Pine State Table: Final Standings

 

(Click table to enlarge)

 

 

- John C.L. Morgan

 

(Related: Introducing the Pine State Table) 

Introducing the Pine State Table

(Editor's Note: Click on table to enlarge.)

Beginning on August 29 when the University of New England hosts Maine Maritime Academy in Biddeford, Maine's eleven Division III men's soccer programs will play a total of 35 games among themselves.

The table above will be updated throughout the season to track how the eleven programs stack up against one another in direct competition.

- John C.L. Morgan

(Full disclosure: I am helping the men's program at USM as a volunteer assistant coach.)

The Cosmopolitan Provincialist: Six Reasons Why I'm Supporting SD Eibar

Even though I've been an avid FC Barcelona supporter since reading this book ten years ago, searching for a complementary European team or two to support has become a bit of a summer ritual for me over the last couple years. This annual quest has sometimes been quick and based on straight-up provincialism (see Liverpool FC and AS Roma), but it has also been based on criteria so esoteric and flighty that I would forget a couple weeks into the season exactly why I was following this or that team.

I'm especially taken with the task this summer now that my hometown team  is just (sort of) bouncing back from an ugly stretch  and my great-grandmother's hometown team is drifting rudderless into another year in England's second division. So on a recent afternoon I had a Crowley Moment, only instead of drunk-waking in front of the Argentine Air Force's Web site, I discovered myself reading a July 2006 post by Bill Simmons on the same dilemma. Not only that, but I've succumbed to the Internet wormhole Crowley describes: I've checked enough European clubs' Wikipedia pages to know that FC Dordrecht (Netherlands) considers Johan Cruyff to be its most famous player, even though he appeared in only three 1981 friendlies for the team.

Anyway, all of this is some long-winded context for a new feature I'll be adding a weekly feature on this site. Each week I'll track the progress of SD Eibar, a newly-promoted team to Spain's La Liga division for the following five reasons

• By Maine standards, Eibar is a small town. Its 9.57 square miles of land area make it about half the size of Westbrook, but only about one-third larger than Hallowell. Also, its 27,000 residents would make it only the 4th most populous city in our relatively sparse state, which means it's only slightly more populous than South Portland.

• By Maine standards, Eibar's stadium, Ipurua, is a small stadium. To wit: Portland's Fitzpatrick Stadium can fit 1,000 more fans than Ipurua can with its current capacity of 5,250.

• SD Eibar is debt-free, which is a remarkable feat in an industry notorious for financial excess. In fact, the club has been so fiscally responsible that it recently had to raise $2 million to ensure its promotion from Spain's second division to the country's top division went through. 

• Speaking of being forced to raise $2 million to satisfy a requirement of promotion to Spain's top league: The club tapped into the Basque region's worker cooperative ethos and sold voting shares of the club for 50 euros each, with a maximum investment of 100,000 euros.  

• The club's story reminds me of The Miracle of Castel di Sangro, the late Joe Mcginnis's book on a similarly-sized club's unlikely season playing top-level European soccer. Read this book, if you get the chance.

• And finally, even though the chances of Major League Soccer adopting a promotion and relegation system appear to be slim, SD Eibar's unlikely ascent to La Liga gives us provincialists everywhere hope that one day the world's finest players--i.e., Xavi, Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, etc.--could one day play in our backyards.

- John C.L. Morgan

SMAA Tops WMC in Annual Maine High School All-Star Games

WCSH:

All-star senior soccer players from Maine put on their cleats for a good cause. The 24th annual All-Star Soccer Tournament to benefit Special Olympics Maine was held Tuesday in Westbrook. For the boys, the Southern Maine Activities Association (SMAA) team topped the Western Maine Conference (WMC) 4-1. On the girls side, SMAA beat WMC 3-1. Organizers estimate that two games raise about $8,000 for Special Olympics Maine.

Five Thoughts on Klinsmann's Three Years

Three years ago today, U.S. Soccer's Sunil Gulati announced the hiring of Jurgen Klinsmann to replace Bob Bradley as the coach of the U.S. Men's National Team. In commemoration of Klinsmann's and Gulati's leather anniversary, here's a quick look at some positives and negatives of Klinsmann's three-year tenure so far:

Positives:

* The U.S. qualified out of the 2014 World Cup's "Group of Death"

Since 1990, the U.S. has played in seven World Cups and has now survived the tournament's group stage in four of those competitions. The team's 2014 advancement to the knockout round marked the first time the U.S. has advanced from the group stage in consecutive World Cups, and Klinsmann deserves credit for overcoming the tournament's most laborious travel itinerary to qualify out of the group instantly dubbed the tourney's "Group of Death." Legitimate points can be made about the U.S. team's underwhelming style of play (see below), but surviving the group

* An overall record of 32-13-9, including an impressive 21-4-6 record in 2012 and 2013 competitions.

For some context, Klinsmann's winning percentage of 59% is slightly higher than the winning percentages belonging to his predecessors Bob Bradley (54%) and Bruce Arena (58%). And his positive result percentage (wins + ties/games played) is 76%, which is lower than Bradley's (85%) and Arena's (78%).

* Historic results, including the Americans' first-ever win over Italy and the Yanks' first-ever win in Mexico's Estadio Azteca.

Sure, both wins over Italy and Mexico were friendlies. But the win over Italy snapped a 10-game winless streak dating back to 1934, and the win in the notoriously hostile Estadio Azteca was remarkable enough to inspire a bloodthirsty cover on a soccer magazine's inaugural issue.

Negatives:

* Despite talk of adopting an attacking and technical style of play, the Yanks' style of play can still be described as "try hard, run fast."

Since his hiring three years ago, Klinsmann emphasized his desire for the U.S. to play a more proactive, attacking, and technically-astute brand of soccer. And even though Klinsmann continues to pay lip service to that style of play--and the U.S. has occasionally displayed the ability to actually walk that talk--its performance in the 2014 World Cup was reactive, defensive-minded, and conservative.

Here's a Dallas News article highlighting the Americans' impotent attack and reactionary approach in the World Cup before they relied on a record-setting performance by goalkeeper Tim Howard to be competitive with Belgium in Round of 16. At the risk of stretching a metaphor, we're still roping-and-doping, despite aspirations to be floaters and stingers.

* Landon Donovan

I didn't like the omission of Donovan from the World Cup roster when it was first announced, and I don't think I can ever be convinced it was a soccer-based decision. Worst of all, it's tough to not ridicule the inclusion of Chris Wondolowski and Brad Davis on the team, despite the fact that I respect both players' contributions to Major League Soccer.

- John C.L. Morgan

On the Rosevelt Soccer Club

American Journal:

Now, this brainchild is coming to life in the Rosevelt Soccer Club, a nonprofit, premier soccer option for boys in Westbrook, Windham, Buxton and Standish that should prove significantly more affordable than the few existing, for-profit outfits in Maine.

- John C.L. Morgan

(Full disclosure: I'm a co-founder of the Rosevelt Soccer Club.)

U.S. Gives Gutsy Performance, Bows Out of World Cup

NYT:

The United States was eliminated from the World Cup, but it went out battling. Belgium beat the Americans, 2-1, in the Round of 16 at Salvador, with all the goals coming in extra time. Tim Howard was heroic in keeping the game scoreless through 90 minutes, and he ended the evening credited officially with 15 saves. But in the third minute of extra time, Kevin De Bruyne finally broke the deadlock. He was set up by Romelu Lukaku, who had just come into the match.

Official highlights of the games can be seen here.

 

- John C.L. Morgan