Pseudo Corner Kick

Today Brian McBride announced his retirement from international soccer. McBride ends his career with the USMNT as the second highest all-time goal scorer and the only US player to score in multiple World Cups.

McBride was a class act and a true professional. I never heard one negative comment uttered about him…he was always praised as the ultimate teammate. McBride brought qualities to the MNT that I have not seen from any other American player, and I wonder if I ever will…superior arial ability, hardworking on and off the ball, and as proven by the number of injuries and surgeries he had, he was tough as nails. While bashed by some of the more ‘knowledgable’ analysts (yeah you know EXACTLY who I’m talking about) for his lack of pure goal scoring, it was quite obvious our offense was built around McBride’s arial ability, hardwork, runs off the ball, and tireless effort.

My favorite McBride moments include scoring the loan goal in France 98, seeing the basketball sized welt on his head in the game against Mexico in Columbus in 2001, scoring against Portugal in Korea 02 and that goofy face he made afterwards, and of course that huge loan goal against Guatemala in qualifying in 2000. Now that was exciting!

It’s a shame to see good players like McBride and Claudio Reyna retire, but we all knew this was coming. Time to see what the youngster can do. As for McBride, he has a strong career at Fulham ahead of him (was named their player of the year last year), and hopefully we will see him return to MLS sooner rather than later.

Again, McBride was such a class act…someone everyone liked, and someone soccer players of all ages should look up to and admire. Best of luck in the future Brian…

In a move that surprises everyone except those who fully understand how corrupt the Italian league apparently is, the punishments brought down on the Serie A teams have been lightened. Lazio and Fiorentina have rejoined Serie A, while AC Milan points penalty was cut and will be allowed to participate in the Champions League. Juventus was forced to stay in the Serie B and stripped of their past two Serie A titles, but had their points penalty also reduced.

Unfortunately I was away when this story originally broke and was unable to comment. My comments would have sounded something like what a huge deal this was for a team like Juventus to be sent down and stripped of its titles and I probably would have (no matter how hard I tried not to) made the American comparison…something like “It’s equivalent to sending the Yankees to Triple A” or something stupid like that. The decision to reverse/lighten these decisions is extremely disappointing and speaks to the weakness of the Italian league/system, as one of my co-workers suggested in a profanity laced tirade about the Italian league. I’m happy to see Juventus lose its titles, but really, what kind of message are we sending? Is this really a deterrent for the future?

Keep up the cheating boys…

Bruce Arena will become the new coach and sporting director for Red Bull New York. His duties include overseeing all of the “club’s soccer operations, including the first team, reserve and academy teams and youth development.” Arena will be on the Red Bulls sidelines for their friendly against FC Barcelona on Aug.12. In the meanwhile, Richie Williams will serve as the acting head coach until Arena is ready to step in.

Well I guess you could say he wasn’t jobless for long, but he’s got a lot of work to do with this team. There is a press conference at 1 p.m. where he will be introduced. Hopefully I will have some quotes after that happens…..

There is a slight, slight, remote, small chance that the US will host the 2010 World Cup. Ever so slight. Only if South Africa isn’t ready for it will the US step in. There are concerns whether the stadiums in the South Africa will be built and modernized in time and if they are capable of handling the massive transportation need that comes with a World Cup. A lot has to go wrong before the US or any other country gets the nod for the next WC but I thought it worth mentioning.

Italy won the world cup in Germany but back at home the Serie A is in shambles following punishments handed down for the match fixing scandal. Juventus, Lazio and Fiorentina were demoted to Serie B, however AC Milan wasn’t demoted. They got a 15-point penalty and can’t play in any Euro competitions. To make things worse, Juventus also was penalized 30 points, Fiorentina was penalized 12 points and Lazio seven making promotion very hard for them. Two former Juventus executives received a maximum five-year ban for match-fixing and disloyalty. A recommendation has been made to the soccer federation to make it a lifetime ban. 19 officials also got the maximum five-year ban. Ouch. I am surprised that they were actually demoted but it’s awsome.

The roster has been finalized for the MLS All-Star game where the MLS All-Stars will face Chelsea on Aug. 5. The First XI sports an all-American backline with Albright, Conrad and Pope. The midfield will showcase De Rosario, LD, Gomez, Dempsey and Joseph. Razov and Moreno will be the forwards. Peter Nowak and Garber named their picks to round out the roster and they included Freddy as well as three other DCUnited players in Gros, Alecko and Bobby Boswell. Joe Cannon, Richard Mulrooney , Ronnie O’Brien, Nate Jaqua and Pablo complete the team. I will be very interested to see how the MLS All-Star’s play and whether or not LD will decide to show up to this one. Sorry, I still harbor anger from his WC06 performance.

Bruce Arena’s time as head coach of the US Men’s National Team has ended. Not really a surprise in most people’s eyes, let’s hope he is remembered for what he did over 8 years, not over the last 3 games.

Let the speculation begin on who will hold the job in the future. My money is on a foreigner…ironically enough, one who lives right here in the United States…

Bruce Arena will meet today with Sunil Gulati about his future and the future of the USMNT. Bruce Arena has been contacted by the New York Red Bulls for the head coach job since they fired Mo Johnston and replaced him with Richie Williams on an interim basis only. I am interested to hear what will come out of there meeting. Arena may make a decision by this weekend. Meanwhile Jurgen Klinsmann, during a news conference in Germany, said that he is not interested in the USMNT position, has not been contacted and wants to go on a six month vacation with his family. Red Bull NY is interested in Klinsmann too.This is an interesting triangle developing here. Say Bruce takes the RBNY job leaving the USMNT position open but then Klinsmann sticks to his guns and stays with his family and doesn’t take the USMNT position. Then what? There are other coaches out there but I think Klinsmann is the one they want so we will have to see what decisions are made after the Arena-Gulati meeting….

HT

The co-president of the German soccer federation said early Wednesday that Jurgen Klinsmann has resigned as German National Team Coach despite pleas from the players on the team, his assistant coaches, the German Chancellor and Franz Beckenbauer to stay. He took a failing German national team and brought it to third place in the World Cup.

It has been said that his travel from California to Germany has caused him to miss his family and it has taken a toll on him.

I personally thought he would stay as the German coach with his popularity seeming to soar but such is not the case. The speculation will start about whether or not he will replace the Bruce as the next coach of US Soccer. During the world cup tournament he brushed off those rumors but now that is over and he is available and I’m quite sure Sunil Gulati will be giving him a call. I personally hope he picks up and says yes…..

HT: DCSunDevil

The World Cup is over and that means no more great soccer or yellow cards or head butting (haha)….. and even though I never thought I’d say this, it also means no more celebrating the World Cup in the streets….. in the US!!

The Italian victory led to mayhem on the streets near my area in Queens, NY! Cars stopped in the intersection, people on lamp posts, grown men crying and Italian flags everywhere. I’m sure somebody drove by the scene and said, “What are they all celebrating?”

This is the nature of soccer in the public view of the US. How many of the celebrating fans do you think actually followed the tournament? And how many of those “fans” were just celebrating being Italian? How many of those people will go to an MLS game? How many people were like our friends before and drove by wondering what was going on? One question that bothers me is: how many of those fans rooted for the US when they played Italy?

Today I went out to run some errands, see a movie with the mom and do other odds and ends. I was wearing my US jersey. At a department store I got stopped by a lady asking where I had got it because she had been looking for one but couldn’t find a US jersey. All she could find were other countries jerseys. I stopped by Commerce Bank and after changing some money the manager came bursting out of the back with his eye on me. I was afraid I had done something wrong. I was on my way out when he stopped me. “Did you watch the final game?” I said I did and he started saying how he was glad to see Italy win but it “angers” him that he’ll never see the USA win a World Cup (as he pointed to my US Soccer Crest). We started talking and he told me how his parents came to America from Italy and they all rooted for the Italian team but he couldn’t. “I live here and I want the US to win.” he said. We both agreed that if the US won the World Cup about two people would be on the streets of New York celebrating: me and him. He said the MLS was good but needed to get better and more people need to start paying attention. I left Commerce Bank with a handshake and some hope that the US Soccer fan base was growing.

In an ironic way the Italian victory may help the US fan base. People driving by seeing the Italians go bonkers over the World Cup victory will, maybe, start to take notice. As our sales rep at Verizon said today, “I didn’t know soccer was such a big deal. Now I’ll pay more attention”

Odds are she won’t pay attention until 2010 in South Africa but at least that’s a start. I’d bet a few bucks that there are more of those fans like the manager in Commerce Bank, and that is reason enough to celebrate. Baby steps…..

Cheers to Ben Olsen for defending the team against some of the more harsh comments directed at them while understanding the disappointment of the fans:

“The average fan is [ticked] off because we didn’t get through,” Olsen said. “You should be. You follow this sport. You pay for tickets. You pay your way to Germany and we didn’t go through and we didn’t play well. And if you don’t think we’re playing with passion, then be [ticked] off. It’s not those people.”

Well said. (HT du Nord)

Also, Frank Dell’Apa joins the growing (at least in the soccer blogosphere) calls for the MNT to take part in next year’s Copa America. (HT American’s view)

Tough return to the MLS for some National Team guys. Jimmy Conrad jumps right back into the fray only to score an own goal Wednesday against DC United, and then proceeds to get ejected from Saturday’s game against the Galaxy for two yellow cards. According to the announcers during the RBNY - Revolution game, Conrad’s teammate Eddie Johnson has not returned to the team yet and apparently had not been in contact with the KC Wizards as of Friday.

On the other hand, Landon Donovan scored two against the Wizards. I guess he’s happy again now that he is out of Germany and back on the beach with Bianca and his teddy bear.