Category Archives: Soccer

Level of Hatred Toward Referees is Disturbing

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By Tim Nash

I just spent five days watching experienced referees coach and mentor young officials at the US Youth Soccer Region III Championships.

I watched, listened and asked questions as some of the best and most experienced referees in the country spent time helping the next generation of officials improve in all aspects of officiating.

And guess what? None of the instruction included telling the referees to choose a team to screw. Not once were the young refs told to try to anger the crowd, or irritate the home fans.

But it happens, doesn’t it? We live in an era when every call is debated and scrutinized through multiple instant replays and fans get countless chances to see a controversial play that the ref gets to see once for a split second. Continue reading →

Life After the PK for Brandi Chastain

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Aren’t You the One Who… ?

The following is an excerpt from the book “It’s Not the Glory, the Remarkable First 30 Years of U.S. women’s Soccer.” Click here to purchase a copy

They keep looking over here. By now it’s clear they recognize someone. There are three of them. One guy holds a pole in place while he not-so-secretly glances over at the table in the shade. Another guy connects another pole. It drops on the cement, clangs, rolls, and rattles. They begin again. The third guy is arranging the canopy-thing that will go on top of the poles, that is, if they ever get in place. Can’t really blame them, though. It’s probably not often their day is interrupted by three extremely fit, attractive women—two blondes and a brunette—and one unfit, unattractive guy, lounging around their work site.

Wait, is he coming over here? Really? Is it his break time already? Yep, here he comes. His buddies are trailing behind, letting pole-holder guy take the lead. What’s he thinking? “Three of them, three of us… let’s go boys.” This should be good. What happens next explains it all, everything being talked about at the table in the shade, everything they have accomplished, everything that caught the country by surprise in the summer of 1999. Continue reading →

Buy a Copy of “It’s Not the Glory”

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Glory book cover 400

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The 56th Minute, LLC is excited to announce the publication of a new book on the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team by long-time soccer writer Tim Nash. It’s Not the Glory, the Remarkable First Thirty Years of U.S. Women’s Soccer, tells the extraordinary tale of what has become one of the most intriguing and socially relevant sports teams in history.

A skilled storyteller, Nash uses anecdotes from his observations and interviews with nearly 50 players and coaches from every generation to narrate the story from the very beginning in the mid 1980’s, through the 2015 World Cup championship.

LISTEN TO A PODCAST ABOUT THE BOOK

It’s Not the Glory explains the team’s culture of excellence through the words of those who established it and nurtured it over the years. From Heinrichs and Akers on to Overbeck, Hamm, Foudy and Lilly, through Rampone, Wambach, Morgan and Lloyd, and everyone in between, It’s Not the Glory, details the character and characters that helped the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team have an enormous impact on society while rising to the very top of the women’s soccer world. Continue reading →

Tiffany Roberts Sahaydak and Husband Tim Build Family at UCF

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Roberts Sahaydak family

University of Central Florida coaches Tiffany Roberts Sahaydak and Tim Sahaydak with daughters, Evie and Layla

 

By Tim Nash

Every college soccer player has heard it, at least once, when they were being recruited.  College coaches, in an effort to make their program as appealing as possible, pull out the phrase during every visit.

“Our team is like a family,” they say. “We have a real family atmosphere here.”

But at the University of Central Florida, the women’s soccer team really is a family.

“That’s exactly what I tell recruits,” said Tiffany Roberts Sahaydak, the head women’s coach at UCF. “We really do have a family environment.”

Continue reading →

I’d Be Glad to Call You Soccer

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By Tim Nash

I never much liked Heineken, but I love their new commercials. Have you see them? They end with “You can call me soccer.”

heinekenLike probably all of you, I grew up playing soccer. Unlike probably many of you, it was during an era when, relative to today, not a whole lot of it was played, virtually none was watched, and all of it was criticized. National teams were virtually non-existent and youth national teams were rare. In fact, I was 31 when the U.S. men made it to the 1990 World Cup, the first time in my lifetime that happened. I was 32 when the first Women’s World Cup was played.

Media coverage? You’re kidding, right? To get soccer news, you subscribed to Soccer America and read the newspapers from large metropolitan areas. Finding soccer info in those papers was easy, if there was any. Step 1, pull out the sports section. Step 2, flip the section over so the back page is facing up. Step 3, look at the back pages for the catchall notes section where editors slap in short pieces to fill out the page. Step 4, Get disgusted when the one piece of soccer news chosen for that day is about hooligans. Step 5, try another paper. Continue reading →