While soccer is the sport of choice internationally; in the United States it is far from being the most popular sport. Soccer does not possess the pastime of baseball, nor the hard hitting of football or hockey, nor the athletes of basketball. Usually soccer isn’t on during primetime but rather denigrated to an obscure channel early in the morning.  The U.S does have a professional league, the MLS, though despite attempts to bring superstars to play soccer in America (David Beckham with the Los Angeles Galaxy and rumors of Thierry Henry coming to the Red Bulls) the league still has not seen popularity to compete with other sports.

“The league is horrible,” stated Pascal Louis, a senior at Beacon High School, who was named to the all city squad by the New York Daily news and won PSAL outstanding player of 2010. Pascal will be playing soccer at Cornell next year. “Soccer is not big enough here that players at their prime really want to come here. If they could find a way to create a better and more successful league, then soccer will get to where it needs to be.” What the average soccer fan may not be aware of is that of the three players on the United States team who scored a goal in the world cup, only one, Landon Donovan, plays for an MLS team.  Of the twenty three man U.S roster in South Africa, only four players currently play on an MLS teams. The other players head off to more “elite” professional leagues in Spain, England, and Italy.

Since the lack of skill in the MLS keeps many average Americans away from soccer for three years, the World Cup does bring soccer fever to the United States.

“I think it’s great walking down the street and seeing bars and restaurants overflowing with people watching a game–it isn’t important to me who’s playing,” said Elsa Hardy, a senior at Beacon High School, who was named to the New York Post’s All Manhattan team, and looks to extend her career at Wesleyan next fall. “I watched the England/US game with my team and the room was split into three: one side was wearing England jerseys, one side was wearing goofy US hats and in the middle were the people who didn’t care either way, they just wanted to watch a good game (I was in the latter group).”

While the World Cup fever died down with the loss the United States in the knockout stages, some say that the fever is only temporary and ultimately does little to improve or expand soccer in the states.

“I hate to say this, but I think it’s a bit of a fad,” claims Beacon senior Luke Carey.  “There is always something new and happening, and right now its soccer, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t people who aren’t serious about it, but for most people it’s a passing fancy.” Its statements like these which prompt some to question if World Cup fever in America is soccer related or just a showing of support for a country. “I tend to hibernate and wake up every 4 years for the world cup; in short I live for the cup,” stated Louis.

One obstacle standing between soccer reaching a football or baseball level of popularity in America is that soccer has to compete with other sports which are being played at an extremely high level. MLB, NBA, NFL, and the NHL are considered to be the “Premier league” of their respective sports leagues. The NHL, NBA, and MLB are leagues where international players come to America to play in the elite league, similar to soccer players who play in the English Premier league. “It’s difficult because the US is already sports obsessed. Baseball, football and basketball are already SO popular, I’m not sure Americans would be able to fit another sport on their plates,” Hardy said. The same cannot be true for the MLS where many players come towards the end of the careers, and the younger players who do come to play in the MLS do not come with the same potential as young players who play internationally.

Another potential obstacle is that the game of soccer is far different than any other sport in America. “(Soccer) is just not as popular because it doesn’t have a huge “POW” moment,” says Carey. “Baseball’s got the homerun, the stolen base, football has the 50 yard touchdown and tackles, basketball has the dunk, and hockey has goals and checks. Soccer takes a while to get things moving, even a fast paced game takes a while to set up a goal, or even a chance.”  In a typical baseball game one is expecting to see around five total runs scored, in basketball one team can score over a hundred points, and football games teams are scoring forty points on a regular basis. In soccer, scoring three goals is considered to be a lot of goals. On the other hand, many games can end in a tie, at zero all. In addition, a soccer game is continuous ninety minutes (plus stoppage time) making it significantly longer than any other time regulated game.

“I think the U.S lacks the patience for the beautiful game,” stated Louis. “U.S hasn’t really understood the art of soccer. The religion here in the U.S is baseball or football, but for all the other nations, soccer is the national pastime.”

One obstacle that coaches, players, and U.S soccer officials can attempt to eliminate is the quality of U.S soccer players. While Clint Dempsey, Jozy Altidore, and Tim Howard are all good players, none are on the level of a Kaka, Lionel Messi, or Wayne Rooney. More importantly, since non World Cup soccer is mostly ignored in the U.S it’s hard to have American soccer role models. U.S soccer and other organizations host tons of camps and soccer schools to find and locate top tier talent; however one potential strong source for finding new talent comes from not only soccer skills but also soccer heritage. “I have really been playing soccer since I was about 4. Soccer in Haiti is a religion, so there wasn’t much problem there,” stated Louis. “The U.S is lucky in the sense that they will be getting kids of immigrants from countries with great soccer roots. So be ready for a U.S national team full of Hispanic heritage.” The prime example of this is New Jersey native Giuseppe Rossi, who plays for Villarreal in Spain, where his parents are Italian immigrants and moved to America. Unfortunately for U.S soccer, Rossi chose to honor his Italian roots and make a commitment to potentially play for the Italian national team (he was left off the Italian World Cup roster).

Another strong pipeline for potential U.S players is from the youth leagues. Soccer is easily picked up at a young age by most kids. The American Youth Soccer Organization currently has over six hundred thousand children and teenagers who play in their leagues across the country. In addition, as children grow the opportunity to join elite travel teams and play in competitive high school games also allows soccer players to develop even more.

The ultimate success of soccer in America depends on the ability to have people watch, appreciate, and most of all, play the game. However, there is much debate over whose job it is to influence the spread of the beautiful game. Some would say that it comes down to those in the soccer spotlight to push the sport which they play.

“It’s going to take some serious advertising and provoking,” Hardy stated. “The success of the national team would really help, so I think they are definitely responsible for stepping up. The American professional leagues, both men’s and women’s, both have a role to play as well. I think the success of the national team would definitely increase awareness of soccer (as silly as that sounds), which would increase popularity and support.”

During the World Cup, there have been no shortage of commercials glorifying soccer. Some companies have created commercials lasting several minutes long. While the commercials do a fantastic job at making soccer look amazing, most of these commercials did not appear until around the start of the World Cup, and most likely, many of these commercials will be gone after the events in South Africa are over.

Others respect the idea of promoting soccer, but feel it ultimately has to come down to people wanting to play soccer. “People should get into soccer because they want to,” stated Carey. Soccer is not a difficult game to play, go to most parks and you’re sure to find people kicking the ball around, playing in a game without any implications.

In the end, despite multi million dollar advertisements from Nike, despite success or failure of the World Cup, and despite the competition from other sports, the success of U.S soccer rests on the ability of Americans to pick up a ball and play.

By Eric Saltzman

Obviously, it’s disappointing, it’s disappointing to lose somebody who’s a good coach and a good person.It happens in football clubs and it’s happened here. Maybe it happened too early, but we wish him good luck in whatever he goes on and does.

David Beckham on Ruud Gullit’s Choice to Leave LA Galaxy

Along with Gullit out the door went Alexi Lalas, who was intregal in getting Beckham to the states. With a negative aura surrounding the Galaxy, they had to make a move quick. Thankfully the made the right move in hiring Bruce Arena, former US national team coach. This move puts Arena at the helm in place of the temporary coach, Cobi Jones, who despite his inexperience could turn out to be a good coach in this league very soon.

Now, I’m not a fan of the Galaxy. Quite frankly I’m not a fan of any particular MLS team. What I am a fan of is soccer in the USA. And as of late it seems as if the sports’ success in the USA is reliant on David Beckham and the LA Galaxy. The move was a gamble, and almost an all or nothing effort to intensify the sport of soccer in America. As of today I can easily say the move has been a failure. But all hope isn’t lost. Bruce Arena is a coach who is capable of picking this team up and bringing them into the playoffs.

Arena led DC United to two MLS Championships in the early stages of the MLS as well as rebuilding a US team that seemed doomed after their 1998 performance in the World Cup. As of late he has had some difficulty as the US team failed to get out of the group stage in ’06 and his last MLS coaching job with the Red Bulls left him with a record of 16-16-10, a record the Red Bulls expected to be better. Despite the recent troubles Arena is still a great coach, arguably the best American coach and is exactly what the Galaxy need right now.

Arena’s first game will be against the Brian McBride and his new team the Chicago Fire on Thursday night. Chicago sits 3rd in the Eastern Conference and look to build around the newly acquired McBride. The Galaxy are winless in their last 8 games and are searching for something. That something will be found by Bruce Arena who if his resume reads correct will turn this Galaxy team around and turn US Soccer around…again.

Both parties have agreed on mutually agreeable terms to part company, it is an amicable arrangement and we appreciate and respect the issues that Ruud has highlighted with the club and are very grateful for all the hard work he has contributed while with the organization. Hopefully, he has laid the foundations for future success for the Los Angeles Galaxy.

Tim Leiweke, president and chief executive officer of Galaxy

The Galaxy are winless in their last 8 games after a solid beginning to the season. Beckham was dazzling, Landon Donovan was finally working well with the new structure of the team and it seemed as if everything was going right. Becks was filling stadiums and fans left satisfied with a Galaxy victory. Then suddenly everything went south. The team soon looked tired and seemed to be getting outplayed every game. All of a sudden now they are 6-8-5 and in fourth place in the west.

Now Ruud is out. Alexi is out. And Cobi is in. If the Galaxy don’t make the playoffs again this year, what does that say for the MLS and this entire situation involving Beckham? Optimists could say, ‘hey look the MLS is so difficult and so competetive that even with David Beckham and Landon Donovan the Galaxy can’t even make the playoffs’. Pescimests will say, ‘what’s the point of Beckham coming over here if he can’t get the Galaxy in the playoffs, he must not be as good as everyone says he is’. And they’d both be right.

Bottom line is, the Galaxy need to make it into the playoffs this year. But going through all this to make the playoffs certainly would be a great story and a testament to David Beckham’s career. For now, we just have to roll with it.

After 4 years in England Brian McBride is back where he belongs, the MLS. McBride is out of England and back in the States after being traded to the Chicago Fire, McBride’s hometown.

McBride out of England and back in the States

This is great for the MLS as McBride was such an intregal part of the MLS’ development with the Columbus Crew. McBride who has played for the U.S. National team hopefully will begin a trend in which American players return to play club ball in the MLS. In 8 seasons with the crew McBride was an all-star 7 times and scored 62 goals along with 45 assists.

It's been a while since we've seen him in an MLS uniform, but he's back

McBride’s return means a lot to this league. He is an innovator and the quintessential American soccer player. His success in England was amazing but after not seeing McBride in America for 4 years it’s hard not to have missed him after the last time we saw him all bloody during America’s loss to Italy in the 2006 World Cup.

McBride in the 2006 World Cup

McBride retired from international play after the 2006 World Cup so McBride will make his first return to American soccer in two years after he comes back from the Olympics where his serving as an “overage player” and a captain. The Fire gave up a good amount for the hometown kid, trading away Chad Barrett and a first round pick to Toronto FC (they had McBride through an allocation process to get him to the US). The 36 year-old McBride should be welcomed back with open arms as he is a US Soccer legend and a hero to anybody who plays the sport of soccer in America.

It seems like this whole Ronaldinho trade has gone on for too long. It’s obvious that Barcelona wants to get rid of the guy, so why is it so hard to get him on a new team. Ronaldinho has been rumored to have been traded to AC Milan, Inter Milan, and Manchester City.

At first it seemed certain that Ronaldinho would be a part of AC Milan come next season. But as talks fell through over money and the concerns of Ronaldinho’s health, AC Milan faded away for a bit in the Ronaldinho Sweepstakes. Not letting their rival get an upper hand, Inter Milan soon joined the mix distributing a bid for the once greatest player in the world. And in every race you need a darkhorse, a long shot, a nobody. Manchester City stepped up and probably put the most appetizing deal on the table for Ronaldinho.

Again though, AC Milan has taken the lead. They are now trying to decide between taking Emmanuel Adebayor or Ronaldinho. Who will AC Milan take though? I think they’re leaning more towards Adebayor, which again opens things up for Manchester City who would really be the only bidder left for Ronaldinho. Taking Adebayor over Ronaldinho is the better choice for AC Milan due to his size and age which could put Ronaldinho in Manchester City.

It seems to me that Ronaldinho has a desire to come to the English Premier League. Whether or not coming to Manchester City will satisfy what he wants is totally different. As I said in my first post about this ongoing trade, Ronaldinho going to AC Milan and playing in Serie A would be a terrible idea for him. In such a defensive league Ronaldinho will certainly struggle if traded to AC Milan or Inter Milan.

Manchester City being a long shot to get Ronaldinho kind of got me thinking. I know it’s border line impossible but maybe just maybe an MLS team can get in the mix for him. If anything just a couple of talks could certainly help for the future like when he gets ready to hang up the cleats. He could pull a David Beckham and decide to come over here. Why not? I’m just saying, say whoever signs Ronaldinho is probably going to let him go after probably 3 years. After that the interest in him will be so low that he just might need that attention (like Beckham needed it). He gets that attention from MLS teams who see dollar signs and a great marketing tool. Ronaldinho comes to the MLS plays for a couple years and steps the MLS up another notch. Far fetched but, if you’re the MLS, what have you got to lose?

As Arsenal continue to squander all of their chances for any sort of title, Arsene Wenger continues to coach poorly. He is incapable of handling these young players and is useless unless he coaches superstars. Therefore, Arsenal needs to make a drastic change and delete Wenger from the equation. This move would mirror that of the Yankees getting rid of Torre despite their winning ways in that winning the entire thing is more important than winning a lot of games and coming up short when it matters. But I digress. So, please make a big move and shake things up again Arsenal. For now I am stuck watching MLS, but after its start on Thursday it could become the main staple in my soccer watching diet.

What was the lead highlight on Thursday night’s SportsCenter? It was an MLS game. Can you believe it? Ten years ago it was a thought that was in nobody’s head, especially ESPN. But Beckham’s first goal in the MLS is exactly what fans have been looking for, and apparently ESPN.

His first goal ignited fans in the stadium and just watching the game led you to jump out of your seat. The atmosphere of the game was outstanding. Every time Beckham would touch the ball there was an immediate buzz that was audible to a viewer. Fans were always on edge, wondering what he would do next.

Beckham played his best game of his short MLS career as he had an assist as well, to go with his first goal. Beckham dropped a ball onto Landon Donovan’s foot. Beckham couldn’t make it any easier for Donovan as he easily put the ball in the back of the net.

Beckhams skill, even though it is diminishing, is far more superior than other players in the MLS. His vision is just amazing compared to his teammates and is a great change to the MLS. It seems that the American style of play of kick and run isn’t entertaining enough to Americans as first thought. The European style of play has been more welcomed and sought after in the MLS.

The win gave the Galaxy an excellent start to the season after its awful end to last season. Beckham adn the Galaxy’s exciting start will hopefully launch the MLS to its most successful season yet.