Lots of complaints, whining, discussion, hand-wringing, etc. over the latest US World Cup qualifier, another 1-0 win away, this time in Cuba. I have some problems with some of the player selection (hello, Mr. Cooper; goodbye, Mr. Johnson), but have been overall satisfied with the job Bob Bradley has done. Click to continue reading...

Hey! I am a new blogger here at FCTP! My name is USvsIreland and I am a student who is a massive fan of US Soccer. Hope you enjoy the first piece.
Looking Ahead to 2009: The Involvement of College Soccer Players

       What went largely unnoticed in the furor of our Olympic exploits (or lack thereof) is that the United States sent a Youth National Team to a tournament without a single non-professional player. Click to continue reading...

The Mariners have launched their Academy programs today.

And it's interesting to see the numbers of players involved in their Academies. For example, One centre for 9 years olds will train 16 players. And there are FIVE centres. That's 80 players per age group.

At least five centres spread across the Region. Click to continue reading...

Just when you thought the league turned the corner on ridiculous rules and regulations, we get this - MLS has blocked Red Bulls transfer of Atlanta Silverback standout, Kanji.

Grandfathering Carlos Ruiz is fine.

Grandfathering Landon Donovan? No problem Beckha .

Click to continue reading...

With a number of Coaches announced or about to be announced the race is on to sign the players.

It's a national league and with TV exposure Sydney FC or Queensland Roar romping home with huge win margins would help no-one. So a cunning plan has been devised to spread the player quality across the League and the Country. Click to continue reading...

I've read with some amusement the last few days the opinions of people I respect questioning the apparent decision by the LA Galaxy to hire Bruce Arena. From my vantage point after drifting along as simply a marketing entity and not a serious footballing side since the death of Doug Hamilton, no move can equal the potential hiring of Arena in signaling that the Galaxy are serious about competiting again in MLS.

Click to continue reading...

Photo by ISIphotos.com

The Bruce Arena era in Los Angeles is about to begin.

The Los Angeles Galaxy has hired Bruce Arena as the team's new head coach, multiple sources told SBI on Friday.

Click to continue reading...

Photo by ISIphotos.com

Eddie Lewis and Cory Gibbs are set to come back to the Major League Soccer.

SBI has learned that the Los Angeles Galaxy are set to acquire the rights to Lewis after passing on Gibbs with the top spot in the MLS Allocation order.

Click to continue reading...

The weighted lottery comes Colorado's way...for once. It almost always looks like MLS favors the local team in these cases, add to that the fact that his college coach is now FC Dallas coach and in my eye's, Bruno was going to FC Dallas. But, things don't always work out the way you expect and the Rapids won the lottery. Click to continue reading...

L.E. Eisenmenger at American Soccer News has written an incisive review of MLS and its academy system. Find the article here.

For the first nine parts of our series on player development in the USA, go here. Click to continue reading...

Tom Dunmore at Pitch Invasion has written an interesting post on the developing academy system in the USA. Find the post, which I highly recommend, here.

You can find the previous posts on our series on player development in the USA here. Click to continue reading...

The Cary RailHawks U23s gave Burnley Football Club a rude introduction to the game we call "soccer" here in America with a 2-1 victory over the Clarets on Thursday night at WakeMed Soccer Park.
The match was the first of a two match tour for the English Championship side who will also play the Minnesota Thunder after a few more days of training at WakeMed Soccer Park this weekend. Click to continue reading...

The Springfield SC is taking on a familiar nemesis, although on a new front, today. The Club had a pair of teams qualify for the US Club Soccer Regional playoffs being held in Indianapolis June 28 - July 1st.

The U13 squad finished first in their group, winning 2 and drawing 1 with 5 goals scored, 2 allowed.

Click to continue reading...

The Springfield SC is taking on a familiar nemesis, although on a new front, today. The Club had a pair of teams qualify for the US Club Soccer Regional playoffs being held in Indianapolis June 28 - July 1st.

The U13 squad finished first in their group, winning 2 and drawing 1 with 5 goals scored, 2 allowed.

Click to continue reading...

We've written about Greg Dalby's path to the pros a few times here at FCTP. Take a look for yourself. Here are just a few examples.
His name is probably one of the most used on this blog due to him being a hot prospect going into the 2007 SuperDraft, being drafted by my team and then his going AWOL and ending up in Europe. Click to continue reading...

Coach Pia Sundhage will announce the roster in a teleconference at noon today, although few, if any, surprises are expected.

The roster is likely to be virtually unchanged from the just-concluded Peace Cup, which means Torrance's Shannon Boxx, USC's Amy Rodriguez and UCLA Lauren Cheney are anticipated to head to China.

Click to continue reading...

Highlights from the ever-inspiring Sons of Ben chat with Nick Sakiewicz on Jun 16, 2008 (see full transcript here):

Stadium:
-Planning electronic signage
-Architect of the stadium is Rossetti Architects (Home Depot, Toyota Park, Real Salt Lake). We will build a scale model for our sales center to be located at the site. Click to continue reading...

Our long-running series on player development in the USA continues with the unlikely story of Jorge Flores. He is the 18-year-old Mexican-American who won Univision's "American Idol"-like tryout "Sueño MLS."

As The New York Times writes, Flores "was the most valuable player for his team at Anaheim High and played for a club team in nearby Santa Ana. Click to continue reading...

According to this article in This is Lancashire, officials from Burnley FC, a professional football club in England's Championship league, made a recent visit to the United States which included a local stop here in Cary to meet with the Carolina RailHawks.
Burnley FC Chairman Barry Kilby was joined by operational director Brendan Flood, development director Paul Fletcher and assistant manager Sandy Stewart on a four-day trip to select one club to form a partnership with from a shortlist of three, namely USL-1 sides Carolina RailHawks and Minnesota Thunder, and USL-2 side Richmond Kickers. Click to continue reading...

Watching France labor to a goalless draw against Romania yesterday got me thinking about the debate on player development in the USA. Why?

Franck Ribery, that's why. As recently as the 2003/04 season, he was playing in the French third division and working as a construction worker, and he left Turkish club Galatasaray in 2005 after having gone four months without a paycheck. Click to continue reading...

It is a common question made to youth soccer coaches, both from experienced coaches as well as people unfamiliar with youth soccer. Why Do you Coach? For me there are a number of reasons, but I think I can say without hesitation that there is one reason above all others: When the players on the [...]SHARETHIS. Click to continue reading...

The USL recently released a list of Super Youth League (SYL) players who will train with West Ham. It looks like the list was pulled together by SYL staff based on the players performance at the 4 day U-13 and U-17 camp held in Cocoa, Florida last month.

Here are the players, 10 field players and 2 goal keepers:

Justin Maheu F Ottawa Fury Fabian Bastidas M Sunrise SC Ryan Lehman M Atlanta Fire United Glenroy Chapman D South Jersey Barons Giovanni Freitas D Sunrise SC Aaron Liang D Santa Cruz County Breakers Alan Narvaez D Juventus Sport Club Renato Pezzulo D Parsippany SC Antonio Schneider D Chicago Magic Sekani Sinclair D Schulz Academy Cody Cropper GK Bangu Tsunami Cody Mizell GK Atlanta Silverbacks

Given the presence of so many SYL and PDL players in the MLS SuperDraft, it's probably worth watching these players over the next several years.

Click to continue reading...

A while back I alluded to the challenges we had faced with our U11 girls in terms of getting them motivated in practice, but hadn't had a chance to expand on that until now. Our U11 team is a great group of girls, but it's also on a steep learning curve. Very diverse personalities, varying levels [. Click to continue reading...

Over at Youth Sports, Joyce has a post up about the importance of keeping things simple in youth soccer: During the holidays, my daughter's soccer team played a series of "friendlies" in a three-hour span at the new Adirondack Sports Complex in Queensbury, a dome which boasts a large field perfect for indoor soccer. Click to continue reading...

Some 14 months after Major League Soccer announced initiatives that would allow MLS teams to sign players they develop through their own youth programs, three MLS teams are set to take advantage of those initiatives.

Chivas USA, D.C. United and the New York Red Bulls have been identified by MLS as having players who qualify to be signed to the senior teams directly.

Click to continue reading...