th to a tie for 11th in FIFA’s rankings. But the point is valid. Little is known about seventh-ranked North Korea, though at least one report suggests that talented players are shepherded into clubs at an early age. Japan has a women’s league entering its third decade and sometimes attracting offseason American players. European leagues are only getting better, with a formalized Champions League in place as extra incentive.

WPS has a solid claim to be the best league in the world, a huge advantage for the U.S. national team. And that’s one of many reasons why this week’s news out of St. Louis is so disturbing.

Abandoned by a couple of mysterious investors, with its last payroll met by bond money released by WPS, St. Louis Athletica has shut down in the middle of a season. The players — including U.S. mainstays Hope Solo, Shannon Boxx and Lori Chalupny — will become free agents next week. (WPS isn’t running a dispersal draft because the contracts were held through Athletica, not the league. The Los Angeles Sol situation in the offseason was different because the league had taken over the team.)

The situation in St. Louis is unique, to put it mildly. Jeff Cooper had been the driving force behind everything in St. Louis — the long-running MLS bid, AC St. Louis of the nascent second-division NASL, and a reshaping of youth clubs in the region. Somewhere along the way, new investors Sanjeev and Heemal Vaid became the team’s majority owners.

Fake Sigi traces the story of Cooper and the Vaid brothers (and son? See Fake Sigi’s report) in a compelling roundup of news reports that leads us to ask a Watergate-style question: Who knew what, when?

WPS, it appears, knew nothing. Goal.com: “Cooper was the sole owner of Athletica, and appeared to have brought on those investors without properly bringing it to the attention of the WPS.” That matches other information I’ve received, and I’ve left messages seeking Cooper’s comment on the matter.

Cooper released a statement — notably absent from Athletica’s site — pinning the blame squarely on the Vaid brothers: “The investors who defaulted on a contract to fund Athletica through this season and beyond broke a promise to a league, team, players and a community, and that is what is most troubling about today’s development.”

What’s happening in St. Louis isn’t happening elsewhere in WPS. Unlike MLS, WPS has no overarching single-entity structure. The Boston Breakers and Washington Freedom shouldn’t be diminished by the dissolution of Los Angeles and St. Louis, just as Portsmouth’s financial problems shouldn’t reflect poorly on Fulham or Manchester United.

But in a league with minimal mainstream media coverage aside from team closures, perception can become reality. Brian Straus, who covered the Freedom in the WUSA days (2001-03), points to the problem: “It’s hard to take the WPS seriously at this point, and even harder to imagine that anyone else will step forward and view women’s soccer in the U.S. as a good investment.”

That’s a little harsh, and it’s worth noting that WPS 2010 has more active investors than MLS 2001, when the league was on the brink and was held up by three owners. Ratings on Fox Soccer Channel (the story uses households — viewership numbers are higher) are just fine for a league of modest ambitions. But it’s fair to say future sponsors will have plenty of questions. So will fans.

The counterargument is that the league will be stronger once it sheds investors who can’t or won’t fulfill the teams’ needs. Like a business that makes painful but necessary cuts, perhaps the league will be better off without trying to prop up a failing club, as Jeff Kassouf points out.

On the field, the game is healthy and significantly better.

“Ten years ago, when I was playing with Canada, everyone would boot it into the box and hope for the best,” McLeod says. “Now it’s constantly evolving and challenging for everyone.

Morace agrees that the game is more sophisticated, but she doesn’t see a transcendent figure. “Mia Hamm, there is not,” she says.

Perhaps not, but the U.S. team is looking quite good these days. Though Cat Whitehill says the disorganized German team the USA dismantled 4-0 last weekend “weren’t Germany,” the rout of the second-ranked team in the world was impressive. Germany may have the second-best women’s league in the world, and its national-team players have stayed in Germany to prepare for next year’s Women’s World Cup on home soil.

Next year, if Germany has a fully functioning women’s league and the USA doesn’t, advantage Germany.

At this point, there’s no reason to think that would be the case. But a show of force from investors, sponsors and fans wouldn’t hurt.

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cycling, mma, olympic sports, soccer, tennis, track and field

Friday Myriad: I see Italy, I see France …

Posted on by Beau Dure

The Giro d’Italia and NCAA lacrosse tournaments conclude, the French Open hits the halfway point and national teams prep for the World Cup with various friendlies.

SATURDAY

9 a.m.: Cycling, Stage 19, Giro d’Italia. Final mountain stage. Ivan Basso took the lead in Friday’s stage and will be tough to displace here. Universal Sports

10 a.m.: Soccer (England), Millwall-Swindon. Winner is promoted to the Championship level. Fox Soccer Plus

2 p.m.: Soccer (international), USA-Turkey. The World Cup roster is set; this game is all about trying out combinations and tuning up. ESPN2

4 p.m.: College lacrosse, Notre Dame-Cornell, Division I men’s semifinal. ESPN2

6:30 p.m.: College lacrosse, Duke-Virginia, Division I men’s semifinal. ESPN2

8 p.m.: Soccer (MLS), New England-New York. Red Bulls have been reeling for a couple of weeks; Revs have been reeling most of the season. ESPN2

  • 7:30 p.m.: D.C. United-Chivas USA, Direct Kick/MLSS.com
  • 7:30 p.m.: Columbus-Los Angeles, Direct Kick/MLSS.com
  • 8:30 p.m.: Houston-Philadelphia, FSC
  • 9 p.m.: Colorado-Seattle, Direct Kick/MLSS.com
  • 9 p.m.: Salt Lake-Kansas City, Direct Kick/MLSS.com
  • 10 p.m.: San Jose-Toronto, Direct Kick/MLSS.com

10 p.m.: MMA, UFC 114. Rampage-Rashad in the main event. Full preview coming this afternoon. Pay-per-view

SUNDAY

8 a.m.: Soccer (international), Japan-England, FSC

9 a.m.: Cycling, Stage 20, Giro d’Italia. Three-week circuit ends with a time trial. Universal Sports

10 a.m.: Soccer (England), Dagenham and Redbridge-Rotherham, Fox Soccer Plus

5:30 p.m.: College lacrosse, Division I women’s final, CBS College Sports

6 p.m.: Soccer (WPS), Washington-Philadelphia, FSC

MONDAY

3:30 p.m.: College lacrosse, Division I men’s final, ESPN

ONGOING

  • French Open: 5 a.m.-noon on Tennis Channel; noon-6 p.m. on NBC (Sat/Sun) or ESPN2 (Mon)
  • Women’s softball (superregional stage, many games on ESPN2 and ESPN)

More action:

  • Full soccer listings at Soccer America
  • Selected weekend listings at USA TODAY
  • Universal Sports online: Giro, beach volleyball and rowing.
  • Tennis Channel: French Open (above).
  • Olympic sports: FIVB beach volleyball men in Poland, women in Korea. Shooting’s World Cup passes through Fort Benning, Ga. Track and field’s Diamond League resumes next week, leaving many athletes free to enter Fanny Blankers-Koen Games in the Netherlands.
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soccer

1994-2010 World Cup rosters: USA getting better?

Posted on by Beau Dure

Another quadrennium. Another World Cup roster selection. Each time, we have more hype. But is this U.S. team any better than the last four?

Here’s a position-by-position look. Each year, the players are listed in order of minutes played. Slashes represent a big drop in number of starts.

GOALKEEPERS

1994: Tony Meola /// Brad Friedel, Juergen Sommer

1998: Kasey Keller /  Brad Friedel // Juergen Sommer

2002: Brad Friedel /// Kasey Keller, Tony Meola

2006: Kasey Keller /// Tim Howard, Marcus Hahnemann

2010: Tim Howard, Marcus Hahnemann, Brad Guzan

Never a trouble spot for the USA. Hahnemann, who has been playing regularly and playing well, may be the No. 2 guy ahead of Aston Villa backup Guzan, but chances are we’ll never need to know.

DEFENDERS

1994: Marcelo Balboa, Paul Caligiuri, Alexi Lalas, Fernando Clavijo // Cle Kooiman // Mike Burns, Mike Lapper

1998: David Regis, Eddie Pope, Mike Burns // Marcelo Balboa // Alexi Lalas, Jeff Agoos

2002: Tony Sanneh, Eddie Pope, Frankie Hejduk, Jeff Agoos // Gregg Berhalter //  Carlos Llamosa // Steve Cherundolo, David Regis

2006: Oguchi Onyewu, Steve Cherundolo, Carlos Bocanegra, Eddie Lewis, Eddie Pope // Jimmy Conrad // Gregg Berhalter, Chris Albright

2010: Carlos Bocanegra, Steve Cherundolo, Jay DeMerit, Oguchi Onyewu, Jonathan Spector, Clarence Goodson, Jonathan Bornstein

The talent level has improved, but we might not see the evidence in South Africa. On paper, the top five players on the 2010 roster are the strongest group of five defenders the USA have taken. Bruce Arena was fortunate in 2002 to catch Tony Sanneh in a career year and Eddie Pope in the prime of a great career. Left back is always a problem position, with Eddie Lewis shoved back there on occasion. If everyone were healthy, Bocanegra could move left while the Confederations Cup pairing of Onyewu and DeMerit could clog the center. Bob Bradley might not have that option, and we could end up seeing any of these defenders at any time.

MIDFIELDERS

1994: Thomas Dooley, Mike Sorber, Tab Ramos, John Harkes // Cobi Jones,  Hugo Perez // Claudio Reyna

1998: Claudio Reyna, Cobi Jones, Thomas Dooley, Frankie Hejduk, Brian Maisonneuve // Tab Ramos, Chad Deering // Preki

2002: John O’Brien, Landon Donovan, Claudio Reyna, Pablo Mastroeni // DaMarcus Beasley, Eddie Lewis // Cobi Jones

2006: Landon Donovan, Claudio Reyna, DaMarcus Beasley, Bobby Convey, Clint Dempsey, Pablo Mastroeni // Ben Olsen, John O’Brien

2010: Landon Donovan, Michael Bradley, Clint Dempsey, Ricardo Clark, Stuart Holden, Jose Francisco Torres, Benny Feilhaber, Maurice Edu, DaMarcus Beasley

Another great example of 2002 catching players at their peak. O’Brien had injury problems throughout his career but made a strong run in South Korea. Reyna also was in top form. Beasley had just emerged as a force on the wings, and Donovan was coming into his own. The 2010 midfield should be stronger than the 2006 group thanks to the development of Dempsey, Bradley, Holden and Edu, along with the addition of Torres. Yet the 1994 group had two unique players in Ramos and Harkes with future stars Jones and Reyna in the wings with one-time great Perez.

FORWARDS

1994: Earnie Stewart, Eric Wynalda // Roy Wegerle // Joe-Max Moore, Frank Klopas

1998: Earnie Stewart, Brian McBride, Joe-Max Moore // Eric Wynalda, Roy Wegerle

2002: Brian McBride // Clint Mathis, Earnie Stewart, Josh Wolff //  Joe-Max Moore

2006: Brian McBride // Eddie Johnson, Josh Wolff // Brian Ching

2010: Jozy Altidore, Edson Buddle, Herculez Gomez, Robbie Findley

In 2006, Johnson was the phenom on the hot streak with relatively little experience in big games. In 2010, Buddle and Gomez share that role. Findley also fits that description if you take away the “hot streak” part of it. The consistent professional McBride has been replaced by the young Altidore, who has gone from the highs of the Confederations Cup to the lows of being kicked out of town by Hull. All four 2010 forwards have the potential to exceed the previous generations’ accomplishments, but they haven’t done so yet.

CONCLUSION

The 2002 team was terrific — in 2002. If the same players had taken the field in 2001 or 2003, the result could’ve been far different. Still, that squad was better than the 1994 team, which had a couple of players pulling the general level upward. The 1998 squad suffered from some selection questions and was between generations — some players were showing signs of better things to come, some were on their way out.

On the whole, the talent seems slightly better, but this team has the dual question marks of youth and health. It’s not a step backwards, but the squad hasn’t taken the leap forward it would need to overcome adversity. The 2002 team, good as it was, needed some luck to make its run to the quarterfinals. This one is in the same boat.

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soccer

Soccer 1, Fishing 0

Posted on by Beau Dure

ESPN has always had a collection of “outdoors” shows, to use the clumsy umbrella term for fishing, other wildlife encounters and “timber sports.” The conglomerate went so far as to buy fishing circuit BASS and make a big push with an outdoors division. ESPN has an outdoors site with everything from fishing columns to tips on cooking a deer heart.

Times have changed, and ESPN is dumping most of its outdoors programming. That’s more of a shock for fishing fans than the day ESPN suddenly completed its Premier League deal, and Saturday morning devotees turned on their TVs to hear a different accent.

The trend seems obvious. Versus, the network formerly known as Outdoor Life Network, has shifted its focus to cycling, MMA and more mainstream sports. Newspapers and magazines, cutting coverage across the board, haven’t spared the fishing rod.

But the sports themselves aren’t dying. Hunting license numbers have dropped a bit, though some evidence suggests those numbers rise as the economy sinks. Fishing isn’t going to dry up. For national TV coverage, outdoors sports may need to rely on some obscure cable channels — Sportsman Channel, Outdoor Channel, World Fishing Network and Pursuit — but aside from big BASS events that ESPN may still show, the sports are built for participants rather than spectators.

In any case, soccer fans should know they’re in no position to gloat here, even as the Premier League bumps the boats off the Saturday morning lineup. This news shows how quickly broadcasters can fall in and out of love with a sport. Getting the deal and keeping the deal are two different things.

(HT: Sports Business Daily)

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cycling, mind games, olympic sports, soccer, tennis, track and field

Monday Myriad: Trash-talking backfires in chess; order restored to Giro?

Posted on by Beau Dure

Starting with CHESS today for the worst case of trash-talking blowing up in one’s face since the Kids in the Hall bar-fight sketch …

Defending U.S. chess champ Hikaru Nakamura couldn’t have made it more obvious that he saw a weak link in the 2010 championships’ final four. Via the St. Louis Chess Club Twitter feed: “Pretty much when me, Gata and Alex play each other we play solid, and we all try to beat Yury.”

That would be Yury Shulman, who turned around and beat Nakamura the next day. His match with Gata Kamsky this afternoon, which you can follow live from 3 p.m. ET, will determine the new champion. (Unless they draw and go to a tiebreaker.) Nakamura will face Alex Onischuk in what has become a mere consolation game.

We have a few more stray items today: The French Open is underway, NCAA tennis continues (see below) and darts’ Premier League was postponed until today due to a power failure.

The weekend wrap:

CYCLING

  • Tour of California: Friday’s big mountain stage didn’t make a dent in any of the overall leaders. That left everything riding on Saturday’s time trial, where Aussie Michael Rogers finished second behind non-contender (and HTC-Columbia teammate) Tony Martin to pad his overall lead to nine seconds over third-place David Zabriskie. Three-time champion Levi Leipheimer lost more time and remained in third. The final stage had some intrigue, but the contenders finished together, confirming Rogers’ win. (Velo News)
  • Giro d’Italia: Overshadowed by Floyd Landis’ confession/accusation last week was Stage 11 of the Giro, The Day The Peloton Said “Oops!” A big breakaway gained too much time on everyone else amid confusion, illness and finger-pointing among and between teams that neglected to pull back enough time to prevent a big shakeup in the standings. Over the weekend, the usual suspects moved back up the standings, with Ivan Basso (back from two-year doping suspension) third and Cadel Evans fourth. American Tyler Farrar, who had won two stages and had the lead in the red jersey (points) standings, dropped out.

SOCCER

  • Champions League: Inter Milan 2, Bayern Munich 0. Not a bad final considering the nerves that always make such big games so difficult.
  • Mexico: Toluca wins its seventh championship in 13 years (25 seasons) on penalty kicks over Santos Laguna. Other winners over that span (1998 onward): Pachuca (5), Pumas (3), Club America (2), Santos (2), Monterrey (2), Necaxa, Morelia, Chivas, Atlante. Santos should’ve won it from the spot, but Toluca now has a title that ought to (but won’t) silence the scoffing of Mexico’s alleged “big clubs.” (BigSoccer)
  • Women’s: USA 4, Germany 0. Hope Solo made a couple of good saves, but this was a dominant performance.

OLYMPIC SPORTS

  • Ice hockey: Czech Republic 2, Russia 1 in men’s World Championship, ending Russia’s win streak at 27 games. Jaromir Jagr had a key play to defeat Alex Ovechkin and Semyon Varlamov, further extending the misery of us Capitals fans. (AP)
  • Track and field: Big Diamond League winners were David Oliver (110 hurdles), Lashinda Demus (400 hurdles), Carmelita Jeter (100) and some guy named Usain Bolt (200). (Universal Sports)
  • Beach volleyball: The FIVB tournament in Rome provided the best opportunity of the weekend, other than the USA-Germany soccer game, to break out the “USA!” chant. Jen Kessy and April Ross are on the kind of roll not seen since Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh’s pre-maternity days, and Todd Rogers and Phil Dalhausser won their 10th international event. May-Treanor and Nicole Branagh finished fourth. (Universal Sports)

COLLEGE SPORTS

  • Men’s lacrosse (quarterfinals): Top-seeded Virginia, somehow managing to focus while a player is in jail awaiting charges in the slaying of women’s player, beat Stony Brook 10-9 and will face Duke, which beat North Carolina with surprising ease. The other side of the draw is an upset special, seventh-seeded Cornell vs. unseeded Notre Dame, but the Virginia-Duke winner is guaranteed to make the final a media circus.
  • Women’s lacrosse (quarterfinals): Virginia, mourning the loss of teammate Yeardley Love, lost to North Carolina in a quarterfinal that may be better remembered for the sportsmanship than the result. Third-seeded North Carolina next faces second-seeded Northwestern, while top seed Maryland faces unseeded Syracuse.
  • Women’s softball (regional stage): No. 7 Texas, No. 8 Georgia Tech and No. 12 LSU were the upset victims in the regionals; BYU, Oregon and Louisiana-Lafayette advanced at their expense.
  • Men’s tennis (round of 16/quarterfinals): Yet another sport in which Virginia is a top contender: The top-seeded Cavaliers are in the semifinals against #5 Southern Cal. No. 2 Tennessee faces No. 11 Georgia, which is getting a boost from playing at home in beautiful Athens, Ga.
  • Women’s tennis (quarterfinals): More semifinal appearances for Notre Dame (fifth seed, vs. No. 8 Stanford) and North Carolina (second seed, vs. No. 3 Florida). Carolina edged Duke 4-3.
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soccer

MLS Week 9: East shifts back to Ohio

Posted on by Beau Dure

Stories of the week:

– Five road wins in seven games. (And no draws!)

– The Red Bulls’ early lead in the East is gone, with the Crew emphatically taking control. A couple of injuries seem to have rattled the Red Bulls.

– Last year’s MLS trophy winners, Columbus and Salt Lake, have won four straight.

STANDINGS/LINEUPS/PERSONNEL INFO/ETC

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cycling, mind games, mma, olympic sports, soccer, tennis, track and field

Friday Myriad: Must be better than Thursday

Posted on by Beau Dure

Time to have a good weekend of actual sports after a nasty day of news — cycling scandals, St. Louis soccer problems, etc.

FRIDAY

5 p.m.: Cycling, Stage 6, Tour of California. A very tough mountain stage should shake up the standings. Versus

11 p.m.: MMA, Strikeforce. Veteran Matt Lindland vs. up-and-comer Kevin Casey in the main event. Showtime

SATURDAY

9 a.m.: Cycling, Giro d’Italia, Stage 14. Universal Sports

10 a.m.: Soccer (England), Championship promotion final, Blackpool-Cardiff. Yes, one of these teams will be in the Premier League next season. Probably not the season after that. Fox Soccer Plus

Noon: Ice hockey, World Championship semifinal, Czech Republic vs. Sweden. Universal Sports

** 2:30 p.m.: Soccer (Europe), Champions League final, Inter Milan vs. Bayern Munich. Fox

  • 3 p.m.: Soccer (MLS), Seattle-San Jose, Fox Soccer Channel

4 p.m.: Ice hockey, World Championship semifinal, Russia vs. Germany. Universal Sports

** 6 p.m.: Soccer (Women’s), USA-Germany in a huge international friendly. No WPS games this week due to international play. ESPN2

6:30 p.m.: Cycling, Stage 7, Tour of California. It’s a time trial, though unlike the Tour de France, it might not be the last word. Versus

SUNDAY

5 a.m.: Tennis, French Open, first day. Tennis Channel

8 a.m.: Track and field, Diamond League in Shanghai, with Usain Bolt in action. Universal Sports online

9 a.m.: Cycling, Giro d’Italia, Stage 15. Universal Sports

Noon: Tennis, French Open, first day (broadcaster shift). ESPN2

1 p.m.: Soccer (Mexico), Toluca-Santos, second leg of final. 2-2 in the first leg. Telemundo

2 p.m.: Darts, Premier League semifinals. Can we watch on Sky’s online viewer? Anyone know?

2:30 p.m.: Ice hockey, World Championship semifinal, Universal Sports

6:30 p.m.: Cycling, Final stage, Tour of California. Hilly circuit. Versus

Ahead to Monday: England-Mexico (3 p.m., FSC/Telemundo) and more French Open.

NCAA Championship watch:

  • Men’s lacrosse (quarterfinals): One of two Duke-North Carolina matchups this weekend. Two first-round shockers saw perennial contenders Princeton and Syracuse ousted. Duke routed another usual suspect, Johns Hopkins. The big story, of course, is top-seeded Virginia, playing with one of its players in jail facing charges in the death of a women’s player.
  • Women’s lacrosse (quarterfinals): Not as many upsets in this bracket.
  • Women’s softball (regional stage, many games on ESPN2)
  • Men’s tennis (round of 16): Virginia is the top seed in this sport, too — huge spring season for the Cavaliers. Top 12 seeds still active.
  • Women’s tennis (quarterfinals): The other Duke-North Carolina matchup.

More action:

  • Chess (live coverage): U.S. Championships hit the unique final four stage.
  • Full soccer listings at Soccer America
  • Selected weekend listings at USA TODAY
  • Universal Sports online: Actually, most of their content is live on TV this weekend, which is unusual. It’s listed above.
  • Tennis Channel: WTA Warsaw and ATP Nice finals on Saturday, not Sunday. That’s because the French Open has a Sunday start.
  • Olympic sports: FIVB beach volleyball in Rome
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soccer

Book review: ‘Chasing the Game’

Posted on by Beau Dure

I’m thrilled to see two books on American soccer history being released in the same month. I’m absolutely biased in saying that, of course, because one of them is mine.

The other is Filip Bondy’s look at the U.S. men’s national team, Chasing the Game, which weaves recent and ancient history to tell the story of the team as it heads into the World Cup.

Bondy uses the same narrative device Jere Longman used in The Girls of Summer, flipping back and forth from chapter to chapter between the main story and background pieces on a particular player or some piece of history. It can be a little hard to follow, especially if you put the book down for a few days and come back to it, but it’s more interesting than giving a few chapters on history and then getting into the 2008-09 qualifying campaign.

Adam Spangler has taken Bondy to task for a few bits of questionable analysis. Such is the subjective nature of a sport that can’t be easily quantified in stats, though some news junkies may also disagree with his depiction of the Honduran political crisis of 2009. (Yes, it’s relevant to his story.)

Spangler also points out something else that brings us to the Great Dilemma of the Soccer Writer in Mainstream Media (GDSWMSM?): Am I writing for soccer fans, a more general audience or some mix of the two? Those of us who have been compelled to write an explanation of the U.S. Open Cup every time it’s mentioned in passing can empathize.

Bondy splits the difference, and it’s hard to argue with that. Heading into a World Cup, fans need different levels of edumacating. Some fans have no idea about the 1950 USA-England game or the intricacies of World Cup qualification. Some already know Landon Donovan’s and Walter Bahr’s biographies in detail.

What I always tried at USA TODAY was to include some detail, some anecdote or some quote that was unique. Bondy offers plenty of that. He fleshes out our image of U.S. coach Bob Bradley, showing him to be even more detail-obsessed than any of us imagined. For each qualifying game and each player described in detail, he has something most people didn’t know or hadn’t considered.

And Bondy is nothing if not thorough. He saw the qualifiers, and he interviewed the key participants. He goes back in history and talks with 1950 World Cup star Walter Bahr about the USA-England matchup of that year and this year. As U.S. World Cup histories go, he has a word from everyone except Bert Patenaude, who passed away 35 years ago.

Having been through the publishing process, I’m impressed that the book has come together so quickly. Six months before the review copy arrived, we weren’t even sure if the USA would make the trip to South Africa. In the book world, particularly outside the major publishing houses, six months is a tight deadline.

If the book seems rushed, though, it’s still worth the effort. It’s a great way to relive the ups and downs of qualifying while learning a bit more about what happened.

I’m again a little biased in the sense that I enjoyed reading about a few things I had witnessed first-hand, particularly the ad-hoc viewing party in which several reporters gathered around Sunil Gulati’s laptop in a Beijing sports bar to watch the USA win in Guatemala. But a lot of fans have their own memories that they’ll enjoy revisiting. And if you don’t remember anything that was written here, you need to read this book before June 12.

1
cycling, general sports, mind games, mma, olympic sports, soccer, tennis, track and field, winter sports

Monday Myriad: Sparkling play in WPS, short-sighted decision in Italy

Posted on by Beau Dure

We’re starting with WPS for a highlight that probably didn’t make SportsCenter (correct me if it did) but should have. It’s Abby Wambach’s back-heel, throwing off three defenders and setting up the Washington Freedom’s first goal against the run of play as the Atlanta Beat once again looked wonderful but couldn’t finish. If you want to skip ahead to it, go to the 1:17 mark:

Wambach’s header wasn’t bad, either, which is why she gets my Player of the Week vote ahead of Marta. Granted, if I could see Marta’s video highlights, that would help.

The full week (home teams first):

  • Atlanta 0, Washington 2: The Beat might have played the best two games ever without scoring, outshooting the Freedom 21-10.
  • Boston 1, Bay Area 2: Marta has both goals for the league leaders.
  • St. Louis 2, New Jersey 2: Apologies to Laura Kalmari, who scored twice for Sky Blue and won’t win Player of the Week ahead of the bigger names.
  • Chicago 0, Philadelphia 1: Not a very good week for home teams, was it?

GLOBAL SOCCER

Several trophies were on the line, but the decisive games made news for reasons beyond the results.

  • Spain: Barcelona looked as good as ever in beating Valladolid 4-0 to finish the La Liga season with a record 99 points — 31 wins, 6 draws, 1 loss — a season that ranks with Arsenal’s unbeaten Premier League run (2003-04) as one of the best ever in a top European league. The only team to beat Barca was erratic Europa League champion Atletico Madrid. Runner-up Real Madrid lost twice to Barca and still somehow kept pace until the very end, drawing 1-1 with Malaga in a result that kept the home team in La Liga next year at Valladolid’s expense.
  • Italy: Inter Milan made their fans sweat a little more, waiting until the second half to score at Siena and hold on for a 1-0 win that clinched the Serie A title by two points over Roma, which won 2-0 at Chievo.
  • Italy/USA: American defender Oguchi Onyewu, who missed much of the season after an injury in World Cup qualifying, worked out a one-year contract extension with third-place AC Milan by offering to play for free in 2012-13. The club have agreed, which is appalling. What happens to the next guy who gets hurt playing in a World Cup qualifier? How much pressure will be on that player to do what Onyewu did? (BBC)
  • FA Cup: Premier League champion Chelsea beat last-place Portsmouth, which played the season under the cloud of financial problems, but the underdogs managed to throw away much of their charm when Kevin-Prince Boateng’s brutal foul on Michael Ballack knocked the German cornerstone out of the World Cup. Boateng, coincidentally, has shifted nationality from Germany to Ghana and may play against Germany — and his half-brother, Jerome Boateng — in the World Cup. Perhaps it was instant karma that Boateng had a penalty kick saved, spoiling Portsmouth’s chance to take an improbable lead. (BBC)
  • German Cup: Bayern Munich 4, Werder Bremen 0. Saturday’s Champions League final (Bayern-Inter, 2:45 p.m. ET, Fox) will feature two teams going for a triple of league, cup and European trophies.
  • England: Congratulations to Oxford United, which returns to League football with an emphatic Conference final win. (BBC)
  • Mexico: Jose Francisco Torres will be available for the U.S. camp without a club-vs.-country battle, as his Pachuca side fell on 3-2 aggregate to Toluca. Santos followed up a 3-3 draw at Morelia by winning the second leg 7-1. What is this — the NASL? Third seed Toluca and fifth seed Santos will be the clubs playing in the Mexican final and lining up to crush MLS teams in next season’s CONCACAF Champions League.
  • CONCACAF (women’s): It’s a miracle that Haiti is able to field a team at all after the earthquake. They’re doing more than competing — they’ve advanced to the final round of Gold Cup qualifying. (All White Kit)

MMA

  • Strikeforce: Alistair Overeem demolished Brett Rogers to retain his heavyweight championship, saving Strikeforce from the PR dilemma of having their heavyweight champion already beaten by Fedor Emelianenko. All eyes now turn to an Overeem-Fedor matchup, assuming Fedor dispenses with Fabricio Werdum this summer. Also, Antonio Silva pushed Andrei Arlovski farther down the heavyweight ladder. (MMA Fighting Stances)
  • Shine Fights: Boxer Ricardo Mayorga was all set to face veteran Din Thomas in Fayetteville, N.C. Then a Florida judge granted boxing promoter Don King an injunction against Mayorga’s participation. After an afternoon Twitter flurry in which the card seemed to be going on with or without the main event, the North Carolina commission scrapped the whole card, though the co-main event of Murilo Rua vs. David Heath isn’t a bad matchup at all for a smaller promotion. King was asked to present a $1 million cash bond, which he did in two duffel bags. (Yahoo!)
  • Washington Combat: Sort of a senior-circuit main event, though Pedro Rizzo has two wins over Jeff Monson in recent years and was on Affliction’s much-hyped debut card against Josh Barnett. His opponent, Gary Goodridge, lost to Paul Buentello on the same Affliction card and lost to solid fighters Overeem and Gegard Mousasi since then. Bloody Elbow’s Luke Thomas says it’s time for Goodridge to hang ’em up. (Washington Post)

CYCLING

  • Giro d’Italia: Through nine stages, the leader is Alexandre Vinokourov, making his first big run since being tossed out of the 2007 Tour de France for flunking a doping test. Cadel Evans is 72 seconds back. American Tyler Farrar leads in points and has the red jersey, the equivalent of the Tour’s green.
  • Tour of California: Mark Cavendish, who won last year’s sprint title while Levi Leipheimer won the overall, won Sunday’s first stage of the eight-stage race. The big climbs are Tuesday and Friday.

TENNIS

  • Madrid Masters (men): After some atypical struggles, Roger Federer is back to normal, reaching the final and then, because it’s on clay, losing to Rafael Nadal. (AP)
  • Madrid Masters (women): Venus Williams reached the final and climbed to No. 2 in the rankings, her best since 2003. She lost in the final, though, to unseeded Aravane Rezai. Maybe she’ll be seeded next year.

OLYMPIC SPORTS

  • Swimming: Universal Sports has some video from the Charlotte UltraSwim, including Michael Phelps cruising in the 200 IM. Dancing with the Stars contestant Natalie Coughlin also is back in the pool. (Universal Sports)
  • Track, field and whatever this is: Tyson Gay set a “world best” (it’s not officially a world record because it’s not officially an official event) of 19.41 seconds in Manchester. Makes you wonder how Usain Bolt can run a 19.19 around a curve.
  • Running: Remember the USA TODAY profile on Amy Palmiero-Winters, the amputee who qualified for the 24-hour running world championships? She finished a very respectable 19th, coming just short of 200 kilometers. Scott Jurek covered 266.677k for a silver medal as the U.S. men placed third. Anna Piskorka (10th, 214.417k) was the top U.S. woman as the women’s team finished fourth. (USA Track and Field)

CHESS

Hikaru Nakamura and Gata Kamsky drew in their first meeting at the U.S. Chess Championships on Sunday, likely keeping both of them on track to play again in the “Final Four” in this uniquely formatted tournament. Irina Krush killed my fantasy team by losing out of what seemed to be a winning position against Varuzhan Akobian in a 113-move thriller. (U.S. Chess Federation)

INTRIGUING READS

  • Golf and tennis: One sport’s U.S. federation is taking all the right steps to get kids interested and keep them playing. The other is scratching its head as players appear to be abandoning the sport, and the solutions may be quite costly. (Wall Street Journal).
  • Football: Flag football — eventual answer to gender-equity questions? Convenient dodge of gender-equity questions? Waste of time? Great activity? Many opinions here. (New York Times)
  • Skiing/long-running TV shows: Lindsey Vonn was thrilled to do a guest spot on Law & Order. Not so thrilled to hear this is the final season. She’s organizing a group to save the show. (Yahoo! – Fourth-Place Medal)
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