Don't Get Apocalyptic About Football in 2012

If this is the apocalypse, gimme some

It's been almost five months since I've posted something fresh to my blog. That's downright apocalyptic, which is apropos given it's after all 2012. Kinda sad for footie fans if the Mayans are right. After all, we're stuck with 2010 as the last World Cup--aside from Spain establishing itself as the best national team in a generation, the Mundial didn't give us much more. The U.S. bombed out, and even that wasn't enough to cost Bullet Bob Bradley his job until 2011! A loss to Mexico in the Gold Cup final apparently means a lot more to the ever-provincial US Soccer Federation.

Barcelona, meanwhile, continues to dominate club football. Real Madrid has its most potent club in a long time and cannot make a dent in Pep Guardiola's armor. Jose Mourinho's Year-2 legacy of winning big as a sophomore is in serious jeopardy if the last Classico was any indication. Cristiano "ARod" Ronaldo just can't get over the Messi hump. It's a messy situation.

The Champions League? Still sucks. Which is too bad. I still want the 64-team NCAA Tournament-style knockout tournament to come back. I think that still satisfies the Platinis of the world who want the minnows to cash in. It also satisfies the giants who if they're dedicated enough, can stomp through the early rounds and make for a juicy Sweet 16 and beyond. Maybe someone should buy Platini and company tickets to this year's NCAA Final Four. Maybe it will spur him on. Imitation is the greatest form of flattery.

So what do we have to look forward to this year? A Porto-Sporting Sweet 16 in the Europa League? How cool would that be? Only thing cooler would be a Sporting-Braga final. But that's just silly me being silly selfish.

Euro is this summer. Hopefully the solar flares won't be kicking up too bad in Poland and Ukraine and ESPN won't lose its' feed a la the 2008 Euro. The GOD group, i.e., Portugal-Holland-Germany-Denmark (Seriously, what sick fuck thought this shit up?) is unquestionably cementing Euro's status as the best football tournament in the world. What a bloodbath those group games are going to be. Portugal and Holland hate each other (see 2006 World Cup). Germany and Holland have history. Portugal cannot beat Germany--and apparently cannot beat Denmark either. And Denmark, yeah, it beat Germany to win the '92 Euro for whatever that's worth.

All I know is that if Portugal somehow escapes the group stage, somewhere along the way it will play England -- and beat England -- in penalty kicks. Make book on it. Otherwise, it's difficult to bet against a Spain-Germany final, which is a tasty treat for sure given the young Germany powerhouse that country is building, and Spain, of course, being Spain.

And then it's downtime until Dec. 21, which could be the be-all, end-all of ... The Club World Cup?

U.S. National Team Players Just Don't Get Enough Minutes

There's an eye-opening article on SI.com about Americans abroad having a chance to impress new United States men's national team coach Jurgen Klinsmann--a clean slate if you will. The author makes the point that Klinsmann's philosophy is going to be so radically different from Bob Bradley's that anyone has a chance to make an impact with the #USMNT.

She scores more in Italy
than #USMNT players

Fair enough, and maybe so. Writer Avi Creditor makes his case well noting that Chris Rolfe, for example, has two goals in two games for his team in Denmark, and how Joe Corona is making his case in Mexico with Tijuana. Cool. Good enterprise angle. So is the reporting on how Americans have fared over the first two weeks of domestic play worldwide. Creditor went country by country, player by player providing details on how many minutes each played and whether they scored, etc.

If you ask me, that's the meat of the issue. It's not the opportunity these players have in front of them, but just how few minutes Americans with a chance to make the national squad actually play! In England, where the biggest pool of Americans swim overseas--where the likes of Tim Howard, Clint Dempsey, Eric Lichaj, Stuart Holden and others play--four of the 15 in England started their games. One, John Paul Pittman of Oxford United in League 2, came on as a sub. The rest were either not on the 18-man roster or were, but didn't see playing time. Says volumes if you ask me.

Let's keep going. Michael Bradley and Jermaine Jones - in the 18 for their respective squads and 0 minutes of live action. Same for Steve Cherundulo and Ricardo Clark. Carlos Bocanegra, the U.S. captain, not in the 18 for St. Etienne in France. Same story for Oguchi Onyewu with Sporting.

See where I'm going here? Our "best players" can't get on the field. It's great they're in Europe, being exposed to soccer cultures and supposedly better training and attitude about football. But what's the point if they're playing in reserve games and never getting a sniff of Sunday football?

What world football power operates this way with its players? Xavi and Rooney and Schweinsteiger, they'd be just as good for their respective nations if they sat every Sunday, correct?

To me, this raises tons of questions about the U.S.: Does our player selection just suck? Is the MLS single-entity system strangling national team development? Are we over-rating our best talent; worse yet, are our coaches and federation officials doing the same? They are supposed to be the experts here.

Kudos to Klinsmann for saying he needs more Latino influence in the #USMNT and for promising to play different faces and adopt a new philosophy. Maybe the answer is to open up MLS and make it more appealing and enticing for our best to play here in front of their national team coach. And yes, the U.S. needs more Latinos and more Euros, but only those who are playing ball every Sunday. Which is more than we can say for the Adus, Onyewus and Bornsteins of the world.

Klinsmann, Not U.S., Needs to Win Tonight Against Mexico

Jurgen Klinsmann--Not Bob Bradley

Does Jurgen Klinsmann need to win tonight? You bet your ass he does. Now that doesn't mean the U.S. has to defeat Mexico tonight in Philadelphia, but it had better be a good show. He'd better play some young guys, show some hints of a new philosophy and the defense better not be a sieve. These were all the things that did in Bob Bradley, and to see more of the same would definitely set the Klinsmann Era off on the wrong foot. After all, we don't want smart-ass bloggers to start calling it the Klinsmann Error, do we?

Now seriously, it's humungously unfair for Klinsmann's first game at the helm of the United States men's national soccer team to come against the region's best team and the U.S.' biggest rival in Mexico.Nothing good can come of it unless the U.S. beats Mexico 2-nil. And even then, Klinsmann will be hailed as the savior and all future shortcomings will be judged against this--at least for the time being.

Maybe it's a good time to set expectations; consider this kinda like a tryout. Klinsmann is working with a slew of potential assistant coaches, starting with Tab Ramos, Thomas Dooley and Martin Vasquez. OK. The final 20 players Klinsmann brought to Philly includes some surprises. Clint Dempsey isn't on the roster, while DeMarcus Beasley is. So is Freddy Adu, Robbie Rogers, Kyle Beckerman, Zach Lloyd and Edgar Castillo. Who? Yeah. It's the young guys you've been clamoring for; the players Bradley never developed and never nurtured for 2014 and beyond. Bradley rode the veterans like Donovan, Dempsey, et al. And there's some justification there, mostly self-preservation--and in the end that didn't work.

Klinsmann has been around enough world-class football to understand the importance of playing younger players in meaningless friendlies and urge them to succeed and play at their highest level. This is the best way to evaluate young players; and at least most of these guys play regularly in MLS, for whatever that's worth. At least those are meaningful minutes, unlike Bradley who had no qualms about putting guys like Adu, Oguchi Onyewu and others who barely were on club rosters somewhere in the world, much less playing at all. And for some unfathomable reason were playing and starting on a national team roster! Says plenty about the state of U.S. football.

This might be the first mountain Klinsmann decides to climb. He needs players who are game fit mentally and physically. He needs players who understand the subtleties of game flow and rhythm. He needs players period, and not just players for today, but players for the next two to four years.

If you're a fan, tonight is must-see TV. Don't sweat the small stuff like winning or losing, because tonight it doesn't really matter. Let's see who Klinsmann plays, how the team plays and try to figure out what he likes and doesn't care for in this team. And tomorrow, let's talk about whether Klinsmann, and not the U.S., wins or loses.