U S Soccer

When the U.S. national soccer team arrived in Kansas City on Saturday ahead of its World Cup qualifier with Guatemala it was greeted by torrential rains and lightning -- conditions that forced some area college football games to be suspended. It was the last thing the Americans wanted to see after sloshing their way to a 2-1 win over Antigua and Barbuda on a soggy, muddy and sandy cricket field in Antigua. No worries, though, since the skies are expected to be clear by kickoff Tuesday at Livestrong Sporting Park in Kansas City, Kan. And that news comes as a relief for U.S. striker Clint Dempsey.

New U.S. soccer Coach Juergen Klinsmann thinks his mix of international experience and American knowledge will allow him to improve the national team. The former Germany striker and coach, who has lived in the United States for 13 years, was introduced Monday and he spent much of the time talking about how to mold future American stars, not managing current ones. "It all starts down to develop the next Landon Donovan ," Klinsmann said of the U.S. one day becoming a serious contender for World Cup titles.

Through much of this fall, as she has been all over the place playing for two soccer teams, Alex Morgan often wished she could be in two places at once. The irony is Morgan is spending Thanksgiving week in the one place she would have preferred not to be. Chicago. That's where the U.S. women's soccer team found itself because of a stunning loss to Mexico last month that kept it from the final of the regional qualifying tournament for the 2011 World Cup in Germany. The regional finalists were guaranteed World Cup spots.

Sitting recently in a busy cafe on the outskirts of Birmingham, Britain's second-largest city, Jonathan Spector appears as English as the queen's corgis. He even has the touch of an accent, making him sound vaguely British. But when he orders espresso instead of tea, his cover is blown. "I'm still very much viewed as an American," Spector says with a shrug. Luckily for him, that's not quite the pejorative it used to be - at least not in English soccer circles, which is where Spector spends most of his time Once viewed as hardworking, if not particularly talented, players from a soccer backwater, Americans are now making a major impact in the English Premier League, considered by many to be the best league in the world.

When the respective World Cup coaches of England, Slovenia and Algeria get around to watching the videotape of Wednesday night's 2-1 soccer loss by the U.S. to the Netherlands in Amsterdam, one conclusion will be inescapable. Unless someone pokes a sharp stick in them, the Americans remain a team that can be taken, a team that all too often sleepwalks its way through games. This is especially true when it plays in Europe, where the U.S. has won only four of 26 games in the last dozen years.

Serena Williams will return to the top of the women's world tennis rankings after the Qatar Open, where she defeated former Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova, 3-6, 6-3, 7-5, in Friday quarterfinals. When the new rankings are released Monday, the 31-year-old Williams will become the oldest top-ranked women's tennis player in history when she surpasses Victoria Azarenka of Belarus. Williams last held the top ranking in October 2010. Previously, Chris Evert was the oldest to hold the No. 1 ranking when she was 30 in 1985.

The tiresome dance involving U.S. national team Coach Bob Bradley and U.S. Soccer is getting on my nerves. Does he want to stay? Does the federation want him back? Does anyone outside of the small band of U.S. soccer fanatics really give two figs one way or another? Bradley has been a success. So keep him. Stop messing about. Just throw some more money at him — his $600,000 salary, plus bonuses, is a pitiful amount and should at least be doubled — and let him get on with the job. Bradley has been a failure.

The teeming Honduran city of San Pedro Sula is the most violent in the world, according to the U.S. Department of State. Which makes it an unwelcoming place for the U.S. soccer team to begin the final round of its World Cup qualifying Wednesday afternoon. Yet, the crime rate is among the least of the worries facing a U.S. team that has been under heavy guard since arriving in Honduras on Monday night. Of more concern is the sauna-like weather, with temperatures in the mid-80s and humidity that is almost as high.

Bob Bradley, who coached the U.S. men's soccer team into the second round at the World Cup in South Africa last summer, might try to do the same thing or better at the Olympic Games in London in 2012. On Wednesday, the opening day of the national team's January camp at the Home Depot Center, Bradley said taking charge of the American Olympic squad is something that is of interest to him. "It is, it just has to fit with everything that we do," he said. "The reason that it is [appealing]