Sports Then and Now

The Chicago Fire lost to Real Salt Lake in a shootout.

Bridgeview, IL November 14, 2009 – You can sum up the Chicago Fire’s season in this one game. You can sum up the team’s history, excluding year one, in this one game. The summary is this: outstanding defense, underachieving offense, overall game domination, tantalizing fans by getting within reach of greatness only to find a way, sooner or later, to betray them– and themselves.

After win streaks and losing streaks, the usual Fire roller-coaster ride throughout the season, this season looked as if it might

be different, as if whatever curse constrains Chicago might have been broken. After all, they beat the Revolution for a change, and found themselves playing in a Conference final.

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With the draft process for the 2010 United States (U.S.) Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS) in full swing and teams

Median Income of Top Ranked Girls Soccer Clubs

rushing to recruit international players, it is important to reflect on why coaches prefer foreign players over home grown talent.

Given the success of international players relative to the U.S. players in the inaugural WPS season, it is not surprising to see this trend.  WPS league statistics for 2009 show that leaders in goals scored, assists, minimum number of goals given by a keeper, and number of shutouts by a keeper are all foreign players.

Granted the U.S. players enjoyed a dominant phase on the international scene for over two decades.  That dominance, however, is slowly waning; other countries are catching up to the U.S. and are developing quality players. Read the rest of this entry →

Most Americans only care about competitive soccer when it is time for the World Cup or Olympics. Would some minor "tweaks" make the game more appealing on a regular basis?

As Major League Soccer begins to wind down its season and Women’s Professional Soccer is two months beyond the end of their inaugural season, it is time to reflect on the status of soccer in the United States and do a little diagnosis and prognostication.

There are critics who assert that low scoring matches, ties, and no-scoring matches as outcomes that must be changed in order to save the American game. Some have suggested enlarging the dimensions of the goal, shrinking the size of the pitch, and shortening the length of the match, using PK’s as tie-breakers, and calling more penalties in the box as his key solutions.  In other words, tweak the game in order to increase scoring, and to eliminate ties as final outcomes.

The basic premise of such arguments, that soccer is not consistent with American sports culture in key aspects is a good one. Beyond that, the sport’s critics mostly miss the mark.

Changing the physical dimensions of the pitch or the goal, or the length of the match would diminish whatever international credibility American soccer may have, and make it more difficult for American players to adapt to the international game.

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Anglea Hucles of the Boston Breakers in game last season against St. Louis Athletica.

Angela  Hucles, a Boston Breakers veteran and 2008 Olympic hero, has announced her retirement from professional soccer.

Hucles will not travel with the U.S. National Team for its match against Germany on October 29 and she will not return for the second season of Women’s Professional Soccer after playing with the Breakers in 2009.

“I always wanted to involve myself in things I was passionate about and give 110 percent,” said Hucles. “I feel like I’ve come to a point where I no longer can give that much and I know that there are other players who are ready to step up to the plate in order to bring the World Cup trophy back to the U.S. and carry on the growth of professional women’s soccer in the United States as well.” Read the rest of this entry →