Here at TopDrawerSoccer.com we have been up to our eyeballs preparing and beginning the 2010 Men's and Women's College seasons. The 2nd weekend of women's play begins tonight, while the men's regular season begins next Wednesday (don't miss our LIVE webcast of Army vs. Marist Wednesday night at 6:45 p.m. EST). We have put together a pretty impressive array of tables, lists, rankings and articles on these pages, if I do say so myself.My question to you is what does the world of c... Read more...

So Sunday brings the final match of the 2010 World Cup. I will be sad to see it go.It really is a one-of-a-kind event and the soccer on display has been great to see. It also serves to show us where we really are as a producer of top soccer talent and how far we still have to go.My point in the last article appears to have been lost on at least once commenter. It's not that the coach of the national team does not matter to that team's performance, but that our p... Read more...

I've been thinking about this one for a while now and since ESPN's obligation to talk about the U.S. Men's National Team at least once a day since the U.S. exit from the World last weekend seems never to travel far beyond discussion of Bob Bradley's future, it's hard not to.But the more I consider what happened with this team during qualification, the run in to the big show in South Africa and at the event itself, I'm convinced the prudent course of action for Sunil Gulati and U.S. Soc... Read more...

So much has been said already about the U.S. 2-1 loss to Ghana in the World Cup, but this seems like the right time to summarize. 1. The team performance was better than 2006, but not great.There were some important intangibles that Bob Bradley built with this team, perhaps most notably team spirit. I don't think there were any glaring omissions from the squad and the one or two selection debates that any team has notwithstanding, Bradley got the team right. The team's most notable result was... Read more...

It's after midnight here in Indianapolis. I made it home late tonight after covering the Region III Championships in Baton Rouge for the past 7 days. I'm working on my final story from that event, but my mind is still buzzing with what happened in South Africa today.Between games and interviews at the youth event, I was ducking into a tent where Region III had a television set up during the week to allow for World Cup viewing. It was a nice touch but on Wednesday, with the bustle of the finals g... Read more...

Yes, the U.S. Men's National Team got a raw deal at the end of its 2-2 draw with Slovenia when the center referee called a phantom foul, preventing Maurice Edu's volley from a Landon Donovan free kick from counting as the game-winning goal. But for Michael Bradley, Josmer Altidore and any other players who were having a go at the referee after he blew for full time, they should go take a look in the mirror first.The team, so active and even valiant in coming back from a 2-0 half... Read more...

It doesn't change a thing in terms of the national, systemic player development problems we have in this country, but the U.S. Men's National Team delivered a promising enough performance Saturday at the World Cup.Even new technical director Claudio Reyna said how the team does isn't how we should gauge ourselves as a producer of playing talent, but we'll leave that larger picture issue aside for now and try to enjoy the team playing at the biggest stage.As always, Bob Bradley's... Read more...

A few thoughts about the USA-Australia friendly from obscure ground in South Africa. ESPN have really committed a lot of resources to this World Cup. Here's hoping they get the announcer combinations right. I was so bothered by the clumsiness between Martin Tyler and John Harkes that I switched to Galavision for the last minutes of the 1st half (and my Spanish isn't that good). However having Tivod the match on ESPN and needing to miss the 2nd Half live due to a family comm... Read more...

Saturday's send off to the World Cup for the U.S. Men's National Team had plenty of feel-good around it.A crowd of more than 55,000 were quite enthusiastic as Bob Bradley's team came from behind to defeat Turkey 2-1 in the friendly. Wins are always better than losses, right? Both of the goals were pretty nice, especially the 1st when Robbie Findley and Landon Donovan each played excellent passes before Josmer Altidore finished. But Clint Dempsey's late winner, when he apparently intentionally ... Read more...

OK - I know the result doesn't matter and that it was just about performance and evaluation. Now that I've said that, I am reminded of a blog I wrote earlier in World Cup Qualifying about how little depth this U.S. Men's National Team has. In Tuesday's 4-2 friendly loss in Connecticut, Bob Bradley rested most of the starters and allowed players who ostensibly are competing for spots in the 2nd 11 to showcase. I think it's safe to say that not many of them did. Among the starting 11, Stuart Ho... Read more...

So I just finished watching the series finale of "Lost" and I have to confess, I am regretting this use of my time. I knew I would be a bit confused considering my entire viewing history of this program before tonight consisted of part of one episode a couple of years ago. I didn't know any of the characters' names except that there was a guy named Desmond because my old grad school friend Andy Ullman had a simple message on his Facebook page a few weeks ago that just said "Why, Desmon... Read more...

A brief departure from our normal format just to say that there is a coaching symposium going on Friday and Saturday in Cleveland, Ohio that might be worth a late change in plans (I just got word of thiis Friday). http://www.ussoccer.com/News/Coaching-Education/20... Read more...

Well I just flew in from Los Angeles and the cold and rainy weather here at Indianapolis reminds me of why people pay so much to live out there, but I'll take my mortgage here any day. The weather in Southern California also makes it an ideal place to have youth national team training camps, and I was able to get glimpses of four such teams in action during my week out there. My longest and best look was of the U14 Boys National Team, the 1996 birth year age group. I liked much of what I s... Read more...

Well they tried to gag me for a while but the fact is, more people want to hear what Dark Horse has to say than those whose feelings get hurt because I'm not afraid to speak the truth. And the truth is, I am way cooler, sicker and hotter than your son is.Top Drawer even lost my little picture thing, but just try to remember what I look like, and if you don't know, I look like something who is the best, because that's what I am.I used to come on here and say I was the next Kaka, ... Read more...

Well I just finished watching the USA vs. Holland and I think the commentators got a little too giddy about the late goal and final scoreline for Bob Bradley's team in the match. The Dutch should have won this game by a lot  more.Our defensive line seemed to be playing way too high in the 1st half and we were a bit lucky after getting caught out on more than one occasion. Our overall defensive effort was not that solid, with Jonathan Bornstein having an especially bad night. Jonathan ... Read more...

Reading the recent article about the practices of big clubs and the possibility of overtraining, it  opens up a whole can of worms about what goes on with training our sons and daughters. I think I'm learning a lot as my son and daughter get older, but if I'm getting close to understanding it, it's probably only because we're almost done with our youth soccer "adventure." Sometimes I have to stop and wonder if we're doing the right thing at all.Typically the only advice we are ... Read more...

If you need a reminder that soccer does not compare to football and basketball on the college sports pantheon, look no further than the publicity around National Signing Day.Did you know that scarcely 20 percent of DI programs have put out their one allotted news release about the signing class that program's coaches were able to bring in?In some cases they may be waiting for a straggling commit, but more often it's a matter of the athletic department getting to the point where ... Read more...

We have no depth. That's the reiterated lesson of Saturday Night's U.S. Men's National Team 3-1 loss to Honduras. Yes, it was our 2nd choice team, with most of the starters playing with their European professional teams. I get that. The problem is that in a match like this you want to see who might be in the works for spots 12-20 on a World Cup roster this summer. If this was it, we're in trouble.Honduras carved us open at Home Depot Center, thrilling what sounded like a majority-Honduran crowd ... Read more...

With the year's end, it has been suggested a list of top stories from American soccer in 2009 would be appropriate. Actually a list of top stories from the decade was suggested, but I'm having a hard enough time remembering what has happened this week at Disney, let alone what happened in 2000. Which brings to mind the question as to whether this year or next year is really the end of the decade. I guess it is the 9 year, but we still don't know what to call the first decade of the century (I... Read more...

So I enjoyed Christmas with my family and left Indianapolis early this evening - and here I am in Northern Georgia having made what in my mind is very good time. Thankfully very few other travelers were out on the road and I was able to motoro through Kentucky and Tennessee, even passing by the Tennessee Titans' stadium in Nashville, where the home team was getting punked by San Diego tonight.I have a confession to make - I like other sports besides soccer. yes, I'll be listening to ... Read more...