American soccer success Archives

Irresistable Grant Wahl Delivers Billion Dollar Goal, From the Grave

Irresistable Grant Wahl Delivers Billion Dollar Goal, From the Grave

By Hal Phillips|2026-03-14T11:57:17-04:00December 11th, 2023|GZ blog|

It’s been exactly one year since Grant Wahl was taken from us, so the timing of his posthumous Paramount+ project, The Billion Dollar Goal, which debuts tonight, could not resonate more strongly with fans of U.S. soccer. That goes double for me, because this docuseries covers much the same ground showcased in my July 2022 book, Generation Zero: Founding Fathers, Hidden Histories & The Making of American Soccer. Grant was one of GZ’s first readers and in many ways [...]

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Garnacho Wonder Strike Stirs Memories of Bicycle Kicks Past

Garnacho Wonder Strike Stirs Memories of Bicycle Kicks Past

By Hal Phillips|2026-03-14T12:08:02-04:00November 30th, 2023|GZ blog|

Garnacho’s wondrous overhead golazo against Everton on Nov. 26 reminded the world soccer community of why we find bicycle kicks so damned compelling. They remainthe most dynamic, daringly athletic maneuver in a game replete with them, and it doesn’t matter where on the pitch they might happen. Check out the images attached here. Defenders of all skill levels react similarly when someone goes up for a bike: They back away slightly, because recklessly contesting may mean a boot to [...]

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Expect Change, Fireworks from USWNT Coach Emma Hayes

Expect Change, Fireworks from USWNT Coach Emma Hayes

By Hal Phillips|2026-03-14T12:28:47-04:00November 20th, 2023|GZ blog|

Color me extremely curious when it comes to USWNT Coach Emma Hayes. Her tenure as head coach of the U.S. Women’s National Team remains pending. She won’t take the helm until spring, when her season with Chelsea FC has concluded. Still, the timing of her hire drips with big-picture import, none of which has anything to do with pay equity (though she will make exactly the same as her USMNT counterpart, Gregg Berhalter 2.0). Even with her delayed arrival, [...]

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Chapter 8 Excerpt: Bleak late ’80s brought Peak Popularity of Indoor Soccer

Chapter 8 Excerpt: Bleak late ’80s brought Peak Popularity of Indoor Soccer

By Hal Phillips|2026-03-14T12:50:47-04:00September 13th, 2023|GZ blog|

TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY U.S. SOCCER FANS may not realize it — or wish to contemplate such an unbecoming reality — but for a short time immediately post-NASL, indoor soccer was the American game’s dominant professional strain. Indeed, the peak popularity of indoor soccer, and for Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL), took place during this period, even as the country’s first golden generation of outdoor talent began to coalesce. These coincidental facts, these uncomfortable truths, represent yet more indicators of a [...]

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USWNT in Turmoil: Players Fend off Alumnae Expectations ahead of Swedish Encounter

USWNT in Turmoil: Players Fend off Alumnae Expectations ahead of Swedish Encounter

By Hal Phillips|2026-03-14T13:04:10-04:00August 5th, 2023|GZ blog|

Soccer and the national team movement here in the United States have stumbled into very new territory Down Under, and I’m not talking about a lackluster group-stage performance. Not entirely. While the U.S. Women’s National Team (USWNT) has failed to win World Cup and Olympic titles in the past, their rare missteps have never produced such widespread carping from former national team players. In short, the first knockout round of World Cup 2023 finds the USWNT in turmoil. I’d frankly [...]

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USMNT Photo Mystery Solved; Roman Colosseum Shrugs Off Another Narrative Poseur

USMNT Photo Mystery Solved; Roman Colosseum Shrugs Off Another Narrative Poseur

By Hal Phillips|2026-03-15T08:01:43-04:00May 20th, 2023|GZ blog|

Let’s get straight to the point: It’s a fake. Each of the above images is a clever fabrication, but the team shot — commissioned by a certain sports outfitter to congratulate the 1990 U.S. Men’s National Team (USMNT) on its history-making World Cup qualification — was not taken on site, in front of the Roman Colosseum, during Italia ‘90. This admittedly minor historical ruse was confirmed by national team veteran John Stollmeyer (front row, second from left) in early [...]

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Women’s World Cup 2023 May Reveal New Balance of Power

Women’s World Cup 2023 May Reveal New Balance of Power

By Hal Phillips|2026-03-15T08:09:38-04:00May 5th, 2023|GZ blog|

[Posted May 5, 2023] From the moment women’s international soccer formalized itself, during the 1980s, The American Way has prevailed. This not-so-controversial historical judgment has traditionally held water on the two fronts that matter most: In the competitive crucible, the U.S. Women’s National Team has proved the finest side in the world for more than 30 years. It has won four of the eight World Cups contested since the tournament was launched, in 1991. The USWNT also claimed four [...]

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Only Now Recovering from ‘Berhalter Fatigue’? Time to Buckle Back Up

Only Now Recovering from ‘Berhalter Fatigue’? Time to Buckle Back Up

By Hal Phillips|2026-03-15T08:15:21-04:00March 27th, 2023|GZ blog|

My own case of Berhalter Fatigue kicked in around Dec. 17, 2022 — a day before the World Cup final, 10 days into the Berhalter-Reyna Family Barbecue, and two weeks after Holland dumped the U.S. Men’s National Soccer Team (USMNT) out of the tournament. The tawdry nature of Berhalter’s unprecedented bust-up with the Reynas could not be fully understood until last week, when the U.S. Soccer Federation released its third-party report. No one emerges unscathed from this full and [...]

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Baby Boomers Run America: The Big Chill and Classic Rock tell us Why

Baby Boomers Run America: The Big Chill and Classic Rock tell us Why

By Hal Phillips|2026-04-04T17:11:37-04:00May 24th, 2022|GZ blog|

By the time I headed off to college in August 1982 — which is to say, by the time the lead-edge of Generation X (those born between 1961 and 1981) had finished high school and headed off to college — the "classic rock" radio format already dominated the FM dial. We children of the 1970s did not recognize in this musical phenomenon any overt Baby Boomer-centrism. Not at first. It took another pop cultural marker, The Big Chill, to illustrate [...]

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