NASL Fall Season: Week Five Preview

With four weeks now gone in the NASL's fall term, the groundwork appears to be in place for as tight of a race in the second half of the year as we saw during the spring season. Carolina looks to be rebounding from their disappointing close to the spring season in grand fashion, the Cosmos have been rescued by some late magic on a couple of occasions, and San Antonio is hardly looking like the team that snuck back into the spring season race in the closing weeks.

With some of these storylines, amongst others, in mind, one needs to additionally only take a cursory glance at both the table and some of the games on offer this weekend to see that the NASL picture may hardly be any clearer by the end of the weekend than it was before.

Big Show News

For those of you who have been listening in to the Ryan Martin Show over the last year and a half, you know that it has been something of a one man show, both on-air and behind the scenes. In addition to compiling all of the material for the show, I have also been running the soundboard and producing the show independently. Needless to say, it can be a bit of a handful at times, both literally and figuratively.

With that in mind, I've been looking to bring a co-host on for some time, but the challenge in doing so has been one of finding someone who meets the rather high standards that I would look for in a co-host. As many of you know, I pride myself in being able to knowledgeably bring you information and analysis from around the world of soccer, and I would expect the same of any potential colleague.

I'm pleased to let all of you know that such a person will be joining the show, and in turn doing her part to add more perspective and insight to the program. As of September 9th, Cari Gelal will be joining me in the studio on a permanent basis. Having worked with Glenn Davis and the Houston Dynamo recently, she has significant experience in this field, and if I'm honest, she knows her stuff.

Furthermore, the show will soon be expanding from an hour to ninety minutes, which will better allow us to bring you more insight and interviews than ever before. All in all, these are very promising times indeed for the show, and accordingly I'm very excited about what the immediate future has to offer!

The Ryan Martin Show: 8/19/13

If you missed yesterday's show, here's your chance to listen to it now. It was a busy show, as all of the latest from the opening weekend of the Premier League was featured, along with talk about the USA's win over Bosnia, MLS, NASL, action from around Europe, and more.

United States 4, Bosnia & Herzegovina 3: 45 Great Minutes

In venturing into Sarajevo on Wednesday, the United States, on the strength of a remarkable summer in World Cup qualifying and in the Gold Cup, came into the night as arguably one of the hottest national teams in the world at the moment. Indeed, the Americans' eleven game winning streak coming into the game against Bosnia and Herzegovina meant that they were only a handful of wins away from setting a new international record for consecutive wins--no small feat in this day and age.

Of course traveling into such hostile territory against a side that is just about running rampant at the top of Group G in European World Cup qualifying was never going to be easy, and the absence of Jürgen Klinsmann's current first-choice center back pairing of Omar Gonzalez and Matt Besler against the ever-dangerous strike partnership of Edin Dzeko and Vedad Ibisevic was always going to be a cause for concern, especially as Hertha Berlin youngster John Anthony Brooks made his debut in their stead.

There can be little argument that the first 45 minutes were something of a nightmare, as a defensive lapse and a missed offside call meant that the Bosnians, through Dzeko and Ibisevic respectively, found themselves in the well-deserved ascendancy on the stroke of halftime. Refreshingly, and almost expectedly these days, the Americans proved that the 90 minutes weren't up yet, and in turn gave us a few talking points.

The Ryan Martin Show: 8/12/13

If you missed yesterday's show, listen in now for talk about the Community Shield, transfer news, MLS, the Atlanta Silverbacks and the opening weekends in the Bundesliga and Ligue 1. Enjoy.

Dempsey's Seattle Move: The Good, The Promising And The Peculiar

The relatively recent news of Clint Dempsey being placed on the transfer list by Tottenham understandably caused some degree of concern by those in US soccer circles. After all, Dempsey is largely seen as the most dangerous scoring threat and the most visible player on the US National Team, having eclipsed Landon Donovan in such roles in the process. As such, it would hardly do Dempsey or the national team any favors for him to be marginalized and scarcely getting minutes at Tottenham with next summer's World Cup drawing nearer. A move away from White Hart Lane, which had been a dream destination for Dempsey only a year prior, seemed to be a foregone conclusion.

The likes of West Brom, Liverpool, Everton and Sunderland had surfaced in various reports as being potential English destinations for Dempsey in the wake of him being deemed surplus to requirements at Tottenham. Yet, despite these speculations, it was another team entirely whose name was being tossed around in connection with Dempsey: the Seattle Sounders.

As we know now, the rumors of a move to Seattle would become much more than that indeed, culminating in the confirmation of Dempsey's return to American shores by the end of last week. Predictably, the announcement was greeted with varying degrees of excitement, celebration, criticism, anguish and, as tends to happen with many MLS roster moves, pointed questions about just how Seattle came to land the current face of American soccer.

The Ryan Martin Show: 8/5/13

Yesterday's show is now online. Listen in for the latest musings on Clint Dempsey's move to Seattle, MLS playoff races, potential departures of Wayne Rooney and Gareth Bale, the opening weekend of the NASL's fall season, and more.

A Post-Gold Cup Assessment Of The United States

On the heels of a phenomenal run of results that saw the United States impress in a friendly against Germany before vaulting to the top of the table in CONCACAF World Cup qualifying, it was perhaps not all too surprising or unexpected to see the Americans hoist CONCACAF's top prize in Chicago last Sunday afternoon. After all, Mexico was sending what could kindly be described as a B squad into the competition, and the USA's group draw was certainly kind thanks to the presence of both Belize and Cuba. The fact that the United States, despite not being completely at full-strength, still had the luxury of featuring such prominent figures as Landon Donovan, DaMarcus Beasley and Eddie Johnson, did little to hurt their chances of wrestling the trophy away from Mexico for the first time since 2007.

Yes, detractors could point to some of these things that worked in the USA's favor in this Gold Cup in an attempt to downplay the recent triumph under Jürgen Klinsmann's tutelage, but to do so would be a bit rash and alarmingly unfair. Admittedly the road to the Gold Cup victory may not have been as difficult as in years past, but as any manager would tell you, a team can only play against the teams put in front of them.

The United States did just that, leaving very little in doubt during their unblemished Gold Cup run. In doing so, Klinsmann and company did everything to give American fans plenty to analyze and ultimately feel very confident about as next summer's World Cup draws ever closer.