Free Kick: a New Newsletter

 Just discovered a new soccer newsletter and it made a good first impression on me with an article about the English FA Cup.  The newsletter is called Free Kick from We Are Soccer.  The informative FA piece was written by Paul Hearn.  I recommend it. 

With a new year upon us perhaps I can be more active with this blog than in the past.  In 2021 I missed out on, among other things,  the Union making it to the MLS conference finals, Carli Lloyd's final game for the National Team and my granddaughter Allison's high school debut as a JV goalie at West Chester Henderson.  It was not a lack of interest - just a lack of time.

Happy New Year to everyone.

Jackie Charlton dies. Played In '66 World Cup Final

Jack Charlton, who played 21 years for Leeds United, earned 35 caps for England and later managed several clubs and the Irish National Team, died last week at age 85. The New York Times ran a lengthy obit.  Charlton and his younger brother, Bob, a Manchester United star, were both on the field when England defeated Germany, 4-2, in overtime to win the 1966 World Cup.  

The match was controversial because Geoff Hurst's go-ahead goal 11 minutes into the first overtime, struck the underside of the crossbar and bounced out, but the Swiss referee ruled it a goal after consulting with the Russian assistant referee.  The controversy raged for years in Germany.  

Years later my brother, Gary, took soccer players from the school where he taught to a camp in England and met Bob Charlton.  So naturally he asked Charlton if it was really goal.  "Of course it was, mate," said Charlton who had been in the midfield, who knows how far from the goal at the time. 

Jack Charlton was the 12th member of the 1966 World Cup champions to die.

Grössenwahn: The New European Order

Rory Smith writes in today's New York Times about European clubs living in the past with delusions of grandeur about the future. Although the column focuses on F.C. Kaiserslautern, Hamburger S.V. and VfB Stuttgart, it looks at the trend throughout Europe.  "Over the last two decades, a current has swept through European soccer, drastically shifting the game’s landscape," Smith writes.

Soccer Returns in Germany - Sort Of

Rory Smith in yesterday's New York Times wrote about the return of the Bundesliga to empty stadiums.  He focused on Dortmund where Borussia shut out FC Schalke, 4-0.  The story mentions the feeling of many fans that this isn't really soccer, but rather business.  But as Smith notes, when the first goal was scored, "In that moment, you could see beyond the silence and the grayness and the sorrow, beneath the business and the sport, that soccer is just a game. But it is a good game."

Bundesliga Fans In An Uproar

First it was league games on Monday nights.  Now German Bundesliga fans are in an upset over violation of the so-called 50-1 rule which prohibited any one person from owning a majority of a team.  Their protests have turned ugly including signs with a picture of Hoffenheim majority owner Dietmer Hopp in a gunsight's crosshairs.

At least four matches in the last month have been delayed by fan protests.

The New York Times ran a story about the German fan protests today.

DMV Too PC For FFC Fan?

This strikes me as being a bit over the top.

Jon Kotler, a lawyer and constitutional scholar at University of Southern California, is a big fan of Fulham F.C. in the English Premier League.  Fulham is known as "The Whites" and their slogan is "Come On You whites," or COYW.  It was these four letters that Kotler wanted on a California vanity license plate.  Pretty routine, right?  How many people ion Southern California know what COYW means?

Doesn't matter.  Some bureaucrat at the state's Department of Motor Vehicles rejected the application.  Kotler was told the four letters said the COYW  could be considered hostile, insulting, or racially degrading.  

Kotler has filed suit in federal court claiming his First Amendment rights have been violated.  The story is in the New York Post and on the BBC website.  I am all in favor of maintaining good taste in license plates and the like, but I think the DMV is wrong on this one.  Here's wishing the professor good luck in his suit.  

Kotler flies to England - an 11 hour flight from the West Coast - eight to ten times a year to watch Fulham play.  Next year he'll most likely  have to watch them in the English Football League (f/k/a The Second Division) as The Whites are in 19th place of 20 teams with five matches remaining. 

Ajax Past and Present

Founded in 1900, Amsterdamsche Football Club Ajax,  known simply as "Ajax", is one of the most famous clubs in Europe, if not the world.  I of course knew of the legendary Johan Cruyff and Rinus Michels and of the Ajax rivalries with Feyenoord and PSV Eindhoven.  But I was not aware of the support for the team among Amsterdam's Jewish population.

Sports Illustrated  recently ran an article about Eddy Hamel a Dutch Jew born in New York, who became the first Jewish player for Ajax and later died at Auschwitz.  The story describes the Ajax-Jewish connection.  It is a sobering piece about life in Nazi-controlled areas in World War II.  Hamel was apparently arrested because he was not wearing his "Judenstern" or Jewish star that Jews were required to wear.  The story took me back to my visit to the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam and the time I saw Dachau, a concentration camp in Bavaria.

Fast forward to 2019.  Rory Smith wrote an article in The New York Times a few weeks ago about how Ajax uses its history and tradition to retain star players who might otherwise transfer to another European side for more Euros.

FA Cup Has Lost Its Luster

I just noticed that I wrote the fewest posts (20) in 2018 of any year since I started this blog back in '09.  It's not a lack of interest but a lack of time.  I'll try to do better in 2019.

I'm starting off with the English FA Cup, the world's oldest soccer competition, dating back to 1871.  It is open to all levels of English soccer, although the top two levels of pro teams, the Premier League and Championship teams do not enter until the third round.

Today's New York Times reports on how the Cup has diminished in appeal; in recent years, due in part to the fiscal lure of the Champions League for some of the top teams and of promotion to the Premier League for others.  It is not unusual for a coach to rest his top players at a Cup match, saving them for a game that could mean promotion - or just staying in the Premier of Championship League. "Looked at from a distance, it is hard to see much magic left: teams of reserves contesting games they do not care about in front of half-empty stadiums, for the right to stay in a competition everyone involved sees as an afterthought," write Rory Smith and Tariq Panja in the Times.

The article focuses on Accrington Stanley, a Level 1 (i.e. Third Division) side that defeated Championship (Second) Division Ipswich Town, thus earning £125,000, 10 percent of its annual revenue, in one day.  The take for the fourth round match could be 10 times that if Accrington draws one of the top Premier League teams and the match is televised.  Should that be the case, no one will care if the other side sends its third string out.

Accrington will face either Derby County or the Premier League's Southampton in the next round.  Those two sides will replay a third round draw with the winner advancing.

Catching up

Since my last post, Hamburger S.V. was relegated to the 2md Division of the Bundesliga for the first time in history, the World Cup started, FIFA announced the 2026 Cup will be held in North America, the Union advanced to the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open Cup, and Germany lost the Cup opener to Mexico today, 1-0.

Sports Illustrated  and ESPN: The Magazine both had World Cup issues, with SI doing stories about why U,S, fans should root for each of the countries that (unlike us) are playing in Russia.  First choice: Iceland, which has a population for less than Philadelphia.  How can you not like a national team coached by a dentist?

Iceland lived up to its billing as a team that can play rather than a novelty when it tied Argentina, 1-1 yesterday as the keeper saved a penalty kick by Lionel Messi.  Speaking of billing, Cristiano Ronaldo lived up to his as the greatest player in the world by registering a hat trick in Portugal's opener against Spain.

When the World Cup reaches North America there will be 48 teams - an increase over the current 32.  Most of the games will be in the United States with some in Canada and Mexico.  We'll have to wait and see if Philadelphia gets may games.  Surely New York (Met Life Stadium is actually in New Jersey) will but Boston and Atlanta are East Coast candidates with many other cities competing.

The last time the men's Cup was here was 1994.  I was lucky enough to score tickets to the quarterfinal and Scott and I watched Germany lose to Bulgaria at what then the Meadowlands and is now MetLife.

And speaking of Germany losing . . . it's not like they didn't have their chances.  But they let Mexico come down the left side once too many times and Hernandez passed the ball out to Hirving Lozano who beat Mesut Özil and fired it inside the near post.  Four minutes later Toni Kroos hit the crossbar with a free kick and in the closing minutes Germany had several good shots.

Next up for Germany is Sweden on the 23rd in Sochi . followed by South Korea on the 27th in Kazan.  Those two teams play each other tomorrow.

It Ain't Over 'Til It's Over - Or Why HSV Is Rooting for FC Köln

If you ask a European soccer fan in this country to name the only club to play in the Bundesliga First Division every season since its founding in 1963, most would answer Bayern München.  Most would be wrong.

It's Hamburger Sport Verein (HSV), from the northern city-state of Hamburg.  They've been in the First Division 54 years, 260 days according to their website, which tracks it to the second.  But that may come to an end this Saturday.  It's not over but things sure aren't looking good.

I follow HSV because our dear friends Georg, Gabi and Daniel Jarzembowski have lived in Hamburg since the Bundesliga was a baby.  That and it's a very cool city - similar to Philadelphia in size and with a huge port.  And I know they have struggled the last three seasons to avoid relegation.

In two of the last four years their fate was decided in a two game play-off after 34-match season.  In 2014 they stayed alive by a one-goal differential.  In 2015 they were 12 minutes from relegation when it tied the game, went ahead in overtime and saw their keeper stop of penalty in stoppage time.

After that history, this weekend should be a breeze.  We got 'em where we want 'em, right?   The bottom two teams of the 18-team league are automatically kicked down to the Second Division while the 16th place team gets to play a home-and-away total goal series with the third place team in the Second Division.  HSV is in 17th place, two points behind Wolfsburg.

If Wolfsburg wins at home over last place FC Köln (Cologne), it's over for HSV, so they will be cheering mightily for Köln, keeping an eye on the scoreboard.  If Hamburg loses at home to 9th place Borussia Mönchengladbach, it's just as over.  If Hamburg wins and Wolfsburg loses, Hamburg is in the play-off against Holstein Kiel, another northern city.  If Wolfsburg ties, then HSV will need to win by 10 goals, which is not going to happen.

Prediction: Hamburg's luck has run out and they and FC Köln will be relegated while Wolfsburg and Kiel will play off.  Fortuna Düsseldforf and FC Nurnberg will be promoted to the First Division for 2018-2019.

I hope I'm wrong.

The Boston Derby - in Europe

As most fans know, Liverpool FC plays AS Roma tomorrow in the first leg of the UEFA Champions League semi-finals at Anfield Stadium in Liverpool. What many may not realize is that both teams are owned by Boston businessmen, Liverpool by John Henry and a group of business executives and Roma by James Pallotta and a different team of executives.  Pallotta is a part owner of the Celtics and Henry the principal owner of the Red Sox.

The pre-game story is in today's Boston Globe.

“This is a great story line — the two Boston ownerships facing each other,” the Globe quotes Rich D’Amore, a local owner of AS Roma, as saying. “I’ll take this.”

A "National Shame": Italy Fails to Qualify For World Cup

By virtue of a scoreless draw with Sweden Monday, Italy failed to qualify for the world Cup for the first time since the Eisenhower administration.  Jason Horowitz described it in a well-written piece in today's New York Times:

"ROME — Many tragedies have befallen Italy in the last 60 years. Dozens of governments have collapsed. Earthquakes and terrorism have shaken cities. The French started adding cream to carbonara.

But the failure of the national soccer team on Monday night to qualify for the World Cup for the first time since 1958 seems to be taking a place in the pantheon of Italian disasters."

And speaking of soccer disasters, Iceland is in and we're not!

Focus Football" last Chance For 11 year olds

Recent story in New York Times about the so-called "academy" youth programs of British Premier League clubs and Focus Football, founded to help those youngsters who were released from the academies.

Parents pay Focus $100  a month for two training sessions and one game a week in the hopes their son will get back to an EPL Academy.  But the odds are overwhelmingly against it.

The Times article quotes author Michael Calvin, who wrote a book about the academy economy as saying only 180 of the 1.5 million boys who play organized youth soccer in England at any one time will ever play in the Premier League.

“You are like a piece of meat really,” one Focus parent said of her son’s dismissal by a Premier League academy. “They need you until they don’t.”

Carli Lloyd Off to Manchester City

It's official: Carli Lloyd has signed with Manchester City in time for the F.A. Women's Super League season, the F.A. Cup and the UEFA Champions League.  In June she will return to her NWSL team, the Houston Dash for the second half of its season.

“I’ve always had the desire to play abroad,” Lloyd told Andrew Das of the New York Times today. “And this is pretty much the year to do it. There’s no World Cup. There’s no Olympics. So it just made sense.”

Soccer's Power To Stop Wars

Soccer has started wars and soccer has stopped wars.

In 1967 the two sides in the Nigerian civil war agreed to a 48-hour cease fire so they could watch Pele play an exhibition match in Lagos.  And in July 1969, several days after El Salvador beat Honduras 3-2 in overtime in the decisive third game of a World Cup qualifying series, the Salvadoran army attacked Honduras beginning the "100-Hour War," also known as "The Football War."

Perhaps the greatest display of the power of soccer over world events - if it actually occurred - was the so-called Christmas Truce of 1914 when British and German soldiers are said to have suspended hostilities on Christmas Eve and played a huge soccer game in a no-man's land between the two lines.

In accounts I have read there appears to be some dispute among historians as to whether such a game actually took place.  But, Lt. Kurt Zehmisch of Germany's 134th Saxons Infantry Regiment is said to have witnessed a match and written, "Eventually the English brought a soccer ball from their trenches, and pretty soon a lively game ensued. How marvelously wonderful, yet how strange it was. The English officers felt the same way about it. Thus Christmas, the celebration of Love, managed to bring mortal enemies together as our friends for a time."

My guess is there is some truth to the various accounts and that perhaps there were a few small games here and there, certainly not anything resembling an organized match.  But the legend is recognized more than 100 years later and the English Premier League has been running a Christmas Truce Tournament in Ypres, Belgium since 2011.

In the run-up to the 100th anniversary of the truce, CNN ran a good piece about it on line.

It is idealistic but still nice to think how much better the world would be if nations resolved their conflicts on a soccer pitch instead of a battlefield.

Wanderers Face Gunners on Isles of Scilly - Again and Again And Again

Today's New York Times reports on what it calls "the world's smallest soccer league," the Woolpack Wanderers and Garrison Gunners, who battle each other, and only each other, over a 20-game season on St. Mary's in the Isles of Scilly off the southwestern coast of England.  "No derby in world soccer is played quite as frequently as that between the Garrison Gunners and the Woolpack Wanderers," writes Rory Smith.

The five inhabited islands have a year round population of about 2,200, with St. Mary's the largest at about 1,650.  The league used to have four teams, two from St. Mary's and two from other islands, until the 1950s when a dwindling population forced it to shrink. 

Each summer the team captains meet at a local pub for choose sides for the coming year, a tradition that keeps the games competitive.

It turns out the league is not even officially the world's smallest.  To save costs, the two teams register as one with the English Football Association so in the eyes of English soccer the games are considered intramural matches,

RB Leipzig Unloved In Climb to Budesliga

Perhaps the most controversial team ever begins its first Bundesliga season Sunday when RB Leipzig visits TSG Hoffensheim in the season opener for both clubs.

The problem with Leipzig, according to the New York Times article by Rory Smith is that it is seen as nothing more than a marketing tool for Red Bull, the Austrian energy drink maker.  Founded in 2009, RB lacks the history and tradition of the other teams and does not really follow the "50+1" model of the other teams, which are owned by  their members.  There only 17, each of whom pay about $900 per year, while Bayern München has 224,000 members at about $65 annually.

As Hallescher fan Julius Klappen put it, "“They are just money. A team is the colors, the badge, the identity.”  Or as Marko Hoffman, the schoolteacher who volunteers with the more traditional Lokomotiv Leipzig said, "RB is just marketing. It exists only to sell more energy drinks. And what happens if they lose interest, or if [owner] Dieter Mateschitz dies? What if they decide to leave the town? Or if they examine the books and say it is not working? What happens then?”

Look at the scoreboard: France is in the final

There seem to be some people who think the better team in yesterday's Euro 2016 semi-final between France and Germany did not go through.  The scoreboard said France won, 2-0, but you'd never know if from some of the comments,

Sam Borden reported in the New York Times: "[German Manager Joachim" Löw said that the Germans were unlucky, that France was not the better team.  [French manager Didier] Deschamps did not necessarily disagree, saying that the Germans made France suffer. Still, he said, it made no difference."

“The better team is starting its holidays now,” claimed the tabloid Express, which bemoaned “a lack of directness and the right finishing” and compared France to Atletico Madrid: “Not nice to watch, but effective.”  Football magazine Kicker saw “the World Cup holders dominating for most of the time, but they failed to take the chances which presented themselves”.

Soccer does not award style points so all that matters is the scoreboard.  Antoine Griezmann scored both goals fr France, the first on a penalty kick during added time in the first half, and the second in the 72nd minute and France won where it mattered: on the scoreboard.  There would be no Euro Cup to go with the world Cup currently held by Germany.

The last two time these teams met was last November 13 at the same Stade de France venue when the terrorist attacks took place outside the stadium and at a concert hall in Paris.  Thankfully this game was without incident.

France will play Portugal in the final Sunday at 3 p.m. Eastern time.  Check the scoreboard about two hours later.

The Dream Ends For Iceland

The dream has ended for Iceland.  This morning's New York Times carried an article about the unlikely advance of this nation of 330,000 to the quarterfinals of Euro 2016.  The bubble burst later in the day when France scored in the 12th minute and never looked back enroute to a 5-2 win at Stade de France in  Saint-Denis before 76,863.  Sam Borden has the story in the Times.

France moves on to face Germany, which squeaked past Italy in a shootout, in a semifinal match Thursday in Marseille.  Portugal, which got by Poland in a shootout, will face Wales, a 3-1 victor over Belgium, Wednesday in Lyon in the other semi.

The final is Saturday in Saint-Denis.

A Soccer Media Bonanza

Gone are the days when soccer fans had to strain their eyes to find a few paragraphs about the sport in newspapers and magazines.  Generally the sport gets pretty good coverage in the major publications, even when there is no World Cup or Olympic tournament going on.  But this week was a pure bonanza.

A few days ago ESPN The Magazine arrived and there was Bayern keeper Manuel Neuer on the cover of what was billed as the "World Football Issue."  While I love watching Neuer play and look forward to reading the story, even better than that article was Hallie Grossman's piece on Carli Lloyd.  That of course was priority reading and it turned out to be one of the best Carli Lloyd stories I have read, objective and matter-of-fact, recognizing Carli's hard work to get where she is without being over the top.

Before I even had  chance to dig into the "World Football Issue," today Sports Illustrated arrived and there's Lionel Messi on the cover of the "Summer of Soccer" issue.   While The Magazine called Neuer the best goalkeeper in the world, SI refers to Messi as "The best player on the planet."

OK, so now I have a few days of reading to do.  But wait.  There's more.  Today's New York Times has an interesting story by soccer superwriter Sam Borden on the European Champions League Cup.  Not the tournament, whose final is tomorrow in Milan between Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid, but the actual trophy.  Borden tells us that thew cup is 29 inches high and weighs 16 1/2 pounds - more than twice the weight of the Super Bowl trophy.  It is made by GDE Bertoni in Paderno Dugnano, Italy.