US U-20 World Cup Squad Announced...

Unlike the senior team, Coach Rongen is announcing his roster almost a month before the first match of the U-20 World Cup. Yup, kick off for the Americans in this youth World Cup is September 25th.

GOALKEEPERS - Sean Johnson (Central Florida), Josh Lambo, Brian Perk (UCLA)

DEFENDERS - Gale Agbossoumonde, Kyle Davies, Jorge Flores, Ike Opara (Wake Forest), Anthony Wallace, Sheanon Williams

MIDFIELDERS - Daniel Cruz, Mikkel Diskerud, Dilly Duka (Rutgers), Jared Jeffrey, Aaron Maund (Notre Dame), Brian Ownby (Virginia), Dillon Powers (Notre Dame), Michael Stephens (UCLA)

FORWARDS - Sam Garza (Denver), Peri Marosevic, Brek Shea, Tony Taylor (Jacksonville)

I've highlighted the college players in the above list. 42% of the players are playing college ball. I've got to imagine the professionals will make up more of the starting eleven with the college guys filling in as needed. It is just hard to imagine how the Americans will compete against the rest of the world when 42% of the team doesn't play professionally and the rest of the world does.

Also of note, Soccer by Ives has the US vs. Germany game on ESPN Classic as opposed to ESPN360.com as I listed in my last post. Not sure when USsoccer.com will update their website to show the correct television schedule on their schedule page.

US U-20 WC Television Schedule Announced...

USsoccer.com announced the U-20 Men's television schedule yesterday. Here is the only problem, the first game is on-line only.

9/26: USA vs. Germany - LIVE at 9:55 a.m. ET on ESPN360.com, 9:55 a.m. ET/PT on Galavision

9/29: USA vs. Cameroon - LIVE at 12:30 p.m. ET on ESPN2, DELAYED at 5 p.m. ET/PT on Galavision

10/2: USA vs. Korea Republuc - LIVE at 12:40 p.m. ET on ESPN2, DELAYED at 4 p.m. ET/PT on Galavision

Why is the match against Germany on-line only? ESPN2 for Cameroon and Korea is great...but what is up with Germany only being on-line? That is arguably the biggest match of all three. Well, we'll have to figure out a way to watch, won't we.

U-20 World Cup is coming up quickly!

I Want Another World Cup In The USA, Do You???

If so, go to the website: www.gousabid.com. Sign the petition.

Watch the video:



Pass it on...

Comments: The Beckham Experiment...

I believe there is little chance that someone reading this blog would not have heard of this book by now. Right? 1% chance. If in all honesty you have not heard of the book pictured above please leave me a comment. Anyway, I just finished it and I am posting some quick comments for two reasons. 1) I really enjoyed it. 2) I got the book for free from Press Box Publicity so I want to give them a shout out.

Back to reason #1; I really enjoyed the book. When I first heard of it and agreed to accept an evaluation copy I was skeptical. I wondered about how much access Wahl would have to Becks and the Gals. I wondered what kind of dirt could there be about the most celebrated soccer player to land in a US soccer league since Pele. Let's just say I had my doubts and I didn't think I'd learn anything I didn't already know.

Well, I was wrong. Before I received my book I started reading clips on blogs and then the whole controversy started up between Becks and Landycakes...I started to get excited. Once I received the book I dove right in and I finished it in a couple weeks. Recently I haven't finished a book in under a month so you can see I was drawn in. Despite some of the most juicy tidbits showing up on countless blogs, there was still more for me to discover during my read.

The biggest things I came away with; Alexi Lalas isn't as big a nut job as I once thought and didn't destroy the Galaxy on his own, Landycakes has bigger balls than I once thought but the hummingbird tattoo still drags things down a bit, Beckham brings a lot of baggage and hangers on everywhere he goes, if MLS ever makes this kind of signing again I hope they learn that just because your a famous player doesn't mean you should be allowed to make team decisions, and some other things I can't remember now.

I encourage you to check out The Beckham Experiment, by Grant Wahl if you are a fan of MLS, want to learn the behind the scenes of Beckham's signing and the further destruction of the LA Gals, or just want to see a book that doesn't paint David Beckham as a god in his MLS kingdom. Well done Grant Wahl, a great book.

The List...

Loyal readers and new followers...if there are any. For the past couple years I've written this blog quoting some list, a database of players I keep. I've not really shared it with too many people to this point thinking there is some proprietary knowledge held in it. Well, I've realized there isn't. It is a list of players and some information I've added to each player's history as I can find it on-line. However, as the world of soccer has expanded in the US, so too has my list and my ability to keep up with updates and tracking down players has dwindled. With that fact I realized that it is time for Bonji to harness the power of the Internet by crowd-sourcing my list.

So here it is folks, all 1,220 rows of names. As I make updates, they'll get updated on here. The permanent link will be on the right margin.

I know some of these kids have quit playing, left college for the pros, or just fallen off the face of the earth after an unimpressive career. I slowly weed them out. But that is where you can help! If you know something, tell me. I've got an email address published on the right, email me. If you like doing updates and tracking this stuff, maybe you can work with me. I just want to get this info out there and improve it. So help me do that. If you do have some new information, please send me a link to a source. I want to keep some academic rigger.

Let me remind you, players get on the list by doing something like winning an honor, getting a call up to a US Youth Team, playing on a foreign national team before coming to college in The States. So, please don't send me players to add because you like them, or because they're your brother, etc. If someone wins the Golden Glove at the adidas esp camp and then enrolls in Harvard...tell me about it.

Thanks and enjoy!

Take Another Look At US Soccer...

Let's all be honest with each other, ussoccer.com got a little stale having not changed in a long time. In today's instant info society it seems like some sites change once every two years. I think US Soccer had fallen down and couldn't get up since back before World Cup 2006. Anyone know/Remember the last update? Well, anyway...take a look at the new and improved site. Thoughts?

Also, U-17 World Cup draw is this Friday...tomorrow! At least I think that is what I read...I'm having trouble finding the link. Oh, here we go. The draw will be held in Abuja, Nigeria tomorrow, Friday. Nice.

The U-17 men did very well at the Copa Macae tournament in Brazil...they emerged as Champions! Well done.