Chelsea's John Terry: "A Walking Disaster?"

Today's New York Times has a lengthy piece about John Terry of Chelsea, whom it says is perhaps  England's "most reviled player."  A research fellow in sport and leisure culture at the University of Brighton called Terry "a walking disaster."

In September Terry was fined £220,000 (about $354,000) and suspended for a racial slur the previous October against Queens Park Rangers player Anton Ferdinand.

But that was just the latest in a long string of bad behavior.  As reported by The Times: 

"There was the time Terry and some teammates went on a drunken binge in an airport hotel bar while passengers stranded by the 9/11 attacks watched the Twin Towers burn on television. There was the time he was charged with assault after a melee in a nightclub in which a bouncer was slashed with a broken bottle. (He was acquitted.)

There was the time he was fined £60 (about $97) after leaving his Bentley in a parking spot for the disabled while he went to a pizza restaurant; the time he was thrown out of a bar in Essex after urinating in a beer glass and dropping it on the floor; the time he was investigated, and cleared, by Chelsea after he was accused of charging an undercover reporter money to show him around Stamford Bridge, Chelsea’s stadium; the time he brutally kneed a Barcelona player in the back in the Champions League semifinal last April and denied it until confronted with a videotape that proved he was lying; and the time when he violated the players’ unwritten code of loyalty by, it seemed, cheating on his wife not with a groupie in a bar, but with the estranged girlfriend of one of his teammates."

What a guy.  And Chelsea would not make him available to Times reporter, Sarah Lyall for this article.  I wonder why.

Soccer Sing-Along

Singing and soccer go together like peanut butter and jelly.  Watch any professional game in Europe or South America and you’ll hear the fans singing in the background through 90 minutes.

While there is some singing at games in the United States it just isn’t part of the soccer culture here.

So here are some good soccer songs.  Any additions to the list are welcome.

Ole

            Maybe the best known of them all, not belonging to any one team.  The best version I ever heard was at the USYSA Region I Tournament at University of Buffalo in July 1994 where our Medford Strikers U15 girls represented New Jersey.  As the teams marched into the stadium for the opening ceremonies, Ole sung over a rock version of the Grand March from Aida played over the sound system.  Whether you were a player, coach or spectator, if that didn’t get you pumped up you were probably dead.

The Fields of Athenry

            This relatively recent (1979) Irish folk ballad about the  Great Irish Famine was sung by Irish fans at the 1990 World Cup.  More recently it was sung at the end of Ireland’s elimination by Spain in the 2012 European Cup, prompting Spanish players to remark how the song had given them chills.  This is a recording from that game in Gdansk,  And here’s a more polished concert version by the Dubliners.

Marching On Together

            The song of British team Leeds United.

Glory Glory Man United

            Manchester is one of the best known teams in the world, and its fans sing this song to the tune of The Battle Hymn of the Republic.

Nur Nach Hause

            You haven’t lived until you’ve stood in the Berlin Olympic Stadium with 50,000 German fans singing this anthem of Hertha BSC Berlin after a 2-0 win over Bayern München.  We had that experience on a cold December night back in 2001.  The speed of the game was impressive, especially since Bayern had played in South America the previous Wednesday and Hertha in London on Thursday.  Here’s what the song looks like in the stadium, and here’s the studio version.

FC Bayern Stern Des Südens ("Star of the South")

           I’m not even sure if this is the “official” Bayern theme song, but it’s a great piece for the lyrics and the unbridled enthusiasm with which it’s sung. 

Here’s the chorus:

FC Bayern, Stern des Südens,

Du wirst niemals untergehen,

weil wir in guten, wie in schlechten Zeiten zueinander stehen,

FC Bayern, Deutscher Meister, ja so heißt er mein Verein,

ja so war es, und so ist es, und so wird es immer sein.

Which literally translated means:

FC Bayern, Star of the South,

You will never go under,

Because we stand by each other in good times just as in bad,

FC Bayern, German champion, yes that’s what my club is called,

Yes, it was and it is and it always will be.

More Than a Club: SI's Wahl Looks at FC Barcelona

Yesterday's post referred to an article in the New York Times about US Soccer adopting an academy model similar to that in Europe.  Along those lines is an article by super soccer writer Grant Wahl in Sports Illustrated about a team many consider the greatest of all time, FC Barcelona.

Wahl's comprehensive piece explores the history of Barca, as it's called, and examines the roots of the current success, including its own academy program, which takes boys as young as 8, including 12-year old American, Ben Lederman from Los Angeles, and trains them to be soccer players.  They must be doing something right.  As Wahl notes, "In Barca's Champions League game against Spartak Moscow on Sept. 19, eight of the team's 11 starters-including Lionel Messi, the world's preeminent player-were products of the club's youth academy."  Messi, now 25, joined the club at age 12.

"The FC Barcelona motto - Mes que un club, Catalan for 'More than a club' - is deliberately open-ended. In one sense it refers to Barca's social mission as a 113-year-old organization with 118,000 dues-paying members who vote in elections for the club's leaders. For years Barca was the only major soccer team that refused to sell space on its jersey to a corporate sponsor, before making the novel decision in 2006 to donate about $2 million a year and put UNICEF's logo there."

The subhead under the article's title declares that FC Barcelona is "more than a club, more than a champion, more than Messi.  It is the embodiment of a sporting ideal that has made it beloved across the globe." Imagine someone writing that about the Yankees or the Green Bay Packers or just about any other American professional team.

 Another version of the story is available at SI's website.

Academy: Dilemma for High School Stars

Extensive article in yesterday's New York Times explores the tough choice of elite players for the so-called "academy" club teams who are barred from participating in their high school programs. 

Any club coach will tell you the quality of club ball is far better for obvious reasons: the kids stick together and often develop as a team over the years.  They can recruit and draw talent from anywhere, not just a given school district.  They are selected as an all-star team.  Coaching and training may be better.  All that notwithstanding, there are values to the high school game in terms of social networking, peer recognition, name in the papers and community pride.  I doubt a club player ever got to ride on a fire truck down the main street of town to celebrate a state championship.

The goal of the academy programs is to follow the European model which identifies and develops players at a young age in an effort to find the 18 athletes who will ultimate compete on the world level.  In this country, there is the added incentive of major college exposure and hopes of a scholarship.

Given the odds against a scholarship and even higher odds against a professional contract, especially for women, I wonder if the commitment asked of an academy player is not too much, especially that of foregoing the high school experience.  But in the free market, as long as there are player

It Wasn't Pretty But We'll Take It - HMHS 2, W. Deptford 0

  "A W is a W," said a relieved Haddonfield Coach Glenn Gess moments after the Bulldogs ran their record to 10-0 with a 2-0 shutout of archrival West Deptford on a slippery HMHS field.

   It wasn't pretty off the field either, but like the girls on the field we got it done.

   Driving home from work in Marlton through a rain shower at 5 o'clock I never thought we'd play.  But an hour later the stadium field was eminently playable - just a little slippery.

   It was nice, as always, to chat with West Deptford's assistant coach, Amy Leso, who has been with the program since Kirsten's senior year - 1996.  Also nice to see referee Bob Brunson, a veteran of the high school and club games who always does a top notch job.

  The ball girls arrived on time and were briefed, programs were available for the fans, I had the starting line-ups, and we were ahead of schedule.  And there was no rain.  Then the problems started.  Haddonfield AD Lefty Banos had the national anthem on his phone plugged into the stadium amp.  Except it wouldn't play for what seemed like an hour but actually lasted only until, "What so proudly we hailed . . ."  Then there was electronic feedback.  Then when I began announcing Coach Frank Ottinger came running over to scream up to us that the volume was too low and no one could hear us.  Lefty made an adjustment - more blood-curdling screeching.

  The system finally worked, the starters were introduced and the game was underway.  It was another HMHS - West Deptford classic with intense end-to-end play, momentum swings and some controversy.  Haddonfield appeared to have taken the lead in the first three minutes only to see referee John Mauger nullify the goal for offsides.  (She was.)  The the West Deptford fans began complaining loudly about the lines on the field.  They had a point.

  Haddonfield finally notched a goal that counted on a long Olivia Blaber throw in that appeared to go right into the goal.  Which would have meant it did not count because throw-ins are indirect, a rule the visiting fans made a point of calling the the attention of the officials.  But the goal stood and it was 1-0 with 19:31 to play.  (The girls told me after the game that the ball brushed the keeper's fingertips on the way in.)  HMHS increased the advantage 3:36 before intermission when an Eagles defender knocked the ball into her own goal.

   Both teams had chances in the second half and West Deptford came within inches of closing the gap with 36 minutes still to go when a ball rolled just wide right of Haddonfield's goal.  As the game wore on the fog thickened and West Deptford gave its best shot but could not find the back of the net.

   Only two night games this season and this was one.  Next up is Collingswood in three weeks.