Soccer is moving up in America!

Today was a huge day of success for professional soccer in the USA. This evening will be important as well!
First, the cover of FIFA 12 was officially unveiledtoday and it sports LA Galaxy and United States star Landon Donovan on it's cover for the second year in a row. To Donovan's right is Red Bull New York star Rafa Marquez. Last year Donovan also starred on the cover, however he was inUS National team gear. The new game cover is shown below.

Then it was announced that NBC networks had acquired the rights to air MLS games beginning in 2012. NBC will broadcast two regular-season games, two playoffs games and two USMNT games. The rest will be on the NBC Sports Network (currently known as Versus). This is a major accomplishment for professional soccer to be on a major network that reaches so many more households in America than Fox Soccer Channel did.

As almost every USA Soccer fan knows, today is Jurgen Klinsmann’s debut as manager of the USMNT. As I said in yesterday’s post, Klinsmann is instituting quite a few changes as coach. Some of the changes include Klinsmann only putting the player’s numbers on the back of the jersey. However Klinsmann is only numbering the starting players 1-11. The reserves will be numbered 12-18. This is an interesting change for the team. However, Klinsmann is also removing the player’s last names from the back of the jerseys to bring the players to recognize that the name on the front of the jersey is more important than the name on the back. This concept is very South American and European in nature. This is a very interesting move on Klinsmann’s behalf.

How do you feel about Klinsmann’s new team decisions and the new partnership between MLS and NBC. Match made in heaven or not so much? I will have another blog post this evening after the game is over. Let’s go USA!