It was a wild year, good and bad, for American soccer. On the field and off, new personalities burst on the scene. Our list of the top new personalities includes five players, plus an MLS owner, anNASL owner, a mayor, a judge, an attorney and a lobbyist. Megan Barry. A year ago, no one gave […]
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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Tom Byer: Look to parents, not coaches, to create skillful players
When New Yorker Tom Byer, who has spent more than 20 years of running youth soccer programs in Japan, was appointed the Head Technical Advisor by the Chinese Football Association in2012, The South China Morning Post announced that the man who is regarded as a “superhero” in Japan is leading the “Chinese soccer revolution.” SOCCER […]
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Pay-to-Play: The complexity of high-cost youth soccer explained by former Bay Area club president Eric Sippel
By Mike Woitalla To gather further insight into American youth soccer pay-to-play, we speak to Eric Sippel, who has vast experience in youth soccer and the financial world. A Stanford law schoolgraduate and nationally recognized hedge-fund executive who is now a private investor, Sippel, during his eight-year tenure as a youth club president in Oakland, California, […]
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Clay Berling, Soccer America founder, dies at age 86
In 1967, Clay Berling took his wife and six children to see the Oakland Clippers play because the soccer game presented the only affordable opportunity to bring his entire familyto the Oakland Coliseum, which had been constructed the year before. He fell in love with soccer on that day. For less than $10, Berling and his […]
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Brian Glanville: A conversation at his London home about soccer and books
By Mike Woitalla I ask Brian Glanville how many books he’s written, and he answers, “Too many.” It’s actually about 60, more than half ofwhich are soccer books, fiction and non-fiction, from the man who started his sports journalism career as a teenager, has covered 13 World Cups, and at age 86 writes regularly for […]
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A coach's life: Benjamin Ziemer combines backyard brotherhood experience with worldwide lessons
By Mike Woitalla Benjamin Ziemer, one of four brothers of the renowned Northern California Ziemer soccer family, serves as the Sacramento Republic’s boys Development Academy U-19 head coach and U-17 assistant, and is a founder and the president of NorCal Premier Soccer. Ziemer, who served as assistant to Hugo Perez on the U-14 and U-15 […]
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Werder Bremen 'delighted' to land 17-year-old Sargent
Josh Sargent, the 17-year-old St. Louis product who played in the U-20 World Cup earlier this year and is heading to the U-17 World Cup next month, will sign a pro contract withBundesliga club Werder Bremen when he turns 18 on Feb. 20. “It’s been very fun, travelingaround the world, looking at different clubs and […]
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A coach's life: MLS veteran Eric Quill returns to his Texas youth club and wins another national title
By Mike Woitalla Eric Quill played on the U-16 U.S. Youth Soccer 1994 national championship-winning Houston Texans team coached by legendary youth coachRoy Rees. During Quill’s nine-year MLS career, his coaches included Bob Gansler and Bob Bradley. After his playing career, Quillreturned to his childhood club and this summer guided Texans SC Houston to the […]
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Galaxy coach Brian Kleiban has the American Messi's back
By Mike Woitalla@MikeWoitalla Growing up in Southern California, the son of Argentine parents,Brian Kleiban admired Fernando Redondo, Ariel Ortega, Pablo Aimar, Juan Roman Riquelme and JuanVeron — creative Argentine players and predecessors to Lionel Messi. After Kleiban started coaching youth soccer, he made annual internship trips to FCBarcelona. Why couldn’t the USA produce players like […]
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Venerable Queens club BW Gottschee going strong thanks to Ben Boehm
By Mike Woitalla It’s a Sunday morning in Queens and Ben Boehm is smiling like a man about to spend a day doing what he really enjoys. For Boehm,that’s being at the soccer field. When he was a boy, to play pickup games at Highland Park, he would walk a mile and half to save […]