It looked bigger from the bridge... (Gothamist)

It may be the best new park in the city that's not the High Line, maybe even better, so whenever there is news of expansion at Brooklyn Bridge Park, it is good news. In this case, the good news comes in threes.

Earlier this week, the Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation announced plans for a temporary pool to open this summer at the shore side of Pier 2, the latest attraction for the park. Measuring 30 feet by 50 feet and 3.5-feet-deep, the pool will cost either $150,000 according to the Post or $199,000 according to the Daily News. “I’ve long said the pool is a major priority for the park, and now the community can dive right in," local state Senator Daniel Squadron told the tabs.

The park also caved to pressure from local prep schools and the community and agreed to include a regulation-size soccer field on Pier 5, The Brooklyn Paper reports. Previously the park had said there was not enough room for a real pitch, but now the kids can kick to their hearts' content.

So with a small pool and a big field, what does Brooklyn Bridge Park really need? A miniature model of itself! That's what the Queens Museum just installed on its giant Robert Moses panorama. The museum told Gothamist that this was the first major addition since a model of Battery Park City was added two years ago.

Correction: An earlier version of this post said the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy, not Corporation, had approved the new pool and soccer field. The Observer regrets the error.

mchaban [at] observer.com | @MC_NYC

Rossi.

Yesterday The Observer trekked down to Sarah D. Roosevelt Park to watch a little football. And we mean real football.  Basketballer Steve Nash held his annual soccer match, Showdown in Chinatown, in which fellow kings of the court join forces with international soccer stars to raise money for Nash’s foundation.

The result? A hilarious mélange of sports phenoms, of giant and diminutive statures, kicking it for a good cause.  As Nash’s foundation focuses on children’s health and education, kids really were the centerpiece of the event. Before the game a smattering of young soccer players scrimmaged around the turf pitch and, when the stars showed up at the filed, ran around in energetic circuits asking for autographs. The players all obliged, smiling as they did so.

We talked with Steve Nash who described the philosophy behind the event. “Its about putting on a show for the fans in New York and this community. Its free to the public to just walk up to this field and see some of their favorite basketball and soccer players and at the same time raise some money for children’s foundations for my charity,” Nash excitedly explained.

Tony Parker, who displayed some fancy footwork of his own during the match, talked to reporters about trade rumors.  “The NBA’s a business, you can’t control that. I’m not going to worry about that. So hopefully I can stay in San Antonio,” Parker said. But when a passing New Yorker playfully shouted “You going to look good in that Knicks Uniform, man,” Parker chuckled knowingly, perhaps.

A whole section of fans, all donning Italian jerseys, chanted an impressive repertoire of cheers for Jersey-born player Giuseppe Rossi. With dual Italian and American citizenship, the talented Rossi played for Italy in the World Cup last summer.  At halftime, Rossi divulged his love of New York through an accent that would make even The Situation blush. “New York’s beautiful. I live in New Jersey so I come often. And it’s my favorite city,” he said. An American who plays for Italy and a Jersey boy who loves New York. We sense a theme.

The game its self was a sight to behold. The players ran up and down the kid-sized field trying not to hit any fans who were packed around the sides of the field and in the bleachers. The Observser stood just behind Steve Nash’s young son who spent much of the first half chewing on the dreadlocks of ESPN commentator LZ Granderson.

Unfortunately the ominous skies broke just after halftime and we were forced to flee the field in an increasingly see-through white dress.  Rain aside, the afternoon was a huge success for the Steve Nash Foundation and the fans, especially the kids, couldn’t have been happier.

According to the Associated Press, French striker Thierry Henry called for a meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy upon the team's return to France to discuss their disastrous World Cup showing.

Sarkozy, who publically denounced the squad's actions, has also scheduled a meeting with ministers come up with a plan on how to reform French soccer.

The team's meltdown started when star striker Nicolas Anelka verbally attacked French coach Raymond Domenech, refusing to apologize and subsequently being sent home by the French Football Federation.

Then the team went on strike in protest of the Federation's hard-nosed approach and refused to train. However admired team solidarity may be on the soccer field, this may have led to their 2-1 loss against South Africa, and their elimination.

Adding insult to injury, the French team's elimination Tuesday night means they now have to return to a country full of disgruntled French soccer enthusiasts - in addition to one very disappointed president.

By mid-century, baseball began to give way to basketball as the city game. The exploits of CCNY; the birth of the NBA and the Knicks; and the rise of schoolyard legends from the tough streets of Coney Island and Far Rockaway captured the city's imagination and helped define urban athletic style.

Today, there's a new city game, a global game for a global city in a global century. Soccer, the game of immigrants, has captured the imagination of the city just as baseball and basketball did for other generations. New Yorkers by the tens of thousands are gathering every day in bars, cafes and restaurants to follow the FIFA World Cup from South Africa, and for a few hours, anyway, many of these New Yorkers exchange their current identity for a memory, new or old. A third-generation Italian-American cheers for the Azzurri; an immigrant from South Korea, Nigeria or Mexico pulls for players with familiar names and faces.

Soccer was practically unknown in the New York of three baseball teams; it was little more than a curiosity during the golden days of the Knicks in the early 1970s. But now it has taken over venerable parks like the Parade Grounds in Brooklyn and just about any other patch of green in just about every neighborhood in New York.

Soccer has long been the world's game. Now, in the 21st century, it is the city's game.

Town eateries like Rowdy Hall, Citta Nuova and the Blue Parrot overflowed with fans, some with gelled hair to complement their U.S.A. soccer jerseys or T-shirts, others in python print stilettos and unseasonable tans.

These were not the Hamptonites The Observer dreams of at night, the glamorous aging baby boomers with homes on West End Road and beachfront properties off Lily Pond Lane. Unfortunately, that local noblesse don't seem to care much about soccer at all.

The evening before the U.S. vs U.K. game, Hamptons mascot Alec Baldwin told The Observer apologetically, "Oh, dear, I don't really care about soccer. I'm an NFL fan and basketball and everything else so-so, but not soccer." The actor, currently starring in Equus at East Hampton's Guild Hall, explained, "We're doing two shows tomorrow, so I definitely won't be watching."

That same night, Ellin Saltzman, former Glamour editor, Saks Fifth Avenue director and current Gilt Groupe Consultant, proudly told The Observer, "Isn't the U.S. playing tomorrow? I don't know about soccer, but my grandkids love it!"

Only in the past quarter-century has soccer made a permanent mark on the collective American psyche, with predominantly younger generations caring about the graceful sport, even as older sports fans remain loyal to the more traditional American sporting pastimes like baseball, football and ... polo.

David Walentas, the rough-and-tumble real estate developer who owns 115 acres of equestrian land where the revered Hampton Polo matches are played every summer, similarly had a hard time with the World Cup. "I tried to watch a little, but I don't really like soccer. I mean, I didn't grow up playing when I was kid; I never got into it."

To some, the game is more like a foreign language, not understood. Asked if he would be watching any of the World Cup, which goes through July, director Sydney Lumet simply stared blankly.

Kevin Brown, the oversize actor who plays Dotcom, the intellectual member of Tracy Morgan's entourage in 30 Rock, is certainly younger than a baby boomer; in fact, he's probably the baby of a baby boomer. But he doesn't care about soccer, either! At the premiere of Equus, he told The Observer, "No, I haven't gotten into that game yet. I saw one game with what's his name, Beckham, and he was injured like the whole time! I mean, what is that?"

That, my friends, is the World Cup in the Hamptons.

Mr. Foer, author of How Soccer Explains the World, will be joined again by Serbian novelist and National Book Award finalist Aleksandar Hemon, among others. 

From the release: Contributors to Goal Post also include Matt Weiland (The Thinking Fan's Guide to the World Cup), painter and writer Rabih Alameddine, sportswriter Stefan Fatsis, Talking Points Memo's Zachary Roth, Mexican blogger León Krauze, Spectator's Alex Massie, author Tom Vanderbilt, Colombian novelist Carolina Sanin, Luke Dempsey (A Supremely Bad Idea), The New Republic's Jesse Zwick and Peruvian writer Daniel Alarcón.  

"I think that nerdy kids have a classic response to their sporting disasters as kids," Mr. Foer told the Observer's Lizzy Ratner in 2006. "What they can’t master physically they try to master intellectually, and certainly that’s the case with my soccer experience.”

The name may be unfamiliar, but the team has been around since the league's formation in 1995. Originally burdened with the awkward title of the New York/New Jersey MetroStars, they were rebranded by the energy drink company in 2006, a humiliating loss of identity which has actually proved a boon. For Red Bull brought money and Red Bull has given them a stadium. On Saturday night, when they played the first competitive game in their new 25,000-seat home, it looked like the worst team in an overlooked league may finally have a future.

Like most MLS clubs, they began life playing on a football field—in this case, the cavernous Giants Stadium—with as many as 60,000 empty seats there to remind the fans that America doesn't care about soccer. 

"Giants Stadium? You could hear people's conversations in the stands," said defender Jeremy Hall after Saturday's game.

It looked worse on TV, turning off viewers used to the majesty of European soccer palaces. There, the supporters lit flares, played drums and sang. Here, it seemed, the team's families didn't even bother to show.

"There was nobody there," said Wayne Flagg, a die-hard fan, or "ultra," on Saturday. "It just sucked the life out of everything."

And so the "soccer-specific stadium," with the right-size field and a modest number of seats, is meant to save the MLS. Nine of the 16 teams now play in one, and with its $200 million price tag, New York's is by far the most expensive. Named, of course, Red Bull Arena, it sits near Newark in the middle of a construction site in Harrison, N.J., the future "Riverbend" commercial district. Harrison and Hudson County pitched in $100 million for the stadium's construction and maintenance, including land and parking, in the hopes that it may soon anchor the commercial district.

For now the area is as barren as a moonscape, and the stadium looks like a big silver space bubble. Inside is an alternate reality—one where soccer doesn't just matter, but where, for 90 minutes every other week, nothing else does. "It's a dream come true," said Eric Dalmedo, who spent the match in the supporters' end, on his feet chanting at the top of his lungs. Red Bull has grouped the ultras together at one end, where on Saturday, despite the 39-degree chill, they combined to make more noise than one will hear at any Yankee or Giants game.

Nuno Rodrigues, head of the Jersey-based Garden State Supporters club, leads his crew's chants with a megaphone, and called what they do "a totally different style of support." Talking on the phone Monday afternoon, his voice was still hoarse from Saturday. 

For 90 minutes they roared, banged drums, blew horns and—when the Red Bulls scored—lit flares. Smoke billowed out from behind the home team's goal, and it looked and sounded like a scene from a European Cup final, albeit at one-fourth the scale. "When you play anywhere in the world, especially in Europe, and you see the stadium full, it gives you an edge," said Red Bulls striker Juan Pablo Ángel. He should know. He played for six seasons in England—a quality player at a middling club—before coming west. 

Red Bulls fans are peculiar for their lack of partisanship. Most are supporters of European clubs, and follow the MLS because it's close to home. They come less for the team than for the atmosphere, for the chance to love soccer loudly, without looking silly. "It's not just the Red Bulls, it's the sport," said Marco Alvardo, a giddy man in a Red Bulls pith helmet.

Like most MLS matches, the play petered out 20 minutes before the final whistle. The crowd noise did not. It's doubtful they will be able to fill the stadium every week, but Mr. Rodrigues and the other ultras will be there regardless, and in the enclosed space they will be able to make 15,000 sound like 50,000. 

"The stadium should sell itself," declared Hans Backe, the new head coach, who, along with the arena, is supposed to solve all the team's problems. He is wrong. If, come June, they find themselves again at the foot of the standings, things may look like same old Red Bulls, and tickets will be harder to sell.

But this weekend, the one goal was enough to beat the Chicago Fire 1-0. For now they are winners, and you don't have to feel sorry for the Red Bulls any more.

The Euro is an international soccer tournament fashioned much like the World Cup, but with half the teams. The field of sixteen is first divided into four groups (A, B, C and D) and the two top teams in each group advance to the knockout stages. All games past the group stage are single-elimination and ties are broken by penalty kicks.

The tournament is usually overlooked by all but the nerdiest soccer fans here in the United States. Which is shameful, because the European Championship is undoubtedly the best international soccer tournament in the World -- better, even, than the World Cup.

Yes, the World Cup is the World Cup. But the Euro is better, and here's why.

Reason number 1: Better Teams

Qualification for the Euro is by no means assured, even for the world’s best teams. Just ask England, ranked twelfth in the FIFA World Rankings but reduced to spectators this summer after failing to finish in the top two of their qualifying group. Of the 16 teams in the Euro, eight are ranked in the top ten and only hosts Switzerland (48) and Austria (101) have rankings below 30.

While the World Cup field is boosted by the presence of great teams like Argentina and Brazil, it is also weakened by the number of mediocre teams that sneak into the tournament from weak regional qualifying groups. The 2006 World Cup was rife with second-rate teams like Saudi Arabia, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Costa Rica, Angola and Togo. These six teams won a meager five points out of a possible 54 and had an aggregate goal differential of negative 24. Excluding the hapless Austrians, there is not a weak team in the Euro, and that makes for better matches.

Reason number 2: Fewer Blowouts

In every World Cup there’s always at least one unfortunate “match” wherein a plucky underdog takes on a giant favorite only to get crushed. Here are just a few scores of some first round blowouts in the last three World Cups: In 2006 Argentina beat Serbia and Montenegro 6-0; in 2002 Germany crushed Saudi Arabia 8-0; and in 1998 the Netherlands pummeled South Korea 5-0. In the last three Euro tournaments (2004, 2000 and 1996) there has been only one game with a goal difference of more than three. Games are close and always seem to be decided by moments of sheer brilliance (see France’s David Trezeguet’s golden goal in the 2000 final against Italy) or pressure-induced calamity (see England’s David Beckham’s slip-and-miss penalty kick in the 2004 quarterfinals against Portugal).

Reason number 3: The Surprise

Every Euro has an overlooked team that surprises the field and makes a deep run into the final rounds: In 2004, Greece played control football to great effect and stunned the world by defeating a heavily favored Portuguese team 1-0 in the final; in 2000, the Portuguese, a bit younger and less esteemed back then, stormed all the way to the semi-finals and pushed eventual winners France to the brink before bowing out in extra-time; in 1996, The Czech Republic qualified for their first tournament since partition with Slovakia and marched all the way to finals, knocking off perennial powers Italy, Portugal and France before losing to Germany. And in 1992, the whole thing was won by Denmark -- who only got into the tournament as a late substitute for Yugoslavia, which was banned.

So who will it be in ’08? Croatia and Romania are dark-horse candidates, as is the hosting Swiss team, which will have a chance of sneaking out of a relatively weak group.

Reason number 4: Great Storylines

There is, as always, a bonanza of compelling plotlines as the tournament nears its start. For instance, is this the year that Spain finally sheds its label as an international underachiever and pushes deep into the tournament? Which two teams will survive Group C, the deservedly titled “Group of Death” in Euro 2008? France, Italy, the Netherlands and Romania are all ranked 12 or better by FIFA, but two only two can qualify for the knock-out rounds. Also, France and Italy face off in an international tournament for the first time since their epic World Cup Final in 2006, which Italy won in penalties. And finally, can Portugal’s prodigious winger Cristiano Ronaldo cap his historic 2007-2008 club season with Manchester United by leading his national team to European glory?

Watch and find out for yourself.