A high five for the good writers at Soccer America Magazine

An article I wrote over the weekend appeared at ESPN Soccernet on Monday, detailing the puffy praise pouring fourth over Landon Donovan, who really is having a grand time and performing splendidly at Everton.

But if you’ve ever cooked up a really great soup or a particularly yummy dish, only to realize you omitted one ingredient that would have truly applied the finishing flourish, you know how I felt on Monday afternoon.

That’s when I read a similar piece by Ridge Mahoney, the veteran writer from Soccer America properties. Ridge and some of his longtime fellow Soccer Americans have been doing Yeoman’s work for longer than I can remember, reporting intrepidly on the American soccer scene. These guys are regular Walter Cronkites, I tell you, doting on the reporting and then spending time to add perspective and package it up just so.

As he wrote about Donovan, Ridge put the perfect exclamation point on the sentence, so to speak, when he noted this irony regarding the American’s dashing run at Goodison Park: With every strong performance, he drives up the asking price from MLS, which probably diminishes the chances that thrifty Everton can round up enough coin to make an appropriate bid.

Damn! How could I not make that point?

In the bigger picture, it reminded me of how much I wish those smart kids at Soccer America still had their places at the top of domestic soccer’s media totem poll.

Ridge, Mike Woitalla and Paul Kennedy at Soccer America have long been the leaders in providing smart, moderated voices in domestic soccer. It was always a shining example of how specialized media can work exactly as it should, with intelligent people using their access to influencers to help readers (and the outside media at large) develop a better understanding of it all.

They’re still doing the same good work, but their influence has waned. Their diluted voice has nothing to do with diminished skill or desire. Rather, it’s about their platform. Soccer America, like so many other print platforms, has simply struggled to keep pace in a rapidly changing media world. The words and wisdom still exist – but it gets short shrift, frequently obscured among the everyday tsunami of quasi-informed opinions.

In all honesty, I truly don’t know of anyone who gets the magazine anymore. Ridge’s excellent MLS Confidential is known and respected inside the industry, but I don’t know how many fans/readers it reaches. Same for Woitalla’s good work. (If you’re interested to any degree in youth soccer, you absolutely must check out his ongoing work on kiddoes in soccer. It is truly terrific and essential reading.)

There are other good sources of information and opinion on the U.S. soccer scene out there. But only a precious few have the ability and inclination to layer it all with context, perspective and supporting data. It’s much easier, after all, to fire off a few sentences, sprinkle in some outrage in the appropriate places (but with no consideration for offering alternatives) and then head out to lunch.

What sounds good today? Thai? Tex-Mex?

I’m not just talking about print/internet media here. I’m also including some voices on TV.  I won’t name names today, but some of the guys who toss out opinion willy-nilly … well, let me just say this: I sure hope they pin their name and address to their jackets whenever they leave the house – so that nice strangers can help them find their way home. They really make things hard on those who seek out the reasonable middle ground in it all.

Even after all the nice things I’ve said about him, Ridge will still be happy to tell me when I’m wrong.  (zing!)  Frankly, I’m just glad that he and his Soccer America pals are still in a place where they can, in fact, keep me in line. I hope they can stay there.