Lower divisions on the rise?

The US Open Cup resems this evening with four quarterfinal matches, three of which include lower division sides.  This has been an interesting year for the lower divisions.  It is not surprising to have some upsets in round three, but to have this many lower division teams in the quarterfinals may be an unexpectedly good sign for US Soccer.

The future of the US national team in someways is dependent on the strength of the lower divisions.  Soccer in the US is handled very differently then football is throughout the rest of the wold.  For the rest of the world, player development is handled by the club academies.  Good players are identified at a young age and forgo or delay a college education to develop their footballing skills at the clubs.  The better players are at the bigger clubs and end up debuting at a young age (Lionel Messi debut for Barcelona at 17, Wayne Rooney also debut for Everton at 17).  We do things very different here.  Granted, the top 1% (if not less) of our players head overseas to a club academy, but the majority head off to college.  NCAA stringent training rules actually limit the development of our players.  It is here where the lower divisions kick in.

The PDL is where our college players get some training in the summer.  NASL and USL Pro are where those who fall off the radar can still get developed.  The encouraging sign is that perhaps the divide between the divisions is not as great as one would expect.  I know that many MLS teams put our reserve teams in the early stages of the US Open Cup.  However, based on our current system, one should still expect that an MLS reserve team should rank above any of the lower divisions (especially the PDL).  This year, they did not.

Here is where my glass becomes half full.  Instead of looking at this years upsets as a weakness of the MLS, I am encouraged by the strength of the lower divisions.  If the lower divisions are actually stronger then we all thought, then perhaps the player pool of US Soccer is stronger and larger then expected.  If that is the case, the then future of US Soccer is good.  A lager pool means that there can be more teams (in all divisions) and better soccer throughout the country which intern might mean healthier clubs.  A larger pool means that there are more choices for the future of the national team - which can only be a good thing.

I know there needs to be a reality check here for a moment.  The lower divisions are struggling financially.  Most of the teams barely have any fans and are losing money.  But if this year is a sign of things to come, perhaps the lower divisions are getting stronger.  Strong, healthy lower divisions create a structure that will make soccer stronger and healthier at all levels.  Perhaps this year has been an anomaly.  But then again, perhaps this year has been a sign of good things to come.

2012.05.26 Columbus v Fire (2:1)

It's been a while since this blog has seen any activity.  Not sure what to blame it on - I was busy?  I had nothing to say?  I was being lazy (probably that last one!)

This past weekend, we went with the Section 8 supporters to an away match against the Columbus Crew.  For the past two years, the Fire front office has paid for the buses for all the season ticket holders in Section 8, Section 80 and Sector Latino to go - a form of thank you to us for buying the tickets and supporting the team.  This year they even went a bit farther - the first team chipped in and bought a keg for the traveling faithful to share during the pregame tail gate.   Usually, this is a good time for all, but for some reason, this time it was different.

The game was the game.  The Fire lost - the team look asleep the first half and we paid a big price.  It was disappointing, but I have been to away losses before.  Not a lot of fun, but something that you can live with (as another supporter said to me "this is the cost of being a supporter - dealing with losses on away trips").

The reason it was disappointing was the attitude of some during the trip.  We had issues with smoke bombs through out the entire game.  Although I don't condone it, it's one thing to set some off during a time of celebration, but these went off continually during the game.  From what I can tell, they were brought in by some individuals who thought it would be a lot of fun to set them off.  Unfortunately, banners were damaged and destroyed.  Security was in the section so much that they became a distraction.  The smoke was so bad that people actually left the section.  Not only that, but the way things were being done led to concerns for safety for the younger fans in attendance (thanks to Josh for pulling my kids out of the middle of it!)  It really created a confrontational atmosphere within the section.  The singing stopped and became confused (numerous factions fighting with one another for what should be sung).  By the time the game was over, the supporters were frustrated (loss + section issues), security were frustrated (endless smoke bombs) and the home side were agitated (they won, they had to have the last say), and things began to deteriorate.

Curses and bottles get thrown into our section from the Crew supporters, some one gets mad in our side and throws a bottle at a fence, a security guy jumps the fence and all hell breaks loose.  We began walking down the ramp to the buses and crew fans are throwing burning flags, flares and smoke bombs at us (Cindy nearly got hit).  Someone from our side decides to retaliate and runs into the crowd.  Arrests come next and the fun ends (or so we thought).

Rumors began to circulate on the bus (we are on the family bus - no booze, no R movies).  There is a fight between two or three supporter groups on another bus.  People are smoking on buses - irritating the other passengers - but too drunk to care.  So ends the trip - probably the last trip that the Fire front office will ever support again.

On the way down, we watched one of my all time favorite movies - Fever Pitch.  Not the cheeseie American one about the Red Sox, but the British one - the first one (the better one).  In the midst of the movie, the Paul - the lead character (played by Colin Firth) has this voice over thought:

Why is it that adults aren't supposed to go mad about anything? You've got to keep a lid on it.

And if you don't then people are apparently entitled to say what they like: You haven't grown up. You're a moron. Your conversation is trivial and boorish. You can't express your emotional needs, you can't relate to your children and you die lonely and miserable.

But, you know, what the hell.
Every cloud has a silver lining.

It's not easy to become a football fan. It takes years. But if you put in the hours you're welcomed, without question, into a new family.

Except in this family, you care about the same people and hope for the same things.

And what's childish about that?

 People look at you funny (especially in this country) when you say you are a soccer fan.  They don't understand why you go to all the games (to watch a bunch of little guys chase a ball all day - how dull).  But for those of us who love this game, it's very different.  The passion of the game, the tension of the game, the simplicity of the game - it just gets to you.  And the atmosphere of the stadium - there is nothing like it in sports. People ask "Why do you sing and chant and get so excited?  It's just a game."  Yes, it's just a game, but it's more then a game - it's family.  I think the quote above gets this.  There is a sense of community at a soccer match that I have yet to experience anywhere else.  I've often said that if the church could figure out community they way the "hooligans" figured it out, the church would grow and the gospel would spread (I've seen Acts 4:32-37 play out in Section 8 numerous times).  That "family" is what it is all about.  And when we, as supporters, forget about that family, it all falls apart.

That is what happened on Saturday.  We stopped being a family, and started to be a group of individuals.  "If I want to blow off smoke bombs, who is going to stop me".  There was a general disregard for anyone else.  (People's property got damaged and destroyed - but who cares- it wasn't my banner...I'll sing what I want to sing, when I want to sing it...I'll say what I want to say, and if you disagree, I'll vilify you.)  And so, with one big puff of smoke - the family gets blown away.  And that is more disappointing then the loss.  There will always be another game or another season.  But there is only one family.  I wish we could remember that...

Tap, Tap, Tap....

Is this thing still on????  More to come....

All In!

Well, we finally did it.  We have been season ticket holders for the Chicago Fire for the past three years.  We had wonderful seats in section 125 - row 1.  We had great neighbors.  I used to joke that these were life time seats - seats that you would never want to get rid of.  But then the economy happened.  Those seats weren't the most expensive, but they weren't cheep either.  For the past four months I had been trying to figure out what to do.  Do we suck it up?  Do we go to half season?  Do we move?  Oh what to do.

Cindy and I finally sat down to talk about it earlier this week.  Although finances were an issue, Cindy brought up another - her knee.  For the past two years Cindy's knee has been causing her issues.  She had seen a Doctor but he didn't offer a lot of help.  The issue with her knee is simple - stairs are hard and painful.  She takes the elevator up to the top of Toyota Park, but she still need to take the stairs down to our seats.  Last year our ticket reps were wonderful - they would get someone to help her usually taking her through the locker room.  With the layoffs of our reps, we weren't sure of the same service (we were actually worried at one point that we were the reason for their layoff's because of the help they have given us.)  Cindy wanted to move up.  And that is where the solution came.

For years we have been supporting Section 8.  We gave money, baked cookies, went on a road trip or two, wrote letters to the FO when there were issues, even participated in the protest at the DC united game a few years ago.  What if we moved to Section 8?  Wouldn't that be really supporting Section 8 and the team.  Cindy reminded me that it was Section 8 that got her interested in the Fire - not the game on the field.  Perhaps this could be a solution.  Cindy and I could stay up top, the kids could go down low.  Cindy could even sit by Ben Burton's mom if her knee was bothering her.  Plus the tickets are about a third of what our seats were.  But what would the kids think?  No more "hi-fives" to the players - would they mind?  I pulled the kids together and asked them what they wanted to do and they all want to move - they were actually excited about it (even Nathan!).

So here we are - new members of Section 8.  This should be an interesting year.  I usually stand with them a couple of times a year and quickly remember that I am no longer 21.  So, between now and opening day in March, I think I'm going to need to get into shape so that I can last the entire 90 minutes.  This will definitely be an interesting year.

Happy New Year

It's been a while since this blog was active and I think it is time to kick it off again.  2011 looks like an interesting time for the Chicago Fire and there will be a lot of questions to be answered.  Is this a rebuilding year?  Does Carlos de los Cobos know what he is doing?  Can Nery Castillo regain the form of his past or is he a bust?  Can Frank Klopas put a team together in the next two months?  Only time will tell.

It's my goal to be more active this year in posting.  Will I do it?  Only time will tell.....

Happy New Year!

06.29.2010 - Fire V. Charleston Battery (US Open Cup) 0:0 (0:3 Pens)

Soccer is a funny game.  It does something to you.  I don’t fully understand why, but it does.   I grew up like every other American boy in the 1970’s. I had never heard of soccer.  There were only four sports – baseball, football, basketball and hockey (I grew up in Chicago – elsewhere in America, there were probably only three).  I don’t remember ever playing soccer as a kid.  It was not offered in school (either in gym class or as an organized activity) and there were no youth soccer teams to join.  I recall once, as a young boy (about four or five years old), attempting to teach my friends this new game that I invented - you kicked a ball around the yard and you could not use your hands – quite a revolutionary idea at the time.  I had yet to invent the concept of a goal, so the game did not catch on.  Perhaps there was something there, in my childhood, which would give a slight view to what was to come.

In the late 70’s I was introduced to the Chicago Sting – Chicago’s NASL soccer team.  History tells us that the NASL was an amazing league with some of the games all time greats playing in it.  I knew nothing about that.  My friends and I looked at soccer as a game that only losers played (that was not the term that we used, but I’m trying to be politically correct!)  The only exception was the year that the Sting won the championship – then like all good Chicagoan’s, I turned into a bandwagon jumper and became a Sting fan.  The next year the league folded, the team went indoors, and I returned to my original distaste for all things soccer.

In 1994 all that would change.  The World Cup came to America and I was intrigued by it.  I watched some of the games and began to get hooked.  I don’t remember anything of the tournament – other then having a McDonalds’ World Cup hat on my desk at work and being fascinated by the game.  Later that year my friend Dave mentioned that there was going to be a professional league stated in the US sometime soon.  We agreed that if a team would come to Chicago, we would get season tickets.  The league started in 1996, a team came to Chicago in 1998, but we moved to Atlanta in 1997 – so no season tickets.

Atlanta was located in the middle of College Football country – the home of the SEC – so getting any information on soccer was next to impossible.  I knew the Fire existed, but little or no news ever came down south.  We moved back to Chicago in 2003 and it took me four years to convince my wife to go to a game.  By then I was following the Fire on the internet and starting to follow other international teams (a story for another day).  That game changed everything and today the promise that I made in 1994 has been fulfilled – I am a season ticket holder (Dave is not).

I was thinking about this tonight as I was leaving Toyota Park.  Once again, the Fire lost to an inferior team by penalty kicks and find themselves out of a tournament for the third time in twelve months.  I left the park feeling extremely down and emotionally drained – the same way I felt after the USA World Cup loss on Saturday.  The odd thing about this is that I have never had feelings like this when the other teams I supported lost.  I did not feel this way when the Bears would loose in the playoffs.  I did not feel this way in 1993 when the White Sox lost in the playoff or in 1994 when the Bulls lost.  No other sport does this to me.  I’ve heard of people in other countries that get this upset about soccer, but I did not grow up in a culture that develops that kind of emotional attachment to a team (remember, this is Chicago – the home of the lovable losers)  Yet when Newcastle was demoted last year, I went into a funk for weeks.  This is for a team that I have never seen play live – in a country that I have never visited!  It must be something about the game.

One of my favorite books is by Nick Hornby called Fever Pitch.  In it Nick writes an autobiography of his life through the lens of soccer (football to him) and his team, Arsenal.  I thought of this book as I was walking up the stairs from my seat after tonight’s game.  At the top of our section was my friend Sean and I said to him “Same old Fire” – a take off of the saying that Arsenal supporters sometime say – “Same old Arsenal”.   I thought about how odd this game truly is and what it does to you. 

I’m going to borrow Nick Hornby’s format and use it to look at life through the lens of soccer – or at least my experiences in life.  All of the post from here on in will be broken down by a game that I have attended, coached, or watched on TV.  Don’t look for highlights or analysis of the game – that will be elsewhere.  Instead, look for a general commentary on life – at least my life.

Like I started with, it’s a funny game.  This is to be the chronicle of what it does to me.  Enjoy it at your own risk.

Fire hire a new coach

Well the Fire finally got around today to hiring a new coach.  Although I don't know a lot about him, I am glad that the club was willing to think out of the box.  For some reason it seems like the "safe" thing to do is to go and find someone with "American" soccer experience.  I realize that the past history has been poor for non-MLS experienced managers, but I believe that it is important for both the MLS and soccer in the US to bring in new coaching ideas and techniques from around the world.  For a good argument for this, see Simon Kuper new book Soccernomics (excellent read).

My take on this hire is simple.  Although "tradition" is an important pillar to the Fire, hireing baised on tradition alone can create a one dimentional team.  I apreatiate all that the other candidate have given to this team in the past, but it is time to shake things up.  The most important tradion that we need to follow is winning.  Over the past few years our tradition has been extreamly defensive - and that tradion has not won us any tropheys.  All of the "traditional" canidates would understand the Fire culture, but would probably have us locked into the same mediacorty that we have expreienced over the last few years.  Carlos de los Cobos may be an unknown to American soccer, but he should bring a fresh look to this team.  Only time will tell if that brings us any trophies, but I think its a risk worth taking.

I'm feeling much more optimistic this time around then I did when Denis got the job.  Denis seemed to be our last choice.  Carlos seems to be the first choice.  Assuming that Frank and Carlos can build a strong partnership, I think the future of this team looks bright.