Southern Soccer

2009 Gold Cup TV Schedule

Confederations Cup musings…

Still have a soccer hangover from the confederations cup? I know I am itching for more international soccer. Before putting the Confederations Cup to bed, Ryan over at pwt-blog has a good write up on what to take out of it. I’d also like to add a few quick bullets of my own to the discussion

• Jonathon Spector is a quality back. Yes, he got beat a few times, but his calm on the ball in the back under pressure is a breath of fresh air
• Jay Demerit can play in the middle. I was a bit tough on Demerit at times (playing center back myself), but as the tournament went on, his understanding with his team mates improved dramatically.
• Landon Donovan was a menace on the field all tournament. This is the first tournament I can remember (besides World Cup 2002) where Landon didn’t disappear for long stretches. He led this team on the field for the entire tournament.
• Jozy Altidore still has some learning to do. His goal against Spain was top notch, his combination of size and speed gave defenders problems at times, but he wasn’t able to play the holding forward role well. Too many times he lost the ball and allowed the opponent to regain possession. Keeping possession when you have it is key against top opponents.
• Charlie Davies was like that annoying gnat that won’t leave you alone. He was a work horse up top and I hope he played himself into a bigger contract. Let’s just hope his head is screwed on straight. He recently received a 5 game ban for a vicious elbow in Sweden where he plies his trade.
• Clint Dempsey might be more valuable up top. This one is arguable because despite getting killed in this tournament early on by the announcers, his work rate was pretty high. Dempsey and Donovan both had to tuck into the middle of the field to clog up both Spain and Brazil, but also sprint out wide to provide cover when the ball inevitably found the open wingers. Not to mention they were both regularly getting into the attack.

Gold Cup Gives a glimpse of the future

Now that we’ve put the Confederations Cup to bed, onto the Gold Cup.  This tournament features CONCACAF opponents and is likely to be filled with B-team rosters. However, if you want to see the future and maybe some dark horses for the World Cup Roster, you should check out the action. All the US games will be televised on Fox Soccer Channel. Listings to follow….

Inside the Beckham Story

If you haven’t read it, the following is an excerpt from a book from Grant Wahl that gives good insight into what happened during the recent Beckham loan deal. It is a must read for any proponent of soccer in the US.

US Soccer on Twitter

And lastly, it was interesting to watch all the young US National Team stars give updates on Twitter. It took me a while to find a use for this technology, but I think I’ve finally stumbled onto something now. Twitter is a great way for sports professionals to have unfiltered access to their fans on what’s happening in their life and career. Some of it is mundane, but some is actually making news. For instance Freddy Adu recently let us know that his agent has been talking with teams in Spain but that ultimately he will be back in Portugal with Benfica for the fall. I still think Freddy still has a good career ahead of him and its been interesting getting updates from him. He seems very positive and upbeat, which was unexpected given his lack of playing time both for club and nation. Anyway, check out my “following” section on twitter and you can find Jozy Altidore, Charlie Davies, Maurice Edu, Sacha Klejstan, and many others including updates from US Soccer on everything the national team is doing with interviews and video clips of training.

For those itching for some soccer, the Confederation Cup gets under way today. While the Yanks don’t play til tomorrow (get your DVR set!), you can watch tournament favorite Spain take on New Zealand today.
UPDATE: USA Plays Spain on Wednesday in the Semi Finals!!!

CONFEDERATIONS CUP Schedule *All times are Eastern time*

SUNDAY

South Africa vs. Iraq (ESPN2, 9:55 a.m.); New Zealand vs. Spain (ESPN2, 2:25pm)

MONDAY
Brazil vs. Egypt(ESPN2, 9:55 a.m.); USA vs. Italy (ESPN, 2:55p.m.)
WEDNESDAY

Spain vs. Iraq (9:55 a.m., ESPN2); South Africa vs. New Zealand (ESPN2, 2:55 p.m.)

THURSDAY

USA vs. Brazil (ESPN2, 9:55 a.m.); Egypt vs. Italy (ESPN2, 2:55 p.m.)

SATURDAY

Spain vs. South Africa (ESPN2, 2:25 p.m.); Iraq vs. New Zealand (ESPN2, 1 a.m., live on ESPN360)

SUNDAY, June 21st

Egypt vs. USA (ESPN2, 2:25pm), Italy vs. Brazil(ESPN, 2:25pm)

WEDNESDAY, June 24th

Group A(Spain) 1st vs. Group A (USA) 2nd (ESPN, 2:25pm)

THURSDAY, June 25th

Group B(Brazil) 1st vs. Group A(South Africa) 2nd (ESPN, 2:25pm)

SUNDAY, June 28th

Third Place Match (ESPN2, 8:55am)

Championship Match (ESPN2, 2:25pm)

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Rocket City United won their home opener last night 2-0 in front of a crowd of 625 according to their website. Notable performances by Paul Willoughby on the wing who put on a clinic for Chattanooga FC’s defenders in the second half and the entire RCU defense anchored by newly converted defenseman Norbert Webley for helping keep Chattanooga from finding the back of the net.

While the quality of the game was good and provided entertainment and excitement, one thing I think that could liven up the atmosphere (aside from more of the “Rocket Man” ) is a raucous crowd. I’ve been a part of matches where the opponents crowd are beating drums, chanting, taunting players, and just downright being obnoxious. This kind of behavior is extremely contagious, and I can only hope that somebody in the crowd steps up their game. I know we’ve got some soccer hooligans out there. I also know that the passion seen in those type of matches is not something that can be conjured up over night. I did hear the crowd get loud a few times with a little prodding from the rocket man.

All in all, it was a good step for the club this year as they took a share of the lead in the NPSL southeast region with a record of 2-1-0 in league play and 3-3-0 overall.  Rocket City heads to Atlanta to face Atlanta FC next weekend.

I’ve been playing in HASL for about ten years now and have now played in every division and recently become more involved with the league. While the league isn’t broken, as evidenced by its recent 25th anniversary, I’d like to think that things can always get better. With that said, I’ve been kicking around a few ideas in my head that others have suggested over the years that have never taken hold. I can’t take credit for these ideas. While I might not be a great idea man, I am good at execution. So I’m going to be writing these up as possible proposals to the league this summer. HASL is of course a league that is governed by the teams, so it will come down to a captain’s vote.

New divisions - Over-40 & Women’s

• Each division should be a stand alone league that has no impact on the regular HASL standings
• This could allow for players to play in two leagues if they so choose. (I know several that want to)
• I would propose  that each NEW division have it’s own “commissioner” if you will, to tend to it’s needs. The other 4 divisions will still be under the direction of the league President and Vice President. All divisions would report back up the chain of command.
• Reserve the right to combine these two divisions, or take the women’s division to co-ed if not enough interest is there. I think both could be legitimate, I just think there needs to be a little time to get the word out.

FA Cup style competition

This is an idea that has been floating around for a while. This would be a separate competition from the normal HASL match play. There would be set dates throughout the year where any team from any division could play against any team. So Schurke could meet Earmuffs in the first round or the Law Dogs could end up playing Foot Clan in the first round. We play single eliminationand spread the games out over the two seasons to culminate in a “Huntsville” cup winner at the conclusion. The down side is that I am sure some teams won’t want to participate if it means playing a team that is two divisions away from them in the standings…to them I say, Suck it up! It’s only 1 match. And anything can happen in Soccer. Or to get around this we could take the top 16 teams or the first 16 who sign up. For those not familiar with this style of competition you can find a good explanation on Wikepedia

2 divisions - 1 year league Format

Go to a longer season. Having broken up a team in the top division and then reformed in the bottom, I have spent 3 seasons clawing back up to the top division. What I’ve found out is that sometimes the bottom division is the hardest to get out of, and that there is more parity in the league than teams give themselves credit for…either that, or we’re just not that good of a team. The point is that it takes too long to get to the top division from the bottom. The proposal is to go to two divisions each with 12 teams. Then you do 4 up/4 down or something along these lines. Instead of 1.5 years to make it to the top it only takes a year now. One problem I do see with teams that only last 1 season. They will mess up the standings when they drop out so you might have to charge the entire year up front. This might scare away some teams with younger players who don’t want to sacrifice beer money for soccer. They haven’t made the realization yet that the two go hand in hand.  As it is right now, the format doesn’t allow for any experimentation with your lineup or your formation. If we have 10-15 games to recover from a loss, teams might be allowed to be more creative. I play the thankless sweeper position for Schurke and I know that I’m not going to get my cameo up top any time during the season because the games count so much. Yes the suspense is riveting, but I still like to think that I have a lot to learn about soccer and playing other positions can only help me as a player.

So there they are. I’ll try to work on something more formal, I just wanted to start getting it out there so people can poke holes in it and it can be a sound proposal that can be distributed to the captains ahead of the league meeting to get a vote. What do you think? Have any ideas? Think I’m trynig to fix what isn’t broken? Let me know! Leave a comment or email me at noffke@southernsoccer.net