The U.S. women’s national team started on the path to becoming a world power when Anson Dorrance became its head coach in 1986 and guided it to the inaugural Women’s World Cup title in 1991. Dorrance, who coached the USA through the summer of 1994, when his assistant Tony DiCicco took over, had started the […]
Mike Woitalla
Soccer America Executive Editor Mike Woitalla has written freelance articles about soccer for more than 30 media outlets in nine nations. The winner of eight United Soccer Coaches Writing Contest awards, he is the author of two books. He coaches and referees youth soccer, and is a "Soccer Without Borders" volunteer.
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Azteca gets bizarre but young Americans stay poised and display their great potential
This legendary soccer venue — the first stadium to host two World Cup finals — took on several forms during Thursday night’s Mexico-USA World Cup qualifier. Azteca Stadium, where Pele and his brilliant Brazilian teammates sparkled in 1970 during the first World Cup televised in color, in some sections seemed like a militarized zone, so […]
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Horst Bertl (1947-2022): The Bundesliga champ who helped create Texas soccer culture
By Mike Woitalla I called Horst Bertl on Oct. 26, 2017. It was a week after the USA failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup. We were interviewing several people from around the soccer community we felt were well-positioned to comment on what’s gone wrong and how to move forward with the men’s game […]
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15 coaching insights from Soccer America 2021 interviews
From coaches of various levels we spoke to in 2021, we’ve pulled 15 quotes that may serve you well when you take the field in 2022. 15. “I used to observe how my college lacrosse coach, Richie Moran, thought that the bottom player in our team was as important as the best player. And I […]
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The corner store that spread jogo bonito vibes through San Francisco: Toby Rappolt's Sunset Soccer Supply
One of the teenagers Toby Rappolt hired to work at Sunset Soccer Supply was an ethnic Armenian who fled Uzbekistan with his mother in 1991 and settled in San Francisco. The boy hardly spoke English but Rappolt figured his love of soccer and enthusiasm for the opportunity would see him through. “He was fascinated where all […]
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MLS Next Pro president Charles Altchek on the new league's launch, how it will grow, and why soccer enchants him
In 2020, Major Soccer League stepped in when U.S. Soccer ended its Boys Development Academy and launched MLS Next, a national youth league comprised of its clubs’ academy teams plus more than 100 amateur clubs. MLS’s expansion into the American soccer landscape increases further in 2022 with the launch of MLS Next Pro, a Division III […]
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New U.S. U-20 men's boss Mikey Varas arrives via FC Dallas after coaching Northern California elite youth clubs
Last week, U.S. Soccer announced that Mikey Varas would be the next head coach of the U-20 national team and it revived a team that has been dormant since January 2020 since the one and only camp of a cycle that was canceled because of COVID. It’s an important hire for the U.S. Soccer as […]
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Remembering the great Gerd Mueller: A goalscorer like no other
One of my favorite parts of interviewing people in the soccer world is to hear how they fell in love with the game. How this simple sport enchanted them so much that it would become a major of part of their lives. When the great German striker Gerd Müller died on Sunday at the age […]
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Tony Lepore: An extraordinary contributor to American soccer progress
A month before I watched Gio Reyna, Weston McKennie and Christian Pulisic score in the USA’s win over Mexico, I visited one of the Talent ID Centers to which U.S. Soccer invites boys and girls who had impressed regional scouts in club play. There were two sessions at the Val Vista Park in the Northern […]
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Caleb Porter on how MLS challenges coaches like no other league in the world
Only three head coaches have won MLS Cup championships with different clubs, and the first two — Sigi Schmid and Bruce Arena — are absolute legends. The third is Caleb Porter, whose path has followed a similar bend as these legends’. Like Schmid and Arena, Porter has shown a knack for building champions, first taking the […]