Someone from Nigeria recently visited our little soccer blog. Nigeria is Africa's most populous nation and boasts one of the best teams. The senior team is known as the Super Eagles. The Olympic team claimed gold at the 1996 Atlanta Games. Nigeria has a lot of impressive players, and Newcastle striker Obafemi Martins is a favorite of mine.
Someone from Yemen stopped by our blog, so we've added that country to our greetings list.
Yemen actually used to be divided into two countries, North and South, but merged into one entity in 1990. That hasn't helped their soccer fortunes, though, as the Yemeni team has yet to make at impact at any international tournament.
Hey readers, concord got it right. The four-time winner of the US Open Cup was Eric Braeden. Didn't anyone get the hint when my running blog mentioned that he scored twice in the Soccer Challenge game?
Listen to him here.That voice gives me chills. It's got an awesome accent, tone and timbre.
Eric was born and raised in Germany, where like nearly everyone there, he learned to love the game. Anyway, when Eric first came over to California, he was still using his given name, Hans Gudegast. He attended Santa Monica College and joined a local team, Maccabi Los Angeles. The fact that it was Jewish-based team didn't bother him - he embraced that. His bio on his website mentions specifically that he welcomed the chance to play with the team because it defied people's stereotypes of what a German would do. He was with the team when they won their first championship in 1973. (His bio mentions that one specifically, and he told me, "We won four". I didn't question him in detail, so I don't know which other of the Maccabi's five championships he missed. If we assume a natural order, Eric could have helped the team win 1973, 1975, 1977,1978 and left before they won in 1981. But maybe he missed a season due to having to shoot a movie somewhere.)
Anyway, Eric isn't a Eurosnob about American soccer - check out the first part of this interview, where he talks about soccer, revealing his German loyalty, but giving the U.S. more props than the interviewer does.
It's been a while since we added a new country to our visitor roll call, but someone from Qatar stopped by. For such a tiny country, Qatar has a pretty impressive record in soccer, especially on the youth level. The national team's nickname is Annabi and it means The Maroon - owning to the cool color of their flag, which is also incorporated into the federation logo shown here. Hussain Yassar, the foward/midfielder who is Qatar's number ten, now plays for Sporting Braga in Portugal. He was the first Qatari to play in the Premiership, for Stuart Pierce at Manchester City.
Anyway, as 2008 approaches, the inevitable "look back" impulse strikes. Luis and I started this blog almost exactly a year ago and there's no way we could have predicted half the things that ended up becoming topics here.
Hopefully, we've given readers a glimpse of what the soccer world looks like from our viewpoint, and I hope the perspective is an enlightening one.
Any suggestions for what the soccer story of the year was? I'm curious to see if there will be a range of opinions or an obvious consensus on this one.
Our latest visitor from a country that hadn't clicked on our site until now is Bulgaria. I have fond memories of Bulgaria, because they were the Cinderella team of 1994, when the World Cup was held here in the United States. They had the classic "Golden Generation" of players that year and ended up in fourth place in the tournament. Everybody was fussing about Hristo Stoichkov, but my favorite player on that team was Yordan Letchkov. When his bald head scored that goal against Germany in the quarterfinals, I was thrilled. Stoichkov was the one who brought his intensity to Major League Soccer, playing with the Chicago Fire and DC United. He coached Bulgaria's national team for a while, but resigned in April of this year. Turns out that Mexico isn't the only team nicknamed for the colors in the flag- Bulgaria's squad is known as the Tricolors, as well as the Lions. Bulgaria's national team is now captained by Dimitar Berbatov, the Tottenham Hotspur striker. Manchester City's Martin Petrov is also a top player for them.
After reading your article entitled "Gullit a bold choice for the Galaxy," I must admit that my opinion of you has drastically changed. Until this article I considered you a halfway decent writer whose muckraking tendencies ruined any chance of me enjoying the words you put on a page. I first came in contact with your work in late 2005 (I think) when you interviewed Eric Wynalda who said (most likely under the influence of alcohol) that “Bruce Arena has a love affair with Brian McBride" in an article where you and Mr. Wynalda defend the virtues of Taylor Twellman. That article made me think you were out for the quick, easy soccer story, where you can say something controversial and be rewarded for your emboldened opinions. But your most recent article has convinced me that your polarizing write-ups are more than just random blabberings from an emotional fan. Your understanding of the state of soccer in this country exceeds the average reporter, and I look forward to reading! ! your next article.
Thanks! I would like to note, however, that it's possible that I can find Wynalda's viewpoints interesting without actually sharing them. I also don't believe Eric was under any influence when he was talking to me, but I really don't know, because I interviewed him over the phone.
The Virgin Islands isn't the smallest FIFA registered country, population-wise. Monaco and San Marino are both smaller. However, the U.S. VI is still pretty small, with only a populace of about a hundred thousand total to draw from for their team. Not surprising then, that the squad is one of the worst-ranked FIFA teams. They do have an interesting claim to fame, though. Apparently MacDonald Taylor, one of their players, holds the record for being the oldest player to participate in a FIFA match. He was 46 when he took the field versus St. Kitts and Nevis in 2004, in a qualifying game for the 2006 World Cup.
Another newbie to the blog stopped by today. Slovakia has never qualified for the World Cup, but for a good part of their history, they were joined with what is now the Czech Republic. Now that Slovakia is on its own, "The Fighting Jondas" are trying to make it to the Euro championships in honor of Slovakia. Unfortunately, captain Robert Vittek suffered a knee injury. The Nurnberg striker will be out for a while, so Slovakia will have to rally without him.
Luis is right, we haven't really kept up on our new visitors. So there's been an oversight of a few countries that were never acknowledged. Lebanon, for one, has visited our blog.
Lebanon's most famous current player right now is probably Youssef Mohamad, a defender for FC Koln in the 2 Bundesliga. He moved to Germany from Olympic Beirut.
In the early days of Sideline Views, Andrea and I would take pleasure in welcoming readers from different countries to the blog. If you look at the Greetings! section here, you'll see where we've had readers from. But that subsided a bit after we stopped getting unique countries to our blog. I mean, there are only so many countries, right?
Well, I just noticed a visitor from Afghanistan. Seems Sideline Views has now been read by someone from that part of the world.
I couldn't tell if it was some U.S. military member reading the blog or an Afghan or someone else. But greetings to whoever it was! I hope we provide a positive outlet for you amidst the difficult times that nation is going through.
I'm trying to figure this out. I've been fielding emails from people complaining about how horrible the Galaxy are.
If that's true, how did the Galaxy ever become the last MLS team standing in the SuperLiga tournament? Did the other teams just not care about the million dollars and give that away?
The other thing I keep reading is how cruel the Galaxy coaches are, making David Beckham play while he's tired and injured. I guess that assumes that Beckham wasn't the one insisting he play on, hoping the right set play could turn the match.
What I don't hear is much condemnation for Read Madrid injecting Beckham's ankle up with pain killers and sending him out to play. His injury was in much worse shape then, and playing through that (which was especially surprising considering the quality of subs Real had to give Beckham a break) caused far more extensive damage. But that's ok, because Real needed to win the championship. The Galaxy needing to make the playoffs is apparently not a valuable enough rationale.
Again, despite having some decent options available, like Sean Wright-Phillips, on the bench, England coach Steve McLaren didn't sub Beckham, even with his bad ankle, in the entire game. It was a friendly match with little actually at stake.
Yet that's all well and good, when famous teams like England and Real Madrid do it. The outcry, though, happens when an MLS team does it.
Personally, I'd love to break Bush's nose and say I was only going for the ball. But it makes sense that he doesn't have the good taste to follow soccer.
Someone reading the blog checked in from Serbia and Montenegro. They were a big story at the 2006 World Cup, although they didn't advance past the group stage. That's because the two regions had agreed to become independent countries, but since the team had qualified for the World Cup as a combined team, they would play out one final competition under the same flag.
That's like a couple who decides to break up, but after they both take part in a good friend's wedding or something. It's a little weird and uncomfortable.
Since I don't know whether our visitor checked in from Serbia or Montenegro (I'm guessing Serbia, because Montenegro is really tiny), I'm adding both to the roll call.
We'd like to recognize our recent visitor from Estonia, the small Baltic country whose soccer program has steadily improved since the country gained independence from the Soviet Union.
The national squad's captain is their goalkeeper, Mart Poom, who is on London Club Arsenal's books as their third-choice keeper. Not a bad way to win a Champions League runner's up medal. Kind of like Tony Meola at the 2002 World Cup.
Yes, somebody in Jordan rules for stopping by our blog.
The Jordanian national team made history fairly recently by qualifying for the Asian Cup for the first time. The youth team also achieved an impressive feat, qualifying for the U20 World Cup in Canada later this year.
They're drawn into Group B, with Spain, Uruguay and Zambia.
"Nashama" is the nickname given to the national team. In Arabic, it translates roughly into "bravery, showing courage, initiative, heart and gallantry".
Aruba is the latest nation to join the lengthy list of Sideline Views readers from across the world.
Aruba is near the bottom of the FIFA rankings. They were tied for like 196th or something. Seems they enjoy their baseball down there and prefer it to the beautiful game.
It's been a while since we added a new country to our visitor roll call, but someone from Qatar stopped by.
Our latest visitor from a country that hadn't clicked on our site until now is Bulgaria. I have fond memories of Bulgaria, because they were the Cinderella team of 1994, when the World Cup was held here in the United States. They had the classic "Golden Generation" of players that year and ended up in fourth place in the tournament. Everybody was fussing about Hristo Stoichkov, but my favorite player on that team was Yordan Letchkov. When his bald head scored that goal against Germany in the quarterfinals, I was thrilled.
The Virgin Islands isn't the smallest FIFA registered country, population-wise. Monaco and San Marino are both smaller. However, the U.S. VI is still pretty small, with only a populace of about a hundred thousand total to draw from for their team. Not surprising then, that the squad is one of the worst-ranked FIFA teams. They do have an interesting claim to fame, though. Apparently MacDonald Taylor, one of their players, holds the record for being the oldest player to participate in a FIFA match. He was 46 when he took the field versus St. Kitts and Nevis in 2004, in a qualifying game for the 2006 World Cup.
Another newbie to the blog stopped by today. Slovakia has never qualified for the World Cup, but for a good part of their history, they were joined with what is now the Czech Republic. Now that Slovakia is on its own, "The Fighting Jondas" are trying to make it to the Euro championships in honor of Slovakia. Unfortunately, captain Robert Vittek suffered a knee injury. The Nurnberg striker will be out for a while, so Slovakia will have to rally without him.
Luis is right, we haven't really kept up on our new visitors. So there's been an oversight of a few countries that were never acknowledged. Lebanon, for one, has visited our blog.
Someone reading the blog checked in from Serbia and Montenegro. They were a big story at the 2006 World Cup, although they didn't advance past the group stage. That's because the two regions had agreed to become independent countries, but since the team had qualified for the World Cup as a combined team, they would play out one final competition under the same flag.
We'd like to recognize our recent visitor from Estonia, the small Baltic country whose soccer program has steadily improved since the country gained independence from the Soviet Union.
Yes, somebody in Jordan rules for stopping by our blog.
Someone from Myanmar visited our blog today. Myanmar has a futsal team named the Galaxy, and its national team is currently ranked at 154 by FIFA.
