The amateur USL Premier Development League club Ocean City Nor'easters have made history by beating their 5th professional team in their Lamar Hunt US Open Cup runs.

Support the Ocean City Nor'easters on Twitter @ocnoreasters and show US Soccer that they cannot cheat on behalf of the MLS power teams.

The first thought that went through my head when I saw the video of former Rutgers Basketball Head Coach Mike Rice screaming at, shoving and kicking his players was that he is a typical American sports coach. As bad as this sounds you can easily take away the word American and be left with the overly physical, overly shouty coach spouting expletives in any language seen all around the world, however, this particular situation is unique to the American system.

One thing has struck me more than anything about kids these days (And before I sound too old and out of touch I am only 28!). But the one thing about kids these days is that they don’t play. Not in the traditional sense of the word and it is holding back their development.

By nearly all metrics, be it stadium attendances, TV audience or participation, soccer is growing in popularity in the USA at all ages. This is great news for the professional level long-term but only good for the college game in the short-term.

With the sad suicide death of NFL player Junior Seau became known and the media’s immediate, knee jerk reaction to the taking of his own life being connected to the hits to the head he took as a sportsman questions have begun to be raised around other sports such as soccer and brain injury.

That’s right, I said it. What can the English learn from America? As an Englishman myself the first answer that springs to mind is of course… nothing, especially when it comes to soccer, the game we invented and you changed the name. However, when looking at the problems of the game in England, focusing on youth development, there are areas in which the US, probably without realizing it, are ahead of their English counterparts.

Over the Christmas break I try to get as much reading done as I can to make up for the year when I find reasons not to read. It also helps that my family tend to buy me books for Christmas and then realize that I cannot take them back to New Jersey as they weigh a ton. I’m still yet to get on board the Kindle bandwagon but I’m sure it won’t be too long, however, I still like the idea of showing off the book collection in your house (like you used to with CDs before iTunes) for friends who stop by and suddenly realize how smart and enlightened you are. I try my best not to completely geek out on soccer books when I read but a lot of the time I can’t help it.

So it is Christmas, the time of goodwill to all men (but not women sadly), nut not in England. The term racist is handed out with too much ease in today’s English society perpetuated by the sensationalist press and the media’s decision that they must listen to every persons twitter feed. Right now English soccer, and by extension wider society, has embroiled itself in race rows. First Liverpool striker Luis Suarez, then Chelsea and England captain John Terry and now, absurdly, soccer pundit Alan Hansen.

Last night (Monday Dec 12^th) I was lucky enough to get a ticket to Chelsea v Man City, sitting (although didn’t actually sit at any part of the game) in the Matthew Harding Stand lower, just 6 rows from the goal line. Close enough to abuse Balotelli and see the cup of tea thrown at him after he stood and celebrated in front of us, close enough to explain to Joe Hart that what he just did wasn’t up to standard, close enough to almost catch a Sturridge shot (accidently palmed it into the face of the guy behind me) and close enough to jump up and down like a kid when Lampard smashed home the winner from the spot, I was freezing, wet and an hour and 3 trains from my nice warm house but I was ecstatic.

After almost two years being involved in the South Jersey League and Super Y-League levels of soccer in south Jersey I have seen the disruption to a team multi-sport players can cause. I have lost players to baseball, basketball and not just to scheduling conflicts but to muscle strain injuries sustained at those sports and exhaustion caused by them.

As a professional soccer coach in this situation I should be of the opinion that the more time a player spends at soccer practices the better. In fact that is not the case. When I am coaching these young players I am not aiming to win the game, the league or the tournament. I am trying to develop them into better soccer players, better athletes to increase their chances of performing at their highest level at the age when it really matters such as earning a college scholarship or gaining a professional contract.

It hit me over the weekend that the American winning is the most important thing attitude is not on the extreme spectrum of the nuttiest sports coach but seeps into all levels and ages of youth sports. Many coaches I have seen over the past year and a half I have been in south Jersey put a lot of lip service to ‘having fun is the most important part of youth sports’ mantra but a lot really mean that it’s no fun losing so to have fun you have to be winning. I find it a sad part of American sports that player development is forgotten at a young age. Sports leagues and sporting institutions put such a regard on winning that two things tend to happen, when players reach adulthood there is no love for the game and players abilities have been artificially inflated and the player is not as good as they were told and thought they were.

Over the past year or so I have gradually been drawn into the world of science and data in sports.

I was first exposed to this while I was at the University of Brighton with my housemates taking Sports & Exercise Science degrees while I stuck to my Sociology of Sports. What I saw from my housemates, especially when they used me as a guinea pig, was science being used in sports, mostly to test athletes. That was fine but recently I have seen that next step to how science (from maths and economics to physics, bio-chemistry and physiology) can improve the sport, club and sportsmen that I love.

One thing that has really jumped out at me about soccer in the US is that there is no organized structure that runs it from head to toe. In England, the FA are in control of or have a hand in virtually everything to do with soccer. From grassroots youth through amateur men’s leagues and the professional game. There is a distinct lack of pyramid style structure here in the states. As a consequence this means that the US Men’s National Team suffers more than anyone.

I have been interested in the inner workings of soccer’s international governing body since I was at University and I read my lecturer’s book called BADFELLAS – FIFA Family At War. John Sugden and Alan Tomlinson were my sociology lecturers and had been digging into FIFA for the last 5 years. Some of the information they found was incredible. FIFA, of course, didn’t like the book and tried to have it banned, they sued the authors but that just allowed Sugden and Tomlinson to counter-sue naming Blatter in the litigation (ensuring that it will never go to court!!)

In recent years, all Iceland (that small island in the North Atlantic) has given us is plane delays thanks to their volcanic ash clouds. It made me wonder what good has come out of this desolate, wind battered nation.

A commentator on the last game I watched said “hope is what will kill a football supporter”, Chelsea had just pulled a goal back against Manchester United. I felt like I was treading water, could see the rescue boat but the line they threw was too short and then I heard the final whistle and the boat sank with me. If only it was that quick!!

This is something that I have always, (well since I learned what those big words meant), thought was odd. It is even more noticeable these days how Capitalist the US is with the rabid Tea Partyers loving up Capitalism and decrying anything that they deem not up to their free market ideals yet they still love the NFL, Major League Baseball and the like.

Listening to ESPN radio as well as other sports chat radio stations when I am closer to Philadelphia it has confirmed my assumption that sports reporters never agree on anything!! It winds me up that they argue over every tiny detail. The player, manager or team that they are discussing is either great or awful, hall of fame candidate or a disgrace.

I was excited about another weekend of top soccer, then I realized it was the international break and I lost my excitement. It’s not that I don’t like international games, I do, it’s just we are into the business end of the Premier League and the pressure at the top and bottom is rising to boiling point.

Nevertheless, I saw that I could have an enjoyable afternoon of US soccer (after my coaching duties of course) thanks to the MLS not having a break for internationals. I could watch the Union and then USA v Argentina. The Union won a pretty scrappy game, I was in and out of the game watching in-between checking on my dinner. I like the way the Union play but they were not allowed to get the ball down and pass like they had in their opening game. Then we moved onto the main event, USA v Argentina. Lionel Messi was going to be the star of the show (and looked sensational) but everyone apart from the Americans seem to know it was a friendly game. An exhibition. From the first whistle the US couldn’t get close to the ball and Argentina moved it around with ease, the Americans were just chasing blue and white shadows. Then the team in the new red jerseys got all irritated that they couldn’t get the ball and started flying in with some stupid challenges that were going to hurt someone. From that point I realized the US do not do friendlies.

The MLS began this 2011 season with not so much a bang but a loud yelling noise. The sports broadcasters will not fund the BANG but the MLS are forcing through and letting everyone know they are here to stay.

As the NCAA March Madness is about to kick off I wanted to write something about one of my biggest pet peeves, TRASH TALK!! Basketball is full of it and it will annoy me every time I see or hear it over the course of this tournament. Luckily for me none of the teams I coach talk trash, I have heard it in practices and I have nipped it in the bud right away.

As a coach with Ocean City FC Nor’easters soccer club, ideas have been banded around as to how we can improve almost all aspects of the company. Some ideas were good, some were not so and others were scrapped as soon as the words left their lips. However, one idea stuck in my head, writing a blog focusing on US soccer.

I grew up my whole life in the small town of Fleet, Hampshire in the south of England. I was born with a soccer ball at my feet and became a Chelsea supporter, I feel it is important to say which tribe I belong too.

I grew up playing soccer for fun, in school and with local clubs. I started playing organized youth soccer at Crookham Rovers before making the cross town move to the mighty Fleet Spurs, the Premier League equivalent of Tevez from Manchester United to Manchester City. I was always a good player but rarely the best player in the team until my last few years. At 16 years old I enjoyed playing for Fleet Spurs U17s, College team and the Fleet Spurs Men’s reserve team, I guess I had the legs then to play 3 times a week

Ok, here we go, first proper blog, might as well get the white elephant in the room to disperse, why is it called soccer here in the United States?