Good game in the Confederations Cup final today, but in the end Brazil was the better team. Somehow U.S. kept numbers up defensively and it took Brazil into the second half to penetrate, although American keeper Tim Howard helped keep his team on top with some spectacular saves in the first half.
The score could have been higher. With the U.S. still up, 2-1, in the 61st minute, Howard reached back into the goal to knock out a ball off the head of Kaka. The ball went up, struck the underside of the crossbar, bounced down on the line and out. But replays seemed to show that it had completely crossed the line when Howard first played it. The referee did not think so and play went on.
Thirteen minutes later Brazil tied it and then scored the game winner on a header off a corner minute in the 84th minute,
Despite the disappointment, no reason for the U.S. to be ashamed, especially after a terrible start in the tournament and the epic 2-0 shutout of Spain in the semifinals.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
U.S. upsets Spain: That's Why They Roll the Ball Out
This just in: the United States men upset Spain, the world's number one team, 2-0 in the semi-final of the Confederation Cup in South Africa. Jozy Altidore scored in the 27th minute and Clint Dempsey in the 74th as the U.S. advanced to the final against Brazil or South Africa on Sunday.
Spain, the European champion, had set an international record with 15 straight victories and had tied Brazil's record unbeaten streak of 35 games. The U.S., meanwhile, has never played in a FIFA final since beginning play in 1916.
It may be a bit much to compare this win to the U.S. hockey team's "Miracle on Ice" over the Soviet Union in the 1980 Winter Olympics, or to the 1-0 upset of England in the 1950 World Cup, as some are already doing. Those games were in the Olympics and the World Cup, afterall. But it is satisfying nonetheless, especially after the Americans dropped the first two matches of the tournament.
"This is an accident, a little step backward," Spain coach Vicente del Bosque said.
Spain, the European champion, had set an international record with 15 straight victories and had tied Brazil's record unbeaten streak of 35 games. The U.S., meanwhile, has never played in a FIFA final since beginning play in 1916.
It may be a bit much to compare this win to the U.S. hockey team's "Miracle on Ice" over the Soviet Union in the 1980 Winter Olympics, or to the 1-0 upset of England in the 1950 World Cup, as some are already doing. Those games were in the Olympics and the World Cup, afterall. But it is satisfying nonetheless, especially after the Americans dropped the first two matches of the tournament.
"This is an accident, a little step backward," Spain coach Vicente del Bosque said.
Class Act #1
When I get this site up and running, I will include a page with stories of sportsmanship at all levels, mostly in soccer, but in other sports as well. The first comes from the issue of Sports Illustrated that arrived today.
The short version is a college softball team is fighting for a play-off spot when a batter on the other team knocks one over the fence with two runners on - her first career home run. As she rounds the bases she realizes she missed first but when she turns to go back and tag the base, she falls and twists her knee. As she lies on the field in pain while the umpires and coaches confer, two players on the team in the field help her up and carry her around the bases, gently lowering her to allow her to tag each base along the way. Her first and last college home run stands.
The short version is a college softball team is fighting for a play-off spot when a batter on the other team knocks one over the fence with two runners on - her first career home run. As she rounds the bases she realizes she missed first but when she turns to go back and tag the base, she falls and twists her knee. As she lies on the field in pain while the umpires and coaches confer, two players on the team in the field help her up and carry her around the bases, gently lowering her to allow her to tag each base along the way. Her first and last college home run stands.
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Wet day at JAGS
This tournament seems to run by itself. After 28 years, I guess everyone knows what they're doing. Registration at the Hyatt in Princeton came off with out a hitch last night.
I stayed overnight at the Doubletree Hotel last night, which provides some comp rooms to the tournament in return for the out-of-town teams that book hotels through THS, the tournament's hotel broker. Many tournaments require out-of-town teams to use their designated broker under threat of disqualification if a team is caught booking rooms on its own. JAGS does not have that requirement.
Up bright and early and reported to Mercer County Park at 7:00 a.m. Saw a mother deer and two small deer driving back to tournament HQ.
Mid-morning the rains began, but without the predicted thunder and lightning. We had an all-time record of 46 college coaches pre-register for JAGS and nearly 20 had checked in before or during the 8:00 games. They kept showing up, even as the rains came down in varying intensity. Mid-day site coordinator John Esposito made the decision to shut down Field #9 right in front of headquarters and move the game to the front of the park to a less desirable but better draining field. I was happy we were playing. Unlike 15 years ago when my kids played in rain, mud and monsoons, today tournaments shut down after a few minutes of precipitation - often costing parents hundreds of dollars in travel expenses.
By the time the 3:30 games were underway it had stopped raining and there was hope for playing tomorrow. But during the second half of the 4:45 games, the skies opened and the county shut down the park. Whether we play tomorrow depends on whether we get more rain tonight.
I stayed overnight at the Doubletree Hotel last night, which provides some comp rooms to the tournament in return for the out-of-town teams that book hotels through THS, the tournament's hotel broker. Many tournaments require out-of-town teams to use their designated broker under threat of disqualification if a team is caught booking rooms on its own. JAGS does not have that requirement.
Up bright and early and reported to Mercer County Park at 7:00 a.m. Saw a mother deer and two small deer driving back to tournament HQ.
Mid-morning the rains began, but without the predicted thunder and lightning. We had an all-time record of 46 college coaches pre-register for JAGS and nearly 20 had checked in before or during the 8:00 games. They kept showing up, even as the rains came down in varying intensity. Mid-day site coordinator John Esposito made the decision to shut down Field #9 right in front of headquarters and move the game to the front of the park to a less desirable but better draining field. I was happy we were playing. Unlike 15 years ago when my kids played in rain, mud and monsoons, today tournaments shut down after a few minutes of precipitation - often costing parents hundreds of dollars in travel expenses.
By the time the 3:30 games were underway it had stopped raining and there was hope for playing tomorrow. But during the second half of the 4:45 games, the skies opened and the county shut down the park. Whether we play tomorrow depends on whether we get more rain tonight.
Monday, June 15, 2009
JAGS
“You don’t know me,” began the voice on the phone nine or 10 years ago, but Jersey Area Girls Soccer (JAGS) Tournament Director John Esposito wanted to know if I would be interested in becoming the college coordinator for the event. He’d gotten my name from Frank Conlow, a parent on my ’81-’82 Strikers team.
Now the team after my ’81-’82 girls has graduated and I’m still the JAGS College Coordinator. The final meeting of the committee before the 29th Annual Tournament was at the Hibernians Club last night. (I love the Hibernians Club - on a hill overlooking a large soccer field with lights. The clubhouse is reminiscent of Vereinigung Erzgebirge in Warminster, PA and 1st German S.C. Phoenix, where I played club ball in high school.) The dedication and energy of this group never ceases to amaze me. A majority have been working on the tournament far longer than i have. Most of them I see only at the several planning meetings and the actual tournament, held every Father’s Day weekend, but I look forward to seeing everybody at this time of year.
I enjoy communicating with nearly 300 college coaches beginning early in the new year. Many of them I got to know when they were scouting players on teams I coached.
I have some good memories of JAGS: In 1998, our Strikers team lost, 2-0, to the Weston, CT Wild Things, coached by Yale’s Rudy Meredith. We were New Jersey U16 state champs that year, but Weston went on to win the national championship in our age group. The following year, we were eliminated in the first round of State Cup, but we beat the team that won the cup, Wyckoff Torpedoes, 1-0, to win JAGS. That night I received an e-mail from the parent of a Wyckoff player saying she was glad that if they had to lose it was to our team.
In 2004 the Xtreme won our bracket in a shootout over the Hunterdon United Sonics and the following year won it again in another shootout, this time over the Medford Sting.
Now the team after my ’81-’82 girls has graduated and I’m still the JAGS College Coordinator. The final meeting of the committee before the 29th Annual Tournament was at the Hibernians Club last night. (I love the Hibernians Club - on a hill overlooking a large soccer field with lights. The clubhouse is reminiscent of Vereinigung Erzgebirge in Warminster, PA and 1st German S.C. Phoenix, where I played club ball in high school.) The dedication and energy of this group never ceases to amaze me. A majority have been working on the tournament far longer than i have. Most of them I see only at the several planning meetings and the actual tournament, held every Father’s Day weekend, but I look forward to seeing everybody at this time of year.
I enjoy communicating with nearly 300 college coaches beginning early in the new year. Many of them I got to know when they were scouting players on teams I coached.
I have some good memories of JAGS: In 1998, our Strikers team lost, 2-0, to the Weston, CT Wild Things, coached by Yale’s Rudy Meredith. We were New Jersey U16 state champs that year, but Weston went on to win the national championship in our age group. The following year, we were eliminated in the first round of State Cup, but we beat the team that won the cup, Wyckoff Torpedoes, 1-0, to win JAGS. That night I received an e-mail from the parent of a Wyckoff player saying she was glad that if they had to lose it was to our team.
In 2004 the Xtreme won our bracket in a shootout over the Hunterdon United Sonics and the following year won it again in another shootout, this time over the Medford Sting.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Welcome to the Blog
Welcome to Coach P’s Soccer Blog! Writing whatever I feel like whenever I feel like it about the world’s most popular sport is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. Now that I have retired from coaching, refereeing and being a club administrator, I have the time – when my day job as a lawyer permits.
About this blog
I plan to write about whatever comes to mind in the world of soccer – maybe a club game, or a news item from a European league, and a lot from Philadelphia’s new pro teams, the Union and Independence. A lot of content here will be my opinion – and you’ll know when it is – and a lot plain news reporting. I hope it will be objective and professionally written and that it will provoke thought or at least be interesting and entertaining to a soccer fan.
Eventually, when I figure things out, I’ll have more organization and specific pages by topic, pictures and various soccer links.
I won’t pretend to be comprehensive. I won’t have the time, the resources or the desire to fully cover any one league, team or age group.
And you will often find references to songs in my writing. It’s a habit I have, but I find I am not alone. I have found that Dan Shaugnessy, excellent sports columnist for the Boston Globe, has sprinkled references to songs in his work.
About me
First and foremost I am a lawyer and have been for 31 years. But before I was a lawyer I was a journalist, and that has never left me.
I was married for almost 37 years to Louise Harbach, who died on 12/11/06. Our two kids, Kirsten, 30, and Scott, 27, both played through high school age. Kirsten is still on the roster of FC Hansa in Minneapolis but is on the D/L until October when she is expecting her first child and my first grandchild. Her husband, Chris, a good player himself, is still active.
I grew up in the Philadelphia area – always a soccer hotbed - and played from about age 8 when we kicked a ball around after school until I retired from the South Jersey “Old Men’s League at age 45.” Along the way were stops on teams in high school, clubs, college and in the Army.
I never played very well – I’m short (5’ 5”, but so is Tomas Hässler and he earned 100 caps for Germany) and not super fast. But I could run all day – and had the desire.
Along the lines of the comedian who said he wouldn’t want to belong to any club which would have him as a member, any team I could make could not have been very good, and our Gettysburg College team was not very good in the late ‘60s. In fairness to us, we had an athletic director who thought nothing of scheduling us to play the defending NCAA champions (Navy) in the fall of 1965, along with Penn State, Temple and other schools now in NCAA Division 1. I once asked him why he didn’t schedule the football team against Notre Dame. “They’d get killed,” he replied. Yeah, well we got killed by Navy and the rest.
My coaching career began before my own two kids were born - in the early-1970s when I coached a U11 boys team in Southampton, PA for two years – through U12. Starting law school began in 1974, my coaching for the time and eventually curtailed my soccer journalism. But to stay in the game I signed up to be a referee and studied with Vic Scarangelli, an NASL official based in Philadelphia. During law school I refereed in Philadelphia, then afterwards in NJ.
I returned to coaching with my own kids in the town league in Medford, and then with the Medford Strikers where I stayed long after they moved on. I helped coach girls state cup champions in 1994 (girls U15), 1995 (girls U16), 1997 (girls U15) and 1998 (girls U16). During this time there was the thrill of watching my son win a State Cup at U14 and going undefeated at regionals. My second girls team (which didn’t have a name other than Strikers ‘81’82) produced 17 Division 1 college players and Carli Lloyd, a mainstay on the U.S. National Team and the Chicago Red Stars of the Women’s Professional League.
And most recently I ended up six years with a team that was like a second family to me, the Medford Strikers Xtreme (MSX). These girls are all in college now and you will read more about them on this blog. Suffice it to say for now that they have always been a big part of my life and I look forward to watching them play in college and beyond.
I’ve done some soccer journalism, first as a stringer and free-lancer. During college I covered the Philadelphia Spartans of the old North American Soccer League for a weekly paper in Philadelphia, then when the Atoms came to town in 1974 I wrote an article for Philadelphia Magazine. The team was owned by Philadelphia builder Tom McCloskey, who was talked into buying the franchise by his friend, Lamar Hunt, in Dallas.
The Atoms were upset with me when I described in the article how McCloskey didn’t even know the size of a soccer goal – he thought they were like lacrosse goals. But when the Atoms concluded their inaugural season by winning the NASL championship at Texas Stadium outside Dallas, McCloskey came up to me in the locker room, shook my hand and said with a smile, “Not bad for a guy who didn’t know the size of the goals, huh?” I covered the team all season for the league’s magazine based in Toronto.
At about this time I got together with Tom Breen and Don McKee, fellow reporters at the Courier-Post in South Jersey and we put out a magazine called Soccer Weekly, that journalistically was first rate, but was under-financed and lacked an aggressive sales and circulation staff. It lasted one season. I also covered the NCAA final four (now called the “College Cup”) in Philadelphia in 1976 for the Inquirer, and in 1978 was the Cosmos beat writer for the Trenton Times, which is where I got to meet Pele, Beckenbauer, and even Mick Jagger, who hung out in the Cosmos lockerroom.
Since then my soccer writing has been confined to team newsletters, the Medford Strikers website and the Xtreme’s website, still active and still the best around, thorough the efforts of John Makowski. (http://www.eteamz.com/medfordstrikersxtreme/)
Which brings me full circle to my motivation in doing this blog: a chance to write about the world’s most popular sport: one that has started wars (Honduras and El Salvador in 1969) and stopped wars (Nigerian civil war stopped in 1967 to allow both sides to watch Pele play in Lagos; 1914, German and British troops call truce and play soccer at Christmas); one that moves entire nations like no other, one that is called “the Beautiful Game” by the Brazilians.
So if you’re a soccer fan, check back and I hope you like what you read. Let me know.
Wayne Partenheimer, a/k/a Coach P
About this blog
I plan to write about whatever comes to mind in the world of soccer – maybe a club game, or a news item from a European league, and a lot from Philadelphia’s new pro teams, the Union and Independence. A lot of content here will be my opinion – and you’ll know when it is – and a lot plain news reporting. I hope it will be objective and professionally written and that it will provoke thought or at least be interesting and entertaining to a soccer fan.
Eventually, when I figure things out, I’ll have more organization and specific pages by topic, pictures and various soccer links.
I won’t pretend to be comprehensive. I won’t have the time, the resources or the desire to fully cover any one league, team or age group.
And you will often find references to songs in my writing. It’s a habit I have, but I find I am not alone. I have found that Dan Shaugnessy, excellent sports columnist for the Boston Globe, has sprinkled references to songs in his work.
About me
First and foremost I am a lawyer and have been for 31 years. But before I was a lawyer I was a journalist, and that has never left me.
I was married for almost 37 years to Louise Harbach, who died on 12/11/06. Our two kids, Kirsten, 30, and Scott, 27, both played through high school age. Kirsten is still on the roster of FC Hansa in Minneapolis but is on the D/L until October when she is expecting her first child and my first grandchild. Her husband, Chris, a good player himself, is still active.
I grew up in the Philadelphia area – always a soccer hotbed - and played from about age 8 when we kicked a ball around after school until I retired from the South Jersey “Old Men’s League at age 45.” Along the way were stops on teams in high school, clubs, college and in the Army.
I never played very well – I’m short (5’ 5”, but so is Tomas Hässler and he earned 100 caps for Germany) and not super fast. But I could run all day – and had the desire.
Along the lines of the comedian who said he wouldn’t want to belong to any club which would have him as a member, any team I could make could not have been very good, and our Gettysburg College team was not very good in the late ‘60s. In fairness to us, we had an athletic director who thought nothing of scheduling us to play the defending NCAA champions (Navy) in the fall of 1965, along with Penn State, Temple and other schools now in NCAA Division 1. I once asked him why he didn’t schedule the football team against Notre Dame. “They’d get killed,” he replied. Yeah, well we got killed by Navy and the rest.
My coaching career began before my own two kids were born - in the early-1970s when I coached a U11 boys team in Southampton, PA for two years – through U12. Starting law school began in 1974, my coaching for the time and eventually curtailed my soccer journalism. But to stay in the game I signed up to be a referee and studied with Vic Scarangelli, an NASL official based in Philadelphia. During law school I refereed in Philadelphia, then afterwards in NJ.
I returned to coaching with my own kids in the town league in Medford, and then with the Medford Strikers where I stayed long after they moved on. I helped coach girls state cup champions in 1994 (girls U15), 1995 (girls U16), 1997 (girls U15) and 1998 (girls U16). During this time there was the thrill of watching my son win a State Cup at U14 and going undefeated at regionals. My second girls team (which didn’t have a name other than Strikers ‘81’82) produced 17 Division 1 college players and Carli Lloyd, a mainstay on the U.S. National Team and the Chicago Red Stars of the Women’s Professional League.
And most recently I ended up six years with a team that was like a second family to me, the Medford Strikers Xtreme (MSX). These girls are all in college now and you will read more about them on this blog. Suffice it to say for now that they have always been a big part of my life and I look forward to watching them play in college and beyond.
I’ve done some soccer journalism, first as a stringer and free-lancer. During college I covered the Philadelphia Spartans of the old North American Soccer League for a weekly paper in Philadelphia, then when the Atoms came to town in 1974 I wrote an article for Philadelphia Magazine. The team was owned by Philadelphia builder Tom McCloskey, who was talked into buying the franchise by his friend, Lamar Hunt, in Dallas.
The Atoms were upset with me when I described in the article how McCloskey didn’t even know the size of a soccer goal – he thought they were like lacrosse goals. But when the Atoms concluded their inaugural season by winning the NASL championship at Texas Stadium outside Dallas, McCloskey came up to me in the locker room, shook my hand and said with a smile, “Not bad for a guy who didn’t know the size of the goals, huh?” I covered the team all season for the league’s magazine based in Toronto.
At about this time I got together with Tom Breen and Don McKee, fellow reporters at the Courier-Post in South Jersey and we put out a magazine called Soccer Weekly, that journalistically was first rate, but was under-financed and lacked an aggressive sales and circulation staff. It lasted one season. I also covered the NCAA final four (now called the “College Cup”) in Philadelphia in 1976 for the Inquirer, and in 1978 was the Cosmos beat writer for the Trenton Times, which is where I got to meet Pele, Beckenbauer, and even Mick Jagger, who hung out in the Cosmos lockerroom.
Since then my soccer writing has been confined to team newsletters, the Medford Strikers website and the Xtreme’s website, still active and still the best around, thorough the efforts of John Makowski. (http://www.eteamz.com/medfordstrikersxtreme/)
Which brings me full circle to my motivation in doing this blog: a chance to write about the world’s most popular sport: one that has started wars (Honduras and El Salvador in 1969) and stopped wars (Nigerian civil war stopped in 1967 to allow both sides to watch Pele play in Lagos; 1914, German and British troops call truce and play soccer at Christmas); one that moves entire nations like no other, one that is called “the Beautiful Game” by the Brazilians.
So if you’re a soccer fan, check back and I hope you like what you read. Let me know.
Wayne Partenheimer, a/k/a Coach P
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