Eye On Asia

Regrets is something I don’t do I’m the type that let things play out. The denouement of my life will
read that I was a man that stood by his own convictions and who decided to fall on his own sword. An old friend of mine told me a long time ago that if I ever decide to write online it shouldn't be just about soccer and to add other facets so I don’t become one dimensional. I agreed for a little while but quickly rubbished it because simply, nothing appeals to my soul more than slipping thoughts onto a page about soccer. He was right! I could had conquered the world a lot sooner. Believe it or not I actually have more things to say besides discussing the woes of Andalusian outfit Xerez who make their living in one of the lower regional leagues of Spain. I meet a ton of wonderful people every week and my life experiences are so varied sometimes I feel the need to share it. For example a few months ago I think I met the smartest man I have ever met in my life. I won’t say his name because I believe brilliance like his has to be sought out and not revealed. Well...we spoke for a bit while we were traveling together and he was spewing his thoughts to me which was a treat but with all conversations my turn had come and I told him I wanted to be a soccer writer. He said you must right a lot! My honesty got the best of me and I said not as often as I should. “I had a roommate that was a writer, he writes everyday until his hand cramps up and is sick of it...but when you read his work it is really good. You have to write and read everyday that’s the only way you make it.” He said. Here is a man I only had a working relationship for no more than two days and his words had more impact on my mind than people I’ve known my whole life. My soccer blog can’t highlight my life but know I will drop some gems along the way. I will though leave this kind of talk for my memoirs. A collection I will compile when I retire in my native Barbados somewhere on empty beach. Right now it’s soccer time and I’m bringing back an old underutilized favorite of mine the “Eye On Asia,” series. So let me hop into that.
 The last “Eye On Asia,” post was on Monday March 26th 2012. That was a crunching three and a half years ago and that's just not going to cut it. In fact this post that you're happening to skim over right now was planned like two years ago. The player that is the focus of this piece has since move to another club. Embarrassing! I know trust me I know but we are here to rectify. If you aren’t aware this series looks to highlight the players, the leagues and rumors emitting out of Asia. This edition I will be raving about South Korean hybrid forward Heung Min-Son. A rave that is long over do like as I mentioned before. Son makes his living in the German Bundesliga a league that that is very hospitable to Asian players. At the moment he is one out of 21 players from the Asian Federation working in the German top flight. Players coming from Asia have been ultra successful while playing in Germany a fact that I find a little odd. I don't if it's the culture in Germany or the mindset of Asian players but there seems to a real level of comfort when it comes to the scenario on both ends. I urge anyone to watch a documentary or scan over the multiple articles on why Asian players flock and thrive on the German soccer scene. I think Son is not only the best Asian player in the Bundesliga he is to me the best Asian player in the world. Never has there been an Asian player ever considered to be the best player in the world overall  and I won’t say the 23-year-old forward is even close to that but he is a tidy footballer. The fading star of Japan’s Keisuke Honda and the inconsistency of his countryman Shinji Kagawa has open the door for the young Korean to take up the idea of being the best player from Asia.
 The fact of the matter is his current club Bayern Leverkusen has and his former club Hamburg SV had the best player from Asia for what is now the past three years. Evidence of this is his Asian Player of the Year award he snapped up in the 2014-15 campaign. As much as I have been watching Son over the years I couldn’t put a finger on who he reminds me of. It’s a weird combination I’ve pegged him to. In full flow he reminds me of Pedro the Spanish international. The way he cuts inside and the close the little touches he uses the manipulate the ball reminds me of the once Barcelona man. When he strikes the ball he has a quick snapshot sort of like Ronaldo and Bale. The ball leaves his foot so quick while in stride the opposition just can’t react. He isn’t of the calibre of those players but this young man is special. Hamburg couldn’t hold onto him and if he has another stellar season in a  Bayer 04 shirt I will bet they won’t be able to keep grasp of him either. The energy he posses is a typical trait of players from Asia but his ball control sets him apart from the rest in the  region. Him and Shinji Kagawa definitely are the point guards of the AFC. They handle the ball with such dexterity it’s unsettling. I get uneasy when I see Son and Kagawa on the ball just because it seems surreal.
 It’s not like Heung Min-Son is a mystery at this point I should had hopped on this article years ago. Hence why this article is a little short on the footballing side. Ironically as I write this I checked my Twitter and saw Tottenham Hotspur just tabled an 18 million bid for the Korean. I couldn’t even make this up! The week I decided to put this article to rest something comes about to debunk my findings. Let this be a lesson to all.Don’t put off till tomorrow what you can do today. In my case don’t put off till three and a half years. 

Editorial: The Farm

Somewhere in Brooklyn at my 9 to 5 about a few months ago I had the pleasure of meeting a friendly
Austrian traveller. He told me how much he loved New York City while I replied by saying Vienna looks like a charm. To move the story along it has to be said we were in a NBA store. So the eventual topic of basketball came about. He is a foreigner and let’s be honest their fascination with basketball is not like the average American fan of the game who is more like a cross between a moose in musk and a jaded ex wife. His fandom was innocent. He was excited to be in a NBA arena (if you haven’t figured out where I work by now you may be dense). We talked about basketball...my knowledge of the game kind of overwhelmed him and he tentatively backed into a zone of comfort and said he was a more of a football (soccer) man as a way I guess to gain a little advantage in a scenario that was not even threatening. I had no problem with talking about soccer and allowing him to feel maybe a little superior and comfortable after all I am in the service industry to offer comfort is my mo’. Problem with that is that he picked the wrong black guy to talk soccer with. Our Austrian friend said he was from Innsbruck but supported FK Austrian Wien. Here is where I wish writing some how allowed people to see the story unfold in pictures because words fail to do convey his reaction when I came with my response. He said in his Germanic laced English. “Yes I love love my Wien!” I simply looked at him and in my bland Baritone voice said.”I prefer Sturm Graz.” I don’t if it was the fact that I was black, living in America or I worked for a basketball team but he was shocked. Our conversation got serious I mention to him it’s a shame Andreas Weimann has not been able to kick on and that David Alaba’s injuries real curtailed his career so far. I even threw a little Andreas Herzog  factoids for good measure. The man was impressed but I struck a nerve with him when I mentioned something. Somehow the New York Red Bulls entered this footballing frenzy between the two of us and it definitely tempered his tone. It was like watching a blacksmith taking magma laced piece of iron and setting into a vat of ice water from the most northern fjord. Our footy friend said he hate the Red Bull. Well with that I knew to only offer him Gatorade if he was in need of liquid energy...but all jokes aside I knew what he meant. I know Red Bull Salzburg of Austria was seen as marketing tool for a big cooperation and how its seen to be a blot to some in Austria on their league, a symbol of unwanted modernization in a traditional sphere which is European soccer. Patrick (that was our traveler’s name by the way) echoed what I had thought when he said “In Europe we do not like franchising like America!” Ironic that he said that in a NBA arena which was the home of a newly minted NBA team the Brooklyn Nets. A team he was raving about just a few minutes ago.
 It got me thinking. Why are people not just in Europe but in the Americas, so against a and I use these terms loosely “farm or commercialized,” team? I happen to go to my fair share of New York RedBull games and I’m demonized by some of my friends for it...simply because the team is attached with a major cooperation and it’s root the New York/New Jersey MetroStars has been shushed away into the background. If you've ever gone on some Major League Soccer or local soccer forums the hate is venomous! Especially for the New York teams. The common term around the snooty circle of this newly found soccer bravado is “plastic.” Many claim the Red Bulls and their new crosstown rivals Manchester City’s American appendage New York City Football Club are not “real,” clubs because of their branding and new found history does not fit into the traditional. The strange thing is the concept of these type of teams popping up isn’t new. If you just scroll up you would see the iconic crest of Ajax. One of the most treasured teams in all of world football but if one knows what one is looking for the Ajax in the photo isn’t the one I speak off. I am referring to the Ajax of Amsterdam the great European power. The crest on display belongs to her feeder/farm side Ajax Cape Town of South Africa. Now I don’t live in South Africa and as hard as I try I don’t know how South African football fans feel about Ajax of Cape Town. I simply don’t know and I won’t speculate. The question I would direct to people who are opposed to these types of symbiotic relationships is if they think if these new “farm,” teams help anyone?
 Ajax Cape Town came about due to the merger of two football clubs in the city. Seven Stars and Cape Town Stars in 1999. Ajax solidified the union by financing and instilling her philosophy and the club was born. Ajax Amsterdam placed a huge emphasis on youth and player development offering the children of locals to join a professional side not only in their own neighborhood  and country but also a shot to ply their trade in the Netherlands. A reward for the most ardent students. By all accounts it is a formula that works. Go ask Everton’s Steven Pienaar. A South African kid that joined their ranks. A guy who would say and I’ve read quotes of him saying  that he did not have the easiest of childhoods. A man who joined Ajax Cape Town then moved on to Amsterdam and then to the promise land of the Barclays Premier League. He isn’t the only South African boy whose dreams came true because of this Dutch outpost club. Ajax Amsterdam over the years have plucked the likes Thulani Serero who has been incorporated into their system as I speak. I’m not a fool. A dreamer but not a fool. Austria and New York isn’t South Africa. A feeder club in the prior two, yes can change a live of a young man but in the latter it can literally save a young man’s life. Ajax Orlando  (yes there is an Ajax Orlando) in the United States is probably is a cash cow a ploy to tap into Americans’ wallets and the probability of a star emerging out of that organization will be a far stretch and I don’t think this will boost a community like it’s South African counterpart will. If Red Bull decides to create a team in Namibia there is no doubt even if the players produced aren’t that good there is no doubt the amount of good it will do for the area. A Red Bull team in New York isn’t really going to do anything...well except tick off a fan base.
 My Austrian friend and those soccer hipsters on the on their MacBook keyboards are right to bark on about tradition in the game it is a massive part of the sport and it should not be overlook. I get it. Where they stand from having a big corporation or another club coming and absorbing their side or creating a new team out of the air could be bothersome. It makes the game look cheap. They are not wrong but I will also put forth the case of the teams that are created in troubled areas of the world. What likes of Ajax Cape Town and SuperSport United Football Club in South Africa an affiliate Feyenoord Rotterdam...Yet another super club from the Netherlands has done for these areas is phenomenal. I personally love sides steep in tradition. By all accounts England’s Notts County Football Club is the oldest professional team in the world. If I was a Notts County fan I would feel just a warm glow every time I see them play. It is this kind of feeling of belonging to an old honor that makes people adore such clubs. So when a team that just was thought up in a board room by a corporate stud emerges I can see why traditionalist would be irked. 
 I won’t ramble on any further, I could all day about the issue and for the sake of editorial quality I will close this chapter the best way I could...let’s not forget I am a fledgling writer. This notion that newly created teams are phony, cheap and a way for guys in a suit to make money is a harsh way to look at it because there always will be a scenario where that form of business will work and let’s not fool ourselves a Wolf of Wall Street character in a suit will always profit. Which is cute but I don’t care about that what so ever. If a little kid may he or she be from a football hotbed or a place that is trying to enter the heralded soccer circle...if a club can invest in that child and give them a tangible future in the sport I don’t see a problem. The kid that is in Red Bull Leipzig’s youth academy has much as a right as his counterpart in Hamburger SV to take a crack at this football thing. These arguments of newly minted and old gold football sides isn’t silly what they are is distracting. Fans and students of the game won’t ever get pass the surface level of the argument which is understandable but they should be reminded it is about the play on the pitch and the players produced and it shouldn’t matter how they got their start. What is important is that a get a start...One thing before I go and I put it to the those who despise these “farm,” or “commercialized,” teams. What if the best player in the world or of all time came from New York City FC or Red Bull Salzburg? When we tell his story will we omit the start of his career and the place where it all started because it had something to do with an energy drink?