The International Fixture

Please watch your soccer responsibly

One of the simple pleasures of being a soccer fan in America is the experience of gathering with other like-minded misfits at your local watering hole to cheer on your team, whether it's your favorite foreign club in the Copa Libertadores or the European Champions League or your national side at the Olympics.
I was pleased this week to notice that MLSNet has gone and stolen one of my favorite unused ideas: a map of the best soccer pubs in America.

It looks like the Web site is going to start profiling some of the best bars in the country to catch an MLS game. This is a great idea, particularly as supporters travel around or move to a new city. There's few things worse than being stranded in a strange town and having no idea how to find a bar that's heard of Setanta.

I have just a couple of suggestions for the powers that be at MLS. Make this a truly nationwide map. As a supporter, where can I go when I'm stuck in St. Louis or Miami or Minneapolis to find a great soccer bar to catch the Red Bulls v. Toronto FC match?

And give us a sense of what the criteria is for adding these pubs to the map. Do they actively support the league or do they just tolerate its matches? Can I go there to see any football game on TV, or just the away games for the local MLS side? Perhaps there can be some kind of contest to find good soccer bars around the country. Supporters can send in the names and profiles of their favorites and then everyone can vote in one of those online polls MLSNet loves so much. The winning pub gets a free year of Direct Kick, a bus trip for 20 to the closest MLS stadium and a night with drinks on the house with Jimmy Conrad.

My only real criticism of the map is the exclusion of my favorite soccer pub: Iona in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. On Saturday night, I asked the Sunday morning barman if he'd be open at 7:45 a.m. for the U.S. v. Holland Olympic match. He said he wasn't planning on coming in until 10 a.m. for the Community Shield, but now that I suggested it, he'd open shop for the U.S. game. That's the kind of bar that caters to the soccer fanatic.

- Tom Meagher

p.s. - The only Passaic County bar to rate is Pub 46. Leave a comment and let me know your favorite spot to catch a match.

McCain supports Millwall?

The Associated Press has been reporting for about an hour that Barack Obama has clinched the Democratic presidential nomination (The New York Times hasn't been so bold as to make such a declaration yet Now the Times has joined in too). And already supporters are coming out of the woodwork to join his team.

The best one I've seen so far? This T-shirt from Who Are Ya Designs:

The big question for the Hammers fan, of course, is whether he'll have time to head to Toronto for the MLS All-Star game.

- Tom Meagher

"They make it look a lot easier than it actually is"

A few months ago, Herald News reporter Heather Appel wrote about a new power wheelchair soccer team that had started up for kids in North Jersey. A few weeks ago, Red Bull New York decided to adopt the team officially and sponsor it, renaming the squad of indoor soccer enthusiasts the Jr. Red Bulls Power Soccer Team.

Then, a couple of the senior players visited the power soccer team to get a demonstration of how the game is played. Check out this video to see Luke Sassano get schooled in this new twist on an old classic.

This little team is really cool. Check out its YouTube video to see some kids playing the game with some Black Sabbath overdubs.

To read more about power wheelchair soccer, go visit the U.S. Power Soccer Association's Web site.

- Tom Meagher

Back from vacation

After a week away, I have returned to my blogging duties, friends.

I managed to avoid much of the onslaught of football news while I was away, but I did (of course) watch the first-leg Champions' League matches. Even on a cruise ship near the Tropic of Cancer, you can find good European football on television.

In my brief excursions through Mexico, I also found plenty of soccer madness. Driving through the countryside outside of Puerto Vallarta, I saw countless soccer fields, ranging from dusty, dirt patches to well-manicured training facilities. (I also saw three or four bull rings)

The seaside resort town is about four hours from Guadalajara, the home to three top-flight clubs. There's Chivas, Atlas (a friend described them as the Mets of the city) and the lowly U.A.G. Tecos, currently at the bottom of their group in the waning Clausura season. 

I wasn't able to attend any matches while I was there, but I did snap this shot of a souvenir stand along the beach in Puerto Vallarta. I think this speaks volumes about the wisdom of MLS' decision to woo He-who-shall-not-be-named. His Galaxy jersey gets top billing, literally on top of the fanatically-supported, near-local side Chivas. And then, below them both, comes Cristiano Ronaldo's gaudy away kit from last year. At this shop, selected completely at random, the best player in England--if not the world--is chopped liver.

And the best part of this picture? The t-shirt you can barely see on the bottom right is, indeed, a cartoon of a shapely woman wearing an American flag bikini. This is actually one of the more tasteful souvenir shirts I saw in my explorations of tourist traps catering to moneyed and inebriated Yankees.

- Tom Meagher

In like a lion

Spring has sprung and the sun has returned.
Most American soccer fans have been hibernating much of the winter, curling up with English Premier League matches on FSC and FIFA '08 on Xbox. Now, the year can begin: this weekend, Major League Soccer kicks off its 13th season.
So I can think of no more auspicious time to launch this new Herald News endeavor, The International Fixture blog. Although my esteemed colleague Ives has moved onto other pastures, we thought it was important for the Herald News to continue its coverage of the world of soccer.

Here, we'll explore some of the most interesting coverage of soccer through the eyes of the American fan, particularly the hardcore fan in North Jersey and New York. More importantly, we want to look at the world of the American supporter, from ethnic club leagues to the North Jersey Brigade of Sam's Army to the soccer pub down the street.

And we'll have a great year of soccer to talk about, including:

• The climactic wind-down of the English premiership season (and a potential David v. David FA Cup final),
• The Champions League, with perhaps an all-England final,
• The European Championships in Austria and Switzerland,
• A second season of the SuperLiga with our Eternos Rivales from the south,
• The next generation of world (and American) stars coming out at the Olympics in Beijing,
• Finally, the start of the next round of World Cup qualifying,
• And that doesn't even start to mention the increasingly competitive MLS.

There's few things you can find that really can bind together the multitudes in this diverse metro area like a love of soccer. This blog will be dedicated to not just the oft-cited beauty of the game, but the passion that goes along with loving it. I think this will be a lot of fun. Welcome.

- Tom Meagher