Colorado Caribous 1978 NASL jersey. Can't wait to see this brought back!

“Party Like It’s 1979″, says the usually stone cold sober Kenn Tomasch. “The future of American soccer appears to be the past of American soccer.”

Kenn writes this because news broke today that the breakaway second-tier league made-up of nine former USL and new clubs may use the North American Soccer League name for itself, after Miami FC put in two trademark claims.

Kenn’s response, not quite as euphoric as I painted it above, is actually a well-balanced take on the name’s real importance (not as important as a lot of other stuff) tinged with a little welcome nostalgia for those of us too young to remember the league.

Kenn points to the growing trend of American soccer teams claiming a part of their city’s past with the sport, and resurrecting NASL team names has hardly done any harm to Seattle, Portland or Vancouver, for example. Indeed, a connection to the past is something that gives a little more depth to each club’s existence, even if it’s a mythical imagined past of fathers and sons following the Sounders various incarnations since the 1970s.

I think American soccer has grown up enough not to be afraid of the NASL boogyman any longer (lessons have been learned well enough already), though there’s something fitting if it is indeed used on this risky, ambitious breakaway. What really matters is the substance of the league’s business plan and the performance of each club’s front office, not the name.

Though some have immediately rubbished the name’s return in any case, a poll on Inside Minnesota Soccer (the best site for news on the breakaway league, incidentally) suggests reaction is mixed and broadly positive, with more in favour of the NASL name returning than against it.

Oh…and how about them Cosmos, then?

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Wembley Stadium panorama, pre-game, England-Slovenia, September 9th 2009.

Photo credit: _ToMick_ on Flickr, via the Pitch Invasion Photo Pool.

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The Dynamo did not even play the true 11-a-side game seen around the world. Instead, they played a 5v5 indoor game more akin to hockey – walls and penalty boxes included – that was the only professional soccer in the US after the collapse of the North American Soccer League. The Dynamo played in the National Professional Soccer League, but for all I knew at the time, it was as good as the Champions League.

When MLS came along in 1996, I had learned enough about the world game to be embarrassed by my previous infatuation with the Dayton Dynamo. I had, in fact, become something of a soccer snob and held my nose at Americanizations such as having the clock count down on the scoreboard and hockey-style shootouts to break ties. But the opportunity to watch true professional outdoor soccer was enough for me to hold my nose at its silly “innovations.”

I was at the first Columbus Crew game and can still recall Bo Oshonyi’s long punt to Brian McBride, which the then unknown striker put away with aplomb (the American football-sized field made such a goal easier). My soccer-watching diet was getting better. The modest meal of early MLS was dramatically better than the scraps that were the NPSL, but I knew others were eating five-course meals, and I wanted at least a taste.

For that, I would have to wait until 1997. During the first half of that year, I was an exchange student in Costa Rica. Even before I left, I had circled the date on the calendar when the US would play the Ticos in a qualifier in the capital, San Jose. March 23, 2007, come hell or high water, I would be at Saprissa Stadium.

They didn't quite get David's name right.

A few weeks before the game, tickets went on sale. I had heard that demand would be fierce and so I skipped school and headed to the stadium. I arrived to find a long line that included many scalpers. As I fretted in line for several hours, a reporter for Costa Rica’s largest newspaper La Nación approached me and asked if he could interview me. I said sure and we talked about my strong desire to see the game. I was quoted in the paper the next day saying, “I’m from Ohio and the national team never plays there” (this was before the building of Crew Stadium).

And though I have no memory of this now, I apparently also told the reporter that if I couldn’t get tickets at the stadium, I would go to the American embassy to ask if they could help me (little good that would have done me). After nearly half a day of waiting, I gave in and paid a scalper the equivalent of $70 for two tickets to the game, an astronomical mark-up of the face value. I was slightly embarrassed at having paid so much for the tickets, but at least I was going to the game!

When game day finally arrived, I approached the Saprissa Stadium feeling proud of my special status as a ticket holder only to find that scalpers had had trouble selling their wares and tickets were going for far less than what I had paid. Ignorant gringo that I was, I didn’t realize that the game was taking place during Holy Week, a period during which many Costa Ricans head out of town. The lack of demand meant that ticket prices plummeted on game day, by kick-off going for around $1 a piece.

I entered the stadium along with an exchange student friend of mine and we realized that our seats would leave us all alone in a stadium full of Costa Ricans, most of whom seemed friendly (but then, the game hadn’t started yet). Seeing some other American fans across the way, we sweet-talked the stewards into letting us into that section. We may have been a small group (50 at the most), but we were excited, passionate in our support of the US national team.

Roy Lassiter

Pre-game was mostly filled with Costa Rican fans taunting American forward Roy Lassiter with chants of “Lassiter ladrón.” Lassiter had played in Costa Rica for several years, during which time he had apparently not paid his taxes (a la Diego Maradona), a fact that the authorities reminded him of on his return to the country with the national team. Other American players were “greeted” to Costa Rica with bags of urine and batteries hurled at their heads.

The game itself is mostly a blur in my mind. I seem to recall that it was exciting, and indeed it must have been, as it finished 3-2 to the Costa Ricans. Mostly, I remember the atmosphere. It was incredible to witness the noise as the players came onto the field. The roar of the crowd was deafening and the confetti they threw on the field turned it from green to white. Throughout the game, the entire stadium sang in unison: “Vamos, vamos los ticos. Que esta tarde tenemos que ganar” (“Let’s go, let’s go Ticos. Today we must win”). We American fans got chuckles of approval from neighboring fans when we substituted gringos for Ticos and sang along with them.

The general level of English instruction in Costa Rican schools is comically bad, but there is one word that nearly everyone in the country – or at least nearly everyone in the stadium that day – knows: sorry. Showers of “sorry, sorry, sorry” rained down on me and my fellow Americans as we left the stadium, but we had the good humor to laugh along with our taunters. We waved to fans who smiled at us as they practiced their English on us. In many ways, I think it’s for the best that Costa Rica won; I’m not sure how friendly the fans would have been if they had not.

I left the stadium that March day with a lighter wallet than should have been the case, but much richer in terms of soccer experience. I saw first-hand the passion that drives fans in Costa Rica, and throughout the world. It is an infectious passion, and I was sickened that day. I have yet to recover.

David Keyes writes the Culture of Soccer blog, thankfully now back after a long hiatus.

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Big Story
UEFA yesterday revealed more information about investigations into over 200 individuals alleged to have fixed matches in nine different countries with a press conference. This revealed that the vast majority under suspicion are domestic matches, with the German authorities having requested information from UEFA’s Betting Fraud Detection System in a number of cases, making 17 arrests yesterday. Several early round Champions League games are also under investigation, along with a number of Europa league matches.

According to a Swiss news report,”The group is suspected of trying to bribe players, coaches, referees and other officials and of running an international gambling ring that took bets from clients in Europe and Asia.”

Peter Limacher, Uefa’s head of disciplinary services, expressed the depth of concern. “We’re facing the biggest scandal in soccer,” he said at the press conference. “We’re content this is cleared up now, but we’re also devastated by the extent of the manipulation.”

The nine countries involved were revealed to be Germany (32 games), Turkey (29), Switzerland (28), Belgium (17), Croatia (14), Hungary (13), Austria (11) and Bosnia (8) and Slovenia (7).

On the heels of last month’s news that the Premier League was pressuring bookmakers to stop live betting on academy games, the deep-rooted tentacles of gambling and the potential for match-fixing to follow in European football is becoming an increasingly public concern of the authorities.  The two may not be connected, but the massive investment into football by legal gambling companies now splashed across the shirts of so many teams (not too mention newspaper and blog websites) hardly sends out a pure message to begin with.

Worldwide News

• I know you’re expecting me to to write about Thierry Henry — PR-backtracking with his call for a replay he knows won’t happen, Henry Winter losing the plot entirely like a kid who just found out Santa Claus doesn’t exist — but I have little to add to the shit-storm. Still, the Henry incident has sparked a further debate on the use of video evidence, supported in the British press by Andy Townsend, Patrick Barclay, and even an editorial in the Independent (is this really a matter of national concern now?). It’s curious, though, that none have noted additional assistant referees on the goaline surely would have spotted the infringement — perhaps because it has been Michel Platini who has led that experiment in the Europa League, a bit of the narrative that doesn’t fit grandiose gallic conspiracy theories.
• Like him or loathe him, Fake Sigi has a few posts of note you should take a look like: an interesting and insightful commentary on an interview with Columbus Crew GM Mark McCullers, addressing the worthiness of the Crew’s calls for public financing of further stadium infrastructure; calling out the pathetic Bud Light sponsored Kasey Keller signed scarf treasure hunt in Seattle (are they trying to give Portland fans more ammunition?); and a fairly unsuccessful take-down of Grant Wahl’s interview with MLS Commissioner Don Garber, given Wahl did get some interesting answers out of him, surely the point of an interview (albeit he’s right that the final question about Wahl’s own book was pretty cringe-worthy).
• Anyone good at interpreting dreams? Last night, Tottenham Hotspur were playing MK Dons (aka Franchise FC) in the Carling Cup final, and I was desperately trying to find a pub to watch it in America. I finally found one, got to to the top floor, only to my great surprise to find an entire roomful of screaming, belligerent MK Dons fans, who had unbeknownst to me become a phenomenon in American fandom.  I had to fight to stay in the room to watch the rest of the game, which went to to penalties.  Then I woke up.

The Sweeper appears daily. For more rambling and links throughout the day every day, follow your editor Tom Dunmore @pitchinvasion on Twitter.

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Sheffield Football Club vs. Queen's Park, Centenary Celebration

This match, the world’s first ever club centenary celebration, marked 100 years from the day of the founding of Sheffield Football Club, generally recognised as the world’s oldest club who still play today.

Programme cover courtesy of the excellent Footysphere.

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Nottingham Forest supporters.

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Big Story

He did it, we all know he did it, some think it was normal, some think it was the devil’s work, and Ireland want a replay even though FIFA have already ruled it out.

This brings us, of course, to the tricky question of justice in football. Some point out there traditionally has rarely been any; and Fredoracci points out that football just has about as much justice as the rest of real life.

But here’s the dealio, campers, something you should have figured out a long time ago: this type of shit happens a lot — a lot — in sport. Sport disguises itself as life honed and concentrated, as a palace of justice in Lego, all instant judgements and inevitable punishments. It dissembles its true nature: that it’s just like the rest of the universe. As a matter of course, players will skirt the fringes of legality, and will sometimes cross the line: our guys, their guys, everydamnone’s eyes. You just have to hope that the arbiters can do their best. What Henry did was wrong. But to pick on this one incident as being somehow especially contemptible is to be wilfully blind to all the sport you’ve ever seen.

Still, no-one’s going to be buying Henry a Guinness any time soon, so perhaps the eternal scarring of his reputation is some small justice outside the lines.

Worldwide News

• Elsewhere, Bosnians are despondent (“We lost a war, we lost the past, we have no future, no jobs and now our team hit the entire woodwork of the Portuguese goal here and in Lisbon but never scored,”), 15,000 riot police couldn’t prevent riots in Sudan after Algeria knocked out Egypt (what a goal!), and there is, of course, euphoria in Slovenia.
• Buried under all the World Cup qualifying furor was news from the AP that “German authorities and police elsewhere have arrested an undisclosed number of people suspected of fixing matches in major European football leagues.”  15 arrest warrants have been issued in ten countries, and quite honestly, the dangers of match-fixing are a much greater threat to the integrity of football than a handball.
• Conspiracy theories about FIFA aren’t helped by their refusal to set seeding-rules before they know which countries they will be seeding: they have not determined exactly how they will seed the World Cup finals, and will decide just days before the draw on December 4th.
• Matt Hughes looks at Chelsea’s “expensive error” as they attempt to skirt around the consequences of their impending transfer ban.

The Sweeper appears daily. For more rambling and links throughout the day every day, follow your editor Tom Dunmore @pitchinvasion on Twitter.

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10. RFK Stadium, DC United: This multi-purpose stadia has survived the Washington Senators, Redskins and Nationals and has been converted into a pretty nice soccer stadium.  The old movable left field baseball grandstand was relocated to the touchline to create very good sightlines for sideline ticket holders.  The metal treads and risers also provide plenty of bounce for the Screaming Eagles and Barra Brava that give it a unique and sometimes frightening experience for first time fans.

While the stadium has too many seats for most DC United matches and lacks many modern amenities, it possesses more history and tradition than most MLS stadia and the field is usually in very good shape for soccer.  The ring of honor of famous Washington athletes that surrounds RFK’s upper deck facade provided me with the inspiration to create Chicago’s Ring of Fire.

RFK Stadium

9. Columbus Crew Stadium:  CCS is the grand daddy of soccercentric stadia.  Built privately by Hunt Sports Group on the cheap for less than $27 million in 1999, its bells and whistles pale in comparison to the newer stadia.  In fact, I recall being in the visitor’s locker room prior to a game at CCS when Toyota Park was in its design phase and Fire players were pleading with me to make sure we would have bigger locker rooms with more shower heads and toilets than CCS’ meager locker rooms offered.

But CCS is more than simply “The First” of a generation of soccer stadia.  Renovated suites, a retrofitted stage and hospitality area, a newly energized supporters’ section and very good sightlines all are important reasons CCS is still among MLS’ best.

Crew Stadium

8. Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, Colorado Rapids: This ranking is based on second hand information as I’ve never been to Dick’s.  Most people I speak to about Dick’s and televised and photographic views indicate a stadium similar to BMO Field with a nice roof, grass field and poor location.  I believe the unique roof line is supposed to evoke images of the nearby Rocky Mountains.  Instead it reminds me of the canopy roof of the nearby Denver International Airport.

That does remind me, though, that I heard stories Major League Baseball prevented Coors Field from having one of the coolest stadium design elements ever.  As I understand, the Colorado Rockies wanted their outfield fenceline to mirror the peaks and valleys of the Colorado Rocky Mountains only to have MLB insist on a straight line wall.  And I thought the NFL was the No Fun League.

Dick's Sporting Goods Park

7. BMO Field, Toronto FC: I attended BMO’s Official Grand Opening Game (though there was a previous game) when Toronto FC hosted the Chicago Fire on seat cushion giveaway (and apparently throw on the field) day.  I bought a Montreal Canadiens jersey for the game, because I figured it would upset a few Toronto fans….it did.  BMO’s lakefront location on the former site of the Hockey Hall of Fame is closer to an urban center than any of MLS’ other soccercentric stadia, which, along with its switch to natural grass, is a tremendous advantage and bumps it just ahead of Dick’s Sporting Goods Park.

BMO Field, Grand Opening Day

6. Pizza Hut Park, FC Dallas: After they heard about Toyota Park’s inclusion of a permanent stage, the Hunt Sports Group redesigned PHP.  Their stage, however, has no seats in front of it nor suites alongside it, leaving the look of a giant, vacant concrete block on one end.  The ex-urban location is a deterrent to the MetroPlex’s many Hispanic fans, the lack of a roof makes for some very warm days and the distance of the locker rooms from the field is a bit of an irritant to the players, but the field view stadium club, the quality playing surface, the stadium merchandise shop and the surrounding soccer complex are all important pluses.

Pizza Hut Park

5. Qwest Field, Seattle Sounders FC: If they averaged 15,000 fans a game, I suppose I wouldn’t be ranking Qwest this high, but the fact is Sounders FC has made an NFL stadium intimate by virtue of the size of its crowds and the design of the stadium.  Like new Soldier Field, Qwest Field feels vertical.  The roof, steep grading of seats, first class amenities and 30,000 fans, many of whom are passionate, work well together to create the best big stadium feel MLS has ever had on a consistent basis.  Opening up the Hawks Nest next season will only add to the vertical and intimate feel of Qwest for Sounders FC matches.

Qwest Field. Photo: The West End on Flickr

4.  Home Depot Center, Los Angeles Galaxy: Rossetti Architects have had the most influence in soccer stadium design in the United States.  Their creations include each of the top five MLS Stadia in my list including their first venture, the self-proclaimed Cathedral of Soccer in the Americas, the HDC.  I have been there for many great soccer games including the Fire’s frustrating 2003 MLS Cup loss and the inaugural WPS Championship Game, but the most memorable event I ever attended at the HDC was the funeral of Los Angeles Galaxy President and General Manager Doug Hamilton.  I served as a pall bearer carrying Doug’s casket on and off the field through the player tunnel while a bagpiper played Danny Boy and Amazing Grace.  It was the most moving experience I’ve ever had in a soccer stadium.

For many, the HDC is the best MLS stadium and legitimate arguments can be made for that – until next April.  Its stadium club, suites and other hospitality areas are extremely nice.  It’s office space, beautiful landscape and connected facilities (indoor velodrome, tennis stadium, track and field stadium and a dozen soccer fields) are all very nice, but the stadium itself falls short of the top three IMH(and biased)O.  My two biggest complaints about the HDC are the poor quality of the playing surface due to over usage and the distance from the seating bowl to the touchline.

Home Depot Center. Photo: Wha'ppen on Flickr.

3. Toyota Park, Chicago Fire: When designing Toyota Park, we worked with Rossetti Architects using the HDC as a baseline.  After we selected Bridgeview as the winning community of our stadium bidding process, Phil Anschutz almost apologetically confided to me, “You know Peter, we’re not going to be able to build you as nice a stadium as we did in Los Angeles.”  The budget restrictions Mr. Anschutz was referring to created limitations that resulted in only one training field, less storage and office space than at the HDC and a stadium club that doesn’t overlook the field.  But using hindsight from HDC, we added several improvements including a center entrance player tunnel, ground level front row, seating much closer to the touchline, steeper rake of seats and a permanent stage that protects the field and provides a nice field view hospitality area.

And perhaps the most important feature is one that is underground: a $1.7 million dollar soccer field with a year round field heating system that keeps the playing surface among the League’s best in spite of the challenging Chicago climate.  At the groundbreaking, when the stadium design was completed, AEG President Tim Leiweke confided to me, “I don’t know how you did it, but this is going to be nicer than Home Depot.”

Toyota Park. Photo: section8chicago on Flickr

2. Rio Tinto Stadium, Real Salt Lake: Rio Tinto is a nicer version of Toyota Park.  Just as the Chicago Fire took learnings from HDC, Real Salt Lake, working again with Rossetti, used the Toyota Park blue print and evolved it using lessons from the Fire’s home.  The stadium club overlooks the field, the general and premium seat amenities are all a bit nicer than Toyota Park and the view of the Wasatch Mountains is gorgeous.  The south end stands are portable allowing for seats for sporting events and a permanent stage for concerts. And I love their use of text messaging for in seat food service, which is available for all fans.

Rio Tinto Stadium

1B. Union Field at Chester, Philadelphia Union: The two new MLS stadia for 2010 will in all likelihood be improvements on anything we’ve seen to date in MLS.  Based on descriptions, artists renderings, photos and costs, I’m giving a strong edge to Red Bull Arena for the new best soccer stadium in the history of MLS.  Like its 2010 stadium twin Red Bull Arena, Union Field is being built on a cleaned up brown field near a river in an industrial suburb near a major urban area.  Union Field’s design has morphed since it was first announced in order to become more budget friendly as the economic collapse changed the business paradigm that it was based upon, but it will likely be nicer than anything built previously in MLS.

Union Field rendering

Red Bull Arena rendering

1A. Red Bull Arena, New York Red Bulls: They’ve been talking about a new stadium for New York’s MLS team since Charlie Stillitano was there.  Several chief executives later, the dream and the “60-90 day” promises are finally coming to reality next spring.  Despite all the criticism Nick Sakiewicz has received from fans over the years, he will be able to rightfully take great pride in his role in developing the two best stadia in MLS history, both opening next spring – that is quite remarkable.  And Red Bull Arena is going to be a thing of beauty.  With its state of the art features and dedication to be a soccercentric stadium it may be a long time before anyone bumps RB Arena off my top spot.

So there you go, my top 10 (or 11 really).

Let me know how you rank your Top 10 (or 11) and why you chose yours differently than mine.  Have a great week.  Go Fire…er…uh….never mind.

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Big Story
There is an excellent debate going on at the pages of A More Splendid Life about the future of soccer journalism (or really, the future of journalism in general), with his post yesterday on the impending doom for us all as the “so-called “newspaper model” seems as yet irreplaceable when it comes to affording a living wage for journalists”.

This sparked something of a debate as a few pointed out some blogs have found ways to generate significant income. Certainly, and good for them. But it’s quite clear how one has to target editorial content very specifically to generate significant traffic and monetary reward. The time and expense needed to do serious longform journalism — including travel — is not rewarded well monetarily in the online era, even if you end up writing the greatest 2,000 word blog post ever on African youth development.

Richard’s follow-up post today addresses this very well.

I know there is a route whereby money can be made from bloggin’ about soccer, and I know several of us have commandeered that route with great success. However, that approach, sorry to say, has little or nothing to do with the sort of long-form journalism and first person reporting we’ve come to take for granted from print media.

For one, a money-making approach to blogging requires one, in part, to cover those areas that will garner the most web traffic possible. Because newspapers were traditionally purchased as a whole unit, leaving consumers at the whim of the entire editorial staff to read what they chose to cover, beat writers had the luxury of chasing some out-of-the-way stories on their individual merit, rather than having each and every individual tailored to the interest of the broadest audience possible.

Will this freedom ever be possible in the era of digital content? Answers on a postcard, please.

Worldwide News

• It’s lockdown in Sudan ahead of the Algeria-Egypt World Cup playoff game. We all heard about the violence surrounding the weekend’s clash, with the head of the Algerian football federation Mohammed Raouraoua stoking the fire by blaming his Egyptian counterpart Samir Zaherfor the trouble. “He is the origin of all the events that occurred, including the barbaric aggression that injured… our players,” Mr Raouraoua said.
• England’s World Cup bid has been much criticised, with FA Chairman Lord Triesman under fire, but David Conn suggests much of this furor may be fueled by another agenda: Triesman’s occasional critiques of the Premier League.
• Relegated Oita Trinita will receive $6.7m in emergency funding in Japan, the first time the new fund has been dipped into.
• Alex Ferguson expresses his distaste for the increasingly prominent role played by agents, in a speech contrasting past and present.
• Authorities in Cyprus are taking the unpleasant step of forcing all fans to present state ID cards to purchase match tickets, saying they need to enforce banning orders as violence continues to plague the sport there.
• There is an absolutely disgraceful piece of “journalism” in The Times today (the freedom of the old model still generates plenty of crap), as James Ducker attempts to polish the image of Manchester City Chairman Garry Cook, much vilified in the past for his greedy, elitist ideas. It’s all fair and good to say we should take another look at Cook or his ideas, but please don’t present as your main piece of evidence the fact that he helped rescue your credit card at a fancy restaurant, James. Maybe journalism is already dead.

The Sweeper appears daily. For more rambling and links throughout the day every day, follow your editor Tom Dunmore @pitchinvasion on Twitter.

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