New Soccer Media Springs From World Cup Fever

Beware that which is spawned by the World Cup. 

In 1966 it is said that interest in the Germany-England World Cup overtime final encouraged the founding of not one but two professional soccer leagues in the soccer wasteland that was the United States.  These were the United Soccer Association and the National Professional Soccer Association, which in 1967 merged to form the North American Soccer League, which folded in 1984.  Then in 1999 the popularity of the Women's World Cup, played in and won by the United States, convinced investors to back the Women's United Soccer Association, which played from 2000 and folded in 2003.

So now the New York Times reports that interest in the upcoming World Cup in Brazil has led to three new quarterly soccer publications: Eight by Eight, Howler and XI.  Eight by Eight published its first edition a month ago and the other two are just a year old but already XI is experiencing financial difficulties. 

I can relate.  Back in 1973, Tom Breen, Don McKee and I left the Courier-Post to work at a start-up called Soccer Weekly.  Breen, who later went the the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin and McKee, who moved to a long career in the Sports Department at the Philadelphia Inquirer, were superb journalists, and we had a free-lance photographer named George Tiedemann, who later worked for Sports Illustrated.  And we still didn't last more than a year.


I haven't yet read any of the new magazines, which reportedly have experienced editors, writers and financial backers. And all have digital editions.  But will they be around when the glow of Brazil '14 fades?  History says the odds are against it.

Europe Explained

We recently did Egypt on this Blog, then yesterday was Brazil, so it's time to return to my favorite place, which of course would be Europe.  In fact, Debbie and I were just there, as evidenced by this photo from the Hofbräuhaus in München (Munich).  We were in Southern Germany from September 13 through the 22nd.

So there are two versions of Europe: one found in Heaven and the other at the opposite end of things down in Hell.



It has been said that in Heaven:

 The police are English;
 The mechanics are German;
 The lovers are Italian;
 The cooks are French; and
 It's all organized by the Swiss.

But in Hell:

 The police are German;
 The mechanics are French;
 The lovers are Swiss;
 The cooks are English;
 and it's all organized by the Italians.

   Think about it.

   Prosit!

Soccer and Naked Women in Brazil

   In a marvelous story in today's New York Times, Sam Borden takes a close look at the culture of pick-up soccer in Brazil, which will host next year's World Cup.

  The game is called pelada, a word Borden says is used by Brazilian men to refer to a naked woman.  He said a hotel doorman in Rio, waiting to play in a pick-up game, explained that, “Football and women are the only two things we really love.”

   You can tell the story is worth reading just by the first paragraph: "In Brazil, the ball is always moving. It moves on grass and on sand, on concrete and on cobblestone. Sometimes, during the rainy season, it even moves on water."

   Borden takes us from Rio to the quadras of Sao Paulo to the remote city of Manus in the Amazon where players play for the love of the game, because they have nothing else to do, in the hopes of being discovered by a professional team or to escape drug dealers.

Is Bradley Still Walking Like An Egyptian?

Last week Grant Wahl wrote an excellent piece (as he always does) in Sports Illustrated about Bob Bradley, who was fired as coach of the U.S. men's national team, in 2011.  Bradley had since taken over in Egypt where he has attained rock star status as the Pharoahs were on the brink of qualifying for the World Cup - until yesterday.

Egypt has been torn by political strife and stained by the deaths of 74 fans at Port Said Stadium last year.  It has not been to the World Cup since 1990 but suddenly was undefeated in six matches as it took on Ghana in a home and home aggregate goal series for one qualifying spot.  Bradley, meanwhile, was everywhere in Egypt, adored by fans and walking like, well, an Egyptian.

But now the dream may have fallen to pieces.  Ghana won, 6-1 yesterday, meaning Egypt will need to win by six goals when the series resumes in Egypt next month.  After the blow-out rumors surfaced that Bradley would be fired, although he told Wahl that was not true.

New Season, New Field at HMHS

It was a postcard-perfect early fall day yesterday as the Haddonfield girls played their first weekend game in the newly-carpeted high school stadium.  There was a lot of agitation by some in town over the decision to replace the rutted football field and adjacent practice field with artificial turf, but walking on the field before the game and watching from the pressbox, it sure seemed like a good investment in our school's athletic program.  (Full disclosure: Debbie and I contributed to the turf field campaign.)

There is now a level, smooth and well-marked playing surface.  Although there are different color lines for Football (white), soccer (yellow), field hockey (orange) and lacrosse (red), the players and officials seemed to have no difficulty discerning the correct markings.  The advantage of turf will hit home when the rains come and the field is still playable.

This was technically not the home opener but as noted the first weekend game on the new field.  Because weekday games are played here as well, the scoreboard is now operated from the scorer's table and that and the benches have been moved form the far side to the side in front of the stands.  Having the clock operated by the scorer is one less thing for me to do during the game, although running a clock in soccer is way easier than football or basketball.

Yesterday we had a nice crowd, great weather, two undefeated teams and a well-played game well-called (in my opinion) by two veteran officials.  Before the game Allen Stout and I reminisced about some of the games he had refereed for my Medford Strikers teams over the years.

Generally stadium operation went well but I did not have time to test the CD player before the game so did not risk trying to play the National Anthem.  Then the microphone stopped working at the very end.  Add to that a few errors in the program, and there are some things to improve on for the Kingsway game on October 5.

All that aside, the game itself was typical Haddonfield-West Deptford: fast, close, exciting.  There were only a few real scoring chances but Haddonfield's Kylie Kirk gave the Bulldawgs all the scoring they need with a goal with just 8:49 remaining.  Haddonfield is now 8-0 on the season with Overbrook and Paulsboro coming up this week.

Action from Haddonfield girls' 1-0 win over West Deptford in the stadium.

High School Team or Academy? This Hawk Chooses High School

Over the years club soccer coaches always grumbled about conflicts with high school soccer.  The problem was especially acute on the girls side where the WAGS (Washington Area Girls Soccer) Tournament was the king of the hill among college showcase tournaments but was played over Columbus Day weekend and inevitably caused at least indirect conflicts with high school games or practices. 

Lately the upper echelon club teams, the so-called academies, have subtly or not so subtly demanded its players forgo high school teams to be on their rosters.  Chris Melchiorre has a story in today's Inquirer about one top college prospect who is going against the flow and will play for his Haddon Township High School team in his senior year this fall, rather than for the Philadelphia Union U18 Academy team. 

I wish him luck and will be interested to see how things turn out for him.

There's a Moon Out Tonight

   Police and reporters will tell you they always know when it's a full moon because that's when all the crazies come out.  Tonight's spectacular full moon in South Jersey may well bring out some strange people, but it also reminded me of the great song by the Capris and a great soccer story from my brother, Gary.

  When he's had time from his full-time job teaching religion at a New England prep school, Gary has coached soccer and ice hockey on and off over the years at the school.  A number of seasons back he was coaching a girls team when one of the deans stopped by practice to briefly discuss an academic matter.  Apparently the dean had done something to antagonize the students and as she walked away from the field, one of Gary's players mooned her.

   Gary happened to catch a glimpse of the moon and asked the girl, "Did I see what I thought I just saw?"

   "Just adjusting my equipment, Coach," replied the player.

Bundesliga Kicks Off 2nd Half Century

The German Bundesliga begins its 51st season tomorrow when Borussia Mönchengladbach visits defending champion Bayern München.  Bayern is coming off a "triple" in '12-'13: winners of the Bundesliga, the DFB (German Football Federation) Cup and the European Champions League title.

At the other end of the table are Eintracht Braunschweig, returning to the First Division after a 28 year absence, and Hertha Berlin, back after a brief period of relegation to the Second Bundesliga.  Eintracht has special meaning as the site of the first European game I ever saw in person.  My high school had an affiliation with a school in Braunschweig, an old Hanseatic city between Hannover and the Harz Mountains.  My family hosted the first exchange student from the school and after college I visited his family in 1968 and saw Eintracht play.  When my son and daughter lived in Berlin in 2001 we saw Hertha play Bayern in the Olympic Stadium on a cold December night in a fast-paced, exciting match that ended in a 2-1 Hertha victory and 50,000 fans singing Nur Nach Hause (gehen wir nicht).

I'm hardly an expert on European soccer and the differing styles of play but have always enjoyed the Bundesliga's all-out, up the middle go for the goal play.  Here's to the next 50 years.

By The Numbers: Soccer Stats

  As the lead in this article by Jack Bell in last Friday's New York Times notes, "Soccer is not a sport seduced by numbers, unless that number is three — as in the points awarded for a win."

  However, there is a constant effort to quantify the sport along the lines of football and baseball.  Even when I played in college more than 45 years ago, the school's sports information director had to mention how many saves a goalie had in a match or how many shots were taken.  (In our case, our goalies had plenty of saves because the other teams took most of the shots.)  Watch a pro game now and you'll see information on time of possession, number of touches,  percent of bad passes, and more. 

  Now, those who want to dissect every last movement on the field, there is a book: “The Numbers Game,” subtitled “Why Everything You Know About Soccer Is Wrong.” According to the Times, it will be available this week, so I'll have to read it and let you know what I think.

Phil Woosnam, Long-Time NASL Commissioner, Dies

Phil Woosnam, the Welsh professional player who came to the United States and served as commissioner of the North American Soccer League for 15 seasons, died Friday in Georgia, as reported by the New York Times.

After playing more than 300 matches for Leyton Orient, Aston Villa and West Ham United, and earning 17 caps for Wales, Woosnam came to the United States in 1966 and played for the NASL Atlanta Chiefs beginning in '67 and became coach of the team in '68.  The following year he became coach of the U.S. National Team.  A year later he became commissioner of the NASL, a post he held for 15 seasons.

I had occasion to get to know Phil a bit when I worked for an upstart soccer publication called Soccer Weekly, that lasted just one year.  He was a nice enough guy and as I recall reasonably accessible, but we always had the impression that he felt the league didn't need us.  We were hoping for some contacts with sponsors as potential advertisers but never got it.

Afterall, the NASL was on an upswing, growing from nine teams and average attendance of 5,954 (usually in large stadiums) in 1973 to a high point of 24 teams and average attendance and average crowds of 14,440 in 1980.  But it wasn't part of the sporting fabric of the country.  It wasn't regularly on television or in Sports Illustrated, or talked about at the local bars.  And that's where Phil and the other powers of the league missed out: by not helping the grass roots local media.  Maybe the league would have ultimately failed anyway, given the over-expansion, the tanking of the economy in the '80s, and the over-spending on player salaries, all of which contributed to the demise shortly before the 1985 season.  But the free publicity of lot os small media outlets around the country couldn't have hurt.

Phil Woosnam went from his commissioner's post to the marketing arm of U.S. Soccer and is given some credit for getting the men's World Cup for the United States in 1994.  In 1997 he was elected to the U.S. Soccer Hall of Fame, a well-deserved accolade.

First Trip to PPL Park

   Finally made it to PPL Park Saturday night to see the Union play for the first time since their inaugural match back on April 10, 2010 at the Linc.  Despite the oppressive humidity and the electrical storm that delayed the second half and caused us to leave before the half began, it was a fun time as the Union played to a scoreless tie with the Portland Timbers.

   Just as the teams left the field for intermission, the lightning bolts from the dark storm clouds across the Delaware River coupled with a downpour forced an extended halftime of nearly 40 minutes,  Between the humidity, the later hour and the prospect of wet seats and possibly more rain, Debbie and I left just as play resumed.

   The 45 minutes we watched were entertaining, albeit somewhat slow-paced, but the it was about 90 degrees at the opening whistle.  Although the Inquirer reported a sell-out of 18,740, we saw quite a few empty seats at the opening whistle.  I thought the Timbers generally had the better of the play in the first half, although the Union certainly had some chances.  But according to the Inquirer, the home team stepped it up in the second half and Portland needed some great saves from Donovan Ricketts to salvage the draw.

   We sat on the southwest corner, 19 rows from the field, inside the 18-yard line, and not far from the boisterous Sons of Ben fan club's area on the south end.  It was very cool when the Sons unfurled a large American flag as the crowd joined in to sing the Star Spangled Banner.  The Sons kept up the noise level, and drum beats, throughout the half.  There was a lame attempt by the team to have everyone sing I'm Looking Over a Four Leaf Clover at the 20:10 mark of the game to commemorate the team's founding in 2010.  I get the 20:10 but no one explained the significance of the song and it doesn't matter because very few sang it.

   The stadium itself is everything positive I'd read about it: clean, soccer-specific, good seating, plenty or rest rooms and uncrowded (but typically over-priced) concessions stands.  Definitely a good place to watch a game, and far more convenient to South Jersey fans than Villanova Stadium where the Philadelphia Charge (R.I.P.) of the W.U.S.A. played.  The parking is likewise overpriced at $20, but the lots are well lit and managed by the team,  They could use some numbering of areas to make it easier to find your car afterwards, and the signage leading out of Lot C where we parked is confusing or non-existent, as are the signs directing traffic to and from the Commodore Barry Bridge.

  

Boycott The World Cup?

   In Brazil, no less, the winner of more men's World Cups (five) than any other nation, protesters are calling on  fans around the world to boycott next year's Cup.  Seems like people there get just as upset as here when the government spends huge sums of money to build sporing venues while overlooking other basic needs.

  As reported in the June 21 issue of the New York Times, the government is spending more than $13 billion to prepare for the World Cup.

   “I think Brazilians are feeling insulted to see that there was political will and large investments to construct big, FIFA-quality soccer fields,” said Antonio Carlos Costa, 51, a Presbyterian pastor and leader of Rio de Paz, a group that combats social inequalities in Brazil. “And when these stadiums went up, the people saw that there was not the same political will to use public funds to build the same standard of schools, hospitals, and public security.”

The End of JAGS

It begins with registration at the Mercer County Park HQ Tent. 

Nobody else is dwelling on the last JAGS, so I guess I shouldn't either.  But I'll miss it.

It was a great run - 33 years - for the tournament and for me as the college coordinator for more than 10 years.  Next year for the first time in nearly 20 years I won't be spending Father's Day on a soccer field.

Of all the long-time committee members at Mercer County Park this past weekend, no one really said anything about the end of an institution in youth soccer.  Work Friday and family commitments 

The sun is coming up at MCP at 7 a.m.

Sunday prevented me from going to breakfast or dinner with everyone on those days, which was my loss because they are such good people.  As I have often said, the tournament seems to run itself because everyone knows his or her job very well and does it very well.  But that would not be giving enough credit to tournament directors Tom Bayless and Rick Firth, who along with many others have put in countless hours every year to make this event work so well.

On my end, I've enjoyed meeting many college coaches, many of whom such as Joe Russo (TCNJ), John Sumoski (Wilkes), Christa Racine

Setting up the HQ tent early on Saturday.

(Drew), Erik Burstein (Kutztown), Rick Brownell (Arcadia), Nick Juengert (Stockton), Tim Dempsey (Mansfield), Kevin Davies (Centenary) and others, I consider friends even though I see them only once a year.  Many return year after year with the same school, others show up new to the job.  Now, many are younger than my own kids.  One who was here this weekend was a teammate of my son's in Medford nearly 20 years ago and is married to one of my former players.  I love hearing the coaches stories of the season just past, of seasons to come, of their own backgrounds in the sport.

The sausage sandwich with pepper and onions is huge.

The weekend was not without nostalgia.  I followed some of the same rituals I have for years: an early stop at the Dunkin Donuts at Sloan Avenue and Quaker Bridge Road before heading over to Mercer County Park; carrying the box of college coaches' profile books across the grass slickened by morning dew and setting up the table at the headquarters tent; the Italian sausage sandwich lunch at the concession stand Saturday, riding the golf carts around the site to make sure all the college coaches were happy.

And watching the games brought back memories.  There were smiles and laughter: The joy of scoring a goal, winning a game, advancing to the championship,  parents and girls hanging out with friends between games.  There was tension.  Players being a little nervous if a coach from one of their colleges was there.  And there were some tears: the frustration of giving up a goal, of losing, or worse, of an injury.  They are scenes played out thousands of time each year on soccer fields around the country.  They are scenes that have been part of my life for so long.

Sunday John Esposito and I talked about my good friend, Joe Dadura, who died last December.  Not surprisingly, John mentioned what a good age group coordinator Joe had been, trying to do the best for all the teams, not just his own.

But it's over.  I watched a good U16 championship game between the Randolph Rampage and the South Jersey  Elite Barons '96 (Barons won, 2-1) and that was it.  I drove my cart back to the HQ tent, said goodbye to John Esposito, Bill Gosselin and Tom Bayless and drove home for a Fathers Day dinner.

The 33rd (and last?) JAGS

   When I went to the JAGS Tournament Committee meeting Sunday before last I was shocked to hear there will be no JAGS next year and perhaps ever.  President Tom Bayless told the group that the Special Olympics will be in New Jersey this time next year and has locked up every field in the area for Father's Day Weekend and the following.   The week before would conflict with Sunburst.  Two weeks after Father's Day is getting into the Fourth of July and it would be particularly tough to get the older teams.

  So the 33rd Annual will be this weekend and that may be it.  Tom said at the meeting and reiterated to me today that he thinks when you stop having a tournament it can never come back.  Not sure I agree, but Tom has been in this game a long time as a coach and administrator and sadly, he may be right. 

   Tom said he's tired (the same word Medford Strikers president Len Imielinski used when he stepped down after many years) and given his years of service I can understand that.  But the JAGS League will continue and I am hoping some new blood from that group will step up and continue the tournament in 2015.

   I have many fond memories of JAGS, going back to when my daughter, Kirsten, played there for the Medford Strikers some 20 years back.  My good friend Joe Dadura and I coached many games there.  I recall at U15 seeing our girls being applauded by parents from a Maryland team as they ran by on a warm-up run, with calls of congratulations for winning the State Cup a few weeks earlier.  At U16, state champs again, we lost by a goal to the Weston (CT) Wild Things who went on to win the national championship that summer.  At U17 we had lost to Wyckoff in the State Cup but beat them, 1-0 in the JAGS final.  With the Xtreme we actually won JAGS twice, as I recall.  But perhaps the most memorable game was one that was meaningless in the standings.  It was against blood rival TBAA Comets and neither of us could advance to the next round.  The game was scoreless as time was running out.  Kasey Makowski, who later went on to captain Canisius, broke loose on goal and shot the ball towards an open net.  Before it got there, referee Ralph Elias blew the whistle and said time had expired, no goal, game ends in a tie.  Five college coaches watching spoke to me or e-mailed later and said what a terrible call it was.

   As JAGS college coordinator for more years than I can remember (at least 10), I had the pleasure of meeting so many coaches from around the East and more important passing on what little advice I had to players who wanted to play in college and their parents.  Also got to watch a lot of good soccer. 

   It's been a great run and I've enjoyed every minute, starting from the moment then-tournament director John Esposito recruited me to do the college thing more years ago than I can remember - at least 10.  But my job was fun and easy.  People like John, Tom, Rick Firth, Bill Gosselin and so many others put in countless hours year round on the tournament and the league so girls in New Jersey could play soccer.  They made JAGS the great event that it has been for 33 years.  I only saw them once a year but always looked forward to it as I look forward to one more time this weekend.

  

Das Endspiel zwischen BVB Borussia Dortmund und Bayern München

  The All-German Champions League final before 86,298 at Wembley Stadium lived up to the pre-game hype as Bayern München and BVB Borussia Dortmund put on a well-played and entertaining match that was not decided until Arjen Robben scored in the 89th minute to make it 2-1.  The Associated Press account is here.  Robben had the assist on the first goal.

   I watched the first 15 minutes and the entire second half.  In the early going Dortmund seemed to control the play and looked sharper, working the ball down the outside.  But Munich managed to keep the game at 0-0 through intermission, then picked up the pace in the second half. 

   Bayern got on the scoreboard in the 60th minute on a play I hope youth players were watching.,  It began when Franck Ribery 'megged his mark and got the ball to Robben who took it a short distance to the goal line then drew it back to Mario Mandzukic, who touched it home.  The lesson was given by Robben  - are you listening, kids? - who rather than try to shoot from an impossible angle put it in front of the goal, giving Mandzukic a ball on which one of my grandsons could have scored.

   Seven minutes later Munich was fortunate it did not go down a man when Dante, already carrying a yellow card, was called for kneeing an opponent in the chest, in the box in the 67th minute.  Ilkay Gündogan   buried the PK to even the score.

   Bayen had several big chances in the minutes that followed but Neven Subotic cleared what looked like a sure goal off the line in the 71st minute and keeper Roman Weidenfeller made a diving save to his left five minutes later.

   Just when it appeared overtime would be needed, Robben burst up the middle from the penalty spot, beat two defenders and gave Bayern its first Champions League title since 2001.  Bayern lost to Chelsea in a shootout in last year's final in Munich.

Utah referee dies after assault by youth

What else can be said?   A 17-year old goalie punched a referee during a game in Utah and a week later the ref died.  Associated Press report here.

The sun actually shone on son Scott's wedding

  

             September 28, 2013 -- My favorite male soccer player, my son, Scott Partenheimer, married Stevie Neale yesterday on an island in a lake at Camp Ockanickon in Medford, NJ.   They had been engaged since last August.

            We have this thing in our family about bad weather at weddings, including a blizzard, heavy rain and a howling Nor’easter (for Debbie and me on March 13, 2010), so it was a joy to see picture perfect weather in an idyllic setting,  As he had been for Kirsten in 2008 and for Debbie and me, brother Gary, an ordained Episcopal minister, was the officiant.

            Scott is known for backflips, but rather than backflipping to start the ceremony, he just paddled over to the island in a canoe, and after he and Stevie were pronounced husband and wife, they left by canoe.

            As I said at the reception, I was honored to join the Chesla family in Minnesota when Kirsten and Chris married in 2008, and to be accepted by the family of Debbie’s son-in-law, Adam Werner in 2010.  Now I am equally honored to join with the Neale family of Florida.  And reiterating the toast to the happy couple, Scott was best man when Debbie and I were married, so to the best son a man could ever hope for and his new wife: Hoch sollen sie leben! Dreimal hoch!

Women's Pro Soccer Tries Again

             Women’s professional soccer gives it another try tonight – the third – when Portland Thorns FC visits FC Kansas City to kick off the National Women’s Soccer League.  (Clever name for Portland: the city has a huge public rose garden and is nicknamed “The Rose City.”)

            The other six teams begin action tomorrow: Seattle Reign (another clever name) at Chicago Red Stars; Western New York Flash at Sky Blue FC at; and Washington Spirit at Boston Breakers.

            Here’s the Boston Globe’s story on the new league.  And the New York Times did a more comprehensive piece.

            I saw a lot of Philadelphia Charge games in the old Women’s United Soccer Association (WUSA) and just one (in Chicago) in the Women’s Professional Soccer League.  I doubt I’ll see many in the new league as it has by-passed Philadelphia, for now at least.  But best of luck to the league and all the players.  As the Globe notes, it may be the last chance for the women's pro game in the United States.

Benefit in Memory of Joe Dadura on March 16

    Friends of Joe Dadura will hold a benefit for his wife, Bobbi, on March 16 from 7 - 11 p.m. at the Washington Square Ballroom, 131 Johnson Road, in Turnersville.

   I wrote about Joe's untimely passing on December 4 in this post.  You can read more about the benefit and how to but tickets or make a donation if you can't attend at this link.  There will be a lot of people there and a lot of fun.

   Joe was nearly killed by a drunk driver while at work in January 2003.  He was never able to work again and because of his injuries unable to obtain life insurance.  This is a chance to do a good deed for a truly deserving person.  I hope all my friends will be able to help.

   Thanks from Coach P!

I "Gess" It's The End Of An Era As Glenn Resigns At Haddonfield

Seems like just yesterday I was on a committee helping interview Glenn Gess and two other finalists to replace Charlie Keil as Haddonfield Memorial High School’s girls varsity soccer coach.  Nine years later I was on the committee to find Glenn’s successor.  (More on that in a future post.)

Coach Gess and Coach P

From a selfish point of view I wish Glenn would stay for another nine years, give or take.  Aside from being a part, however small, of a highly successful program, I enjoyed the time spent with Glenn, who at once is funny, entertaining, athletic, a good soccer guy, a good person and a good friend.  He even put me on the roster as a "special assistant," a title I am proud to hold, although I'm still not sure what it means.

Glenn e-mailed me back on November 7 and tipped me off that he was stepping down after nine years as head coach.  His daughter, Brianna, is an exceptionally talented runner who will be in 9^th grade next year and Glenn said he wanted to be at the cross country meets, and to spend more time with son Derek’s club team.  Both laudable intentions.  Because more than being a good friend and a great coach (in my opinion), Glenn is first and foremost an outstanding family man.  Meet his parents, his lovely wife, Pam, and his kids and you'll see that.

I knew Glenn back when he was the Haddon Township coach because I used to bug him for his roster starting two weeks before the Hawks were due in our stadium.  When we interviewed him for the Haddonfield job, a parent on the committee wondered if Glenn might be a little intense.  “I think Glenn’s intense when he butters his toast in the morning,” said then Athletic Director Phil Smart.  (Phil is now the A.D. at Eastern.)  But he said we were looking for someone to take the program to the next level.  We found that someone in Glenn.

During the Gess era, HMHS was 116-3-3 in Colonial Conference play, with eight championships.  Overall we were 189-18-7 with three State Cups and one runner-up.  Then there were two runners-up trophies in the South Jersey Coaches Tournament.

More important, from my observation, Glenn could push your daughter to be the best she could possibly be on and off the field.  Glenn would tell it like it was from day one each season.   Every girl knew exactly where she stood and the 15 or so best players played the most.  No excuses, no entitlements. 

Aside from being one of the best coaches in the area and an excellent athlete in his own right, I always thought Glenn was pretty funny.  One night several years into his tenure I sat next to him at a dinner at Bob and Sue Heindel’s house and he was talking about the interview process for the HMHS job.  He interviewed first with A.D. Smart and thought it went well and that he would get the job.  But then he got a call that he had to interview with the principal.  So he did, and he thought it went well and that he would get the job. But  then he got a call he had to come back to meet with committees of parents, players, alumni and Coach P.  Only in Haddonfield, he thought.  He said when he applied for the Haddon Township job, “They asked if I knew who Pele was, I said, ‘yes,’ and they said, ‘You’re hired.’”

My favorite Glenn Gess line was from one of our year end banquets a few years back when Glenn told the story of finding his wife Pam’s Cosmopolitan, leafing through it and “I felt like I was reading the other team’s playbook.”  For the record, Pam denied ever even subscribing to Cosmopolitan.

Coach Gess, outgoing Booster Club president,  Sigrid Kiep and husband, Bob.

I would like to say HMHS girls soccer won’t be the same without Glenn Gess.  In way it’s true but in a way things won’t change.  Our committee recommended an excellent candidate whom AD Lefty Banos has proposed to the principal and the superintendent.  HMHS girls soccer will remain in good hands (or feet), but it will be a little different next year.

As I said at the recent year-end banquet, we won before Glenn Gess came, we won a lot while he was in charge, and we will win after Glenn Gess, but I for one will miss having him on the sidelines.  But he promised to sit up in the press box during the stadium  games, so I am looking forward to being entertained once more.

Fashion Statements in The EPL

   Back when my son, Scott, was playing for the Medford Strikers, someone busted on parent Bill Gill, about the hiking boots he wore to a tournament game one wet day.  "I never intended to make a fashion statement at a soccer game," Bill replied, knowing he would have dry feet at the end of the game.

   I'm with Bill, but apparently fashion statements are expected by the managers of the English Premier League teams, as reported in today's New York Times.  In this country, baseball managers since Connie Mack's day have no such worries because they and their coaches in the dugout wear the team uniform.  (No one could ever say why that is.  Best explanation I have heard is that unlike the other sports, in baseball the manager and coaches are routinely on the field.)  In hockey and basketball the coaches dress as if they were modeling for GQ but in American football the staff is usually dressed in team shirts.

    The best quote in the article is: “The top clubs all have designers throwing beautiful clothes at them and the whole world watching them, and still so many of them manage to look cheap and nasty,” said Dan Rookwood, style director at Men’s Health U.K. “They look like middle-management insurance salesmen, not multimillionaire leaders of men.”

   I would be in big trouble if I coached in the EPL because when I was coaching I focused on comfortable.  If it was wet I wore waterproof boots.   If it was cold I dressed warmly.  And the most comfortable attire I could find was the warm-up suit.

Coach P with Bridget Claus August, 2007

   But according to Sarah Lyall, who wrote the Times article, "At the bottom of the heap are those whose no-nonsense track suits and warm-up clothes evoke the crabby phys ed teacher who taught soccer at your high school in the 1980s. These men seem to wish they were playing, not standing on the sideline. They are “the ones that style forgot,” said Jessica Punter, the style and grooming editor of British GQ."  And she goes on to mention Stoke City's Tony Pulis, who not only wears a track suit, but, (gasp) a baseball hat.  Well ,that was me.  As any parent whose kid I've coached, and any opposing coach whose team we played knows, my standard uniform was shorts and a Strikers coaching shirt, warm-up suit when it was colder, and always a baseball hat.  Like Bill Gill, I was never there to make a fashion statement.

You Thought You Had a Long Commute!

   I was exhausted just reading about Clint Dempsey's upcoming travel schedule:

  Monday:  fly from England to Miami, after having played two matches in five days for Tottenham.
                 fly with U.S. National Team to Honduras.
  Wednesday:  Play for U.S. in important World Cup qualifier.
                      Fly back to Florida.
   Thursday:   Fly to London.
    Friday:      Arrive London
    Saturday:   Play mid-day EPL game against Newcastle.

Whew!  I know he's a young, world class athlete, crossing time zones like that takes a toll on the body regardless.  It would be an exhausting schedule if he were spending his time on both sides of the ocean in a library.  Instead, he will have played five matches in 14 days: three league, one F.A. Cup and one international.

   Dempsey's take:  “It is what it is. “Everybody has to deal with these kind of situations, and all you can do is try to take care of yourself and make sure you’re doing what you can to stay as fit as possible for your next game.”

Read the entire story on Dempsey from  today's New York Times.

NWSL Divvies Up The Players

  The third attempt at a women's pro league took another step towards reality when the league allocated 55 national team players from the United States, Canada and Mexico. (The national associations of the three countries will subsidize their salaries.)   According to the official announcement from the league, the players' desires were considered along with the teams' choices and there was an effort to balance the talent among the eight.

  Our old friend, Carli Lloyd, star of the Olympics, is going to Western New York along with teammate Abby Wambach.  Wambach hails from that area but Lloyd of course does not.  Nor was New Jersey's Heather O'Reilly assigned to the local Sky Blue club.  She will be playing in Boston with former Philadelphia  Charge defender Heather Mitts.

  Coach P's favorite Canadian player, Diana Matheson, who played at Princeton, will be with the Washington Spirit.

  The teams will take more shape when the college draft is held

The MLS Debate

It seems that FIFA president Sepp Blatter is not impressed with the progress Major League Soccer has made in gaining a foothold in the American sporting public's hearts and minds.

Blatter was less than complimentary about MLS and the development of soccer in the U.S. in an interview with Al Jazeera broadcast on December 29.  “There is no very strong professional league” in the United States, Blatter told Al Jazeera’s Marwan Bishara, as reported in the New York Times.  “They have just the M.L.S., but they have no professional leagues which are recognized by the American society.”

Andrew Das wrote about the interview in the Times on New Year's Eve and concluded with his own comments:  "Corner kick: There may be a ring of truth to what Blatter said: M.L.S. is not considered on par with the N.F.L., the N.B.A., Major League Baseball and that other game that escapes me right now in the American sports landscape. But is that a fair comparison, given that the other four had a head start of at least a half-century?"

Yesterday, MLS Commissioner Don Garber responded in Das' column, saying he was "surprised" by Blatter's criticism and that he knows the FIFA chief believes in American soccer and MLS. 

Coach P's take:  it is true that the league’s average attendance last year (18,807) was a league record and was higher than the average crowd for  N.B.A. and N.H.L. games (which of course play in indoor arenas).  It is also true, as Das points out, that the league has nearly doubled in size - from 10 teams to 19 - from 2004 to the present and that a half dozen cities are bidding for a 20th franchise - expected to cost nearly $100 million.  But the game still is not in the consciousness of the majority of sports fans.  It is not part of small talk in elevators around the office water cooler and at parties.  People don't plan their day around an MLS game the way some people do around an NFL game.  When I speak with a business contact in another part of the country, they may open the conversation with something like, "tough to be in Philly these days with the Eagles, huh?"  No one ever asks what it's like going through a sub-par season with the Union.

As Das and other commentators rightly point out, the other leagues have been around much longer and, with the exception of the NHL, were selling a game considered "American."  Soccer for years was viewed as a "foreign" sport.

We're not there yet, but we're getting there.