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.”

SJ Coaches Cup: A Matter of Inches

HADDONFIELD, NJ --  If the goalposts were 24 feet6 inches wide instead of just 24, or if the crossbar was 8 feet three inches above the ground instead of just 8, the result of last Saturday's opening round game between Haddonfield and Moorestown  in the South Jersey Soccer Coaches Association girls tournament might have been different.

Whoever said football is a game of inches referred to the gridiron version popular in the United States.  Turns out it's true in the football more popular in the rest of the world.

Haddonfield was nursing a 1-0 lead in the 47th minute when Moorestown was awarded a penalty kick.  The Bulldogs dodged a bullet there when the shot hit the crossbar and was cleared.  Two minutes later Moorestown shot one off the crossbar, hit the rebound into the left post and then shot that rebound barely wide right.

"I can't buy a goal," wailed Moorestown coach Bill Mulvihill.  "If they were selling goals they wouldn't take my credit card.

His lament proved to be true again, after Haddonfield had gone up, 2-0, when a Moorestown shot hit under the crossbar, bounced down and out.

The game ended up 2-0 and Haddonfield went through to the quarterfinals where they downed Oakcrest, 4-1, three days later to advance to the semifinals Wednesday night against Washington Township.

The boys were equally as successful with a 1-0 golden goal victory over Williamstown to advance to the semis against Rancocas Valley.

Coach P is Back

Well, it's been awhile - combination of things, mostly time crunch with my day job, plus some log-on issues that have finally been resolved.

Since I've been gone, a lot happening the soccer world.

**David Beckham's group was awarded an MLS expansion franchise in Miami and has made its first payment towards the purchase of land for a stadium;

**back on July 23 the Men's National Team beat Jamaica, 2-1 to win the CONCACAF Gold Cup;

**just tonight the men scored a crucial 4-0 win over Panama in a World Cup qualifier and are now in third place, 3 points ahead of Panama with one match to play - October 10 against Trinidad and Tobago.  The top three teams get an automatic bid to next year's World Cup in Russia;

**Over in the Bundesliga, my favorite team, Hamburger Sport Verein (HSV) got off to a flying start with victories in the first two matches, only to drop the next four before a tie last weekend, leaving them in 16th place of 18 teams.  They'll try again on Friday the 13th at Mainz;

**Sadly, former Women's National Team coach, Tony DiCicco, passed away in June at the age of 68;

** Back on August 2, the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA), of which I used to be a member, re-branded itself as United Soccer Coaches;

** The Haddonfield Memorial High School girls team got off to a 5-1-1 start, with the loss and the draw being non-league games - 2-1 to Kingsway and 1-1 with Rancocas Valley.

There's been much more of course.  I'll try to keep in better touch in coming months.

Carli Lloyd On The Go

It's been awhile since the last post, so might as well start off with a Carli Lloyd update.  Jonathan Tannenwald has a good article in today's Inquirer about Carlie's travels from Manchester City to Houston to the Women's National Team.

Speaking of Houston, about two weeks ago they gave up a 1-0 lead to Portland on a perfectly placed free kick into the upper left corner in the 90th minute.  Then in the 92nd minute the referee made what looked to me to be a bad call in sending Carli off.  The announcers seemed to agree saying there was nothing malicious about the foul, and maybe she came in "a bit late" but at worst a yellow card would have sufficed.

Anyway, I hope the rest of the season goes well for carli.

Tony DiCicco, Former WNT Coach, Dies at 68

Soccer Hall of Famer Tony DiCicco, who coached the U.S. Women's National Team to the 1999 World Cup, has died at age 68.  His life was detailed in the New York Times as well as by the NSCAA and of course U.S. Soccer.

I had the pleasure of meeting DiCicco back in the 90s - before the World Cup victory, when the National Tam played a friendly against Germany at the German Hungarians club outside Philadelphia and I was invited to a reception for the teams.  My daughter, Kirsten, accompanied me and I had a picture of her with DiCicco.  Years later, at the JAGS Tournament, DiCicco was coaching a Connecticut team and I approached him and showed him the photo from some 15 years ago.  He had a good laugh and we agreed we had both aged a bit since then.

R.I.P., Coach.

Carla Overbeck: Carrying the Luggage

A new book that studies sport's greatest teams found that what they all had in common was an extraordinary captain.  The Captain Class: The Hidden Force That Creates the World's Greatest Teams, by Wall Street Journal editor Sam Walker, writes about Carla Overbeck, captain of the 1999 U.S. Women's team that won the World Cup, and how she used to carry her teammates' luggage to their rooms.  The book is reviewed by Dan Lyons on Linked-In.

Happy Mother's Day to All Soccer Moms

As I recall the term "Soccer Mom," was coined by a political reporter during the Clinton years and referred to (mostly white) suburban middle class women carting their kids around to soccer games (and basketball, Little League and a myriad of other youth activities).  To me it refers to the group of mothers of the girls I have coached over the years.

I have fond memories of most of the soccer moms whose daughters I was privileged to coach.  A few my wife and I still see socially.  I keep in touch with many more on Facebook.

Right now my favorite soccer mom is my step-daughter, Sarah.  And the soccer mom I will never forget is Kirsten and Scott's mother, Louise, who left us too soon more than 10 years ago.  She was Scott's first coach (when he was 6) and was at countless games played by Kirsten and Scott at school and on club teams.

Happy Mother's Day to soccer moms everywhere.