Dana Blankenhorn

The Secret of Juergen Klinsmann's Smile

There is a mystery afoot in US Soccer.

One I've solved.

After winning a scrappy game against Honduras last night, 1-0, announcers seemed almost disappointed, anxious to get back to their “fire Klinsy” chant should he fail to “get a result” against Ecuador.

What Eric Wynalda, Alexi Lalas, Jimmy Conrad and others had to say mystified me, until I remembered where and how they had played their international soccer.

They were all part of the team built by Bruce Arena, a fine coach, a good man, America's best in many ways. And they feel threatened by what Juergen Klinsmann is trying to do.

Leave Klinsy Al-o-o-o-o-ne!

Like other American footy fans I was very disappointed in the national team's losses to Costa Rica and Belgium over the international break.

The youngsters came out flying at the start of the first game and faded. The oldsters did the best they could but made one mistake and paid for it.

The announcers were all upset with the coach. In a way that's good. It shows we care. But in this case it's unfair.

The reason lay in Klinsmann's smile, which almost never left his face throughout the two matches.

The Core of Corruption in “College” Football

Everyone knows college football is corrupt. It always has been.

But as another season kicks off, with more poor kids getting their knees, backs and heads stoved-in for the entertainment of rich alumni, it's a good time to note the source of that corruption.

The NFL.

Football is the only collegiate sport that serves as the sole minor league for its professional game. Yes, there are NBA basketball players on some campuses, but most are just passing through for a year. Seniors are usually second-rounders. Some baseball players go pro, but you can choose to sign right out of high school, and most clubs prefer that you do. Future pros are scattered among the other sports, although you know what they call collegiate womens' gymnastics don't you – the senior tour.

Only in football (American football you dork, not soccer) does the pro sport depend on the college sport to train its employees. A few kids have gone early, but most turn into negative examples. No, the techniques, the training, the coaching, the schemes – the pro game is college dependent. (Thus the league imposed an NCAA penalty on Terrelle Pryor when he left Ohio State, suspending him for five pro games. In poker that is called a tell.)

The right American for Europe

I haven't written about soccer recently, so all you politics fans stand down a moment.

In the wake of a disappointing performance at the World Cup, American football has to start over. Landon Donovan is 28 and will be heading downhill by 2014. Most Americans currently playing in Europe are being treated shabbily, they're being called lazy and lacking in ball skills. They have no leverage to be treated better.

The next U.S. coach -- and it probably won't be Bob Bradley again -- needs to add agent to his skill set. He needs to take responsibility for having key players learning and playing constantly. While European coaches can complain about the selfishness of their hopefuls, the American coach needs to be selfish for his players.

The USA team was hurt last time by the fact so many of our stars and potential stars were sitting on European benches. Solving the problem needs to be job one. Since European games are now all over American TV this job is becoming more urgent. (Ironically part of the solution involves sending some of our kids to places like Mexico, Brazil and Argentina, where they are more likely to get playing time and the fans' abuse will toughen them up.)

But there is a job two that is closely related. That is getting our top stars onto top European clubs and onto the field of play.

As Europe heads toward the closing of its transfer deadline, much of the speculation concerns Donovan. He played well at Everton, and they want him back. But Donovan doesn't want to go back. There is one MLS player, however, who is at the top of his game, who would benefit enormously from European play, and who could become a starl there.

Edson Buddle.

Buddle is 29. He has been scoring at a breakneck pace for a year now. He is the best scorer the Galaxy has, including Donovan. He is up for the challenge. He can go into an English side and do a lot more than Altidore did, because he has more experience.

American soccer deserves more respect. MLS is no longer a place where any European pro can shine. The level of play is on a par with the top of England's Championship -- and level with that of Scotland. (It's actually faster than Scotland.) But we don't get respect because our best young players aren't ready for top European leagues, they're shuttled from pillar-to-post and don't develop, and our best players tend to stay here.

Buddle can change that and I  hope he does. Soon.

College athletics is all politics

The big mistake made by sportswriters looking at college athletics is to over-estimate the extent to which their stories are about money, when they're really all about political influence.

Fact. College athletics does not contribute directly to the education enterprise. All the money that goes in stays in. It's either paid to coaches in salary or goes into facilities. 

For kids, college athletics is a money sink. As more schools find they have to play the political game of college athletics, kids are charged for it.

My own son, now at Georgia State, is having to pay $85 per semester this year so GSU can field a football team. Why? Because football makes them a player in the legislature. It means they're no longer just a "commuter school" but a big-time competitor for funding alongside Georgia Tech, Georgia Southern and the University of Georgia.

That's what college athletics is about. It's about winning the loyalty of legislatures for the rest of a school's agenda. When the big state school dominates the headlines, it dominates funding. That's the money sportswriters should be following, not the TV contracts but the appropriations.

We can beat England

We can also get drubbed 5-0.

But the U.S. can win their game next Saturday. Here's why.

The New Madden

No tech today. No business. No politics. It's Columbus Day so we'll pretend it's your day off.

Instead it's something completely different. American football. Specifically its analysis, and the best guy working in that field. Tony Dungy (right).

In his first year Dungy has taken over NBC's Sunday Night football show with his quiet authority, with his knowledge and with his humanity. The network found a perfect sidekick for him in the recently-retired Rodney Harrison, but this is Dungy's show and we're all the better for it.

Football needed a new face when John Madden quit, and while it's a surprise to find it in a studio show host you take what you can get. Everyone on the set defers to Dungy, and it's easy to see why. Everything he says is letter-perfect for the moment. He knows the people, he knows the game as very few do (which he's proven) but there's something about his air of calm, reflective authority I find fascinating.

Mexico Wins

I actually preferred watching the USA-Mexico match yesterday on Telemundo, even though my Spanish is horrible.

Andres Cantor is one of the world's great announcers, the vocabulary of the game is sparse (pelota is ball, partido is game), and they concentrate on what is in front of them.

What was in front of them yesterday was some good football. For once I can't fault USA coach Bob Bradley for either his game-day selection or his second-half tactics. The players just didn't execute.

(Notice how in this picture from SoccerbyIves both fans are smiling, and they're not segregated from one another. An example for the rest of the world. I love Mexican soccer fans, by the way -- really enjoyed them during the recent AC Milan-Club America match in Atlanta.)

The USA got a small lead when Charlie Davies got a through ball from Landon Donovan, beat the off-side trap, got behind the defense and finished brilliantly. (The Usher-at-the-microphone celebration was also first-rate.) That was the idea. Long balls from Tim Howard (brilliant all game long), from the defense, anything to get over the midfield fast and hit them on the break.

U.S. finds a center

My daughter and I watched last night's U.S.-T&T tilt and for me the big news is we found a center at last.

Football players come in three varieties -- forwards, midfielders and defenders. The first two are sometimes called strikers, the second sometimes wingers. The strikers are the important ones. They put the ball in the onion bag most often.

Of these the rarest breed are the centers.

What U.S. Soccer Needs

A voice.

David Beckham can come back or go. Players change. Managers change.

Announcers are the key to building a TV audience for sport.

What's football without John Madden? What made Chicago baseball so memorable, other than Harry Carey?  Hockey has Don Cherry. Basketball has Dick Vitale.

The beautiful game has Ray Hudson. And the American game needs him.

Hudson is a Brit, specifically a Geordie, from England's northeast. He played a while at home. then came here in 1977, and finished his career as an MLS coach, at Miami and with D.C. United.

But it's his announcing that makes him special. It's his voice that the game needs.