USMNT Archives - Generation Zero

Why the Mainstreaming of U.S. soccer & The Dream Team Share a Movement

Hal Phillips — Fri, 16 Feb 2024 16:32:25 +0000

During the late 1980s — when super powers went mono, mullets were fashionable, and iconic walls came crashing down — it was easy to miss the internationalization of American team sport. Yet this phenomenon took shape all through the first Bush Era, step by step, forever changing big hunks of the U.S. sporting landscape. The [...]

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Expect Change, Fireworks from USWNT Coach Emma Hayes

Hal Phillips — Mon, 20 Nov 2023 20:40:29 +0000

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 [...]

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Hubert Vogelsinger created Youth Soccer Revolutionaries

Hal Phillips — Wed, 28 Jun 2023 19:42:12 +0000

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 [...]

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

Hal Phillips — Sat, 20 May 2023 14:10:57 +0000

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 [...]

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

Hal Phillips — Mon, 27 Mar 2023 17:29:51 +0000

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 [...]

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USMNT Help Wanted: Creatures of the Federation Need Not Apply

Hal Phillips — Sat, 28 Jan 2023 16:50:46 +0000

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 [...]

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Coach Jim Gabarra Preaches the Virtues of Balance, All Year Long

Michael Conant — Tue, 17 Jan 2023 01:22:53 +0000

Screenshot {SJ Editor: Hal Philips recently published “Generation Zero: Founding Fathers, Hidden Histories & the Making of Soccer in America.” This is an example of what you will read in the book. Highly recommended! By HAL PHILLIPSWhen Jim Gabarra competed at the highest levels of American soccer—and he did so both indoors and [...]

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The Most Important Cheeseburger Sub in U.S. Soccer History

Hal Phillips — Thu, 12 Jan 2023 00:08:44 +0000

In the pages of Generation Zero and here on the book’s companion site, we’ve spent a good deal of time and space examining exactly when, how and by whose efforts American soccer came of age. Before GZ was but a twinkle in my eye, I engaged with these important questions in an altogether different way [...]

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USMNT Progress Plan: Continue to Crowd-Source Roster Development. In Europe

Hal Phillips — Tue, 20 Dec 2022 00:09:03 +0000

When America plays host to the next World Cup, alongside Mexico and Canada, it will likely field the most talented men’s squad ever trotted out by the U.S. Soccer Federation. And yet, to hear many American soccer fans tell it, there is no USMNT Progress Plan. Our competitive place in the world game remains [...]

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