Improving Kensington Kids' Lives Through Soccer

Inspiring story by Kristen A. Graham in today's Inquirer about the Kensington Soccer Club and the impressive Philadelphia teacher, Jim Hardy, who started the organization and is its heart and soul.  It now serves nearly 1,500 youths from 3 to 19 with 40 volunteers and 25 coaches.  The $120,000 budget is funded through grants and donations.

"I don't think you can say how many kids Jim helps, how many families," Graham quotes City Parks & Recreation Department employee Anthony Washington, who has known Hardy since 2010, as saying. "The parents call him and say, 'Help me, you're the one he listens to.'" 

Nice to see some good news coming out of Kensington for a change.  Here's wishing Coach Hardy continuing success with KSC.

As an aside, I recall refereeing some games of the Kensington Ramblers at Scanlon Playground, K & Tioga, back in the mid-70s.

SJ Coaches Cup Is Here

Officially it's the South Jersey Coaches Tournament but it's really the Coaches Cup.  Everyone knows that in soccer the players compete for the Cup, not in a tournament.  And one of the best cups is that run by the South Jersey Coaches Association.
http://www.eteamz.com/sjsca/news/index.cfm?cat=702053
Anyone who has a .500 record by a certain date gets in the State  Tournament, er … Cup, and you play within your group against similar sized schools.  But the Coaches Cup picks the 16 best schools in South Jersey, regardless of size.

Play got underway today with Eastern boys shutting out Bordentown, 2-0, while Washington Township girls downed Kingsway, 3-1 and Moorestown girls edged Williamstown, 2-1.

Ninth-seeded Haddonfield girls travel to 8th seed Delsea tomorrow for a first round match with the winner to play the winner of Cherry Hill East and Shawnee.  On the boys side, 12th-ranked Haddonfield travels to 5th seed Williamstown.

The finals are October 27 at DeCou  Field in Chery Hill,

2019 World Cup: U.S. Women Begin March to France

Has it really been more than three years since Carli Lloyd stunned the soccer world with a hat trick in the first 16 minutes of the final against Japan in Vancouver as the United States went on to win its third Women's World Cup?  Yes it has, and today it started all over as qualifications for the 2019 Cup in France got underway in Cary, NC.

The Americans got off to a fabulous start with a 6-0 whitewash of Mexico as Megan Rapinoe and Alex Morgan each scored two goals, while Tobin Heath and Julie Ertz each had one.  Lloyd came on in the 66th minute.

Next up is Panama tomorrow at 5:00 p.m. with the final group match on Wednesday at 5:00 pm.

The top two teams in the four-team group will advance to the semifinals on October 14.  The final is October 17.

The U.S. Soccer account of the game is here.

Haddonfield Girls Off to Strong Start

Another high school season is well underway - my 25th as treasurer, announcer and whatever for the Haddonfield High School team.  Last Monday we picked up a nice win over Ocean City, 2-0 with a report on NJ.com.  My recollection of Katie McCormick's goal in the 22nd minute, watching from the press box, was that she got the ball well outside the 18 and dribbled straight in before shooting into the lower left.  And Nic Green's goal off a free kick in the 2nd half was another of her patented lasers.

We dropped our first game of the year last Thursday, 4-1 against Moorestown, to go to 4-1-1, but bounced back today with a 1-0 win over neighboring Haddon Township.  Two big non-conference matches coming up: Thursday against Rancocas Valley and Saturday at Eastern.

Where Do The Children Play?

"Where do the children play?" asked Cat Stevens in a song on the 1970 album, Tea For The Tillerman.

Apparently not as many are playing on soccer fields in 2018 as in years past.  As reported by the New York Times, the percentage of 6- to 12-year-olds playing soccer regularly has dropped nearly 14 percent, to 2.3 million players, according to a study by the Sports & Fitness Industry Association.  Not surprisingly, reasons given for the decline vary, including other sports, cost and electronic diversions.  

When my kinds were in high school in the late '90s, we did not have crew or lacrosse at our high school.  Neither conflicts with high school soccer, but they do with club soccer, whose prime season for high school-age players is the spring.  Add to this the fact that top athletes more and more are choosing one sport earlier and earlier.  

Part of the problem, suggested former Women's National Team goalie Hope Solo, is the perception of soccer as a "rich, white-kid sport."  The Sports & Fitness Industry Association says that households with $100,00 and above incomes provide 35 percent of youth players while only 11 percent come from households with incomes of $25,000 or less. Carlos Cordeiro, the new president of the U.S. Soccer Federation has promised to make the sport less expensive, although he does not say how.

Le jour de gloire est arrivé! France Wins!

Some thoughts on today's World Cup final:

As usual, the best stateside coverage came from the New York Times.

I'm still not sold on instant replay, known in soccer as VAR (video assistant referee), but I think it helped get one call right today.  I thought it was a hand ball on Croatia's Ivan Perisic (#4) but referee Nestor Pitana originally called a corner kick for France.  After reviewing the play he overruled himself and awarded the penalty kick, which Antoine Griezmann easily converted to put France up, 2-1, in the 38th minute.  The Times questioned whether the call  should have been overturned.

Overall I thought Pitana and his AR's called a good game although I did not think it was a foul on the play that gave France a free kick  that led to the first goal in the 18th minute.

I felt bad for Croatia's Mario Mandzukic, who headed the ball into his own net on that first French goal.  It really wasn't his fault - to me it looked as though he got up as high as he could and the ball deflected off his head.  He redeemed himself in the 69th minute when French keeper Hugo Lloris made a terrible mistake and played the ball to Mandzukic, allowing an easy goal.  Not sure if this is the first time a player has ever scored for both teams in a cup final.

French coach Didier Deschamps (is that a cool French name or what?) became only the third person to win a World Cup as a coach and as a player.  The others were Franz Beckenbauer of Germany and Mario Zagallo of Brazil.  I met Beckenbauer a few times when he played for the Cosmos and I covered them for the Trenton Times.

The French team showed class, forming an honor guard for the Croatians during the awards presentation, and the presidents of France (Emmanuel Macron)  and Croatia (Kolinda Grabar-Kitorovic) seemed pretty classy themselves during the ceremony, which took place in a downpour.  (No one from FIFA thought to have a portable canopy available for bad weather.)

For France in Memory of Louise

As we all know, France plays Croatia for the World Cup later today.

Twenty years ago, when the Cup was held in France, my wife, Louise, came home from work at the Inquirer a few days before the opening games and asked if France was any good.  Um, yes, I replied, they had a chance of winning it all.  The reason for her inquiry was that she had picked France in her office pool.

Sure enough, on July 12 at Stade de France in Saint-Denis outside Paris, the French beat Brazil, 3-0, to win the Cup.  They had edged Croatia, 2-1, in the semi-finals a few days earlier.  Louise brought home several hundred dollars and everyone thought she was a soccer genius.  Truth be told though, she had pulled France out of a hat, but she was honest enough to admit it.

In the next two World Cups in 2002 and 2006 we joked about France being Louise's team and rooted for France if they were not playing the United States or Germany.  But like defending champion Germany this year, they did not make it out of the group stage in 2002 and in 2006 they lost to Brazil in a shootout in the final in Berlin.

Sadly, Louise did not live to see another World Cup.  She passed away on December 11, 2006, shortly before what would have been our 37th anniversary.  Today I will be remembering her team and hoping France can win another World Cup for her.