October 10th, 2017 at 10:48 PM ^
This result is bad
Very very very bad
Did I mention bad?
October 10th, 2017 at 10:20 PM ^
Puli, Wood and Brooks can stay. Maybe Yedlin if he continues to improve as he has under Rafa.
October 10th, 2017 at 10:10 PM ^
If Gulati isn’t out I don’t know what the fuck it’s going to take.
October 11th, 2017 at 12:57 PM ^
Why would Gulati be out? The federation has made it pretty clear the health of the national team isn't a priority. What would force them to do something?
I suppose the suffering of Fox if WC ratings are down without US involvement might bring some leverage--they've got part of the national MLS contract and their local cable networks have a lot of the individual teams.
October 10th, 2017 at 10:10 PM ^
October 10th, 2017 at 10:25 PM ^
October 10th, 2017 at 10:39 PM ^
They have no plan B. It's soccer or nothing.
We lack tthe urgency that comes from having no other damn alternative.
October 10th, 2017 at 11:18 PM ^
October 11th, 2017 at 12:47 AM ^
Germany doesn't have a university system?
October 10th, 2017 at 10:59 PM ^
Youth soccer hadn't fully been established, training infastrucutre was lacking, international football was barely a blip on the radar etc.. Now? I simply don't know enough about the sport to say, but I don't understand why the US can't establish itself as at least a 2nd tier power. Is it just a matter of the other sports taking up too much of our athletic talent?
October 10th, 2017 at 11:30 PM ^
Two words:
Street Soccer.
Why are other countries so good and creative at it, especially on the ball? They grow up playing it all the time, in a narrow alley with 20 kids and 2 stray dogs. They play under constant pressure, against made up rules that aren't fair. And there is no appeal.
Just like hoops in this country.
They don't show up in minivans and have orange slices at half time.
They are just tougher than we are. They have an edge that we don't have that comes from having no plan B.
October 10th, 2017 at 11:39 PM ^
Big reason right there. Same reason Dominicans are so good at baseball. They play with broomsticks and bottlecaps.
October 11th, 2017 at 1:05 AM ^
But I doubt that German or Dutch or English kids are fighting off rabid, feral dogs so they can play in the dusty alley behind their orphanage. And America certainly has immigrant communities, particularly from Latin America, that you would think would be natural incubators of hard-knocks soccer talent. That's actually one of our seeming advantages that hasn't really translated yet. Maybe it's just that American players play less soccer overall because of the lack of a pick-up game culture, and that robs them of some creativity and instincts?
October 11th, 2017 at 9:53 AM ^
Yeah, but German, Dutch, and English kids drop everything when they get home from school grab a ball and play soccer until it turns dark. It might not be the third world playing barefoot with a bundle of rags story, but they play a ton of unorganized soccer.
October 11th, 2017 at 10:41 AM ^
Most of the bigger clubs around the world have youth academies. These aren't academies (like in the US) where the kids live at home, go to school for a full day and then have practice 3 days a week for a couple hours. At these academies the kids leave home and live at the academy. They go to school for 5-6 hours and then practice soccer another 3-4 hours five or six days a week. The academies start at something like age 7 or 8.
You take a look at Spain's roster when they were dominating world competition and almost everyone on the roster came up through Real Madrid or Barcelona's academy. It's a completely different set up in other countries compared to what the US has.
October 11th, 2017 at 10:48 AM ^
Taylor Twellman says in his "rant" that the average family pays $2500 to $3500 to play in elite traveling leagues. Could it be that American Soccer cares less about putting out a quality product than they do about collecting fees? Have they become the NCAA? I really don't know much about the sport, but it seems you're eliminating many potential players when the costs are so high.
October 11th, 2017 at 11:14 AM ^
If the US is relying on a vast network of travel leagues to be their player development then we are in big trouble.
MLS and US Soccer need to play a more active role in identifying and developing US Soccer talent.
October 11th, 2017 at 10:49 AM ^
But it is true that the German squad has a lot of players from the rougher neighborhoods, second-generation working-class immigrant Turks and Poles and Africans.
What they do, and I think we don't, is find ways to give those kids access to quality coaching. They've married their street-soccer culture with their organized youth programs. There was plenty of street soccer where I lived in Chicago--seemed like the Mexicans had a game going sunup to sundown every day at the Foster Avenue beach--but I'm guessing those kids aren't finding their way onto the pay-to-play travel teams.
October 10th, 2017 at 11:12 PM ^
October 11th, 2017 at 12:30 AM ^
It's a common myth that increased athleticism leads to better results. Soccer is primarily a skill game.
October 11th, 2017 at 1:55 AM ^
Athleticism doesn't hurt.
But we're looking at it wrong. Lebron James wouldn't be a great soccer player if that's what he played; he was born to be a great basketball player. Anything else misuses his physical tools. The idea that great athlete x would be just as great at some other sport is a myth and has been exposed by people like Michael Jordan.
Being good in sports requires genes AND development. If you increase the number of people developing in a sport, you will increase your chances of developing someone who is born with genetics to excel in that sport. Most of the best athletes in the US grow up playing basketball or football; as a result, there is a large pool of genetically gifted players with skill in those sports.
If, say, 50% of basketball players grew up playing pickup soccer instead, went to camps, played it in high school, and were heavily recruited to play in front of thousands upon thousands in college, there would be a greater number of gifted soccer players developing into world greats.
But it wouldn't be guys like Russell Westbrook or Blake Griffin or Kyrie Irving becoming the world's best soccer players. If they played soccer, they might find a niche as a winger at a mid-range college or a forward playing second division somewhere. But the greatest soccer player is some guy who is riding the bench at UC Santa Barbara, not a star at Kentucky. Athletic and good enough to play basketball ok, but whose muscle structure and coordination and size would have been perfect for soccer had he begun developing that skill from a young age.
October 11th, 2017 at 1:55 PM ^
could have been the greatest handball player in the history of the sport. I assume he can throw hard; the rest of it, he has the absolutely perfect body for.
October 11th, 2017 at 3:50 AM ^
I think I remember some quote from someone who works in soccer development in Brazil or wherever who said that if a kid isn't playing soccer before age 5 or something, they can't be great. Otherwise, being natural with your feet can only develop so far.
And of course it helps to be able to jump out of the gym or have blazing speed, but the main thing is endurance, and most people can train to have enough endurance if they put the work in.
October 11th, 2017 at 5:31 AM ^
October 11th, 2017 at 8:45 AM ^
It's not about whether the elitest of the elite athletes play soccer. LeBron James probably wouldn't be a great soccer player. He's too tall. There's a reason there aren't many tall soccer players.
The problem is that other sports - baseball, basketball, football primarily - are so popular that boys with no chance of a career (but who might have been outstanding soccer players) grow up playing them. Somewhere in this country of 320 million is a kid whose genes would've made him a brilliant soccer player, but he got cut from JV basketball in high school and so ended his athletic career. Or a guy who flamed out in double-A baseball. Or a kid who played linebacker until he stopped growing, and switched to kicker.
October 11th, 2017 at 12:06 AM ^
Cup in India.
October 11th, 2017 at 10:34 AM ^
The U20s have gotten past the group stage more often than not in the last couple of decades.
Something's going wrong after 20.
October 11th, 2017 at 11:17 AM ^
Yeah, they are finally thrown into the world of senior men's soccer and have to play the actual best of the best.
Don't most top Euro players start playing with the senior side by the time they are 18?
October 11th, 2017 at 12:15 PM ^
The youngest player on Germany's current roster is 21. Same for Spain. Italy's youngest is 20 if you don't count Donnarumma who's never played in a competitive match. 18-year-olds on a top national side are rare: Mbappe's the only one I can think of off the top of my head.
I think the fundamental problem for the US is that so many of their players don't ever play the best of the best. At club level it's MLS, internationally it's a steady diet of Central America and the Caribbean. For the most part they don't even play against players who have that aspiration--they're willing to settle for the MLS money. I honestly think they'd be better served playing second-division European soccer, if that's their level--at least there everyone's striving to move up. Or go to South America to play.
October 11th, 2017 at 1:09 PM ^
To clarify I meant at the club level. Weren't most top Euro players playing for their senior club teams by the time they are 18?
October 11th, 2017 at 1:32 PM ^
...I'll look through the German roster.
- Müller was 19.
- Wagner 20
- Stindl 19
- Younes 18 (he only played six minutes that year though)
- Brandt 17
- Draxler 17
- Kimmich 18 (although he was at Leipzig and the senior team then was in the 3rd division)
- Rudy 18
- Goretzka 18
- Kroos 17
- Mustafi 17
I'm going to quit. Give or take a year, you're basically right.
October 11th, 2017 at 2:07 PM ^
Now contrast the bundesliga to where top US players were playing at 18. It isn't even going to be close.
October 11th, 2017 at 2:21 PM ^
That's partly because Germany has much better players. Except for Pulisic there's nobody on the US roster that could have made a Bundesliga side at 18.
But you're right. They should be trying. Whatever their level is, they should be playing the best competition that will take them.
October 10th, 2017 at 10:10 PM ^
Here's to hoping the Netherlands will do well!
October 10th, 2017 at 10:15 PM ^
Uhhh....are you sitting down? You may want to sit down for this.
October 10th, 2017 at 10:31 PM ^
October 10th, 2017 at 10:12 PM ^
October 10th, 2017 at 10:13 PM ^
Game being on BEIN TV was a total joke
Team was a total joke
Gulati - Arena everyone a joke
Utter disaster
Sports is just killing me
October 10th, 2017 at 10:40 PM ^
October 11th, 2017 at 1:26 PM ^
I have a big cable package with quite a few channels and still can't get BEIN. I ended up watching the Spanish telecast as it was on a channel I could actually watch. BEIN needs to be taken out to pasture.
October 10th, 2017 at 10:13 PM ^
"If we qualified for the WC, we would have to make a lot of changes for a world cup roster."
So, who the fuck were you putting out there today?
October 10th, 2017 at 10:22 PM ^
mls players who have no business being called up
October 10th, 2017 at 10:14 PM ^
And to think that Trinidad and Tobago's best athletes choose to play cricket instead of soccer.
October 10th, 2017 at 10:17 PM ^
Also, the first "USMNT: A Call For Calm" post lands the OP in a 1st round MGoFightClub match against MGoFloydMayweather.
October 10th, 2017 at 10:18 PM ^
October 10th, 2017 at 10:21 PM ^
This is such an old fucking bit.
A lot of us love the sport. What do you want us to say?
October 10th, 2017 at 10:23 PM ^
October 10th, 2017 at 10:23 PM ^
Nice copy pasta from the other thread. What do you want us to do/say? Do you need acknowledgement for your hot take?
October 10th, 2017 at 10:25 PM ^