Convention Euphoria – Gear, Controversy, and Ridiculous Skills

I had a great time at the NSCAA convention this past weekend. Downtown Baltimore was a sea of adidas tracksuits. The presentation line-up was solid: Bill Beswick (a convention regular), Gerard Houllier, and Steve McClaren to name a few. Nothing spices things up like a little controversy. And that was served up in spades by Paul Gardner, whose SoccerAmerica column “NSCAA Blind to the Future” had convention goers buzzing.

Gardner basically argues that there are too many English presenters at the convention, and that this comes at the expense of coaching influences from other parts of the world. As a result, he says that American soccer will continue to emerge in the English model, which has been relatively inept (i.e., not qualifying for Euro 2008), and will not embrace new demographics that are emerging on the American soccer scene. The conclusion that American soccer will evolve in the English model because of the NSCAA convention seems a bit presumptuous. No less, there should clearly be a diverse set of clinicians.

Of course there was tons of whiz-bang stuff in the exhibition hall. The Futboleros (watch the ridiculous video above) were in full effect, wandering nomadically around demonstrating their outrageous tricks. As one would expect, there was a ton of slick new gear from standards like Nike and adidas. But the most interesting apparel display was at a small 10×10 booth sponsored by a company called Calle. I confess that I was initially (and shamelessly) drawn to the booth to say hello to Marcelo Balboa. (I remember exactly where I was when he hit the bicycle kick against Colombia in ‘94.)

It turns out that ‘Celo is a big fan of Calle, which makes some pretty sweet gear for street soccer. It’s sort of like the soccer version of Vans. The Calle guys have a pretty cool pitch that revolves around the notion that Americans need to learn to play soccer in a non-organized fashion — whether that means playing in a parking lot or out in the cul-de-sac. I couldn’t agree more.