Blatter: No USA Bid for 2018 World Cup?

Looks like Sepp Blatter is at it again, doing all he can to sweeten the pot for FIFA’s cash cow, a/k/a the World Cup. In a recent interview Blatter all but rules out a 2018 bid from the US because it happens to be in the “Americas” like Brazil, host to the 2014 World Cup…

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Good US; Bad US

The Good:
The Women’s Olympic Team avenging the humbling loss to Brazil at last year’s WC and winning the gold.  And doing it without their star, Amy Wambach.  After watching the underachieving men’s side exit in the first round, it was refreshing to see a US squad pull out a gritty performance.
The Bad:
While on the surface [...]

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Argentina Humbles Brazil

Brazil has been humbled.

It is not simply the fact that Argentina eliminated Brazil from the Olympics. Nor is it the fact that Brazil, once again, failed in its quest for Olympic gold. In fact, the 3-0 beating is not the most humbling part…

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More Olympic Fallout

We proved we could play with the rest of the world…We’re certainly disappointed we did not advance. We surprised a lot of people around the world showing we could play with such style and class.
Bruce Arena, 1996 Olympics
Came across this quote in an article by ESPN’s Jeff Carlisle, which offers yet another candid critique of [...]

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Gulati Fires Warning Shot?

In an interview with Grant Wahl, Sulati made some candid remarks about the US Men’s Olympic team’s performance, including some of the coaching decisions made by Peter Nowak.  While he was not talking directly about Bob Bradley, it was clear Gulati was speaking with Bradley in mind.  This is especially true considering Nowak is Bradley’s [...]

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Emerging Soccer Markets

Came across an interesting video report from CNN regarding Arsenal and how the club is expanding its brand by opening up academies in emerging markets. It reminded me of another Arsenal video, albeit from Nike.

more about “Nike – Take It to the Next Level“, posted with vodpod
Beyond being an incredibly clever soccer commercial, [...]

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US Bows Out

Thanks to a combination of a foolish elbow, poor substitution and sheer bad luck, the US saw its Olympic dream end today, losing 2-1 to Nigeria…

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To Jump or Not to Jump

Following the US tie with Holland, much has been made of whether the US wall should have jumped like it did on the Dutch free kick that tied the game. Considering the distance and how difficult it is to curl the ball over the wall and down into the goal, jumping at all was probably not a good idea…

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Unlucky Tie for US

Despite outplaying the Dutch for most of the game and being minutes away from advancing to 2nd round, the US earned a disappointing tie against Holland today.  Truth be told, had you told me before the game the US would get a point against Holland, I would have been thrilled.
But after watching the Americans control [...]

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1st Olympic Win for US

For those who either watched it live (you are true diehards, my friends) or simply set their DVRs for 5AM EST, the 1-0 US victory over Japan in their 1st Olympic game was both a rewarding and frustrating game altogether…

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