Best of the Rest Archive

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The 11′s first-ever open call for the Great Canadian Soccer Story

By
Steven Sandor
– 03/18/2013

world-cup-soccerWhat does soccer mean to you? What does it mean to Canada? We want to read your stories — and share the cream of the crop with our community of readers.

Great soccer journalism is part reporting, part analysis all bound together by wonderful writing. And we want to celebrate the craft with our first-ever open call for submissions. We want authentic, lively essays about the game in Canada. Your submission can be about playing the game in Canada, supporting the game in Canada or the struggle of trying to advance the game in Canada. Historical pieces are fine, too. We want to see great creative non-fiction.

E-mail submissions to teamworkpress@rogers.com. The winning submission will be published on the site in June and the author will receive an honorarium of $150. And, we’ll make that essay look good. The winning entry will feature illustrations from famed Canadian soccer artist Eugene Abrams (CLICK HERE for more on Eugene). The deadline to enter is noon MT, May 15, 2013. UPDATED:DEADLINE EXTENDED TO MAY 23
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Montreal artist makes soccer the subject of his brush

By
Mike Wyman
– 02/28/2013

Eugene Abrams

Eugene Abrams

You can take the boy out of soccer but, if he’s been inoculated by “The Beautiful Game,” you’re going to have a hard time taking it out of the boy. Case in point – Eugene Abrams, a Montreal-born artist who picked up soccer at about the same time most Canadian kids don their first pair of skates.

At some point between his birth and the first day of school, Abrams’ father, a United Nations employee, moved to New York.

“When I was a kid I went to the UN school from Grade 1 to 6 and my friends were from all around the world. Soccer was the thing.” Abrams recalled. “I don’t know what was happening in other school yards in New York City but in ours soccer was it. I started playing on teams in school and played until I was about 14.”

Among his early memories of the game are playing left back on his school team and getting to observe the son of a legend.

“Pele’s son actually went to my school, the United Nations School in New York. He was about six years old and I was about 11. I was only at the Manhattan branch of the school for one year but I remember he used to have the limo driver kick the ball against the cement wall while they were waiting for classes to start.”
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FC Edmonton goalkeeper a finalist for Cosmo’s Bachelor of the Year contest

By
Steven Sandor
– 10/01/2012

Lance Parker

FC Edmonton goalkeeper Lance Parker is one of the finalists for Cosmopolitan magazine’s Bachelor of the Year contest.

When Parker isn’t tending goal for the Eddies, he’s a major international male model, jetting around the world to pose in photo shoots. Google “Lance Parker” and you will get the idea — his modelling photos outnumber his soccer photos by at least 10 to one. His combination of modeling career/soccer career has made him one of the NASL’s most recognized players. Cue the Zoolander jokes.

Now, he’s representing his home state of Oklahoma as Cosmopolitan has gathered 50 of America’s most eligible bachelors. Fans go online to vote for their favourite single men — and the winner gets US$10,000. The contestants post e-mail contacts and Twitter handles, so on top of the $10K prize, there is the likelihood of many phone numbers being sent their way.
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Stats don’t lie: When North Americans invest in EPL, their “Big Four” teams suffer

By
Steven Sandor
– 08/07/2012

As Canadians, we are spoiled for sports-entertainment choices. Chances are that if you’re a soccer supporter, you also have interest in other pro team-sport leagues. Your NFL pools are important. You glance at how the Jays are doing. You probably have an opinion about LeBron James.

It can drive you to distraction.

And it certainly seems to be the case with the millionaires and billionaires who own teams in the traditional North American “Big Four” leagues (even though, with the continuing rise of MLS, that term is archaic) who take their money across the Atlantic and invest in soccer.

John W. Henry, the owner of the Red Sox, is hearing it from angry fans and reporters in Boston. The team has slumped to the almost-fringes of the playoff race, and the indictment is that the owner has been strangely silent, almost passive, as his team underachieves. Read the rest of this entry »

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A Canadian coaching odyssey: Ongaro goes back and forth between Edmonton and China

By
Steven Sandor
– 06/29/2012

Ross Ongaro

The office of the Archbishop O’Leary Soccer Academy is littered with pennants and souvenirs. There are flags of old NASL teams. There are pennants from various Canadian national teams and FIFA events.

It’s like opening a giant passport — and seeing where one man has journeyed on his soccer travels, where he’s picked up stamps along the way.

Ross Ongaro teaches at the north Edmonton high school, runs the school’s renowned soccer academy and has another, well, unique job. He’s also the coach of China’s national beach soccer program.

This past week, he returned to Edmonton after helping leading his team to a silver medal at the third annual Asian Beach Games, held in Haiyan, China. Over the last year, Ongaro has been back and forth between China five times, staying in Asia for three-week stints as he prepares his team for upcoming World Cup of Beach Soccer qualifiers. He’s led his team in exhibition series against Oman and the United Arab Emirates.
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The CL final and the overemphasis on tactics in soccer journalism

By
Steven Sandor
– 05/22/2012

Jupp Heynckes: Made the right moves, still lost.

It’s usually not the place of this site to comment on European football matches that don’t involve Canadian players. But this column isn’t so much about an unforgettable UEFA Champions League final as it is about the way the game is covered.

We often get comments or e-mails — unfortunately, the days of the angry handwritten letter written in ALL CAPS looks to be over — asking about tactics. Should they be discussed more? Less?

It’s clear in North American media that we don’t discuss tactics the same way lengths of our European counterparts do. Is that because they are more sophisticated in their coverage of the game? No.

Granted, tactics are an important part of the game. But remember a journalist’s job is to find the angle — the man bites dog, if you will — and if a team trots out the same formation it has been using for the last three months, well that isn’t exactly news, is it?

And, tactics, while important, are just part of the game. Let’s be absolutely clear. Tactics do not win games by themselves. Good tactical decisions by managers give their players the best possible chances they have to succeed. But it is still up to the players to provide the intangibles, the skill, the grit, the desire, to win games.
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Toronto to host massive soccer festival in August… for a good cause

By
Steven Sandor
– 05/04/2012

We have seen road hockey tournaments that raise funds for charities. Same goes for the running community. On any given weekend in any Canadian city, you can jog or run to raise money for a good cause. There have been attempts at playing the world’s longest hockey games, there have been cycling events for charity.

But what about the soccer world?

In August, Toronto hosts what organizers call the “world’s first epic mass participation, grassroots soccer fundraising event.” The Festival of Football aims to gather clubs that encompass a variety of age and skill levels Aug. 18 at the Eglinton Flats Premier Pitches. The funds raised are earmarked for the West Park Healthcare Centre. More than 100 teams are expected to play in a six-on-six format.
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SFU coach Alan Koch to coach Canada at Maccabi Games

By
Steven Sandor
– 05/01/2012

Alan Koch, the architect of Simon Fraser University’s soccer program, is taking on a new challenge. He will coach the Canadian team at the 2013 Maccabi Games.

The Maccabi Games are a world athletic competition open to Jewish athletes, and Canada will be sending men’s and women’s teams in a variety of age groups. Koch will helm the Canadian men’s open team, which is expected to have a few notable native sons in the lineup.

Koch led SFU to an 18-0-1 record in the school’s provisional NCAA Div. II season, and the Clan finished the year as the No. 1 ranked Div. II school in, ahem, the United States.
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BACK IN BLACK: WIN a new FC Edmonton home jersey

By
Steven Sandor
– 04/19/2012

Congratulations to Larry Eloy, who has won our FCE jersey contest!

FC Edmonton has a new look for 2012 — and The 11 wants to outfit a lucky reader in a new home black Adidas FCE jersey!

Black with a blue chevron piping, FCE’s new shirt gives the club a unique look amongst the other NASL teams and their Amway Canadian Championship rivals.

On the weekend of the Apr. 22 home opener, The 11 will select a lucky follower and send out a brand new jersey to the winner.

How to enter? Easy. The contest is open to everyone who “Likes” The 11 on Facebook. So head over to our Facebook site, click “Like,” and you are entered. All entrants must be on the like list by noon MT on April 21, 2012. For more on the contest, CLICK HERE to our redesigned Facebook page, and then click through our Back in Black icon.

(Thanks to Edmonton Supporters’ Group for designing such a great “Back in Black” logo — we couldn’t have done better ourselves)

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The 11′s top 11 stories of 2011

By
Steven Sandor
– 12/24/2011

The editor of this site is a self-professed geek. And, unlike almost every other writer I know, I enjoy crunching numbers.

So, when it comes to picking the year’s best stories, I let the numbers speak for themselves. I went back through Google Analytics and looked at the 11 stories you, the readers, kept reading and re-reading.

You can argue that a story put up in January has had more time to accumulate hits than a story slapped up just a couple of weeks ago. But, in truth, most of the traffic generated by stories happens in the first week after they go up.
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