In 2008, I featured a piece on siblings Alexis and Amber Hernandez. Mexican-Americans who have grown up in the Central Valley of California, they had at the time both recently been called up to play for Mexico’s U-17s. Today, I return to this story by focusing on the club which helped them to develop. The South Valley Chivas Academy in Porterville, California has, for the past several years, been developing young players against tremendous odds, including poverty, isolation, and cultural differences. Yet despite these challenges, the academy has succeeded in developing several promising young players, including Amber and Alexis, and become an official academy for Mexican powerhouse Chivas.

The academy formed as part of Chivas’s sangre nueva (new blood) effort to develop young talent. While at a player identification try-out in 2005 for young players that Chivas Guadalajara put on in San Bernardino (it drew 15,000 players and showed the top brass in Mexico that there was the potential for a US-based team; later that year Chivas USA was founded), Alexis was identified by then scout Dennis te Kloese. Esmaldo and Gilbert kept in contact with te Kloese and when Chivas decided to establish actual affiliated academies in the United States, South Valley Chivas become the second one.

Photo: South Valley Chivas Academy

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Two encounters with foreign fans inspired Los Angeles-based filmmaker Pablo Miralles’s current project, the documentary film about the US-Mexico soccer rivalry called Gringos at the Gate. The first came at the 2006 World Cup in Germany, where he was on assignment for Los Angeles television stations. An English fan he was interviewing said to him, “You know what I’m most scared of? I’m scared that Americans will actually start caring about this sport.” The thought of this clearly spooked the (slightly inebriated) English fan, who proceeded to start crying. Which led Pablo Miralles to wonder: What was it that would lead a fan halfway across the world to shed tears over the possibility that the US would become a soccer power?

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River Plate’s young midfielder Diego Buanotte is currently in the hospital, recovering from injuries he suffered in a car accident in which he was involved on December 26. Buanotte was lucky; three friends traveling with him in the car were killed. Buanotte’s father told the media that, in addition to fearing for his son’s physical health, he worries that about psychological trauma that young Diego will likely face.

Diego Buanotte’s car after the accident (photo: Olé)

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When England recently announced the potential host cities that will host games if that country is awarded the 2018 World Cup, one stood out: Milton Keynes. The MK Stadium that would host games is home to MK Dons, among the most controversial teams in England. MK Dons are controversial, of course, because they are the first “franchise” club in that country. As Tom Dunmore has chronicled extensively at Pitch Invasion, the club formerly known as Wimbledon FC was taken over, moved from London to Milton Keynes, and attempted to claim the club’s long history (ultimately unsuccessfully). What makes MK Dons – and thus the potential staging of World Cup games at its stadium – so controversial is the novelty of its history. It is the only team to have broken the longstanding connection between clubs and the community in which they grew up. Indeed, this connection is part of what gives many clubs in Europe their unique character (think, for instance, of Barcelona’s Catalan identity). So strong is the connection that Premier League trial balloons about the possibility of staging 39^th games around the globe were shot down by outraged fans, incensed that clubs were putting profit over everything else.

The Football Supporters’ Federation protest sign against the 39th game (photo: Football Supporters’ Federation)

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What is American soccer culture? Ask that question to 100 people and you may very well receive 100 different responses. People’s perception of American soccer culture depends entirely on where they are coming from. Soccer moms, for instance, have very different perceptions of soccer culture in this country than do immigrants recently arrived here. Yet despite the obvious level of diversity among Americans involved with the sport, many observers ignore this variety and attempt to make proclamations about a single monolithic entity called “American soccer culture.”

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A lot happened in the time I was gone, including the rise of Twitter. In an effort to keep up with the times, I have established a Culture of Soccer twitter account. I think I’ll mostly use it to post articles of interest to me, but am open to suggestions about how to use this new-fangled tool. Hope you enjoy!