A Cup Half Empty: The Decade's Downside

A decade of progress for American soccer actually began in November 1999, when newly-appointed MLS commissioner Don Garber announced the demise of the shootout and the falling scoreboard clock, plus a new TV deal with ESPN and ABC. Five years after hosting the World Cup and three after launching a genuine professional league, soccer was taking root in the game's final frontier.

The 2000s would be about solidifying that foundation. And for the most part, things went well. But like many challenging journeys, every few steps forward was accompanied by one in reverse. We've seen a few "decade in review" lists that have touched on soccer around the world, but none that has focused on the American game. So, without further Adu (bad pun of the decade), here is FanHouse's take on the best and worst over the past 10 years. We'll tackle the disappointments below, then celebrate the triumphs later this week.

WORST GAME: Czech Republic 3, United States 0. When Landon Donovan chose to pass the ball backward rather than attack a shifting Czech defense in the first few minutes of the 2006 World Cup opener, it was clear that something wasn't right with Bruce Arena's side. Somehow, a team that played so fearlessly four years before became sluggish and tentative on the sport's biggest stage. The enormous Jan Koller scored on a 5th-minute header, and the rout was on. The promise of progress from 2002 was extinguished.

(Dishonorable mention: Costa Rica 3, United States 1 in a June 2009 World Cup qualifier; Mexico 5, United States 0 in the 2009 CONCACAF Gold Cup final; Any MLS Cup final involving the New England Revolution.)



LOW POINT: MLS contraction. It's hard to imagine as MLS gets set to welcome its 16th, 17th and 18th clubs over the next two years that the league was in crisis following the 2001 season. In January 2002, the Tampa Bay Mutiny and Miami Fusion were dissolved. The league continued to play ball with 10 teams thanks only to the patience and wealth of Phil Anschutz, who owned/operated six franchises at one point. He took over the MetroStars in November 2001 and D.C. United two months later. Uncle Phil throws in the towel, and we're back to the days of pro soccer at high school stadiums and minor league hockey arenas. It was that close.

WORST MLS CLUB: MetroStars/New York Red Bulls. In 2000, the MetroStars finished with the league's third-best record and lost in the deciding game of the MLS Cup semifinals. After that, they were a trainwreck, burning through six coaches, five GMs and the patience of every soccer fan in the country's biggest city. Red Bull bought the club in early 2006 and has presided over similar instability. For this organization, every step forward was followed by five steps back and more empty seats. The Austrian company is now hoping a beautiful stadium and a new Norwegian GM can finally turn things around.

(Dishonorable mention: Colorado Rapids. A frustrating combination of irrelevance and ineptitude, the Rapids are the only MLS club that was a league member for the entire decade that failed to reach either an MLS Cup or U.S. Open Cup final.)

BIGGEST BUMMER: Freddy Adu. A lot of it is not his fault. Really. He was 14 years old and hardly was the architect of the hype machine that doomed him to disappoint. Former MLS Deputy Commissioner Ivan Gazidis, who got most of the important things right during his MLS tenure and now runs Arsenal, said Adu was "probably the best young player in the world." He had the wrong coach at D.C. United in Peter Nowak and hasn't found playing time at Monaco, Benfica or Belenenses. We thought he'd be the centerpiece of the 2010 World Cup team. He's not even in the conversation. Adu's still only 20 and is a talented and likeable guy, but he'll never be the world-class savior we were promised.



BIGGEST BUST: Lotthar Matthaus. His signing by the MetroStars gave MLS an instant dose of credibility. One of the 15 men to have captained a World Cup winner was going to be playing in Giants Stadium in 2000. Instead, the petulant, selfish and lazy German became the decade's worst signing, forever raising the fear that high-profile foreign players might regard an MLS sojourn as a paid vacation. He lasted 16 games and scored no goals. He did, however, throw his captain's armband at a linesman during an on-field tantrum and get photographed vacationing France after telling the team he was too injured to play.

MOST OVERRATED: Bobby Convey. The outside midfielder was one of those athletes who must have had incriminating photos of powerful people. Successful in the youth national team program and signed by D.C. United at age 16, Convey was given chance after chance by Bruce Arena and coaches in both the U.S. and England despite an astonishing lack of production for a player of his stature (apart from a fantastic 2005-06 campaign with Reading that beggars belief). He managed just eight goals in five seasons in Washington and was nonexistent this year in San Jose, scoring once. Convey putting his head down and dribbling straight into defenders is one of the decade's defining images.

BIGGEST VILLAIN: Hristo Stoitchkov. We knew what we were getting when Chicago signed the 1994 Ballon d'Or winner - a world-class talent and a world-class jerk. The Mad Bulgarian provided several glorious moments during his stay in MLS, but his disgusting foul on an American University freshman during a preseason scrimmage in early 2003 was the decade's ugliest moment. The shattering of Freddy Llerena's right leg was audible from across the field and made several players sick. Literally. Llerena reached an undisclosed financial settlement with Stoitchkov two years ago.

BIGGEST THUG: Mexico's Rafa Marquez. The defender embodies the sportsmanship we've come to expect from south of the 2-0 parallel. Any game against Mexico likely will feature chest-bumping machismo, cheap shots off the ball and the mandatory post-final whistle red cards. But Marquez' assaults on Cobi Jones and Tim Howard took the gamesmanship to a new level.

(Dishonorable mention: Teammates Oswaldo Sanchez for his ridiculous charge at Eddie Johnson and Cuauhtemoc Blanco for headbutting a D.C. United official trying to escort the ejected midfielder off the pitch.)



MOST UNFULFILLED PROMISE: John O'Brien. The silky-smooth Californian was supposed to be the heir to Claudio Reyna - a composed, world-class central midfielder who would establish tempo for the national team. But it was not to be. He never could stay injury free for long, played only a half in the first match of the 2006 World Cup and managed just a handful of games over the final few years of his career, which ended in 2006 when he was released by Chivas USA. No other player with his skill set has emerged.

(Dishonorable mention: The WUSA. The timing was right, the players were famous and 1999 remained fresh in everyone's mind, but the attitude and business plan were just awful. The league burned through $100 million in three years, refused to partner with MLS, moved its games to the PAX network and became a victim of its own hubris shortly before the 2003 Women's World Cup kicked off).



BIGGEST INJUSTICE: Hugh Dallas and Torsten Frings. How can this not be a handball (1:50 of the video below)? If the prospect of a deserved World Cup semifinal against South Korea still doesn't agitate you now and then, you're not an American soccer fan. Slight consolation: Franz Beckenbauer's fabulous quote after watching his countrymen outplayed by the U.S. in the 2002 World Cup quarterfinal. "Kahn apart, you could take all of them, put them in a sack and hit it with a stick. Whoever got hit would deserve it."



WORST COACH: Greg Ryan. A disciple of Steve Sampson's well-known "If it's not broken, blow everything up," school of coaching, Ryan felt that the 2007 Women's World Cup semifinal was the ideal time to bench starting goalkeeper Hope Solo, who'd posted three straight shutouts, in favor of Briana Scurry. Confused and divided by the decision, the Americans were routed, 4-0, by Brazil. Ryan now coaches the University of Michigan women.

(Dishonorable mention: Ruud Gullit for fiddling and demanding espresso while the 2008 Los Angeles Galaxy imploded.)

WORST SPORTSMANSHIP: James Riley and Amado Guevara. Has Riley ever not debated a referee's call? Anyone have video of the Seattle defender just quietly accepting a decision and moving on with the game? He certainly doesn't have the skill or pedigree to have earned the right to be the most annoying player in MLS. Guevara was similarly infuriating. The argumentative Honduran's ridiculous flop after Ramiro Corrales snapped a towel at him in 2003 is the stuff of MLS legend. Guevara was discarded from Chivas USA by former coach Preki after pushing a referee.

(Dishonorable mention: Carlos Ruiz, for his diving and childish antics in both MLS and for Guatemala.)

BIGGEST ON-THE-FIELD FRUSTRATION: MLS's impotence in CONCACAF competition. Since the confederation's Champions Cup/League moved to a home-and-away format in 2002, No MLS team has reached the final. The league remains winless in Mexico. The expanded tournament launched in 2008 has seen just two of the nine MLS entrants survive the group stages. It's going to be tough to convince people you're a quality circuit when you can't get past clubs from Panama and Honduras.

BIGGEST OFF-THE-FIELD FRUSTRATION: ESPN's continuing aversion to serious coverage on SportsCenter. It's been better over the past year - an MLS goal will make the evening's rundown of top plays once a week or so. More often than not, however, the highlight is accompanied by an anchor's sarcastic inflection as they overpronounce the word "pitch" or "nil" and pretend to stumble over a foreign-sounding name. You don't have to like soccer, Scott Van Pelt. Just do your job. Meanwhile, ESPN producers still prefer to show a ninth basket from an Indiana Pacers-Memphis Grizzlies game rather than a goal from a league they pay a fee to broadcast.

MOST POORLY EXECUTED GOOD IDEA: The MLS reserve division. Launched in 2005 in a good-faith effort to get younger players more professional experience, the initiative lacked organization and funding and was gone after the 2008 season. Clubs sometimes failed to even complete the 12-game schedule and often had to bring in local walk-ons just to field a team.

(Dishonorable mention: U.S. Open Cup. America's most significant soccer tradition continues to be ignored, for the most part. Marketing is nonexistent, incentive remains minimal and the format itself is often difficult to understand. Credit at least to D.C. United and Seattle for the way they treated this year's final.)

WORST SOCCER SPECIFIC STADIUM: Pizza Hut Park. FC Dallas expects fans to come here. They tend not to. Thunderdome is cosmopolitan by comparison. If Seattle and Toronto have taught us anything, it's that location, location, location is everything. Spend the money on land rather than amenities, and you'll get the demand and atmosphere you need. MLS commissioner Don Garber said during the recent MLS Cup weekend in Seattle that if the league "didn't have a stadium in Frisco, we wouldn't have a team in Dallas." Um, okay. What has Dallas done to deserve an MLS team? Is it a requirement in FIFA's laws or something?

(Dishonorable mention: D.C. United's stadium, which year after year continues to look great on paper.)

WORST MLS DRAFT PICK: Nikolas Besagno. In a landslide. The No. 1 selection in the 2005 draft and the first ever pick by Real Salt Lake, the 16-year-old midfielder played a grand total of eight games (four starts) in MLS. The oft-maligned Steve Shak, taken first overall by the MetroStars in 2000, enjoyed an MLS career four times as long and wasn't tapped to be the cornerstone of an expansion franchise. Besagno spent 2009 with the PDL's Tacoma Tide. RSL passed on players like Brad Guzan, Michael Parkhurst, Chris Rolfe, Gonzalo Segares, Hunter Freeman, Chad Barrett, Drew Moore and Danny O'Rourke.

WORST SLOGAN: "Embrace the colors". Nice sentiment, if you can stop your clubs from changing those colors every couple of years. MLS's 2006 ad campaign prominently featured Landon Donovan in his short-lived gold-and-green Galaxy uniform and Pablo Mastroeni in the Rapids' interim blue-and-black. Nicely done. For all of MLS's progress, quality brand identification remains an adventure for most of the teams. Which brings us to....

WORST UNIFORM: A seven-way tie between the Chicago Fire, D.C. United, Kansas City Wizards, New England Revolution, New York Red Bulls, Real Salt Lake and Los Angeles Galaxy. It's good to know that we can turn on the TV, flip to an MLS game, and be certain almost immediately that the team wearing plain, all-white uniforms could be any one of the aforementioned clubs. Even when there's no color conflict. Way to identify yourselves.

WORST NEW NAME: Real Salt Lake. The new MLS champions are likeable top to bottom. GM Garth Lagerwey, coach Jason Kreis and their staff have assembled a well-run club featuring talented, appealing players who are building a genuine following in Utah.

Maybe someday we'll get past the name. But it hasn't happened yet. Regardless of what founder Dave Checketts wants "Real" to stand for, he cannot spin the definition to anything but what it actually means - patronage from the king of Spain. Salt Lake City is very far from Spain, the king is not a fan and the moniker represents nothing but the excruciatingly misguided efforts of a poseur. This country has its own traditions that are worth upholding, as Seattle fans so beautifully demonstrated with their write-in votes in the spring of 2008. It's not like Utah lacks the sort of history or imagery that might offer inspiration for a unique and truly representative name of its own. Trying to co-opt someone else's heritage is almost pathetic.

(Dishonorable mention: FC Gold Pride of Women's Professional Soccer. Inexplicable.)

WORST NEW LOGO: Chivas USA. The name and the red-and-white striped shirts are no problem. But if you want to sell tickets to people in Los Angeles, removing the coat of arms of the city of Guadalajara from your crest might be a good start.

(Dishonorable mention: FC Gold Pride of Women's Professional Soccer. Inexplicable.)

WORST EXPANSION TEAM: San Jose Earthquakes, the sequel. The original moved to Houston prior to the 2006 season because Phil Anschutz no longer wanted to deal with stadium issues. The club returned as an expansion outfit (while maintaining the old Earthquakes records and titles) under new ownership after a two-year hiatus, and little has changed. They play at an awful venue and finished last in the Western Conference in both 2008 and 2009. They even ditched their traditional "Smurf" blue jerseys for an all-black look that's kind of been taken in MLS. The Earthquakes barely register on the MLS radar.

MOST ANNOYING THING ABOUT BEING INVOLVED IN AMERICAN SOCCER IN THE 2000s: Eurosnobs. Worse than dinosaur columnists like Frank Deford who wield only ignorance while fighting their losing battle is the self-hating American soccer fan who continues to believe MLS doesn't deserve their support. They claim to be stewards or experts, yet they've done nothing to build soccer here and hope simply to claim a bit of reflected glory because they own a Real Madrid jersey.

As we've said here before, fans in Europe support their teams in spite of the way the game is organized, not because of it. Anyone who wants a league endlessly dominated by a cartel of three or four superclubs and that features decaying stadiums, violent fans, diminishing opportunities for domestic players, match-fixing and more, go ahead and move abroad. People in Colombia and Egypt and Greece and Japan support their local clubs with pride. Go support yours. And if you think MLS should be playing over the winter because most of Europe does, you're just crazy.

*****

That's enough negativity for now. FanHouse will be back with the best of the decade - and there's plenty - later this week.