Life In America's Lower Leagues

One of the things I appreciate the most about the internet is how it it's helped to make it cheap and easy to distribute news. And that's important when you're trying to follow soccer in the United States, especially the lower leagues. An example of the gems available out there is a recent interview of Amos Magee, the head coach of the Minnesota Thunder (USL-1). Blue Sky Soccer, which is a web site run by team supporters, has that interview here. The insights one can get from it are wonderful. Magee's joke about the importance of having someone on the team who's old enough to drive a rental truck is a clue as to how low of a budget these teams still tend to have. I also found really interesting his comment about scouting. These teams don't have much of anythign for a budget, let alone scouting. So one of the things Amos is doing is calling coaches in lower leagues (USL-2, PDL) looking for good players. The opposing coaches are more than happy to point out really good players on other teams in hopes they won't have to face that player again next year. There are other gems like this in there and I urge you all to read it.