Click Kicks A new soccer website is pumping up coverage of the U.S. game and of American booters abroad

America isn't ideal turf for an aspiring soccer hooligan. It's
hard acting like a lunatic when you're nearly alone watching the
Tampa Bay Mutiny in 66,321-seat Raymond James Stadium--and it has
been even harder to find detailed coverage of U.S. soccer online.
Now, however, a sprightly website, soccer365.com, is bringing
European intensiveness to reporting on the U.S. game. The site,
which kicked off last May, is an offshoot of the London-based
worldwide soccer site football365.com, which began in 1997 as a
daily soccer e-mail. Three years later, spurred by the mania
surrounding the 1999 World Cup triumph of the U.S. women's
national team, the 365 Company created a site dedicated to
American soccer.

Soccer365.com's global network of correspondents allows it to
give daily reports--click the "Americans in Action" link--on
such U.S. exports as national- team goalie Kasey Keller, who
through Sunday had helped his club, Rayo Vallecano, advance in
the UEFA Cup tournament, and striker Joe-Max Moore (above, late
of MLS's New England Revolution), who, while playing for Everton
in England's Premier League, "performed with his usual bustling
pace" on Jan. 6 in a 2-1 win over Watford. Still, soccer365.com
sees coverage of the game in the United States as its main goal.
The site provides breaking MLS news, and its reporting on U.S.
college soccer is the most extensive on the Web. "The year 2001
will be our first full MLS season and only our second college
season," says editor David Fleenor, who's based in Birmingham,
Ala. "We know our European coverage will always be deep. We need
to prove that we're the best at covering the home game."

--John O'Keefe

COLOR PHOTO: AL TIELEMANS