I see people I know and like - Grant, Jeff, Joe, Scott, Kyle, in particular - but Daniel Altman has a point. There aren't any women. There aren't any minorities, either. And considering this media session with Jozy Altidore took place in LA, I found it odd that there weren't any Spanish media there, and a translator if they needed it (many don't). In the discussion that followed Daniel's original tweet, Adam Serrano pointed out that the session, hosted by U.S. Soccer (where Altidore just joined the January camp after signing with Toronto FC) wasn't invite-only, but the fact is, I, for one, didn't get the email announcing the event. What's odd about that is that I am on one of U.S. Soccer's press distribution lists. I get game quotes and other stuff like many media members. The truth is, though, there's more than one media list. Clearly, I wasn't on this one. Why are different lists kept? Well, perhaps the organization wants to 'reward' reporters that have faithfully covered the US team for a while. But where does that leave reporters who have other coverage responsibilities, including other national teams, like Mexico? I've commiserated before with reporters who complain about the hassle they've gotten from US Soccer for writing on other squads. I've also heard before, from someone working for US Soccer at the time, "Why should we help reporters who are at our events to cover another team?" Short answer: It's their job. Soccer in the USA, especially LA, isn't just the USA team. Whenever Mexico plays in the US, the federation makes money and the game grows with more fans involved. In general, the organization's outreach to minorities, especially Latinos, should be more than perfunctory, with just a few bits of news on the Spanish-language edition of ussoccer.com. Spanish media should definitely get announcements about all press events. Maybe U.S. Soccer isn't to blame at all for the lack of diversity among the press ranks in the photo. Media outlets and assigning editors may default too easily to sending known entities - the European soccer guy - without taking time to consider others. For example, even if I had gotten the announcement about Jozy's event, I wouldn't have had an outlet to write about it. Mexico is my beat for ESPNFC. Again and again, I've gone out of my way to remind people that the scene in U.S. soccer is incredibly diverse, with Hispanic, Asian, & African elements and huge participation by females. But stereotypes exist, and without a diverse media voice and perspectives from different elements of the soccer landscape, they will persist. In a perfect world, minority reporters wouldn't have to move on to other jobs and could still stay and be paid well on the soccer beat. I remember working with Luis A. Luis B, Damien, Dylan, Bernie, Jose, Miguel, Jaime C. and others. Younger writers, like Josie Becker, would get more consistent gigs. And all of us, no matter our critical views on U.S. Soccer, players or coaches, no matter what other teams we'd sometimes cover in the sport, would all be on the same list for press events. Then, I'd bet, the picture would look different - with all these guys still there, perhaps, but many others as well.
Ah, the Copa America! The South America competition is enticing to USA fans, partly because one year, 1995, the Americans actually did well in it. Also, who can resist the lure of matching up against the likes of Argentina and Brazil?Still, there are some very solid, though boring and tedious, reasons why the USA team shouldn't take part in the current format. I go over a few of them in my latest column for Goal.com, the Canales Corner.
This post has nothing to do with soccer. It's here because I couldn't sleep. When I got my first LA apartment, I lived on Berendo St., right near where it intersected with 3rd. With the rent I was paying, I didn't expect the neighborhood to be posh, but it still gave me pause to see a heavy-set bearded man lounging on the sidewalk near the local donut shop. From the look of his grimy coat, he hadn't bathed in weeks. He was scruffy and seemed more than a bit unstable, his gaze focused vaguely in middle distance. It was clear he was a regular. Most residents casually stepped around and over him at various times when he was in a stupor. Some would buy him a cup of coffee or a donut. He didn't harass people for money very much. "Change?" he would at times say wearily when someone passed. More often, he wouldn't bother. He would just shuffle along. Unlike other homeless people I'd seen, he didn't cart around any belongings that I knew of. He did have a little radio with old headphones that he'd play often. Usually he'd just nod his head along to the music, but I remember watching him once at a streetcorner break into an exuberant dance. Sometimes he'd talk to himself and make no sense at all. Other times, he was lucid and insightful. When my friend Emily gave him change once, he asked if she was from Georgia. She said that was exactly right and he nodded thoughtfully, saying, "I thought I detected that Southern accent." When asked his name, he wouldn't always answer, but when he did, he'd say his name was John. He wouldn't offer a last name. When Lord of the Rings came out, though, I had another name for him. As soon as I saw the dwarf Gimli on the screen, I thought of our homeless resident. His belly was even more full, his beard wasn't quite as long, and it was more gray than red, but the overall resemblance was uncanny. It became easy to refer to him as such, just because anyone who saw him would then understand who was being mentioned. I don't want to present the untruth that Gimli/John was a pleasant, cuddly, sweet senior. He smelled incredibly bad most of the time. Sometimes he would soil the sidewalk. Now and then he'd try the doors of cars parked on the street until he found one that was open. Then he'd climb inside and take a nap there. While I don't think he took anything, the aroma that was left behind would be rank. I'm not usually the type to engage strangers in small talk, and I never had much of a real conversation with Gimli/John. I always said hello, good morning, or hi when I crossed his path, though, and even when he wouldn't reply in kind, there'd usually be some flicker of recognition from him. Having ascertained that he was essentially harmless, I grew a little protective of Gimli/John in some ways. If he was slumped over on the sidewalk, I'd stop to make sure he was breathing. I'm morbid, I know, but I wanted to make sure he was all right. After I moved away from that neighborhood, I'd occasionally visit friends there. I found myself looking for Gimli/John as I'd drive past. I'd ask for updates on him, and my friends reported that he was basically the same as always. When I readthe LA Times headline about a homeless man being set on fire, I thought immediately of Gimli/John. Mostly because even though at one point I used to volunteer for a feed-the-homeless organization, a food line isn't a place to keep track of one person in particular. Gimli was the homeless person that I thought of as a neighbor, the guy I saw regularly for years, though I'm not around that part of town anymore. Just reading the headline made me angry to think that anyone would do something so despicable to someone like him. As I started reading the article, I realized with a dull thud that this hadn't happened to "someone like" my old acquaintance. It was actually him. Horror, revulsion, sorrow, regret - even using more of those words, I can't accurately describe everything I felt at the realization that this troubled but generally inoffensive man was brutally murdered. I thought back to my first negative impression of him. The truth was that all along, the evil in my former neighborhood wasn't the stinky old homeless guy who looked like Gimli from the movies. Instead, the impulse to torture and kill someone helpless lurked elsewhere and one day, it struck for apparently no reason. I don't think I can ever go back there without a slight shudder at that knowledge. Most of all, though, I feel sad.
First of all, Rob Hues, it's Grahame, not Graeme. Also, I'd like to offer my own thoughts on what California offers soccer. I mean, I'm not sure that I even understand the point of the recent article - is it that California allowed Jurgen to relax and Beckham to smile? That's all one can put together about the state and soccer? As the surfers here would say, lame. California has given the U.S. national team, at every level, more players than any other state. It maintains three Major League Soccer teams responsible for four league championships in the 12 year history of MLS. The first goal in league history was scored in the state (Eric Wynalda, San Jose). The weather allows players to practice and improve their skills year-round and attracts clubs such as Chelsea to train here. In the past ten years, more international teams have played exhibitions in the state than anywhere else in the Americas. California stadiums have hosted the finals of three FIFA World Cups. California gave birth to AYSO, the youth organization that introduces millions of American children to the sport. The player widely considered the best on the U.S. squad at present, Landon Donovan, is a native Californian who spent by far the bulk of his development and professional career here. Notable players who have played on California teams include George Best (LA Aztecs and SJ Earthquakes), Johan Cruyff (LA Aztecs) , Teófilo Cubillas (LA Aztecs), Hugo Sanchez (San Diego Sockers), and Jurgen Klinsmann (Orange County Blue Star) The soccer culture here is diverse, with obviously a large number of Mexican and Central American players, but also Brazilian expats, Argentine expats and English expats can be found at any park pickup game. The mix and meld of styles offers players of various talents chances to shine and broadens their understanding of the sport. More soccer leagues, more youth clubs and more adult teams exist in California than in any other U.S. state. California contains the current national champions of women's university soccer, USC, as well as past champions Santa Clara. Men's colleges in the state have won the title eleven times, while one university, UCLA, has developed more players in the professional ranks, both at home and abroad, than any other U.S. school. Klinsmann began his coaching career here, serving as assistant to then-Galaxy coach Sigi Schmid. Rinus Michels coached here (LA Aztecs), and Guus Hiddink played (SJ Earthquakes)before turning to coaching. Of course California is a place to relax, and that philosophy is an integral part of the state of mind here. But Californians are also serious about their soccer, and Beckham's smile is only a very small part of that.
I've explained this before - it's the fault of the English. What's funny is that many from England are the ones who get bent out of shape the most when Americans use the word the English invented for the game. Anyway, I like this good-natured look at the situation, complete with specific historical dates.
It seems that soccer has a two-faced reputation. Either people think of the sweet soccer mom or the sport where you're not allowed to use your hands, or they think of brutal, vicious fans.
So this guy gets treated to a soccer broadcast that takes the game seriously and suddenly realizes that he likes it. That doesn't surprise me. I ranted about soccer announcing years ago, for a soccer365 column called "Soccer Special Ed" where I talked about how too many U.S. announcers took way too much time to explain things during a soccer match, as if the listening audience was really ignorant. It feels patronizing and is a huge turn-off, like someone saying," Vegetables are GOOOD for you." Here's an excerpt: Too often, American soccer broadcasts take this amazing, classic sport of soccer and treat the viewing audience like a bunch of second-graders. Announcers spend time on trivia unassociated with the action on the field. They discuss other sports. They don’t notice plays developing under their noses. They tell a number of random stories, and, except when a goal is scored, generally act like the players aren’t actually doing anything more exciting than scratching their noses What many Americans don’t have is respect for the game. Why should they, if their exposure is based on watching their six-year-old play and listening to announcers treat the U.S. audience as if it’s the same age? Enough with the “very special broadcast” approach. If a few members of the viewing public are perhaps a bit confused at the wealth of actual soccer information in a match, they might be intrigued as well.
The death of high school soccer? Perhaps, but that may not be a bad thing. Soccer is different from other American sports. No one in American football has to worry about falling behind the curve because other countries are taking nine-year-olds into professional development in that sport. Also the maturity level needed is very different. As a contact sport, the NFL doesn't really have teen phenoms. Who wants to clobber a Messi-type of talent with a full-body tackle when his bones are still forming? On the other hand, in the U.S. does a Messi-style soccer talent progress faster get to where he wants to go if he plays high school soccer? Or is he better off (barring traveling to a different country) taking the best competitive environment his country does offer?
In Boston, no less. It's on the second page of this article. What's funny is that the first part depressed me a little. Economics nearly always does. The second part actually cheered me up, though.
My gripe about American announcers, however, is that too many of them are tied up in the insular soccer structure of the U.S. to have any independent opinions. It was painful to hear John Harkes try to be objective about DC United when commenting on their match versus the LA Galaxy. It was almost a relief when he finally just gave in to talking about his days with a young, pre-injury Ben Olsen and speculating about Moreno's thoughts while on the bench. I certainly didn't expect someone that tied in with the Washington club to give an objective assessment of Gallardo's elbow to Landon Donovan. Greg Lalas, meanwhile, has his own credibility issues, as not only a former Revs player, but as the brother of the LA Galaxy's GM, Alexi. At least those with direct ties to the people in the league have an excuse for pulling punches - some announcers are just so neutral about every aspect of a match that it sounds like announcing via the school of court reporting. Who passed to whom and who scored without ever any nuance or insightful observation, or interesting tidbit, or anything. But far and away the biggest sin for me is that American announcers all too often sound so terrifically bored. That laid-back style is fine for the pace of baseball, but in soccer, players are tearing up and down the field with the ball while an announcing team discusses trivia like they're feeding ducks at the park. It sets my teeth on edge. Granted, I grew up watching a lot of soccer in Spanish, and the goal calls that annoy some people are a classic essential for me. Different strokes, I realize.
Marc Stein waxes worshipfully about his charity game experience with Steve Nash, Theirry Henry, etc. I had to laugh at his description of Kalou, because when I met him at the Beverly Hills Hotel for his official intro as a Chelsea player, that's how he seemed to me. Just a shy teenager, albeit one making millions of dollars. Gotta love the enthusiasm of youth, going to play straight off a plane. Also, don't ever tell Preki, but when Luis and I participated in the Chivas USA media game last year, we had our own "Omigod!" moments (internally, of course) stepping on the field while he played. Luis was his teammate, and I tried to play defense against him. After the game, we both talked about our favorite Preki moments in his playing career and how lucky we were to see him in action up close and to play with him for one game.
I have to laugh at the coping strategies, though. Sucking on a lollipop? Picturing Elton John? Of course, if it works, I have no complaints. I've covered enough youth soccer games to know that crazy parents do exist and it ruins the experience of participating for many.
I'm not saying I agree with the premise of this paper, and I'm well aware that it's focusing on the growing popularity of soccer in Australia, but I'm curious about how much is applicable to the sport's growth in the U.S.
Now, it's important to point out that the fields involved hereare AstroTurf brand, while I think most MLS fields, etc, that are artificial are made by FieldTurf, which probably has different ingredients. Grass is good, though. Still my favorite playing surface.
Ok, it's April 1st, but Drew is serious about what he says in this video. It's an interesting point of view from one of the newest owners in the league. I like the way he worked the soccer analogy and the shots of Chivas USA and Riot Squad members into his whole argument.
David Keyes takes a look at how the Jesus Padilla situation has affected the identity of Chivas Guadalajara, which has made it official now that it's not Mexican-born that matters, but whether one is born eligible for Mexican citizenship (people born into the citizenship of another country must later apply for Mexican citizenship through their parents).
Though some may think that Luis and I blew this story open, I'd point out that Chivas was clearly moving in that direction (signing foreign-born Mexican players) anyway. Even if people don't believe our source who told us that the Chivas administrators knew very well that Jesus was born and raised in San Jose, California, when they signed him at 14, one only has to look at the fact that the club brought inCarlos Borja quite a while before we broke the story about Jesus Padilla.
Borja not only was born and grew up in the U.S., but he developed and played with the U.S. youth national teams for years. That's documented and well-known. Chivas might have thought they could sneak Padilla into their roster without anyone ever checking his birthplace (and it DID work for a while), but there's no way they could get away with trying that with Borja. It's hard to buy that Chivas would waste time signing him with their Tapatio reserve team unless they were looking ahead to changing the "Mexican-born" policy anyway.
If you read Grahame's article, his opinion of Michael Orozco as the best player on the field for the U.S. versus Honduras is clear. Mexican reporters told me that they think Edgar Castillo has been the best player for Mexico at the U23 games out here. Thing is, their positions could've been reversed - Castillo could have played for the U.S. and Orozco for Mexico.
Who will "Gringo" Padilla end up playing for? Who knows.
