Recommended Reading: De Toekomst

Here's a June 2010 New York Times Magazine article on the youth development program at Ajax:

The youth academy of the famed Dutch soccer club Ajax is grandiosely called De Toekomst--The Future. Set down beside a highway in an unprepossessing district of Amsterdam, it consists of eight well-kept playing fields and a two-story building that houses locker rooms, classrooms, workout facilities and offices for coaches and sports scientists. In an airy cafe and bar, players are served meals and visitors can have a glass of beer or a cappuccino while looking out over the training grounds. Everything about the academy, from the amenities to the pedigree of the coaches--several of them former players for the powerful Dutch national team--signifies quality.

- John C.L. Morgan

Clint Dempsey Sets American Scoring Record in EPL

U.S. National Team standout (and New England Revolution alum) Clint Dempsey not only scored the game-winning goal in Fulham's game against Liverpool on Monday, but he also set the record for the most goals scored by an American in the English Premier League when he tallied his 37th goal of his Fulham career. The video* above a collection of most of those goals.

- John C.L. Morgan

* I apologize for the soundtrack accompanying the video. As this Run of Play piece argues, bad accompanying music is epidemic among YouTube highlight videos of this sort. I have to say, though, I'm not all that excited about the suggestions contained in the essay either.

Fall River Marksmen, Circa 1921

Revs Should Complement New Uniforms with Throwbacks

The New England Revolution introduced their 2012 uniforms to the public on Saturday.

And though I can't say I'm a big fan of the new threads,* I was disappointed for another reason: The New England Revolution (and the MLS in general) appear to be missing an opportunity to introduce most of its fans to a rich history of American soccer that predates both the MLS and the NASL by complementing their 2012 jerseys with a jersey that gives a nod to, say, 1921, the year in which professional teams in leagues such as the American Soccer League kicked off the "Golden Age of American Soccer."

An exhaustive search on the Maine Memory Network Web site yields but one lone photograph of a soccer game between those hotbeds of Maine soccer, Biddeford and Saco, circa 1912. And if American soccer ever gets face time on ESPN Classic, you're more likely to hear the live play-by-play call of a late-night international against Grenada than you are to hear a leather-throated baritone conducting a melodramatic voiceover about the spectacular exploits of Archie Stark.

Considering this mass media and cultural blackout blanketing the history of soccer in America, it's no wonder that even the most passionate soccer fans among us possess a gap in our knowledge, an ignorance of the long roots of professional soccer in the U.S.

The Revolution, then, would do well by taking at least one home game to adopt the throwback uniforms of the Fall River Marksmen (see above) and give us fans an excuse to talk and learn about how this sport has a much richer history in this country than a lot of us appreciate.

Until that happens, though, I suppose I'd settle for the Revolution to take a cue from the Philadelphia Union and at least recognize on their Web site that professional soccer in New England did not just begin with the birth of the MLS in 1995.

- John C.L. Morgan

* Despite my lack of enthusiasm for the new uniforms, I do appreciate the Revolution's efforts to incorporate the flag of New England on the back of the jerseys. It's small, but the official adoption of iconic regional imagery is another step in the right direction for a team still looking to be considered part of the so-called MLS 2.0 brand.

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