Soccer Tragedies

There have been times when the joy of soccer has led to tragedy as fans used the game as an excuse to riot, or perhaps a section of grandstands collapsed. The Internet Services website has a recent post on the 20 biggest soccer tragedies and the Internet response to them. Interesting historical read on the dark side of the sport.

Albright Unionizes

Philadelphia native Chris Albright, a veteran of the U.S. National Team and a graduate of my of my old high school, Penn Charter, has joined the Philadelphia Union, as reported in today's Daily News and Inquirer.

I played against Chris's uncle Bill, when I was in college and he played for Temple; and against his father, John, in the South Jersey (old) men's league.

When my daughter, Kirsten, went to Penn Charter, she played on the boys teams and was leading scorer in 6th and 7th grades. In 8th grade the gender difference was beginning to concern me as the boys were getting bigger and Kirsten is small to begin with. When she came home after the first workout of the new school year, I asked her how the first day of soccer practice was.

Well, she told me, there was this boy in her class who played football last year but this year he came out for soccer and he's really good and, "I'm not the best player on the team any more."

Yep. It was Chris Albright.

Can't wait to see him play at PPL Park this season.

Another Women's League Gone: WPS "Suspends Operations"

Just four days after the U.S. Women dominated the Olympic qualifying tournament to earn a spot in the Summer Games, the professional league in which most of the Americans play announced it had "suspended operations" for 2012 but hoped to return with eight teams in 2013.

According to the league, the culprit was Dan Borislow, the owner of the Majicjack franchise in Florida, who was kicked out of the league. A court ruled that the league had not followed its own by-laws and the league decided it could not play the season while the litigation continued. But it had other problems, including the loss of Puma as a major national sponsor and the fact that its national team players from the United States and Canada would be gone for much of the summer for the Olympics.

Jack Bell provides a comprehensive analysis of the story in the New York Times. The Philadelphia Inquirer quotes David Halstead, owner of the Philadelphia Independence, as saying ""This is what responsible business enterprises do, and it's what the WPS and Philadelphia Independence are going to do. A successful WPS is a journey . . . a marathon. We've just completed a couple of early miles to this journey and are re-hydrating and re-tooling for the next leg. Stay tuned."

Women's soccer has come a long way from the days when the Charge used to nearly fill Villanova Stadium. Unfortunately, it's the wrong direction.

Off to London

Surprise, surprise. The U.S. women will be playing at the Olympics in London.

The Americans qualified for the Olympics with a 3-0 win over Costa Rica in Vancouver yesterday in the CONCACAF semifinal in Vancouver. I was happy to see my former player, Carli Lloyd, be named Woman of the Match for the second straight game. (She won the award in the 4-0 victory over Mexico, but it was somewhat of a no-brainer since she had a hat trick.)

Tough tournament for the U.S. They opened with a 14-0 trouncing of the Dominican Republic and followed it up by shutting out Guatemala, 13-0. With the wins over Mexico and now Costa Rica, they have scored 34 goals in four games - six by Lloyd.

Canada also punched its ticket to London by downing Mexico, 3-1, last night. Canada and the United States play in the final - which is really only for bragging rights - on Sunday.

Apocalypse Now

I don't know if it's a good sign for the sport or not, but for three consecutive weeks soccer has provided Sports Illustrated's "Sign of the Apocalypse" .

The young lady who made her wedding dress out of Manchester City jerseys was featured in the January 9, 2012 issue, and in the last post on this blog. Then a week later the editors thought it apocalyptic that of 29 new 50-pence pieces recognizing Olympic sports issued by the Royal Mint, one featured soccer and explained the offsides rule on the reverse side.

And finally, the current edition dated January 23, 2012, contains this "sign":

In order to learn how to "best reach each player," the coach of top-division German soccer team Hannover 96, Mirko Slomka, asked his players to fill out a survey about their sexual interests, with 128 questions ranging from their erotic preferences to their most intimate fantasies.

Must be working. At the midpoint of the Bundesliga season, Hannover is in 7th place of 18 teams

Something Blue For These City Fans

Sports Illustrated reports this week that a 38-year old bride in England, Karen Bell, sewed her own wedding dress for her December 21 ceremony by stitching together parts of vintage jerseys of her husband Simon Bell’s favorite team, Manchester City.

Here’s the account from the Manchester City website. After the ceremony, the newlyweds went from Chester to Etihad Stadium and arrived in time to watch their favorite side defeat Stoke city, 3-0. (The Blues did not fare as well today, losing an FA Cup match to cross-town rival, Manchester United, 3-2.)

SI calls the fact that someone would make her wedding dress from soccer jerseys a “Sign of the Apocalypse.” Coach P thinks it’s a great idea and that the bride looks stunning, but then recall I wanted my bride to dribble a ball down the aisle when we got married March 13, 2010, a suggestion quickly rejected.

The F.A. Takes On Racism

If any sport is multicultural and multilingual around the world it is soccer. And as baseball in the United States finally integrated more than 50 years ago (which was many years too late), so too have soccer teams in Europeans countries that were previously predominantly white integrated. Which unfortunately has led to overt racism among fans and other players.

FIFA embarked on a campaign five years ago to eliminate racism, although its efforts have been questioned by some. Now, England seems to have taken the effort to a new level by filing criminal charges against the captain of the national team and Chelsea, alleging that he made a racial slur towards Anton Ferdinand of Queens Park Rangers during a league match in October. And while the Crown Prosecution Service was going to criminal court, the Football Association suspended Luis Suarez of Liverpool for racist remarks made to Patrice Evra of Manchester United.

The story is reported in today's New York Times by Jere Longman. While fighting racism in any form is a laudable and necessary goal, I question the wisdom of criminalizing on-field behavior, as opposed to taking steps within the sport as was the case with Suarez.