US Soccer, you’re just leading us on. We need a clean break here; the ambiguity leaves us feeling sad and confused.

Sigh.

From: wctickets@ussoccer.org
4:11 PM 3/31/06
Subject: 2006 FIFA World Cup Tickets

We appreciate your continued patience and support as we grow nearer to the 2006 FIFA World Cup! We are excited to announce that FIFA has honored our requests and will be awarding U.S. Soccer with an additional allotment of 2006 FIFA World Cup tickets for all of the First Round Matches.

Allocation of these tickets to applications on our Priority Waiting List will take place over the next few weeks. FIFA has confirmed that this will be the final allotment of tickets made available to U.S. Soccer. Once this final allotment has been sold in its entirety, we will notify via e-mail applications that will not be allocated tickets.

To process the remaining tickets as quickly as possible, we kindly ask that those on our Priority Waiting List refrain from contacting U.S. Soccer regarding the status of specific applications. We understand the need to make travel arrangements as soon as possible and are working with this in mind.

We have posted a list of Frequently Asked Questions on our website at www.ussoccer.com, which provides additional information pertaining to updating and transferring ticket holder information, as well as the ticket delivery process. If you have an urgent matter regarding your 2006 FIFA World Cup Ticket Order, please e-mail our Ticketing Department at tickets@ussoccer.org.

We thank you in advance for your cooperation and look forward to a magnificent U.S. fan presence at the 2006 FIFA World Cup!

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U.S. Soccer Federation, 1801 S. Prairie Ave, Chicago IL 60616
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We’re finally getting into World Cup marketing season, as Nike and Adidas are rolling out their big soccer campaigns for this summer’s main event. There will certainly be room and time to review said campaigns in detail; for now I’m just thankful that Nike has moved beyond the teaser trailer for their Joga TV thing. I had definitely hit my breaking point in re: “Mes Amis Footballeurs! Thees ees Eric Cantona!” on Fox Soccer Channel.

Though Nike has a bunch of these running right now (and they’re all pretty good), my favorite is definitely the Ronaldinho one, if only because you get to see what nine-year-old Ronaldinho looked like.

Also, nine-year-old Ronaldinho did not suck at soccer.

Link:
Joga Bonito [Nike Football Official Site]

So this should actually be a pretty good idea for a TV show. They’re going to run a nationwide talent search for hidden gems of football talent — folks who just never got a look from the so-called “football experts”! Politics! It’s all politics!

The kicker is that the final episode will be the team they assemble from the TV show in a live match against the actual Malaysian national team. I have to imagine people will watch that. And it’s going to happen May 28th, along the approach route for World Cup media buildup. Very clever.

MyTeam [Official Site]
TM Presents MyTeam [Business Specs]

Though we’re admittedly a few days late on the Wednesday friendly versus Germany (which I didn’t actually think was so bad; at least we confirmed that certain dudes are complete wusses and have no business coming with us to Germany), the news item that we’ve actually been dying to post about happened more than a week ago: Bruce Arena’s decision to honor New England’s suspension of Clint Dempsey for fighting Joey Franchino in practice.

I don’t believe that this suspension impacts Dempsey’s chances to be on the team this summer even a little bit. He’s going to Germany. He’s absolutely the sort of too-dumb-to-know-any-better-or-get-too-nervous kind of guy that Il Bruce loves to trot out. I’m just shocked by the hullaballoo regarding a fight in practice. As AI would say, we’re talking about practice here, not the game. If the boys get a little riled up and someone decides to throw hands, I mean, is this such a big deal? Shouldn’t we applaud any sort of enthusiasm in the MLS (especially with the long, mostly meaningless regular season looming)? And then for U.S. Soccer to honor it?

We’re talking about practice here. Not the game. Practice.

Allen Iverson: Practice [MP3 file]

There comes a moment in every team’s development that is a now-or-never moment. It’s that time when they say, “Enough is enough, we have never been in the Premiership and that’s NOT cool”. That time for Reading has come, that time is now.

For a second there, we did actually wonder whether Reading Football Club would ever make it out of second or third or even fourth tier football. But they did, through sheer guts and perseverance plus a great chairman (John Madejski) and an even greater manager (Steve Coppell). Today they stand on the threshold of greatness. There are already murmurings about who will stay and who will go, who will play against the greats and who will be cut loose. But do not fear, we will all be there. The Royals are going up and taking us all with them.

Reading have traveled quite a long road to get here. No season was more heartbreaking than 1994-95 when in the final of the Division One play-offs at Wembley Stadium we lost 4-3 to Bolton in extra time after being 2-0 up at the break. Here are few other things you need to know about Reading Football Club:

• Founded: 1871 (exactly 100 years before I was born)
• Record defeat: 18-0 (first round of 1894 FA Cup against Preston North End)
• Record victory: 10-2 (against Crystal Palace in September 1946)
• Best FA Cup run: Semi-finals in 1927, lost 3-0 to eventual winners Cardiff City
• First official stadium: Elm Park in 1896 (where I watched my one-and-only Reading game)
• Worst season: 1970-71, relegated to Division Four (I was born in 1971)
• Most memorable player name: Goalkeeper Steve Death who once held the club record for most first team appearances (536 from 1969-82)
• Scariest season: 1982-83, Reading FC almost disappears, fighting off a merger with rivals Oxford United and avoiding the sale of Elm Park
• Club points record: 94
• Largest crowd to watch a Reading game: 61,470 (1988 Simod Cup Final)
• Most valuable purchase: Leroy Lita (2005, £1 million)
• Most valuable sale: Shaka Hislop (1995, £1.5 million)
• Reading FC home: £50-million, 24,200-seat Madejski Stadium, named Europe’s Best Mid-Sized Arena by ESPN

So join me in celebrating the club’s first foray into the big time, raise your glasses to promotion and get ready to witness the birth of a new Premiership club – those blue-hooped wonders, those magnificent Biscuitmen…..The Reading Royals.

After years of lamenting and grumbling among the staff of FC Camena, it looks like there might be a legit plan in the works to bring an MLS team to the Philly area. Apparently MLS has long coveted the Philly market, but the lack of a proper stadium (which mostly means that neither Jeff Lurie nor Comcast were on board) has pushed them towards more exciting markets like Columbus and Salt Lake City.

Though I don’t know how I’m vibing the whole South Jersey thing (especially since it’s legit South Jersey, and not just a ferry ride across the Delaware), this is undoubtedly good news for MLS, and good news for Philly. Philly has some proud footy history, and, ahem, the people there seem to enjoy their sports (see also: While the NHL continues to struggle, Philly can sell out a MINOR LEAGUE hockey game).

And, if nothing else, I see this as a great opportunity for MLS to offer their least-family-friendly stadium experience ever!

Link:
South Jersey to get 1st pro franchise [Morris County Daily Record]

Another soccer player has traveled to the land of beer in order fix his sports hernia. Too bad Donovan (Not Landycakes) didn’t take the advice that everyone was screaming about months ago.

Wynne Goes to Munich

I don’t know if anyone else caught the Fox Sports World Report on Tuesday, but I think Jeremy and Carlos may have had a few too many bellinis at happy hour! They were, err, a bit giddy; one might even go so far as “playful.”

In case you’re just catching up with the Fox Sports World Report News Team, I’ll bet you didn’t know that weekday anchor Jeremy St Louis is more a hockey fan than a footy fan. But he doesn’t really follow the NHL. No. Of course not. He’s actually more into junior hockey; the Western Hockey League, to be exact. (It’s like Americans who are more into college football, sort of; maybe like the WCC.) And, as you’d probably expect, Jeremy is a Brandon Wheat Kings supporter; go Wheaties!

Of course. It all makes sense.

Link:
Brandon Wheat Kings [Official Site]

It’s knockout season in the Champions League. Caught both games on ESPN2 this week, and this is what I learned:

(1) Ronaldinho is the best soccer player in the world, and it really isn’t close after that. He spent a solid ten minutes of the first half of Barca’s match against Chelsea on Tuesday just doing tricks; someone must have told him that he was filming a commercial or something. When he scored the go-ahead goal in the second half (despite three Chelsea defenders’ best efforts to knock him over), it all sort of clicked for me: this dude isn’t just fancy, he also wants to win. The Champions League, the World Cup — it all seems very possible.

(2) Chelsea were awful. They couldn’t get the ball to midfield. Maybe the EPL isn’t over after all.

(3) Thierry Henry is a pleasure to watch. I will miss him when he’s done.

(4) The stars of the 1998 FIFA World Cup aren’t getting it done anymore for Madrid. Man, did those guys look old! And tired! Poor Zidane! He still has the class, but I don’t think he has the legs. Roberto Carlos might have the legs (and I stress might), but he sure doesn’t have the class anymore. And Ronaldo looked really slow and uninterested for a guy who’s 29 years old. Also, I want to know how you can be that chubby when you’re going to soccer practice every day; is a Sir-Charlesesque weight gain in the gap-toothed one’s future?

Link:
Ronaldo Returns Fire At Pele [Foxsports]

We’ve long since been a fan of U.S. National Team hopeful Jimmy Conrad, if only because of his charming little columns that ran on cnnsi.com and now ESPN Soccernet (moving up in the world!). So much so that we’re barely surprised by his apparent fondness for The Settlers of Catan; we figure if he’s the go-to guy for the “blog,” he probably has other nerdy tendencies as well.

The whole insider/ player blog thing is obviously a format with legs; think of Paul Shirley, only shorter and more talented (my proof: Paul Shirley is not mentioned in conversations regarding USA Basketball; that said, he apparently has a TV development deal). And though we’re pulling for Mr. Conrad to make Bruce Arena’s World Cup squad, it’s looking more and more like he’s on the bubble. Maybe he can make the cut as official team blogger — take that, Carlos Bocanegra!

*It should go without saying that his geekiness is what makes him so endearing.

Link:
How To Put Your Friends To Work [Soccernet]