Can Major League Soccer save ESPN and the negative light it shines on athletes in America?

Turn on ESPN and what do you see? Murder. DUI's. Steroids. Crime. The list goes on and on. It's a growing problem in several major American sports and the media is having a "field day" with it.

While the National Football League, Major League Baseball, NCAA Football and others continue to make headlines for the wrong reasons, Major League Soccer is making headlines for the right reasons.

Earlier this season LA Galaxy's Robbie Rogers became the first openly gay male athlete to play in a major professional sports league in America. Leading up to the announcement that he would join LA this season, Rogers' story became increasingly popular throughout the mainstream media and a key focal point of change and growth in American professional sports.

Rogers made his first appearance with the LA Galaxy in the 77th minute on ESPN's MLS Game of the Week on Saturday, May 26; a 4-0 win over the Seattle Sounders. In front of a packed house, Rogers was gifted one of the loudest, uplifting reactions from MLS fans all season.

Flash forward a couple weeks later and it's almost as if nothing ever happened. What might possibly be the biggest story in Major League Soccer this season went from something controversial, problematic and revolutionary all at the same time to almost a non-issue.

If you compare Rogers' story to what is going on with Johnny Manziel right now, which is more inspiring, motivational, positive? Easy. So why does the mainstream media seem to focus so much on negativity? Instead of highlighting and praising athletes for the positive role they're portraying, the media seems to look for ways to accentuate their mishaps and make them the subject of even more controversy. Sometimes you can even catch the analysts on TV giving the player some form of fatherly advice.

A lot of people, including myself, think that soccer in America has not been given the respect it deserves from the mainstream media. Rarely do you see something highlighted on television or in the newspaper with regards to soccer. It's something that I think is going to change eventually, but when?

U.S. soccer does not generate nearly anything close to what the NFL or MLB does with regards to revenue, but from a media standpoint what are we teaching our youth? We shine a light on players in other sports who continue to let us down, while players in Major League Soccer are doing things lift others up. News has never been more accessible than it is today through social media, and according to this article (written 4/8/13) 37% of teenagers in the U.S. have their own smartphone. I'm sure that number has only gone up since then.

Aaron Hernandez (NFL), Alex Rodriguez (MLB), Ryan Braun (MLB), Johnny Manziel (NCAA), Tiger Woods (PGA) and even Kobe Bryant (NBA) have become global icons for their respective sports. All of these athletes have worked very hard to get where they are/were in their careers, but at some point or another have let us all down. When was the last time you could say that about a U.S. Soccer player?

Here are some of the latest search results from Google with regards to the six athletes named above. I've also included U.S. Men's National team player and LA Galaxy forward, Landon Donovan.

Google - Estimated number of results (7/31/13)

Alex Rodriguez - 157,000,000
Aaron Hernandez - 105,000,000
Tiger Woods - 68,400,000
Ryan Braun - 68,000,000
Kobe Bryant - 61,100,000
Johnny Manziel - 35,700,000
Landon Donovan - 19,100,000

You could argue that the difference between Alex Rodriguez and Landon Donovan (approximately 137,900,000 results) is so large mainly because Rodriguez is under investigation for steroid use. We all know that he makes more money than Donovan and that he's a bigger star among the mainstream media, but why do people insist on giving a bad seed more and more publicity?

Rodriguez is 38 years old and he hasn't done anything for the United States of America. He really hasn't done all that much for Major League Baseball either. If anything, he's ruining the entire sport and its reputation. Didn't the U.S. Men's National team just win the 2013 Gold Cup? Shine some light on that.

ESPN has seen a decline in ratings this year and it serves them right. Some people are even having a little fun mocking it (Dave Letterman's Top 10 lowest rated shows on ESPN). Breaking news is great, but when you go on and on about the same subject it gets old. If soccer is the most popular sport in the world, why not put it on TV more often?

This brings us to some good news! ESPN FC, ESPN's new soccer show that will air Sunday through Friday at 530pm ET starting August 11. What this show does ratings wise could be very beneficial for the growth of soccer in America. Details regarding the hosts and primary focus of the show have not yet been released, but we'll find out soon enough.

ESPN's show will not be the only new soccer show set to air in August. Fox Sports 1 will introduce FOX Soccer Daily on August 19. This show is also 30 minutes long (starts at 4pm ET) and will be recorded from a studio in Los Angeles. For more details on the show, click here.

As a kid, I grew up idolizing all athletes. I was in awe of them. But now, because of their actions and the way they're portrayed on TV and in the mainstream media, I've become more cautious. Anybody can be a good athlete, maybe even a phenomenal one if they work hard enough, but character is what earns you respect in my opinion, and until you have that...you're nothing.

Here's hoping that ESPN FC kills it! In a good way.

New York Red Bulls 1, LA Galaxy 0: Why Carlo Cudicini shouldn't be blamed for Tim Cahill's game-winning goal

It's been a while since I last posted on here, but today's game (New York Red Bulls vs LA Galaxy) tested my patience. And since Twitter only lets me vent in 140 characters or less, here I am.

I don't have a favorite MLS team. I root for action-packed games and creative play from both sides, but my main focus is on fantasy soccer. I want certain players to do well so today I needed a LA Galaxy clean sheet.

Tim Cahill's game-winner in the 92nd minute is the main reason I'm a little heated right now, and in my opinion, Carlo Cudicini is not the only person responsible. Let me tell you who is and why.

Here's the breakdown on the game-winning goal...

The picture above was taken three seconds before Juninho crosses the ball into the box (via set-piece) in the 91st minute. After the ball is kicked, it's in the air for just under two seconds before Tim Cahill heads home the game-winner, leaving me, along with several Galaxy players stunned.

So, what's wrong with this picture?

First let's look at the matchups and see who is marking who: Omar Gonzalez/Thierry Henry, Sean Franklin/Jamison Olave, Todd Dunivant/Markus Holgersson and AJ DeLaGarza/Tim Cahill. The rest of the players pictured for LA; Greg Cochrane (hiding behind Omar), Gyasi Zardes and Rafael Garcia are marking nobody.

Dax McCarty and Lloyd Sam are completely unmarked. Why? Did LA fail to communicate with each other properly on the most important set-piece of the game? The answer is simple. Yes.

Is this Omar's fault? Is he the leader of the team when it comes to defending set-pieces? How can he see two guys completely unmarked and not be yelling at someone to get on them? Let's take a closer look.

Which player is responsible for the goal? (No. 1 = most reliable)

1. Gyasi Zardes - There are a lot of things that upset me with the way some players act on the field and silly fouls are very high on that list. I don't have the best access to picture quality at the moment so bear with me. Zardes fouls Roy Miller at the bottom of the screen right around the 90:30 mark.

Why?

Miller is dribbling towards the sideline with two options basically - he can pass to Jonny Steele or try to beat Zardes, Franklin and others off the dribble. The foul allows Juninho (a set-piece magician) to set up one final opportunity in the closing minutes of a 0-0 game. To me, this alone makes Zardes the No. 1 reason why the Galaxy lost today. If there's no foul, there's no set-piece. If there's no set-piece, there's no goal. It's not rocket science.

Even though Zardes commits the initial foul he can still make up for it by defending properly, but Zardes wastes time, precious time (pictured below). He takes too long to get back and mark up. Dunivant already has Holgersson, which means Zardes should move to either Olave or Cahill.

If Zardes is the second-tallest player on the field for the Galaxy at 6'2" behind Omar Gonzalez (6'5"), why isn't he marking someone who's a scoring threat in the air? Not only is he not marking a tall target, he pretty much marks no one at all. He basically just tracks back into space once the ball is kicked.

And why is AJ DeLaGarza (5'9") marking one of the best aerial players (Cahill) in the entire league? If Gonzalez has Henry, Dunivant has Holgersson and Franklin has Olave, Zardes' needs to be on Cahill, right?

2. Greg Cochrane - After the foul Cochrane immediately marks up on Dax McCarty, which is exactly what he should do. But, when McCarty moves behind the Gonzalez/Henry matchup, Cochrane gets lost and doesn't respond immediately. Then, instead of moving in front of Omar to get back to his original position, he runs behind him. This move is what keeps Tim Cahill in an onside position.

Since Cochrane keeps Cahill onside, he's the second player responsible for today's debacle in my opinion.

3. Carlo Cudicini - Bruce Arena was quoted as saying that the ball served up by Juninho was 90 percent keepers ball, and I agree to some extent. You can put a lot of blame on Cudicini for not coming out and punching the ball away, but in all honesty, he has roughly 1.5 seconds to make that decision from when Juninho strikes the ball. That's not a whole lot of time.

Cudicini struggled judging the flight path of the ball due to the angle of the kick and swerve it carried through the air. Juninho put just enough pace on the ball, causing Cudicini to second guess coming out. If you take a screenshot of the ball when it hits Cahill's head, there's no question it's Cudicini's ball to get rid of. But, it's much more complicated than that. If this were a corner kick, I'd be all over Cudicini, but the positioning of this free kick makes the keepers' job a lot harder than it looks.

4. Bruce Arena - It's tough putting the blame solely on coaches in soccer because they can only do so much. In this case, Arena prepared the marking matchups for set-piece situations so I have to find him at fault to some extent. Arena (pictured above, lower left) is standing calm and collected (with his arms crossed) while the second-tallest player on his team tries to delay time by standing in front of Juninho; who is simply just setting up the ball for one final kick. Juninho isn't trying to rush the kick, so why isn't Arena yelling at Zardes to get back and mark up. Arena is a legend, but not every player is as tactically gifted as a Robbie Keane or a Landon Donovan. Zardes is 21 years old and has played just 124 minutes in a Galaxy uniform this year. He's inexperienced and needs direction. If I'm Bruce Arena at the time of this picture, I'm screaming at the top of my lungs for him to get back and mark up.

The real heroes for New York aren't just Juninho and Cahill. Watch the goal again and notice how Henry avoids rushing in for the ball entirely, holding Gonzalez off long enough to prevent him from tracking back to clear the ball. If Henry runs in and tries to head the ball, he either disrupts Cahill's run or allows Gonzalez just enough time to get back and make a clearance with his head. It's the little things like this that made the Red Bulls the smarter team on this particular set-piece. This is what teams need to do to win championships. It's kind of like saying, "in your face" but without words, just movement. Henry, I applaud you on this one.

FYI: I was sitting 10 rows behind Juninho when he took the kick so I saw it all unfold right in front of me.

MLS - Looking Ahead (Informative Opta Update)

Week 3 in the MLS should be another great week, full of awesome goals, hard tackles and controversial coaching decisions! Unfortunately, both the Chicago Fire and Real Salt Lake have off this weekend, so my main responsibilities will be the Houston Dynamo and LA Galaxy. I haven't done the Dynamo yet, but seeing as how I just finished the post-match analysis on the Houston vs. Seattle game yesterday, I feel confident taking them this week. When you do post-match analysis you get to know both teams extremely well because you spend so much time looking at every single player. Knowing this, I'd definitely feel comfortable doing the Seattle Sounders FC as well. When doing live-game analysis, some teams are harder to do than others and there are many factors that play a role in how good the analysis turns out.  A lot of networks have camera views far away from the field and this generally makes the players much harder to identify.  Jersey color can also play a factor. When you have shirts and shorts that match in color, it can be hard to tell if the player has his shirt tucked in.  Also, most numbers are barely visible from the views we have so our focus has to be on everything else.  After this weekend I'll have done, Chicago, LA, RSL and Houston. Our training was done with the Colorado Rapids so I know them too. By the end of this season, it's quite possible that I'll have done analysis on practically every team in MLS.

All in all, the 2011 season is certainly living up to the hype. MLS is really taking things up a notch this year and its been a lot of fun being apart of it. The website is better than ever and their article content is extensive. If you haven't checked out the Podcasts yet, I suggest doing so because they can be really informative and new guests are on the show all the time. Matchtracker is running at a high level and every piece of data we enter in our matches is updated instantly to the web. Every game this year has video highlights posted during the game, and if you're into Apple products, the app for the iPad/iPhone is great for checking in on all the action.

Wilmington Hammerheads Continue To Roll - (Turf Field Update)
Last night the Hammerheads took on UNC-W in a wet and challenging environment, but came out as the victors yet again. The team boosted it's preseason record to a promising 6-0 start. The final was 3-1 with Jyler Noviello scoring two goals to lead the way.  He's the teams leading scorer this preseason and a likely starter at forward on opening day.  Richard took the night off with a minor hip injury, but should be back in time for the teams next preseason match. From what I understand only 14 players took part in the game so it looks like a quite a few were sidelined with injuries as well.

Good news coming from Wilmington is that the new turf field at Legion Stadium is finished.  Coach Irving said that the field will definitely take some getting used to and that it's going to play really fast for the time being.  He knows that the more they play on it, the better it should feel to the players and the more it should settle. I've never really played on turf, but I'm assuming it can be quite different for some of the players. The Hammerheads next match is scheduled for this Saturday against the Carolina Railhawks of the NASL.