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.

With a slap Didier Drogba shattered Chelsea’s dreams of winning the Champion’s League. Today’s game will go down in history as the best game in Champion’s League history and includes the worst mistake in soccer since Zidane’s headbutt in the 2006 World Cup Final.

Before I get into the finer things of the game let me sum up the final penalty kicks that made this game so exciting.

Tied after two overtime periods, penalty kicks were the only solution. At about half past one in Moscow, Russia both teams would have to fight through rain and try and take the cup. Both Chelsea and Manchester United made their first two shots convincingly. Then, Cristiano Ronaldo stepped up for the third shot with the score still tied. Surprisingly, the best player in the world failed to step up and it’s all due to his dumb move that he thinks fools the keepers but in facts gives them a better chance. Ronaldo’s penalty approach has been talked about amongst fans and head officials in Europe as to whether it was legal or not. Either way the star stepped up, stopped, and then had his shot blocked by Petr Cech. This stop and go move could have easily cost Manchester United the title, and he should quickly get rid of it before it ends up costing United a game. The tension built up to the 5th and possibly final shot for the Chelsea Captain, John Terry. With rain pouring down in Russia, the captain had a chance to end the game and give Chelsea the cup. He slipped as he shot and forced the ball right, just glancing the outside of the post. Two feet to the right would have won the game with Van Der Sar diving to the opposite side. The conditions of the field were awful to begin with, and with heavy rain making the field worse, the captain’s left foot gave out just as he struck the ball forcing the shot wide. This mistake by John Terry opened the door for Manchester United. After a goal by Ryan Giggs, Nikolas Anelka who had come on late in the game would step up for Chelsea. Anelka went right, as did dutchman Edwin Van Der Sar and blocked the shot to the right. Anelka’s penalty was poorly taken with little strength and neither high nor low where Van Der Sar couldn’t reach. His approach was predictable, and you could see Van Der Sar begin to smile before the ball hit his hands. With that Manchester United had won the Champion’s League.

If you’re a Chelsea fan though, do not blame Nicolas Anelka for not going right, or John Terry for not being aware of the conditions of the field, blame Didier Drogba. Reminiscent of the 2006 World Cup final between France and Italy where France Superstar Zinedine Zidane head butted Marco Materazzi and was sent off, Didier Drogba lost his head in a confrontation and decided to slap Manchester United player Nemanja Vidic. And the worst part is, it wasn’t even a good slap. If you’re going to slap someone to get sent off in the Champion’s League Final, make sure you get him good. At least Zidane’s headbutt was creative, I mean who headbutts someone in the chest anyway? Instead Drogba barely glanced Vidic’s chin right in front of the Referee, Lubos Michel. Michel immediately sent Drogba off as the game headed into penalty kicks. With the game obviously heading to extra time Drogba made the worst mistake of the game. To play for that long and get kicked out of the biggest game of your career over something so small and dumb is beyond me. Drogba’s character was shown in this game and it should definitely hurt him as trade rumors surround him.

Surely if Drogba was in the game in penalty kicks, Chelsea would have won. His stupid antics cost his team a win and should be looked at as the goat of this game. If Drogba was in the game John Terry would not be taking the 5th and final shot to win the game, but Drogba would be. Instead, John Terry, a defender, stepped up and missed. This will most likely be Drogba’s last game as a Chelsea player and Chelsea fans should be happy.

The drama of Drogba’s slap of Viddic and the final penalty kicks will definitely overshadow an amazing game throughout. The first goal was scored by star Cristiano Ronaldo from a beautiful cross from Wes Brown. Ronaldo lifted high above marker Michael Essien and buried the ball perfectly into the lower left corner. Frank Lampard, overcoming the death of his mother, buried a goal after a deflect fell right to his feet minutes before half time which turned the momentum around for Chelsea in the 2nd half. The 2nd half wasn’t as eventful as the first half until Drogba took a shot outside the 18 yard box that hit off the post. If that shot was two feet to the right it would have ended the game and gave Chelsea the title. And then later in the game with the ball floating around Manchester United’s box, Frank Lampard found the ball at his feet about eight yards from the goal. With his back turned to the goal, Lampard turned and shot and drilled the ball off the crossbar. Again, two feet lower the cup would have been Chelsea’s. So, in total Chelsea came up two feet shy of the cup on three different occasions. Tough luck.

It’s amazing how many players could have ended up being criticized and blamed if the game turned out differently. If Manchester United doesn’t win you could easily blame Ryan Giggs for missing a wide open shot within the six yard box. Giggs recieved a perfect pass with the goal wide open and instead of drilling the ball home with his right, he decided to try and nudge it in with the outside of his left. This gave time for John Terry to get back to the line and push the ball away with his head. And then you could blame Alex Ferguson for taking Scholes out and putting Giggs in. You could easily blame Cristiano Ronaldo for trying to be too fancy and missing a penalty. The stop and go move by Ronaldo was so overt that if it went in the referee would have disallowed it. With Anelka’s miss though, both Giggs and Ronaldo were vindicated, leaving Ronaldo weeping in the middle of the field like a baby after Van Der Sar saved it.

This was the best game I’ve seen since the 2006 World Cup Final, and there are a lot of elements that remind me of it. If you’re a Chelsea fan feel bad for John Terry and maybe Anelka, but make sure you blame Didier Drogba’s slap for losing this game.