Kids, cleats, a ball, goals, corner flags, parents along the sideline in folding chairs. Sounds like your average youth soccer match, except for one thing. The only people by the team bench are the kids. One of the players is calling for subs. Where did the coaches go? How can you have a soccer match with no coaches?

Welcome to the Coachless match.

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When you think of books you wouldn’t want to see your team moms reading, one titled Ninja Soccer Moms would likely be close to the top of the list. No good can come from a book with a title like that Who knows what they might do! Seriously though, talk about your sordid ‘tales from the pitch’:

Samantha Shaw hates soccer. A slave to her son’s team for too many years to count, she was glad to hand the ball over to a new generation of moms when her life took a few very unexpected turns. But she doesn’t have a problem with revenge–especially when it’s directed toward cheating ex-husbands. So when Janie Tuggle, the former wife of town hero and championship-winning soccer coach Chad, informs Sam that her ex is embezzling funds from the team coffers, Sam doesn’t mind leaving her Heart Mates clients to their own devices while she investigates.

A run-in with Chad leaves Sam positive that the weasel is not only cheating the team to the tune of $16,000, but had been cheating on Janie every chance he got. Exposing him will be a pleasure–but before she can make a call, she learns from police detective Logan Vance that Chad’s been found dead in his office. And, as usual, Sam is a prime suspect… Of course, so is Janie, and Sam assures her that she’ll clear both of their names, with Gabe’s help. But to her surprise, her boyfriend and sleuthing partner has clammed up–because he’s investigating the case for Dara Reed, the sexy, scantily clad team mom who had been Chad’s latest lover.

I bring this up because Soccer Mom’s sister got her a copy and she’s been enjoying it immensely. I told her she needs to write a review for the site so we’ll see. The Amazon reviews make it sound like a fun read but not high literature.

Of course real life is usually more bizarre than fiction. Embezzling $160,000 from a youth soccer league in less than three years??? Of course it’s even worse when it’s a family affair. There’s a special place in hell for people like this!

Did Santa get you that new Teamgeist for Christmas? Me neither. But I did get the soccer ball ornament! (Thanks Dad!) So what cool soccer gifts did the Soccer Santa leave under your Christmas tree? As crazy as our family is about soccer, I think the extent of the soccer gifts were some soccer related books for The Eldest and a pink league sweatshirt for #2. Go figure. #3 turns 4 in early January so he’ll likely get some cleats for his birthday. He plays his first season this Spring! Heading back to the U6 fields will be an adventure!

Here’s hoping Santa figures out what a Teamgeist is by next Christmas! 

Sitting in the bleachers watching my eldest play another sport using a round ball, working to defend his part of the floor as the clock wound down, I couldn’t help myself. I kept glancing at another clock on the wall, the round one without lights. It was quarter till seven and there was soccer to be played.

As I drive up the hill to our soccer complex, the darkness hides all the familiar sights. The goals, the towering light poles, the colorful team benches, even the signs that said ‘No Smoking’. Having turned off the parking lot lights during the off-season to keep the complex neighbors happy, the headlights struggle to pierce the void.

Driving towards the complex building, I happen to catch the ghostly outlines of cars here and there in the parking lot. A twinkling reflection off an extinguished headlight, an interior dome light making the drivers torso seem to levitate in mid air, or the soft glow of a cigarette of someone trying to relax before lacing up his cleats. I chuckle thinking of the irony of a smoker coming out twice a week to play no holds barred soccer. Stranger things have happened.

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Stumbled across this video on Google called World Soccer. I couldn’t help thinking while I watched what they’d show for the USA. I’m sure it wouldn’t have been flattering. What do you think they would have said if they had included the USA?

Josh over at Throughball has been having some fun with the news that the SoccerSphere’s [snark]Favorite USMNT Player Ehva[/snark] is getting married. Josh found that Landon and his stunning fiancée Bianca Kajlich have registered at Macy’s, the Pottery Barn and elsewhere. What better way for the SoccerSphere to show Landon that we care than sending a gift to the happy couple? Josh figures it’s worth getting the thank you note:

I think we should all chip in and get him and his stunning fiancée a nice gift.

There is one primary reason for this: proper etiquette demands that the recipient of a gift send a thank you note to the gift giver. And, say what you will, a thank you note from Landon Donovan would be pretty cool.

All snark aside - I have to agree with Josh - that is pretty cool. Of course we all know it’ll be signed by Bianca or a machine, not Landon Building on that, I think the next soccer blogger to get married has to get a gift from the rest of us. I can only imagine what it would be.

Sorry for the lack of posts this week. The spammers have unleashed a botnet that is hitting blogs, forums, and email servers constantly trying to get spam through and unfortunately we’re one of their many targets. While my spam filters are doing a yeoman’s job scanning and rejecting the spam, the sheer volume of hits is bringing the server to it’s knees. More memory is on the way to help things along, but it’s been a fight. It’s amazing to watch the logs as dozens of computers hit the same file (post comment) within 5 seconds of each other. I’ve had sites I run get Slashdotted and Dugg and the server did fine, but this spam flood is making it scream for mercy. It’s one thing when 50,000 visitors hit your site to view content over the course of, say, 12 hours. Quite another when 500 hit your site, running CPU intensive comment and spam scanning code within 5 seconds.

Anyway, I’ve had to clamp way down on the web server, so during a spam flood you might get a ‘Server Too Busy’ message - just try again, you’ll get through. The new memory should let me loosen the reins a bit more. The next step may be CPU upgrades (it’s a Dual Opteron server - you’d think it could handle a few small traffic sites! )
I refuse to concede defeat to these losers.

Some of you may suggest turning comments off - I absolutely refuse to do that. One of the best parts about running this site is the comment conversations and debates you get to have with readers.

On a more positive note, we got invited to be part of BlogBurst the other day so that’s pretty cool. We’ll see if anything posted here gets pickup up.

The battle continues…

I got a bit behind on email and didn’t see this until yesterday. Looks like US Youth Soccer is forming a new youth national league. Not a whole lot of details to be found (via Google anyway). Even BigSoccer is pretty quiet about it. Should be interesting to see how this transpires and how it dovetails in with ODP.

At its recent meeting, the US Youth Soccer Board of Directors re-affirmed the organization’s plans to form the US Youth Soccer National League.

According to US Youth Soccer President, Larry Monaco, "US Youth Soccer remains committed to the concept of the US Youth Soccer National League. The league will be open to US Youth Soccer members and allow for the nation’s top players and clubs to compete with greater frequency and further their development through additional playing opportunities at higher levels."

The US Youth Soccer National League will offer play for girls and boys and is set to launch beginning with the 2007-2008 seasonal year.

US Youth Soccer programs and events are known for their excellence and the US Youth Soccer National League will continue this tradition. For US Youth Soccer members, the next months will be an exciting time as the plans for the league are finalized.

Adam ‘Right Place, Right Time’ Spangler has an in depth post up from Bradenton, including some statements from US Soccer folks down there related to the USMNT coaching situation. In addition to a lengthy, PC, response from U17 head coach John Hackworth, he caught up with Clint Dempsey who came right out with it: "It’s a huge blow for US Soccer."  No, Clint, tell us how you REALLY feel Three cheers for honest opinions!

Adam’s take on yesterday’s conference call is spot on:

These federation announcements always come with a grain of salt the size of Lot’s wife. Frankly, I detest them. The nuts and bolts of sports journalism is as frustrating as anything for me. These calls are a complete waste of time. You sit there listening, pretty much knowing they aren’t going to show their hand, allowing them the politically correct and overly safe answers that in my opinion only add fuel the fire.

Pretty much.

Steve Gilliard linked to Yahoo’s latest Top Ten Sports Searches and the results are interesting:

Nos. 5, 6 and 9: Manchester United, Arsenal and Real Madrid. Two words for all the haters out there. Soccer matters.

What the Yahoo search means is that this isn’t
limited to immigrants or non-English speakers. It means among those who
use the Internet in English in the US, three of the world richest and
most popular teams are of interest to them.

Poor Jim Rome. What will he do when Freddy Adu is playing for the Red Devils and every goal is on ESPN.

Something tells me somewhere a geek is at their desk reviewing today’s search patterns wondering what the heck a Klinsmann is

Just got done listening to the US Soccer Bob Bradley podcast. Here are some highlights:

• It sounds like things fell apart with JK within the last 48 hours - that’s when serious discussions with Bob began.
• He feels he and Gulati have very similar views on how to proceed.
• His take on the interim tag: It’s an honor to have the opportunity to coach the team.
• Unintentional laugh line: "US Soccer will always make decisions that give us the best opportunity for success in the future"
• Players at the January camp will be primarily from the MLS
• Direction program needs to go in to be competitive: There will be a natural transition as experienced players retire and new players move up
• Immediate priorities: Finalize players for camp. Put together a staff. Make a permanent hire or two [ed note - hiring assistants as 'interim' won't be easy] Mentioned coaches who were part of Bruce’s staff.
• State of the USMNT program: Healthy and moving forward [ed note - ?!?!?!?!?!?!?!] Margin between success and failure is very small. Made comparison to France in 2002.
• Bob feels Bruce and his staff made much progress to get team where it is today and that they had done a ‘phenomenal job’.
• Hopes he and his staff can has as much passion as Glenn Myernick had.

That was it. I guess you can’t expect THAT much given how quickly this landed in Bradley’s lap. If he had any grand ideas already in mind, he didn’t share them here. Did anyone catch him on ESPN? Did he say anything different?

US Soccer just posted the Gulati conference call podcast as well as a podcast of Bob Bradley outlining his goals for the USMNT.

Marc Connolly weighs in. He’s wondering why Gulati is dragging this out instead of naming Bradley as head coach outright.

In the conference call, Gulati mentioned the month of May quite often when referring to when another head coach could be named. It was a bit awkward, considering that Bradley was also on the call. If anything, at least give Bradley until after the CONCACAF Gold Cup and Copa America to show what he can do, rather than continue to look for a sexier name from a higher-profile country to replace the "interim" head coach hired on Friday.

Awkward doesn’t even begin to describe it. How would you be feeling if you were Bradley right about now, especially with Interim hanging around your neck? The Manly Ferry thanks Bradley for ‘taking a bullet’ for US Soccer:

I’m pulling for Bradley, if for no better reason than he pulled people’s asses out of the fire at no small risk to his professional reputation. I’d be happier to still if he exceeded my expectations and jacked his critics.

Won’t we all…

I missed this late last night when gathering up various columns and articles about Klinsmann. Steve Dilbeck let loose a broadside against US Soccer titled U.S. Soccer Just Can’t Score in the LA Daily News, one many feel they deserve. Here’s a sampling:

The U.S. national team has simply vanished from view. It hasn’t played a game since that embarrassing 2-1 loss to Ghana in its World Cup finale in June. It has gone almost five months without a coach.

After coaching Germany to its third-place finish in the 2006 World Cup, his [Klinsmann's] arrival would have granted the U.S.team unparalleled standing on the international soccer stage. He was instant big-time.

It screamed natural fit. Everyone seemed on board. Yet the prolonged negotiations hinted at trouble.

Maybe Sunil wouldn’t give Klinsmann enough power. Maybe Klinsmann really doesn’t want to coach until 2008, as some suspected, and might yet be back.

But the serious negotiations showed there clearly was an opening at this moment for U.S. Soccer to elevate its program and it missed it again.

Now there is another failed attempt, another nice MLS coach, another temporary plan and more treading water for U.S. Soccer. Someday U.S. Soccer might get it right. Someday there might be a pill for male-pattern baldness.

Ouch. He may have been more direct than most, but he echos what many are feeling.

Jamie Trecker has some insights from the conference call in his latest:

Gulati also dangled a thread: "Klinsmann and I had a terrific conversation yesterday about the future. There’s a lot of respect in how this went. There’s an open door about working together."

Friday, the questions fans were asking were simple, and sometimes harsh: What is wrong with U.S. Soccer? Why isn’t there a line of foreign coaches anxious to work in a country in which winners are well-rewarded? And if U.S. Soccer was going to hire one of Arena’s assistants, why not just retain Arena and play out the fall international dates while charting the next course?

There’s a lot more so be sure to read the entire thing. That’s an interesting thread for Gulati to dangle. I doubt it leads anywhere but who knows. Kind of odd to say something like that when announcing your second choice as ‘interim’ coach.

Once we all get over our disappointment at Klinsmann walking away, we have to come to grips with Bradley as the USMNT coach, at least for a while. Just because almost everyone wanted Klinsi doesn’t mean Bradley is a horrible choice. Ives Galarcep has an excellent article up at Soccernet outlining Bradley’s accomplishments, why he isn’t "Arena Lite" and that maybe, just maybe, we’ll come out better in the end.

Bradley’s appointment is being met with considerable skepticism, but much of that is a product of Bradley’s one unsuccessful coaching stint, a three-year term with the MetroStars that ended with him being fired. That stint transformed his standing in the public eye from being Bruce Arena’s logical successor to just another member of the MLS coaching scrap heap.

Bradley did his part to restore his reputation last year, rebuilding a terrible Chivas USA team using his keen eye for young talent as well as his ability to get the most from players he knows well. He earned MLS Coach of the Year honors for his efforts, but the response to his appointment as the new U.S. coach clearly shows that he has yet to remove all the MetroStars tarnish from his reputation.

Read the whole thing. Once the dust settles, it’s on to 2007 and we have a lot of catching up to do.

[UPDATE: Jeff Carlisle doesn't think this is a good thing.]

[LATE UPDATE: Ives adds some info to his story via his blog Soccer by Ives]

As a side note… Damn, talk about a brutal headline, especially one linking to what is such a positive article: