Update on American Soccer Road Trip
Despite the relative lack of updates recently, I have been working hard on future posts for the site. My idea to make my cross-country trip from Washington, DC (where I live now) to San Diego (where I’ll be starting graduate school next month) into an American Soccer Road Trip has just about become reality and I want to update you on what to expect.
My route, more or less. Click here for a more detailed map.
I’ve decided to try to focus my trip on the diversity that exists within American soccer. Many people think only suburban kids play the sport in the US. While that is one soccer-playing demographic, it is far from the only one. I’m hoping that my trip will show some of the wide range of people involved in soccer in the US. I’ll be starting my trip next Tuesday and it will include the following stories.
I met with Sports Illustrated’s soccer writer Grant Wahl this week and had an interesting conversation about diversity in American soccer. I will write up the most interesting parts of our discussion and have it up this weekend or early next week.
I recently did an interview with DC United’s forward Nicholas Addlery. The Jamaican, who signed with DC this season, previously played for a year in Vietnam and I will be interviewing him about his time playing and living in that country.
Nicholas Addlery (photo: DC United / MLS)
The first stop outside of the DC area will be in Columbus, where I’m fairly sure I will get to interview the Crew’s Argentine star Guillermo Barros Schelotto. I’m planning to talk with him about cultural differences between Argentine and American soccer.
I will then be heading to Earlham College, a very small school in Richmond, Indiana (it’s also my alma mater). While there, I will talk with Roy Messer, the coach of over 25 years, about the college game and how it has changed in the time he’s been involved with it.
Next it will be up to Chicago, where I’m hoping to speak with the announcers at WNVR, a Polish-language radio station that broadcasts Chicago Fire matches to the large Polish community in that city.
Then I’ll head down to St. Louis, where I’ll speak with some people involved with the long history of soccer in that city. I’m hoping that it might involve a member of the 1950 World Cup team that beat England.
I won’t actually be in Kansas City, but I will be doing a phone interview with current Wizards technical director Peter Vermes. I will be talking with Vermes about the year he spent playing for Hungarian team Raba ETO while that country was still communist.
Peter Vermes (photo: sporting-heroes.net)
West-ward I will continue, to Wichita, Kansas where I will be checking out a high school soccer tournament involving the team profiled in journalist Sam Quinones’s new book, Antonio’s Gun and Delfino’s Dream: True Tales of Mexican Migration. I will be speaking with the coach and some members of the team about what it’s like to be an almost exclusively Latino team in a tournament with mostly white opponents. I will then return to Garden City, Kansas, where the team is from, and I’m hoping to speak with some people there about the local adult soccer league for Latinos that has sprung up with increased immigration to the area.
My final stop will be in Denver, where I’ll be interviewing Kosuke Kimura, the only Japanese player in MLS. I will be speaking with him about cultural differences between American and Japanese soccer.
Kosuke Kimura (photo: Colorado Rapids / MLS)
I’m not sure if I will be able to post all of these interviews and stories in the week or so I’ll be covering them. My plan is to put as much up as I can but it may be that I post half of the stories while on the road and the other half after I arrive in San Diego.Also, I will be spending a week after I leave Denver doing the camping thing in the Southwest so there will be no updates then on my road trip (I kind of doubt there’s wireless at the Grand Canyon, not that I would want to be on a computer while there anyway).
I’m really looking forward to doing this American Soccer Road Trip (it’ll sure be better than just lead-footing it straight to San Diego) and I hope you enjoy reading what I write.
If you are anywhere along the route that I’ve mentioned and want to get together for a beer, coffee, etc. drop me a line: david [at] cultureofsoccer [dot] com.
August 24th, 2007 15:04
Have a safe and enjoyable journey. Can’t wait to read your tales. What year did you graduate from Earlham? My friend played keeper there in the early 90s.
August 24th, 2007 15:16
I graduated in 2002 so probably don’t know your friend. But Roy, the coach, surely does. What’s his name?
August 24th, 2007 17:40
Look foward to reading about your travels.
August 24th, 2007 20:38
This blogger failed to mention that while in Chicago he will also be hand delivering 90 jars of Cunningham Farms Gourmet Sweet Potato Butter to the Chairman of ShoreBank Coporation…who knows about soccer.
Thanks mate!!
August 24th, 2007 20:39
Sounds great. You know, one of the reasons why this is the beautiful game is because it is the one truly global game, and when you tell the stories of football, you tell the stories of the world. Beauty in diversity, that’s football for you.
August 24th, 2007 23:18
That sounds like an awesome trip. I’m excited to read whatever posts you manage to write about experiencing soccer at different levels in the US.
As a Californian (live in San Diego!), I’m curious about the way the game is seen in the Midwest. In Los Angeles, where I was raised, soccer is just part of life, or at least it makes its presence known.
August 25th, 2007 01:46
I look forward to reading your posts. Please take great notes and don’t forget to snap pictures along the way. When my wife and I made the drive from NYC to San Diego, we had good intentions of taking pictures, but were too caught up in the scenery (and sometimes, the monotony) to remember.
When you get settled in San Diego, please send me an email. My wife and I would like to take you out to dinner and hear more about your American Soccer Adventure.
Matt
August 25th, 2007 17:27
you should come and stop in Salt Lake, there’s a lot of diversity. one high school team has all rich white kids but and some have all mexican americans, and a bunch are in the middle. the large mexican population and the large white minority meet most at soccer games.theres another divide with the church. a lot of players are members of the lds church and about half aren’t.
August 25th, 2007 17:37
Trvr – I’d love to stop in Salt Lake, but it’s a bit out of my way considering I want to do the whole outdoors thing in Southern Utah and the Grand Canyon. Perhaps I’ll come there some time in the future, though.
August 25th, 2007 18:58
[...] This is the first part of my American Soccer Road Trip, which will involve me traveling across the country, finding stories that exemplify the diversity [...]
August 27th, 2007 10:01
[...] This is the second part of my American Soccer Road Trip, which will involve me traveling across the country, finding stories that exemplify the diversity [...]
August 29th, 2007 22:05
[...] set off on my American Soccer Road Trip yesterday. I’m on my way to San Diego in a completely stuff Honda Civic and with a Watford [...]
August 30th, 2007 08:06
[...] books, I’ll be offering a series of Where’s David? challenges during my American Soccer Road Trip. Take a look at the picture below and see if you can guess where I [...]
August 30th, 2007 12:00
Sounds like an awesome trip and a great way to chronicle it. Enjoy. Are you going to attend a Rapids game in Denver? We have a killer tailgate.
August 30th, 2007 13:10
[...] This is the third part of my American Soccer Road Trip, which will involve me traveling across the country, finding stories that exemplify the diversity [...]
September 3rd, 2007 00:12
[...] This is the fourth part of my American Soccer Road Trip, which will involve me traveling across the country, finding stories that exemplify the diversity [...]
September 4th, 2007 08:35
[...] This is the fifth part of my American Soccer Road Trip, which will involve me traveling across the country, finding stories that exemplify the diversity [...]
September 17th, 2007 07:04
[...] This is the sixth part of my American Soccer Road Trip, which will involve me traveling across the country, finding stories that exemplify the diversity [...]
September 21st, 2007 17:28
[...] This is the seventh part of my American Soccer Road Trip, which will involve me traveling across the country, finding stories that exemplify the diversity [...]
September 24th, 2007 14:09
Read your ‘article’ in the Christian Science Monitor and it led me to your page. I hope that you are managing to play some pick up most places you stop. The older I get the more I enjoy the pick up games over the league games. It’s somehow more fluid in form and make-up. Pick-up also signals what new ethnic groups are moving into the area and each one brings it’s own style to throw into the melting pot.
September 26th, 2007 06:57
[...] This is the ninth and final part of my American Soccer Road Trip, which will involve me traveling across the country, finding stories that exemplify the diversity [...]