Happy New Year everybody. It's a special day for us at SBI as well because today marks the third anniversary of our independent launch.
Yes, today is SBI's third birthday.
As we embark on our fourth year in business we will look to keep improving on bringing you soccer news and analysis from the United States and the world. As is the case each year, we will try to bring you improvements and new elements to our coverage to keep making SBI your source for news on all things American Soccer.
Please feel free to share with us what you like seeing on the site, what you would like to see less of, and what new things you would like to see us add to our coverage. I plan on growing ou writing staff, while also getting back to provide more of my own take on the world of soccer.
Back to New Year's Day. Today marks the first day of what should be another exciting year for soccer fans. From the Gold Cup and Under-20 World Cup, Copa America and the upcoming MLS season, including the arrivals of the Portland Timbers and Vancouver Whitecaps.
Thanks to all of you for your continued support and be sure to stay tuned as we keep things rolling in 2011.
What I think would be a cool feature is a “Where are they now?” The league has been around 15 seasons and a lot of players have come and gone. What are the likes of Marco Etcheverry, Roy Lassiter, Thomas Dooley, Maurcios Cienfuegos etc doing nowadays? What are their thoughts of the league now? What do they have to say about their playing careers?
I think this could be an interesting feature. Perhaps do a mix of stars and some of the more obscure players this league has seen.
-100
Don’t intend to ever get a Facebook account, and hate the whole concept that I MUST get one if I want to post on a site (ie MLSSoccerSoccer.com).
btw, the option is already there to sign in by Facebook…
Hi Ives,
I go to your site every morning, afternoon and night to check out what’s happening. I love the evening Q & A’s. I like the new European summary so I have a sense of what’s happening.
Some suggestions:
– As others have mentioned, I’d like to know how well (or poorly) Americans Abroad are doing (more than just minutes). If you can either use your own rating system or one from a newspaper that covers the game (eg Daily Telegraph’s player rating), that would be huge
– Aside from the players, I’d like to know how well the Americans Abroad’s teams are doing. I didn’t realize the Mikey’s team had given up nearly 50% more goals than the next worst defensive team in the Bundesliga. I’d like to know in the article how the team is doing as well.
– More / better coverage of the U20s and U17s. These are the guys that are the up ‘n comers and I’d like to know who they are
– Links to highlights. Yes, I know this is difficult but when you mention games, players, etc it would be great if there was a link so I can see for it myself
– Coverage of US WNT on par with the 2nd Division of Men’s soccer. An article once a week is enough for me, but hopefully more during the Women’s World Cup and WPS
Thanks!
I love this site! I am a triangle nc resident who digs the coverage of second division soccer(Go Railhawks!),MLS coverage, and of course USMNT! Vodcast coverage expansion plus podcasts would be great. One suggestion would be anglo mexican league coverage for those of us who love the game but don’t speak the language(know your friends but know your enemies closer!)Love my SBI!
bios of your writers. Are they fans of the game who can write or professionals?
“For example, how has tiny Portugal produced two world players of the year since I have been following soccer (Figo and Ronaldo) and the U.S. hasn’t even produced a single player on a top ten European team.”
It’s not about how large the population of the country; it’s about what kind of sporting and soccer cultuure and programs the country has. With all due respect, Portugal has no other significant international sport that they are as good at so they focus on football.
Portugal has a population of about 10.6 million.
In Scotland, in the 1960’s and 70’s when they were producing arguably a larger number of world class players they had a population of about 5 million people.
So again it’s not about population size per se. The Netherlands has about 16 millon people and you can see how many world class players they have produced over the years, arguably a lot more than Portugal.
thanks for all the work you and your team do Ives, please add a smart phone component so we can keep up with the news throughout the day.
bundesliga coverage
Like other readers, SBI is my go to soccer site…I check in every day. I think your mix of MLS – US Nats – International leagues is JUST RIGHT. Keep up the great work and happy new year
I love this site which I check religiously for all my soccer news. I appreciate your lack of hyperbole when dealing with some of U.S. Soccer’s most polarizing figures, namely Jozy, Mikey, and Bob. Also, I like your honest and frank assessments of the U.S. team’s and program’s weaknesses.
What I would love more of is in-depth looks at player development in the U.S. and comparison’s with overseas. For example, how has tiny Portugal produced two world players of the year since I have been following soccer (Figo and Ronaldo) and the U.S. hasn’t even produced a single player on a top ten European team.
Also, how about using your journalistic clout to sponsor a contest to name the U.S. Men’s National Team and to help narrow the field to five or so entries that you think might work nationally and to put this to a vote. I would love to a name for the Gold Cup this summer.
Two birds with one stone:
For those asking for various topics to be addressed more frequently, a forum will solve that issue. Want more Taylor Twellman? Write an SBI article re: TT, and link to a forum and those TT fans can discuss to their hearts content between TT articles.
Happy New Year to all.
Adding a forum would be great. The site is very active with comments/discussions, and sometimes those discussions would very easily continue, except that the lead story changes, etc. and many topics are ongoing.
A forum would drive continuous traffic to SBI 24/7 in between stories as well as providing an uninterrupted format for ongoing topics. An SBI article, say about Jozy Altidore’s latest, could point commenters to the Jozy forum, or an article-specific forum under the heading of ‘Jozy,’ where the discussion could rage yearlong, rather than for just a few hours or so.
Comments under the original article could automatically be appended to the article’s forum, then, as the article moves down the page, people can visit the forum to continue the discussion.
Clicking on the ‘Forum’ page would give people a view of which topics & articles have been commented on most recently, earning more page views for past articles that would otherwise not be re-read.
The forum topics should be SBI moderator created, rather than user-created for brand & content control. Just look at the traffic Bigsoccer generates for user-created forums, and imagine 3x the comments & page views on any given article by adding forums on SBI.
Also, if you do podcasts, transcript write-ups are 1. easy content 2. helpful.
I would like more cover on the young americans that are playing in mexico and the mexican league because it is the most watched league in the usa. The u-23 coach tom said that he scouted 20 young americans play in mexico on glenn davis radio show but no name.
Love the site. It is a must for anyone following soccer in the US.
The more MLS the better. Guys like Jose Romero, who was added to cover the NW teams, is exactly the type of expansion I want to see.
ps. you were asking for a place to stay in Seattle for a week, but never got back to me.
I need to get your room de-mother-in-law-ized.
You staying with me or not ?
Just keep it up for 3 more years!!
Would like to see an “americans abroad cribs” ala MTV cribs; video series featuring some of the pads these players call home.
Yo, Ives…Congratulations on another great year; I’m certain 2011 will bring quality from the blog again.
Hey, I want you to do some investigative reporting and find out what happened to the two chicks on FSC. Did Terri Leigh and Lara Baldesara get fired when Michelle Lissel returned from TFC?
Lara couldn’t pronounce the team’s names (or the player’s names) worth a damn but she was sure easy on the eyes. White shirt with white vest? Killer. Dude, only you could pressure FSC to bring her back.
Definitely more of your commentary. Appreciated the US Soccer Division 2 coverage. Would also like some more Bundesliga coverage! Keep up the great work.
Word! Do a US player ranking by position, meanless but great for debate…debate that is awesome! (insert emoticon)
Happy New Year Ives! There’s only one thing I would change about the site. My daughter loves the sport, but always complains that NO ONE really follows the WPS. As she says “It’s the Premire league for womens soccer in the world” And I admit that’s true, so out of respect of growing the sport in the U.S., it may be a good idea to pay more attention to it? I know most of the readers here may disagree, but I think it’s good for America if both the WPS, and MLS grow. Other than that it’s perfect- either way I’m still going to keep up with my daily dose of SBI- And Thank you for all you do already.
There isn’t much out there of consistent quality, so (no backhanded compliment intended) thanks for all you do.
Congrats on the anniversary and Happy New Year. You provide the best coverage of college soccer in the business. Please keep it up!
Long time listener, first time caller. Love the Men’s team coverage on this site, and hope that the Women’s team will get the same love moving into their World Cup Year.
Happy New Year SBI!
Facebook login and a forum!!!! Would make your already excellent site be even better. Thanks for all the hard work Ives and crew. Happy New Year.
I would like to see more MLS, USL & NASL coverage & less international stuff. There’s already a million web-sites addressing those stories.
A forum to talk about other items besides the daily news would be nice. Also, more interviews would be cool.
a player rating, like 1-10, for each player mentioned in the American Abroad posts. And any other info like that. For example, from your posts, I had no idea Stuart Holden was doing so well. Any information you can add about how the yanks abroad are doing would help.
I want to know more about the USSF. What exactly is Claudio Reyna doing as tech director?
More coverage of supporters’ groups, rivalries, and the development of US soccer culture in general. I think this is the most exciting part of growing the game here!
Thanks for you work Ives, the site has been on my bookmarks since I found it a year and a half ago.
Happy New Year, SBI!
Happy New Year and anniversary.
More in-depth Yanks abroad coverage…and I agree with the posters above: more naked women pics.
Good suggestion.
Yeah me to as well as more coverage of other CONCACAF members. I like the Canadian corner however maybe you can make CONCACAF corner as a catch all for the other countries that don’t get much coverage.
Love the site. More RBNY!
I want to see a lot of analysis about the upcoming Gold Cup. I’m already pumped for it.
I would love you to develop the comments section so that it’s more personalized. As a Toronto FC fan, I love going on the RPB forums and reading what people have to say. After visiting for long enough, I recognize usernames, display pictures, signatures and get some sense of the biases of certain posters.
I’m not a techy guy whatsoever, but I think that would help take SBI to the next level. Otherwise, It’s been a great few years of watching the site develop, and MLS as well. You’ve been on my hotlinks for about two years now and I visit the site almost every day. Keep up the great work and happy new year!
Add a social networking component to the site so that SBI readers can get in contact with each other (if they live in the same area).
Also, make it so that you can log in via Facebook, as they do on MLS’ website.
+1
Ives, your site is my soccer “base” site from which I jump to other soccer blog/news sites. My New Years wish, please fix your broken links (namely, the Unprofessional Foul link).
Thanks Ives – the three years have gone by quickly! I really like the live chats for both Q&As and running commentary. Big improvement – would like to see more of the Q&As in the evening – hard to do them at work!
It would be really great to have some players as guests for the Q&As – perhaps some of the players who have come back here from Europe or some of the
European players on break.
Podcasts of course would be terrific.
Thanks!
I’m getting you deported! haha Anyways more MLS news would be nice.
Punch Jaime Trecker (sp?) in the face a few times and post some pics. kidding…kinda.
Maybe some more in depth stuff regarding home grown/reserve talent. More highlights of the Yanks in the more obscure leagues?
A more in depth Americans abroad, besides the basic facts of who is starting and how long they played I want to know more about how they played, a player rating of sorts. Besides that, everything is great
More stories on the Mexican National team. The only one that matters in CONCACAF.
Some decent play by play as opposed to readers saying “this game sucks” or something totally helpful like that.
oscar picks and more pictures of naked women
Forgot to add my thoughts lol… umm I would like to see more of your thoughts on MLS teams.. I like the whole covering around the league stuff but what made this site unique was your in-depth view on MLS and situations with the clubs (In My opinion). also would like to see some more of the old sbi Q n A… as far as less, nothing should be less i think, it’s soccer, the more the better
ok