Americans Score in Italy

Christian Pulisic celebrated his goal directly in front of an American youth team

Brendan LoParrino and his teammates had an interesting summer vacation. Their soccer club in Putnam Valley, N.Y., visited Italy, trained at the facilities of the fabled AC Milan squad, and attended a Serie A match at San Siro.
Christian Pulisic, the scoring star of the U.S. national team, moved from Chelsea to AC Milan during the off-season, and he was in the lineup for the match with Torino.

Not only that, but Pulisic scored one of his typical goals – sharking the side of an attack, waiting for the ball to come loose, and when it did, Pulisic kicked it into the far left corner. 
Only Pulisic knows if he had spotted a noisy American contingent in the second deck, but that side was the closest to his goal, and he slid on the grass to celebrate as the crowd cheered, syllable by syllable: “Pu-li-sic! Pu-li-sic!”
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That goal was not guaranteed in the prospectus for the training week -- and players and adults from New York appreciated it.

For American elders still boggled by the popularity of soccer in the mainstream of culture, this summer camp – a luxury, to be sure – demonstrates the hold of the world’s most popular sport on the younger generations, well into middle age by now.

Brendan LoParrino even carries a nickname, based on Jordan Henderson, the smooth and unselfish former captain of Liverpool, and also leader of the  English national team (now playing for big bucks in Saudi Arabia). Brendan’s teammates call him “Hendo,” Henderson’s nickname, and during  a training match, the opponents heard the nickname being shouted, and asked what that was all about, so the Putnam Valley players filled them in. Soccer is a language all its own -- and spreading around the U.S.

Brendan, age 13, going into eighth grade, recalls the trip: “Our team started training before traveling to Italy. We had normal training during the week at our club. We also had two practices in Italy, one with our coach, Angelo, and another with a professional trainer.
“I was not sure what it was going to be like in Italy. I was excited and felt that the players there were going to be really good."

He added, “I do not think soccer was that different and thought it was better in Italy. They have nice training facilities and I liked the locker rooms. The watermelon was really good at the concession stand. The coaches were more relaxed and let their players play.
“I learned about playing with kids from different coaching styles. It was also
different playing in such hot temperatures.”

"Our first game was against Pescia. It was 102 degrees and we won. I scored two
goals and one was on a free kick. We then visited Coverciano/museum and
trained in the morning. We tied the next game against Fornacette in Tuscany.
"We controlled the ball but could not score. The next day we went to a
professional game at San Siro stadium. AC Milan played Torino. AC won, 4-1, and
both Giroud and Pulisic scored. This was the best professional game I have been
to. We lost in our last game against (Pro Sesto) and they were very good. They
are the youth academy for the Serie C team in San Giovanni, Lombardy.”

Part of La Squadra Putnam Valley, outside San Siro, left. Joe LoParrino and Brendan LoParrino, above. 
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San Siro, left, home to AC Milan and Inter Milan, will soon be vacated after nearly a century, but not demolished in a nation that usually prizes its heritage. 

The trip was not all soccer. The group made a side trip to Lake Como and took the ferry, visited Montecatini Terme and Florence.  
“We climbed  the Leaning Tower of Pisa with my sister Kaitlyn. I was happy to get soccer jerseys for AC Milan, Italy and Juventus."
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Clearly, the vast majority of American youth players do not have the luxury of an overseas trip, but spend the summer working on their skills much closer to home.

Youngsters who do get to make a trip like this can bring home the feeling of how much soccer means to the fans – the tifosi – whose loyalties are often inherited at birth.
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That comes across on television in the U.S. – and also in the fast-growing Major League Soccer with its middle-sized stadiums and rituals and traditions.

Soccer is here to stay, and young players like Brendan LoParrino are fortunate enough to bring some of that ambiance  back home with them.
Brendan said: "I look forward to this upcoming season with my core team at Palumbo soccer club. We joined a new league and will be playing teams further north that are competitive. We have a tournament in Orlando this December and one next season in Portugal. I will be  playing JV tennis this year and look forward to playing varsity soccer at my school. I am alsolooking forward to the World Cup in 2026."

The U.S. and Canada and Mexico will host a North American World Cup, "only" 32 years after the U.S. was host to a World Cup that filled stadiums from coast to coast and made millions of new fans.
The U.S. has not come close to winning a World Cup -- but the younger generations have their hopes, respectful of the history of soccer, over there.
 
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Thanks to Brendan for sharing his impressions via his dad, Joe LoParrino.

I know Joe through a mutual friend, the garrulous and knowledgeable Alan Taxerman, an athlete and lawyer who worked with Joe LoParrino. Big Al often shared his strong pro-Yankee and pro-Mantle opinions with the world. through this site. When Big Al  passed in 2018, Joe LoParrino invited me to a memorial I could not attend. We have never met, but we are bonded through our mutual friend, and now soccer. Thanks  to Big Al, and Joe, and Brendan.

Bellagio, Lake Como