What
Efffffff!
We're saving our energy for the World Cup
Yeah, USA soccer is still trash.
Edit: The men's program, I mean. The USA women are consistently the best team in the world. Their trophy case is pretty full.
Men's soccer, but yeah.
Absolutely yes--that qualifier. The women's program is like Brazil on the men's side. The men though...ups and downs. I've been watching them since that '94 Cup and they've never really built on that promise. The team is really stuck in that spot. What have they really done since?
Like getting smoked 7-1 in the World Cup in your home country?
I’m teasing of course, just couldn’t let the opportunity pass
The men’s soccer team is trash, but the women’s team is nothing short of world class. They literally set the gold standard.
Megan Rapinoe's equal pay fight was such a joke. The USWNT has 3 championships and one 5th place finish in their last 4 WC/Olympic Games while the USMNT finished 15th and 3 DNQ's... the USWNT deserves to get paid far more.
March 28th, 2021 at 10:51 PM ^
I don't disagree with all of that, but that's not how pay in sports is determined. The best WNBA players don't make near what benchwarmers make in the NBA. And the most successful pro lacrosse players don't make what NFL back up long snappers make. It's not about your talent, skill, success, etc. It's about the money you generate.
March 28th, 2021 at 11:00 PM ^
In terms of viewership and value-add, I believe the women have more than earned equal pay with the men.
3 million more people watched the women's world cup final than the men's world cup final in the US, that's entirely a product of the women making the final, which, amazingly, they do fairly consistently.
If you want to look at it in a purely mercenary fashion, athletes should be paid according to their value over replacement, and I'm not sure the men provide much value over 11 guys with YMCA memberships.
March 28th, 2021 at 11:20 PM ^
"Viewership and value-add" aren't important at this point. They negotiated a contract and are getting paid according to those terms. I presume they had competent lawyers helping them. What they want now is to get out of the terms of that contract. People who can unilaterally void contracts are children and those with mental problems. Since we know they aren't children, I presume anyone arguing they should be able to void their contract considers them mentally challenged.
I believe women to be fully adults and capable of negotiating contractual terms which represent their interests. Treating them like adults means holding them to the terms of what they agreed to. Anything else means you don't consider them mentally equal to men.
Not really, the US has a ton of great young talent already shining in Europe. The problem is that the Olympics are an under-23 tourney, and for qualifying the European clubs don't release their players to go play in them. And this year even MLS clubs didn't release some guys. This result would likely have been very different if the US wasn't without like 20+ of their best players, while Honduras had pretty much all their best talent available.
I watched the game the other night vs Mexico and was like WTF. That team was horrible.
This is the correct answer. The US A-team is actually on a great run of wins and draws and just won a game against a European team in Europe for the first time in many years. Anyone that knows soccer and doesn’t just want to bitch about the team being perennially bad would already know all this.
Hey, guilty as charged. I just want to bitch about USA men's soccer. I'm like the Maizen of USA soccer.
They beat Northern Ireland in a friendly while Northern Island is playing World Cup qualifiers the same week.
This Olympic result means nothing. Friendlies mean jack squat as well. Nothing matters until the Gold Cup this summer and WC qualifying later this fall.
Everything else is the equivalent of getting excited about Joe Milton during the waning moments of the spring game.
Thanks for the context. The Olympics should just drop men’s soccer if they aren’t going to take it seriously
March 28th, 2021 at 11:34 PM ^
It brings in too much money to drop. Unlike with the qualifying stages, all clubs agree to let their players go for the actual Olympic matches, so the young phenoms get to play and teams can bring in up to 3 overage players at that point as well. So there is usually enough star power that it gets quite a bit of attention, although nowhere near the World Cup or Euros. And then there is the women's side as well, which does not have an age limit and is massively important to the sport, way more than compared to the men.
I've followed our program for a while and have decided the problem is that we haven't changed over to "futbol."
It sucks but it is such a flawed qualifying process for teams, US was basically playing a C team since most of the best under 23 players are not released by their clubs. Still more talent than Honduras, but not much. A couple of terrible mistakes were the difference.
Well thats in part by design. FIFA does not want to allow another event that they cannot control/profit from to take any focus or shine off their tournaments.
In a fight between to horrible and corrupt organizations, its hard to take a side.
FIFA is horrible but it plays no role in this. It doesn’t have any say into how the Olympics picks its teams. Nor does it have any say into a club’s decision to release or not any players.
I have a hard time seeing men’s soccer in the United States being truly competitive on the world stage for at least another generation or two. You’ve got three to four other sports that are far more popular for men in this country to play. The resources and the overall devotion just aren’t there right now. Whereas you go to just about anywhere else in the world, and soccer is THE sport. You’ll still see other sports, but soccer is what rules the day in just about any other country in the world.
I do think the US is generally making headway into investing in the sport on a national scale. Very slowly, but it’s happening. But they are going to be nothing more than a JV squad exhibition match to the true world contenders until the results say otherwise.
Have you been paying attention?
There are many young (18-22 years old) American players already making major impacts for the very best teams in the world like we have never seen before. The current generation has a HUGE amount of promise on the international stage, but they just have not had the opportunity yet.
Yeaaaaah the US international team is actually looking really promising and is loading with a ton of young talent and guys playing internationally. Not worried about them.
Yeah is a bummer that the U-23 team isn't in the olympics but I'm not losing sleep over that. Its a neutered competition. World cup 11 will be exciting to watch.
I agree, but it’s still good to get younger guys who are a possible call up to the 1st team to get good international experience.
March 28th, 2021 at 11:47 PM ^
Yeah the under-23/under-24 US squad that would have been called up for the Olympics would have basically been the A team that will be attempting to qualify for the 2022 World Cup. Since so many of the best Americans are so young they have very little international experience and the Olympics would have been a great opportunity to play in an actual competitive tourney. Instead they will just have some lame friendlies.
I BELIEVE THAT WE WILL.... ah fuck!
This feels like a thread JClay would thrive in.
Good lord. This is getting depressing.
It's surprising but not surprising.
Does anyone know how to run that train?
Read “World Cup” and was very confused
The best athletes play other sports
March 28th, 2021 at 10:35 PM ^
While that's true, athleticism to an extent is overrated. Technical skills and soccer IQ are just as important. I read an article where Pulisic's agent said going to Europe at a young age was the best thing he ever did. Pulisic's agent made an interesting point saying guys like Messi, Xavi and Iniesta probably would have never gone far in the US youth system because they aren't very tall and none of them were super fast.
Eh, there's some hope- kids look good.
The U23s don't scare me too much- weird year.
It's soccer...who cares
March 28th, 2021 at 10:02 PM ^
Thread title correction: US U23 C-team team fails to qualify for a U23 event.
I’m an avid soccer fan and avid Olympics fan, but men’s soccer should be eliminated as an Olympic sport if it’s going to continue to be a neutered competition. Is there any other Olympic sport that is U23 only? For that matter, is there any other Olympic sport where the players who compete in the actual Olympics don’t participate in qualifying?
It’s ridiculous that the best US U23 talent was sitting in a hotel conference room watching the qualifier (after playing in a meaningless friendly) rather than actually participating in it.
If you came here to pile on with a “lol US soccer suckz” hot take, at least read the thread and educate yourself about the process.
March 28th, 2021 at 11:17 PM ^
Most pros in the the NFL, NBA, and MLB were good enough to play multiple D1 sports, some were good enough to play other pro sports. When I look at the soccer players here most don’t look like they would be good at another high school sport.
Take some point guards, wide receivers, and defensive backs who made until the last cuts in their respective training camps. Make a soccer team out of them with a good coach and they would dominate the world after 3 years of training.
March 29th, 2021 at 12:05 AM ^
As someone who played all the sports, but primarily baseball, baseball players make for terrible soccer players lol. Basketball guards and football skill positions are somewhat natural athletic fits for soccer, but learning to control a soccer ball, understand positioning, and see the game takes more than a few years of training.
Soccer is 99% endurance ... Elite athletes would dominate soccer ,(after some training) if they wanted to play ,which they NEVER will want to .You will never have Americans elite athletes play soccer,just wont happen
"(after some training)" = using a time machine to go back and be immersed in soccer from a very early age.
An elite athlete - for example, Ziggy Ansah - can play in the NFL (after some training), having never touched a football until college. The same will never be true for soccer. If you don't have a decent first touch by an early age - 9? - your ceiling is already in place and getting lower every year.
Football is a more comprehensively demanding sport. But soccer is much more technical (with the exception of QB or maybe kicker). You need muscle memory at a level that isn't possible after a certain age.
You have no idea what you're talking about.
March 28th, 2021 at 11:54 PM ^
US Mutant Ninja Turtles ppppfffpttt!!! ‘Hosting the WC will bring interest in the game and the US will be more competitive’. I remember hearing this in ‘94. until we see kids with soccer balls attached to them like in S America and Europe this will never become reality. It just isn’t happening here.
Since 1994 US has become more popular but the "elite athletes" will never play Soccer in the US.
In 180 of the 195 countries Soccer is the ONLY sport to play,so kids are born into it and all these countries best athletes are playing soccer from the age of 5, US kids are playing baseball,softabll,hockey,golf,tennis,football,basketball,swimmimg,skiiing,bike riders,gymnastics,lacrosse etc etc etc YES kids are playing Soccer at a VERY high rate,but these are the kids that cant play other sports , Soccer is basically an activity that any kid can play and it will always be this way
When i was around 40 years old my buddy asked to to fill in for his indoor soccer team (mostly just a fun league) but these people were in there 20s and 30s played soccer since they were 5 and I NEVER been in a soccer game in my life . I scored 17 goals and we won 23-7 and the other team was calling me a ringer and were mad at my buddy Eric for brining me .I played 4 years of Semi-Pro football (1989-1992) and played Independent baseball for 25+ years ,so im an athlete ,but it shouldnt have been that easy ...
Yes, male soccer players in the U.S. are second rate athletes. They only play soccer because they are to scared to play football.
Soccer ignorance here. Why is it that the U23s are doing the qualifying while the USMNT is playing a friendly against Northern Ireland?