Thursday, February 13, 2014

Are we ready to admit Florida is a soccer state?

More than 5,000 people watched the New York Red Bulls play the Philadelphia Union
in a MLS preseason match in Jacksonville. (Photo by Will Brown)


By Will Brown

Thirty minutes before kickoff three teenagers were standing in the drizzle egotistically trying to see how hard they can kick a soccer ball.



Northeast Florida has numerous elite soccer programs, but the boys did not play on one of them, which made it all the more impressive that the  goalkeeper, midfielder and forward made their way to EverBank Field to watch a preseason game between two Major League Soccer teams.

The boys, members of the Raines High School boys soccer team, were among the 5,656 people who watched the New York Red Bulls and Philadelphia Union prepare for the 2014 season on a rainy night far removed from either clubs supporters.

“I think it was good for us. It was the preseason game, so we had some minutes to show the coach (what we can do),” said Red Bulls defender Roy Miller, a Costa Rican international who entered the match in the second half. “Now, I think from today’s game we can take very positive things. It’s one more game. I think we’re doing well and I’m happy with the work we put in today.”

Miller and the Red Bulls had the best regular season record in MLS last year. Philadelphia finished 13 points behind their opponents from Wednesday night. Thomas Marks, one of the three Raines players who braved the rain, said he wanted to watch the teams play so he can get better in his final two years.

If Marks was taking his cues from No. 14 in white, then he certainly learned a few things.

Thierry Henry is a legend who has won silverware in England, Spain, France and the United States. He’s a World Cup and Champions League winner who was marketed as the star of Wednesday’s game by event organizers Sunshine Sports Group.


Henry certainly delivered in the 45 minutes he was on the pitch. In the 16th the former Arsenal forward nutmeged a Union midfielder, juggled the ball seven times while fending off a challenge seven minutes later and scored a goal in the 36th minute.

The goal wound up being the game-winner as New York won 2-1.


Afterward, there was not much time for Henry, Australian international Tim Cahill, or Philadelphia’s Andre Blake, the No. 1 overall draft pick in the 2014 MLS SuperDraft, to speak with the local media. The two teams were in a rush to make it to Jacksonville International Airport for a charter flight for Newark, N.J. before returning to their respective mid-Atlantic homes.

Dave Rowan, the Union’s Executive Vice President and Chief Revenue Officer, said chartered flights are an anomaly in Major League Soccer. All 19 teams fly commercial, and all the players fly coach.

“The players understand that’s part of it and they have no issue,” Rowan said. “It’s what you get used to and that’s what you have. I look forward to coming back next year and having dry weather and an exciting game.”

Afterward, Mark Frisch, the owner of the North American Soccer League franchise that is slated to start play in Jacksonville next year tweeted that he would love to see the Union play his club in the 2015 preseason.

It remains to be seen whether Frisch’s hope will become reality next year. However, what is undeniable is that Jacksonville, and the rest of Florida, are quickly embracing the soccer culture.


Marks, the Raines forward, was introduced to the sport by his friends. His teammate DeAngelo Denson joked he was peer pressured into playing soccer, adding: “I just got into it in high school. I’ve been playing since middle school, but found it more interesting the better I get.”

There are 108,000 youth soccer players in Florida and another 30,000 who play varsity soccer. There are professional clubs in Tampa and Fort Lauderdale, while Orlando and Miami will have MLS teams by the end of the decade. 


“By Orlando City being granted the 21st team, it is great testament to the state,” Rowan said. “I think you’ll see, MLS grow in the Southeast because of the family affinity to the sport.”
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Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Who would eat at your table?

No one in this picture made my top five, but the conversations that
are held when we all get together are priceless.


By Will Brown

As we all know the Super Bowl was a rout from the opening seconds of the game. Since the football was not as compelling as we all assumed, the conversation meandered in many directions during the course of the game.




Sometime during the second half, after discussions about Hillary Clinton, Bruno Mars and the lackluster commercials, someone asked: If you could have dinner with five people, living or dead, who would they be?

I chose Christ, Nelson Mandela, Diego Maradona and then gave up on the exercise. The game was back on and our collective attention returned to the Broncos getting bucked off the pedestal they were placed on.

For whatever reason, I was reminded of that conversation earlier this week, decided to finish out my quintet 
and chose to wonder who would make the cut for those closest to me.

 Christ took what most of us would consider lunch for two and fed 5,000; Mandela was imprisoned for 27 years and was not bitter and Maradona was the cocaine-snorting, binge-eating, soccer savant whose life may be the inspiration for the Dos Equis commercials.

After Argentina was humbled by a 1-0 loss to Cameroon in first game of the 1990 World Cup, the miniature maestro quipped: "I cured the Italians of racism, didn't I? The whole stadium was shouting for Cameroon. Wasn't that nice?”

If he could conjure a comment like that after the embarrassment of losing to a team that was a 500-1 underdog, just imagine what he would say at a dinner conversation.

If there was more time, I would have considered Barack Obama, Alexander the Great, Beethoven, Ed Bradley, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Thomas DeSaille Tucker, Thurgood Marshall, Stephen F. Austin and Chief Osceola for the final two positions.
 
Thomas DeSaile Tucker,
Courtesy: State Archives of Florida.

Bradley, Austin and Beethoven.













Obama, Marshall and Bradley were trailblazers with undeniable impacts on American politics, law and journalism. Fitzgerald was the writer whose work inspired me to keep writing, Tucker founded the university that has been central to so many good memories and friendships, Austin and Osceola were historical figures from the two states I’ve resided in and 
Beethoven is someone who was unable to enjoy his own genius later in life.

Of course it’s a hypothetical exercise that is little more than conversation filler. Nonetheless, it is a porthole into the psyche.

Dinner is the most intimate meal of the day. Who we share it with says something about us, as well as the company we keep.

Laughs and liveliness,


-Wb
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