U.S. Soccer Archives - Generation Zero

Requiem for Match of the Day (and The Sanctity of Unspoiled Endings)

Requiem for Match of the Day (and The Sanctity of Unspoiled Endings)

By Hal Phillips|2026-03-14T10:30:26-04:00February 14th, 2025|GZ blog|

There’s a wonderfully prescient exchange in Whit Stillman’s 1990 film, “Metropolitan,” wherein the know-it-all main character is interrogated on all the works of literature he can’t stop referencing. “You don’t have to have read a book to have an opinion on it. I haven’t read the Bible either,” he reveals, by way of defending himself. “I don't read novels. I prefer good literary criticism. That way you get both the novelist's ideas as well as the critic's thinking.” Befitting [...]

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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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Hubert Vogelsinger created Youth Soccer Revolutionaries

Hubert Vogelsinger created Youth Soccer Revolutionaries

By Hal Phillips|2026-03-15T07:54:17-04:00June 28th, 2023|GZ blog|

Video evidence of the 1974 World Cup was not made available to me until July 1977. That was the summer I first attended overnight soccer camp, a veritable rite of passage for me and so many fellow members of Generation Zero, those American boys and girls born in the 1960s, then raised in the 1970s as this country’s very first soccer natives. The Puma All-Star Soccer Camp, where I matriculated three straight summers, was owned and operated by Hubert [...]

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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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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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USMNT Help Wanted: Creatures of the Federation Need Not Apply

USMNT Help Wanted: Creatures of the Federation Need Not Apply

By Hal Phillips|2026-03-15T08:21:13-04:00January 28th, 2023|GZ blog|

The departures of Men’s National Team Sporting Director Earnie Stewart and General Manager Brian McBride represent a post-World Cup housecleaning, but they also underline the stubbornly clubby, insular nature of soccer administration in this country. The installation of former players to coach and direct national team programs, to head up entire federations, is not uncommon in world futbol. For too long, however, "USMNT Help Wanted" didn't go far enough. U.S. Soccer has promoted strictly from within. For a time, [...]

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Soccer Dads Have Memories, too: The Rise, Fall and Latent Futbol Influence of Antonio Horacio Etchenique

Soccer Dads Have Memories, too: The Rise, Fall and Latent Futbol Influence of Antonio Horacio Etchenique

By Hal Phillips|2026-04-04T16:08:05-04:00August 29th, 2022|GZ blog|

My dad, the original Harold Gardner Phillips, passed away at the end of August 2011, all too soon. He was only 74. I try to write about him each year, before Autumn descends, as a means of better remembering him — an act that frankly gets more difficult and less specific over time. The act of writing helps me preserve the details of his life, in my own mind. This year, what with this new book having just been [...]

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