Below are some photos that I took of two games between African League teams. I was told that the games were friendlies and that the league itself will start next weekend. I will be returning to the league to do features on several of the teams. Check back soon for that!

Game #1

Dharee Oromo, the Ethiopian team

San Diego United, the Somali Bantu team

Game #2

Black Lions, the Southern Sudanese team

Africa United, a team with an accurate name (its players are from Congo, Nigeria, Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan, Burundi, Cameroon, along with two Mexican-Americans)

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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

While it might seem odd that a club based in Guadalajara, Mexico would seek a partnership with a youth club in California’s Central Valley, it makes sense when one considers the history of Mexican migration to that area to work in its expansive agricultural fields. Esmaldo Hernandez estimates that around 75% of the players in the academy are Mexican or Mexican-American. The Hernandez brothers estimate that half of the players in the academy are children of farmworkers, which creates many challenges. Although they try to keep the costs low, the $35 monthly fee is too much for many. Gilbert and Esmaldo do fundraising in the community and even chip in their own money to help players, half of whom receive scholarships, to be part of South Valley Chivas.

The location of the academy also proves a formidable challenge. Located in the small town of Porterville (population 30,000) in Tulare County (the poorest in California) in the middle of the Central Valley, well known for agriculture, which has fields that stretch as far as the eye can see. Yet these are agricultural, not soccer, fields, and finding opponents often involves a long drive. The nearest serious competition is 75 miles away in Fresno; Los Angeles is 3 hours away. Chivas USA has invited players from the academy to come to events in LA, but when Esmaldo has told parents about the opportunity, some have expressed reluctance because they can’t afford to take their kids. “They say, ‘I can’t go, I have to work.’ And it’s not just one or two. Pretty soon, you need a bus load because it’s 20 kids who can’t afford it.”

Farmworkers in Tulare County (photo: Humboldt Magazine)

Getting to games is a challenge for the academy’s teams, and as a result it is often difficult to get their players noticed by scouts and coaches from professional and college teams. Players who Chivas USA might be interested in having join their academy can’t spend the time or money to take the three times a week trip to LA. Chivas Guadalajara has shown interest in some players as well (and indeed some have gone to play with their youth teams for tournaments like Copa Chivas), but for many parents, especially those who don’t have papers to be in the US, the idea of sending their kid to Mexico to join that team’s youth academy is off-putting. “What good is it going to do to have my son over there [in Mexico],” Esmaldo has heard several say, “if I can’t even leave the country?”

In addition, the move by US Soccer to establish a development academy system in 2007 has, ironically, marginalized clubs like the South Valley Chivas Academy that are not a part of it. While the academy almost made the cut, it was not one of the select group of clubs chosen and thus does not receive the support and scouting that those within the system do. When informed of this decision, Gilbert was disappointed, but told US Soccer, “it’s a good thing what you’re doing with the academy system, but for us, what you’re doing is just making it that much harder for some of these kids to be looked at.” He insists: “There is talent here. There’s just not the funding to do anything with these kids.”

Being Mexican-American helps Esmaldo and Gilbert Hernandez connect to academy players as well as their families. But there are some areas in which cultural differences make it a challenge for them to achieve the academy’s goals. 75% of players on the boys teams, for example, are Latinos while only 25% of players on the girls teams are Latinas. Little by little, Esmaldo says, they are seeing changing gender norms that are allowing more Latinas to play. “But still,” he says, “you’ve got old Mexican customs that girls aren’t supposed to play soccer.”

South Valley Chivas girls 1998 team (photo: South Valley Chivas Academy)

In addition, while Gilbert tries to help players to do everything necessary in order to ensure they are eligible to play at the college level (in his day job, he works for the local schools), he often has to fight against cultural norms, including the desire of parents as well as their children to keep family members close by. “For many, it’s like they are still living in Mexico,” says Gilbert. For them, the idea of going several hours or farther to play college soccer can be a tough sell. In some cases, talented players end up getting lured to play in local unaffiliated leagues made up primarily of Latino players. Gilbert and Esmaldo say that the success Alexis and Amber have had has shown some the possibilities that are out there, but it continues to be a tough slog.

The Hernandez brothers say they continue to do the work to support the academy because they want to see youngsters from the community (where they both grew up) succeed. Although they face many obstacles, they hope to see their hard work bear fruit. With half a dozen of their current U18 team being looked at by college coaches and some having interested pro teams in Mexico, their efforts appear to be paying off. The poverty and remoteness in the Central Valley may be obstacles, but South Valley Chivas is helping to overcome them in order to develop talented players. “If you have talent, someone needs to look at you,” says Esmaldo. “Talent is talent, no matter who you are.”

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The concept for the film became crystallized in November of 2008, during qualification for this summer’s World Cup. Miralles was talking with some Mexican friends of his and suggested that, based on form at the time, it was possible that the US could beat Mexico in the Azteca. Their shocked response, he says, showed him that “there is something really deep and important here.” He wondered to himself how a victory over their fiercest rivals could mean something so different to fans on either side of the Rio Grande. “Why is that different for an American fan, who might say, ‘that would be cool!’ versus a Mexican fan, who would describe the same result as ‘catastrophic’?”

Miralles got in touch with two old UCLA film school classmates of his, Mike Whalen, based in Santa Clara, andRoberto Donati, in Mexico. Together, they have been working for nearly two years to make their vision reality. Gringos at the Gate, as the in-progress trailer shows, explores what soccer means to citizens of the two North American neighbors, especially in light of the US teams dramatic improvement in recent years.

The scope of the project has expanded as the filmmakers have worked on it. At various points, they have wanted to finish filming, but opportunities to interview important people have come up, and they have continued to shoot. “The thing with documentaries is that they keep going and going and going,” says Miralles. He says they have ten interviews left and intend to wrap up shooting in the next couple of months.

Asked what the main message he has taken so far, Miralles answers in two parts. For the United States, he refers me to an interview Bruce McGuire of DuNord did with This is American Soccer. McGuire told Adam Spangler: “I’ve told people for years that soccer in America is like a glacier. It’s moving slow, and most people can’t see it, but there is no stopping it. And it’s going to destroy everything (laughing) in its path eventually. It might take 1000 years, but it’s going to do it.” Miralles says he concurs with McGuire, noting that making this film has “made me very optimistic about the future of soccer in the United States. There are so many diverse people who are so interested in the sport. It goes deeper than I ever imagined.” The growth in of knowledge and sophistication among US fans in recent years has amazed Miralles. As an example, Miralles told me about wearing a retro Johann Cruyff LA Aztecs jersey to last summer’s LA Galaxy vs. Barcelona friendly and having fans come up to him saying, “Oh, that’s so smart because Cruyff played for both teams!”

Johann Cruyff LA Aztecs jersey (photo: Toffs)

Mexico, on the other is a country that Miralles describes as a “classic soccer culture.” Given the predominance of soccer in the Mexican sporting landscape, so much of many Mexicans’ identity comes to be tied up in the performance of the Tricolor. Though soccer may seem to be unrelated to more “serious” matters, Miralles believes it is intimately tied up with national identity and self-esteem. He quotes Mexican commentator, who says that soccer is “the most important of things that have no importance.” This importance is especially acute because Mexico has “the misfortune to be next to the richest, most powerful country in the world,” and much of the film documents how Mexicans have dealt with the fact that their rich, powerful neighbor has started to care about, and often beat them in, the one thing in which they always had an advantage: soccer.

The Mexican collaborator on the film, Roberto Donati is also a psychologist, and Miralles told me that he has said that if the two countries were individual people, he would describe Mexico’s feeling of inferiority toward the US as a “psychosis.” Losing to the US, then, takes on far more importance than a loss to any other opponent. The rivalry, Miralles says, “is much more intense for a Mexican than an American could ever understand.”

Mexico and the US today are tied even more intensely than ever through immigration. With millions of Mexicans and Mexican-Americans in the US, the question arises of whom these fans choose to support. Miralles notes a game played in the Rose Bowl in 1994 (leading up to that year’s World Cup) in front of 80,000 produced images of mostly Mexican fans that led many in the national media to take note. In an interview, Gustavo Arellano, satirical writer of Ask a Mexican fame, told Miralles that it was on that day that people said, “Holy shit there are a lot of Mexicans in our country!” and it spurred talk of increased border enforcement (legislation was enacted in 1996).

Mexico fans at the 2009 Gold Cup final in New York (photo:  Every Joe / Newscom)

It’s not surprising, Miralles told me, that children of immigrants, many of whom, he notes, grow up in households dominated by Mexican culture, would come to support Mexico. However, the US victory over Mexico in the 2002 World Cup marked a turning point, “the beginning of the cracking of solidarity” among Mexican-American fans. It was then, when the US beat Mexico on the biggest stage of all that many Mexican-Americans really took notice of the Americans as a power, and many started to see them as a team worthy of supporting. This trend has persisted, Miralles believes, and as the US continues to improve, its support from second and later generation Mexican-Americans will grow.

Although he continues to find interesting people to talk with and stories to tell, Miralles says he and his collaborators are hoping to finish what will be a 95-minute movie by the summer. They hope to have a release right after the World Cup in order to take advantage of the excitement the tournament will generate. It is a project that Miralles has poured his heart and soul into despite the fact that it is only a side project on top of his regular work in television and film. He has also opened his wallet to make his dream reality – he has funded much of it himself with the hope that it might get picked up by a distributor after completion. What would his greatest hope be for the film, I ask. “I have a fantasy that it is such a mind-blowing film that we take it to Sundance and it wins audience favorite. And then of course HBO Films picks it up, it does a cable run …” He trails off, smiling, aware that it is, after all just a fantasy for what is still, despite the growth of soccer in the United States, an esoteric topic. No matter what happens, Miralles says he has been happy to be involved in making the film.  “It’s been very enlightening – and fun!”

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

Buanotte is far from the only young soccer player to be involved in a serious car accident. Young American forward Charlie Davies is currently recovering from injuries he sustained in an October crash in which he was a passenger. Like Buanotte, Davies was lucky, as a friend of his died in the accident. Davies is recovering and hasshown signs of progress recently.

Buanotte and Davies were both seriously injured in crashes, but other players who have been involved in accidents have – often incredibly – escaped unharmed. Such is the case of Real Madrid and France forward Karim Benzema, who was involved in a crash the day after Christmas. Benzema smashed up his yellow Lamborghini in a crash with a Porsche. Incredibly, this was the second accident in which the young Frenchman has been involved in the past two months. He also managed to smash his car into a tree on his way home in November. Incredibly, he walked away from both accidents unscathed.

Benzema’s teammate Cristiano Ronaldo was also incredibly lucky to escape without serious injury after crashing his Ferrari into the wall of a tunnel in Manchester nearly a year ago. Images afterward showed a smashed-up car but Ronaldo was still as pretty as ever.

The results of the Ronaldo crash (photo: BBC/PA)

Former Dutch international Patrick Kluivert is another player to be involved in a serious car accident. In 1995, while a young Ajax star-in-the-making, Kluivert plowed his car into Marten Putman and killed the Amsterdam man. Kluivert was eventually charged with manslaughter, though he never served time in prison. Kluivert said later that the incident shook him deeply. He said, “Something inside me is broken. I can never be fully happy again. Before the accident, I was sometimes reckless, but that is normal for my age. Now, in one moment, it is gone. The child in me has been killed. Only when I am on the field can I be myself [and] feel completely free.”

Kluivert’s words indicate one reason why players are often involved in car accidents. Young, famous, and wealthy, they see themselves as invincible, and often act recklessly. Some, like Benzema and Ronaldo, escape without serious injury; others, like Buanotte, Davies, and Kluivert cause serious injury to themselves and to others.

What is the effect of such accidents on the players themselves? For Kluivert, it may have been one of the main reasons why the player who looked a worldbeater at age 18 never replicated that form later in his career. Kluivert floundered at teams throughout Europe before calling time on his career recently. What will become of Diego Buanotte and Charlie Davies? Both face a long road back to full physical and psychological health. They will need tremendous strength to overcome the trauma of serous car accidents and live out the potential both young players have shown on the field.

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

The strength of connection between teams and their place of origin may come as a bit of a surprise to American fans. Professional sports in the US became “franchised” so early on that Americans learned quickly that no club was too closely tied to its home to avoid being moved if its owner saw fit. Baseball’s Brooklyn Dodgers fans were heartbroken in 1957 when owner Walter O’Malley took the team 3000 miles west to its new home in Los Angeles. The same fate befell the American football Baltimore Colts, whose owner moved the team to Indianapolis in the middle of a snowy 1984 night. While I don’t want to deny the often strong connection between American sports teams and their homes (Red Sox nation, hold your fire), we in the US have seen teams ripped from one place and moved to another often enough to become quite cynical about the connection between clubs and their homes. Professional sports in the US are, and long have been, as much about business as anything else.

This is not the case in much of Europe, where clubs, from their beginnings, came to be strongly associated with the place from which they sprang. The late rise of professionalism in the UK, in particular, meant that clubs’ players often came from the local community and lived in it the same as any other member. Clubs’ identities came to be closely tied to those of the local community, and separating the club from its community was largely seen as a non-starter (that said, Arsenal’s move from South to North London in 1913 is a huge exception). Indeed, clubs more often served to incorporate arriving immigrants into their new communities. Many Irish men in Glasgow found a home at Celtic, for instance, just as many migrants from southern Spain found a home at Barcelona FC. One recent migrant, Eseteban, told the website The Travel Rag: “When I came here from Andalusia one of the ways I was able to feel part of the city and part of Catalonia was to support Barça. It was hard being a migrant but the club gives you an identity. Now I feel Catalan and I’m proud to live in Barcelona.”

If club teams are closely tied to their homes, one might imagine national teams would be even more so. It can be argued that especially in these times of increased globalization, sports are one of the few arenas in which people can continue to feel a strong connection to their countries. But in the 21^st century, the connection between nations and their national teams is changing dramatically. The bond between national teams and the nations from which they come is, in many cases, no longer as strong as it once was.

At the conclusion of World Cup qualifying last month, Tim Vickery noted that many South American fans must now wait a long time before they will see their teams play at home. Vickery points out that a “gentleman’s agreement” means that European clubs release their players for friendlies as long as these matches are played in Europe. Having the chance to gather their best players is one reason that many national teams play matches outside of their home countries, but it is far from the only one. Often just as important is the chance to make money. When Brazil played England in recent friendly, the game did not take place in London or Rio de Janeiro. It was played instead in Doha, Qatar. Brazil has outsourced the scheduling of its friendly matches to Swiss company Kentaro, leading the seleçao jetting off in recent years to destinations such as Chicago, Boston, Seattle, Dortmund, Montpellier, Dublin and London. Brazil has clearly capitalized on its global appeal, though it is an interesting question to wonder how Brazil’s image may change it the team never plays in Brazil.

Brazil vs. England in Qatar (photo: Who Ate All the Pies)

Other countries have played abroad in the hopes of improving their national teams. This is the approach that New Zealand has employed in recent years, as Colin Peacock outlined on a recent Football Weekly podcast after that country qualified for the World Cup: “They decided: look, no one ever comes to New Zealand to play so we will assemble our team of journeymen from the second tiers of various leagues across the world and Ryan Nelsen if he can make it and play a few games across Europe. They absolutely targeted this opportunity and now they’ve done it.”

While the examples given so far all involve distancing national teams from their fans, there is also an interesting trend of teams going to places where migrants have settled. Mexico is perhaps the best example of this. The Mexican national team often takes advantage of the millions of Mexicans and Mexican-Americans in the United States and plays friendlies north of the border. A look at recent results shows Mexico lining up against Peru, Colombia, and Argentina on American soil, not to mention regular friendlies against the United States itself, all of which sell out huge stadiums. The appeal of playing its games abroad for the Mexican federation is two-fold: it gives Mexican fans abroad the chance to see their team play while giving the federation the opportunity to rake in huge sums of money. Indeed, this combination leads many countries with immigrant populations in the United States to stage matches here (see, for example, a recent friendly between Honduras and Peru played in Florida).

Sports are about creating community, as Simon Kuper has pointed out recently. He quotes Michael Oriard, who writes in his new book about college (American) football, that “a college football game at Michigan or Alabama, with its bands and cheerleaders, its pre-game tailgating, and its postgame partying, is something like a folk festival providing a sense of community, meaningful ritual, and sheer pleasure for millions of Americans each weekend in the fall.” Yet what happens when those games occur far from the place from which the team springs? Increased ease of communication and travel, key features of the contemporary wave of globalization, are changing the connection between soccer teams and the places from which they come. While the strong connection that many European clubs have to their place of origin has made moves such as that of MK Dons the exception to the rule, national teams throughout the world are increasingly playing matches wherever they can top-quality opponents, émigré fans or oodles of cash. Ironically, the national teams, whose existence is in part predicated on their connection to specific places, are coming to be less and less tied to their homeland than are club teams.

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Any list of soccer meccas in the United States would have to include Nevada Smith’s. The bar, located on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, has bringing in the soccer faithful of New York since 1994. Today, on any given weekend day, the bar shows games from morning till night. Matches from England, Germany, Spain, France, Italy, the United States and beyond (catering to a group of supporters of SK Brann, Nevada Smith’s even shows Norwegian league) fill the bar’s many televisions spread over two floors. Weekends are “a constant coming and going of people,” Nevada Smith’s owner Jack Keane told me recently. “On a busy Saturday, there’s no doubt that we have between 2000 and 3000 fans that come through the doors.”

Fans at Nevada Smith’s (photo: New York Daily News)

Keane, a jovial Irishman has been running the bar for 15 years. He recalls the days in the mid-1990s when he could only get one game a day from the Premier League to show in the bar. German and Italian games became available around that time too and he would show them as well. But it was really with the advent of Fox Soccer Channel (then known as Fox Sports World) in 1997 that the number of games he could show exploded. As the number of games shown at Nevada Smith’s increased, so too did its clientele.

Looking back on 15 years in business, Keane points to the 2002 World Cup as a turning point for his bar. “If there ever a time that we really captured something,” he says, “it was during that tournament.” With games kicking off at 2:00 AM, 5:00 AM, and 7:00 AM, it was not ideal for New York audiences. “A lot of bars felt there was no business to be done during Korea/Japan. I had the opposite attitude. I thought it was going to be the biggest party of all time, and I was right.” Indeed, fans packed the bar throughout the month of the tournament.

One reason that Nevada Smith’s has had sustained success is because it has become a meeting place for supporters clubs of various European teams. Most notable are those for English teams, many of which have supporters clubs at the bar. These clubs are often made up of expats living in New York for a time, some of whom have told Keane how important they are to them. “There is absolutely no doubt that the pride in which they take in gathering under their club banners. Many of them over the years have said to me that coming here is the most important part of their week. I’ve heard that story many, many times.”

The New York Gooners at Nevada Smith’s (photo: flickr/Jonathan_Hawkins)

British clubs are not the only ones to have supporters clubs at Nevada Smith’s. There are clubs that support teams from across Europe, and those clubs have often received favorable responses when they have contacted the European teams. Keane told me, “We’ve had lads in here who have made contact with the clubs in Europe and have gotten immediate response. I remember the Barcelona peña was formed 6 years ago. Within 2 years, Joan Laporta was here in the bar. Laporta has visited the bar twice this year.”

While many European expats make up the membership of the supporters clubs, their ranks are filled by many Americans as well. This mirrors a shift in the clientele at Nevada Smith’s, which has gone from 90% expats to a 50/50 split between expats and American fans. Keane notes that several clubs, especially Arsenal’s, have a high percentage of Americans. Wherever they come from, members of the supporters clubs who congregate at Nevada Smith’s often go on to become close friends. “People who met in here under football banners absolutely have become friends outside our walls,” Keane says. “There has been friendships born here that have been life-long for a lot of these lads.”

In his 15 years running Nevada Smith’s, Jack Keane has seen many changes in the American soccer scene. He notes the tremendous growth in interest in the game in the US, and is particularly impressed with the knowledge that many American fans possess. “Soccer fans in this country are very knowledgeable. I’m always amazed. Let’s say they’re a fan of Arsenal. They also know what’s going on with other teams, they know what’s going on in Germany.” Of course, Keane notes, soccer fans in the US are a “tiny, tiny percentage” of the population. Despite this, he has been mystified that the American sports media has not put a larger emphasis on the game, and the national team in particular. “I’ve never understood why the media have not gotten behind the US national team. … They get little respect from the media in general. They could have a wonderful result earlier in the day and that night get little attention.”

But Keane sees things changing. ESPN in particular has changed its tune, doing what Keane calls a “360” on soccer. Keane sees the sport behemoth muscling in on rights to the English Premier League because, while the audience for soccer may be dwarfed by that for baseball, basketball, and American football, it is significant enough for the network to see value in catering to those fans. Indeed, ESPN executives need only take a trip to Nevada Smith’s on any given weekend to see proof of the passion that soccer in the United States can generate. But they had better go soon: Jack Keane says that Nevada Smith’s has nearly outgrown its current Lower East Side location. “We don’t expect to be at this location very much longer. We’re looking forward to expanding. We have a group of investors who want to take us nationwide.”

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This development is perhaps not all that surprising given that the United States is a nation of immigrants. Many of the players who have developed their skills in the US and played for other nations are children of immigrants. The most notable such example is Giuseppe Rossi. Born in Teaneck, New Jersey to Italian parents, Rossi traveled to his parents’ homeland at age 13 to begin playing for Parma. He would later sign for Manchester United before moving on to his current club, Villarreal. Intrigue surrounded Rossi, with American fans holding onto hope that he would choose to play internationally for the US despite his assertions that he wanted to represent Italy. His call-up for the Azzurri in October 2008 sealed his international fate (and, to rub salt in the wounds of American fans, he scored twice against the US in last summer’s Confederations Cup).

Other Americans born to immigrant parents to have played for other the national teams of other countries include Espen Baardsen, and Arturo Alvarez. Baardsen was a goalkeeper for Tottenham, Watford and Everton from the mid-1990s until he retired in 2003 (quoting the BBC: “American-born Norway international who retired aged 25 in 2003 after a spell with Everton, saying he had lost his passion for the game. Spent a year travelling the world and now works in London as a financial analyst for a hedge fund. His preferred reading is Milton Friedman and Immanuel Kant.”). Born in California to Norwegian parents, Baardsen played for youth national teams in the US before representing Norway at the senior level, despite the fact that he never lived in that country.

Espen Baardsen (photo: Spurs Odyssey)

Arturo Alvarez is a Salvadoran-American midfielder currently plying his trade for the San Jose Earthquakes in Major League Soccer. Born in Houston to Salvadoran parents, Alvarez played for the US at youth level, but chose to represent El Salvador at senior level. He took advantage of FIFA’s changed restrictions making it easier for players to represent a country at senior level even if they played for another country at youth level.

The Balkan wars of the 1990s spread people from the former Yugoslavia around the world (many of their children have gone on to become soccer stars), and the United States received many immigrants from these countries. Two players who passed through the US have since gone on to become major stars in Europe, and both chose to represent other countries rather than the Americans. Bosnian-born Vedad Ibisevic, striker for German feel-good club Hoffenheim, came with his family to St. Louis (a city that has received a huge number of Bosnian immigrants) and became a star high school player before going on to St. Louis University. He was then signed by Paris St. Germain, spending one season in the French capital before moving on to 2^nd division club Dijon. He moved across the border to Germany, playing one season for Alemannia Aachen before being signed by Hoffenheim. Ibisevic made his international debut for Bosnia in 2007, but he told the New York Times that he would have considered the US if he had heard from them. “I was happy in St. Louis, got a green card, but I never really heard from anyone from the U.S. national team. I would have considered it.”

Vedad Ibisevic (photo: bundesliga.de)

Like Ibisevic, Neven Subotic is the child of parents from the Balkans, in his case Serbian. The Subotics settled in the US in the late 1990s and Neven played for teams in Utah before being called up to the U-17 national team. He represented the US at that level as well as the U-20 level, but a falling out with coach Thomas Rongen led him to turn his back on the Americans and represent Serbia. He made his debut in March of 2009 and has amassed 7 caps since then.

These types of quandaries in which players eligible to represent multiple countries must choose between them are not, of course, unique to the United States (German international Kevin Kuranyi, for example, could also have represented Brazil and Panama). Increased flows of people across national boundaries in recent years are creating many novel problems to be dealt with throughout life, and soccer is merely one area in which these problems manifest themselves. That said, there have often been debates about players’ eligibility for various national teams, especially in the early 20^th century when European nations such as Italy and Spain made a habit of recruiting South Americans for their national teams. It was this poaching that led FIFA to tighten restrictions on players switching their allegiances. It is only now, with players who represent one country at the youth level having previously lost the right to represent another at senior level, that FIFA has loosened these restrictions. Finding appropriate definitions for defining nationality and determining eligibility has long vexed FIFA and will almost certainly continue to be a problem in the future.

When  Schalke midfielder Jermaine Jones announced recently that he intends to switch his national allegiance from Germany to the United States, it was notable because it has been so long since the United States has had the potential to call on players such as him (Edgar Castillo, a Mexican-American who has previously played for Mexico, may also suit up for the US). The US has arguably become more of an exporter of talent in recent years. The United States’ status as a nation of immigrants means that it is likely to continue to develop players who are eligible and choose to represent other countries. It is less clear, however, how long it will take the US to shed its image as an importer of players and be seen as a country that also develops players for other nations.

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Daniel Ridenhour (L) talking with locals in Uganda (photo: Daniel Ridenhour)

Daniel Ridenhour says that going to Uganda was an eye-opening experience for him personally. Having never been to the country before, he spoke with Winthrop’s two current Ugandan players, but he says, “they can tell you, but until you see it with your own eyes, it’s not what you think it’s going to be like.”

One of the first things that Ridenhour noticed upon arriving in Uganda was a very different attitude toward organization. Despite the fact that he had traveled thousands of miles, he arrived with Kampala with no “set schedule or set itinerary. You just know you’re going to watch games.”

Even appointments that were set while Ridenhour was there rarely began at the set time. When he went to see the Ugandan national team practice one day, the training session that was supposed to start at 9:00 kicked off at 11:15. The national team coach turned to him and said, “this is just Africa, it’s just how it is.”

In his two weeks in Uganda, Ridenhour spent most of his time watching high school games. Some of his time was spent looking at specific potential players for Winthrop, some doing general scouting and relationship-building. Ridenhour says that he was impressed by the skill he saw on the field – “talented, talented, talented kids” – even though the players often lacked equipment. One game he saw “half the kids [were] playing with shoes, half the kids [weren’t].” The fields were similarly lacking, and one match featured a very special pitch invader. “I literally watched one game and there were cows on the field. They’re not on the field the whole time but they’re just kind of passing through.”

Preparing for a pitch invasion (photo: Daniel Ridenhour)

Poor conditions did not damper the atmosphere at many of the games Ridenhour saw. He recalls one high school game in which 2000 students, almost literally, lined the field. “There was no net on the goal and … they were standing right on the field, a half yard off the endline behind the goalkeeper, egging him on. It was great.”

While in Uganda, Ridenhour sought to give something back to people he met. He gave clinics for local coaches and spoke with Ugandan officials who are working to put together a national coaching curriculum. Ridenhour notes that he often saw a lack of basic coaching knowledge, but no lack of enthusiasm to learn. “They were eager because they don’t get a lot of information.” Providing some information pleased Ridenhour. “It was fun to share,” he says.

Talking with local officials photo: (Daniel Ridenhour)

Ultimately, though, the purpose of Ridenhour’s trip was recruiting future players for Winthrop. Recruiting in Uganda is a difficult process, one fraught with difficulties that college coaches recruiting domestically don’t encounter. Although Division I Winthrop can offer scholarships, recruits from Uganda have to incur expenses that are prohibitive to many in the country. “They have to be able to support themselves when they get here, they have to be able to fly themselves over, basic expenses that they have to be able to afford. Being able to find out if a family can do that, that’s a hurdle unto itself because there aren’t a lot of families that can do that.” Daniel Ridenhour says he knows of examples of players whose expenses are being paid by a whole village in the hope that they will return and better the lives of villagers.

Then there is the potential hurdle of recruits getting student visas to enter the US. Winthrop has recruited players in the past, only to find out that their visa application has been denied by the American embassy. The process can be frustrating for all involved, says Ridenhour, but it is completely out of their hands and just one of the many hurdles involved in recruiting Ugandan players.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, there is the matter of ensuring that potential student-athletes have the academic and sporting talents to succeed. Given the unique system in which sports are intertwined with American colleges and universities, coaches looking for players overseas have to keep in mind the full range of talents that potential recruits possess. In Uganda, Ridenhour says, there are “a lot of kids who, academically, can’t cut it, but athletically can. And there are probably quite a few kids who can do it academically, but not athletically.” Finding those who can succeed on the field as well as in the classroom is one of the biggest challenges Ridenhour faced on his trip to Uganda.

The two Ugandans currently playing for Winthrop have succeeded on and off the field at the South Carolina school. Ridenhour describes Stephen Nsereko, who has represented Uganda at the under-20 level, as a “fantastic little attacking midfielder” with a “big heart.” Defender Henry Kalungi has played in every position across the back for Winthrop. With both players, Ridenhour says, “you put them wherever and they’re going to perform the job.”

In the classroom as well, Nsereko and Kalungi have both excelled at Winthrop. “They’re here to do two things: they’re here to study and they’re here to play. And they’ll tell you that. They’ll say, ‘Coach, grades and football, grades and football.’ This is all they worry about.”

Henry Kalguni (#4) and Stephen Neserko (#5) in action for Winthrop (photo: WInthrop University/Rich Posipanko)

Ridenhour sees another benefit to having Ugandan players on the campus of Winthrop University. Their presence and their life experience can provide a unique perspective to the American students. Ridenhour believes that Winthrop’s Ugandan players can also help to open up the eyes of Winthrop students. He tells me that Nsereko and Kalungi “bring a different perspective, a global perspective that not a lot of kids have.” It’s that perspective, combined with their on-field talents, that has made the many Ugandans who have studied and played at Winthrop University over the years such a success.

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Alexis and Amber Hernandez with Mexican youth national team coaches (photo courtesy of Hernandez family)

At just 14, Amber is a year younger than her brother Alexis. She was the first to be noticed by Mexican coaches at an ODP (Olympic Development Program, which, in theory at least, is the pathway to the US national team) tryout in California in 2007. After watching Amber in action, the coaches sought out her father, Esmaldo, and said they were interested in bringing Amber to Mexico to try out for the U-17 national team. Amber says she was surprised. “I’ve always wanted to be a professional soccer player,” she says, “But as soon as I heard that I was surprised because I didn’t think it would happen to me so soon.”In February of last year, 13 year-old Amber headed to Mexico City to try to win a spot on the team. The tryout, she says, was “really hard and exciting at the same time.” The altitude of the Mexican capital was a particular challenge for her, but young Amber showed a mature attitude, saying simply that she “had to push herself through everything.” Push she did, and Amber won a spot on the U-17 team.

Amber says one of the most memorable parts of her time with the U-17s came after the games themselves. “After games the fans would come down and ask for autographs and pictures.” Amber says it was exciting, but a bit surprising to the 13 year-old. Afterwards, all she could think was, “Oh god, they asked me for my autograph.”

The Mexican U-17 girls team (Amber is in the middle row, second from the right)

Amber’s achievements alone are incredible, but less than a year later her brother matched them. After taking part in the Copa Chivas, a youth tournament hosted by parent team Chivas Guadalajara, Alexis impressed Mexican youth national team coaches enough to earn a tryout with the country’s U-17s. Like his sister, Alexis was surprised to get this call-up from the Mexican federation. “With my sister, they called her and we thought it was a prank call. I thought it was going to be the same for me.” But the Mexican federation was serious and before long Alexis was making the same trip his sister had just months before, flying to Mexico in an attempt to earn a spot on the country’s U-17 national team.

The team was training in Acapulco and when Alexis first joined them, some of the other players did not take kindly to him. “They didn’t think I was that good at first, when they heard there was an American player coming.” That changed, Alexis says, “when I showed them I could play. Then I got respect from all of them.” He earned a spot on the team and played for Mexico in several games.

Alexis with Mexican youth national team boss Jesus Ramirez

It’s been quite a journey for Amber and Alexis. They have lived most of their lives in Porterville, California, a small city in the largely agricultural and poor Central Valley. Both grew up playing AYSO (American Youth Soccer Organization), which supports soccer that is more for recreation and generally less competitive than leagues affiliated with USSF (United States Soccer Federation). Both quickly outgrew this level of competition and joined the South Valley Chivas Academy. This academy, begun by their father Esmaldo and his brother Gilbert Hernandez, has helped both to develop, and in Alexis’ case, enabled him to play in the Copa Chivas tournament that showed him off to the Mexican national team.

It can be hard for players in areas like the Central Valley to get noticed, says Esmaldo Hernandez. Money keeps a lot of players from joining organized teams (he says that there are many orange pickers in the area with buckets of talent) and those that they do join are not the elite clubs to which the US national team program has traditionally looked for players. Hernandez says he’s been frustrated to see his kids go through the ODP program, but never reach the national level. “What we noticed is that they made it to state, to regionals, but that’s as far as they would go.” He wonders whether politics may have played a role, as the ODP coaches already knew players from the elite youth clubs.

The lack of interest from the US youth national teams may be about to end, though. Soon after Alexis returned from Mexico, Chivas USA coaches called to let him know that the US was now interested in bringing him for a tryout for their U-17 national team. Alexis will travel to Florida later this month to try to impress the American coaches.

Alexis has another major tryout coming up this spring. In May, he will travel to Guadalajara to try to earn a spot with Chivas. He has impressed coaches there in previous trials and this is the final cut, which will determine whether the team will offer him a contract. Playing for Chivas is a goal of his, especially because everyone in his family supports the team and he grew up watching them. (Alexis’s father says that some people have called Alexis a “Padilla,” referring to Jesus Padilla, the player whose American birth recently caused a stir in Guadalajara, but that Alexis is not resentful. Alexis met Padilla on his recent trip to Guadalajara – he describes him as a “nice guy” – and says that he is a bit anxious at what type of reception he might receive as the latest American-born player, but his love of Chivas overwhelms any concerns.)

Amber’s aspirations are less focused than those of her brother, though in no way less lofty. She is currently training with the Mexican U-17s, preparing for World Cup qualifying. Reaching the tournament is a goal of hers, Amber tells me, but not the only one she harbors. “I hope to go to the World Cup someday. After that, I hope to get a scholarship to university and to play pro. But I also want to be a pediatrician.” (Her father tells me later that her career goals all “depend what day you catch her on.”) Having a set career path is not something expected of most 14 year-old girls, and in this way Amber is no different from her peers.

But in so many ways, both Amber and Alexis are unlike most American teenagers. They wake up each day at 5:00 to run 5 miles on the treadmill and finish with a 2-mile nightcap (there is, of course, school and soccer practice sandwiched in between). If the Hernandez siblings don’t achieve their goals, it will not be for lack of effort.

Stories like those of Alexis and Amber Hernandez are becoming more and more common. Mexican-American players are increasingly showing up on the rosters of Mexican club and national teams, including Michael Orozco of San Luis, Jose Francisco Torres of Pachuca, Edgar Castillo of Santos, and several others. Esmaldo Hernandez is simultaneously proud of his kids – seeing their development gives him “joy, a lot of joy” – and perplexed that they were noticed by Mexican youth national teams before those of the US. “How could another country pick up on a kid that should have been given a shot here?” he wonders.

But Alexis and Amber are happy to play for either national team. Amber says that if she had the opportunity to play for the US, she would “have to make a big decision,” but she’d be happy to represent either country. When asked the same question, Alexis laughs, pauses, and answers: “Well, it would be good if I could play for both.”

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Major League Soccer officials have just one hope for England’s friendly against France on Wednesday: that David Beckham does not get hurt. They are less concerned with Beckham earning his 100th cap than they are with ensuring that he return for Saturday’s LA Galaxy season opener injury-free.

The bubble of hype that Beckham’s arrival in LA inflated was popped by the injuries that kept him out of most of last season. Some fans who had purchased tickets to see Beckham complained – many teams forced them to buy multi-game packages to see the Galaxy come to town – and MLS officials were forced to explain that his injuries were genuine and there was nothing they could do. The off-season has given Beckham time to recover fully, leading to his England recall and a nervous few days for MLS officials.

David Beckham, the face of MLS? (photo: The Offside)

But to say that Beckham is all MLS has going for it is to ignore a maturing and increasingly competitive league. The league began in 1996, hoping to build on the legacy of the 1994 World Cup. In the 12 years since then, the league’s long-term survival has occasionally been in doubt, but the past few seasons have undoubtedly been the best, both on and off the field.

MLS is run on a “single-entity” structure in which all teams and players are owned by the league. This structure is intended to avoid the irrational exuberance that led the NASL, America’s previous professional league, to go under in 1984. Slow and steady growth has been the goal this time, although for several years it was more slow than steady. In 2001, the league was forced to eliminate two of its teams and in 2004 there were reports that it had lost $350 million.

From this low point, MLS has begun to move toward profitability. The league signed a 10-year, $150 million dollar sponsorship deal with Adidas in 2004 and in 2006 inked its first television rights deal (it had previously been paying to put games on TV). Last season was the first in which MLS teams sold shirt sponsorships, proving that Americans are behind Europe in at least one aspect of capitalist excess.

Much of the success in recent years can be attributed to teams building their own “soccer-specific stadiums.” After years of being forced to rent American football stadiums, teams with their own stadiums now reap higher matchday revenues. They have also sold the naming rights to these stadiums, which explains why the LA Galaxy play home matches at the Home Depot Center (named after an American home improvement store), and will open the MLS season at the home of the Colorado Rapids, Dick’s Sporting Goods Park (nickname: The Big Dick).

The Big Dick (photo: dickssportinggoodspark.com)

This surer financial footing has given MLS the confidence to begin expanding. This season sees the resurrection of the San Jose Earthquakes, a team that was unceremoniously moved to Houston and renamed the Dynamo in 2005. A Seattle team will join the league in 2009 and Philadelphia will bring the league to 16 teams in 2010.

The Philadelphia team has received a fair amount of publicity for its preemptively-formed fan club, the Sons of Ben. This group is part of a trend of increasingly numerous and boisterous MLS supporters groups, including DC United’s Barra Brava and Chicago’s Section 8. These groups are truly grassroots, and have sprung up in a league that was, until recently, more focused on attracting soccer moms and their families than reaching out to knowledgeable fans. MLS increasingly recognizes the importance of soccer-savvy fans and has eliminated many Americanizing gimmicks, such as keeping the official time on the stadium clock and having it count down, using hockey-style shootouts to avoid draws, and naming the Kansas City team the Wiz (though their current nickname, the Wizards, is only a slight improvement).

The standard of play in MLS has risen dramatically since the league’s inception. Early on, skilled foreign players often complained about the excess physicality and lack of skill in the league and hotfooted it back to where they had come from. Foreign players arriving today are just as likely to say that the level of play in MLS is above what they expected.

But high-profile foreign players like Beckham are the exception rather than the rule in MLS. Or, perhaps more accurately, they are the result of the so-called “designated player” rule, which allows teams to sign players at salaries that exceed the league-mandated salary cap (around $2 million per team per year). Former Aston Villa striker Juan Pablo Angel and USA captain Claudio Reyna went to New York and Mexican legend Cuaumtémoc signed with Chicago on this rule last season. This year’s designated player signings are Argentines Marcelo Gallardo and Claudio Lopez, who will play for DC United and Kansas City respectively.

But perhaps the biggest on-field shift in MLS in recent years has been the emergence of young American players. The most promising talent at the moment is New York’s Jozy Altidore. Born to Haitian parents, the 18 year-old striker has the rare combination of size, skill, and poise in front of goal that has led Real Madrid to take an interest in him (and to top it all off, he also writes a weekly column on the New York Times website). When Altidore does leave, he will join a growing list of former MLS players in Europe, including Brad Friedel, Brian McBride, and DaMarcus Beasley. Less well known, though just as promising, is 20 year-old Michael Bradley (son of national team manager Bob), whose 16 goals from defensive midfield at Heerenveen in Holland have attracted interests from teams across Europe.

A more worrying exodus is the increasing number of players headed for leagues whose level of play is in no way superior to MLS, but whose salaries are. Beckham’s millions aside, salaries in MLS are relatively low. As a result, many players have taken more lucrative offers to play in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Austria in recent years. The loss of these players is bound to lower the quality play in MLS and worry league officials, especially as new teams thin the talent pool.

This season begins on Saturday with teams looking to knock back-to-back champions Houston Dynamo off their perch. Steve Nicol’s New England have come close to doing so, but have lost in the playoff final both years (like other American sports, MLS determines its champion in the playoffs, not in the league). DC United turn out consistently strong teams, though their hopes this year rest on how well playmaker Marcelo Gallardo adapts to the league. Chicago hope to build on the success that Mexican Cuauhtémoc Blanco inspired at the end of last season.

Cuauhtémoc Blanco (photo: Last Kick)

Unfortunately for MLS, teams in the two biggest American markets have experienced little success. Red Bull New York (the team was purchased by the energy drink company in 2006) boast the dangerous strike tandem of Juan Pablo Angel of Jozy Altidore, but the club have always struggled. Chivas USA, the American offshoot of the eponymous Mexican club, were the better of the two LA teams last year, beating the Galaxy 3-0 twice. The Galaxy failed to make the playoffs last season and real questions remain about the team going into this season. New coach Ruud Gullit has promised to bring sexy football to LA, but his team have few quality players outside of Beckham, US international Landon Donovan, and Guatemalan striker Carlos Ruiz.

At the outset of its 13th season, there are two ways of looking at MLS. Pessimists will claim that it has failed to break into the American mainstream and can’t match the quality of top European leagues. But optimists will point out that MLS has achieved a degree of financial stability and raised the level of play on the field to a point many doubted it would ever reach. David Beckham may be the icing on the cake, but at least there is cake to be iced.

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