SoccerProse.com

Most high-performance level soccer shoes will boast better touch, superior quality materials and excellent comfort for the player. And they’ll have an element of the shoe that makes it stand out – something that makes a $185-$200 price tag a bit more understandable. The new Nike Total 90 Laser firm ground shoe has all of that and more so I thought I’d check it out. I wanted to make sense of the “innovative S.P.P. technology and KNG-100 upper.” For many of us the letters and numbers don’t really mean a lot. We take Nike’s word for it that this is a high quality shoe that should be durable and comfortable and lets you play the game the way you want to play it. There’s no reason not to believe Nike, they’ve done an amazing job of creating excellent soccer shoes over the years.
 
So, first I tackled “S.P.P.” Nike tells me it stands for Swerve, Power and Protection. In my opinion, shoes don’t automatically make the ball swerve when it’s kicked. The player makes the ball swerve using great technique. However, if the shoe can make the ball swerve more then that’s certainly a competitive advantage. The same is true for power. Shoes don’t add power but if you’ve got great technique and you hit the sweet spot then the shoe’s surface can affect the speed and accuracy of the ball. The Nike Laser FG is trying to help a great player play even better. When I first looked at the T90 Laser I thought it was interesting that Nike has gone through a lot of trouble to provide offset-lacing. This is traditionally done to create a smooth kicking surface, yet the Laser comes along and adds ridges to it. It’s a bit of a contradiction. The big difference is that the ridges are made of this rubbery material that seems to grab the ball where the laces probably just rubbed the ball. You do have to use the inside and outside of the foot to get the feel of the ridges – but that goes back to using great technique to make the ball swerve. The center disc of rubbery material serves as the sweet spot for striking the ball. According to Nike, 60% of all goals are scored by striking the ball with the instep. Even if the rubber material didn’t provide more power, I like the subtle reminder of, “Hey! This is where you want to connect with the ball!” It’s a good concept for any premium soccer shoe. […]

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While there are countless articles of insight and speculation regarding the future of Arsenal Football Club sans Monsieur Henry floating around, there are fewer taking on the issue of how his £16million move to Barcelona affects the nature of the transfer market in international football.

Thierry Henry is a player that any manager would love to have. There is no doubt about his skill with the ball, pace, and scoring prowess – over his decorated eight year span at the club he fit right in to the now-famous “Arsenal style of play.” Henry himself eluded to it when he said of his new club, ‘Barcelona play the Arsenal way;’ that free-flowing ground game of uncanny vision and passing was exactly what Henry needed when he was lured to Arsenal by fellow Frenchman, Arsene Wenger.

And what Henry received from his teammates, he returned tenfold. In 364 appearances for the club, Tierry Henry scored 226 times. That makes an unbelieveable 0.62 goals per game average and he is now the greatest goalscorer in Gunners history. When he was in his top form it appeared he would just score whenever he wanted to. Over the last year however, his fitness has been thrown into doubt with the Parisian making only 17 appearances. This has been reflected in the transfer market with his valuation dropping significantly in just one year’s time from around £30million to the £16million paid by Barcelona. The Catalonian club will be hoping that last season’s niggling injuries were just some bumps in the road for the soon-to-be 30 year old. If that turns out to be the case, the price tag will be a bargain. […]

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By nature I’m a realist. Now whether or not that makes me overly cynical or pessimistic I’m not sure, but I do try to be reasonable when considering my options.

In this case, I’m torn over the comments made by Los Angeles Galaxy president, and former U.S. national team stalwart, Alexi Lalas this week. With the arrival of David Beckham to Major League Soccer becoming imminent, and Beckham’s resurgent play for Real Madrid’s title-run, some European journalists and pundits are coming out of the woodwork to do a little MLS bashing.

In an interview with British newspaper The Guardian, Lalas defended MLS and fought back at any naysayer claiming Beckham will be entering a second-class league as only a marketing tool.

“The fact that a segment of the world worships an inferior product in the Premiership is their business,” Lalas said in The Guardian published Tuesday.

“In England, our league is considered second class, but I honestly believe if you took a helicopter and grabbed a bunch of MLS players and took them to the perceived best league in the world they wouldn’t miss a beat and the fans wouldn’t notice any drop in quality.”

Now while it appears Lalas is just bashing the English Premier League, he is also doing his part to defend MLS, as he should as a leader of a team, and one of the biggest reasons Beckham is coming to America.

But here is the realist in me. I can’t trick myself into thinking the Premiership and MLS are anywhere in the same realm. I also don’t want to come away looking like a European soccer snob, which too many MLS-haters on this side of the pond are.

The Premiership’s success not only comes from what it puts on the pitch, but also because it is a marketing juggernaut and has seemingly reached every corner of the globe. Maybe that has helped the league inflate its value, players and level of play, but not many players around the world would argue with its quality as one of the top leagues on the globe.

A lot of the Premiership’s success can be attributed to the Big Four (Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool) and their seemingly limitless spending and star-drawing power. No one would argue any MLS team is anywhere near those teams’ levels, and I don’t think that’s the point Lalas was trying to make.

This however was lost when some British newspapers were on hand to watch Los Angeles take on Real Salt Lake on Sunday. The papers came away unimpressed and derisive of the play, while taking the opportunity to tear open the league as a whole while watching two teams that are a combined 2-9-9, and sit at the bottom of the Western standings together.

Looking at the dregs of a league is no way to judge it. Here I give Lalas credit because I believe fans would have trouble discerning the level of play between the bottom of MLS and the Watford’s and Charlton’s of the Premiership, or even the English League Championship (the league just below the Premiership).

But the problem here is that every league has its bottom-feeders who only show flashes of what a league is really made of. While MLS has made great strides in attracting better players and increasing its level of play each season, it is still years behind the top leagues in Europe.

The player development, technical skill, tactical approach, depth of players and squads and a better feel for the game are part of the reason European teams and leagues are the best in the world. Even Aston Villa castoff Juan Pablo Angel has had little trouble setting MLS defenses on fire with nine goals in seven games.

I like Lalas’ tenacity in his support of American soccer, his team and for bringing Beckham to MLS, but until the United States’ level of play is really on par with the rest of the world, let’s be realistic.

He was never hailed as the savior of Major League Soccer — unlike a certain former English Premier League golden boy — but the arrival of Juan Pablo Angel to the New York Red Bulls, and more importantly U.S. soccer has already begun to pay major dividends.

Since Angel was brought over as a designated player, and is being paid more than $1.5 million for his services, there were considerable expectations for his performance.

So far Angel has blown away all expectations and any defenders trying to stop him.

In just six games, the former Aston Villa player has scored seven goals and has at times made defenders look downright silly.

But what has made Angel’s impact so interesting is that American soccer fans are finally getting a look at what a player, who is still near their prime, from a top-flight European league can do in the U.S.

The Colombia-born Angel transferred to Aston Villa during the January transfer window in 2001 for a club record 9.5 million pounds. He got off to an inauspicious start, but in the 2003-04 season Angel scored 23 goals, including 16 in EPL play.

In the next two and a half seasons Angel couldn’t reproduce his form, including scoring just three goals in 31 games during the 2005-06 season, and dropped out of favor at Aston Villa. The arrivals of John Carew and Ashley Young in 2007 signaled the end for Angel.

What he has done for the Red Bulls though has been a revelation. At 31 years old, Angel is younger than David Beckham and plays a key position to draw eyes to MLS games. As a forward, Angel has the opportunity to make the type of impact on the field that people will notice.

While the Beckham signing is a major coup for MLS and puts a face on soccer for America, Beckham’s game is not going to get the casual soccer fan to jump off their seat. While not many players in the world can strike a ball like Beckham or deliver a 40-yard pass on a dime, the intricacies of his game can go unnoticed at times.

Goals are what get people excited and Angel has done nothing but delivered the goods. Hopefully this is a testament to the quality that Beckham and future foreign imports will bring to MLS. The more players that come over before their best playing days are behind them will not only raise the profile of MLS, but also its level of play.

MLS defenders can already attest to Angel’s skill.

 You don’t have to tell the savvy footy fan in the U.S. that our soccer is not the best in the world. Anyone who knows anything about the world of sport outside our borders knows of, or has heard of the passion and skill with which the beautiful game is played in Africa, Asia, South America, and Europe.

Most MLS fans are all too aware that there’s a gap in skill level between the MLS and other popular club leagues around the globe.

So it came as a bit of a surprise when Alan Shearer, Newcastle legend and England striker-extraordinaire, was recently quoted as saying, ‘I don’t know if David [Beckham] is regretting going to Los Angeles Galaxy. But he’s better than that standard, without a shadow of a doubt.’ (article)

This is not a novel thing to say, nor is it very insightful. Slamming the standard of play in the MLS seems a bit silly as it overlooks the fact that ever since the fairly recent inception of Major League Soccer, agents, sponsors, and the MLS itself has been working tirelessly to close that skill gap. It also overlooks the good ol’ question, ‘So what?’ What if DB wants to come and play in the MLS because he wants raise the standard of play in a younger league? Does he have to play against the likes of Messi and Henry every week for his efforts to be worthwhile?

I tend to think not.

Of course, I can’t claim to know the motivations of someone like Becks, but now that he’s getting older he may be wanting to move to a less strenuous league or maybe he wants to be closer to his LA-based soccer school for youths. Maybe his wife just wants to live in Hollywood.

So whatever their reasoning, shouldn’t we fans of the game here in the USA be overjoyed when the best of the best want to come and ply their trade in our freshly built soccer-only stadia? Yes, I think we should.

The arrival of Beckham to the LA Galaxy in August will raise the quality of play, increase ticket sales and perhaps most importantly, it will raise the expectation levels of fans here in the States.

Supporters of other clubs will want to see similar quality coming in from overseas to their teams, and front offices will no doubt want to compete with the Galaxy’s burgeoning season ticket sales. High tide lifts all boats, right? That will remain to be seen.

Having said that, I can guess that Alan Shearer’s audience was probably not mainly on this side of the Atlantic, and I can also guess his comments reflect his concern for his beloved England and the amount of playing time Beckham will have in the run-up to the European Championships of ‘08 taking place in Austria and Switzerland. The concern is, with the MLS season ending before Euro 2008 begins, Beckham will have gotten heavy-legs and a beer belly.

A severe drop off in fitness is not likely but being somewhat acquainted with the fragile British sport psyche I feel confident that come finals time in Austria/Switzerland there will be copious amounts of over-analysis regarding long flights and odd training schedules, given that England even qualifies.

The reality is, this country has enough raw talent from which to draw quality professional soccer players, but not enough motivation for young players to continue on in the sport. A professional league filled with David Beckhams might help provide that motivation.

All the after-school practices in the world cannot compete with the raw and overwhelming numbers of kids playing soccer in the streets and fields of the world outside the US. So until that day comes when the vast majority of American kids would choose to play soccer over all other sports, I say give me your huddled masses yearning to play free and get stuck in a studs up tackle.

And don’t ridicule stars for wanting to help change things, Mr. Shearer.