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| | Wednesday, January 5 | |||||
Special to ESPN.com | ||||||
CHICAGO -- With European leagues heading into winter break, and South and Central America already crowning a new host of champions, this seems as good a time as any to review some of the grand happenings of this past year in soccer.
First up, however, a story: This week, Zambia canceled the remainder of
its tour of the Americas following a 7-1 whipping at the hands of
Honduras.
The Football Association pulled the team home after the tour had
been described as a "farce" in national media accounts, listing grievances
ranging from poor accommodations to bizarre food offerings -- apparently, the players had been subsisting on dinners of fast food.
They fared well at the national team level but poorly at the league level. This was Major League Soccer's worst year, one in which the wheels truly seemed to fly off. The problems are obvious and daunting: a lack of exposure, money and talent have conspired to keep MLS an also-ran at the gate and in the minds of the U.S. public. Best bets: National team play. Should Bruce Arena keep the streaking Americans on track (I think he will), it will be a huge shot in the arm to the game, but the real pressure is on the Olympians. With the Sydney Games getting unprecedented TV airtime, a strong performance by the men could do for MLS and USSF's World Cup hopes what WWC '99 did for the women. Long shots: MLS expansion needs to be tabled. The league needs to divest Tampa and Dallas first, and look toward reviving sagging franchises such as Kansas City. Talented new blood is desperately needed -- MLS's owners have to follow on the hiring of Don Garber with more talented execs from other leagues. Soccer's business talent pool is apparently too small at this point in time. Wild cards: Overseas talent has yet to be fully capitalized upon. Despite a growing number of Americans playing the game abroad, there hasn't been a growth in interest for these overseas teams in the U.S. market. The link between the Americans involved in the European game and the U.S. public at large has yet to be forged. U.S. women Career year. Became a national phenomenon en route to winning the Women's World Cup. Named "SportsWomen of the Year" by both Sports Illustrated and its sister pub, SI for Women. Unprecedented name recognition and commercial appeal. Hey, the ladies won all the marbles, what can I say? Best bets: Again, the national team. A big win in Sydney will further cement the team's rep as the greatest women's dynasty, ever. Outlook: Mixed. Players are aging and need to be refreshed. The quality of the college game has slipped this past year, with dilution as more and more colleges offer soccer -- it is now the fastest growing segment of collegiate athletics -- and the game is in danger of becoming overwhelmed by mediocrity. Longshots: A women's pro league. Despite the interest expressed by sponsors and some networks, women's soccer at the league level remains a niche interest, and a tiny, tiny one at that. Combine that with the lack of an engine (such as the NBA, which drives the WNBA) and you have a dubious proposal. Wild cards: Will the aging players step aside to make room for the younger ones? Do they need to? Can international competition catch up in a year's time? Maybe, yes, and yes. The U.S. Soccer Federation A solid year, all told, despite many deep-seated problems that refuse to go away. This organization is still caught between the amateurs and the pros as to which direction it will head, and they have little time to make up their minds. Current leadership is not well-respected by the business community at large, but the political base remains in USSF's court. Like it or not, however, USSF is going to have to reach a compromise -- and share some of the pie -- with the outside business community much as they might all dislike each other (and, they do dislike each other). Also, USSF needs to capitalize on the women's team while the iron's hot -- allowing the team to go on an indoor victory tour may well come back to haunt them. They remain hampered by their continued inability to get meaningful air time for the big men's games: USSF missed a golden opportunity in Mexico this year and can't afford to screw up again. Best bets: Confusion. USSF lost a huge player in the defection of men's team chaperone Brian Remedi, who smoothed over a lot of media feathers ruffled by years of incompetence at the hands of his predecessors. The women's team's handlers also need to be dramatically re-evaluated -- from the inside, it has often seemed as if the women achieved stardom in spite of their handlers, not as a direct result of their involvement. Outlook: Very mixed. The USSF needs a big Olympics from both teams to continue the lone happy notes in the U.S. soccer saga. Wild cards: General Secretary Hank Steinbrecher. Love him or hate him (some people do both), Hank is the man to win over at Soccer House. Underestimate this guy at your peril. Major League Soccer Already covered exhaustively is this column, but the main thing to remember is this: MLS is in trouble, and needs to find a way out. The league got a vote of confidence from the sponsors at the end of the year, but the lack of attention paid to this league is beginning to really kill it. Best bets: None, at the moment. Outlook: Grim. I give the league three years at this point in time. Wild cards: Garber. It's his ball now, and he's making some solid moves. But does he have enough time left on the clock? CONCACAF Renamed, but still silly. The latest goofy idea from the Football Confederation: sell more advertising on team jerseys, this time in international play. Guys, can't you spend more time fixing those stadia in Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago and less time trying to drink at the trough? And while we're at it, any chance of making your events a little less chaotic? How well organized will this year's Gold Cup be? Best bets: Gold Cup will be as disorganized as ever, just as every other CONCACAF event is. Outlook: Still penny-ante. However, Chuck Blazer will still be the most powerful American involved in international soccer. Unfortunately, due to obstinacy on both sides, he will also remain ostracized from the U.S. soccer community at large, robbing the United States of a powerful voice. Wild cards: Next year, they'll change their name again, resulting in a windfall for a Bahamanian business-card manufacturer. FIFA Static. Big initiatives have been offered, only to be foiled by the continuing gridlock between Zurich and Berne. They hate each other! Sepp Blatter proposes a biennial cup, Johanssen shoots it down. Sepp tries to get more attention for his World Club Championship, and UEFA members go nuts. Sepp's Confederations Cup is taken lightly by European teams, resulting in a predictable humiliation. Now, Sepp says that WWC 2003 should be WWC 2002, and the United States goes nuts. Some days, it doesn't pay to get up in Switzerland. Best bets: FIFA is still inept at promoting the game in the U.S. market, but is so drunk with overseas money it doesn't care. But the bank might not be bottomless: A real fight is brewing over rights fees for Japan/Korea 2002 and the millennium may well see the first check put on what has been a rapid ascent for the world's most powerful sporting body. Outlook: Mixed. The success or failure of the Clubs Championship will be an important moment in Blatter's tenure -- if it scores big, then he's likely got the mandate to do whatever else he wants to do simply because he's making everyone a lot of money. If he stumbles, however, there are plenty of wolves waiting to drag him down over issues as disparate as free agency, WC2002, TV rights, developmental funds and FIFA bureaucracy. Wild cards: The AFC. Asia remains a sticky wicket for Blatter, and delegates there are already beginning to show signs of open revolt. Guess that means they've figured out where all those things that pay for events that say "Sony" and "Daewoo" are made. Soccer fans 2000 should be an explosive year for soccer on home TV and the Net. A handful of soccer site startups have already shown signs of success and Fox and ESPN are both aggressively courting soccer fans with ambitious new packages. This, despite a Sports Business Daily study (12/21/99) that showed soccer got a whopping .13 percent of airtime devoted to it on SportsCenter and CNN/SI's Sports Tonight shows this past October. Wasn't that when the MLS was in playoffs? Oh, yeah, it was. Fox, however, deserves the biggest whipping. Despite showcasing more soccer product than any other network, its flagship news program, Primetime, gave soccer a paltry .07 percent of its airtime. That put the sport, according to the SBD, right below stories about human interest and Pete Rose. However, soccer was more interesting, apparently, than the IRL, so at least soccer fans don't have to worry about that pesky Indy crowd muscling in. Sheesh. Best bets: That you'll all upgrade your modems and computers to keep up with all the new stuff out here. May I suggest a G4? Also, you'll watch U.S. soccer on television whenever possible. Bully for you. You will also likely continue to worry whether New England will ever, ever have anything close to a winning MLS season. They won't, so stop. Outlook: Well, the future really is in U.S. soccer fans' laps and wallets. MLS is going to succeed or fail on your voting with clickers and pocketbooks; ditto for ESPN's attempts to make soccer a more visible product. If no one watches the new shows, they'll be canceled to make room for cheerleading highlights. However, people are actually paying attention to your dollars for the first time in a long while. If you go buy some Wheaties with Mia's face on 'em, people are going to notice. Wild cards: Whether or not you actually have the stomach to sit through some awful telecasts, some bad MLS games, lukewarm newspaper coverage and Internet chat groups filled with venom to take in another season of the world's greatest game, American-style. Jamie Trecker, editor of Kick! magazine, writes regularly for ESPN.com. You may e-mail him at jamie_trecker@go.com; while he guarantees he will read all letters, he regrets that he cannot guarantee a reply because of overwhelming volume. | ALSO SEE England, Germany in same World Cup qualifying group U.S. Soccer will ban Mexican club teams from U.S.  | |||||
