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U.S. Soccer released its ballot for the National Soccer Hall of Fame on Tuesday, with 31 former players — and 12 first-time nominees — making the final ballot for the Class of 2012.
Among the first-timers are former U.S. goalkeeper Tony Meola and captain Claudio Reyna. Conversely, Peter Nowak, Mike Burns, Carlos Valderrama and Peter Vermes are in their final year of eligibility to be elected off the Player's Ballot.
To be eligible for selection, players must be retired for between three and 10 years and have either 20 caps to their name or played five seasons in an American first-division league while being named to an all-league or all-star team at least once, according to U.S. Soccer. Voters, which are comprised of Hall of Famers, select soccer administrators and select media members, can make up to 10 selections, with players who appear on two-thirds of all ballots getting inducted.
With that said, who gets your vote for the National Soccer Hall of Fame? Check out the 31-player ballot after the jump and vote for the players who you think merit induction:
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Aside from the player ballot, a couple groups of individuals are eligible for induction off the Veteran's Ballot and Builder's Ballot.
Desmond Armstrong, George Best, Teofilo Cubillas, John Doyle, Linda Hamilton, Bill McPherson, Shep Messing, Glenn Myernick, Brian Quinn, Mike Sorber and Steve Trittschuh are eligible as Veterans — players who have been retired for more than 10 years and otherwise have the same eligibility requirements as those on the Player's Ballot. All but Quinn, Sorber and Trittschuh have appeared on the ballot before. The veterans are voted on by current Hall of Fame members.
Chuck Blazer, Bob Bradley, Bob Contiguglia, Tony DiCicco, Don Garber, Francisco Marcos, Fritz Marth and Sigi Schmid are eligible for induction off the Builder's Ballot, which is for individuals who have had an impact on the sport in this country in a non-playing capacity for at least 10 years. Current Hall of Famers and select soccer administrators vote on their inclusion. Blazer, Contiguglia, DiCicco, Marcos, Marth and Schmid are repeat candidates after previously appearing on the Ballot.
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How did you vote? Who do you think deserves a place in the National Soccer Hall of Fame off all of the ballots?
Share your thoughts below.
Obvious pickS? The one and only obvious pick is Claudio Reyna. He should be the only one selected.
You are an idiot US Soccer Fan. Reyna is one of our best players of all time, you clearly aren’t much of a fan if you can’t see that. Oh I know.. let’s dismiss Tim Howard too because he couldn’t save either of Ghana’s goals in 2010.
aw man, beat me to it!
“Wow. Someone just started watching soccer in 2006.”
Yep. now if only they would PAY ATTENTION instead of watch…
You know, unfortunately if you are a professional athlete those split second plays in the big game are what differentiates mediocre players from truly great ones. Think about Michael Jordan – hes remembered for always wanting the ball with the championship on the line. Claudio Reyna on the other hand, may have had an average career overseas, but when it came down to a HUGE game, he single handedly blew it. While that may be a harsh judgement, it’s true and in my mind it means he is NOT a truly great US Soccer player and does not deserve to be enshrined in the hall of fame.
Also – already graduated HS, thanks for asking, and as unfair as it may be to the “everyone gets a trophy” generation people DO judge you on your successes and failures. Athlete or not. However, as a pro athlete you sign up to be judged on just that.
Yeah because its just completly besides the point if ur taking about renyas career and contribution to the national team
He blew it on that play. If you said “Claudio Reyna was awful on one crucial play during the Ghana game,” perhaps you wouldn’t have 100% of the commenters disagreeing with you. But you said “Claudio Reyna is awful” and that blanket statement is so far from reality I wonder why I’m even taking the time to respond to you.
Judging a guy’s entire 14 year career based on one play he made in one game when he was 33. Makes total sense. That is completely rational and there’s no way anyone can argue with that logic….
I’d prefer that they split the men’s game and women’s game. In the absence of knowing that much about the USWNT, I voted all men. Only because I don’t see as many women’s games.
Klinsmann wouldn’t be a Deutscher Hall of Famer? He was on that side and served with distinction.
I hope that after you graduate high school you are successful in life and that if you make a mistake, one momentary mistake, people don’t dismiss you like you are doing to Reyna.
Sorry – He’s terrible. Watch the replay, the reason he got wrecked to begin with is because he mishandled the ball. He wasn’t too hurt to look up and watch the guy score before writhing in uncontrollable agony. I’m glad hes gone.
Hard to choose because so many are worthy. Ultimately I chose American players who were nats and/or MLS players early on. No disrespect intended to the USWNT—I’m just not as familiar with their program.
Chris Henderson
Roy Lassiter
Tony Meola
Joe-Max Moore
Claudio Reyna
Henderson–––1990 World Cup qualifiers, qualifiers for 1998, especially when he ran endlessly at the Azteca toward the end of the “Golden Point” game late in qualifying.
Lassiter—High profile early MLS player, brilliant goal vs Costa Rica in ’98 qualifying down there.
Meola—Hometown hero in K-Town. He can be forgiven for thinking he’d be a movie star and placekicker.
J-M Moore—National team, MLS. Easy choice.
Reyna—Amazing player when he was not riding the pine due to injury. Key player in 2002 in our storybook Q’Final run.
So he blew a play. Big deal. The US equalized after that. Troll alert…..
He did indeed act like his knee was hurt….because it was hurt.
US Soccer Fan said: »Claudio Reyna is AWFUL. Watch the 2006 WC game against Ghana…WEAK.«
I laughed a little, cuz that’s like only ever hearing “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” and deciding you hate the Beatles.
Anyone not voiting for Reyna (and 15% had not as of a moment ago) needs…well, I don’t know what they need, except maybe another sport to watch…
Sorry goose. I just cant see it. He blew our best shot at advancing in the 2006 world cup. Biggest stage, biggest play, and he failed, not only did he fail he overplayed the severity of an injury because he couldn’t hang anymore. Watch the replay and tell me he didn’t blow that one…
I agree that it skewes to the men which is a shame. Part of the problem I had was trying to remember the length of time that several of the women were starters as opposed to just roll payers. That is what goes into my decisions on all players. With the time between world cups and no league play to compare it with I had a hard time choosing for the women.
Yet not a single person denied that exactly what I said took place… Hmmm…
exactly how i selected except i left off meola since i limited myself to 5. i think he belongs though no doubt
Mike Burns would really tarnish the integrity of the hall of fame. I will always remember the time he ducked from a shot while guarding the post allowing Germany to score against us in the World Cup.
bornstein
When you look at who else is in the National Soccer Hall of Fame. I would just put every single person of this group in. It’s not an exclusive club whatsoever.
Pretty much if you played in a World Cup for the US you make the Hall of Fame. The ’98 team that finish DEAD LAST in France
Brad Friedel – still playing
Frankie Hejduk – still playing
Eddie Pope – Hall of Fame
Mike Burns – Ballot
Thomas Dooley – Hall of Fame
David Regis – Ballot
Roy Wegerle
Earnie Stewart – Hall of Fame
Joe-Max Moore – Ballot
Tab Ramos – Hall of Fame
Eric Wynalda – Hall of Fame 12
Jeff Agoos – Hall of Fame
Cobi Jones – Hall of Fame
Preki Radosavljevic – Hall of Fame
Chad Deering –
Juergen Sommer –
Marcelo Balboa – Hall of Fame
Kasey Keller – not elligible til 2014
Brian Maisonneuve –
Brian McBride – not elligible til 2013
Claudio Reyna – ballot
Alexi Lalas – Hall of Fame
Friedel, Keller and McBride are all no-brainers. Meaning that a team that went to France and got embarrassed had 18 Hall of Famers.
The German team of the same year probably had 6 Hall of Famers (Bierhoff, Kahn, Lehmann, Matthaeus, Kohler, Jeremies)
Don’t forget, JOB also provided the assist to Clint Mathis scoring against S. Korea in 2002 which ultimately got us through to the next round (and eventually the QF against Germany, which we would have won with decent officiating).
+1000. Regis was a joke even when selected to the USMNT. He should not even appear on a ballot like this.
I went with Reyna, Meola, Max-Moore, JOB and Valderamma on the mens side, and Cindy Parlow on the woman’s side.
I mean…obviously…Jose Burciaga, Jr. Just me?
Kidding.
The 11% of people who didn’t vote for Claudio Reyna (as of my posting @ 394 votes) should lose their Internet priveledges. This is where FACT overtakes OPINION.
just go away.
Oh man. Talk about a failure of a comment.
Clearly Piers Morgan should have a say!
Along with obvious picks, Reyna, Max-Moore, Meola, O’Brein, I certainly hope Armas makes the cut. He lives in that peculiar of being both valued and undervalued, in that we all know and respect him, but not necessarily the extent of his influence. He scored clutch goals while providing a perfect foil for Reyna. One defensive midfielder we never had to debate when healthy.
The poll seems skewed dramatically toward the men. Shannon MacMillan should be a no-doubter.
That one error shows that we shouldn’t have been relying on him at that point. However, for two full world cup cycles before that, he was incredible.
In fact, 2002 was not possible without him on any level.
Looks to me like a crapload of voters just don’t know who most of these people are. What a shame.
Wow. Someone just started watching soccer in 2006.
Can we add Valderrama’s hair as a voting option?
Isn’t JOB coming out of retirement? Didn’t Ives break that news a couple of weeks ago?
Can you have a hall of fame without any halls? Didnt they close the facility in Oneonta down?
Maybe they could make a small traveling exhibit that could spend a year or 6 months rotating around to different MLS stadiums. Might be a cool, and fairly cheap way of bringing some of this history to life, with actually more eyeballs on it than Oneonta had.
Etcheverry, MacMillon, Meola, Parlow, Reyna, Valderrama
US Soccer Fan’s comment is AWFUL. Watch how he ignores the entirety of Reyna’s career, including successful stints at big clubs and the 2002 world cup. Also, watch how he ignores that Reyna was subbed in that Ghana game and sustained a strained knee ligament. WEAK.
Claudio, Claudio, Claudio, Claudio, Claudio, Claudio!!!
Acted like his knee was hurt? He injured his MCL, it essentially ended his career.
And in 2002 he was selected for the World Cup All-Star team as a midfielder along with the following players…
Michael Ballack
Rivaldo
Ronaldinho
Yoo Sang-Chul
Lorrie Fair should get an honorable “hot women soccer players” vote.
You may want to check out the 2002 WC where:
“He became only the third American ever (after Bert Patenaude and John Souza) named to the World Cup all-tournament team.”
Had to vote for JOB too. Just because of all the questions Ives received about him over the years. Oh, and for his goal in S Korea against Portugal.
“Voters, which are comprised of Hall of Famers, select soccer administrators and select media members”
Is Ives one of those “select media members”?
Luke Rodgers gets my vote for the Hall of Fame.
David Regis!!!
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!
Claudio Reyna is AWFUL. Watch the 2006 WC game against Ghana – He got beat badly, then looks up and watched the guy score on us and THEN acted like his knee was hurt. WEAK.