Growing the Global Game at the Grassroots

Growing the Global Game at the
Grassroots
Youth and Pro Soccer Partnerships in
New York
Play the Game 2011
Deutsche Sporthochschule Köln
David Kilpatrick, PhD
Associate Professor
Humanities Department
School of Liberal Arts
Mercy College, NY
NASL (1968-1984); MLS (1996-present)
ADFH United/AYSO Region 324
Local Boys: Ramos, Meola & Reyna
Soccer & American Exceptionalism
“DESPITE HEROIC EFFORTS of soccer
moms, suburban liberals, and World
Cup hype, soccer will never catch on
as a big time sport in America. No
game in which actually scoring goals
is of such little importance could
possibly occupy the attention of
average Americans. Our country has
yet to succumb to the nihilism,
existentialism, and anomie that have
overtaken Europe. A game about
nothing, in which scoring is purely
incidental, holds scant interest for
Americans who still believe the
world makes sense, that life has a
larger meaning and structure, that
being is not an end in itself, being
qua being.” (Cannon and Lessner)
“Don’t waste your time on soccer young man;
it’s a game for Commie pansies” - Dick Young
A New New York Icon?
The Birth of the Cosmos
• “Soccer is the one great
international sport and is
America’s fastest growing
sport. […] It has crossed
more borders and broken
down more barriers than
any activity other than
the very act of living
itself”
• “We wouldn’t ask you to
come to us until we’d
come to you” – Clive Toye
Big Time
Glory Days
Beckenbauer, Pelé & Chinaglia
Pelé Says Goodbye to 75,646 at Giants Stadium
World Cup 94 & MLS
NY/NJ MetroStars
Red Bull New York
Red Bull Arena
2010
Cosmos Reborn?
“Tailored by Umbro”?
RBNY & ADFH United
Works Cited
•
Cannon, Frank and Richard Lessner. “Nil, Nil.” The Weekly Standard. 23 June 2006.
<http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/012/384qgmke.asp>
•
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Kilpatrick, David. “Raising Bulls: A Look at Red Bull’s Youth Development Program.” 101. 4
(December 2009).
---. Soccer Off-Broadway. In progress. Haworth, NJ: St. Johann Press, 2012.
Markovits, Andrei S. and Steven L. Hellerman. Offside: Soccer and American Exceptionalism.
Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 2001.
Newsham, Gavin. Once in a Lifetime: The Incredible Story of the New York Cosmos. New
York: Grove, 2006.
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Sandomir, Richard. “MetroStars Struggle to Get a Footing.” New York Times. 13 August 1999.
<http://www.nytimes.com/1999/08/13/sports/soccer-metrostars-struggle-get-footing-citywhere-success-counts-team-losing.html>
Toye, Clive. A Kick in the Grass. Haworth, NJ: St. Johann Press, 2006.
---. Personal interview. 8 April 2011.
Wangerin, David. Distant Corners: American Soccer’s History of Missed Opportunities and
Lost Causes. Philadelphia: Temple UP, 2011.
Contact
David Kilpatrick, PhD
Associate Professor of English Literature and
Philosophy
Mercy College
Dobbs Ferry, NY
President/Regional Commissioner
ADFH United/AYSO Region 324
socceroffbroadway@gmail.com
www.socceroffbroadway.blogspot.com