England: Chelsea Invades America

Here's an interesting piece from the New York Times' soccer blog from last Friday on Chelsea's efforts to develop partnerships with U.S. youth teams. I'm no Chelsea fan, but I like what they're doing here. The genesis of this program came last year when a North Carolina U16 side upset their Chelsea counterparts in a tournament at Disney's Wide World of Sports. (I'm a former DWWS PR associate; I had to give them a plug.) Hopefully Chelsea can find some American youngsters who won't slip and fall when taking the biggest PK in team history.