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

An unidentified bettor wanted to show his friends back in America a betting slip with Barack Obama’s name on it. Knowing He went to bookmaker William Hill and asked for the bet. Obama is a fan of West Ham after a trip he took to England five years ago and West Ham is having a lot of coaching problems with the resignation of Curbishley last week. So, The guy put 10 bucks (or pounds…whatever) at William Hill and they gave him 10,000 to 1 odds for a 100,000 pound win possibility, 260,000 in dollars.

So where did this idea come from? Well, Obama has family in England(his sister married an Englishman), and when he went to England 5 years ago he soon became a fan of West Ham. All his relatives are fanatics and I guess it rubbed off on him.

Obama hasn’t just been a fan in the past 5 years though as his campaign revealed that he is in fact an avid soccer fan and even played a lot as a student at Harvard Law School.

He never really followed it, though, until he was told all about the passion of West Ham fans by some of his English relatives. He’s always keen to find out how his adopted club are getting on.

Barack Obama Campaign Source on Obama’s Love of West Ham

So, who knows, maybe if Obama decides that this whole leader of the free world thing isn’t for him, he’ll take on the task of managing the Hammers.

Blaming a “breach of trust and confidence,” Curbishley resigned today as West Ham United’s skipper and taking the prize of first coach leaving in the 2008 EPL season. Curbishley has been under enourmous pressure for the past few months and has been the favorite to be the first fired until last weeks tabacle with Kevin Keegan. But, not to be defeated Curbishley has taken the crown.

It seemed that if Curbishley could get off to a good start this season that this whole thing would just be forgotten. And sure enough he did leading West Ham to their best start in 9 season. Nevertheless Curbishley jumped before he was pushed off the plank landing in the seas of lost coaches.

For now Kevin Keen will take over West Ham as they search for a permanant replacement for Curbishley. Keen will now have to deal with what Curbishley has been complaining about. Curbishley said he was not involved in player moves and transfers and felt, rightfully so, that he should be considered when signing or releasing a player.

However, the club continued to make significant player decisions without involving me. In the end such a breach of trust and confidence meant that I had no option but to leave. Nevertheless, I wish the club and the players every success in the future.

Alan Curbishley on Leaving West Ham United

Now, we wait for Kevin Keegan’s turn, as it seems imminent that he and Curbishley will be swimming in the same waters soon.

So, it might not be the most prestigious stage for soccer, but if the US team can make some noise this Olympics it can’t hurt. In their opening game today against Japan, Stuart Holden gave the US a 1-0 victory.

Holden’s goal ended a three game scoreless drought just in time as the US picked up a crucial victory in a difficult group B. Group B includes Netherlands and Nigeria who are heavily favored. Although the US didn’t look strong enough to defeat the Dutch or Nigerians they seemed to sort out whatever kinks they had.

Good news followed the game when Netherlands and Nigeria played after and ended in a draw. This leaves US atop of Group B and now it looks like they have a chance to advance past the group stage. Now the easiest way past is to simply tie their way in. Easier said than done as the Dutch possess a solid young team with speed and talent.

The US team face the Netherlands on Sunday which will be the biggest test of the Olympics. The heavily favored Dutch will look to slaughter the more inexperienced US but the US beg to differ. The US has shown a solid defense and will use that against the Dutch. If Holden can put another goal in the back of the net expect the US to net a victory and an entry past the group stage.

In one of the most drawn out signings in recent memory, Ronaldinho has officially signed with AC Milan. It seems like such a long time ago when it was first said that Ronaldinho would be a part of AC Milan, and after several months and several teams getting involved it’s finally over with.

Many things have happened but in the end I have become a Rossonero player. I am happy to find so many Brazilians but also all the champions that wear the Rossoneri colors. I am really happy. After many years I am here. I am delighted to have arrived to AC Milan and I hope to be able to give a lot of joy to everyone.

Ronaldinho on Finally Signing With AC Milan

AC Milan’s new product will be shown off on Thursday as Ronaldinho will be welcomed with welcomed arms at the San Siro Stadium at 9:30 P.M. This tedious transfer hasn’t taken its toll though. Both Inter Milan, and Manchester City were very well involved in looking to pick up the once world’s greatest player. It has also affected other players who have been unsure where to go, with a portion of their decision in the hands of Ronaldinho. Emmanuel Adebayor seemed the likely choice for Milan but suddenly chose Ronaldinho over the Arsenal star. There has also been rumors that Frank Lampard and Ronaldinho wanted to join forces and that a trade could put those two together.

This transfer should open the flood gates for a lot of moves in the next week or two. It seemed like this and the Cristiano Ronaldo transfer seemed to be blocking the door for a lot of teams. Barcelona haven’t looked back on Ronaldinho as they themselves have signed Alexander Hleb to a 4 year deal from Arsenal.

Who are the losers in this move though? It has to be Manchester City. At one point it seemed imminent that Manchester City would in fact steal Ronaldinho from AC Milan and sign the star but even after offering more than the 21 million Euros that AC Milan will pay Ronaldinho, his heart is in Milan. Signing Ronaldinho looked like such a smart and promising move for Manchester City that would have garnered them much attraction and could possibly allow them to compete with Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal, and Manchester United. Now, even after signing Brazilian Jo, things look bleak for Manchester City as they may need to pull out another blockbuster to bring them up the table.

What does moving to Serie A mean for Ronaldinho? Personally I think this is where it ends for the star. The league is way too strong defensively for Ronaldinho to pull out his magic and he will soon become an average player whose impact won’t reflect his paycheck. I think it’s time to bid Ronaldinho farewell as he will become lost in Italy.

Soccer in America is rising, but it will never be where England is and yesterday’s game proved it. In a friendly match at Wembley Stadium in England, the U.S. soccer team came out flat and got straight up beat by a much better squad 2-0. Personally, I have been looking forward to this game thinking that the U.S. could pull out an upset. Unforunately that wasn’t the case.

This game was so frustrating for so many reasons if you’re a fan of American soccer. First off the game wasn’t even slightly competitive. England ran circles around the U.S. and not at one point were they ever in danger of falling behind. Without Landon Donavon in the lineup, pulled groin, the American side had no offense and couldn’t threaten at all. Being a fan of English soccer and American soccer, I have always dreamed of a true competitive rivalry between the two sides. Instead, England just proves that Americans can’t play soccer and will never be up to their level.

It seems whenever the U.S. is building up a solid team and garnering some respect in the soccer community, they are given a great challenge and they fail. In the 2006 World Cup against Germany U.S. again failed to make a significant impact on the biggest soccer stage.

In the game, John Terry made up for his missed penalty shot for Chelsea in last weeks championship final. He headed in a goal from a free kick from, ironically, the possible savior of U.S. soccer, David Beckham. Steven Gerard scored also as a simple triangle pass picked the U.S. defense apart and gave Gerard an easy break away.

Some good news came from this game though as Brian McBride, one of America’s greatest players, announced that he will be leaving Fulham F.C. in the English Premiership to come to the MLS. I guess he liked where the MLS was headed, and it would be great to see him on a team like the New York Red Bulls.

With the World Cup qualifiers coming up soon, the U.S. soccer team better get their act together and realize that the time is now to show the world that American soccer is for real. Beckham, the world’s biggest soccer star, is playing in the United States and all eyes are on the national team to perform. If they keep playing like this they will be lucky to make it to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

Manchester United-2 Chelsea-1

Yeah, that’s my prediction but with the way the Champion’s League has gone this year who knows. Manchester United, after wrapping up the Premier League title over the weekend, go into the final on May 21st with the most momentum. Alex Ferguson had an interesting way of explaining their momentum coming into the final in Moscow,

If we’d lost the title it would have been a great knock but we are bouncing into the Champions League final

Both Chelsea and Manchester United went into the final weekend of the season tied in points, but United’s win over Wigan Athletic, 2-0, and Chelsea’s 1-1 tie to Bolton gave United the cup. Chelsea goes into the final beat up after a long season of injuries and trade rumors that have slowed, but not stopped Chelsea. With questions surrounding Didier Drogba, and John Terry’s fitness coming into the match Chelsea will be coming into the game already down.

Although Drogba and Terry have confirmed that they will without a doubt be ready for the final, they will definitely not be 100%. Terry who dislocated his elbow on Sunday against Bolton and Drogba who hurt his knee assured the Chelsea faithful that they will be on the field when the whistle blows. This is what Drogba had to say about he and his captain,

He (Terry) will play in Moscow. No one wants to miss this gigantic match, the match of our careers.

There is less question about Terry who is arguably the toughest player in the world but more about Drogba. Drogba’s season has been riddled with knee injuries and it seems that he gets injured nearly every game. Drogba and Terry aren’t the only Chelsea stars who will be overcoming injuries for the final, Ricardo Carvhallo is also scheduled to come back after battling a back problem.

As for United, they come into the final relatively injury free and on fire. Cristiano Ronaldo won the English Player of the Year award after his most spectacular season yet. He has had 38 goals and has done nothing this year but prove he is the best in the world. His back to back awards as PFA Player of the year has made him the main target for Chelsea in the final. Ronaldo’s speed, agility, and sheer genius will be too much for Chelsea and their injuries. Chelsea will have to find a way to keep the ball on Frank Lampard’s feet and distribute vertically to Drogba to avoid Ronaldo. Against Barcelona, Ronaldo was given room to roam and just torched the Barcelona defense and midfield. Ronaldo is the key for Manchester United, and the only way Chelsea can prevent a Manchester United double will be to contain him. But, as I predicted before Chelsea will come up a goal shy and expect United to take home a 2-1 victory.

By Sean Connolly

Silvio Berlusconi, President of AC Milan, has now admitted that the cost of Ronaldinho may be too high. This has led to Manchester City and AC Milan rival, Inter Milan, to get into the mix. With the cost of the 28 year old superstar is too high because there is a lot of doubt surrounding the star. The Ronaldinho trade to AC Milan has caused quite a stir, but now it seems he may be open to more clubs who are willing to spend a great deal of cash. Here’s what SIlvio Berlusconi had to say about the transfer of Ronaldinho…

We still want him and we know he wants to come to Milan. But Barcelona have asked for a price which we feel is excessive.

Ronaldinho has had his worst season yet as he riddled with injuries and his fitness level has not been up to par. The uncertainty of Ronaldinho playing throughout a season is the main concern. He has only played 13 of Barcelona’s 30 games this year and will me the rest of the games. Who would pay so much for only 13 games a season?

I think Manchester City will take the risk of bringing in Ronaldinho. With young Kasper Schmeichel in goal for the next couple of seasons, Manchester City could have a solid young team in their hands. An addition of a superstar like Ronaldinho could bring them up to the top of the premiership table.

If we continue not to win any trophies next year, then I will go somewhere else. I’ve done it all in Spain, I’ve reached the heights here and so if I do leave I will go to another league.

Eto’o, who comes off as a selfish player, proves that he is selfish off the field as well. He joined Barcelona in 2004 and has won trophies with the Spanish powerhouse. His team’s performance ended Barcelona’s dreams of winning the Spanish League as they tied 0-0 Espanyol, leading Eto’o to make remarks of possibly leaving the team. With only the Champion’s League trophy to win, Eto’o has become very anxious about his future with Barcelona.

Barcelona has done fairly well in the Champion’s League despite its poor play in Spain. They had a close call last round with Turkish squad, Fenerbahce, but overcame a first leg loss to win in the second leg and advancing to the next round. Barcelona find themselves in the final four of Europe’s most prestigious league matched up with a surging Manchester United team, who unfortunately for Barcelona fans, are playing their best soccer of the year. A loss for Barcelona could send fans into a deep stage of depression as nothing seems to be going right for Barca at the moment. The Eto’o situation is not helping coming into the first leg of the semi-final round and could hurt team morale.

Barcelona fans might not be able to endure another big name loss as earlier this month they learned that fan favorite, Ronaldinho, is more than likely heading to Italy, possibly a trade to AC Milan. Rumors of French superstar Thierry Henry heading back to England have also swirled. Luckily for Barca fans Vice President, Ferran Soriano, shot down those rumors. When asked if Henry will be headed back to the Premiership he had this to say…

I don’t think so. I spoke with him at length a week ago and he is happy in Barcelona. We were a bit disappointed because the team we have is the team to win all competitions and we are not doing very well in the domestic championship. But apart from that he is fine and I’m sure he is not coming back to the UK.

Henry isn’t the only one who has been rumored to leave Barcelona to go to the Premiership. Coach, Frank Rijkaard, has been rumored to be leaving Barcelona to head to Chelsea. Current Chelsea coach, Avram Grant, has been under fire this season and is likely out of Stamford Bridge soon. Rijkaard would be a perfect fit for Chelsea but all remains to be seen. When asked about Rijkaard’s possibilities of heading to the Premiership, Soriano refused to comment.

Barcelona face Cristiano Ronaldo and Manchester United on Wednesday as heavy underdogs. The 27 year old Eto’o, still has hope though to go to Russia for the Champions League final.

They are a step above us, but let’s see what happens on Wednesday…For me it is a big motivation that they are being classed as the favourites, that makes me even more keen to beat them.

10. Ugo Ehiogu- “I’m as happy as I can be…but I’ve been happier.”

9. David Beckham- “My parents have always been there for me, ever since I was about 7.”

8. Lee Hendrie- “I took a whack on my left ankle, but something told me it was my right.”

7. Mark Viduka- “I wouldn’t be bothered if we lost every game, as long as we won the league.”

6. Les Ferdinand- “I was surprised, but I always say nothing surprises me in football.”

5. Mitchell Thomas- “All that remains is for a few dots and commas to be crossed.”

4. Stan Collymore- “I faxed a transfer request to the club at the beginning of the week, but let me state I don’t want to leave.”

3. Barry Venison- “I always used to put my right boot on first, and then obviously my right sock.”

2. Thierry Henry- “Sometimes in football you have to score goals.”

drum roll please….

1. Ronaldo- “We lost because we didn’t win.”