Maybe you see it. Maybe you don’t. Maybe it was just something that we thought we saw after a hard nights drinkin’. A quick glance and there is was. A brief semblance of recognition between one personality of the soccer world and something random outside of it.

It’s “Shit-faced Look-A-Likes” a new feature from the Free Beer Movement!

First up:



Support the Movement. Get the Free Beer Movement T-Shirt. Only from Objectivo.com

“Who We’re Buying A Beer For” is a weekly series that honors those who are making positive contributions to the growth of soccer in the United States. Sometimes serious, but mostly down right silly we hand out brews to these great individuals.

We’re buying a beer for a U.S. National Teamer that really should be buying us a few cold ones since we just learned that

Stu Holden signed an endorsement deal with sporting giants Nike. With the exception of the pretty bad knock (and by knock we mean broken leg) that the former Houston Dynamo and Major League Soccer standout took in the US-Netherlands friendly (damn you Nigel De Jong!) it has been a very good year.

After bursting on the the USMNT scene, Holden finds himself across the pond with English Premier League mid-tablers Bolton Wanders. A great move for a player looking to get on the plane to South Africa.

What’s big about Nike’s announcement is that it shows another step in its commitment to the sport in the United States. Now the Beverton, Oregon company (who we’ve honored previously for its new environmentally friendly jerseys) has snagged some of the biggest names in American soccer to its brand: Landon Donovan, Clint Dempsey, Tim Howard, Freddy Adu, and Eddie Johnson (errr….. scratch those last two).

Holden joins a prestigious group of marketable faces for Nike. And the more faces, and subsequently, stories, that Nike latches onto the greater exposure for the sport in the United States. Nike has always been successful in attaching their brand to highly marketable individuals as they are on the up and up: Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, LeBron James, even, Donovan.

The signing of yet another young gun to Nike’s portfolio is a sign that they want to get out in front of the American soccer wave that is emerging in this country. A move that is beer worthy for Mr. Holden and his new employer.

With the specter of a strike in the rear-view mirror we’re serving up a few rounds for Major League Soccer for a great start to the new season.

On Thursday night American soccer fans we’re treated to a prime time, sold out match in Seattle against the expansion side, Philidelphia on ESPN2 and the weekend rolled on with another high-profile opener in New York (also in prime time on ESPN2), surprising results (Kansas City’s 4-0 trashing on DC United), and the return of the league biggest player, Landon Donovan to Los Angeles.

All in all a quality start to the league’s 15th season with, hopefully, plenty of more great action to come. And while MLS’ new website continues to trouble and frustrate its fans a face-lift on the site was needed. All new things have their bugs and we’re sure that it will all get worked out sooner enough.

Taking the good with the bad, if you’re willing to drop $39.95 for MLS MatchDay Live, there’s one thing the new website got right. High-quality match video (as long as the games aren’t on a national broadcast) makes last year’s package look like it was served up by CompuServe. The FBM took in a few live games last weekend and one on-demand match (had to see out boy FRANKIE in action for C-Bus!) and it was all awesome. Worthy every penny.

Lastly, we hope you’ll allow us a little self-indulgence as we celebrate the launch of our first (of many we hope!) T-shirt. We’re not going to keep the beers for ourselves, though. We’ll pass them out to to all those who helped make our shirt drop possible.

You know you want it…Get one today from Objectivo.com

Talk about commitment to the cause!

We’d like to thank our designer, Eric Wheatley,

who donated his time and energy to re-design the Free Beer Movement logo and put together a very sharp looking FBM shirt. Wheatley besides being a devoted FBMer is also the chapter head of the Baltimore Brigade, an American Outlaws USMNT Supporters’ group.

Also, the great guys at Objectivo who are hawking the shirt for us have been great. They saw that the FBM is interesting and growing part of the American soccer world and wanted to get on board with us.

As regular readers know we’re just trying to carve out a little place in this American soccer land and make some noise about how beer can help spread the gospel of our domestic game. Not only does it help confirm our theories about the growth of the sport when FBMers take it upon themselves to buy beers for soccer newbies, but getting institutional support from a company like Objectivo tells us we’re doing something really right.

Support the Movement. Get the Free Beer Movement T-Shirt. Only from Objectivo.com

Support the Movement. Get the Free Beer Movement T-Shirt. Only from Objectivo.com

Originally Featured on The Shin Guardian

With the World Cup only a few months away soccer pundits across America are filling out their 23 tickets to South African for the United States Men’s National Team. We at the “Free Beer Movement” have never claimed to be good at punditry (we’re usually drinking too much during games to take notes and the such), but despite that fact we’re going to give our picks to make the plane across the pond.

A few caveats. We’re assigning each member of the Nats a beer that we think speaks mostly highly to whom they are as people and as players. It is random? You bet, but we’ve got nothing else productive to contribute to the American soccer community than tongue-in-check crap like this.

Additionally, we’ve never claimed to be any good at the “analysis” part of the game. The players we’ve chosen to make the starting 11 and the final 23 don’t necessarily mean that’s our strongest side for South Africa (Example #1 is Frankie Hejduk… yup… he’s on board… but only because of our continued love affair with the “Great Haired One”) it means it’s either our best guess or because we found the perfect beer to match them with and that makes for better writing.

Lastly, we didn’t write this to get hammered on our squad selection from a “Where’s so-and-so” or “you omitted this guy and that guy”. We wrote it so you could get hammered with our creative beer squad selections.

Ladies and gentlemen… this is what you’ve been waiting for! Well… maybe not, but it’s still kinda cool. The Free Beer Movement has teamed up with Objectivo.com, a great soccer-specific T-shirt company, to release the OFFICIAL shirt of the Movement.

There was no “Viernes (Friday) Video” last week (sorry we were busying penning this beauty of a take-down on the New York Times which was also featured on Match Fit USA) so we’ll throw a little “Tuesday Video” at you.

Major League Soccer kicks-off (pun intended) its 15th season this Thursday as the Seattle Sounders host the expansion side Philadelphia Union at 8:30 pm (Central Time) on ESPN2.

We’re pleased as punch that the League and the Players’ Union was able to come to an 11th hour agreement as to avoid a work stoppage and we can all just get excited for the upcoming domestic season.

This is the first full MLS season that the Free Beer Movement will have been in existence so we’re doubly excited about the prospect of our members (“Free Beer Movers”) sharing their stories and pictures of soccer conversion of “newbies” across this great nation.

So when you’re out at matches all season remember to grab some newbies and buy them a beer.

Spread American soccer, one beer at a time!

Here’s the ESPN commercial:

MLS First Kick 2010 Commerical from mlsinsider on Vimeo.

Support the Movement. Get the Free Beer Movement T-Shirt. Only from Objectivo.com

We’ve got a real cosmopolitan group of beer honorees this week for all you loyal readers. From rap moguls, to government administrators, to bricks and mortar we’ve got it all here for you at the Free Beer Movement.

First off is the modern renaissance man Mr. P. Diddy aka Sean Combs. Rapper, producer, fashion designer and now, maybe, owner of Crystal Palace FC. According to several reports out of the British press (and a few domestic sources) the formerly named “Puffy Daddy Diddle Do” is looking to help out the cash strapped and administration-threatened club.

We’re not entirely in favor of having sports team become the playthings of American millionaires (or from any country for that matter), but having such a high profile owner, as long as run responsibly (which from the sounds of how Palace has been run so far ANYTHING would be better) could help raise the profile of the sport in America. Which is, of course, what we’re all about.

And let’s face it (prepare yourselves for a bit of an aside) American soccer could use a little more P Diddy in its life. We’re sorry…. but if you have to choose the metrosexual, probably Robbie Williams-listening, David Beckham as the “hip” face of American soccer or the diamonds and Cristal world of Diddy we’re going to come down on the side of the rap star.

American soccer, despite the great stories of Altidore, Davies, Howard, Onyewu, and other black players lacks the draw in an African-American community dominated by basketball. Any in-roads down this path is a positive step forward. Coming from an un-hip white guy, we’d take some hip-hop culture in the game. This is a good start as well.

Beer? Cristal (how appropriate!)? What’s your poison P Diddy? It’s on the FBM.

Editor’s Note: This is the first time we’ve ever done this (so go easy on us), but we couldn’t let this inaccurate, poorly written, and blatantly stupid article just pass under the radar. Too often major media outlets let the columnists take a swing a soccer, sport’s whipping boy and run said column as a big “F you” to the American soccer community. Today… we defend this house. The article comes from Alex Beam of the International Herald Tribune and was published in the New York Times on March 18th, 2010. His words in bold, our responses in italics.


Support the Movement. Get the Free Beer Movement T-Shirt. Only from Objectivo.com

Posted with no explanation needed.

Thursday February 25th
We find The Gaffer, Nick Sindt, outside the office of the team ophthalmologist dry heaving while his wife is having some stitches “adjusted” in her eye, meaning she’ll be forced to sit out at least one more game.

Tuesday March 2nd – Pre-Game
Due to her eye injury and not being able to participate in the weekend’s training, she takes the liberty to spruce up the FBFC Locker room by adding some window treatments. Just because she can, she drags her husband along with her.

Tuesday March 2nd – Game
After a few bad shifts against the other church team New Hope Church, resulting in a 0% pass completion, The Gaffer yanks himself out of the game and throws a Bob Knight-style tantrum on the bench. Water bottles are kicked, a fold up chair is thrown, and he begins choking himself. If not for his wife shaming him into calming down, he might’ve actually hurt himself.

“THAT IZ OFF THE MOTHERFUC%EN HOOK DOG, THAT IS DOPE IM FEELING THAT SHIT, it sounds good USA GET SOMEEEEEEEEEE !!!!!!”

By Nick Sindt, Jon Bisswurm, Dan Hoedeman, and Ben Savit

Editor’s Note: Today marks the publication of our first “Free Beer Story” from outside the United States. Normally we get stories and pictures from Americans promoting American soccer, but in this case we have an American using Paraguayan soccer to get Americans interested in the sport. And free beer, of course! This week’s story comes from Jesse, a sports-fanatic-but-not-soccer-fan-turned-soccer-fanatic-turned-free-beer-mover, who we featured in an interview a few months back.

Got your own “free beer story”? Send us it at freebeermovement @ gmail (dot) com and get a FREE Free Beer Movement sticker!

Some of the teachers here in Paraguay are big fans of one of the local soccer teams called Guarani and regularly attend games. Their excursions usually involve large amounts of beer being consumed prior to the games so I figured that this would be a perfect fit with the ideals of the Free Beer Movement.

We gathered two other teachers and another friend who had not been to a game yet together at the house of one of the fans before the game for the free beer part of the evening. We imbibed some importehttps://www.thefreebeermovement.com/files/d nut brown ales, red ales, and golden ales from argentina to wash down a nice asado consisting of a large chunk of beef and some spicy chorizo. having just discovered that these beers were imported they went over especially well as a change of pace from the national beers which all taste suspiciously like budweiser.

full of beer and meat we hopped in cabs and made our way to the stadium for the game between guarani and the defending champions nacional. unfortunately for the superfans, guarani came up on the short end of a 1 – 0 final despite dominating most of the game and having multiple good scoring chances.


Even with the loss, the new recruits had a good time watching the game, listening to and observing the “hinchatas” (crazy supporters groups that some might call gangs), and drinking beer. It was an overall successful night as evidenced by a quote from one of the recruits, “I think I just associate soccer games with being drunk at this point. This is fun, why don’t we do it more often?”

Got your own “free beer story”? Send us it at freebeermovement @ gmail (dot) com and get a FREE Free Beer Movement sticker!

Who are WE buying a beer for this week you ask? Who are YOU buying a beer for this week? Oh, right… we’re the one’s who started this whole “beer buying” thingy. I guess you’re under no obligation to purchase and beer… Our bad…..

On to the list!

The Beaverton, Oregon sports behemoth Nike recently launched its line of 2010 National Team World Cup jerseys, including those of the U.S. National Team. We’re not here to debate the look of the brand new kits (beauty pageant, anyone?) we’re here to praise the Swoosh branders for their environmentalism.

According to an article from Fast Company:

Nike’s bottles-to-T-shirts operation is fairly straightforward. Recycled polyester comes from a Taiwanese supplier that cuts up, melts, and spins plastic bottles into a yarn for the shirts. Each shirt will consist of 100% recycled polyester and approximately eight plastic bottles. The shirts are slightly more expensive to produce than standard jerseys, but Nike claims that the costs ultimately even out because less material is needed for production. And on the outside, players and fans won’t be able to tell the difference between the bottle-filled jerseys and the regular polyester shirts worn by non-Nike teams.

Environmentally savvy soccer lovers will also have the chance to check out Nike’s shirts–the brand is using 13 million plastic bottles to produce jerseys for fans. All in all, Nike’s initiative will stop 254,000 kg of polyester waste from being dumped in landfills.

Sure Nike has used child and sweatshop labor in the past, but let bygones be bygones! They’re on the “green” bandwagon now! Seriously, though, this is a great move for Nike. Even if “caring about the slow destruction of our planet” is “IN” right now are you all glad that global sportswear companies are getting behind it? (Aside: Nike even dropped out of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, who are active global warming deniers… take that!)

Additionally, Nike says that the jersey push will prevent some 13 million plastic bottles from ending up in landfills. So that’s step one. Step two is taking care of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch!

When you’re watching U.S. versus England on June 12th just remember the team scoring all the goals is also saving the Earth.


Over the years we’ve becoming HUGE fans of the USWNT and women’s professional soccer. It might come from Mr. FBM’s high school days as equipment manager/waterboy/goalkeeper coach of the Sun Prairie (Wisconsin) Lady Cardinals soccer team. It might come from his younger sister’s storied soccer career. It might come from the striptease that was Brandi Chastain’s celebration in the 1999 Women’s World Cup Final. Who knows?

The point being we love all forms of the American beautiful game and our proud of our women’s national side for their absolute domination of the sport. A few years back we worried about how the team would replace such household names as Mia Hamm, Brianna Scurry, Michelle Akers, and Julie Foudy, but we now have a new generation of American women taking center stage in Abby Wambach, Hope Solo, Shannon Boxx, and Heather Mitts (oh… Heather Mitts!).

Of all the people we’ve bought beers so far this is the group we’d most like to actually follow through with!

Out of seemingly no where came the production group, 723 Football Films as they’ve loaded YouTube up with a series of fantastic U.S. Men’s National Team videos.

Alongside that fire-in-the-pants-of-an-American-soccer-fan comes a series of “goalographies” of Nationa lTeam players.

Landon Donovan:



Clint Dempsey:



And “feature” videos of Jozy Altidore and Brian McBride:





There are several more “goalographies” on 723 Football Films YouTube Channel including Brian Ching, Eddie Johnson, Carlos Bocanegra and DaMarcus Beasley’s tallies for the Yanks.

Looking forward to all the great videos these guys will put together before June.

The boys from the American Outlaws chapter Baltimore Brigade have done it again! Here’s their promotional flyer last week’s USA vs. El Salvador American Outlaws watch party. Can you find us?

Hint: the Baltimore-centric FBM logo across the bottom!

Where’s your Free Beer Movement?

Send us your stories and pictures of soccer and beer (especially those of your efforts with “soccer newbies”) around the nation and we’ll feature them on the site. E-mail us at freebeermovement @ gmail (dot) com.

There are few people who completely embody the ideals of the Free Beer Movement more than our interview subject this week. We’re chatting with Erin D. aka “SuperFan”. Her USMNT fandom has been featured on “The Original Winger” and the US World Cup Bid site. If you follow her exploits on Twitter you’d also know that she’s one of the biggest proponents of “BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEER” in the world.

This summer she’s traveling to South Africa to follow the US National Team and to do so she’s selling… what else? Beer koozies to help support her cause. If you’re short any preservers-of-beer-coldness we highly recommend these. You can also follow her journey on her blog as well.

Erin was kind enough to share her story of soccer and beer and more beer. And just because a sixer isn’t usually enough for Erin this “FBM 6-Pack” actually has a ninja beer attached to it; a bonus seven-pack! Read on.

1) You’re often referred to a “SuperFan”. Where did the nickname come from and how did you earn it? How do you plan on retaining such an honor?

It started after the USA vs Costa Rica game in Washington DC. The Original Winger did a write up and after it was posted it was linked to by the Go USA Bid for World Cup 2018/2022. When the did the brief write up/recap and linked to the original story, they titled it “MNT Superfan has her day in the sun (and rain)”. My friends saw it…started calling me Superfan and it spread and ended up sticking. I went ahead and embraced it. There are worse things people could call me! . As far as retaining the nickname? I am just going to keep doing what I am doing…which is being passionate about the sport and my teams. There are plenty of other Superfans out there doing what I am and more. The more Superfans the better.

2) You also happen to enjoy beer a lot. What is it about beer and soccer that go so well together? What’s your poison?

The camaraderie that comes with hanging around at a tailgate before a game and then marching into the stadium and giving it your all for 90 minutes…there is nothing like it. At the tailgates you get people from all walks of life. All nationalities and socio-economic groups are represented and the majority have two things in common: Beer and The Beautiful Game.

I can invite non soccer friends to a game and they are mildly interested….when they find out that soccer fans DO tailgate and drink beer before the game they become a lot more interested. I am pretty sure every person I’ve brought out to a game has enjoyed it immensely. When they get to the tailgate before the game they have this realization that soccer fans aren’t that different than other sports fans in our country.

As far as my poison…being in Houston, it is HOT and SWAMPY for most of the MLS season. We also like to start our tailgates plenty early. I usually stick to a light beer. Plenty of people give me crap for that…and that’s ok. I can definitely enjoy a good brew. At soccer games…I stick to the cheaper light stuff. I am a teacher after all…and the keg beer usually isn’t anything too fancy.

3) You’re a female island in a sea of male soccer fans. How do you feel about that? What’s different about being a fan as a woman versus a man? What are the advantages? What are the disadvantages? What can American Soccer do to get a larger female fan base?

I love being around all the guys. They guys I hang out with know and respect me and always look out for me. They know I am passionate about the game and will give everything I have during the game. Being a woman and a fan…I’ll sometimes meet guys who don’t know me and find out I am a soccer fan. They will sometimes assume I know nothing about the game and are surprised when I do. I think an advantage is that I’ve got that group of guys that looks out for me. A disadvantage, like I said before, is when you go to an away game or the likes and you’ve got people who don’t know you assuming you are there just because your with your husband or boyfriend. The assumption that I would only be there to be with a guy.

4) How many National Team matches have you attended? What are some of your favorite USMNT moments?

Let’s see. My first USMNT game was last year in Chicago against Honduras. I had watched plenty of matches before but only last year REALLY started traveling for both club and country matches. From the moment everyone met up at the pregame bar before heading to the stadium, I was hooked. The atmosphere and passion was electric….and I felt at home. It was at that game that I KNEW I needed to go to World Cup. After that I went to the El Salvador game in Salt Lake City, Costa Rica in Washington DC and the last one I attended was the Honduras game in LA.

My favorite moments from games I attended would have to mostly come from the DC game vs Costa Rica. The emotions surrounding the game where just incredible. The energy and passion during the game. The stands at RFK just rocking for 90 minutes…and the last minute goal were just incredible feelings. Then after the game when all the players came around….it was all just a surreal experience. Another great moment would have to be watching the game a few days earlier vs Honduras. It was a closed circuit feed with only one US friendly bar in Houston showing it. The feed was horrible and you couldn’t tell what was going on. But the passion in that place was just amazing. I was so happy to see that many people pack into a place…under the assumption of paying $20 just to watch the game (they ended up not charging cause of the poor feed). It was just amazing.

5) You’re also a huge Houston Dynamo fan and a member of the Texian Army. Tell us why the Dynamo are the best team in Major League Soccer?

I respect our players and organization so much. Starting with the front office. They are always around and approachable. I’ve walked up to Oliver Luck at a few games to ask stadium and other questions and he is always open to answering them and talking to the fans. From the COO and Vice Presidents on down to the ticket reps. I have had nothing but great experiences.

As far as the players, not only do I enjoy watching them on the field…but what they do for the community day in and day out is just amazing. There are always players at Texas Children’s Hospital talking and visiting with the kids. They are out there just being upstanding citizens in the community…but ones who are also approachable and love hanging out with their fans. They respect and care for their fans as well. I imagine that it is this way in many MLS cities as well and that every fan believes THEIR team is the best. That’s great…the more players and fans around the league that are getting the word out about this great sport the better. The Dynamo and their players have a special place in my heart.


6) You’re travelling to South Africa for the World Cup. How big of a trip is this for you? What games do you have tickets for? What are your hopes for the USMNT there?

This is a huge trip for me. The farthest I’ve been from Texas is Canada and Mexico. So for me to be going to South Africa is pretty big. I don’t know if it will really hit me that I am going until I board that plane.

I have tickets to the three US group games. I also have tickets to the Netherlands vs. Denmark game and Brazil vs. Cote D’Ivoire. I am very excited. I would love to see the US win the whole thing. Do I think that has a high chance of happening…probably not. But why not dream big? Like I tell my students…you’ve got to set high goals. Settling for mediocrity just isn’t good enough. Can I get cheesy here? What is the saying…Shoot for the moon and you’ll always land among the stars? I say if you are going to the World Cup…your goal HAS to be winning it. Otherwise, why bother going?

7) You’ve begun raising money for your trip by selling koozies. Tell us some more about that campaign.

I am a single teacher with a mortgage (and a house that flooded last year and was unlivable for 6 months! Whole ‘nother story). This is an expensive trip. I knew others were doing things to help raise funds for their trips so I started thinking. I thought about a shirt…but that could get expensive to produce and ship and you have to deal with sizes, etc. Then I thought about what would represent ME and knew I had to do a koozie.

I don’t think they are as big in other parts of the US…but in Texas everyone has koozies for their beer/soda/water drinking. I guess when it is hot outside we are trying to keep our beers colder for a little longer. So, I had a friend help me with the design and got them printed up. I think that a koozie is something that any USA supporting person can use even if you aren’t a big soccer fan. People get very patriotic when it is our country being represented…so I’d like to see a lot of people with USA koozies in their hands this summer! People can order them on my blog. I also plan on updating the blog while in South Africa. That was my main reason for starting it…so people can get a fans view of the World Cup by checking out the blog in June.

To order koozies you can go to: http://tinyurl.com/usakoozie