August 12, 2010

Theirry Henry will not say American soccer fans sing better than English fans. But they do sing well.

And maybe that is the missing link, the natural order of soccer progression. First the fans learn to sing together in a cappella support of their lads, then a great homegrown striker emerges from the mists.

Henry, once a great star in the Premier League with Arsenal, says he has heard home fans in Houston, Chicago and now the New York metropolitan area keep their teams in the game with musical accompaniment for the entire 90 minutes.

Without blaring vuvuzelas marring the sound, Henry made his home debut Wednesday evening, playing the first half and assisting on the goal as the Red Bulls defeated Toronto, 1-0.

But this musical talent breaking out all over Major League Soccer does not mean the sport is in for a golden age. In fact, this part of the continent might have had its golden age in the 1970s, when the late, lamented Cosmos were filling the late and perhaps soon-to-be-lamented Giants Stadium and other places.

Something is stirring in the United States in the wake of the recent World Cup in South Africa. Apparently a few stirring rallies as the Yanks were eliminated in the Round of 16 went over better with fans back home than they did with the hard-to-please American players, officials and even reporters who witnessed the sluggish starts and lapses up close.

“I never say we are turning the corner because it seems to me that if you turn the corner four times, you are back where you started,” Sunil Gulati, the president of the United States Soccer Federation, said the other night, when 77,223 fans nearly filled New Meadowlands Stadium for a rather unimpressive 2-0 loss to Brazil by the national team.

Something is definitely happening, Gulati added, “when you can’t get into a pub to watch a World Cup match at 10 o’clock in the morning.”

Landon Donovan’s stirring goal in the 91st minute against Algeria, to allow the Yanks to advance to the next round, seems to have been a magic moment back home — so much so that Donovan was on David Letterman shortly after the Yanks were knocked out by Ghana.

All 25,000 seats in the lovely if modest-sized Red Bull Arena are sold out for Donovan’s appearance with the Los Angeles Galaxy on Saturday night. Perhaps some of those tickets were sold before what’s-his-name blew out his Achilles’ tendon last spring, but Donovan, not any of the elderly stars from the top leagues in Europe, is now the glamour boy of M.L.S.

“You guys should be proud of Landon Donovan, he’s a great player,” Henry told reporters Wednesday after his first league home game enticed only 19,035 fans on a weekday night. Henry is working through a tight groin muscle and cannot guarantee he will be up for 90 minutes Saturday, but he made a few silky moves and alert passes, enough to give promise of more.

This franchise has been down this road. The MetroStars, now in witness-protection identity as the Red Bulls, have trotted out one Donadoni after another Djorkaeff, without much impact. They were cool guys, but they were essentially taking a pay cut to live in New York in their athletic old age.

So is Henry, for that matter, taking the PATH train out to the stadium on occasion. He came by car for Wednesday’s match, he said, because his mother is visiting from France. C’est un bon fils.

This influx of so-called designated players is a departure for the league, which has tried to avoid lavishing huge sums of money on aged glamour. But maybe in the 15th season, it is time to spend.

“Our goals are different,” said Erik Stover, the managing director of the Red Bulls, who are owned by the Austria-based highly caffeinated energy-drink maker, which advances its brand with soccer.

“We need to be the flagship club of the M.L.S.,” Stover said. “Our owners are not going to accept anything less.”

Stover does not think the World Cup has any “magic bullet” on the gate; otherwise there might have been a sellout Wednesday. But the crowd raised the season average for nine matches to 16,583, which would be the best season average for the club since 2004. In this economy, that’s not bad.

Still, the crowds — and the salaries — are nothing like the giddy blitz of the ’70s, when Pelé and Beckenbauer walked the land.

“Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to see them replicate the Cosmos, but I would say it’s nearly impossible,” said Shep Messing, the goalkeeper for part of the ’70s and now a broadcaster with the Red Bulls, who said he was “cautiously optimistic” about the progress.

Investors recently bought the name Cosmos, which had been languishing under legal lock and key for a few decades, and are talking about building a New York rival to the Red Bulls. Stover is all for it, but says it will not be easy.

Anybody who saw the Yanks stumble around against Brazil the other night may worry if this country is ever going to have a golden age in the World Cup. But Thierry Henry says American fans sing well. Maybe there will be Welsh-style choral competitions in 2014 to go along with the World Cup in Brazil. Maybe M.L.S. fans can advance further than the Round of 16.

On Tuesday, August 10, 2010  the USMNT will host five time World Cup Champion Brazil at the brand new Meadowlands Stadium. Kickoff is scheduled for 8PM, and will be broadcast live on ESPN2. The teams last met in the final of the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup, and could provide an important opportunity for the USSF to take stock of their current situation and begin to plan for World Cup 2014 in Brazil.

Obviously, there will be a lot more discussion of the USA’s performance over the coming weeks and the USA World Cup Blog will continue to cover all the major and minor news as it comes down the pike. For now, I’m just hoping that the USA have some semblance of an identity come August. Who knows if that will be the case?

The list for the U.S. national team’s friendly against Brazil next Tuesday night at the Meadowlands in New Jersey. Fourteen of the 18 players were on the World Cup squad. The exceptions are noted with an asterisk.

GOALKEEPERS: Tim Howard (Everton), Brad Guzan (Aston Villa).

DEFENDERS: Carlos Bocanegra (Saint-Etienne), Jonathan Bornstein (Chivas USA), Steve Cherundolo (Hanover), Clarence Goodson (Start), Jonathan Spector (West Ham), Chad Marshall (Columbus)*.

MIDFIELDERS: Landon Donovan (Los Angeles), Michael Bradley (Moenchengladbach), Maurice Edu (Rangers), Benny Feilhaber (Aarhus), Jermaine Jones (Schalke)*, Sacha Kljestan (Anderlecht)*, Alejandro Bedoya (Orebro)*.

FORWARDS: Edson Buddle (Los Angeles), Robbie Findley (Real Salt Lake), Herculez Gomez (Pachuca).

The United States is headed to the 2010 World Cup next year after clinching qualification with a 3-2 win over Honduras on Saturday October 11th.

Conor Casey scored his first two international goals in the second half, Landon Donovan added another and the United States clinched its sixth straight World Cup berth with a game to spare.

In one of the most thrilling end-to-end matches the U.S. has played in many years, the Americans needed a late penalty miss by the hosts to get the win.

Following a handball in the penalty area by U.S. defender Jonathan Spector, Carlos Pavon blazed his penalty over the crossbar in the 87th minute, then the striker again fired high with an open header from in the 89th.

The United States is top of the CONCACAF qualifying group and assured of one of the three automatic berths.

Mexico also clinched a World Cup berth on Saturday with a 4-1 victory over visiting El Salvador. Costa Rica moved into third after winning at home against Trinidad and Tobago.

Honduras, seeking its second World Cup appearance and first since 1982, and dropped into fourth. If the Catrachos are still in that spot after the final match at El Salvador on Wednesday, they would meet the No. 5 nation from South America in a playoff.

“You don’t want to go into the last game leaving anything to chance,” Donovan said.

“We’re very proud,” U.S. coach Bob Bradley said. “We understand the responsibility we have every time we step on the field for our fans, for our country.”

Honduras has been in turmoil since a June military coup, but the crowd was united behind its team.

“This isn’t an easy place to play,” Donovan said. “No one else has won here in qualifying and we just did.”

Torino midfielder Julio Cesar De Leon put Honduras ahead in the 47th minute when he curved a free kick over the wall and to the right of leaping U.S. goalkeeper Tim Howard from just outside the penalty area.

That set off sustained boisterous cheering and jumping that made Estadio Olimpico Metropolitano shake, but the sellout crowd of about 40,000 was silenced when Casey equalized in the 55th.

Onyewu sent a long pass downfield, and Charlie Davies nodded it across the area to Casey, who outjumped a defender and outmuscled goalkeeper Noel Valladares for his first goal in 15 international appearances.

David Suazo nearly put Honduras ahead in the 65th, one minute after entering, but Howard made a leaping fingertip save. Casey then gave the U.S. the lead a minute later when he split two defenders, took a pass from Donovan and scored from 16 yards.

Donovan, who set an American record with his 10th assist of the year, extended his U.S. scoring record on a 21-yard free kick in the 71st minute.

De Leon added his second goal in the 78th minute and Maurcio Sabillion nearly tied it in the 82nd, putting a bicycle kick over the bar.

Honduras: Noel Valladares, Osman Chavez, Maynor Figueroa, Hendry Thomas (Ramon Nunez 74), Wilson Palacios, Carlos Pavon, Julio De Leon (Walter Martinez 79), Emilio Izaguirre, Carlos Costly, Mauricio Sabillon, Edgar Alvarez (David Suazo 63).

United States: Tim Howard, Jonathan Spector, Carlos Bocanegra, Michael Bradley, Jonathan Bornstein, Ricardo Clark, Oguchi Onyewu, Stuart Holden (Steve Cherundolo 90), Conor Casey (Benny Feilhaber 84), Charlie Davies, Landon Donovan.

Over the years, the passion for soccer has grown tremendously, in terms of popularity and target audience. It has evolved as an addiction. But at times, the frantic soccer supporters suffer paroxysms of disappointment, as the sports channel is not included in their channel lists or they reside in a country where that particular channel is not aired. Well, rather than cribbing on this issue, time demands serious looking for other existing alternatives.
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There are a number of soccer championships which take place all the year around. One such coming up championship, which is being eagerly awaited by millions of soccer fans worldwide, is the European championship which is better known as UEFA Euro 2008. This championship, which is slated to begin on 7th of June, will supposedly see the participation from fifteen national European teams, while all of them will compete with each other in order to grab the championship title.
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