Soccer Hall of Fame is closing

This is true, and I think the Hall of Fame's voters have done an appropriate job of recognizing that difference. In the last 10 years, there have been 37 players inducted into the Hall of Fame: 30 men and seven women. In addition, the displays on women's soccer at the Hall of Fame are in no way at the same level as the displays on men's soccer.

 

This just in ... NSCAA - basically the long arm of college coaches - has turned down an exhibition of soccer history for their 2010 convention in Philadelphia.

It goes to prove the knuckle-headed ignorance that these egotisical slobs have of how soccer is influenced in real footballing nations.

Coaching by the book, for the book is the reason that the United States cannot produce the star players that emerge from other footballing nations.

Sure, they can play, they can compete as "good athletes" - but its the basic reason that Mia Hamm is voted the best soccer player from the USA.

What other nation that has won or been in the final of a World Cup would elevate a female as its finest product for the world's game ?

Can Mia play against Ronaldo or Kaka or John Terry ? No, or course not. Yet in the muddle-headed logic that the NSCCA coaches have whirling in their pea-brains it is ok.

For every Landon Donovan that we are lucky to produce we have 2 million college trained soccer players that add up to nothing and are idolized by no one.

Is it any wonder that MLS has signed more players since mid-season from Africa then from America ?

It is part and parcel of much (not all) of MLS and developemental soccer that feel no reason to educate young players with history. Need more proof ?

Go to any library or book store in America - see the number of soccer books on the shelf. Now see the number of which are "how to" books.

Now count the number that are about America's greatest players, clubs or competitions (I'll let you combine the last three).

Well done Philadelphia Convention ! Well done NSCAA !

 

We have the oldest Cup competition in the entire Americas and it is not celebrated for its legacy, it is not well know even among male soccer coaches in charge of future footballers and of course even some MLS coaches sniff at it like it should go away.
I was under the impression that in the final frontier of growing association football, ANYTHING, that has teeth, has history and breaks down in a NCAA bracket type concept would be a massive cornerstone for growing soccer in our sports mad culture. Who doesn't fill out a Road to the Final Four bracket in March? What U.S. sports junkie didn't want Rocky to win???
Our dads generation and the lame asses that run the soccer scene in our land couldn't sell a life vest on the Titanic.

There are books on "how to" for basketball as well. So the X's and O's can be educational in a book. Yet as I learned it growing up in SW Houston, black top, combative, winner stays, pick up basketball breeds talent.
It's cheap and endless for the player. Open to all age levels.

It is incredibley effective way of producing players and yet when applied to soccer our nation has coaches that look to reinvent the wheel with over coaching and robot runners.
Too many coaches suck the life outta their players so it should be little surprise that our soccer HOF has to resort to life support and be open only a few days out of the year.

 

So true CeltTexan - I was more inspired by a poster of Pele' than any coaches that tried to do X's and O's.

The bigwigs at these NSCAA coaching conventions are money-grubbing idiots who wouldn't know a football if it bounced off their heads.

Look at the real world of football - its about idols and icons. Its the difference between a kid wanting a Man.Uts shirt for Christmas or a soccer instruction DVD. Duh !

 

So where will the Soccer Hall of Fame end up moving to?

 

Well, for starters, I think it can be said that the whole mantra of American soccer coaching for the last 40 years or so has been to produce a team that will win the World Cup. In order to do so, the mindset was to set up a set plan to "manufacture" players that would e good enough to win, hence all of the books and stuff to teach coaches how to "build" a World Cup winner. Because of that, ther has been a bee-line, as it were, for a winning team, and they left out the part where soccer is supposed to be fun, cheap, and for anyone. Who cares about history? We have a trophy to win. If you're here for any other reason than to win the Cup (or play pro, or get a scholarship, etc.), then get out and let somebody who has a clue jump in. And for that reason, free play, or pick-up games, have been eschewed as being "dangerous;" if little Johnny and his friends go out in the back yard and play on their own, they might start doing stuf that isn't in the book, and they'll get it "wrong." Then, dangit, we'll never win.

Or at least, that's what it looks like to me.

 

From mlsrumors - "About the National Soccer Hall of Fame, we have an unsubstantiated rumor a "large benefactor" in Seattle may be interested in it."

 

Is that a benefactor for the Hall of Fame or The INTERNATIONAL SOCCER ARCHIVES ?

From what we hear Drew Carey is interested in the International Soccer Archives touring exhibit for 2010.

 

I don't think it being in a non-major league market is in itself that big a deal. Nearby Cooperstown isn't in or near an MLB city. Ditto Springfield and the NBA and Canton and the NFL.

Living within a few hours of Oneonta, I've been to the museum several times (and to the old museum once as well). It's a nice museum and definitely worth going to if you live near it or if you're in the area. But it really only takes maybe an hour to go through the first time. But it's not big enough to draw people from outside the area to come just to see the museum. And it doesn't change much so there's not much reason to go more than once. This is in contrast to the nearby Baseball HOF which takes most of a day to go through (which draws people from far away) and has changing exhibits (which draw people back). The only reason I've gone to the Soccer HOF several times is because my teams have either played club games in the area or at the Hall of Fame (high school) Cup.

 

I think the other turn off is that few can visit it in the winter. It is not very inviting in the cold bleak mountains.

As for the exhibits, that's where the Football Museum in England and the International Soccer Archives have an advantage. Those vast collection can rotate every week and have something new and interesting to see.

That being said - they are also willing to put their exhibits on road tours as well for the World Cup and other Championship events.

 

Well said!

As a youth coach I see too many teams who play "ugly football" they play this style because there coaches only want to win tournaments and there fore play to that. There is no creativity allowed, I get asked after a game "why I allow my center back to take the ball into the other teams 18, thats stupid!" I answer because defenders can score to, she had a clear run, I had 1 back and my keeper can handle himself. They tell me thats fine but I shouldnt allow them to play any further then the half way line. BTW: I coach U8! I am trying to coach my kids to have confidence with the ball, have fun, improvise, give those who showed up to watch a entertaining game. But I alas I am told that I am wrong. I think half the problem lies with all these experts who set up there own training academys and try to dumb or manufacture the players. In other countries kids get together and have fun, the focus is on being offensive. These "coaches" put teh emphasis on defensive ball holding. That may win you tournaments, but it teaches the kids nothing, nor does it make a pretty game to watch. I guess being Portuguese I dislike anything other then good attacking "jogo bonito"

If you want the US to succeed coaches have to let the kids play, let go of playing defensively and get on with being creative and entertaining.

 

Given, that the USMNT first international game was played in Newark, NJ and given the long history of soccer in NJ, I say it should be in Jersey.

 

I guess the question has to be - which one ?

It looks as if the International Soccer Archives (ISA) are going to Seattle. I do not know what will happen to the Hall of Fame - but if you want indoor, college and womens junk mixed in with some pro soccer then you might want the Hall.

If you want to see the best in professional clubs, World Cup and MLS - then the ISA is theone to see.

 

As I said before, there is very little about indoor soccer at the Hall of Fame: nothing in the museum and one shelf of boxes of old programs and media guides in the archives. There is not a lot more about college soccer. The vast majority of stuff at the Hall of Fame is about professional outdoor soccer.

 

Jack Huckell is asset that will be missed in the historical soccer community. Hopefully, he will have time for projects of his own now.

For a country with the large size of the U.S.A., there will be more and more soccer museums. In fact there will be room in several different geographical areas.

The foreign clubs have found that this is added revenue to teams. Marketed properly, North American clubs will utilize this as well.

 

It needs to be somewhere that people actually frequent. I have friends from Oneonta, NY and everyone at their family gathering said the same thing when I asked them about the Hall, "in Oneonta? New York".

Of course, they followed a local baseball team, and not soccer but if that's not an example of why the place closed I don't know what is.


Move it to NYC, DC, LA or any other major city in America. You want the sport to be seen, and experienced by people who otherwise wouldn't give a second thought about the sport.

Having the HOF in Oneonta always reminded me of Obi Won being in exile on Tatooine.

 

That's a good idea, especially since the World Cup is around the corner and would create some interest.

I don't like hearing of any town losing a sports team, that's always sad news. People invest a lot of time and energy in their chosen sports team, and losing a sports team is like losing a part of your identity.

 

St. Louis would be the most logical as the history of soccer in that town is evident. If they can not find an immediate solution, why not make it in Seattle, LA or even in NY at the new NYRB park? I'm sure it would be more popular than Oneonta....

 

From Thursdays press release concerning the Hall of Fame: "Preliminary plans include distributing permanent displays in several locations nationwide."

It doesn't sound as though it's going to be in any one place.