The Wembley Experience: Lesson About Hooliginism

My experience at Wembley Stadium the other night for the US-England game was outstanding. Not only because of the atmosphere and enthusiasm around international football at England’s National Stadium and throughout London (Although I will point out that this visit reinforced a long held belief of mine having visited both cities on multiple occasions that Londoners are much ruder and more condescending than Parisians, but that people from England outside of London are simply more personable) but because of what I discovered about English football. As has been mentioned in a previous post many of the English fans I spoke to were from outside London and supported lower league sides. Many said that they find the Premier League dull and predictable while being curious about MLS, especially the play of the British players who used to play football in England. (I was asked specific questions about Rohan Ricketts, Terry Cooke and Ronnie O’Brien) This stands in direct contrast to the legions of American fans who flock to the Premier League and spend time ridiculing their own domestic league.

As has been discussed on both the American Soccer Show and on this blog the past few weeks MLS has a developing problem with controlling fan behavior. In my conversations with English fans I attempted to get a sense of how supporters of the clubs in the Coca Cola Championship, League One and League Two deal with the problems. The answers I got were fascinating. As Dougie Brimson pointed out in our interview with him a few weeks back, self policing is the key. If any fan attempts to create a violent atmosphere or a “showdown” with supporters of other clubs they are simply ostracized or thrown out of the supporters groups. In addition, supporters work with local police and with opposing clubs and their supporters groups to head off any problems before they become issues. Acknowledgment is a key to dealing with problems as I have been repeatedly told.

This was demonstrated to me as on a few separate occasions English fans did try and start unsolicited taunting of me or other US supporters only to be called off by another England supporter or to stop when they saw groups of four or five police officers nearby both before and after the match. The police presence was impressive but to me even more impressive was the maturity of some English fans to tell their fellow supporters to chill out when they saw me sporing a US jacket and scarf. That’s not to say I wasn’t taunted often or that some fans were trying to provoke a reaction out of me. For example, when I walked on the train at Queens Park Station to go to Paddington to switch to the Heathrow Express, four English fans greeted me with chants of “you are gay, you are gay” chanted like U-S-A, U-S-A. I did not react but did see others on the train sort of stare down the four young, drunk looking fans and I simply ignored them.

But as I said acknowledgment is part of solving the problem. This past week we had arguably the worst incident of fan behavior in the thirteen year history of MLS. As our friends at the MLS Rumors site have discussed in the conversation they have been leading for several weeks now, it is important to recognize and confront these incidents as they occur. When we discussed Toronto FC a few weeks back we saw somewhat militant but intelligent responses. It was obvious from some of the responses and my subsequent conversations that many TFC supporters take the situation seriously and are attempting to deal with it. However, anything that has gone on in Toronto pales in comparison with the events in Columbus this past weekend.

What’s even more disturbing about the situation in Columbus is that little accountability has been demonstrated by supporters of the Crew. When we discussed TFC a few weeks back, ironically enough a few comments were left by Columbus fans claiming that the behavior of TFC supporters who came to Ohio for the MLS opener had created the environment where many Crew fans were unwilling to go to the subsequent matches. Now we have learned if anything it is the behavior of the Crew’s own supporters and the lack of willingness of their supporters groups to police their own that have gotten us to this position.

So defensive about the situation are some Crew supporters that they have even threatened to go after the sponsors of the MLS Rumors site which broke the story. I ask those particular Crew supporters, Why stop there? Why not go after the Boston Globe, the Washington Post, WBNS TV, You Tube and the MLS itself, among others for acknowledging and confronting the situation in Columbus. If you are so convinced your fans are being thrown under the bus why not boycott any media outlet that doesn’t rubber stamp your agenda of sweeping these issues under the rug. From my vantage point the response of some in Columbus is simply nothing less than cowardly and insulting.

The incidents of racism were so ugly in Columbus on Saturday night that they do not bear repeating. They have cast MLS in a negative light in the mainstream media, the type of situation we had hoped to avoid and why specifically I wrote the piece I did several weeks back. The irony once again is that it was a few Crew supporters that claimed I was not tough enough on Toronto FC. But it is Columbus who now must do something about this situation before others are forced to take action against them.

One thing I have learned from speaking with Dougie Brimson and my experiences at Wembley is that while these sorts of incidents are common place still England, they are dealt with quickly and firmly be it by law enforcement or by supporters groups. If we don’t develop the same culture of self policing and honesty about these incidents here in the US we are doomed to a consistent repeat of the sort of ugly incidents that have engulfed so many football leagues throughout the globe in the not so distant past.

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England vs the USA: How do They Compare?

abio Capello is a top coach in international club football. He is someone who understands tactics and developing young players. For a nation like England who are in dire straights in both regards (tactical flexibility and player development) he is a smart hire. Capello as many of our readers know actually spent several hours in September discussing a role with the US Federation in a meeting with Sunil Gulati and Bob Bradley. Something about England was more attractive to Capello than coming to the US as a technical director. Perhaps it was the reported £6.5 million or simply the opportunity to be a Head Coach again, something that was apparently not on the table in the discussions with the United States. But I figured this was as good a time as any to compare the national set ups of both nations, the two national teams the majority of our readers follow regularly.

England has far more talent than the United States. Make no mistake about that. I don’t believe England’s talent pool is as deep as the American pool but honestly Landon Donovan is the only American field player who would ever have a chance of cracking an England starting XI. In fact, Donovan is probably the only American field player who could crack a 23 man tournament squad list for England. (For the record let me state that I believe on his day Donovan can be better than any English player or just about any player in the world, but those days seem to be further and further in the rear view mirror as of this writing.) Again, the US probably has more players that they could field on an international side, a deeper player pool but no question exists in my mind that among the top thirty players or so England is far, far ahead of the United States, with the exception of Landon Donovan.

Obviously American keepers are superior to English keepers, but absent a proven international keeper like Brad Friedel (retired from international football) or the ageing Kasey Keller the US advantage is substantially minimized. Sure Tim Howard is better than Rob Green or David James, but not by the margin someone like Freidel was over the top English keepers in his prime. Keep in mind Kasey Keller once was beat out to be Spurs top keeper by none other than Paul Robinson. At one time the US had keepers like Mike Amman, Juergen Sommer, Tony Meola and Zach Thornton all of whom would have been decent #2s for England behind David Seaman struggling to get a game with the US. In other words, the US goalkeeper talent pool isn’t as deep as it once was.

Where the US has a distinct advantage is in facilities and training techniques. I don’t want to insult any of our readers, but England’s non qualification for the Euro 2008 Finals isn’t because of Steve McClaren but simply the culmination of years of neglect by the FA. Fabio Capello should change that, but here is where the US and most nations with decent football governing bodies have a huge advantage.

England’s failure to keep open a national training academy owes itself both to a culture where club football has taken precedence over the welfare of the National Team and where player development has taken a back seat to importing foreign players for the domestic league. In other words, the success of the Premier League has hurt England’s National Team and not having a strong FA has made matters worse. Consider the US’ position. MLS has until recently been a fairly weak league whose reason for existence was specifically to develop American players. Combine that with the full time residency academy US Soccer has in Bradenton, Florida and it is no wonder that despite inferior talent, the US teams look more like a unit rather than a ragged group of individuals like England’s team. The American players often times have known each other since they were 14 or 15 and understand each others game. While Flourant Malouda’s more outrageous comments were out of line a few weeks ago, I do agree with the part about players brains freezing in the middle of Premier League matches. I see that all the time and always see it with England’s National Team as well. Tactically English players and coaches aren’t flexible whereas American coaches are, something we’ll get more into shortly.

Then there is the subject of having adequate training facilities. For many in England it is alright to borrow these from the clubs, whereas the United States has its own facility at the Home Depot Center. Again, the US has a clear advantage in this department and beyond that an understanding of how you succeed in international football. Borrowing facilities from a club like Arsenal for the English FA is just flat embarrassing. England from my understanding doesn’t even have a team doctor or a meeting place for the national team. This is all very reminiscent of the status of poorer Football Federations in the third world, not of the footballing power that England should be.

Finally the subject of tactics is very critical to our discussion. Bob Bradley has reversed Bruce Arena’s years of tactical negligence by implementing a clear philosophy with the national team. These tactics have actually won the United States the last two friendlies on the road we have played in. This is something Capello should be able to work on for England, because even in the Sven years when he’d have a tactical approach, all too often the English players would become undisciplined and begin playing route one football out of some desperate desire to score quickly or simply out of habit. The opposite can be said for Bob Bradley and going back a bit to Steve Sampson. Both coaches I routinely saw make tactical changes, formation changes, early substitutions during matches that appeared to be getting away from the US. Not only do we never seem to see this with England’s National Team, but in the Premier League many coaches seem to submit their team sheet and then wait for the postgame interview. If England can learn one thing from Fabio Capello it is tactical discipline and flexibility. Sven had the tactical savvy to succeed but not the discipline to enforce his strategy on an unwilling group of players, not the willingness to sit a top player if they weren’t playing the game the way he had prepared them to play. Capello will be different, and he may be successful. But his success will depend on the willingness of the English to break their current mold and develop a national team program befitting of such a great footballing nation.

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US Needs to Learn from England Failure

English Football suffered an embarrassing home defeat to a good Croatia side Wednesday night. While I believe Croatia is as good if not better than England at the moment, losing to the Croats at Wembley when they have already qualified for the Euro 2008 finals and the Three Lions had everything to play for is unacceptable from the perspective of those of us who believe International Football and the growth of the game here in the US need a strong England side fighting for trophies and honors.

The signs of decline have been unmistakable for sometime now in English Football even if the somewhat jingoistic and shallow British media had failed to recognize it. The reality is England has long seized to be an international footballing power: even the hiring of a superb club manager like Sven Goran Eriksson could not stifle the decline. While the English league is as good as it gets on the planet, the national team was much better off in the days when English football wasn’t awash with cash and many of the best English players played their club football for Rangers or AC Milan. In addition, England’s clubs seem to have little interest in developing good English talent from a young stage instead in many cases opting to buy finished articles from abroad. In other words the English Premier League has not helped English national team football.

This is a harsh lesson that needs to be learned by US Soccer Federation and Major League Soccer. The continued desire to over expand, over commercialize and add more foreign players in MLS is the beginning of the slippery slope for the United States that England has now found itself on. With a nation like the USA, with only a fraction of the footballing history of culture of England, the consequences of making these sort of mistakes could be catastrophic. Simply put football in the United States may never recover.

“Soccer’s time has come,” reads the advertisement from MLS that blares on television screens throughout the US. MLS clever advertising slogan is part true and part fantasy. Soccer’s time has come in the sense that a dedicated cadre of supporters line MLS stadiums each week but is fantasy in believing that MLS has made a dent in the mainstream American sport consciousness. Nonetheless, the dedicated cadre of soccer fans creates a base from which to build from and with the continued improvement of the US National Team on the international level the future is very bright.

But like England, the U.S. has a potential major pitfall coming in the way of over expansion of the domestic league due to love of money, and the breaking of levee of foreign players storming over the gates to play in the U.S. I am not of the opinion that England’s decline as a soccer power is due solely to the foreign influence in the premier league both in terms of ownership and players. I am however of the opinion that that sort of dynamic in the United States considering we don’t have the footballing culture England has could stifle any long term success the United States National Team may have.

MLS has spoken in the past week of an idea to increase the number of senior international allotments per club to seven on an eighteen man roster. This from my perspective is unacceptable. While MLS hasn’t broken through the glass ceiling needed to become a mainstream sport in the U.S., the league has developed a deep and technically skilled player pool for the US National Team because every team in the league has been forced to invest in developing and honing American talent. Much of this talent has been sold to teams in Europe, which both helps to further develop the skills and international pedigree of the players in question and helps to sustain the league and clubs through securing large transfer fees for the player. From my perspective the fact that England’s players almost all play in the domestic league and seem to only know one style to play is something the U.S. needs to avoid at all costs. U.S. Manager Bob Bradley is a breathe of fresh air as he seems more tactically flexible and astute than his predecessor Bruce Arena. But Bradley’s good work could be threatened if MLS makes the wrong choice and doesn’t heed the obvious warnings coming from our friends across the pond.