Tag: usl

soccer

Major League Soccer’s minor-league tinkering

Posted on by Beau Dure

The rumblings are growing that MLS reserves and USL pros may soon share a league.

NASN’s Jason Davis says it looks like we’ll see some this year (2013 — I’m changing the calendar now) and more in 2014, with some MLS reserve teams going into the USL’s pro league and other MLS teams working out affiliations.

At the Sporting News, Brian Straus goes into the background of the problem — players who come out of college (or skip it) and find few chances to play.

The old-timers among us had to laugh a bit at the idea of affiliates — not because it’s a bad idea, but because we’ve seen it done before. MLS teams started with affiliates in what was then called the A-League. Yari Allnutt of my hometown Carolina Dynamo had a 1996 stat line of 1 goal in 45 minutes for Kansas City, surely close to a record for goals per minute, at least until Allnutt got a full-time MLS gig years later.)

But it wasn’t always a happy situation. A-League clubs could sometimes lose players at inopportune times. Over the years, the relationship soured.

For a couple of years, MLS operated a “Project-40” team in the A-League, immortalized in virtual print by future Real Salt Lake GM Garth Lagerwey in a pair of columns of SI.com. The idea of that team was to take all the young players (today called “Generation adidas”) who weren’t getting playing time with their MLS teams and toss them together to face the A-League pros.

So I checked in with Garth, who said this:

P-40 trips made me the man I am today, but certainly glad the league has grown since then.  If there is some pairing between MLS and one minor league or all minor leagues I would say that is good for soccer and player development.  We need a step in between Academies and MLS first teams and we need to have a viable second division with all the best non-MLS players for the highest possible level of competition to develop players.

Perhaps Project-40 and affiliations were ahead of their time. Ten years ago, MLS rosters were much smaller. The “affiliations” were less about getting playing time for reserves and more about dragging players up from the A-League on an emergency basis when injuries reduced an MLS team to 13 players or so.

Ideally, MLS clubs would all have enough players for a full reserve team. Also ideally, the USL and NASL would set aside their differences, and we’d have a sprawling second division that could be mostly regional. Also also ideally, college soccer would be a complement rather than a supposed detriment — perhaps by letting college players go on loan wherever they want in the summer instead of just to PDL or other amateur teams.

Some of those things may be beyond the scope of MLS and USL for now. But we can dream, right?

 

 

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soccer

Women’s soccer, the new league and Hope Solo: Can’t we all just get along?

Posted on by Beau Dure
We got two fillings for THIS?

There’s three sides to every story — yours and mine and the cold, hard truth — Don Henley

There’s blood in my mouth ’cause I’ve been biting my tongue all week — Rilo Kiley

Jules: Yolanda, I thought you said you were gonna be cool. Now when you yell at me, it makes me nervous. And when I get nervous, I get scared. And when (bleepers) get scared, that’s when (bleepers) accidentally get shot.
Yolanda: You just know, you touch him, you die.
Jules: Well, that seems to be the situation. But I don’t want that. And you don’t want that. And Ringo here *definitely* doesn’t want that. — Pulp Fiction

Maybe I’m reaching with the last one. Perhaps I should’ve skipped to the part where Jules says the Ezekiel verse one last time and says he’s trying real hard to be the shepherd. The U.S. women’s soccer community could use a shepherd.

As you know if you follow me on Twitter, I bought Hope Solo’s memoir, skimmed the personal parts and read the soccer parts. No offense intended to her personal story — I was just in a hurry to learn what she had said.

I mentioned a couple of things that surprised me. One was a quote that I thought could be taken the wrong way. Another was that she reiterated her racism accusations against Boston Breakers fans, accusations that most of us thought had been put to rest.

People were angry with me. A couple of them were people I respect and like, and we talked it out. A couple were people I don’t know as well who slung a few drive-by insults at me and declined to elaborate on what exactly I’d said.

The latter isn’t a surprise. Solo has a legion of fans who will mobilize against any alleged “hater,” even if she doesn’t ask them to do so. Just check out the reviews at Amazon, where the one person to say anything negative is marked with the dreaded “1 in 24 people found the following review helpful.” (To be sure, the review doesn’t say much. But some of the other reviews marked as “helpful” are simply insane.)

If anyone’s reading here wondering if I’m going to be a “hater,” you might be disappointed. I didn’t hate this book. Her story is well-written — co-writer Ann Killion is never one to mince words (ask Don Garber), and the book moves briskly. And though some people come across better than others, this book wasn’t written to settle grudges. It’s her story. She spends much more time talking about the truly important people in her life — family and a few supportive coaches — than she does about her conflicts. Plenty of people will find this book inspiring.

If you read the book, just remember the Don Henley quote here. There are multiple sides to every story.

Continue reading →

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soccer

You want U.S. Soccer involvement in elite women’s game? Here you go …

Posted on by Beau Dure

I don’t see the press release at USSoccer.com yet, but there was a second announcement today in addition to Pia Sundhage’s roster for the Olympics. Here’s the key excerpt:

Following the FIFA Women’s World Cups for the Under-17 and Under-20 age levels this coming fall, the head coaching positions for those teams will become full-time for the first time. In addition, U.S. Soccer will hire another full-time coach whose main focus will be on enhancing the player development environment for young players from coast to coast.

So before today’s game against China, U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati held a press conference with women’s technical director April Heinrichs and women’s development director Jill Ellis.

Does this sound boring so far? In some respects, it’s not a huge announcement. But these little announcements — like the hiring of Heinrichs and Ellis a while ago — are adding up to something, and the press conference led to a wide-ranging talk on women’s soccer.

So in the 20 minutes before this game starts, I’ll try to sum up:

– Heinrichs and Ellis say they’re trying to shift the focus of U.S. development from physical and psychological to tactical and technical.

– Will we see the women duplicate the U.S. U17 men’s Bradenton residency? Heinrichs and Ellis weren’t enthusiastic about that. Heinrichs says it’s a good way to win a U17 World Cup, but she and Ellis want to cast a wider net for players at that age for future national team development.

– Heinrichs says an 18-year-old American recently had to choose between college and a lucrative deal with Lyon in France.

– Might we see a national B team to keep more players in active international play? Gulati thinks it’s possible and said Heinrichs once drew up some similar plans.

– The big news you’ve already seen us tweet: In 30-45 days, U.S. Soccer will convene a meeting of various stakeholders in the women’s game: USL, former WPS teams … and yes, MLS, either teams or league staff or both. (I forgot to ask if Dan Borislow was invited.)

– An interesting WPS post-mortem piece: Gulati says U.S. Soccer offered 12 months ago to help WPS with league administration. They were turned down.

I’m thinking regular readers here might have some thoughts. Have at it.

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soccer

The ups and downs of promotion and relegation

Posted on by Beau Dure

Long the province of cranky conversations in the virtual soccer community, promotion and relegation leaped into the news in recent days with a couple of pieces of bad reporting:

1. An English executive of some kind, Richard Bevan, claimed that some overseas owners of Premier League clubs want to scrap promotion and relegation. American-owned Aston Villa responded: “Put up or shut up.” Neither happened. Liverpool’s John Henry has now weighed in with his own denial.

Let me back up with a disclaimer: My love/hate relationship with Britain (probably 80% love) can be summed up like this – Britain invented many things I love in the arts, sports, sciences and intellectual thought. That includes Monty Python, the Beatles, the Comedy Store Players, soccer, antibiotics, economic theory and (eventually) the notion that a capitalist country should find a way to take care of its least fortunate.

But don’t let anyone tell you it’s not provincial, especially in sports. They’re miffed that the rest of the world doesn’t play the same sports they do. Some people even prefer the “awkwardness” of the UK version of The Office to the full-fledged character development and creative situations of the American version. They’ve spent decades thinking there’s something wrong with the way South Americans play soccer. They STILL think the 1930 U.S. World Cup semifinalists were all Brits, no matter how many times Roger Allaway and company smash that myth into pieces.

So we shouldn’t be surprised when the bad old Americans are seen as overlords who want to turn the Premier League into the NFL. They really should be more worried about people who want to form a pan-European NFL of their own.

2. Meanwhile, in Korea, the soccer powers that be want to start promoting and relegating. Here’s the problem: They tried that just a few years ago, and the lower-division teams didn’t want to move up.

That’s not unusual. In the USA, teams have often preferred to move down or stay down. The USL’s sprawling three-tier system of 15 years ago is now a scaled-back third-division pro league with scores of teams opting instead for fourth-division amateur status. Some clubs, like the well-rooted D3 Richmond Kickers, have no desire to bounce back up to a division that would require cross-country travel every other week. (Yes, I’ve asked.)

Teams also aren’t that likely to see a giant leap in revenue with each step up the pyramid. Consider other U.S. sports. I saw Greensboro’s minor-league hockey team move from the brutish ECHL to the flashy AHL, a big step up the ladder that brought much more talented players to the Coliseum. Attendance dropped.

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Continue reading →

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soccer

Thunderstruck: D.C. United Women’s home debut

Posted on by Beau Dure

A decent crowd was walking up to the stadium despite the 100-degree heat, the bagpipes were in effect, the staff was ready, the players were warming up …

Bzzzt … beep … blaaaaaare … bzzt.

That’s the static-electricity detector at the Maryland Soccerplex, telling everyone to get inside.

So for two hours, fans and players crowded into the gym at the Plex, waiting for the all-clear. The rain didn’t last long, but we were just close enough to a couple of passing storm cells to see some flashes and hear some rumbles, each one restarting the countdown until we could get the game underway.

The upside was that the game, once it started, was uninterrupted. The storm cooled off the Plex, and it turned into a very pleasant night with 100 or so fans remaining from the original crowd. Surely that crowd would’ve been more on a weekend — getting up I-270 to the Plex is difficult at rush hour — and the heat/storm forecast didn’t help.

The crowd included a group from New Jersey that stuck it out. Good for them for making the trip. The bad news was that they echoed the Wildcats’ coaching staff in hounding the refs throughout the game, at times inventing their own reality.  I wound up in an argument with one gentleman who claimed the ref saw the retaliation (the Wildcat red card) but not the original foul on a late altercation. But Christie Welsh got a yellow — a debatable one — for the original foul. So surely the ref saw something.

The coaching staff didn’t put up much of an argument on the red card. That may have been a smart move, or they may have simply been hoarse from complaining about everything from physical play to throw-ins at midfield. Frankly, it was comical at times.

But the Wildcats have a solid team, strong at the back with a dangerous player in Kylee Rossi. The goal, an opportunistic long-range effort from Andrea Lopez, was well-taken. Both goalkeepers had solid games, with Emmy Simpkins making a couple of big late saves after starter Caroline Williams was hurt in a collision.

D.C. United has some communication issues, not surprising for a team that’s still being cobbled together. Welsh just got her clearance to play, as did former 2.Bundesliga player Hayley Siegel. The talent level is pretty strong, though, and Nairn stood out throughout with good runs in midfield and accurate, powerful long-range shots.

The weather may have thrown players off a bit. Long passes skipped on the wet turf, though the excellent Soccerplex field drains quickly.

These teams may see each other down the road. New Jersey has only two blemishes on its record — the tie with D.C. and a one-point deduction (if anyone knows why, please let me know). D.C. lost its opener 0-1 at New Jersey. As both teams come together, a late July playoff matchup could be something special.

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soccer

Shots on goal in U.S. games, April 13-17

Posted on by Beau Dure

Home teams first, ranked in order within each league. Make of it what you will.

MLS (median=6; mean for season thru Saturday’s games was 8.39)
New York 9-3 San Jose
Portland 5-5 Dallas
Houston 7-1 New England
Toronto 1-6 D.C. United
Chicago 3-3 Los Angeles
Vancouver 2-4 Chivas USA
Portland 4-2 Chicago (not including one own goal each way)
Columbus 4-2 Kansas City
Salt Lake 2-3 Colorado
Toronto 3-1 Los Angeles
Philadelphia 3-1 Seattle

(Incidentally, in 1998, the average shots per game was 12.98)

WPS (median=13.5)
Atlanta 4-11 Sky Blue FC
Boston 4-8 Western NY

NASL
No idea. So far, they’ve had eight games, 16 goals and 52 saves. So that’s 68 shots on goal (8.5 per game).

USL PRO (median=7.5; adding saves plus goals)
Dayton 3-5 Charleston
Wilmington 4-4 Rochester
Richmond 4-3 Rochester
Charlotte 1-5 Orlando

RANDOM GLOBAL GAMES (median=8.5)
Bolton 5-10 Stoke
Catania 5-9 Lazio
Arsenal 5-5 Liverpool
Pumas 6-4 Queretaro
Deportivo La Coruna 4-5 Racing Santander
Montpellier 3-5 Marseille
Bayern Munich 4-3 Bayer Leverkusen (in 4-1 Bayern win?)
Borussia Dortmund 5-2 Freiburg
PSG 5-2 Lyon
Fiorentina 4-2 Juventus

So … guys? The thing with the net at the end of the field? Yeah. Soccer balls go in there.

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soccer

The Freedom of the Majestic WPS FCs

Posted on by Beau Dure

Here’s a quick attempt to summarize what is known about women’s soccer teams in the Washington area as of 5:30 p.m. ET, March 24, 2011:

– The Northern Virginia Majestics, affiliated with the PDL’s Northern Virginia Royals and Super-Y teams, will remain in the W-League, playing to the southwest of DC between Manassas and Dumfries. (See Tweet from @NovaRoyals)

– A new team, tentatively called Washington FC, will also play in the W-League. This team takes over the territory ceded by the former Washington Freedom and will play in the Freedom’s former home, the Maryland Soccerplex, northwest of DC in Boyds, Md.

– The Majestics ownership will be involved with this new team at the Soccerplex, with competitive controls built in to prevent any issues with player movement between the two teams. (Confirmed today with USL management.)

– D.C. United may also be involved with this new team, tentatively called Washington FC, but that cannot be officially announced as yet.

– Meanwhile … magicJack, the WPS team formerly known as the Washington Freedom, may yet hold the door open to play in the Washington area, though their home base will be in Florida. Borislow says he wants the team to play some in the D.C. area but is meeting resistance from Puma. (This from conversation with Dan Borislow today and Potomac Soccer Wire interview.)

– Coincidentally, Borislow’s MagicJacks won the U14 title at the Jefferson Cup, not too far from the Freedom’s former home. (But significantly closer to Manassas.)

Got it? You will be quizzed later.

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soccer

Immediate questions after the USL bombshell

Posted on by Beau Dure

The USL announced today that its first and second divisions, beset by defections and dwindling numbers over the past 15 years, would merge into USL PRO.

The league addressed a couple of long-standing concerns in its announcement:

1. The pro league would be governed by team owners, a sticking point for several teams that wanted out.

2. The league would have regional play, saving on the travel costs of those Puerto Rico-to-Vancouver flights.

But several questions leap to mind after a quick reading:

1. What happens to the teams who broke away to form the NASL, which was then shotgunned into a one-year marriage with the USL teams in a federation-run second division this year?

2. Is this league truly second division? If so, how many of these owners can meet the new standards of a $750,000 line of credit and an owner worth $20 million?

3. While regional play sounds good, where will all these teams come from? Will any team be farther west than Austin?

4. Would the USL welcome MLS reserve teams?

So we have an interesting press release. But the future announcements should be even more intriguing.

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soccer

U.S. Open Cup and why lower-division teams are happy

Posted on by Beau Dure

No, we shouldn’t read too much into U.S. Open Cup results. Having two USL-2 teams in the quarterfinals and no one from the USL/NASL shotgun marriage of a second tier doesn’t mean the USL-2 teams are doing everything right while the USL/NASL teams are getting it wrong.

But there’s something curious happening in the USL ranks. Several years after Dave Ungrady’s Unlucky chronicled a professional team at this level that had organizational struggles (one side effect: paychecks?), we’re seeing a couple of well-established American soccer clubs that are at this level voluntarily, and they’re quite happy.

You could call it the final nail in the “promotion/relegation NOW” argument. Though these clubs have roots, either with youth systems or stadiums, they’re not fretting away that they can’t be promoted to MLS. They’re not even interested in moving up to the second level of American soccer.

“Ultimately, we want to be in a situation where we are now where we’ve got local rivals, we have a stable league and stable group of teams,” Kickers coach Leigh Cowlishaw said after his team played well but lost 2-0 to D.C. United in the round of 16. “We’re not looking to change the recipe. The reason we’ve been successful over the last 20 years is that we try to make financial decisions that make sense long-term not only for the club but the growth of soccer. We’re very happy where we are. Hopefully there will be more teams that want to follow the model that we have.”

So the Kickers have opted for stability and short trips in their handsomely appointed bus over trips to Puerto Rico and ambitions of challenging MLS anywhere other than an Open Cup bracket.

“We’re more excited, we have something to prove,” said Kickers captain Mike Burke, who played for D.C. United several years ago. “So I think we’re going to have the edge from that standpoint, and that’s why a couple of USL-2 teams win games. Obviously the quality in MLS is better. But sometimes these lower-division teams are just more up for the game.”

The teams advancing through the Cup bracket have more going for them than a pro team and some grandiose marketing hype. The Harrisburg City Islanders, like the Kickers, have an extensive youth program. The Charleston Battery have a soccer-specific stadium with 5,100 seats, a few amusements for kids and a pub for adults.

What distinguishes the Kickers is that its long-running youth system — a team makes an appearance in the 1994 book Twenty-Two Foreigners in Funny Shorts — is producing players for the pro team. Midfielder Bobby Foglesong played with the Kickers’ Super Y League and PDL teams. Defender Roger Bothe was a U-15 player for the Kickers in 2002.

“I was there when he was 13 or 14 and coached him a few times,” Burke said, joking that he feels old. “It makes you feel good that you have a kid with your youth club who’s with the pro team now.”

“We’ve got programs for 2-year-olds up to the pro level,” Kickers forward Matthew Delicâte said. “So we’ve got everything in place. It’s a great system now. The pro players can be around and help teach young players about the game.”

The system also is ideal for older players with coaching aspirations like Burke, an assistant technical director in the youth ranks, and Delicâte, who traveled to the LA area’s Home Depot Center to earn his “B” coaching license in the offseason.

“Those are the kinds of things that are going to keep me around,” Burke said. “My soccer career’s almost over. I have maybe one more year in me.”

Richmond is a hospitable place to settle down — Englishman Delicâte first came to Richmond to play for Virginia Commonwealth and is happy to live close to his wife’s family. Having the Kickers in place gives players with ties to Richmond a nice option, particularly with a youth program producing a steady stream of talent.

“The goal is to play at the highest level possible, but if they want to continue to play professional soccer and Richmond’s their home, that’s a great situation,” Cowlishaw said.

And so as we follow along tonight with the Battery hosting MLS’ Columbus Crew (plus an all-MLS matchup of Houston and Chivas USA), the annual questions of whether USL teams are better than MLS teams seem less interesting than this question: What will it take to replicate Richmond?

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cycling, mma, soccer

Monday Myriad: MMA apology time

Posted on by Beau Dure

Quick reminder: Boston Marathon this morning on Universal Sports.

So what happened this weekend?

SOCCER (Americas)

– MLS: The Galaxy look great. The bottom teams look terrible. Full roundup already up.

– WPS: Six and a half years ago, Abby Wambach scored both goals in the last WUSA final as the Washington Freedom defeated the Atlanta Beat. On Sunday, Wambach had a goal and two assists as the Freedom won their first WPS meeting with the Beat 3-1. Trivia, true to the best of my recollection (let me know if I forgot someone): The only two players from the Beat’s 2003 final lineup to play in WPS, Briana Scurry and Homare Sawa, are on the Freedom’s roster. Sawa scored for the Freedom.

It was another 3-1 decision in the Bay Area, where FC Gold Pride unleashed Christine Sinclair (two goals) and Marta (one) on the defending champion Sky Blue.

1-1 ties elsewhere: Boston-Philadelphia, Chicago-St. Louis. The great news was that St. Louis’ Lori Chalupny was in action after some concussion concerns, and she scored Athletica’s early goal. Chicago rookie Casey Nogueira, who looked amazing in the W-League a couple of years ago, had the equalizer.

USL/NASL: The early Division 2 pace-setters are the Austin Aztex, who spoiled St. Louis’ home debut with a 2-1 win. Only three goals in the other four games over the weekend, with road wins for Tampa Bay (at Baltimore) and Minnesota (at Carolina), a home win for Portland (vs. Rochester) and a 0-0 tie for Vancouver at Miami.

Charleston took the early lead in USL-2 with a 3-2 win over Charlotte. Former D.C. United developmental player/JoJo video star Mike Zaher scored for the Battery.

Brazil: Botafogo clinched the Rio title. (AP)

Mexico: American Herculez Gomez was red-carded after two goals and will wait through the regular-season finale to see if he can share the league’s scoring title. (AP)

SOCCER (Europe)

England: Arsenal fell from legit Premier League contenders to head-scratching also-rans in 10 minutes in their fourth-to-last game, conceding three goals to Wigan to fall six points behind Chelsea, which left the door open with a loss to Tottenham. The other decisive game: Manchester United got a late goal (again) to beat Manchester City in a classic derby, keeping United within a point of Chelsea and dropped City behind Tottenham in the race for the fourth Champions League spot.

Spain: Real Madrid wins, Barcelona ties — Barca’s lead is down to one.

Germany: Schalke stays within two points of Bayern Munich as both teams win, but Bayern pretty well settles the goal-difference tiebreaker by blasting Hannover 7-0. Steve Cherundolo’s side is in the relegation zone.

Italy: Milan’s loss to Sampdoria likely leaves a two-team race between Roma and Inter. Roma and Lazio “fans” had a knife fight. Shocker.

Americans in action: Goal.com’s roundup has an unlikely lead — Eric Lichaj scored a vital winner for Leyton Orient. (Goal.com)

MMA

The results were surprising for Strikeforce’s CBS show Saturday night. Inexperienced “King Mo” Lawal upset light heavyweight champion Gegard Mousasi, who re-upped with Strikeforce a couple of days earlier. Jake Shields outwrestled former Olympic wrestler Dan Henderson, and Gilbert Melendez easily handled top Japanese lightweight Shinya Aoki.

The bad news for Strikeforce: All three title fights went the distance and didn’t have a lot of crowd-pleasing action. (MMA Fighting Stances)

Then came the comedy: Jason “Mayhem” Miller, who won earlier in the night, jumped into the cage and demanded a rematch with Shields. Miller, known for entertaining entrances and his hosting duties on MTV’s Bully Beatdown, got a beatdown of his own from Shields’ camp, including the fiesty Diaz brothers. Mayhem’s immediate reaction on Twitter: “Whoops.” He has since issued a more formal apology. Not expecting one from the Diaz brothers.

TENNIS

Think Rafael Nadal is ready for the French Open? He won the Monte Carlo final over Fernando Verdasco 6-0, 6-1. (Yahoo!: Busted Racquet blog)

Top-seeded Caroline Wozniacki suffered an ankle injury and retired from her semifinal match at the Family Circle Cup in Charleston. Daniele Hantuchova upset Jelena Jankovic in the quarters but lost in the semis to Samantha Stosur, who went on to win the final over Vera Zvonareva.

BEACH VOLLEYBALL

Misty May-Treanor, who reveals in an upcoming book that she and her family struggled with alcoholism, teamed for the first time with Nicole Branagh and swept through the field at the AVP Fort Lauderdale Open. The final was rainy and windy, enough so that the men’s final that was to follow the women was canceled. (Miami Herald)

CYCLING

Alberto Contador seems to be in good shape for the Grand Tours, winning the Vuelta a Castilla y Leon. (Velo News)

With Fabian Cancellara and Tom Boonen not in the field, Belgian Philippe Gilbert won the Amstel Gold Race (Velo News)

BOXING

Not often that a Ring champion loses. Sergio Martinez landed the upset this weekend over Kelly Pavlik. (USA TODAY)

THIS WEEK

– Track and field: Penn and Drake Relays start Thursday and Friday.
– Soccer: Champions League and Europa League will go on this week despite the volcano.
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