USWNT Players Talk With Rachel Maddow

No matter how you feel about Rachel Maddow, I myself am a fan, it was great to see her interview four members of the US Women's National Team last night on her MSNBC Show. So put your politics aside, if needed, and enjoy the interview

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In The Wake of The Most Entertaining World Cup I've Ever Watched, I'm Making a Pledge

Suck it up guys, the ladies just put on one hell of a show.

The 2011 Women's World Cup was spectacular and a testament to the growth and development of the women's game. Every single knockout stage match was compelling and filled with dramatic moments, tension and amazing emotion. There were questionable calls, glorious goals, dramatic penalty kicks, all the things you love to see in a major international tournament and all the things we didn't see enough of in South Africa last summer.

No matter how good the tournament was, the women's game now faces the challenge of remaining relevant in the minds of soccer fans. It's a daunting task but one that isn't impossible if the younger generations of soccer fans can finish putting away the narrow minded views of earlier generations.

Here in the United States, the WPS must move past the variety of issues that has plagued it in the past year and find a way to run an economically viable operation while still being able to showcase some of the world's top talent. The league needs to capitalize on the buzz surrounding the sport and the US Women's National Team, especially considering all but one of the 23 players on the roster plays in the WPS.

More importantly, we as fans and followers on the game owe it to the sport to not write off women's soccer and treat it like we do the Olympics; as a once every couple of years cacophony of rampant nationalism. Not to mention the various shallow gender related of generically sexist reasons that we can throw out as reasons not to watch.

The men's game will likely always get the greater level of attention and investment but that doesn't mean there's not a place for the women's game on our sporting maps. Even better there are several excellent people working extremely hard to cover the game with the same level of dedication and expertise that we often, but not always, see in the men's version.

Writers like Jenna Pell from All White Kit, Fox Soccer and other outlets, Joan and Ruth who run Cross Conference do amazing work covering the game both the club and international level and both sites are worth spots in your RSS reader.

I'm not expert about women's soccer, this World Cup has been my first major foray in to the sport and I've enjoyed what I saw. Because of that, I'm making a pledge. I watch a lot of soccer, probably too much really. I can't promise large amount of articles about the WPS or USWNT but I can promise to use my little platform in cyberspace to help promote the game and the people who devote the time and attention to it that is so richly deserves. I'll be watching USWNT matches, I'll be making time for WPS matches and I hope that you will to.

My parents watched the USWNT matches against Brazil, France and Japan. It's not that they don't like soccer, it's just never been a sport on their radar. They tuned in, gave the sport a chance and were sucked in by the drama and excitement.

If the general sports fan can enjoy what they saw, how can people who truly love the game of soccer ignore an entire part of the sport just because of the gender of those playing it? All I'm asking is that you give it a chance, you might might find yourself enjoying it more than you ever thought possible. Even if you don't want to watch that's fine but even the act of not dismissing the women's game because of worn out stereotypes would be a big step forward.

The last month of games in Germany have shown all of us that good soccer is good soccer, no matter who is kicking the ball.

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Meet My Argentine Doggelganger

Check it out, it's my Argentine doppelganger! Though to be fair, I'm not nearly this bad.

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We Fucking Won! (Megan Rapinoe is Awesome)

Megan Rapinoe is awesome...pay careful attention to her interview.

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MLS Must Stop Living in the Past Concerning the Revolution

Things continue to go wrong in New England. First there was Fortgate and the blatant mistreatment of loyal Revolution fans by Bob Kraft's gestapo force and the Foxborough PD. Next the sham of a meeting between the front office, a TeamOps rep and the supporters groups in which team COO Brian Bilello and Kelly Way from TeamOps ignored the real issues brought up by supporters and tried to push their ridiculous belief that the situation is all about bad language.

Now, the fallout from the release of Marko Perovic. After the team announced the player was released from his contract last week "at the player's request", Steve Stoehr from The Bent Musket contacted Perovic and got an entirely different story.

While Perovic's written English is far from perfect, he made it pretty clear that he had a significantly different perspective regarding his departure than the previously stated company line. He seemed to indicate that he had been promised a raise when his contract expired and was upset when he was not offered one. Being as he was hurt and in no position to negotiate, he likened the situation to "blackmail."

To say that the officials in charge of the Revolution has lost the plot is an understatement. They are ruining the franchise, alienating their already small fan base and embarrassing MLS; none of which are positive things.

There are two things that must happen, but I'm confident nothing will change.

1. Bob Kraft must be forced to sell the team. Don Garber and MLS must show some backbone and politely thank Kraft for his help growing MLS but his ownership is clearly failing and he's embarrassing the league and the sport. No one questions Kraft financial commitment in the early years of MLS but living in the past is no way to run a business. MLS always talks about how great their single-entity system so it's time to use the power it gives them and force Bob Kraft out.

2. The team must be moved out of Foxborough. Remaining in Gillete Stadium would only allow Kraft to hold the team and league hostage by continuing to abuse them through ridiculous facilities fees and usage rules. In addition, his gestapo force, TeamOps, along with the Foxborough PD, would continue to abuse and harass loyal fans. A stadium situation must be resolved even it means a few seasons in a less desirable location as long as it's as close to Boston as possible.

As I said before, I firmly believe that nothing will happen to change the bad situation in New England but we can hope. Until then, this franchise will continue to be treated as a second class citizen by it's owner and be the black sheep of MLS.

Oh yeah, where is team president Sunil Gulati during all this? Looks like this idiot is ruining US Soccer in to the ground and helping do the same thing to the Revolution.

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Living in the Red: The Chicago Fire Soccer Team Fan Base, Section 8

A group of students at DePaul University created a film chronicling Section 8, the Chicago Fire supporters group. It's a great film and hopefully we'll start to see more films like this about the growing soccer supporters culture in the United States.

Living in the Red is a video about the Chicago Fire Soccer Fan club, Section 8, produced by Marlin Kolev, Ethan Faure and Heather Eidson for Documentary Production 471 at DePaul University, 2011.

Living in the Red: The Chicago Fire Soccer Team Fan Base, Section 8 from Heather Eidson on Vimeo.

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More Brilliance in American Sports Journalism

Part of the joy of loving the sport of soccer is getting to deal with carcass picking vultures that swoop in when they smell the decay of a negative story that can roost on for a few days.

This time, it's Dan Wolken, national sports columnist for The Daily.

I swear, these idiots probably have a file folder labeled "Insulting Things to Say About Soccer" that they pass down from writer to writer like some kind of ancient book of useless wisdom. Kind of like "that" book in American Pie.

Dan, we soccer fans are used to this nonsense and while I can't stand giving you unnecessary attention, I think it's important to highlight when you idiots pop out of the bushes and take uneducated cheap shots at our sport.

If you want to criticize Tim Howard for his comments concerning the CONCACAF trophy presentation being entirely in Spanish, that's fine. To claim that Tim Howard is not a "legit athlete" is just dumb.

This is the core problem with American sports and the journalist that cover them. The American sports complex seem to think that the USA is the center of the sporting universe. This belief is completely absurd, but we perpetuate this line of thinking by having the gall to claim winners of our domestic football, baseball, hockey and basketball leagues are "world champions". The winners of the EPL, Bundesliga, Serie A, La Liga, etc. are not "world champions", they are league champions.

All those leagues feature players from around the world playing in them and just because the NFL, MLB, NHL and NBA might be the top leagues of their type in the world, that doesn't make their playoff victors world champions.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised when people like Dan Wolken open their mouths and say something stupid, probably I should ignore it; but I can't and I don't want to. One day, these neanderthals will figure out that there's more to the world of sports than what's happening in America and the long held derogatory stereotypes about soccer will go away. Maybe that's a pipe dream, but these days, anything is possible.

Until then, if you only want to talk about soccer when there's a story you can use to insult the game, the athletes who play it and its fans, go find something better to do.

Sometimes after a long rant, you get reminded that the proper response only takes 140 characters. Nicely done @Kevin_Dooley

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Roger "Scuba" Levesque's Goal Celebration

One of the things that I love about football is the freedom for players to celebrate goals. I think it's ridiculous that removing your shirt is an automatic yellow, but fortunately, the multitude of other celebrations are allowed to occur without the insanity that breaks out during an NFL game when somewhere dares to show a little emotion.

Last night in the Seattle Sounders' 4-2 victory over the New York Red Bulls, we got to see another great and original way to celebrate a goal thanks to Roger Levesque. Let's call it, "The Scuba Steve"...or better yet "The Scuba Roger". The goal was Levesque's second of the night and I think he had every right to be excited.

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2011 MLS All-Star Game Jerseys

What the hell? I'm speechless.

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The Thierry Henry Conundrum and the Genius of Erik Soler

Look what you've done Ricardo Salazar! With the simple act of pulling a red card from your back pocket and thrusting it above your head at Thierry Henry, you've created a hell of a problem for Major League Soccer.

You see, a straight red card means an automatic one match ban for the New York Red Bulls star which given his injury history and the long summer ahead, might normally not be such a bad thing. Trouble is, Luke Rodgers is on the shelf with foot problems so New York needs their forward. That in and of itself could be bad enough, but it doesn't scratch the surface of the storm that Salazar has created.

On Thursday night, the Red Bulls head to CenturyLink Field to face the Seattle Sounders on ESPN2. It's a big match as no doubt what advertisers the Bristol Behemoth have gotten for MLS broadcast were looking forward to this "marquee" match-up. Fans seem excited as well, with upwards of 43,000 tickets already sold for the match.

Suddenly, thanks to a wholly ridiculous and unnecessary decision, don't let Simon Borg convince you otherwise, one of the match's biggest draws is out and Garber and his minions have a problem. You can be sure that ESPN wants Thierry Henry on the field on Thursday night, even with the late east coast time kickoff. You can also be sure that the last thing MLS wants to do is upset ESPN...and therein lies the conundrum.

If MLS doesn't rescind the red card and allow Henry to play on Thursday, you're likely to have an upset network and a lot of upset sponsors, both nationally and locally in Seattle. However, if you rescind the card, MLS has to do something it loathes and hates more than anything else on this earth...admit their match referee made the wrong decision.

MLS referees are terrible and the rate at which they make game changing mistakes has moved from light speed to ludicrous speed this season. Despite the mass criticism from fans, the media and now coaches and team executives, Don Garber now faces opening a pandora's box for MLS. It's becoming increasingly more difficult for Garber to ignore his referee problem and it got even harder thanks to a team executive yesterday.

Thus we arrive at the genius of Red Bull GM/Sporting Director Erik Soler's public statement yesterday. Instead of quietly appealing Henry's card through the usual channels, Soler forced the leagues hand by openly criticizing the decision ahead of a huge national television match. Soler won't care about a possible fine because he's thrust the issue of Salazar's mistake to the forefront and has ensured that whatever decision the league office makes will be right out in the open for everyone to see.

For fans who are sick and tired of the pathetic state of officiating in MLS, statements from coaches (John Spencer) and executives like Soler mark what should be a turning point in the handling of referees. The time has come for these officials to be held accountable for their decisions rather than allowing them to hide behind the protection of the league and the USSF. It's easy for Garber to ignore fans (he's exceedingly good at that), it's another to ignore the likes of Spencer and Soler.

Now we just sit back and wait to see what MLS does. It should interesting.

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