VOLUME 2, ISSUE 6AUGUST 2010

DEEP FROM THE HEART

Notes from the Chairwoman

HAPPY START TO THE SEASON! Yes, it isﬁnally here again - the start of a brandnew season! Honestly, has this been thelongest summer ever? I have missed ourboys in Blue more than I can say and amcounting down the days to August 8thand the Community Shield, and then justone little week later our ﬁrst leaguegame! COME ON YOU BLUES!

I hope many of you used this summer totake some time o

, enjoy family andfriends, catch up on that long list of “honey do’s” that can pile up in theseason. The volunteer army of CIA hasbeen working hard! We have so much inthe works it really is frightening!

Kelley, our Super Blue Geek, has beenworking non-stop giving a top-to-bottom rebuild of the CIA website,including the membership page. Thingsare coming along, but he has somereally cool stu

up his sleeve that he andthe Tech Team are working on which willbe unveiled as the season progresses.

Raciel and the “membership giftcommittee” are really going to WOW youwith the gift that will be appearing inyour mailbox if you've signed up for aCIA membership. I know it is going to bea hit!

And it is o

cial, we have an OFFICIALCIA ICE CREAM - Blue Bunny Ice Cream!What a perfect name! One of ourmembers, Mike, and his family actuallyown the company and approached us -how could we say no? So the ﬁrst bonusyou will see from this partnership is afantastic coupon for a box of Blue BunnyIce Cream in your membership packet -a $4-$7 value! And he has agreed togive one for every member, so those of you that signed up for a familymembership could be swimming in icecream! I would also urge all of you tocheck out their websitewww.BlueBunny.com

and maybe leave anote of thanks, or check out the storeclosest to you. There is also a greatinteractive part of the website,bombpop, which is designed for kids.We will be working with Mike on otherthings through the season, but a hugeTHANK YOU to him, and I hope you areall just as excited as I am!

Of course the other big initiative is toformalize more local groups across thecountry. I am sure many if not all of youthat have renewed your membershiphave been in touch with the head of yourchapter. These people all deserve ourthanks for stepping up and taking theirinterest and commitment to CIA andChelsea just one step further. So stay intouch, get involved, and I have a feelingthese folks will be making things evenbetter this season in their local areas.Many have started Facebook pages andso much more, so look for the messagesfrom them and get stuck in!

Just to acknowledge and recognize thosechapters here is a list for everyone, fromeast to west (mostly): Boston Blues,Philly Blues, Charm City Blues(Baltimore), Beltway Blues (DC), GeorgiaBlues, Florida Blues, Southeast Blues,Gulf Coast Blues (Houston/New Orleansand the coast), North Texas Blues, TexasBlues, Motor City Blues (Detroit), ChicagoBlues, Midwest Blues, Mountain WestBlues, Inland Empire Blues (east of LA/Orange County), San Diego Blues, OCBlues, South Bay Blues (LA area), BayArea Blues (covering SF and NorthernCA)! They are out there building andrecruiting, so WELCOME ALL OF YOU!

Speaking of renewing... have yourenewed yet? All you have to do is go towww.chelseainamerica.com/mem to ﬁllout the form, follow the link to paypal

Continued on Page 2

•Deep from theHeart•USA World CupReport•Tel's Month inQuestion•5 QuestionsFor...•Farewells toJoe Cole,JulianoBelletti,MichaelBallack•Report from the ChelseaSupportersTournament•CIA Crossword

PAGE 2

CONTRIBUTORS:

A big thanks to everyone whohelps make the CIA Bluesletterpossible!Editor: Jamie EdwardsChairwoman: Beth WildLogo and Graphics: Raciel DiazProofreader: Sarah DrakeCIA Crest done in collaborationwith Who Are Ya Designs -www.whoareyadesigns.comWant to contribute or make asuggestion? Send Jamie anemail at newsletter@chelseainamerica.com!

and take care of it. Do you really want towait? Miss the gift? Miss your ice cream?Miss the fun? We are also asking allmembers to please help us reach out tothem. As we have grown we have foundthat most email services will have theiremail blocked by folks like yahoo andhotmail. In order to reduce that problemwe will be establishing a new function onthe website that will allow you to pick upthe latest news from CIA, your region oryour local club, just by logging in to thebulletin board. You don’t have to readthe board or post if you don’t like to dothat, but by registering a board name(and please let us know by sending amessage todatabase@chelseainamerica.com) andthen checking every week or so, at somepoint in the future we will be able todeliver updates that way rather thanmiss half of you by sending email. So if you don’t have a board name, please getone, as it will be the way we deliverinformation in the near future. Once youhave renewed we will be sending you alink to previous updates from thisseason that will give you that exclusiveclub or True Blue information you willneed. Additionally, soon we will have asecure place on the web for members-only information.

And though it might be too late tosecure your 5 loyalty points this seasonfor renewing your True Bluemembership, it is not too late to get aTrue Blue membership and enjoy a freeyear of CHELSEATV ONLINE! That’s right,unlike any other season before this yearTrue Blue membership will not only getyou access to tickets for matches, but itcomes with a free ChelseaTV Onlinesubscription. Just sign up for True BlueInternational for 30 pounds and accessis granted!

If you have any questions, you can checkthe board, or ask on the board. You cancontact your local chapter head or youcan email mebeth.wild@chelseainamerica. Onceagain, WELCOME TO THE NEW SEASON,and best of luck to our Boys in Blue thata season awaits us full of excitement,passion, fun and an end that is glitteringand full of silverware.

CAREFREE

BethThe next game against Ghana wouldbe critical to continue that wave of support.

But it was not to be.

The matchagainst Ghana turned out to be heart-wrenching.

Once again, Bob Bradleyhad gone with Ricardo Clark inmidﬁeld and Robbie “I can’t ﬁnish asandwich”

Findley up front.

Thisproved costly as we had to usesubstitutions early on in the matchafter Kevin Prince-Boateng slammedhome an early goal.

For the third timein four matches we had concededearly because we weren’t prepared.

Even after we had equalized onDonovan’s penalty, it seemed likeGhana were going to be the teamgoing through, especially once it wentinto extra time.

As the match woreon, we were clearly exhausted buthaving wasted two substitutions ﬁxingBradley’s mistakes we couldn’t doanything about it, and we had towatch as Ghana ran circles around us.

In the end, I couldn’t help but wonder“what if” on many levels; what if Bradley hadn’t messed up theselection? What if Findley knew how toﬁnish his chances?

What if JozyAltidore didn’t get lost in themoment?

What it we had CharlieDavies?

Despite the success of winning the group, it felt like adisappointment.

However, in hindsight, ourperformance was a good one.

Soccerhad been relevant in the mainstreamfor a time, albeit a brief one.

Thevisibility and recognition of ourplayers skyrocketed, and new levels of interest reached.

All in all, the WorldCup campaign should probably beconsidered a success, so we take thepositives and move on to the nextchapter in US Soccer.

So until Brazil2014, Come On You Yanks!

Continued from Page 1Continued from Page 3

OH, WHEN THE YANKS! A USA World Cup Report

by Ben Horner

Of all the groups in the World Cup,ours was getting the most attentionover here, and for good reason.

Forthe ﬁrst time since that famed win in1950, England and we Colonistswould be going head-to-head in theWorld Cup.

And, oh yeah, Algeriaand Slovenia could come play if theywanted to, also.When I saw the draw, I was veryexcited.

I thought we had gotten afair draw, despite England, so I likedour chances.

Looking at the team wewere bringing, the group we were in,how we had done at theConfederations Cup and all the otherfactors, I thought this team had anopportunity to impress. Theexpectations were deﬁnitely high.

Forme, and in talking to other supporters,the consensus was that anything shortof advancing to the Round of 16 wouldbe a failure.

It was time for the US totake the next step as a soccer nation,and this time around was their chance.

As we learned, the US quickly had biggerﬁsh to fry than getting out of the groupstage.

I was watching it with a friendand both of us were stunned whenCaptain Scouse scored so early on.

Aswas our M.O. during qualiﬁcation, wehad given ourselves an uphill battle bybeing in a daze at the start of a match.

It was terrible play by Ricardo Clark, andOnyewu was slow to react to thedanger.

I only hoped we would recover.

Fortunately, Robert Green had a bit of ahowler which put us on level terms,restoring our hopes.

As both sidestraded chances as the game progressed,it became hard to say who the betterteam was.

In the end, I thought a drawwas the fairest result, as both teams hadportions of the play, both had chancesand both had to make fantasticdefensive plays to cut out opportunities.With a point in hand, we moved on toSlovenia, and what I thought was a verywinnable game. We sat in good position,tied for second in the group, still incontrol of our own fate. But once again,we were pegged back early.

I thoughtwe actually started well in that match.

But we fell asleep at the back again, gotcaught on the counter-attack and reallyshould have done better to close downwhat was a very good strike. All of asudden it was “here we go again”.

Eventhough we recovered well enough to getback on the attack, we got lazy at theback once more and our task got largerwhen Slovenia tallied a second goal.

Weneeded a boost, and we needed oneearly and thank you Landon Donovan forgiving it to us.

His fantastic rocket intothe top of the net gave us just the bumpwe needed, and it was like a switch wasﬂipped.

The whole second half we hadthe best of the play, despite scramblingin defense at times.

We just lacked thatﬁnal ball or clinical touch for theequalizer.

Altidore’s header on toMichael Bradley showed both, and if Altidore showed how to combine thetwo, Bradley showed us how to perfectit.

It was a fantastic touch with thebottom of his boot and we were back onterms!

It was enough to make you grateful thatyou had gotten a point from 2-0 down.Or it was, until Koman Coulibaly becamea household name by denying MauriceEdu a well-earned winner.

I should havebeen pleased, but I wasn’t.

I shouldhave taken the performance as apositive, but I couldn’t.

We had beenrobbed of two points by an obviouslywrong call, and I was gutted.

Eventhough we still controlled our destiny Istill felt as if the US had been hard done,an all too frequent theme in World Cupplay it seemed.Heading into the ﬁnal game, our inabilityto play a full 90 minutes caused meconcern.

More than anything else, theUS needed a fast, aggressive start tothe match with Algeria.

By kick-o

time on the morning of the 23rd, mynerves and excitement reached asimultaneous peak.

We started onthe ascendency just as we hadagainst Slovenia, giving an incrediblee

ort.

Even as Algeria sat back to tryand absorb the pressure, it felt like itwas only a matter of time until weput one in the back of the net.

Instead we got a roller-coastermoment when Dempsey slammedhome a good ball from Gomes, onlyto have it disallowed for apparento

side.

After replays, it looked likeonce again, we had had a good goalstolen away from us.

Thoughts of conspiracy started running in my head.

However, as time wore on, I could notuse that as an excuse, given the numberof chances we wasted.

Altidore’s e

ortover the bar, Dempsey’s curler o

thepost and subsequent o

-target reboundtry, and Bradley’s thundering free-kicksaved were all heart-wrenching misses.

I began to think we would not be able tograb a goal to save the game and ourWorld Cup.

As time ticked away, mythoughts went lower and lower.

I evensaid, “This is it”, expecting Algeria toscore as the cross Tim Howard collectedwas played in.

No sooner had I saidthat, the play was going back the otherway, with Donovan spearheading theattack started from Howard’s brilliantthrow.

As the ball was played into thebox and then came to rest in the area, Iwas hoping with everything I had thatsomeone was making a following run upthe middle.

As Donovan came tearinginto the area, my heart skipped; then itwas bedlam.

I was screaming my heado

with my non-football-fan friend, whowas as excited as me, and immediately,it all turned around.

Surely we had justwon the game!

Surely we were goingthrough, and as group winners to boot!

I couldn’t contain my excitement as theﬁnal whistle blew, celebrating just ashard as I celebrated Chelsea’s Double.Finally, US Soccer had its moment, themoment when an entire nation wasbehind our team, the moment whenpeople were captivated by the sport.