#beard loves johan cruyff.

[becoach-a]

i think while beard had never passionately followed soccer/association football before his employment, he did admire several famous football players. obviously, beard has a love for johan cruyff, even going as far as having a framed photo in the entry of his flat (seen in beard after hours). obviously, beard knew of zava, thierry henry, gary lineker, pep guardiola, etc loooooong before becoming a coach.

he just wasn't exactly too invested in the game itself, which much more of his focus given to american football + baseball.

[archivedcoach]

before richmond, which teams did beard support? in football or any sport in general

beard hadn’t necessarily been an association football fan before richmond. i think he was more fans of individuals than he was of teams, i.e. being a fan of johan cruyff and probably even thierry henry. but with other sports, beard was very much devoted to quite a few teams.

I’ve said this before, but beard’s first ever sports love was baseball. oh man, is he a baseball fan. being from Illinois, his biggest team is the chicago cubs. and trust me. he takes his cubs very seriously. he has brought henry and ted to various games over the years, hoping to turn them both into baseball fans.

when it comes to american football, definitely likes various teams. Kansas City chiefs, naturally, and of course the team he and ted coached together…he probably likes a lot of teams, but he’s very staunch on who he doesn’t like….aka the new york jets. he does not like them, and never will.

[365footballorg-blog]

Wiebe: World Cups changed my life, and in 2026 one happens here - I'm ready

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June 15, 20188:31PM EDT

What a different eight years makes.

In 2010, I was living in Kansas City. I know exactly where I was – The 810 Zone on the Plaza, if you must know – on the morning of December 2 when Qatar was awarded the 2022 World Cup at the United States’ expense. I can still feel the pit in my stomach and the mouthful of proverbial sand that rendered me speechless when Sepp Blatter triumphantly raised the card aloft.

This Wednesday, eight years later, I was in lying in bed when United 2026 brought the world’s biggest sporting event back to North America. My 7-month-old son lay next to me, alternating between jamming the leg of his stuffed giraffe down his gullet, attempting to yank out handfuls of his dad’s hair and bee-lining for the edge of the bed whenever my attention was elsewhere.

I checked my phone and let out a whoop. He looked up, gave me a no-teeth grin and went back to baby business, too young to grasp what Wednesday morning meant, for him and millions of others in Canada, the US and Mexico. I knew then that my own World Cup experience had come full circle.

Best part about #United2026? This guy is gonna be eight years old, same age I was in 1994. Can’t wait to experience the tournament with my son by my side. He’ll be one of the millions of beneficiaries of everything the World Cup will do for our collective soccer culture. pic.twitter.com/sesaeCni9l

— Andrew Wiebe (@andrew_wiebe) June 13, 2018

When the US national team failed in Couva and missed the tournament that will captivate us all for the next month, I mourned the immediate loss, the World Cup that would go on without us, but it was the long-term repercussions stuck with me.

Gone was the opportunity to expose hundreds of millions of prospective fans to the best American soccer could offer. Gone was the opportunity to bring our soccer community, our soccer culture to the forefront of the mainstream conversation. Gone was a golden opportunity to see the game we love make the sort of every-four-years leap that the U.S. had grown accustomed to and took for granted.

Two of those momentous leaps, more than 20 years apart, changed the trajectory of my life.

I remember 1994 in snippets. Sitting alone on my grandparents’ couch as the US played Colombia on a tiny television with aluminum-foil wrapped rabbit ears. Alexi Lalas’ beard. Cobi Jones’ dreadlocks. The way Roberto Baggio’s head fell after he skied his penalty kick in the final.

I’d played soccer since I was 4 years old, first with foam balls on a gym floor at the YMCA then on AYSO teams, complete with halftime orange slices and a can of pop after the game. I went to Wichita Wings games at the Kansas Coliseum with my aunt and grandmother; it was the only professional soccer I knew. The nachos, people watching and postgame autographs stand out more than anything that happened on the field.

After 1994, I knew there was something much bigger that I was missing. There were players and leagues and tournaments happening that simply didn’t penetrate the sports pages and magazines I pored over obsessively.

I begged my parents for Baggio’s signature shoe, indoors so I could wear them to school, and wore the soles off them in a matter of months. Through an Italian youth coach, I learned about Diego Maradona, Johan Cruyff and their signature moves. Until plantar fasciitis wrecked my heels in middle school, soccer was my game of choice.

I remember 2006 more vividly. It was the summer after my freshman year of college. The U.S. didn’t make it out of their group, but the games were still thrilling. I woke up each morning to catch the action, and each afternoon the Internet sent me down rabbit hole after rabbit hole while I was supposed to be working at an internship.

Who was Clint Dempsey? Tomas Rosicky and Jan Koller? Jimmy Conrad? Michael Essien? Zinedine Zidane and Marco Materazzi? Where did these all these players come from? What had I missed in my Midwestern bubble when I decided baseball and soccer couldn’t co-exist? By the time I went back to college, I was spending hours each day reading transfer rumors on Eurosport and watching techno-laden highlight reels. My thirst for information was voracious.

I threw myself into Major League Soccer, too. I paid for FOX Soccer Channel with the little disposable income I earned from the campus bookstore. I bought a pair of crappy cleats, started playing in pickup games and signed up for men’s league. I changed my major from business to journalism and sold the sports editor of The University Daily Kansan on a soccer column.

I stuck with it, got a few big breaks and, a decade later, the game consumes my life, which brings us back to United 2026.

What will the World Cup mean to my son? To the millions of kids who play the game in North America or will in the years to come? To coaches, referees and administrators who spend their weeknights and weekends at the field? To our professional leagues? What will the world’s biggest sporting event do to our soccer culture?

There it is. #WorldCup2026 is coming to North America. By final count of 134-65, #United2026 bid tops #Morocco2026. #worldcup returns to U.S. for first time since picture below was taken. 1994 changed my life, hope 2026 will do same for boys and girls in 🇲🇽 🇨🇦 & 🇺🇸. pic.twitter.com/2H2K5lHxoS

— Sebastian Salazar (@SebiSalazarFUT) June 13, 2018

We don’t yet know, but we have the opportunity of a lifetime, a beacon to guide us as we attempt to right the ship after the failure of the past four years.

Right this second, there’s a 12-year-old somewhere trying to replicate Cristiano Ronaldo’s free kick against Spain. He or she could be the next Christian Pulisic or Mallory Pugh.

Right this second, there’s a youth coach working on tomorrow’s training session. He or she could help develop a player who takes the world by storm.

Right this second, there’s a young professional working on his game when nobody is looking. He’ll be in his prime when the World Cup comes to American soil.

For eight years we will work, so that eight years from now, lives, like mine, will be changed. Our sport will take over the continent, the entire world for that matter, for a month. We will make our own way, build on what’s already been accomplished while rooting out the inefficiencies that hold us back.

What a different eight years will make.

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Wiebe: World Cups changed my life, and in 2026 one happens here – I'm ready was originally published on 365 Football